Abstract
A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) reflects, as a concept, the combination of the set of tools that we use around internet, helping to perceive what we are and what we learn. PLEs are able to bring together all learning experiences acquired in different contexts and mix those experiences in order to reflect ones knowledge. This paper aims at analyzing and exploring the advantages of a PLE, focusing specially on the use of ePortfolios in this context, by considering different approaches and exploring the relationship between the development of an e-portfolio and the students learning styles and multiple intelligences. This focus results from our perception that being aware of the students learning preferences is essential to enhance the quality of the teaching-learning environment, developing different kinds of activities and using different learning tools. In order to understand if and how those concepts (ePortfolios, learning styles and multiple intelligences) are related and to develop some understanding on an approach to correlate them, we have used some assessment tools and applied them in a case study in the area of translation and terminology leaning. The study, briefly described in this paper, has been a well succeeded one. However, we expect to foster further knowledge on the factors that should be changed during the teaching-learning process, by detecting and suggesting improvements. For that we will also reflect on what should be done to achieve better results when using ePortfolios, and consider other tools and approaches to enhance this process, such as social networks

Abstract

Abstract
This paper describes an integrated application that performs a geostatistical analysis of data acquired by an AUV in monitoring missions to sewage outfalls. This comes as an effort for automating the procedures of a monitoring campaign from data acquisition to data processing. This application is based on the R statistical software and uses the Gstat package for the geostatistical prediction. R is a console based application that uses software packages developed by the community. The application interfaces with R guiding the user through several steps that perform the geostatistical analysis. It was not our intention to cover all geostatistical procedures but only the ones that are needed for the data processing concerned. The major advantage of this application is that the user does not need to be familiar with methods and data structures associated with the base software, allowing the processing and analysis to be more simple, fast and efficient which is particularly important for routine monitoring. This software application also enables us to give a quicker response in case of contamination to near-by beaches.

Abstract
This paper describes an integrated application that automates the procedure for sea outfall discharges data acquisition with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Since most applications for this type of technology are research related, the used software tends to be more technical, oriented for engineers. This fact, allied with the bad sea conditions usually encountered at the portuguese coast, cause the mission execution to be extremely difficult at times. Before starting operating the AUV, a wide range of operations must be completed: we need to get data to estimate plume position, calculate mission path, transfer the AUV and acoustic buoys to the water, test communications and configure a variety of systems. So clearly there is a need to develop an application that fully automates a monitoring mission, allowing the operator with little to no experience to conclude it efficiently. Ultimately, by automating the procedure, there is the possibility of expanding the use of AUV's across several fields of study since no prior knowledge about the its systems is required. In summary this guides the user through a series of tasks and provides visual and audio information.

Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to examine the applicability of geostatistical modeling to obtain valuable information for assessing the environmental impact of sewage outfall discharges. The data set used was obtained in a monitoring campaign to S. Jacinto outfall, located off the Portuguese west coast near Aveiro region, using an AUV. The Matheron's classical estimator was used the compute the experimental semivariogram, which was fitted to three theoretical models: spherical, exponential and Gaussian. The cross-validation procedure suggested the best semivariogram model and ordinary kriging was used to obtain the predictions of salinity at unknown locations. The generated map shows clearly the plume dispersion in the studied area, indicating that the effluent does not reach the nearby beaches. Our study suggests that an optimal design for the AUV sampling trajectory from a geostatistical prediction point of view, can help to compute more precise predictions and hence to quantify more accurately dilution. Moreover, since accurate measurements of plume's dilution are rare, these studies might be very helpful in the future for validation of dispersion models.

Abstract
Numerical study is provided of the methods for solving the facility location problem when the clients choose some suppliers by their own preferences. Various formulations of this problem as an integer linear programming problem are considered. The authors implement a cutting plane method based on the earlier proposed family of valid inequalities which arises from connection with the problem for a pair of matrices. The results of numerical experiment are presented for testing this method. An optimal solution is obtained by the two versions of the branch and cut method with the suggested cutting plane method. The simulated annealing method is proposed for obtaining the upper bounds of the optimal solution used in exact methods. Numerical experiment approves the efficiency of the implemented approach in comparison with the previously available methods. © 2010 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.