Abstract
This work describes the implementation of an optical fiber interferometric system for differential thermal analysis. The system is based on a white light Mach-Zehnder configuration, with serrodyne phase modulation, to interrogate two identical fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) in a differential scheme. Operation and signal processing with low cost digital instrumentation developed in Labview environment enabled FBG temperature measurement with a +/- 0.012 degrees C resolution nearly matching the performance of standard hardware. Preliminary results were obtained, where mixed samples of acetone and methanol could be successfully identified, indicating the suitability of the system for high accuracy differential thermal analysis using low cost instrumentation.

Abstract
In recent years various methods from the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have been applied to economic problems. The subarea of multiagent systems (MAS) is particularly useful as it enables to simulate individuals or organizations and various interactions among them. In this paper we investigate a scenario with a set of agents, each belonging to a certain sector of activity (e.g. agriculture, clothing, health sector etc.). The agents produce, consume goods or services in their area of activity. Besides, our model includes also the resource of free time. The goods and resources are exchanged on a market governed by auction, which determines the prices of all goods. We discuss the problem of developing an adaptive producer that exploits reward-based learning. This facet enables the agent to exploit previous information gathered and adapt its production to the current conditions. We describe a set of experiments that show how such information can be gathered and explored in decision making. Besides, we describe a scheme that we plan to adopt in a full-fledged experiments in near future.

Abstract
We present new results on the performance of Minimum Error Entropy (MEE) decision trees, which use a novel node split criterion. The results were obtained in a comparive study with popular alternative algorithms, on 42 real world datasets. Carefull validation and statistical methods were used. The evidence gathered from this body of results show that the error performance of MEE trees compares well with alternative algorithms. An important aspect to emphasize is that MEE trees generalize better on average without sacrifing error performance.

Abstract
Nowadays, tourism entities seek to promote their regions in a more aggressive strategy, offering a large diversity of services delivering personalized solutions in order to comply with a broader range of tourists. Furthermore, mobile computing offers new capabilities that facilitate the development of new services based on the location of the user and the users' profile. Thus, mobile computing systems are undergoing changes to support tasks related to advertising and marketing of goods and services. This paper presents a generic solution for the delivery of new services, advertising and marketing for the tourism sector to take advantage of the spatial context of the user - Mobile Advertising. The practical implementation of the suggested methodology is focused on the Tourism Region of Douro, in Portugal.

Abstract
A fiber optic FBG cladding modes based sensor, for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature is presented. The FBG cladding modes are efficiently excited by the large core misalignment. This technique enables the possibility to readout simultaneously in reflection the cladding mode (lambda(cl)) and the core mode (lambda(co)). lambda(cl), lambda(co) depend on strain and temperature and show different sensibilities for each parameter, enabling their discrimination. The experimental result shows a good performance in terms of linearity and sensitivity.

Abstract
We present and numerically characterize a surface-plasmon-resonance sensor based on an H-shaped optical fiber. In our design, the two U-shaped grooves of the H-fiber are first coated with a thin gold layer and then covered by a uniform titanium dioxide layer to facilitate spectral tuning of the device. A finite element method analysis of the sensor indicates that a refractive-index resolution of up to 5.10(3) nm/RIU can be obtained. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America