Abstract
An optimal control framework to support the management and control of resources in a wide range of problems arising in agriculture is discussed. Lessons extracted from past research on the weed control problem and a survey of a vast body of pertinent literature led to the specification of key requirements to be met by a suitable optimization framework. The proposed layered control structure—including planning, coordination, and execution layers—relies on a set of nested optimization processes of which an “infinite horizon” Model Predictive Control scheme plays a key role in planning and coordination. Some challenges and recent results on the Pontryagin Maximum Principle for infinite horizon optimal control are also discussed.

Abstract
Learning cardiac auscultation is a fundamental but hard task for a medicine student, involving a combination of gesture mechanics and cardiac sounds interpretation. We aim to create a low cost simulator combining a tablet and an electronic stethoscope, thus defining a new interaction paradigm that al-lows a student to train auscultation when and where they want. In this paper we evaluate the usability of a first approach to this new paradigm using a high-fidelity prototype and its heuristic evaluation. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.

Abstract
Tinting is a critical issue in communication systems, especially for synchronous communications. These show a high dependence on the clock signal purity due to errors that can be introduced into the decision process. This paper addresses the design, on a 130nm CMOS process, of a Radiation Tolerant Voltage Controlled Quartz Crystal Oscillator (VCXO), including techniques to reduce the influence of radiation and noise on its performance. The VCXO is included on a PLL designed to work within High Energy Physics (IIEP) experiments.

Abstract

Abstract
There is a growing need to develop new tools to help end users in tasks related to the design, monitoring, maintenance and commissioning of industrial processes. The complexity of the industrial environment requires that these tools have flexible features in order to provide valuable data at the early planning and design phases. Furthermore, it is known that industrial processes have stringent requirements for dependability (reliability and availability), since failures can cause economic losses, environmental damages and danger to people. The lack of tools that enable the evaluation of faults in industrial processes could mitigate these problems. In this work we present a framework which is able to estimate the reliability and availability of industrial processes that can be modeled as a graph. The framework transforms the graph structure into a Fault Tree model in order to analyze their dependability. In order to validate the proposal we conduct a dependability study of an industrial process. © 2013 IEEE.

Abstract
Digital public displays can have a key role in urban ubiquitous computing infrastructures, but they have not yet managed to fill this role. A key step in that direction would be the emergence of an application model for open display networks that would enable anyone to create applications for display infrastructures. In this work, we study the development of web-based applications for public displays. We report on our experience of application development for real world public deployment and also on an experiment with external web developers to assess their ability to create such applications using our own development tools. The results show that the web-based app model can effectively be used in the context of public displays and that web developers are able to leverage upon their expertise to create this type of applications. © Springer International Publishing 2013.