Abstract
Health care institutions need to implement rigorous clinical management systems. In this context, risk management has an important role aiming to minimize the likelihood of adverse events, thus contributing to improve the quality of provided health care. As the number and complexity of issues that must be addressed in hospitals is quite high and is increasing, it is essential the use of information systems to gather and monitor the hospital data. This paper proposes a new system to support the management of risk indicators, presenting the case of CHTMAD, a Portuguese hospital center. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of CENTERIS/SCIKA - Association for Promotion and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge

Abstract
This paper investigates small-signal stability and decentralized control design for distribution electric energy systems with a large penetration of distributed generators. Two real world distribution systems are studied in this paper. The first system is the IEEE 30-node distribution system and the second one is the distribution system on Flores Island, one of the western group islands of the Azores Archipelago. The Block Gerschgorin Theorem and Liapunov function-based stability criteria are applied to formally state sufficient conditions for small-signal stability. The results illustrate that when the governor control of distributed generators is designed without considering interactions between generators, small-signal instability could occur in the system and even the sufficient conditions for stability would not be satisfied. In the next step, the paper assesses control design to stabilize potentially unstable distribution systems. The main focus is on designing enhanced decentralized control based on the introduced stability criteria. The findings illustrate that implementing the enhanced decentralized control could ensure stability and support a large penetration of distributed generators.

Abstract
Singlemode-multimode-singlemode fiber structures (SMS) based on distinct sections of a pure silica multimode fiber (coreless-MMF) with diameters of 125 and 55 mu m, were reported for the measurement of curvature and temperature. The sensing concept relies on the multimode interference that occurs in the coreless-MMF section and, in accordance with the length of the MMF section used, two fiber devices were developed: one based on a bandpass filter (self-image effect) and the other on a band-rejection filter. Maximum sensitivities of 64.7 nm.m and 13.08 pm/degrees C could be attained, for curvature and temperature, respectively, using the band-rejection filter with 55 mu m-MMF diameter. A proof of concept was also explored for the simultaneous measurement of curvature and temperature by means of the matrix method.

Abstract
The participation of an EV aggregator in the electricity market for purchasing electrical energy requires an algorithm for managing the EV charging during the operational day. In this paper the coordination of EV for minimizing the deviation between bid and consumed electrical energy is studied and compared with an uncoordinated strategy. Two algorithms are proposed: a heuristic algorithm that dispatches the EV for each time interval separately, and another one, formulated as an optimization problem for dispatching the EV considering all the time intervals. Furthermore, the aggregator architecture is compared with an autonomous architecture where each EV operates and participates in the market individually. The results, for a realistic case-study, show that the aggregator with an optimized coordination strategy achieves the lowest deviation cost and magnitude.

Abstract
Very few developments have been done to provide electric power supply of instrumented hip prosthesis. Actually, vibration-powered generators are the most appropriate mechanisms for this kind of application's environment. This paper describes the first attempt to develop the concept of energy harvesting from multiple energy sources applied in the same hip implant. Exploiting the potential of the three angular movements over the femoral component, namely in the abduction-adduction, flexion-extension and inward-outward rotation axes, three in board vibration-based mechanisms were developed in order to ensure electric power supply from multiple energy sources. A total of 53.7 mu J/s was harvested by a translation movement-based electromagnetic energy generator when a sinusoidal function with an amplitude of 40 mm and a frequency of 4 Hz was applied. A rotation movement-based electromagnetic energy generator has harvested 0.77 mu J/s when a sinusoidal function with an amplitude of 60 degrees and a frequency of 2.5 Hz was used. The piezoelectric energy harvester has achieved 0.6 mu J/s with the application of a sinusoidal function with an amplitude of 200 N and a frequency of 4 Hz. Besides, its ability of being fully autonomous, operating without expiry and maintenance, while offering safety during its entire lifetime are relevant features. This paper should provide the basis for the development of smart hip prosthesis with the ability to fix the aseptic implant loosening problem.

Abstract
Many data stream clustering algorithms operate in two well-defined steps: (i) online statistical data collection stage; and (ii) offline macro-clustering stage. The well-known k-means algorithm is often employed for performing the offline macro-clustering step. The conventional k-means algorithm assumes that the number of clusters (k) is defined a priori by the user. Given the difficulty of defining the value of k a priori in real-world problems, we describe a new approach that allows estimating k dynamically from streams with variable number of clusters, which is a common scenario in data with a non-stationary distribution. In addition, we combine our dynamic approach with two different strategies for initializing the centroids during the offline clustering. Analysis of results suggest that, using the dynamic approach, the method k-means++ for centroids initialization present better results. © 2012 Authors.