Abstract
Around the world wind energy is starting to become a major energy provider in electricity markets, as well as participating in ancillary services markets to help maintain grid stability. The reliability of system operations and smooth integration of wind energy into electricity markets has been strongly supported by years of improvement in weather and wind power forecasting systems. Deterministic forecasts are still predominant in utility practice although truly optimal decisions and risk hedging are only possible with the adoption of uncertainty forecasts. One of the main barriers for the industrial adoption of uncertainty forecasts is the lack of understanding of its information content (e.g., its physical and statistical modeling) and standardization of uncertainty forecast products, which frequently leads to mistrust towards uncertainty forecasts and their applicability in practice. This paper aims at improving this understanding by establishing a common terminology and reviewing the methods to determine, estimate, and communicate the uncertainty in weather and wind power forecasts. This conceptual analysis of the state of the art highlights that: (i) end-users should start to look at the forecast's properties in order to map different uncertainty representations to specific wind energy-related user requirements; (ii) a multidisciplinary team is required to foster the integration of stochastic methods in the industry sector. A set of recommendations for standardization and improved training of operators are provided along with examples of best practices.

Abstract

Abstract
An approach to design Ambient Assisted Living systems is presented, which is based on APEX, a framework for prototyping ubiquitous environments. The approach is illustrated through the design of a smart environment within a care home for older people. Prototypes allow participants in the design process to experience the proposed design and enable developers to explore design alternatives rapidly. APEX provides the means to explore alternative environment designs virtually. The prototypes developed with APEX offered a mediating representation, allowing users to be involved in the design process. A group of residents in a city-based care home were involved in the design. The paper describes the design process as well as lessons learned for the future design of AAL systems.

Abstract
This work presents a method based on metaheuristics to solve the problem of Static (STNEP) and Dynamic (DTNEP) Transmission Network Expansion Planning in electrical power systems. The result of this formulation is mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP), where the difficulties are intensified in the DTNEP by the temporal coupling. Therefore, a methodology was developed to reach the solution in three different stages: The first one is responsible for obtaining an efficient set of best candidate routes for the expansion; the metaheuristic optimization process, Harmony Search (HS), is used to find STNEP's optimal solution and its neighborhood that provides a DTNEP candidate zone; lastly, a hybrid algorithm that mixes the HS and Branch & Bound (B&B) concepts is adapted to provide the optimal DTNEP. In this study, the lossless linearized modeling for load flow is used as a representation of the transmission network. Tests with the Garver and southern Brazilian systems were carried out to verify the performance method. The computational time saving for the STNEP and DTNEP prove the efficacy of the proposed method.

Abstract

Abstract
A cancer registry is a standardized tool to produce population-based data on cancer incidence and survival. Cancer registries can retrieve and store information on all cancer cases occurring in a defined population. The main sources of data on cancer cases usually include: treatment and diagnostic facilities (oncology centres or hospital departments, pathology laboratories, or imaging facilities etc.) and the official territorial death registry. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the north regional cancer registry (RORENO) of Portugal using a qualitative research. We want to characterize: the main functionalities and core processes, team involved, different healthcare institutions in the regional network and an identification of issues and potential improvements. RORENO links data of thirteen-two healthcare institutions and is responsible for the production of cancer incidence and survival report for this region. In our semi-structure interviews and observation of RORENO we identified a serious problem due to a lack of an automatic integration of data from the different sources. Most of the data are inserted manually in the system and this implies an extra effort from the RORENO team. At this moment RORENO team are still collecting data from 2011. In a near future it is crucial to automatize the integration of data linking the different healthcare institutions in the region. However, it is important to think which functionalities this system should give to the institutions in the network to maximize the engagement with the project. More than a database this should be a source of knowledge available to all the collaborative oncologic network.