Abstract
The liberalization of energy markets has imposed several modifications in the electricity market environment. The paradigm of monopoly market ceased to exist, and new models have been put into practice. The new models have increased the incentive on competitiveness, making market players struggle to achieve the best outcomes out of market participation. Producers aim at reaching the maximum profit on the sale of energy, while consumers try to minimize their spending on electrical energy. The proposed methodology considers the optimization of players' participation in multiple market opportunities. Reference prices that are expected in each market type at each moment are achieved through the application of neural networks. Using the forecasted prices, the proposed portfolio optimization method allocates the sale and purchase of electrical energy to different markets throughout the time, with the aim at achieving the most advantageous participation profile. A particle swarm approach is used to reduce the execution time while guaranteeing the minimum degradation of the results. Results of the swarm methodology are compared to those of a deterministic approach, using real data from the Iberian electricity market - MIBEL.

Abstract

Abstract
In this paper, we investigate normal and nondegenerate forms of the maximum principle for optimal control problems with state constraints. We propose new constraint qualifications guaranteeing nondegeneracy and normality that have to be checked on smaller sets of points of an optimal trajectory than those in known sufficient conditions. In fact, the constraint qualifications proposed impose the existence of an inward pointing velocity just on the instants of time for which the optimal trajectory has an outward pointing velocity.

Abstract
Software reconfigurability became increasingly relevant to the architectural process due to the crescent dependency of modern societies on reliable and adaptable systems. Such systems are supposed to adapt themselves to surrounding environmental changes with minimal service disruption, if any. This paper introduces an engine that statically applies reconfigurations to (formal) models of software architectures. Reconfigurations are specified using a domain specific language-ReCooPLa-which targets the manipulation of software coordination structures, typically used in service-oriented architectures (soa). The engine is responsible for the compilation of ReCooPLa instances and their application to the relevant coordination structures. The resulting configurations are amenable to formal analysis of qualitative and quantitative (probabilistic) properties.

Abstract
Global competition and the customers demand for customized products with shorter due dates, marked the introduction of the Extended Enterprise. In this Extended Manufacturing Environment (EME), lean, virtual, networked and distributed enterprises collaborate to respond to the market demands. In this paper we study the influence of the batch size on Flexible Flow Shop makespan minimization problem FFC vertical bar vertical bar C-max for two multi-sites approaches, the FSBF (Flow Shop Based Factories) and the PMBF (Parallel-Machines Based Factories). The computational study demonstrates how the performance of the PMBF model decreases with the increase of batch size and determines the batch sizes in which the performance is similar.

Abstract
In the electricity spot market the various competitive levels, as well as their subsequent changes in the market equilibrium, are justified by the simultaneous quantity game between electricity generators. It is expected that the dominant market players employ differentiated strategic behaviours, thus, permitting the quantification of such differentiated effects on the use of market power. The various competitive levels, as well as their subsequent changes in the market equilibrium, are justified by the simultaneous quantity game. The results show that the quantities purchased in the spot market for sale in open market influence prices, i.e., when there is an imbalance in the estimated long-term relationship, prices themselves move in order to recover the state of equilibrium, which reveals that, in the long-term, the OMEL Price is weakly exogenous to the cointegration vector, whereas quantities purchased for sale in open market move towards the reestablishment of the long-term equilibrium.