Analysis of a class of boundary value problems depending on left and right Caputo fractional derivatives

In this work we study boundary value problems associated to a nonlinear fractional ordinary differential equation involving left and right Caputo derivatives. We discuss the regularity of the solutions of such problems and, in particular, give precise necessary conditions so that the solutions are C1([0, 1]). Taking into account our analytical results, we address the numerical solution of those problems by the augmented-RBF method. Several examples illustrate the good performance of the numerical method.P.A. is partially supported by FCT, Portugal, through the program “Investigador FCT” with reference IF/00177/2013 and the scientific projects PEstOE/MAT/UI0208/2013 and PTDC/MAT-CAL/4334/2014. R.F. was supported by the “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)” through the program “Investigador FCT” with reference IF/01345/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Structural health monitoring of different geometry structures with optical fiber sensors

In this paper, we describe the structural health monitoring of several structures, with different geometry, materials and behaviors, using optical fiber sensors. Those studies aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of such technologies in structural health monitoring, with all the advantages inherent to the optical fiber technology

Multi-Criteria versus Data Envelopment Analysis for Assessing the Performance of Biogas Plants

This paper compares multi-criteria decision aiding (MCDA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches for assessing renewable energy plants, in order to determine their performance in terms of economic, environmental, and social criteria and indicators. The case is for a dataset of 41 agricultural biogas plants in Austria using anaerobic digestion. The results indicate that MCDA constitutes an insightful approach, to be used alternatively or in a complementary way to DEA, namely in situations requiring a meaningful expression of managerial preferences regarding the relative importance of evaluation aspects to be considered in performance assessment.Multi-criteria decision analysis; DEA; Renewable energy; Biogas

Absence of Gluonic Components in Axial and Tensor Mesons

A quarkonium-gluonium mixing scheme previously developed to describe the characteristic of the pseudoscalar mesons is applied to axial and tensor mesons. The parameters of the model are determined by fitting the eigenvalues of a mass matrix. The corresponding eigenvectors give the proportion of light quarks, strange quarks and glueball in each meson. However the predictions of the model for branching ratios and electromagnetic decays are incompatible with the experimental results. These results suggest the absence of gluonic components in the states of axial and tensor isosinglet mesons analyzed here.Comment: 12 page

Employment of artificial intelligence mechanisms for e-Health systems in order to obtain vital signs improving the processes of online consultations and diagnosis

A large number of web-based e-Health applications have been developed through time, allowing doctors to access different types of functionalities, like knowing which medication the patient has consumed or performing online consultations. Internet systems for healthcare can be improved by using artificial intelligence mechanisms for the process of detecting diseases and obtaining biological data, allowing medical professionals to have important information that facilitates the diagnosis process and the choice of the correct treatment for each particular person. The proposed research work aims to present an innovative approach when compared to traditional platforms, by providing online vital signs in real time and allowing the visualization of all historical data of a patient. It aims to defend the concept of promoting online consultations, providing complementary functionalities to the traditional methods for performing medical diagnoses through the use of software engineering practices. This investigation led to the conclusion that, in the future, many medical processes will most likely be done online, where this practice is considered extremely helpful for the analysis and treatment of contagious diseases, or cases that require constant monitoring.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio