Abstract

Abstract
This paper proposes a two-phase approach for optimal short-term operational scheduling with intermittent renewable energy resources (RES) in an active distribution system. The first phase determines the amounts of purchased power from the market and the unit status of distributed generation (DG) and feeds the data into the second phase, a real-time scheduling coordination with hourly network reconfiguration. The two-phase proposed approach is applied to a case study of a sixteen-bus test system that uses synthetic data from renewable power generators and forecasts local user demands with a sampling time of five minutes.

Abstract

Abstract
In this paper it is described the prototyping of an instrumented chair that allows to fully-automate the "Timed Up and Go" and "30-Second Chair Stand" tests assessment. The presented functional chair prototype is a low cost approach that uses inexpensive sensors and the Arduino platform as the data acquisition board, with its software developed resorting to LabVIEW. The "Timed up and go test" consists in measuring the time spent in the task execution of standing up from a chair, walk three meters with a maximum speed without running, turn a cone and going back to the initial position. The "30-Second Chair Stand" test consists in the count of the number of completed chair stands in 30 seconds. It are agility and strength tests easy to setup and execute although they lack of repeatability, whenever the measures are taken manually, due to the rough errors that are introduced.

Abstract
A study of a sensor for hydrogen (H-2) detection based on fiber Bragg gratings coated with palladium (Pd) with self-temperature compensation is presented. The cladding around the gratings was reduced down to 50 mu m diameter by a chemical etching process. One of the gratings was left uncoated, and the other was coated with 150 nm of Pd. It was observed that palladium hydride has unstable behavior in environments with high humidity level. A simple solution to overcome this problem based on a Teflon tape is presented. The sensing device studied was able to respond to H-2 concentrations in the range 0%-1% v/v at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, achieving sensitivities larger than 20 pm/% v/v. Considering H-2 concentrations in nitrogen up to 1%, the performance of the sensing head was characterized for different thicknesses of Pd coating ranging from 50 to 200 nm. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America

Abstract
Handwritten signature recognition is still the most widely accepted method to validate paper based documents. However, in the digital world, there is no readymade way to distinguish a real handwritten signature on a scanned document from a forged copy of another signature made by the same person on another document that is simply "pasted" into the forged document. In this paper we describe how we are using the touch screen of smartphones or tablets to collect handwritten signature images and associated biometric markers derived from the motion direction of handwritten signatures that are made directly into the device touchscreen. These time base biometric markers can then be converted into signaling time waves, by using the dragging or lifting movements the user makes with a touch screen omnidirectional tip stylus, when he handwrites is signature at the device touchscreen. These time/space signaling time waves can then be converted into a biometric bit stream that can be matched with previously enrolled biometric markers of the user's handwritten signature. In this paper we contend that the collection of these simple biometric features is sufficient to achieve a level of user recognition and authentication that is sufficient for the majority of online user authentication and digital documents authenticity.