Abstract
In traffic & transportation system analysis the way individuals make choices plays a paramount role as these will affect the general efficiency with which people can travel. Modifications on the system by means of policy intervention affect commuters' perspective impacting on the performance of the network and eventually on the society's welfare. The emergence of system's behaviour, as a result of decisions at individual level, provides the traffic manager with the opportunity to evaluate modifications that have been implemented on the system. However, there has been a slow advance in appropriately representing users and their behaviour in all social dimensions of intelligent transportation systems. This paper discusses on a social-oriented modelling & simulation framework for Artificial Transportation Systems, which accounts for different social dimensions of the system in the assessment and application of policy procedures. We illustrate how a social agent-based model can be a useful tool to test the appropriateness and efficiency of transportation policies.

Abstract
In a lung nodule detection task, parenchyma segmentation is crucial to obtain the region of interest containing all the nodules. Thus, the challenge is to devise a methodology that includes all the lung nodules, particularly those close to the walls, as the juxtapleural nodules. In this paper, different region growing approaches are proposed for the automatic segmentation of the lung parenchyma. The methodology is organized in five different steps: first, the image intensity is corrected to improve the contrast of the lungs. With that, the fat area is obtained, automatically deriving the interior of the lung region. Then, the traquea is extracted by a 3D region growing, being subtracted from the lung region results. The next step is the division of the two lungs to guarantee that both are separated. And finally, the lung contours are refined to provide appropriate final results. The methodology was tested in 50 images taken from the LIDC image database, with a large variability and, specially, including different types of lung nodules. In particular, this dataset contains 158 nodules, from which 40 are juxtapleural nodules. Experimental results demonstrate that the method provides accurate lung regions, specially including the centers of 36 of the juxtapleural nodules. For the other 4, although the centers are not included, parts of their areas are retained in the segmentation, which is useful for lung nodule detection.

Abstract

Abstract
Focusing on export performance and having as a starting point the resource- based view (RBV) and contingency theories, this paper intends to study the effect of both internal and external factors to a firm in the export venture performance. As methodology, a qualitative study was developed – case study – using semi- structured interviews to two managers and one director of marketing and communication of one of the largest cork stoppers manufacturing firm in Portugal. The major findings of this paper are that both internal and external factors have impact in both export marketing strategy adaptation and export venture performance. The more developed the internal resources are, the better is the export venture performance and export marketing adaptation. A better knowledge of external factors has the previously mentioned impact. Also, export marketing strategy adaptation has a positive influence on export venture performance. This research provides a better comprehension of the phenomenon of export performance in a strict research setting (a firm form a small open economy and, only one product). To have a better export performance, managers should invest in their internal resources (such as market and international business knowledge). This paper contributes to extant knowledge of the export performance, in the way that it sheds a light on export performance in small open economies, namely the factors which contributes to a better performance of a firm (within the research setting defined).

Abstract
Symbolic Data Analysis (SDA) provides a framework for the representation and analysis of data that comprehends inherent variability. While in Data Mining and classical Statistics the data to be analyzed usually presents one single value for each variable, that is no longer the case when the entities under analysis are not single elements, but groups gathered on the basis of some given criteria. Then, for each variable, variability inherent to each group should be taken into account. Also, when analysing concepts, such as botanic species, disease descriptions, car models, and so on, data entail intrinsic variability, which should be explicitly considered. To this purpose, new variable types have been introduced, whose realizations are not single real values or categories, but sets, intervals, or, more generally, distributions over a given domain. SDA provides methods for the (multivariate) analysis of such data, where the variability expressed in the data representation is taken into account, using various approaches. (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract
TV White Spaces technology is a means of allowing wireless devices to opportunistically use locally-available TV channels (TV White Spaces), enabled by a geolocation database. The geolocation database informs the device of which channels can be used at a given location, and in the UK/EU case, which transmission powers (EIRPs) can be used on each channel based on the technical characteristics of the device, given an assumed interference limit and protection margin at the edge of the primary service coverage area(s). The UK regulator, Ofcom, has initiated a large-scale Pilot of TV White Spaces technology and devices. The ICT-ACROPOLIS Network of Excellence, teaming up with the ICT-SOLDER project and others, is running an extensive series of trials under this effort. The purpose of these trials is to test a number of aspects of white space technology, including the white space device and geolocation database interactions, the validity of the channel availability/powers calculations by the database and associated interference effects on primary services, and the performances of the white spaces devices, among others. An additional key purpose is to undertake a number of research investigations such as into aggregation of TV White Space resources with conventional (licensed/unlicensed) resources, secondary coexistence issues and means to mitigate such issues, and primary coexistence issues under challenging deployment geometries, among others. This paper describes our trials, their intentions and characteristics, objectives, and some early observations.