Abstract
This paper describes how Fuzzy Logic helped the representation and handling of equipment fault descriptions and diagnosis in a Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) system, in a way close to common spoken language, frequently vague, used by maintenance teams in daily maintenance tasks. These descriptions may be of two types as sometimes they contain a judgment based on the technician own know-how and sometimes they don't. For case similarity computation the "meaning" of these observations must be understood and all must be reduced to the same format before any further calculus may take place. In this context another important issue is relevance: the weight of each observation for each possible diagnosis is automatically captured by the CBR system according to the experiences it stores along its life-cycle. A prototype has been tested in the health-equipment maintenance field. The system acts as a know-how repository and a divulgation support, part Of an intelligent e-learning plafform for staff training,

Abstract

Abstract
The xenon secondary scintillation yield was studied as a function of the electric field in the scintillation region, in a gas proportional scintillation counter operated at room temperature. A large area avalanche photodiode was used for the readout of the VUV secondary scintillation produced in the gas, together with the 5.9 keV x-rays directly absorbed in the photodiode. The latter was used as a reference for the determination of the number of charge carriers produced by the scintillation pulse and, thus, the number of VUV photons impinging the photodiode. A value of 140 photons/kV was obtained for the scintillation amplification parameter. The attained results are in good agreement with those predicted, for room temperature, by Monte Carlo simulation and Boltzmann calculations, as well as with those obtained for saturated xenon vapour, at cryogenic temperatures, and are about a factor of two higher than former results measured at room temperature. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA.

Abstract
In this work we study a heat diffusion system on a fractional calculus perspective. Several fractional PID tuning methodologies are investigated and compared. The simulations demonstrate the good performance of the proposed fractional algorithm.

Abstract
This paper addresses the problem of position determination based on coherence of phases of a set of received sinusoidal acoustic waves. It describes an easily implementable test bed to assess the feasibility of carrier-phase-based differential ranging techiques for precise positioning applications in indoor environments. Futhermore, the use of a discrete set of frequencies fits the scope of using signals of opportunity, such as broadcast stations in RF. Acoustic waves are, themselves, relevant for positioning in specific environments, such as underwater. The main subject of the paper is the formulation and solution of the position determination goal as an n-dimensional integer optimization problem. This n-dimensional problem can be expressed as a weighted least-squares minimization problem with real and integer variables. The associated integer least-squares problem can be solved efficiently in practice as shown. This work is illustrated with some experimental data and a critical analysis of the obtained results.

Abstract
This paper underlines the necessity of developing a framework supported by methodologies and concepts that make it possible to provide instances of the network's global performance management system in collaborative networks, and to simultaneously lead to the necessary alignment of all participants. We propose a way to identify and suggest the requirements to develop a framework that can support a dynamic Performance Management System efficiently through a conceptual schema that enables the implementation.