Abstract
The use of optimization techniques is well established in forest short-term planning and decision-making. Yet, existing techniques may pose some limitations for tackling with stochastic factors impacting in the execution of forest operations, such as delays, equipment breakdowns and other unexpected events. This paper explores the potential of using optimization techniques in combination with discrete-event simulation (DES) models for planning harvesting and logistics operations acknowledging uncertainty. DES models may be useful for assessing the performance and identifying bottlenecks associated with the execution of the deterministic plans retrieved with optimization techniques, when such stochastic events occur. This paper further presents an approach for the combination of a heuristic and a DES model developed in SIMIO. This approach was used to solve the raw material reception problem (RMRP) at a Portuguese pulp mill. This paper concludes with the analysis of the performance of deterministic schedules for the wood trucks considering uncertainty in their arrival at the mill.

Abstract
Increasing energy needs are accompanied by environmental responsibilities, since nowadays electricity companies operate in a competitive and sustainable energy framework. In this context, any proposal for action on energy efficiency becomes important for consumers to minimize operational costs. In electrical installations, electricity consumption can be decreased by reducing losses in the cables, associated with the overall efficiency of the equipment, allowing a better use of the installed power. The losses must be analysed in conjunction with all loads that contribute to the currents in the sections of an electrical installation. When replacing equipment in output distribution boxes with more efficient ones, the current in those sections is reduced in association with the decrease in power losses. This decrease, often forgotten, is taken into account in this work for the economic analysis of efficiency and sustainable electrical equipment. This paper presents a new software application that compares and chooses the best investment in the acquisition of electrical equipment. Simulation results obtained with the new software application are provided and are then validated with experimental results from a real electrical installation.

Abstract
For the first time in history, the world shows a clear trend towards aging. This poses an intrinsic hazard for the ever growing population, which becomes more vulnerable to common age-related illnesses and conditions. One of the most serious risks elders face is falling, as it is responsible for countless admissions to geriatric care institutions and thousands of deaths each year. In an effort to improve elders' safety and quality of life many groups have address the fall prevention issue, coming to several different results as of what variables are the most important to consider in a fall prediction tool. These variables range from qualitative aspects (history of falls, dementia, use of medication, etc.) to quantitative ones (total walked distance per day, walking cadence, center of mass, etc.), but none of them per se seems to deliver a definite and complete answer to the problem at hand. The paper herein aims to present a new hybrid approach, which combines both the highest co-related qualitative and quantitative biovariables in a single tool: the MATHOV + QAVS, which is proposed as a new fall assessment screening tool and eventually as baseline criteria for a complete elder fall prediction system. Copyright © 2014 SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications. All rights reserved.

Abstract

Abstract
Between 1989 and 2011 the aviation traffic has been growing 4.6% per year. The increase on aviation traffic had consequences in terms of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and local pollutant emissions (e.g. carbon monoxide - CO, hydrocarbons - HC, nitrogen oxides - NOx). In order to minimize this problem, the evaluation of sustainable alternatives to current fuel (jet fuel A) has been discussed but their impact on emissions is still unclear. The main research goals of this paper are: (i) to evaluate if the well-to-wake energy consumption in aviation can be reduced with alternative fuels as liquid natural gas (LNG) and/or liquid hydrogen (LH2) and (ii) to assess if alternative fuels can be used in aviation to minimize carbon dioxide emissions and local pollutants. In this analysis two types of flights were evaluated: short flights (<5000 km) and long flights (>5000 km) for six typical aircrafts. We verified that LH2 from SMR can provide between 13% and 21% less environmental and social impacts than jet fuel A, in the same aircraft. Copyright

Abstract
The emergence of real temporal applications under non-stationary scenarios has drastically altered the ability to generate and gather information. Nowadays, under dynamic scenarios, potentially unbounded and massive amounts of information are generated at high-speed rate, known as data streams. Dealing with evolving data streams imposes the online monitoring of data in order to detect changes. The contribution of this paper is to present the advantage of using fading histograms to compare data distribution for change detection purposes. In an windowing scheme, data distributions provided by the fading histograms are compared using the Kullback-Leibler divergence. The experimental results support that the detection delay time is smaller when using fading histograms to represent data instead of standard histograms.