Abstract
In the new smart grid paradigm, the residential prosumers can more actively participate in the energy exchange mechanisms by adjusting their consumption through demand response programs and their own available local generation and energy storage system. On these bases, a new model of home energy management system (HEMS) is proposed and analyzed in this paper. Numerical studies show that the proposed HEMS is able to find the optimal operating scenario in different situations and to achieve a reduction of the billing costs by providing some electric flexibility to an aggregator or to a system operator.

Abstract
Laser diagnostics and treatment procedures are commonly performed for visible and near-IR wavelengths. The knowledge of the wavelength dependences for the optical properties of various biological tissues in this spectral range is useful for clinical applications. Since the optical properties of human liver have been previously known only for near-IR wavelengths, the aim is to estimate their wavelength dependences between 400 and 1000 nm. Using spectral measurements from liver samples in this range, we determine their optical properties with the inverse adding-doubling method. The obtained results indicate the presence of bile, oxyhaemoglobin and deoxyhaemoglobin in human liver. The combination of these biological components results in strong absorption for wavelengths between 400 and 600 nm, with peaks at unusual wavelengths. For wavelengths above 600 nm, the wavelength dependences for all optical properties present the typical behavior, but strong and shifted absorption observed for wavelengths below 600 nm has been previously unknown and can be useful for clinical procedures with lasers working in this range.

Abstract

Abstract
There is a great worldwide desire to launch new technology-based business. In this sense, and increasingly, entrepreneurship courses have arisen in several universities and many of the courses in the management, administration and engineering areas already offer entrepreneurship curricular units. Throughout those programs, the teams develop key integrated competencies in innovation, entrepreneurship and technology that will ultimately enable the students to create and develop new technology-based businesses. The Business Plan Reference Manual for IT Businesses provides a reference manual for undergraduate and graduate students that intend to launch their start-up business in the IT field. It helps them to create and model the business plan of their business. Therefore, this manual is mainly aimed at instructors who want to offer a practical view of the process of modeling, designing and developing an IT start-up. Additionally, it can be individually used by entrepreneurs who wish to launch their start-up businesses in IT field. The structure of the book was defined taking into account different approaches to the construction of the business plan, which basically consider a disaggregation of some of these chapters in others smaller (e.g., marketing plan into products/services and market, financial plan into investment plan and economic-financial projections). We chose to aggregate these dimensions into a single chapter, which in our view facilitates the process of analyzing a business plan. It is also relevant to mention the inclusion of "Chapter V - Prototype description" which is innovative and intends to take into account the application of this business plan template to the information technology sector. © 2018 River Publishers. All rights reserved.

Abstract

Abstract
Goal: The main goal of this research is to analyse the behaviour of a set of ten lot-sizing methods applied to different application scenarios, within the context of more traditional MRP-based manufacturing environments and on JIT/ Kanbans oriented ones. Design/Methodology/Approach: After an extended literature review, a quantitative research method is used to provide a comparative analysis on the performance of the lot-sizing methods under different simulated application scenarios, with variations in demand and peaks of seasonality. Moreover, a final summary provides the error deviations for lot-sizing methods regarding increases in demand variations and seasonality indexes. Results: The study analyses lot-sizing methods and discusses benefits and risks associated to its use in application scenarios marked by a considerable variation in demand or peaks in seasonality. Limitations of the investigation: As the application scenarios did not explore variations in the ordering and stock holding costs, further analysis including these kinds of variations is encouraged. Practical implications: The findings of this research enable the enhancement of the conscience of industrial practitioners, regarding the selection of best suited lot-sizing methods for being applied on each kind of manufacturing scenario, regarding MRP or JIT/Kanban environments. Originality/Value: Given the diversity of the existing lot-sizing methods, for instance, the heuristic ones, authors can find it quite difficult to select appropriate methods for solving their problems for each kind of application scenario. Therefore, the present study can provide useful knowledge to better support decision making in the lot-sizing domain.