Abstract
The uncapacitated facility location problem (UFLP) is a popular combinatorial optimization problem with practical applications in different areas, from logistics to telecommunication networks. While most of the existing work in the literature focuses on minimizing total cost for the deterministic version of the problem, some degree of uncertainty (e.g., in the customers' demands or in the service costs) should be expected in real-life applications. Accordingly, this paper proposes a simheuristic algorithm for solving the stochastic UFLP (SUFLP), where optimization goals other than the minimum expected cost can be considered. The development of this simheuristic is structured in three stages: (i) first, an extremely fast savings-based heuristic is introduced; (ii) next, the heuristic is integrated into a metaheuristic framework, and the resulting algorithm is tested against the optimal values for the UFLP; and (iii) finally, the algorithm is extended by integrating it with simulation techniques, and the resulting simheuristic is employed to solve the SUFLP. Some numerical experiments contribute to illustrate the potential uses of each of these solving methods, depending on the version of the problem (deterministic or stochastic) as well as on whether or not a real-time solution is required.

Abstract
Environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as oil depletion are prime motivators for the development and adoption of renewable power sources. However, the traditional operating philosophy of power systems and the random nature of these sources represent an important barrier for their massive deployment. Fluctuations of wind and solar power generation integrated as distributed sources can induce important variations on the voltage profile, leading to values out of the range typically suggested by power quality standards. To deal with this problem, in this paper the optimal setting of voltage regulators (VRs) at each hour has been optimally determined by implementing a genetic algorithm with integer codification, so that it can be effectively integrated with the load flow methodologies currently available in the literature without requiring any linearization process. Results obtained from the analysis of a case study reveal the behavior of the optimal VR settings and reactive power compensation on a daily basis, which are highly correlated with the daily load profile.

Abstract
In this paper it is presented a low cost experiment based on a small Arduino based prototype. The chosen educational challenge is a classical introductory experiment, that consists in following a line with a mobile robot. The presented experiment has as goal to introduce students to mobile robotics, having as base a challenge and a kinematics that are commonly applied in Junior competitions. A group of students participated in a workshop that consisted, initially, in a lecture where tutors explained the differential robot kinematics and how to develop a controller for the proposed challenge. Then the students, after the theoretical introduction, implemented the proposed robot controller.

Abstract

Abstract
Nowadays, high penetration of Distributed Generations (DG)s in power systems caused some protection issues. One of these issues is unintentional islanding. As regards IEEE 1547 standard, this situation must be recognized immediately, and DG must be separated from the load in less than 2 s. In this paper, to detection of islanding in an inverter-based distributed generation, a new hybrid method with high performance is proposed. In the proposed method, a primary detection of islanding is conducted by measuring the voltage harmonic distortion at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC), as well as comparing the variations to a specified threshold level. After this primary detection, a temporary reactive current signal is injected to the PCC by the inverter of DG, and its terminal voltage and frequency are measured. In the case of deviation of voltage or frequency from permissible range, definitive detection of islanding is determined. Simulation results indicate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed detection method in different circumstances, especially for loads with the different quality factors.

Abstract
Acoustic parameters are very useful in voice screening, diagnosis and rehabilitation, and also in forensic voice comparison tasks. In this paper we present results for the acoustic analysis performed by two different voice analysis platforms and involving five sustained vowels uttered by 10 female speakers and 9 male speakers. We consider contemporaneous high-quality (HQ) and GSM voice recordings, as well as HQ and VOIP voice recordings. The analysis of the consistency of the acoustic analysis results by the two platforms provides useful insight regarding the intrinsic robustness of each acoustic parameter, the impact of the communication channel, and appropriate procedures seeking to extract full benefit of the available data in a forensic voice context. © 2017 IEEE.