Abstract
The fabrication of optical add-drop multiplexers in fused silica is demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, using the femtosecond laser direct writing technique. To achieve this, a Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration was used for the signal routing by the implementation of 3-dB directional couplers, along with Bragg grating waveguides for wavelength selectivity. The fabrication of all individual devices required was optimized. The behavior of the fabricated add-drop multiplexer was characterized at around 1550 nm, where a 3-dB bandwidth of 0.19 +/- 0.01 nm was obtained along with an intrachannel and adjacent interchannel crosstalk of -30 and -20 dB at Delta lambda = +/- 0.75 nm, respectively. This study shows that such complex devices can be manufactured by femtosecond laser direct writing, with future improvements being discussed.

Abstract
Integration of aggregated demand response into the wholesale electricity market is an emerging field of research. Contrary to conventional service providers, most of the demand side participants act voluntarily. However, due to wholesale market regulations, reliable and effective participation of huge numbers of customers is a vital task for aggregators. The existing retail programs aim to motivate customers to take part in events in return for static or individual performance-based incentives. These programs do not focus on engaging customers to act in a collaborative way and therefore have limited effectiveness. This study proposes a novel retail demand response program in which the incentives are dependent on the aggregated performance of participants. Considering the existing wholesale and retail market structures together with demand response aggregator responsibilities, an adaptable program is developed for more effective performance and indirect collaboration of customers. The contribution of the program is compared with a number of different DR programs adopting concepts from game theory.

Abstract
Manufacturing companies generate huge amounts of relevant data that, potentially, can help the decision makers to monitor and supervise the health status of the shop-floor. Many problems are present that prevent this monitoring, namely the identification of which data should be collected, how to execute this collection or how this data should be analysed and displayed to the user. This paper deals with the last issue, where a dynamic and responsive User Interface is developed enabling the decision maker, having an in-the-mesh intervention, to constantly monitor relevant Key-Performance Indicators (KPI). The paper describes the development of such tool, considering a web based approach under a platform agnostic perspective. The user interface presents an dynamic view over the aggregated KPI, where data is annotated with relevant warning information.

Abstract
Digital systems and solutions providing location based services for everyday activities are supported by geographic information systems that are typically problem-oriented. Although recently some approaches try to combine data from multiple sources to provide a better user experience, most often than not, these extra sources of input are not meaningful and act merely as an extension or augmentation of the user’s physical context, providing extra data that not always adds extra value to the service. In this work, a geographic information system that provides valuable data for multiple audiences, with different restrictions and requirements, is presented. This work also presents the concept of ‘awareness’, implemented using a hierarchical layering system. Using lists of information layers, together with an appropriate categorization of user requirements, the proposed information system can feed different final applications with different data, for different types of users, promoting accessibility and universal access. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.

Abstract
This work reports a multimode interference-based fiber sensor in a cavity ring-down system (CRD) for sensing temperature-induced refractive index (RI) changes of water. The sensing head is based in multimodal interference (MMI) and it is placed inside the fiber loop cavity of the CRD system. A modulated laser source was used to send pulses down into the fiber loop cavity and an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) was placed in the fiber ring to provide an observable signal with a reasonable decay time. The behavior of the sensing head to temperature was studied due to its intrinsic sensitivity to said parameter - a sensitivity of -1.6x10(-9) mu s/degrees C was attained. This allowed eliminating the temperature component from RI measurement of water and a linear sensitivity of 580 mu s/RIU in the RI range of 1.324-1.331 was obtained. The use of a MMI fiber sensor in the proposed CRD configuration allowed achieving a sensitivity similar to 4-fold than that obtained with a tilted fiber Bragg grating and similar to 2-fold than that when a micrometric channel inscribed in the fiber was used.

Abstract
Forecasting the hourly spot price of day-ahead and intraday markets is particularly challenging in electric power systems characterized by high installed capacity of renewable energy technologies. In particular, periods with low and high price levels are difficult to predict due to a limited number of representative cases in the historical dataset, which leads to forecast bias problems and wide forecast intervals. Moreover, these markets also require the inclusion of multiple explanatory variables, which increases the complexity of the model without guaranteeing a forecasting skill improvement. This paper explores information from daily futures contract trading and forecast of the daily average spot price to correct point and probabilistic forecasting bias. It also shows that an adequate choice of explanatory variables and use of simple models like linear quantile regression can lead to highly accurate spot price point and probabilistic forecasts. In terms of point forecast, the mean absolute error was 3.03 Euro/MWh for day-ahead market and a maximum value of 2.53 Euro/MWh was obtained for intraday session 6. The probabilistic forecast results show sharp forecast intervals and deviations from perfect calibration below 7% for all market sessions.