Abstract
Simulation is a very useful tool to gather new information about an implemented model, because it can run artificial environments instead of putting in risk some entities that are influenced in the real process. The simulation of physical, chemical and biological processes in coastal ecosystems is used as a way to understand the system internal dynamics and to predict its evolution over time, in order to promote behaviors environmentally friendly and to induce effective and efficient management of the ecosystem as a whole. However, there are several ways of translating and interpreting the data provided by the simulation such as applying appropriate data mining models. This paper describes an approach that uses a Decision Tree model to produce intuitive information about the influence of several environmental variables on the growth conditions of bivalve species within an aquaculture exploration in a coastal ecosystem. This information is captured by relating the values of simulated variables, like water temperature or organic matter, with the length of the bivalve's shell, extrapolating information about the organic or physical conditions that increase or decrease the growth of the bivalve species, and guiding the stakeholders to locations for the best practice of the seeding process.

Abstract
This document introduces ECOLANG, a communication language used for simulations of complex ecological systems. The language was developed with the main purpose of interchanging information between a simulation application of aquatic ecosystems (EcoDynamo) and several external agents. These agents have some goals about the simulation results or the simulated system. Examples of the former may be a calibration agent, with the goal of optimising the fit between observed and simulated results, whereas an example of the latter may be an aquaculture/farming agent, looking for production optimisation. This document focus on messages exchanged between EcoDynamo and the two mentioned agents providing examples of the communication protocol. This work is part of a larger project, where ECOLANG will be used as a tool for "goal-oriented intelligent simulations", towards sustainable management of coastal ecosystems.

Abstract
Software packages for educational purposes are increasingly important for classroom use, because they are a valuable way to motivate learning. However, the resources available on the market, with the designation of educational software, often have dubious quality. This led the authors to reflect on the process of evaluating the quality of a given educational software and develop tools that allow to measure its quality. This paper presents the results of the technical (software) and educational (guidelines for the didactic exploration) evaluation of Courseware Sere - The Human Being and Natural Resources - made by students of 2nd cycle of basic education (10 to 12 year old). The results indicate that the resource is easy to use, even for students who do not regularly use computers. It can also be concluded that the evaluation of educational resources, made by end-users, allows to correct issues related to usability (navigation and interaction), and to ensure the adequacy of resource to the target levels of education.

Abstract
A structured vocabulary of terms, such as a textual thesaurus, provides a way to conceptually describe visual information. The retrieval model described in this paper combines a conceptual and a visual layer as a first step towards the integration of ontologies and content-based image retrieval. Terms are related with image regions through a weighted association. This model allows the execution of concept-level queries, fulfilling user expectations and reducing the so-called semantic gap. Region-based relevance feedback is used to improve the quality of results in each query session and to help in the discovery of associations between text and image. The learning mechanism, whose function is to discover existing term-region associations, is based on a clustering algorithm applied over the features space and on propagation functions, which acts in each cluster where new information is available from user interaction. This approach is validated with the presentation of promising results obtained using the VOIR - Visual Object Information Retrieval system.

Abstract
In this paper we are proposing an approach for coordinating a team of homogeneous agents based on a flexible common Team Strategy as well as on the concepts of Situation Based Strategic Positioning and Dynamic Positioning and Role Exchange. We also introduce an Agent Architecture including a specific high-level decision module capable of implementing this strategy. Our proposal is based on the formalization of what is a team strategy for competing with an opponent team having opposite goals. A team strategy is composed of a set of agent types and a set of tactics, which are also composed of several formations. Formations are used for different situations and assign each agent a default spatial positioning and an agent type (defining its behaviour at several levels). Agent's reactivity is also introduced for appropriate response to the dynamics of the current situation. However, in our approach this is done in a way that preserves team coherence instead of permitting uncoordinated agent behaviour. We have applied, with success, this coordination approach to the RoboSoccer simulated domain. The FC Portugal team, developed using this approach won the RoboCup2000 (simulation league) European and World championships scoring a total of 180 goals and conceding none. © 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Abstract
FC Portugal is a cooperation project between the Universities of Aveiro and Porto in Portugal. FC Portugal 2001 is our second step towards the creation of a flexible RoboSoccer team, with tactical changing abilities, that may be coached at any level, before and during the games, by human or automatic coaches. Although having the best goal average in the competition (scoring 150 goals in 13 games), the team was not able to score against the good defenses of Tsinghuaeolus and Brainstomers and finished third in RoboCup 2001. © 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.