Abstract
Understanding how users will respond to new in-vehicle technologies can be a crucial factor in the success of future Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) implementations. This study's main goal was to evaluate the social acceptability of different ITS that varied in the control and monitoring levels over vehicle parameters and driver's performance and to describe the most common socio-psychological factors that influence ITS acceptability. We developed a novel ITS acceptability measure, composed by a 51-item questionnaire. The participants had generally high levels of acceptability, independently of the ITS control level over driver's performance. However ITS that exerted more control were regarded as more efficient. We also found gender differences, especially in a "Personal and Social Aims" dimension. Age is positively correlated with participants score on the acceptability index, while education level is showing an opposite tendency. Finally, and critical to ITS development, controlling the car velocity is evaluated as the least preferable ITS feature. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Abstract
Typical sensor networks are formed by low-end, battery operated devices, which rely on low-energy communication technologies, such as Bluetooth, Zigbee and ANT+, due to their energy efficiency. On the other hand, sensor networks increasingly need to be connected to the Internet, which implies adaptations of the TCP/IP stack to fit such wireless technologies. These adaptations bring additional complexity and imply new hardware, thus deployments are cumbersome and sub-optimal. Conversely, Wi-Fi is ubiquitous, can be seamlessly integrated with TCP/IP, and is energy-efficient with the right configurations; yet, its usage is still uncommon in e-health scenarios. For these reasons, we argue that a TCP/IP over Wi-Fi approach should be followed in e-health sensor networks. We propose a novel cross-layer, context-aware network configuration mechanism, which monitors the user and networking contexts and optimizes the configuration of the TCP/IP protocol stack accordingly. Our approach enables seamless integration between e-health wireless sensor networks and the TCP/IP backbone, while improving energy efficiency and reliability. © 2013 IEEE.

Abstract
We present a collision-free jammer selection policy for enhanced wireless secrecy. Jammers, selected from the neighbors of a source, are friendly in the sense that they are willing to help the source to transmit securely by causing interference/collisions to possible eavesdroppers. The proposed jammer selection policy results in the selection of the largest number of jammers that do not cause collisions among themselves. This enables jammers to assist the source to transmit securely by causing interference to eavesdroppers, while sending their own traffic into the network. © 2013 IEEE.

Abstract
This paper proposes two extensions of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (DPSO), respectively denoted as RPSO (Robotic PSO) and RDPSO (Robotic DPSO), so as to adapt these promising biologically inspired techniques to the multi-robot systems domain, by considering obstacle avoidance and communication constraints. The concepts of social exclusion and social inclusion are used in the RDPSO algorithm as a 'punish-reward' mechanism, thus enhancing the ability to escape from local optima. Experimental results obtained in a simulated environment shows the superiority of the RDPSO evidencing that sociobiological inspiration can be useful to meet the challenges of robotic applications that can be described as optimization problems (e.g. search and rescue). Moreover, the performance of the RDPSO is further evaluated within a population of up to 12 physical robots under communication constraints. Experimental results with real platforms show that only 4 robots are needed to accomplish the herein proposed mission and, independently on the number of robots and maximum communication distance, the global optimum is achieved in approximately 90% of the experiments.

Abstract
This paper proposes the concepts of sliding mode schemes for fault tolerant control. The theoretical ideas developed in the paper were applied to a multi-motor electric vehicle (EV). To address this problem, we started by revisiting the modeling of vehicle dynamics focusing on nonlinear single-track model. The vehicle response to external perturbation forces, which are generated by unbalanced right and left traction forces due to malfunctions in motor drive, is described using the transfer functions analysis. The designing of a sliding mode controller for handling faults is described. The proposed scheme shows that certain motor drive failures can be handled directly without reconfiguring the controller. Simulation results obtained with CarSim vehicle model show the effectiveness of the fault tolerant control in various driving scenarios.

Abstract
Models for exogenous coordination provide powerful glue-code, in the form of software connectors, to express interaction protocols between services in distributed applications. Connector reconfiguration mechanisms play, in this setting, a major role to deal with change and adaptation of interaction protocols. This paper introduces a model for connector reconfiguration, based on a collection of primitives as well as a language to specify connectors and their reconfigurations. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.