Abstract
Virtual meetings have become increasingly common with modern videoconference and collaborative software. While they allow obvious savings in time and resources, current technologies add unproductive layers of protocol to the flow of communication between participants, rendering the interactions far from seamless. In this work we describe in detail Remote Proxemics, an extension of proxemics aimed at bringing the syntax of co-located proximal interactions to virtual meetings. We also describe the role of Eery Space as a shared virtual locus that results from merging multiple remote areas, where meeting participants’ are located side-by-side as if they shared the same physical location. Thus rendering Remote Proxemics possible. Results from user evaluation on the proposed presence awareness techniques suggest that our approach is effective at enhancing mutual awareness between participants and sufficient to initiate proximal exchanges regardless of their geolocation, while promoting smooth interactions between local and remote people alike. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.

Abstract
This paper presents the evolution of the process for management of surgery waiting lists in the Portuguese public hospital network. We use the perspective of the software development and deployment by UTAD, as a partner of the Ministry of Health, to create an information system to manage list recovery programs. We describe the early status and work, when data harvesting was the core challenge, up to the current automated situation. This paper bridges the PERLE, PPMA, PECLEC and SIGIC programmes, and concludes with lessons learned and suggestions for evolution of the process.

Abstract
Motion is a fundamental cue for scene analysis and human activity understanding in videos. It can be encoded in trajectories for tracking objects and for action recognition, or in form of flow to address behavior analysis in crowded scenes. Each approach can only be applied on limited scenarios. We propose a motion-based system that represents the spatial and temporal features of the flow in terms of I ong-range trajectories. The novelty resides on the system formulation, its generic approach to handle scene variability and motion variations, motion integration from local and global representations, and the resulting long-range trajectories that overcome trajectory-based approach problems. We report the results and conclusions that state its pertinence on different scenarios, comparing and correlating the extracted trajectories of individual pedestrians, manually annotated. We also propose an evaluation framework and stress the diverse system characteristics that can be used for human activity tasks, namely on motion segmentation.

Abstract
Computer programming courses in higher education tend to have high rates of academic failure and students struggle, particularly so in the transition from entry-level programming to advanced programming. Some of the reasons given in the literature relate to the type of teaching approach and the strategies used by students and their attitudes towards computer programming. The literature also mentions that educational approaches are not always appropriate to the needs of students and to the development of skills required in the job market. We developed a teaching approach to try to address some of these issues and support students learning computer programming in the transition from entry-level to advanced computer programming: the SimProgramming approach. This approach was introduced at the University of Tros-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal), within the scope of the course " Programming Methodologies III", part of the second curricular year of the programmes of studies in Informatics Engineering and in Information & Communication Technologies. We present in detail the origins of the SimProgramming approach, starting from the first trials that introduced, in two iterations, learning activities based on problem-based learning, and up to the third iteration where the current SimProgramming approach was implemented. We describe the reasoning, design and implementation of these three iterations, to show how the approach evolved. The SimProgramming approach is based in four conceptual foundations: business-like learning environment, self-regulated learning, co-regulated learning and formative assessment. For each of these conceptual foundations, we explain the teaching strategies adopted. In SimProgramming, the learning activity process develops in four phases, and students have specific tasks in each phase. We analyse interview data regarding student perceptions about the SimProgramming approach, and registration grids data on team work dynamics and final assessment of the assignment, noting the impact of SimProgramming in student grades. The application of SimProgramming revealed promising evidences in the overall results of student learning in the activities proposed in this approach. The average grades improved, and did the number of students regularly submitting their tasks on schedule. The perceptions of students regarding the SimProgramming approach are very positive: they recommend using it in the following years, and provided some suggestions to improve the approach. We conclude with reflections and recommendations for subsequent development of the SimProgramming approach in its application to the teaching of computer programming and potential for using it in other educational contexts.

Abstract
Optical fiber optrodes are attractive sensing devices due to their ability to perform point measurement in remote locations. Mostly, they are oriented to biochemical sensing, quite often supported by fluorescent and spectroscopic techniques, but with the refractometric approach considered as well when the objective is of high measurement performance, particularly when the focus is on enhancing the measurand resolution. In this work, we address this subject, proposing and analyzing the characteristics of a fiber optic optrode relying on plasmonic interaction. A linearly tapered optical fiber tip is covered by a double overlay: the inner one - a silver thin film and over it a dielectric layer, with this combination allowing to achieve, at a specific wavelength range, surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) interaction sensitive to the refractive index of the surrounding medium. Typically, the interrogation of the SPR sensing structures is performed, considering spectroscopic techniques, but in principle, a far better performance can be obtained, considering the reading of the phase of the light at a specific wavelength located within the spectral plasmonic resonance. This is the approach which is studied here in the context of the proposed optical fiber optrode configuration. The analysis performed shows the combination of a silver inner layer with a dielectric titanium oxide layer with tuned thicknesses enables sensitive phase reading and allows the operation of the fiber optic optrode sensor in the third telecommunication wavelength window.

Abstract
Voltage source converter (VSC) can be considered as the heart of interfacing system for the integration of Distributed Generation (DG) sources into the power grid. Several control methods have been proposed for integration of DG sources into the power grid, and injection of high quality power. However, the converter-based DG interface is subjected to the unexpected uncertainties, which highly influence performance of control loop of DG unit and operation of interfaced converter. The interfacing impedance seen by interfaced VSC may considerably vary in power grid, and the stability of interfaced converter is highly sensitive to the impacts of this impedance changes; then, DG unit cannot inject appropriate currents. To deal with the instability problem, a control method based on fractional order active sliding mode is proposed in this paper, which is less sensitive to variations of interfacing impedance. A fractional sliding surface, which demonstrates the desired dynamics of system is developed and then, the controller is designed in two phases as sliding and reaching phases to keep the control loop stable. Stability issues of the control method are discussed in details and the conditions in which the proposed model works in a stable operating mode is defined. The proposed control method takes a role to provide high quality power injection and ensures precise references tracking and fast response despite such uncertainties. Theoretical analyses and simulation results are established to confirm the performance and feasibility of the proposed control method in DG technology.