Abstract
Many embedded applications process large amounts of data using regular computational kernels, amenable to acceleration by specialized hardware coprocessors. To reduce the significant design effort, the dedicated hardware may be automatically generated, usually starting from the application's source or binary code. This paper presents a moduloscheduled loop accelerator capable of executing multiple loops and a supporting toolchain. A generation/scheduling procedure, which fully relies on MicroBlaze instruction traces, produces accelerator instances, customized in terms of functional units and interconnections. The accelerators support integer and single-precision floating-point arithmetic, and exploit instruction-level parallelism, loop pipelining, and memory access parallelism via two read/write ports. A complete implementation of the proposed architecture is evaluated in a Virtex-7 device. Augmenting a MicroBlaze processor with a tailored accelerator achieves a geometric mean speedup, over software-only execution, of 6.61x for 13 floating-point kernels from the Livermore Loops set, and of 4.08x for 11 integer kernels from Texas Instruments' IMGLIB. The proposed customized accelerators are compared with ALU-based ones. The average specialized accelerator requires only 0.47x the number of field-programmable gate array slices of an accelerator with four ALUs. A geometric mean speedup of 1.78x over a four-issue very long instruction word (without floating-point support) was obtained for the integer kernels.

Abstract
ABSTRACT - The objective of this study was to evaluate some crop management strategies to improve silage production by family farmers in the micro-region of Pelotas, southern State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil. The seasonal analysis tool of de CSM-CERES-Maize model was used to assess aboveground dry biomass production under rainfed conditions. The simulations comprised scenarios involving four cultivars (Amarelão, AL 30, AG 5011 and AG 122), six nitrogen (N) fertilization strategies, 52 sowing dates, and 21 years of daily weather data. Silage productivity and quality were assessed, and a sowing window was established for each one of the cultivars based on this information. Regardless of the N rate and cultivar, sowings performed between June 26 and December 19 were not at risk of exceeding the deadline for silage harvesting in the region. For sowing occurred on December 19, regardless of the N rate, the average productivity of silage and the average amount of energy per unit area were lower for the creole variety Amarelão. For the same sowing date the average values of energy per unit of biomass weight indicated good silage quality, for all cultivars regardless of the N rate.Keywords: family farming, DSSAT, aboveground biomass, Zea mays L. ABORDAGEM DE MODELAGEM PARA ESTABELECER ESTRATÉGIAS DE PRODUÇÃO DE SILAGEM NA MICRORREGIÃO DE PELOTAS, BRASIL  RESUMO - O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar estratégias de manejo para melhorar a produção de silagem pelos agricultores familiares na microrregião de Pelotas, sul do Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brasil. A ferramenta de análise sazonal do modelo CSM-CERES-Maize foi usada para avaliar a produção de fitomassa seca em condições de sequeiro. Foi considerado nas simulações um cenário com quatro cultivares (Amarelão, AL 30, AG 5011 e AG 122); seis estratégias de adubação nitrogenada; 52 épocas de semeadura; e 21 anos de dados meteorológicos diários. A produtividade e a qualidade da silagem foram avaliadas e, com base nessas informações, uma janela de semeadura foi estabelecida para cada uma das cultivares. Independentemente da dose de nitrogênio e cultivar, as semeaduras realizadas entre 26 de junho e 19 de dezembro não correm risco de exceder o prazo para a colheita de silagem na região. Para semeadura realizada em 19 de dezembro, independentemente da taxa de N, a produtividade média de silagem e a quantidade média de energia por unidade de área foram menores para a variedade crioula Amarelão. Para esta mesma época de semeadura, os valores médios de energia por unidade de peso de fitomassa seca indicaram boa qualidade de silagem, para todas as cultivares, independentemente da dose de N.Palavras-chave: agricultura familiar, DSSAT, fitomassa seca da parte aérea, Zea mays L.

Abstract
This paper proposes a long-term framework for generation expansion and transmission expansion planning taking into account the renewable energy integration. To solve the problem, a hybrid technique is used. The mechanism of this technique is based on decomposing the original problem into master and slave subproblems where the master subproblem is solved using a heuristic optimization algorithm and slave subproblems are solved using general algebraic modeling system, which is a well-known software with powerful mathematical solvers. The proposed heuristic algorithm is a combination of the intelligent particle swarm optimization and chaotic searching technique. Finally, the proposed model is simulated using 3 case studies including 6-bus Garver test system, IEEE 24-bus, and modified IEEE 118-bus test systems to validate the effectiveness of the long-term planning framework while the simulation results are compared to those obtained from classic genetic algorithm (GA-Classic) and classic particle swarm optimization (PSO-Classic) to verify the efficiency of the technique used in this paper. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract
In this paper, a Web application that allows people with speech impairments to train and amend pronunciation of words by repeating words presented in a interface with visual and auditory stimuli, is presented. With this app, we aim at present a training assistive tool to be used by the user, in a daily situation, where the main asset is the feedback about the rate of correct pronunciation, thus allowing users to train, autonomously, at home. Additionally, we present a preliminary user study to assess usability of the proposed application. For that, we invited a group of people with speech impairments to perform training tasks with the application. In the assessment, we register the following parameters: effectiveness (successful conclusion of the training tasks and percentage of pronouncing success); efficiency (number of errors made, number and type of difficulties found); and, satisfaction (the acceptance and comfort to complete the training tasks). Overall, the preliminary results showed that participants achieved an efficiency rate of 53.4% in the accomplishment of the proposed tasks. On average, for each image, participants missed at least 2 times, where the most registered difficulty was the pronunciation of words with accents. Regarding satisfaction, we noticed that they like it as they ask not only to repeat the test but also the addition of more pictures to perform more tests with the proposed web application.

Abstract
O III Congresso Ibero-Americano de Empreendedorismo, Energia, Ambiente e Tecnologia (CIEEMAT), dá continuidade ao trabalho desenvolvido no Brasil pelo Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca – Rio de Janeiro, atravessando o oceano Atlântico para a sua primeira edição no contexto da Península Ibérica. Concebido para englobar um conjunto abrangente de áreas temáticas, este evento serve de ponto de encontro entre profissionais, investigadores, professores e estudantes dos países Ibero-Americanos, num fórum que reforça o perfil internacional do Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, assim como das demais Instituições Organizadoras e Parceiras, designadamente, no âmbito de Programas de Dupla Diplomação. Nos três dias do evento, esperamos que encontrem oportunidades para a partilha de ideias e resultados de investigação, reforçando ou estabelecendo novos contactos e parcerias no espaço Latino-Americano. Por fim, espero que a Vossa estadia em Bragança seja agradável e que levem de volta gratas recordações do CIEEMAT 2017.

Abstract
This paper describes a proposal to develop a Tourism Recommendation System based in Users and Points-of-Interest (POI) profiles The main focus of this work is to evaluate if gathered user’s physical and psychological functionality levels will return more accurate recommendation results. This work also aims to contribute with a different way to classify (POI) considering their capacity measured in accessibility levels to receive tourists with certain levels of physical and psychological issues that will be described in this paper sections. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.