Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is a major cause of disability in older people and because of its nature and symptoms it is a huge weight on the caregivers and health system. The aim of this project, developed at Fraunhofer Portugal, is to create a remote monitoring system for patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This system comprises a device able to monitor the environment temperature and humidity, the patients location, using GPS, as well as the patient's movements, including falls. The device sends this information to the caregiver via SMS, and also to a server, where it is stored in a database developed in this work, and which the caregiver can access via a smartphone, using an application also developed in this project. This system therefore affords a close surveillance of the patient's status as well as access to historical data of the patient's information.

Abstract
Plant diseases, such as the pinewood disease, PWD, have become a problem of economical and forestall huge proportions. These diseases, that are asymptomatic and characterized by a fast spread, have no cure developed to date. Besides, there are no technical means to diagnose the disease in situ, without causing tree damage, and help to assist the forest management. Herein is proposed a portable and non-damage system, based on electrical impedance spectroscopy, EIS, for biological applications. In fact, EIS has been proving efficacy and utility in wide range of areas. However, although commercial equipment is available, it is expensive and unfeasible for in vivo and in field applications. The developed EIS system is able to perform AC current or voltage scans, within a selectable frequency range, and its effectiveness in assessing pine decay was proven. The procedure and the results obtained for a population of 24 young pine trees (Pinus pinaster Aiton) are presented. Pine trees were kept in a controlled environment and were inoculated with the nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus Nickle), that causes the PWD, and also with bark beetles (Tomicus destruens Wollaston). The obtained results may constitute a first innovative approach to the diagnosis of such types of diseases.

Abstract
The assessment of the cardiovascular system condition based on multiple parameters allows a more precise and accurate diagnosis of the heart and arterial tree condition. For this reason, the interest in non-invasive devices has presently increased in importance. In this work, an optical probe was tested in order to validate this technology for measuring multiple parameters such as Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) or Augmentation Index (AIx), amongst others. The PWV measured by the optical probe was previously compared with the values obtained with the gold-standard system. Another analysis was performed in 131 young subjects to establish carotid PWV reference values as well as other hemodynamic parameters and to find correlations between these and the population characteristics. The results allowed us to conclude that this new technique is a reliable method to determine these parameters. The range of the obtained values for local PWV are in agreement with the values obtained by other studies, and significant correlations with age and smoking status were found. The AIx varied between -6.15 % and 11.46 % and exhibit a negative correlation with heart rate, and dP/dt(max) shows a significant decrease with age.

Abstract
The purpose of this study was the development of a clustering methodology to deal with arterial pressure waveform (APW) parameters to be used in the cardiovascular risk assessment. One hundred sixteen subjects were monitored and divided into two groups. The first one (23 hypertensive subjects) was analyzed using APW and biochemical parameters, while the remaining 93 healthy subjects were only evaluated through APW parameters. The expectation maximization (EM) and k-means algorithms were used in the cluster analysis, and the risk scores (the Framingham Risk Score (FRS), the Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) project, the Assessing cardiovascular risk using Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (ASSIGN) and the PROspective Cardiovascular munster (PROCAM)), commonly used in clinical practice were selected to the cluster risk validation. The result from the clustering risk analysis showed a very significant correlation with ASSIGN (r = 0.582, p < 0.01) and a significant correlation with FRS (r = 0.458, p < 0.05). The results from the comparison of both groups also allowed to identify the cluster with higher cardiovascular risk in the healthy group. These results give new insights to explore this methodology in future scoring trials.

Abstract
Arterial stiffness, recognized as an independent predictor of cardiovascular events, can be assessed non-invasively by regional and local methods. The present work proposes and describes a novel and low-cost device, based on a double-headed acoustic probe (AP), to assess local arterial stiffness, by means of pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements. Local PWV is measured over the carotid artery and relies on the determination of the time delay between the signals acquired simultaneously by both acoustic sensors, placed at a fixed distance. The AP was characterized with dedicated test setups, in order to evaluate its performance concerning waveform analysis, repeatability, crosstalk effect and time resolution. Results show that AP signals are repeatable and crosstalk effect do not interfere with its time resolution, when the cross-correlation algorithm for time delay estimation is used. The AP's effectiveness in measuring higher PWV (14 m/s), with a relative error less than 5 %, when using two uncoupled APs, was also demonstrated. Finally, its clinical feasibility was investigated, in a set of 17 healthy subjects, in which local PWV and other hemodynamic parameters were measured. Carotid PWV yielded a mean value of 2.96 +/- 1.08 m/s that is in agreement with the values obtained in other reference studies.

Abstract
The main motivation of this work was to provide a valid contribution for the assessment of the cardiovascular condition by the analysis of several Arterial Pressure Waveform (APW) parameters collected by a new non-invasive device. Three sets of recordings for the carotid pressure waveform at left and right carotid arteries were performed, under standardized conditions, in 20 volunteers by three trained operators. The mean of the inter-operator differences were higher for the right artery, comparatively to the left artery. In this case, an Augmentation Index (AIx) value of -2.31 ± 7.29 % and a Systolic Wave Transit Time (SWTT) value of -12.94 ± 31.46 ms were observed, which are higher than the left measurements, 0.94 ± 7.52 % and -2.96 ± 22.67 ms, respectively. Intra-operator differences were calculated for each of the three sets of measurements and showed good reproducibility. The pulse-by-pulse variability analysis gives very good markers for the Left Ventricular Ejection Time (LVET), Dicrotic Wave Amplitude (DWA), Reflection Wave Amplitude (RWA), Coefficient of Variation (CV) < 10 %, and satisfactory values for the AIx (CV< 30 %). The SWTT and Reflected Wave Transit Time (RWTT) also presented satisfactory results (10 %