Abstract
One of the problems of current software development lies on the existence of solutions to address properly the code portability for the increasing number of platforms. To build abstract models is one efficient and correct way to achieve this. The Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) is a development methodology where models are the key for all project lifecycle, from requisites gathering, through modelling and to the development stage, as well as on testing. Pervasive computing demands the use of several technical specifications, such as wireless connections, advanced electronics, and the Internet, as well as it stresses the need to adjust the user interface layer to each one of the platforms. Using a model-driven approach it is possible to reuse software solutions between different targets, since models are not affected by the device diversity and its evolution. This paper reports on a tool, which is highly parameterizable and driven to support Model-2-Model and Model-2-Code transformations. Also, instead of using a predefined technology, the tool was built to be scalable and extensible for many different targets and also by addressing the user interface layer generation. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.

Abstract
Pulido et al. (Annals Oper Res 158:133–141, 2008) present an extension of the classical bankruptcy problem (O’Neill in Math Social Sci 2:345–371, 1982) where the involved agents have, apart from the claims vector, an additional reference vector. To analyze this extended problem, they propose the extreme and the diagonal approaches, both of them restricted to the case in which the reference vector is lower than the claims vector. We note that if the claims and the reference vectors are interchanged, the allocation proposed by the extreme approach varies. Therefore, by introducing the idea of impartiality, in the current approach, we propose an extension of their model in which no relation is assumed between the claims and reference vectors. © 2015, Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa.

Abstract

Abstract
In this paper, a Hessian-based strategy, based on the central medialness adaptive principle, was adapted and proposed in a multiscale approach for the 3D segmentation of pulmonary nodules in chest CT scans. This proposal is compared with another well stated Hessian based strategy of the literature, for nodule extraction, in order to demonstrate its accuracy. Several scans from the Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative (LIDC-IDRI) database were employed in the test and validation procedure. The scans include a large and heterogeneous set of 569 solid and mostly solid nodules with a large variability in the nodule characteristics and image conditions. The results demonstrated that the proposal offers correct results, similar to the performance of the radiologists, providing accurate nodule segmentations that perform the desirable scenario for a posterior analysis and the eventual lung cancer diagnosis.

Abstract
A novel linear analog adder is proposed only with n-type enhancement IGZO TFTs that computes summation of four voltage signals. However, this design can be easily extended to perform summation of higher number of signals, just by adding a single TFT for each additional signal in the input block. The circuit needs few number of transistors, only a single power supply irrespective of the number of voltage signals to be added, and offers good accuracy over a reasonable range of input values. The circuit was fabricated on glass substrate with the annealing temperature not exceeding 200 degrees C. The circuit performance is characterized from measurements under normal ambient at room temperature, with a power supply voltage of 12 V and a load of approximate to 4pF. The designed circuit has shown a linearity error of 2.3% (until input signal peak to peak value is 2 V), a power consumption of 78 mu W and a bandwidth of approximate to 115 kHz, under the worst case condition (when it is adding four signals with the same frequency). In this test setup, it has been noticed that the second harmonic is 32 dB below the fundamental frequency component. This circuit could offer an economic alternative to the conventional approaches, being an important contribution to increase the functionality of large area flexible electronics.

Abstract
This article describes a method that improves the performance of previous approaches for the automatic detection of the common carotid artery (CCA) lumen centerline on longitudinal B-mode ultrasound images. We propose to detect several lumen centerline candidates using local symmetry analysis based on local phase information of dark structures at an appropriate scale. These candidates are analyzed with selection mechanisms that use symmetry, contrast or intensity features in combination with position-based heuristics. Several experimental results are provided to evaluate the robustness and performance of the proposed method in comparison with previous approaches. These results lead to the conclusion that our proposal is robust to noise, lumen artifacts, contrast variations and that is able to deal with the presence of CCA-like structures, significantly improving the performance of our previous approach, from [GRAPHICS] of correct detections to [GRAPHICS] in a set of 200 images.