Abstract
Non-rectangular cores of standard-cell-based reconfigurable logic can be used to fill space left on System-on-Chips, thereby providing the system with hardware reconfigurability. The proposed architecture for a non-rectangular reconfigurable core is based on a fixed set of blocks that implement logic functions, interconnections and configurable switching. The basic blocks connect by abutment to form clusters and clusters abut to form a complete reconfigurable core. A software tool was created to generate a gate-level netlist and the floorplan data of the reconfigurable logic core together with a basic testbench. Cores with non-rectangular shapes were created using 90 nm and 45 nm standard-cell technologies and validated by simulation. The results demonstrate the feasibility of a flexible, technology-independent architecture for non-rectangular reconfigurable logic cores that can be physically implemented using a standard digital design flow.

Abstract
In this paper, we consider the single machine scheduling problem with linear earliness and quadratic tardiness costs, and no machine idle time. We present heuristic algorithms based on the beam search technique. These algorithms include classic beam search procedures, as well as the filtered and recovering variants. Several dispatching rules are considered as evaluation functions, to analyze the effect of different rules on the effectiveness of the beam search algorithms. The computational results show that using better rules improves the performance of the beam search heuristics. The detailed, filtered beam search (FBS) and recovering beam search (RBS) procedures outperform the best existing heuristic. The best results are given by the recovering and detailed variants, which provide objective function values that are quite close to the optimum. For small to medium size instances, either of these procedures can be used. For larger instances, the detailed beam search (DBS) algorithm requires excessive computation times, and the RBS procedure then becomes the heuristic of choice.

Abstract
In industrial automation, service-orientation is a relatively new and ascending concept and thus, concrete integrated methodologies are missing to accomplish the required development tasks. A suitable approach is to use the powerful set of features that Petri nets formalism provides for such dynamic systems. This paper presents a token game template that is part of the open methodology for the development of customized Petri nets controllers, targeting the engineering of service-oriented industrial automation. This template is based on a state machine specification for the life-cycle of transitions that leaves several options open for extending it with features depending on the application. The practical use and implementation should bring, among others, featured-full and integrated modeling, analysis and control capabilities, which is required by service-oriented ecosystems. This core structure was used and validated in the development of control applications for an industrial automation system.

Abstract
Web accessibility is growing in importance as each day goes by. Alongside this growth, is also the increasing need for access to web resources by those with some sort of disability. The web is very important for spreading information and for the interaction between the various elements in society. Given this, it is essential that the web presents itself as a totally accessible resource, so that it can help disabled citizens in their integration within society. This obligation should be even greater for enterprises as primarily the web is used as a marketing and business platform. With this document we would like to present indicators regarding the accessibility levels of Portuguese websites and, we would also like to present a brief comparison between the accessibility levels of the 1000 largest Portuguese enterprises' websites and the accessibility levels of the 1000 best Portuguese SMEs' websites.

Abstract
To obtain development information of individual plant cells, it is necessary to perform in vivo imaging of the specimen under study, through time-lapse confocal microscopy. Automation of cell detection/marking process is important to provide research tools in order to ease the search for special events, such as cell division. In this paper we discuss an automatic cell detection approach for Arabidopsis thaliana based on segmentation, which selects the best cell candidates from a starting watershed-based image segmentation and improves the result by merging adjacent regions. The selection of individual cells is obtained using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier, based on a cell descriptor constructed from the shape and edge strength of the cells' contour. In addition we proposed a novel cell merging criterion based on edge strength along the line that connects adjacent cells' centroids, which is a valuable tool in the reduction of cell over-segmentation. The result is largely pruned of badly segmented and over-segmented cells, thus facilitating the study of cells. When comparing the results after merging with the basic watershed segmentation, we obtain 1.5% better coverage (increase in F-measure) and up to 27% better precision in correct cell segmentation.

Abstract
Two three-phase squirrel-cage induction motors are used as a propulsion system of an electric vehicle (EV). A simple XC3S1000 FPGA is used to simultaneously control both electric motors, with field oriented control and space vector modulation techniques. To electronically distribute the torque between the two electric motors, a simple, yet effective, strategy based on a uniform torque distribution has been implemented. Experimental results obtained with a multi-motor EV prototype demonstrate the proper operation of the proposed system.