Abstract
Data has increased in a large scale in various fields leading to the coin of the term Big Data. Big data is mainly used to describe enormous datasets that typically includes masses of unstructured data that may need real-time analysis. As human behaviour and personality can be captured through human-computer interaction a massive opportunity opens for providing wellness services. Through the use of interaction data, behavioral biometrics can be obtained. The usage of biometrics has increased due to several factors such as the rise of power and availability of computational power. One of the challenges in this kind of approaches has to do with handling the acquired data. The growing volumes, variety and velocity brings challenges in the tasks of pre-processing, storage and providing analytics. In this sense, the problem can be framed as a Big Data problem. In this work it is intended to provide an architecture that accommodates the data pipeline of data generated by human-computer interaction, providing real time data analytics on behavioral biometrics.

Abstract
Satellite altimetry allows the study of sea-level long-term variability on a global and spatially uniform basis. Here quantile regression is applied to derive robust median regression trends of mean sea level as well as trends in extreme quantiles from radar altimetry time series. In contrast with ordinary least squares regression, which only provides an estimate on the rate of change of the mean of data distribution, quantile regression allows the estimation of trends at different quantiles of the data distribution, yielding a more complete picture of long-term variability. Trends derived from basin-wide averaged regional mean sea level time series are robust and similar for all quantiles, indicating that all parts of the data distribution are changing at the same rate. In contrast, trends are not robust and diverge across quantiles in the case of local time series. Trends are under- (over-)estimated in the western (eastern) equatorial Pacific. Furthermore, trends in the lowermost quantile (0.05) are larger than the median trend in the western Pacific, while trends in the uppermost quantile (0.95) are lower than the median trend in the eastern Pacific. These differences in trends in extreme mean sea level quantiles are explained by the exceptional effect of the strong 1997-1998 El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event.

Abstract
Auscultation is a widely used technique in clinical activity to diagnose heart diseases. However, heart sounds are difficult to interpret because a) of events with very short temporal onset between them (tens of milliseconds) and b) dominant frequencies that are out of the human audible spectrum. In this paper, we propose a model to segment heart sounds using a semi-hidden Markov model instead of a hidden Markov model. Our model in difference from the state-of-the-art hidden Markov models takes in account the temporal constraints that exist in heart cycles. We experimentally confirm that semi-hidden Markov models are able to recreate the "true" continuous state sequence more accurately than hidden Markov models. We achieved a mean error rate per sample of 0.23.

Abstract
Portugal has become the second most expensive footwear brand manufacturer in the global market in just one decade. How does an offshore-outsourcing provider become a direct competitor with former clients? This study applies a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to 12 Portuguese footwear manufacturers and identifies the underlying factors of the managerial transition from an offshore-outsourcing provider to a direct brand manufacturer. The study finds that the transformation of external knowledge from the client into internal knowledge must occur first. But the decisive factor is the management's recognition that brand creation is a long-term investment and is less risky than remaining dependent on outsourcing. These findings contribute to the understanding of the transition to becoming a direct brand manufacturer.

Abstract
In this paper, a methodology to solve Unit Commitment (UC) problem from a probabilistic perspective is developed and illustrated. The method presented is based on solving the Economic Dispatch (ED) problem describing the Probability Distribution Function (PDF) of the output power of thermal generators, energy not supplied, excess of electricity, Generation Cost (GC), and Spinning Reserve (SR). The obtained ED solution is combined with Priority List (PL) method in order to solve UC problem probabilistically, giving especial attention to the probability of providing a determined amount of SR at each time step. Three case studies are analysed; the first case study explains how PDF of SR can be used as a metric to decide the amount of power that should be committed; while in the second and third case studies, two systems of 10-units and 110-units are analysed in order to evaluate the quality of the obtained solution from the proposed approach. Results are thoroughly compared to those offered by a stochastic programming approach based on mixed-integer linear programming formulation, observing a difference on GCs between 1.41% and 1.43% for the 10-units system, and between 3.75% and 4.5% for the 110-units system, depending on the chosen significance level of the probabilistic analysis.

Abstract
Dynamic hybrid control architectures are a powerful paradigm that addresses the challenges of achieving both performance optimality and operations reactivity in discrete systems. This approach presents a dynamic mechanism that changes the control solution subject to continuous environment changes. However, these changes might cause nervousness behaviour and the system might fail to reach a stabilized-state. This paper proposes a framework of a nervousness regulator that handles the nervousness behaviour based on the defined nervousness-state. An example of this regulator mechanism is applied to an emulation of a flexible manufacturing system located at the University of Valenciennes. The results show the need for a nervousness mechanism in dynamic hybrid control architectures and explore the idea of setting the regulator mechanism according to the nervousness behaviour state.