Abstract
The technique to realize 3D position sensitivity in a two-phase xenon time projection chamber (XeTPC) is described. Results from a prototype detector (XENON3) are presented.

Abstract
This paper analyzes the problem of short-term operational planning of thermoelectric power systems with environmental constraints. The growing worldwide environmental concern to limit emission of greenhouse gases led to the Kyoto Protocol, introducing new constraints in the operation of thermoelectric power systems. The traditional tools that aid decision making must be adapted to this new framework. The problem consist of deciding the commitment of the units and the optimal generation profile for each thermal unit committed throughout the time horizon. For its solution, an optimization method based on dynamic programming and non-linear programming is considered, building a new decision support system in Fortran language which simultaneously considers fuel costs and emissions. The results of the computational simulation applied to a practical case are show and discussed. © 2007 Centro de Información Tecnológica.

Abstract
The XENON experiment aims at the direct detection of dark matter in the form of WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) via their elastic scattering off Xenon nuclei. With 1 ton of LXe distributed in ten identical modules, the proposed XENON1T experiment will achieve a sensitivity more than a factor of thousand beyond current limits. The detectors are time projection chambers operated in dual (liquid/gas) phase, to detect simultaneously the ionization, through secondary scintillation in the gas, and primary scintillation in the liquid produced by low energy recoils. We review some of the results from the prototype XENON3 detector and briefly discuss about the status of current XENON10 at Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy.

Abstract
The quest for sound foundations for the orchestration of web services is still open. To a great extent its relevance comes from the possibility of defining formal semantics for new language standards (like BPEL4WS or WS-CDL) in this emerging and challenging technology. As a step in that direction, this paper resorts to a notion of configuration, developed by the authors in the context of a Reo-like exogenous coordination model for software components, to formally express service orchestration. The latter is regarded as involving both the architectural assembly of independent services and the description of their interactions.

Abstract
Composing and orchestrating software components is a fundamental concern in modern software engineering. This paper addresses the possibility of such orchestration being dynamic, in the sense that the structure of component's interconnection patterns can change at run-time. The envisaged approach extends previous work by the authors on the use of coalgebraic models for the specification of software connectors.

Abstract
Speedup in distributed executions of Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) applications are directed related to a good constraint partitioning algorithm. In this work we study different mechanisms to distribute constraints to processors based on straightforward mechanisms such as Round-Robin and Block distribution, and on a more sophisticated automatic distribution method, Grouping-Sink, that takes into account the connectivity of the constraint network graph. This aims at reducing the communication overhead in distributed environments. Our results show that Grouping-Sink is, in general, the best alternative for partitioning constraints as it produces results as good or better than Round-Robin or Blocks with low communication rate.