Abstract
This paper presents a holistic timing analysis for fixed-priority fork-join Parallel/Distributed tasks (P/D tasks) over a Flexible Time Triggered - Switched Ethernet (FTT-SE) network. The holistic approach considers both time-triggered and event-triggered tasks/messages.

Abstract
In the fiercely competitive era induced by expansion of open business archetypes, the managerial aspects of Extended Manufacturing Environments (EMEs) are experiencing growing concerns. There is no scope of leaving a possible operational improvement unexplored. For enhanced operational efficiency and capacity utilization the balancing and scheduling problems of EMEs are, therefore, rightfully considered and an integer programme is proposed in this paper. The model is designed in a spread sheet and solved through What'sBest optimizer. The model capabilities is assessed through a test problem. The results have demonstrated that the model is capable of defining optimized production schedules for EMEs.

Abstract
APEX, a framework for prototyping ubiquitous environments, is used to design an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) system to enhance a care home for older people. The environment allows participants in the design process to experience the proposed design and enables developers to explore the design by rapidly developing alternatives. APEX provided the means to explore alternative designs through a virtual environment. It provides a mediating representation (a boundary object) allowing users to be involved in the design process. A group of residents in a city-based care home were involved in the design. The paper describes the design process and lessons learnt for the design of AAL systems.

Abstract
The introduction of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRESs) such as wind to the future power portfolio can have significant effects on raising the daily net load variations and consequently may cause more operation costs as well as inefficient operation of units, and even in the worst case put the system's security at risk. On this basis, the need for a greater flexibility is essential to ensure efficient operation of the power system with significant amount of VRESs. Under this perspective, this paper presents a coordinated dispatch model in energy and reserve markets taking into account the role of bulk Battery Energy Storages (BESs) as well as Demand Response Programs (DRPs) as most favorable options in order to achieve a greater flexibility based on a Network Constrained Unit Commitment (NCUC) model. Numerical studies indicate that the coordinated operation of the existing units and the new flexible technologies could provide this additional required flexibility with a reasonable cost.

Abstract
Data analysis is among the main strategies of our time for enterprises to take advantage of the vast amounts of data their systems generate and store everyday. Thus the standard relational database model is challenged everyday to cope with quantitative operations over a traditionally qualitative, relational model. A novel approach to the semantics of data is based on (typed) linear algebra (LA), rather than relational algebra, bridging the gap between data dimensions and data measures in a unified way. Also, this bears the promise of increased parallelism, as most operations in LA admit a ‘divide & conquer’ implementation. This paper presents a first experiment in implementing such a typed linear algebra approach and testing its performance on a data distributed system. It presents solutions to some theoretical limitations and evaluates the overall performance. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.

Abstract
This paper addresses the accuracy of space pointing devices when using absolute orientation for interaction with multimedia content. Classical accurate fusion algorithms are computationally intensive, therefore their implementation in low-energy consumption devices is a challenging task. To tackle this problem, a performance study of a relevant set of COTS MARG sensor units with low-complexity algorithms, is presented in this study. Performance evaluation tests are carried out under harsh conditions to observe the algorithms response in a non-trivial environment. The results demonstrate that the implementation of low-complexity algorithms using low-cost sensors, can provide acceptable accuracy in comparison with the more complex state-of-the-art sensors/algorithms. These results pave the way for faster adoption of absolute orientation-based pointing devices in interactive multimedia applications. © 2015 IEEE.