Abstract
Aging is a process inherent to the human condition and part of the human being’s life cycle, which can be degraded by the reduction in the individual’s physical and social activity. This problem can be augmented by the context in which the person is aging, e.g., family, health and social bonds. The elderly individuals’ well-being is related to the strength of their social bonds with their family and friends group, which can be difficult to maintain in some stages of the aging process. A, recently- proposed solution is the adoption of autonomous systems capable of autonomous interactions with the elderly. Such systems are designed to be able to interpret the individual’s state of mind and the current context in order to conduct an effective interaction with the elderly person. This study focuses on the interaction design between the autonomous system and the human person, by considering the elderly individual’s context and pursuing the type of interaction that will positively influence the reinforcement or maintenance of the person’s social bonds with the family and friends groups. The study was carried out by interviewing a group of elderly people, currently living in nursing homes and with limited access to their family and friends. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Freezing represents a common conservation practice regarding vegetal foodstuffs. Since compositional features need to be monitored during storage, the development of rapid monitoring tools suitable for assessing nutritional characteristics arises as a pertinent issue. In this study, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) pods, both fresh and after 6 and 9 months of freezing at -18 degrees C, were evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography for their content of protein as well as of essential and nonessential amino acids, while their Fourier transform infrared spectra in the mid infrared (MIR) and near infrared (NIR) ranges were concomitantly registered to assess the feasibility of this approach for the traceability of these frozen matrices. RESULTS: For the NIR interval, the application of the 1st derivative to the spectral data retrieved the best results, while for lower concentrations the application of the Savitzky-Golay algorithm was indispensable to achieve quantification models for the amino acids. MIR is also suitable for this purpose, though being unable to quantify amino acids with concentrations below 0.07 mmol g(-1) dry weight, irrespective of the data treatment used. CONCLUSIONS: The spectroscopic approach constitutes a methodology suitable for monitoring the impact of freezing on the nutritional properties of cowpea pods, allowing accurate quantification of the protein and amino acid contents, while NIR displayed better performance. (C) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry

Abstract
Power systems have been through deep changes, with their operation in the scope of competitive electricity markets (EM) and the increasingly intensive use of renewable energy sources and distributed generation. This requires new business models able to cope with the new opportunities. Virtual Power Players (VPPs) are a new player type which allows aggregating a diversity of players (distribution Generation, storage units, electrical vehicles, and consumers) to participate in the markets and to provide a set of new services promoting generation and consumption efficiency and to improving players’ benefits. A major task of VPPs is the remuneration of generation and of the services (e.g. market operation costs, and energy reserves) as well as charging energy consumption. This PhD research will contribute by developing fair and strategic remuneration and tariff methodologies, able to allow efficient VPP operation and VPP goals accomplishment in EM. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.

Abstract
This paper presents a study for a fibre optic sensor based on quantum wires to detect and measure the amplitude and direction of a static electric field. This study is supported by the analogy of the fluid equations describing the free electrons in the quantum wires and the Madelung formalism of Quantum Mechanics. In this context, it is possible to construct a diatomic plasmonic molecule whose energy levels can be Stark shifted by an external electric field and readout using a light beam tuned to the Rabi oscillations of these levels. Choosing the adequate design parameters it is possible to estimate a sensitivity of 100nm/NC-1.

Abstract
An intrinsic intensity modulated no core fiber sensor (NCFS) is presented in this paper for rapid detection of adulteration in petrol with kerosene. The sensing principle is based on the phenomenon of absorption of evanescent waves. The sensing head of NCFS is fabricated by stubbing a small section of no core fiber (NCF) between two multi-mode fibers (MMF). A high sensitivity 390 nW/% and 110 nW/% are obtained by the proposed sensor for low and high level of adulteration. The intensity variation and confinement loss with different concentrations of the kerosene in petrol are then verified theoretically by using finite element method. It is found that the theoretical results agree very well with experimental results. The proposed sensor exhibits fast response time and good repeatability in addition to its high sensitivity. The sensor can be useful in industries and automotive companies due to its small size, easy to fabricate, safe with inflammable fuels and required small amount for detection. © 2017 Elsevier GmbH

Abstract
Water and energy are essential for human existence, and its rational use should be encouraged. According to the literature review, water consumption directly affects energy consumption and are inseparably linked resources. The energy to water part of the water/energy nexus, increasingly highlighted as an important issue for future planning and strategic policy considerations. Joint consideration of both water/energy domains can identify new options for increasing overall resource use efficiency. This work is part of the project ENERWAT that has as goal to measure in situ the water/energy consumption related with water supply end use in rural and urban dwellings in order to validate the data collected by survey. A methodology for low cost measure and store water/energy consumes was developed. Water, Gas and electricity data was stored in image format. In this paper, a CNN architecture was applied and trained to read water/energy. The models suited their proposed. The achieved accuracy for test set was: water - dozen: 0.98, unit: 0.92; gas: dozen: 0.94, unit: 0.99; and electricity - dozen: 0.99, units 0.99. The more challenge digit was water unit digit due to partial occlusion. It is presented a day of readings and discussed some events. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.