Abstract
Electronic Health Records (EHR) are a collection of all individuals health data, in an electronic form, generated during relevant interactions with the healthcare system. The federated database systems provides intercommunication between different and autonomous data units, which enables sharing data. This paper aims to be a state-of-art on the requirements to take into account when developing a federated system. For that, we did a literature review on PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus and Google Scholar. Federated systems must ensure interoperability using open standards; guarantee the system value through high quality services; have modular architecture to allow developments, maintenance and evolutions, and finally, enable the "monotonic" systems with an incremental evolution. When developing these systems we have to avoid semantic, functional and instance conflicts to ensure the correct functionality. We concluded that federated systems are a good option in health's domain. They allow a high volume of data storage in healthcare that can be accessed in any place, at any time, by health professionals. Thus, we believe that federated systems are a tool to improve the quality and efficiency of health care.

Abstract
Peer-assessed online collaborative writing is of growing importance in recent research on higher education. Based on the analysis of quantitative and qualitative collected data, this paper presents the results of an exploratory case study in a graduate civil engineering course at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal. After an overall presentation of the activity, it examines students' attitudes towards online peer assessment and identifies which factors are related to students' use and appreciation of feedback. In addition, an analysis of the type of feedback is presented in an attempt to evaluate students' written communication skills. The results of this exploratory investigation provide indications on how to improve the design and implementation of future peer assessment tasks and raise questions on the involvement of peer/teacher grading in the use of feedback. © 2012 IEEE.

Abstract
VILA-CHA, C., D. FALLA, M. V. CORREIA, and D. FARINA. Adjustments in Motor Unit Properties during Fatiguing Contractions after Training. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 616-624, 2012. Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of strength and endurance training on muscle fiber membrane properties and discharge rates of low-threshold motor units of the vasti muscles during fatiguing contractions. Methods: Twenty-five sedentary healthy men (age (mean +/- SD) = 26.3 +/- 3.9 yr) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: strength training, endurance training, or a control group. Conventional endurance and strength training was performed 3 d.wk(-1), during a period of 6 wk. Motor unit conduction velocity and EMG amplitude of the vastus medialis obliquus and lateralis muscles and biceps lemons were measured during sustained isometric knee extensions at 10% and 30% of the maximum voluntary contraction before and immediately after training. Results: After 6 wk of training, the reduction in motor unit conduction velocity during the sustained contractions at 30% of the maximum voluntary force occurred at slower rates compared with baseline (P < 0.05). However, the rate of decrease was lower after endurance training compared with strength training (P < 0.01). For all groups, motor unit discharge rates declined during the sustained contraction (P < 0.001), and their trend was not altered by training. In addition, the biceps femoris-vasti coactivation ratio declined after the endurance training. Conclusions: Short-term strength and endurance training induces alterations of the electrophysiological membrane properties of the muscle fiber. In particular, endurance training lowers the rate of decline of motor unit conduction velocity during sustained contractions more than strength training.

Abstract
Due to the increase in annual electricity consumption occurring in Portugal and the rising price of fossil fuels, it is imperative to diversificate the energy sources available. The Portuguese investment in renewable energies has increased significantly in the past few years, especially in wind energy. Renewable energies are intermittent and dependent on weather conditions, so fossil fuels are still an important part of the Portuguese energy mix, but with tendency to decrease in the future. In this paper, the nuclear option has been considered alongside the renewable energies increase to reduce fossil fuels dependency, envisaging several plausible scenarios for fuel prices, installed capacity and investment costs.

Abstract

Abstract
Epidemiological spreading does not only happen from person to neighbouring person but often over wide distances, when infected but asymptomatic persons travel and carry infection to others over wide distances. Superdiffusion has been suggested to model such spreading in spatially restriced contact networks, i.e. there is still a notion of geographical distance, but spreading happens with high probability proportional to large distances. From fractional calculus several ways of describing superdiffusion are know. Here we investigate the representation in Fourier space and which is easily generalizable to higher dimensional space in order to compare with stochastic models of epidemiological spreading.