Abstract
Demands for underwater communication systems are increasing due to the ongoing expansion of human activities in underwater environments such as environmental monitoring, underwater exploration, offshore oil field exploration and monitoring, port security, and tactical surveillance. As such, there is a serious requirement to improve the performance of underwater communication systems in order to effectively use the equipment and the resources. The high cost, lack of flexibility, and operational disadvantages of wireline (particularly optical fiber) systems to provide real-time communication in underwater applications become restrictive for many cases. This triggers the growing demand for underwater wireless links. Acoustic communications suffer from a very small available bandwidth, very low celerity, and large latencies due to the low propagation speed. Underwater wireless optical communications (UWOC) which are able to achieve data rates of hundreds of Mbps (even up to Gbps) for short ranges, typically several tens of meters, appear as an attractive alternative or complementary solution to long-range acoustic communications. In fact, water is relatively transparent to light in the visible band of the spectrum and absorption takes its minimum value in the blue-green spectral range (450 nm-550 nm) [1,2]. Thanks to the ability of providing unprecedentedly high-rate data transmission, the UWOC technology enables the establishment of high-speed and reliable links for underwater missions employing robotics or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), for instance. In addition, it is highly energy efficient, compared to the traditional technique of acoustic communication, and also has much less impact on marine animal life (see Figure 11.1) [3,4]. In particular, it is harmless to the cetaceans and coral. © 2017 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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