Abstract
When public authorities face the need to improve a transportation system, they normally have to make a difficult choice among a set of technological and operational alternatives. To help the correct evaluation of each alternative and its impacts, costs and benefits, it would be useful to have a decision support tool based on approaches such as Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and/or Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). Among the many impacts caused by a public transportation system, typically those on the land use are not adequately considered in the decision-making processes, mainly because they are hard to monetize, they are often considered as value transfer instead of value creation, and they are too complex to be assessed by traditional transport modelling tools. To overcome these weaknesses, the objectives of this research are to identify and measure the impacts of transit systems on land use and accessibility, and to consider those impacts in decision-making processes, along with more traditional financial and transport related impacts. For this purpose, a decision support tool, combining a land use and transport model with a MCDA model, was developed and assessed in a small case study. In future work, sensitivity and risk analysis will be incorporated, to more accurately and realistically reflect uncertainties and exogenous conditions that may significantly affect the costs and the benefits of a project. Finally, this decision support tool will be fully assessed in a study of the Green Line extension project in Boston, USA. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Abstract
This paper presents a study about the influence of Distributed Energy Resources' (DER) flexibility on the operation of a Medium Voltage (MV) network, in a Smart Grid (SG) environment. An AC multi-temporal Optimal Power Flow (OPF) tool was developed and used to simulate the impact of the DER flexibility (including storage devices, EVs, controllable loads and micro-generation) in distribution network operation. Some simulations are presented, demonstrating the impact that DER flexibility can have on solving operation problems namely in terms of branch loading and voltage limits.

Abstract
Control applications are a key aspect of current industrial environments. Regarding cork industries, there is a particular process that needs to be addressed: the cork stoppers drying. Currently the methodology used in this process delays the overall production cycle and lacks in the drying efficiency itself. This paper presents the development of a cork stopper drying system based on the control of a conveyor based machine using Model Predictive Control (MPC). Throughout the project itwas also developed a drying kineticsmodel for the cork stoppers and an extension of such model to a discrete space state model. By applying the proposed methodology it is assured the cork stoppers’ drying in a faster and more efficient way. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017.

Abstract
Cardiac volume/function assessment remains a critical step in daily cardiology, and 3-D ultrasound plays an increasingly important role. Though development of automatic endocardial segmentation methods has received much attention, the same cannot be said about epicardial segmentation, in spite of the importance of full myocardial segmentation. In this paper, different ways of coupling the endocardial and epicardial segmentations are contrasted and compared with uncoupled segmentation. For this purpose, the B-spline explicit active surfaces framework was used; 27 3-D echocardiographic images were used to validate the different coupling strategies, which were compared with manual contouring of the endocardial and epicardial borders performed by an expert. It is shown that an independent segmentation of the endocardium followed by an epicardial segmentation coupled to the endocardium is the most advantageous. In this way, a framework for fully automatic 3-D myocardial segmentation is proposed using a novel coupling strategy.

Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the expected role that variable speed hydro power plants can have in future electric power systems characterized by a massive integration of highly variable sources. Therefore, it is discussed the development of a methodology for optimising the operation of hydropower plants under increasing contribution from new renewable energy sources, addressing the participation of a hydropower plant with variable speed pumping in reserve markets. Complementarily, it is also discussed the active role variable speed generators can have in the provision of advanced frequency regulation services.

Abstract