Abstract
The National Emission Ceilings Directive 2001/81/CE (NEC Directive) was adopted in the European Community in 2001 and went through a revision process in 2005. One of its main objectives is to improve the protection of the environment and human health against the risks of adverse effects from ground-level ozone, moving towards the long-term objective of not exceeding critical levels proved to effectively protect the populations and ecosystems. Considering such objectives, national emission ceilings were established imposing the years 2010 and 2020 as benchmarks. Ten years later, what was the effectiveness of this Directive concerning the control of tropospheric ozone levels in Portugal? In order to answer the previous question, annual ozone precursors' emissions (NOx, NMVOC) and annual atmospheric concentrations (NOx and O-3) were analyzed between 1990 and 2011. The background concentrations were assessed in each environment type of air quality station (urban, suburban and rural) through their annual mean ozone concentration and the hourly information threshold exceedances (episodic peak levels). To evaluate the statistical differences in the inter-annual episodic peak levels, a Peak Ozone Index (POIx) was defined and calculated. The results show that, despite the achievement on the emissions NEC Directive goals, associated to the reduction of ozone precursors' emissions, and the decrease of ozone episodic peak levels, the mean tropospheric ozone concentrations significantly increased between 2003 and 2007 (p < 0.05) although the number of exceedances to the information threshold (180 mu g m(-3)) has decreased. During the period of 1990-2000, before the implementation of the NEC Directive, the mean ozone values were 25% lower in rural stations, 26% in urban stations and 12% in suburban stations, demonstrating that the NEC policy based on NOx and NMVOCs emissions reduction does not lead to an effective overall reduction of ozone concentrations considering the reduction on these pollutants independently. Indeed, the mesoscale ozone production and/or the long range advection may play also an important role as the analysis of Mace Head ozone concentrations suggests. Above all, and due to its non-linear interactions in the ozone chemical balance, the NEC directive should impose emissions' reduction respecting the NOx/NMVOC ratio instead of consider it as a mere guideline value. The mesoscale photochemical ozone production should be carefully analyzed under the new policies, namely in coastal countries like Portugal where the mesoscale circulations play a crucial role in this type of phenomena.

Abstract
This paper presents a catalog of smells in the context of interactive applications. These so-called usability smells are indicators of poor design on an application's user interface, with the potential to hinder not only its usability but also its maintenance and evolution. To eliminate such usability smells we discuss a set of program/usability refactorings. In order to validate the presented usability smells catalog, and the associated refactorings, we present a preliminary empirical study with software developers in the context of a real open source hospital management application. Moreover, a tool that computes graphical user interface behavior models, giving the applications' source code, is used to automatically detect usability smells at the model level.

Abstract

Abstract
It is well known that the classical three-and four-round Feistel constructions are provably secure under chosen-plaintext and chosen-ciphertext attacks, respectively. However, irrespective of the number of rounds, no Feistel construction can resist related-key attacks where the keys can be offset by a constant. In this paper we show that, under suitable reuse of round keys, security under related-key attacks can be provably attained. Our modification is simpler and more efficient than alternatives obtained using generic transforms, namely the PRG transform of Bellare and Cash (CRYPTO 2010) and its random-oracle analogue outlined by Lucks (FSE 2004). Additionally we formalize Luck's transform and show that it does not always work if related keys are derived in an oracle-dependent way, and then prove it sound under appropriate restrictions.

Abstract
This paper presents an enhanced simulation platform composed by the integration of two distinct multi-agent based simulators. The two simulators are: (i) the Multi-Agent Simulator of Competitive Electricity Markets (MASCEM), which provides a simulation platform for electricity markets participation, considering scenarios based on real data from several distinct market operators; and (ii) the Multi-Agent Smart Grid Platform (MASGriP), which facilitates the simulation of smart grids and microgrids, by modeling the power network at the distribution level, and representing the main entities that act in this scope. With the cooperation between the two simulation platforms, huge studying opportunities under different perspectives are provided, resulting in an important contribution in the fields of transactive energy, electricity markets, and smart grids. A case study is presented, showing the potentialities for interaction between players of the two ecosystems, namely by demonstrating a case in which a smart grid operator, which manages the internal resources of a smart grid, is able to participate in electricity market negotiations to sell the surplus of generation in some periods of the day, and buy the necessary power to satisfy the demand of smart grid consumers in other periods of the day. © 2015 IEEE.

Abstract
In general, quality of life is the perceived quality of an individual's daily life, that is, an assessment of their well-being or lack thereof. Life quality of individuals is very important for involves several factors such as social, economic, psychological, spiritual or medical state. The information technologies can help with the management of the services for the healthcare of chronic patients. It was developed and implemented a Quality of Life platform using information technologies and with application of statistical methods to access the information of clinical data of patients with cancer from otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck services of an oncologic institution. The sample was composed of 3013 patients. The results show that there are variables with significant predictors for the Quality of Life: years of smoking (p value 0.049) and size of the tumor (p value < 0.001). In conclusion statistical methods allow having access to additional information helping the physicians to be able to know the quality of life and produce a well-informed clinical decision.