Abstract
The increasing operational complexity of power systems considering the higher renewable energy penetration and changing load characteristics, together with the recent developments in the ICT field have led to more research and implementation efforts related to the activation of the demand side. In this manner, different direct load control (DLC) and indirect load control concepts have been developed and DLC strategies are considered as an effective tool for load serving entities (LSEs) with several real-world application examples. In this study, a new DLC strategy tailored for residential air-conditioners (ACs) participating in the day-ahead planning, based on offering energy credits to the enrolled end-users is proposed. The mentioned energy credits are then used by residential end-users to lower their energy procurement costs during peak-price periods. The strategy is formulated as a stochastic mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model considering uncertainties related to weather conditions. The outcomes regarding the end-user comfort level and economic benefits are also analyzed.

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Abstract
Augmented reality has seen a fast-growing gain of interest in the last few decades. Due to technological advances, smartphones are now devices that allow to experience augmented reality systems, anytime and anywhere. Although its emerging success among users, some problems AR have been reported inhibiting its full acceptance in our digital society. The aim of this paper is to present a study about techniques to implement augmented reality systems in the cultural heritage context, including a prototype to test the technology which, based on physical objects that belong to the landscape, present an effective and accurate augmented reality approach, overlaying 3D virtual models aligned over the real images, using a smartphone's camera.

Abstract
Fast volumetric cardiac imaging requires reducing the number of transmit events within a single volume. One way of achieving this is by limiting the field of view (FOV) of the recording to the myocardium when investigating cardiac mechanics. Although fully automatic solutions towards myocardial segmentation exist, translating that information in a fast ultrasound scan sequence is not trivial. In particular, multi-line transmit (MLT) scan sequences were investigated given their proven capability to increase frame rate (FR) while preserving image quality. The aim of this study was therefore to develop a methodology to automatically identify the anatomically relevant conically shaped FOV, and to translate this to the best associated MLT sequence. This approach was tested on 27 datasets leading to a conical scan with a mean opening angle of 19.7° ± 8.5°, while the mean "thickness" of the cone was 19° ± 3.4°, resulting in a frame rate gain of about 2. Then, to subsequently scan this conical volume, several MLT setups were tested in silico. The method of choice was a 10MLT sequence as it resulted in the highest frame rate gain while maintaining an acceptable cross-talk level. When combining this MLT scan sequence with at least four parallel receive beams, a total frame rate gain with a factor of approximately 80 could be obtained. As such, anatomical scan sequences can increase frame rate significantly while maintaining information of the relevant structures for functional myocardial imaging. © 2017 by the authors.

Abstract
The use of Social Media applications in educational settings has gained attention ever since educators became aware of their growing role in student's daily routine. These arise as privileged tools for social interactions, information exchange, collaborative knowledge building, immediate communication and persistent attention retaining, among others. Consequently, these tools impose themselves as complements to the profoundly established use of the traditional LMS, either being propelled by educators or requested by students. In previous research, we have already identified Facebook groups as one of the social media applications with the highest potential to foster the development of social learning communities. We have acknowledged the need to integrate Facebook groups and corresponding learning analytics into formal learning environments, such as the institutional LMS, and we have developed and presented a system which performs that integration. However, as the educational settings diversify in terms of pedagogy, coursework and student's profile and cultural background, we have identified the need to extend this integration to other social media tools, such as the instant messaging app WhatsApp, and to provide valuable learning analytics on its usage. Mobile, instant messaging based learning communities differ a lot from forum-alike communities, where threads, topics, conversations and interactions are easily trackable and, for instance, social network analysis can be conducted to profile members, roles and relationships. Therefore, research presented in this paper adds to previous consolidated work both on the technological and analytical dimensions. We address the challenges posed by the integration of WhatsApp based learning analytics in the LMS Moodle, starting by the fact that, unlike Facebook groups, WhatsApp does not provide an API for developers, nor any stream of structured data that can feed a real-time monitoring system. We then focus research on revealing an actual set of visual learning analytics that characterize a learning community of about thirty foreign master students, who used WhatsApp as a complementary tool during a semester. We discuss which type of learning analytics and corresponding visualizations best suit WhatsApp learning communities; what can educators draw from the analytics of such communities; and how that information can strengthen student assessment and profiling.

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