Abstract
Power converters play a vital role in the integration of wind power into the electrical grid. Variable-speed wind turbine generator systems have a considerable interest of application for grid connection at constant frequency. In this paper, comprehensive simulation studies are carried out with three power converter topologies: matrix, two-level and multilevel. A fractional-order control strategy is studied for the variable-speed operation of wind turbine generator systems. The studies are in order to compare power converter topologies and control strategies. The studies reveal that the multilevel converter and the proposed fractional-order control strategy enable an improvement in the power quality, in comparison with the other power converters using a classical integer-order control strategy.

Abstract
Over the last years, great emphasis has been placed on the role of arterial stiffness in the development of cardiovascular diseases. This hemodynamic parameter, generally associated to age and blood pressure increase, can be assessed by the measurement of pulse wave velocity (PWV). Currently available devices that measure PWV are expensive and need to be operated by skilled medical staff, reducing the potential of ambulatory setting. This research project aims at developing and testing the sensoring and algorithmic basis of an alternative and non-invasive device for PWV assessment. The proposed device is based on a double-headed sensor probe and allows the assessment of PWV in one single location, providing important information on local arterial hemodynamics. Although studies to validate the clinical use of this system are still required, it has already demonstrated good performance on a dedicated test bench system, capable of reproducing a range of relevant cardiovascular system's properties. © 2011 IEEE.

Abstract
The goal of this paper is to report on the design of a novel content-centric future Internet platform that can support added value services incorporating mobility, context awareness and enhanced security and privacy. We present the proposed platform together with a use case study, dealing with the provision of added-value health services, consisting in the safe and accurate management of medicine prescriptions. Both the design of the platform and the use case are the results of work performed in the context of the European Research project Convergence [1]. © 2011 IIMC.

Abstract
In this paper, a novel mixed-integer nonlinear approach is proposed to solve the short-term hydro scheduling problem in the day-ahead electricity market, considering not only head-dependency, but also start/stop of units, discontinuous operating regions and discharge ramping constraints. Results from a case study based on one of the main Portuguese cascaded hydro energy systems are presented, showing that the proposed mixed-integer nonlinear approach is proficient. Conclusions are duly drawn.

Abstract
We present a new evaluation method for measuring the performance of musical audio beat tracking systems. Central to our method is a novel visualization, the beat error histogram, which illustrates the metrical relationship between two qausi-periodic sequences of time instants: the output of beat tracking system and a set of ground truth annotations. To quantify beat tracking performance we derive an information theoretic statistic from the histogram. Results indicate that our method is able to measure performance with greater precision than existing evaluation methods and implicitly cater for metrical ambiguity in tapping sequences.

Abstract
This paper presents a system that is able to control in real time a humanoid robot to perform dance movements to the rhythm of a music. The movements' coordination is performed with the aid of a music analyzer that estimates the beat of the music and calculates a prediction of the next inter-beat-interval (IBI). During the robot dancing performance, a dance movement is chosen from a pre-defined dance library and is executed on-the-fly by the robot. The movements' velocity, as well as the attended metrical-level, are adjusted in real time so that the movement can be executed within the time interval of two beats, and at the same time taking into consideration the robot motor-rates limitations. Results evince a good synchrony of the movement towards the analyzed rhythm, but points to the need of a careful design of the dance movements so they can be naturally executed on time.