Abstract
Despite the benefits of precision agriculture and precision viticulture production systems, its rate of adoption in the Portuguese Douro Demarcated Region remains low. We believe that one way to raise it is to address challenging real-world problems whose solution offers a clear benefit to the viticulturist. For example, one of the most demanding tasks in wine making is harvesting. Even for humans, the environment makes grape detection difficult, especially when the grapes and leaves have a similar color, which is generally the case for white grapes. In this paper, we propose a system for the detection and location, in the natural environment, of bunches of grapes in color images. This system is able to distinguish between white and red grapes, and at the same time, it calculates the location of the bunch stem. The system achieved 97% and 91% correct classifications for red and white grapes, respectively.

Abstract
This paper describes a business and technological model proposal, known as Inov@Douro, intended to support and to promote competitive and sustained precision agriculture practices in the Portuguese Douro Region. Our approach is based on a distributed cooperative network, tailored 10 meet the specific needs of viticulture enterprises which also explore tourism as a valuable national and international business source. Instead of focusing on operational issues, such as remote sensing and data transmission, among others, we present the Inov@Douro model from the knowledge generation point-of-view, intended to support the multidisciplinary concept of a cooperation approach among regional partners. As a result, this collaborative approach might be the most suited technological tool to promote precision agriculture sustainability practices based on a symbiotic cooperation with the tourism sector. The Inov@Douro model aims to represent a new working style for this unique region, where the concept of public and private information is a key feature to achieve the desired success as a knowledge network. As a guideline to attain the implementation of such a model. information technology and infrastructures tools are discussed in order to promote precision agriculture practices while giving valuable and dynamic tourist information to the general public.

Abstract
Stating that information and services are ubiquitous, means that they are available anywhere, anytime. The development of mobile-devices with wireless network-access capabilities, together with the decrease in network-traffic costs and the proliferation of free wireless hotspots, makes the use of mobile-devices, as Internet access tools, increasingly common and attractive. With novel forms of presenting information and to provide new ways to interact with consumers, new business strategies can be boosted, in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and m-commerce. This paper describes a different approach to the relationship between customers and business-providers, based on contextualization mechanisms located in commercial products, which in turn acts as a gateway to static tag-embedded information as well as web-based information and services. A wine integrated management system, called SIGPV, is presented as a proof-of-concept, enumerating some of possible major business and CRM benefits. © 2010 Universidad de Talca - Chile.

Abstract
The academic performance and social competence of a child in school is positively associated with the involvement of their parents. However, the researches about educational learning models often ignore the parents' part. Internet opens a new paradigm: education and communication approach is more complex than ever. Here, we would like to present an Internet based system to support students' homework. We believe that one of the major advantages of our system is time saving, particularly from the teacher's point of view. Also, this system gathers statistical data concerning different groups of students selected by the teacher. From these data on, the teacher can easily see where the students are having problems and decide what to do next. From the student (or parent) point of view, the prompt feedback about the exercises correctness, added to the training with different exercises sets about the same subject, besides the utilization of video, color, sound, etc., that positively reinforce child's senses, are elected as the main advantages. © 2011 IEEE.

Abstract
Technology has profoundly changed the way we learn and live. Indeed, such relationship appears to be quite complex, within IT contexts, and especially in socially and technologically rich learning environments, where related skills and learning are progressively required and fostered. Thus, if a satisfactory level of intellectual performance and social competence of a primary school pupil is indeed highly dependent on the type of participation that parents offer their children, IT, in general, and Internet, in particular, may well provide a new paradigm, setting forth that education and communication approach is truly more complex than ever before. It is on the basis of such paradigm that we therefore present a case study where a set of multimedia exercises were used in order to possibly improve the mathematical skills of pupils, one with mental retardation and another with cerebral palsy. Being part of a Web-based system to support students' learning, the referred set of multimedia exercises proved to be the children's favorite, rather than exercises in paper form, which also led the children to show a fair more positive attitude towards learning. Also, we observed that through the mentioned multimedia exercises, the children became far more autonomous, interested, persistent, happy, and able to easily absorb the material as well as more willingly to continue on working.

Abstract
In this paper the first steps for the derivation of a mathematical model to describe the mechanical behaviour of a cylindrical electromagnetic vibration energy harvester, designed to extract energy from human gait to power biomedical implantable devices, are provided. As it is usual, in the modelling of such devices, the proposed mechanical model is also based on the solution of Newton's second law, but here a nonlinear closed-form expression is used for the resulting magnetic force of the system, unlike what has been done in previous works where, traditionally, that expression is a linear or is a nonlinear approximation of the real one. The main feature of this mechanical model is that it depends on several parameters which are related to the main characteristics of this kind of devices, which constitutes a major advantage with respect to the usual models available in the literature since these characteristics can always be changed in order to optimize the device. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.