2014 Joint IMEKO TC1–TC7–TC13 Symposium: Measurement Science Behind Safety and Security

The 2014 Joint IMEKO (International Measurement Confederation) TC1–TC7–TC13 Symposium was organized by RELACRE – Portuguese Association of Accredited Laboratories and the Portuguese Society for Metrology, on 3–5 September 2014. The work of this symposium is reported in this volume. The scope of the symposium includes the main topics covered by the above Technical Committees: – TC1 Education and Training in measurement and Instrumentation – TC7 Measurement Science – TC13 Measurements in Biology and Medicine The effort towards excellence of previous events, in this well established series, is maintained. There has been a special focus on measurement science behind safety and security, with the aim of highlighting the interdisciplinary character of measurement science and the importance of metrology in our daily lives. The discussion was introduced by keynote lectures on measurement challenges in biometrics, health monitoring and social sciences, to promote useful interactions with scientists from different disciplines. The Symposium was attended by experts working in these areas from 18 countries, including USA, Japan and China, and provided a useful forum for them to share and exchange their work and ideas. In total over fifty papers are included in the volume, organized according to the presentation sessions. Each paper was independently peer-reviewed by two reviewers from a distinguished international panel. The Symposium was held in Funchal, capital of Madeira Islands, known as the Atlantic Pearl. This wonderful Atlantic archipelago, formed by Madeira and Porto Santo islands, discovered in the 14th century, was chosen to host the 2014 IMEKO TC1–TC7–TC13 Joint Symposium ''Measurement Science behind Safety and Security''. It was the first territory discovered by the Portuguese sailors, when set out to discover a new world, in an epic journey where instrumentation and quality of measurement played a central role in the success of the enterprise, and gave an important technological edge to those men. A fortunate analogy to the advances sought by the research undertaken in the areas covered by this event. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Symposium Steering and International Programme Committees, many of whom acted as reviewers of the papers presented here under a very short timescale, as well as our partner, SPMet – Portuguese Society for Metrology. The editors hope that this volume will provide a useful contribution to enhancing the science, technology, education, and training in measurement and instrumentation. Joao A. Sousa, Alvaro S. Ribeiro and Eduarda Filipe Editors