Abstract
The increasing urban development is being accompanied by increased mobility in transport and by the increasing of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The European Union (EU) projects that, in the next forty years, transport activity will increase around 57% (2010-2050) and it will be the largest source of CO2 (Margaritis et al., 2016). To reduce these prospects, the EU has been looking for a more sustainable and decarbonised transport system (European Commission, 2011). The entry of electric vehicles (EVs) into the European markets is seen as an important aspect for low-carbon mobility (Morton et al., 2016). However, EVs have characteristics that condition their entry into the markets, such as their high cost, the limited network of charging infrastructures, their maximum reach, the lack of information dissemination (Labeye et al., 2016), and also the risk of the investment (McDowall, 2014). Global governments have been using a wide variety of incentives to facilitate the entry of EVs, including subsidies and public investments in loading stations (ICCT, 2016). The primary objective of this article is to evaluate the expansion of EVs in Europe, including the assessment of drivers' benefits. Additionally, this study allows interpreting the effect of policies implemented by the European Union and chosen individual members. For this theoretical assessment, the policies of incentives to the EVs of each country are comprehensively analysed. This study shows that, in a global incentive scenario, electric battery vehicles (BEVs) can be cheaper than other car technologies (Hagman, Ritzen, Stier, & Susilo, 2016) and that they are clearly the best choice for a low emission transport system. It is also concluded that there are still many targets to be achieved until internal combustion vehicles (ICEs) are no longer the primary choice of drivers and we may reach optimal GHG values in transportation.

Abstract

Abstract
Purpose - The design of retail backroom storage areas has great impact on in-store operations, customer service level and on store life-cycle costs. Moreover, backroom storage in modern retail grocery stores is critical to several functions, such as acting as a buffer against strong demand lifts yielded by an ever-increasing promotional activity, stocking seasonal peak demand and accommodating e-commerce activities. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to design retail backroom storage area. Furthermore, the authors aim to draw attention to the lack of literature on this topic, while clarifying the relationship between this promising research stream and the considerable body of research regarding the design and operations of conventional warehouses, as well as retail in-store operations. Design/methodology/approach - The key literature on backrooms, grocery retail, in-store operations, warehouse design and operations was reviewed. This allowed an understanding of the gap in the literature regarding the design of backrooms. Moreover, a case study methodological approach was conducted in a Portuguese retailer to extend the literature review. Findings - Despite having functions similar to conventional warehouses, backroom storage facilities have particularities that deserve a distinct analysis. Thus, the authors stress these differences and demonstrate how they influence the development of a novel backroom design framework. Originality/value - This paper fills a gap by proposing a framework to design backroom areas. Furthermore, this research may help practitioners to better design backroom areas, since this process currently lacks a formal and standardized procedure.

Abstract
Kidney exchange programs have been set in several countries within national, regional or hospital frameworks, to increase the possibility of kidney patients being transplanted. For the case of hospital programs, it has been claimed that hospitals would benefit if they collaborated with each other, sharing their internal pools and allowing transplants involving patients of different hospitals. This claim led to the study of multi-hospital exchange markets. We propose a novel direction in this setting by modeling the exchange market as an integer programming game. The analysis of the strategic behavior of the entities participating in the kidney exchange game allowed us to prove that the most rational game outcome maximizes the social welfare and that it can be computed in polynomial time.

Abstract
Exploring the seas and the oceans is essential for industrial and environmental applications. Given the fact that the seas cover 72% of the surface of the Earth and are home to 90% of all life found on it, underwater imaging has become an active research area in recent years. Due to the high absorption of electromagnetic waves by water, sonar is currently the exemplary choice used in underwater imaging. Yet, underwater images acquired with sonars suffer from various degradations, since the sound signal is affected by the environment and the sonar parameters and geometry. This work proposes an enhancement method that aims at getting close to natural underwater images. The enhanced images can be used in further applications related to seabed mapping and underwater computer vision. The enhancement aims at reducing the echo-decay and some effects of the receiver gain.

Abstract
The work described in this paper is part of the development of a framework to support the joint execution of cooperative missions by a group of vehicles, in a simulated, augmented, or real environment. Such a framework brings forward the need for formal languages in which to specify the vehicles that compose a team, the scenario in which they will operate, and the mission to be performed. This paper introduces the Scenario Description Language (SDL) and the Team Description Language (TDL), two Extensible Markup Language based dialects that compose the static components necessary for representing scenario and mission knowledge. SDL provides a specification of physical scenario and global operational constraints, while TDL defines the team of vehicles, as well as team-specific operational restrictions. The dialects were defined using Extensible Markup Language schemas, with all required information being integrated in the definitions. An interface was developed and incorporated into the framework, allowing for the creation and edition of SDL and TDL files. Once the information is specified, it can be used in the framework, thus facilitating environment and team specification and deployment. A survey answered by practitioners and researchers shows that the satisfaction with SDL+TDL is elevated (the overall evaluation of SDL+TDL achieved a score of 4 out of 5, with 81%/78.6% of the answers 4); in addition, the usability of the interface was evaluated, achieving a score of 86.7 in the System Usability Scale survey. These results imply that SDL+TDL is flexible enough to represent scenarios and teams, through a user-friendly interface.