Abstract
Results of self-potential, seismic reflection and refraction, Infrared spectroscopy, ion chromatography and IR thermography survey performed over a Portuguese artistic tomb made of a porous limestone are presented. The tomb presents nowadays severe decay phenomena. The decay products associated to the decay patterns observed are mainly related with the presence of salts, namely nitrates and secondarily of chlorides. The self-potential and the thermography survey allowed verifying that moisture degrees change in different side walls of the tomb. The seismic methods showed there is no clear interface between undamaged and damaged stone material where the limestone is soft and the strength is slightly lower in the most humid zones.

Abstract
This paper presents an analytical approach for the evaluation of multi-user safety critical systems presenting a failure delayed behavior pattern. As a consequence of a failure event, the performance of these systems worsens progressively due to the internal fault tolerance mechanisms or the complacency of the users regarding the temporary unavailability of the services. A distinctive feature of the approach is the ability to handle stochastic models containing multiple processes with generalized distributions. The approach is based on the determination of analytical expressions to measure reliability, for instance, frequency and probability of failure states, which may be evaluated using general purpose mathematical tools. The paper first reviews other well-established techniques employed in the assessment of non-Markovian systems, particularly those based on stochastic Petri nets. The rationale of the new approach and its fundamental algorithms are presented together with a set of illustrative examples which highlight the strengths of the approach, as well as its limitations. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract
The goal of the OPTIM project is to optimize the graphical user interface of an electronic health record (EHR) by predicting clinical documents' relevance and provide a ranked list of relevant documents for the given user at a certain time. This paper describes the architecture of the relevance assignment and ranking prototype and some implementation issues. The prototype's design is based on two components: OPTIM Core, with logical representation, estimation server's integration and the webservice layer, and the OPTIM WebUI, with the user interface for presenting the results. The prototype was tested in integration with an EHR using a simulated environment. The results were encouraging but yet they revealed a certain lack of security (confidentiality). It has now the capacity of rating 10 documents per second. Nonetheless, the integration of features such as rating clinical relevance based on mathematical models can be included in existing EHR potentially improving their usability.

Abstract
Geostatistics has been successfully used to analyse and characterize the spatial variability of environmental properties. Besides providing estimated values at unsampled locations, geostatistics measures the accuracy of the estimate, which is a significant advantage over traditional methods used to assess pollution. This work uses universal block kriging to model and map the spatial distribution of salinity measurements gathered by an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle in a sea outfall monitoring campaign. The aim is to distinguish the effluent plume from the receiving waters, characterizing its spatial variability in the vicinity of the discharge and estimating dilution. The results demonstrate that geostatistical methodology can provide good estimates of the dispersion of effluents, which are valuable in assessing the environmental impact and managing sea outfalls. Moreover, since accurate measurements of the plume's dilution are rare, these studies may be very helpful in the future to validate dispersion models.

Abstract
One line of research and development in robotics receiving increasing attention in recent years is the development of biologically inspired robots. The idea is to gain knowledge of biological beings and apply the knowledge thus acquired to implement the same methods of locomotion (or at least use the biological inspiration) on the machines we build. It is believed that this way it is possible to develop machines with capabilities similar to those of biological beings in terms of locomotion skills and energy efficiency. One way to better understand the functioning of these systems, without the need to develop prototypes with long and costly development, is to use simulation models. Given these ideas, this work concerns the study of the biomechanics of the spider crab, using the SimMechanics toolbox of Matlab/Simulink. This paper describes the anatomy and locomotion of the spider crab, its modeling and control and the locomotion simulation of a crab within the SimMechanics environment.

Abstract
Throughout an academic year, in every Educational Institution, a considerable number of days and human resources are spent trying to manually perform a task that can be automated and optimized - the creation of timetables. In a time where the need to reduce costs has become part of the day to day reality of all Educational Institutions, it is unthinkable to continue working with this kind of approach. The automatic creation of timetables for Education is one of the most studied problems by the scientific community. However, almost all studies have been based on very simplified models of reality, not having thus a practical application. This paper presents an automated and optimized generator of timetables and the results obtained with its use under real conditions.