Abstract
A forecast model for estimating the annual variation in regional wine production has been developed over the past decade for the main wine regions of northern Portugal. Annual wine production has been forecasted based on a hierarchical analysis, including a determination of potential production by measuring airborne pollen concentrations at flowering with Cour traps followed by an evaluation of the possible impact of postflowering conditions on limited crop production. For each region, airborne pollen concentrations, in conjunction with wine yield, account for up to 90 to 95% of the interannual variations in wine production. Ninety-seven to 99% of the annual variability in regional wine production can be explained by agropalynoclimatological forecast models that take into account a number of agronomic and weather conditions after flowering. The reliability and early-indication ability of these forecast models justify their use by institutions and economists in decision making, adoption of technical improvements, and fraud detection.

Abstract
This paper introduces a calculus of state-based software components modelled as concrete coalgebras for some Set endofunctors, with specified initial conditions. The calculus is parametrized by a notion of behaviour, introduced as a strong ( usually commutative) monad. The proposed component model and calculus are illustrated through the characterisation of a particular class of components, classified as separable, which includes the ones arising in the so-called model oriented approach to systems' design.

Abstract
A large variety of techniques have been developed to solve or approximate the solution of multiattribute ranking problems. From such techniques, several implicit or explicit partial orders, defined on the same set of alternatives, are obtained (in many cases, by pairwise comparisons) with the goal of determining a linear order. Often, this goal is attained by assigning positive weights to each partial order relation. However, the imprecise judgments of the pairwise comparisons as well as other factors lead to inconsistencies which have been analyzed in an extensive literature devoted to this type of problem. In this paper, numerical results about linear extensions of weighted sum relations are applied to the recognition of pairwise imprecise judgments between alternatives as well as to the confirmation of a ranking solution as a linear extension of a quasi-order defined by a weighted sum of binary preference relations. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abstract

Abstract
The annual airborne pollen variation of the Porto region was studied from November 2001 to October 2002 using a Cour type sampler. A total of 170 × 106 grains m-2 belonging to 63 taxa was observed. The vegetation surrounding the sampling point includes ornamental, non-ornamental trees, shrubs and herbaceous species. The main pollen types were Cupressaceae, Gramineae, Hamamelidaceae, Pinaceae, Urticaceae, Quercus spp., Acer spp., Myrtaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Oleaceae, Betulaceae and Plantago spp. that represented 88% of the Porto pollen spectrum. Gramineae, Cupressaceae, Myrtaceae, Oleaceae, Pinaceae and Urticaceae pollen are found throughout the year. Concerning total pollen concentration, the distribution throughout the year is very irregular, with several annual peaks, with the maximum concentration registered between the end of March and the first two weeks of April and the lowest observed during autumn.

Abstract
This paper studies the dynamics of foot-ground interaction and the performance of integer and fractional order controllers in multi-legged locomotion systems. For that objective the robot prescribed motion is characterized in terms of several locomotion variables. Moreover, to compare the system performance, we formulate six performance measures of the walking robot namely, the mean absolute power, the mean power dispersion, the mean power lost in the joint actuators, the mean force of the interface body-legs per walking distance and the mean square error of the hip and foot trajectories. A set of model-based experiments reveals the influence of the different controller implementations in the proposed indices.