Abstract
"Taking less treating better" has been one of the major improvements of breast cancer surgery in the last four decades. The application of this principle translates into equivalent survival of breast cancer conserving treatment (BCT) when compared to mastectomy, with a better cosmetic outcome. While it is relatively easy to evaluate the oncological results of BCT, the cosmetic outcome is more difficult to measure due to the lack of an effective and consensual procedure. The assessment of cosmetic outcome has been mainly subjective, undertaken by a panel of expert observers or/and by patient self-assessment. Unfortunately, the reproducibility of these methods is low. Objective methods have higher values of reproducibility but still lack the inclusion of several features considered by specialists in BCT to be fundamental for cosmetic outcome. The recent addition of volume information obtained with 3D images seems promising. Until now, unfortunately, no method is considered to be the standard of care. This paper revises the history of cosmetic evaluation and guides us into the future aiming at a method that can easily be used and accepted by all, caregivers and caretakers, allowing not only the comparison of results but the improvement of performance. (C) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abstract
The emergence of Near Field Communication technology added more functionality to mobile phones. People can now access to new mobile services such as payment, ticketing, couponing, and control access to cars, homes and hotels. Although these services seem to complement each other, most studies have focused on the development and evaluation of each mobile service individually. In this paper, we propose an integrated mobile service solution payment, ticketing and couponing - based on NFC. This solution was evaluated in a two-phase user study, which was run in real environment. Participants have largely appreciated the integration of tickets and discount coupons on the payment process. However, despite the integration of services being one of the strongest points of the solution, it also revealed to be one of the main challenges that any payment systems may have to address. Findings suggest that adding additional services to a solution may become very complex from a cognitive perspective.

Abstract
This paper presents several forecasting methodologies based on the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM), directed to the prediction of the solar radiance intensity. The methodologies differ from each other by using different information in the training of the methods, i.e, different environmental complementary fields such as the wind speed, temperature, and humidity. Additionally, different ways of considering the data series information have been considered. Sensitivity testing has been performed on all methodologies in order to achieve the best parameterizations for the proposed approaches. Results show that the SVM approach using the exponential Radial Basis Function (eRBF) is capable of achieving the best forecasting results, and in half execution time of the ANN based approaches.

Abstract
We report on the use of second-order Raman amplification to assist a phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (phi OTDR) used for vibration measurements over very long distances. The sensor was able to measure vibrations of up to 380 Hz (limit set by the time of flight of light pulses) in a distance of 125 km with a resolution of 10 m and no post-processing. Balanced detection is used to reduce the relative intensity noise. A comparison with a sensor using first-order Raman amplification under similar conditions is presented and a clear improvement of performance is demonstrated.

Abstract
The so called 'Soft Skills' (SSs) are the set of non-technical skills that enable a given individual to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people. These skills are also interesting for the promotion of deep knowledge and to foster academic success. The case study analyses the very special 'Projeto FEUP' course that promotes SSs across all engineering programmes in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), in Portugal. This is done right after the arrival of students at the institution by means of producing several communicational items over an adequate technical work. The study involved 781 students. The presented results hint that Soft Skills are, in fact, improved after half-semester but this is not the sole product of the mentioned course.

Abstract
RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) has become the technology of choice for whole-transcriptome profiling. However, processing the millions of sequence reads generated requires considerable bioinformatics skills and computational resources. At each step of the processing pipeline many tools are available, each with specific advantages and disadvantages. While using a specific combination of tools might be desirable, integrating the different tools can be time consuming, often due to specificities in the formats of input/output files required by the different programs. Here we present iRAP, an integrated RNA-seq analysis pipeline that allows the user to select and apply their preferred combination of existing tools for mapping reads, quantifying expression, testing for differential expression. iRAP also includes multiple tools for gene set enrichment analysis and generates web browsable reports of the results obtained in the different stages of the pipeline. Depending upon the application, iRAP can be used to quantify expression at the gene, exon or transcript level. iRAP is aimed at a broad group of users with basic bioinformatics training and requires little experience with the command line. Despite this, it also provides more advanced users with the ability to customise the options used by their chosen tools.