Abstract
The torrefaction of biomass is a thermochemical process based on the de composition of hemicellulose, which is the dominant reaction, while the cellulose and lignin fractions remain almost unaffected. Torrefaction of biomass improves its physical properties like grindability, particle shape, size, and distribution, pelletability, and composition properties like moisture, carbon and hydrogen contents, and calorific value. The already higher energy density can be increased further by a pelletizing step after torrefaction. These improved properties make torrefied biomass particularly suitable for co-firing in power plants. Co-firing biomass with fossil fuels is one of the solutions to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of existing power plants. Several studies on torrefaction of biomass for heat and power applications have been documented in the literature, which need to be reviewed and analyzed for further actions in the field, because significant gaps remain in the understanding of the biomass torrefaction process, which necessitate further study, mainly concerning the characterization of the torrefaction chemical reactions, investigation of equipment performance and design, and elucidation of supply chain impacts. This is the main objective of the present review study, which consists in three parts. The first part focuses on the mechanism of biomass torrefaction. It is followed by a review of biomass co-firing with coal. Finally, market opportunities for the process are discussed.

Abstract
We address two two-dimensional bin packing problems where the bins are rectangular and have the same size. The items are also rectangular and all of them must be packed with the objective of minimizing the number of bins. In the first problem, the two-stage problem, the items must be packed in levels. In the second problem, the restricted 3-stage problem, items can be grouped in stacks which are packed in levels. We propose a new decomposition model where subproblems are associated with the item that initializes a bin. The decomposition is solved by a heuristic which combines (perturbed) column generation, local search, beam branch-and-price, and the use of a general purpose mixed integer programming solver. This approach is closely related with SearchCol, a framework for solving integer programming / combinatorial optimization decomposition models. Computational results with 500 instances from the literature show that the proposed hybrid heuristic is efficient in obtaining high quality solutions. It uses more 8 and 17 bins than the 7364 and 7340 bins of a compact model from the literature for the 2 and 3-stage problems, respectively, while the sum of the time spent for all instances is 35% and 58% of the time spent by the compact model.

Abstract
Although the importance of the social, economic, environmental and traditional importance of artisanal fisheries is widely accepted, there is no single internationally accepted definition for this activity, since its characteristics differ among countries. Notwithstanding, it is also generally accepted that artisanal fisheries comprises a group of characteristics that clearly differ from those of the industrial fishing. In the present paper, an objective, simple and easy to use methodology is presented for the segmentation of fishing fleets by using a group of descriptors currently available in the European Union datasets. The numerical descriptors approach (NDA) is a score-based methodology that was applied to several EU fishing fleets from the Atlantic Area. The results obtained allow a more realistic segmentation of the European fishing fleet into artisanal (both coastal artisanal and small-scale fisheries) and non-artisanal than the current limit of 12 m vessels overall length. The procedure can be, and should be, refined and improved by the addition of new descriptors (e.g. operational range of the vessels and fishing effort, time spent at sea as well as other socio-economic indicators) when the necessary information becomes available for the entire European fishing fleet. The NDA represents a flexible tool that could be used at any geographical scale by adapting the final score and/or the numerical ranges of each descriptor.

Abstract
Three-dimensional virtual environments are present in many diffierent applications, being used even in small handheld devices. To navigate in these environments using such devices, most of current solutions rely on multi-touch interactions. However, previous works have already stated that multi-touch gestures on smartphones are not always feasible. In this work we present ThumbCam, a novel single-touch technique for camera manipulation on 3D virtual environments. With our solution, the user is able to move and look around and circle points of interest, while interacting using only his thumb. We compare ThumbCam with other state-of-the-art techniques, showing that it can offer more operations with a single touch. A qualitative user evaluation revealed that users found our solution appealing.

Abstract

Abstract
Industrial processes use energy to transform raw materials and intermediate goods into final products. Many efforts have been done on the minimization of energy costs in industrial plants. Apart from working on "how" an industrial process is implemented, it is possible to reduce the energy costs by focusing on "when" it is performed. Although, some manufacturing plants (e.g. refining or petrochemical plants) can be inflexible with respect to time due to interdependencies in processes that must be respected for performance and safety reasons, there are other industrial segments, such as alumina plants or discrete manufacturing, with more degrees of flexibility. These manufacturing plants can consider a more flexible scheduling of the most energy-intensive processes in response to dynamic prices and overall condition of the electricity market. In this scenario, requests for energy can be encoded by means of a formal structure called flex-offers, then aggregated (joining several flex-offers into a bigger one) and sent to the market, scheduled, disaggregated and transformed into consumption plans, and eventually, into production schedules for given industrial plant. In this paper, we describe the flex-offer concept and how it can be applied to industrial and home automation scenarios. The architecture proposed in this paper aims to be adaptable to multiples scenarios (industrial, home and building automation, etc.), thus providing the foundations for different concept implementations using multiple technologies or supporting various kinds of devices.