Abstract
This paper analyzes the implementation of new technologies in network industries through the development of a suitable regulatory scheme. The analysis focuses on Smart Grid (SG) technologies which, among others benefits, could save operational costs and reduce the need for further conventional investments in the grid. In spite of the benefits that may result from their implementation, the adoption of SGs by network operators can be hampered by the uncertainties surrounding actual performances. A decision model has been developed to assess the firms' incentives to invest in "smart" technologies under different regulatory schemes. The model also enables testing the impact of uncertainties on the reduction of operational costs, and of conventional investments. Under certain circumstances, it may be justified to support the development and early deployment of emerging innovations that have a high potential to ameliorate the efficiency of the electricity system, but whose adoption faces many uncertainties.

Abstract
With the advent of restructuring electricity sector and smart grids, combined with the increased variability and uncertainty associated with electricity market prices (EMP) signals and players' behavior, together with the growing integration of renewable energy sources, enhancing prediction tools are required for players and different regulators agents to face the non-stationarity and stochastic nature of such time series, which must be capable of supporting decisions in a competitive environment with low prediction error, acceptable computational time and low computational complexity. Hybrid and evolutionary approaches are good candidates to surpass most of the previous concern considering time series prediction. In this sense, this work proposes a hybrid model composed by a novel combination of differential evolutionary particle swarm optimization (DEEPSO) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) to predict, in the short-term, the wind power and EMP, testing its results with real and published case studies, proving its superior performance within a robust prediction software tool. © 2016 IEEE.

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract
Transthyretin Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP) is a rare neurological disease caused by a genetic mutation with a variable presentation and consequent challenging diagnosis, complex follow-up and treatment. At this moment, this condition has no cure and treatment options are under development. One of the disease's implications is a definite and progressive motor impairment that from the early stages compromises walking ability and daily life activities. The detection of this impairment is key for the disease onset diagnosis. With the goal of improving diagnosis of the symptoms and patients' quality of life, the authors have assessed the gait characteristics of subjects suffering from this condition. This contribution shows the results of a preliminary study, using a non-intrusive, markerless vision-based gait analysis tool. To the best of our knowledge, the reported results constitute the first gait analysis data of TTR-FAP mutation carriers.

Abstract
The remarkable number of real applications under dynamic scenarios is driving a novel ability to generate and gatherinformation.Nowadays,amassiveamountofinforma- tion is generated at a high-speed rate, known as data streams. Moreover, data are collected under evolving environments. Due to memory restrictions, data must be promptly processed and discarded immediately. Therefore, dealing with evolving data streams raises two main questions: (i) how to remember discarded data? and (ii) how to forget outdated data? To main- tain an updated representation of the time-evolving data, this paper proposes fading histograms. Regarding the dynamics of nature, changes in data are detected through a windowing scheme that compares data distributions computed by the fading histograms: the adaptive cumulative windows model (ACWM). The online monitoring of the distance between data distributions is evaluated using a dissimilarity measure based on the asymmetry of the Kullback–Leibler divergence.The experimental results support the ability of fading his- tograms in providing an updated representation of data. Such property works in favor of detecting distribution changes with smaller detection delay time when compared with stan- dard histograms. With respect to the detection of concept changes, the ACWM is compared with 3 known algorithms taken from the literature, using artificial data and using pub- lic data sets, presenting better results. Furthermore, we the proposed method was extended for multidimensional and the experiments performed show the ability of the ACWM for detecting distribution changes in these settings.