Prevalent types of data in scientific visualization are volumetric data, vector field data, and particle-based data. Particle data typically originates from measurements and simulations in various fields, such as life sciences or physics. The particles are often visualized directly, that is, by simple representants like spheres. Interactive rendering facilitates the exploration and visual analysis of the data. With increasing data set sizes in terms of particle numbers, interactive high-quality visualization is a challenging task. This is especially true for dynamic data or abstract representations that are based on the raw particle data. This book covers direct particle visualization using simple glyphs as well as abstractions that are application-driven such as clustering and aggregation. It targets visualization researchers and developers who are interested in visualization techniques for large, dynamic particle-based data. Its explanations focus on GPU-accelerated algorithms for high-performance rendering and data processing that run in real-time on modern desktop hardware. Consequently, the implementation of said algorithms and the required data structures to make use of the capabilities of modern graphics APIs are discussed in detail. Furthermore, it covers GPU-accelerated methods for the generation of application-dependent abstract representations. This includes various representations commonly used in application areas such as structural biology, systems biology, thermodynamics, and astrophysics.

The volume is a collection of high-quality peer-reviewed research papers presented in the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Evolutionary Computation in Engineering Systems (ICAIECES 2016) held at SRM University, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. This conference is an international forum for industry professionals and researchers to deliberate and state their research findings, discuss the latest advancements and explore the future directions in the emerging areas of engineering and technology. The book presents original work and novel ideas, information, techniques and applications in the field of communication, computing and power technologies.

This, the 28th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains extended and revised versions of six papers presented at the 26th International Conference on Database- and Expert-Systems Applications, DEXA 2015, held in Valencia, Spain, in September 2015. Topics covered include efficient graph processing, machine learning on big data, multistore big data integration, ontology matching, and the optimization of histograms for the Semantic Web.

The recent pursuits emerging in the realm of big data processing, interpretation, collection and organization have emerged in numerous sectors including business, industry and government organizations. Data sets such as customer transactions for a mega-retailer, weather monitoring, intelligence gathering, quickly outpace the capacities of traditional techniques and tools of data analysis. The 3V (volume, variability and velocity) challenges led to the emergence of new techniques and tools in data visualization, acquisition, and serialization. Soft Computing being regarded as a plethora of technologies of fuzzy sets (or Granular Computing), neurocomputing and evolutionary optimization brings forward a number of unique features that might be instrumental to the development of concepts and algorithms to deal with big data. This carefully edited volume provides the reader with an updated, in-depth material on the emerging principles, conceptual underpinnings, algorithms and practice of Computational Intelligence in the realization of concepts and implementation of big data architectures, analysis, and interpretation as well as data analytics. The book is aimed at a broad audience of researchers and practitioners including those active in various disciplines in which big data, their analysis and optimization are of genuine relevance. One focal point is the systematic exposure of the concepts, design methodology, and detailed algorithms. In general, the volume adheres to the top-down strategy starting with the concepts and motivation and then proceeding with the detailed design that materializes in specific algorithms and representative applications. The material is self-contained and provides the reader with all necessary prerequisites and augments some parts with a step-by-step explanation of more advanced concepts supported by a significant amount of illustrative numeric material and some application scenarios to motivate the reader and make some abstract concepts more tangible.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Soft Computing in Data Science, SCDS 2016, held in Putrajaya, Malaysia, in September 2016. The 27 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 66 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on artificial neural networks; classification, clustering, visualization; fuzzy logic; information and sentiment analytics.

This volume addresses the emerging area of human computation, The chapters, written by leading international researchers, explore existing and future opportunities to combine the respective strengths of both humans and machines in order to create powerful problem-solving capabilities. The book bridges scientific communities, capturing and integrating the unique perspective and achievements of each. It coalesces contributions from industry and across related disciplines in order to motivate, define, and anticipate the future of this exciting new frontier in science and cultural evolution. Readers can expect to find valuable contributions covering Foundations; Application Domains; Techniques and Modalities; Infrastructure and Architecture; Algorithms; Participation; Analysis; Policy and Security and the Impact of Human Computation. Researchers and professionals will find the Handbook of Human Computation a valuable reference tool. The breadth of content also provides a thorough foundation for students of the field.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17 International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning, IDEAL 2016, held in Yangzhou, China, in October 2016. The 68 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 115 submissions. They provide a valuable and timely sample of latest research outcomes in data engineering and automated learning ranging from methodologies, frameworks, and techniques to applications including various topics such as evolutionary algorithms; deep learning; neural networks; probabilistic modeling; particle swarm intelligence; big data analysis; applications in regression, classification, clustering, medical and biological modeling and predication; text processing and image analysis.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Advances in Computing and Data Sciences, ICACDS 2016, held in Ghaziabad, India, in November 2016. The 64 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 502 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on Advanced Computing; Communications; Informatics; Internet of Things; Data Sciences.

A Comprehensive Study of SQL - Practice and Implementation is designed as a textbook and provides a comprehensive approach to SQL (Structured Query Language), the standard programming language for defining, organizing, and exploring data in relational databases. It demonstrates how to leverage the two most vital tools for data query and analysis - SQL and Excel - to perform comprehensive data analysis without the need for a sophisticated and expensive data mining tool or application. Features The book provides a complete collection of modeling techniques, beginning with fundamentals and gradually progressing through increasingly complex real-world case studies It explains how to build, populate, and administer high-performance databases and develop robust SQL-based applications It also gives a solid foundation in best practices and relational theory The book offers self-contained lessons on key SQL concepts or techniques at the end of each chapter using numerous illustrations and annotated examples This book is aimed primarily at advanced undergraduates and graduates with a background in computer science and information technology. Researchers and professionals will also find this book useful.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Algorithmic Game Theory, SAGT 2016, held in Liverpool, UK, in September 2016.The 26 full papers presented together with 2 one-page abstracts were carefully reviewed and selected from 62 submissions. The accepted submissions cover various important aspectsof algorithmic game theory such as computational aspects of games, congestion games and networks, matching and voting, auctions and markets, and mechanism design.

This is a book about numbers and how those numbers are represented in and operated on by computers. It is crucial that developers understand this area because the numerical operations allowed by computers, and the limitations of those operations, especially in the area of floating point math, affect virtually everything people try to do with computers. This book aims to fill this gap by exploring, in sufficient but not overwhelming detail, just what it is that computers do with numbers. Divided into two parts, the first deals with standard representations of integers and floating point numbers, while the second details several other number representations. Each chapter ends with exercises to review the key points. Topics covered include interval arithmetic, fixed-point numbers, floating point numbers, big integers and rational arithmetic. This book is for anyone who develops software including software engineerings, scientists, computer science students, engineering students and anyone who programs for fun.

This book offers an introduction to cryptology, the science that makes secure communications possible, and addresses its two complementary aspects: cryptography---the art of making secure building blocks---and cryptanalysis---the art of breaking them. The text describes some of the most important systems in detail, including AES, RSA, group-based and lattice-based cryptography, signatures, hash functions, random generation, and more, providing detailed underpinnings for most of them. With regard to cryptanalysis, it presents a number of basic tools such as the differential and linear methods and lattice attacks. This text, based on lecture notes from the author's many courses on the art of cryptography, consists of two interlinked parts. The first, modern part explains some of the basic systems used today and some attacks on them. However, a text on cryptology would not be complete without describing its rich and fascinating history. As such, the colorfully illustrated historical part interspersed throughout the text highlights selected inventions and episodes, providing a glimpse into the past of cryptology. The first sections of this book can be used as a textbook for an introductory course to computer science or mathematics students. Other sections are suitable for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses. Many exercises are included. The emphasis is on providing reasonably complete explanation of the background for some selected systems.

IBM's DB2 Express Edition is one of the most capable of the free database platforms available in today's marketplace. In Beginning DB2, author Grant Allen gets you started using DB2 Express Edition for web sites, desktop applications, and more. The author covers the basics of DB2 for developers and database administrators, shows you how to manage data in both XML and relational form, and includes numerous code examples so that you are never in doubt as to how things work. In this book, you'll find: A friendly introduction to DB2 Express Edition, an industrial-strength, relational database from IBM Dozens of examples so that you are never in doubt as to how things work Coverage of important language interfaces, such as from PHP, Ruby, C#, Python, and more The book is aimed at developers who want a robust database to back their applications.

This book provides an extensive review of three interrelated issues: land fragmentation, land consolidation, and land reallocation, and it presents in detail the theoretical background, design, development and application of a prototype integrated planning and decision support system for land consolidation. The system integrates geographic information systems (GIS) and artificial intelligence techniques including expert systems (ES) and genetic algorithms (GAs) with multi-criteria decision methods (MCDM), both multi-attribute (MADM) and multi-objective (MODM). The system is based on four modules for measuring land fragmentation; automatically generating alternative land redistribution plans; evaluating those plans; and automatically designing the land partitioning plan. The presented research provides a new scientific framework for land-consolidation planning both in terms of theory and practice, by presenting new findings and by developing better tools and methods embedded in an integrated GIS environment. It also makes a valuable contribution to the fields of GIS and spatial planning, as it provides new methods and ideas that could be applied to improve the former for the benefit of the latter in the context of planning support systems. "From the 1960s, ambitious research activities set out to observe regarding IT-support of the complex and time consuming redistribution processes within land consolidation - without any practically relevant results, until now. This scientific work is likely to close that gap. This distinguished publication is highly recommended to land consolidation planning experts, researchers and academics alike." - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Thomas, Munster/ Germany "Planning support systems take new scientific tools based on GIS, optimisation and simulation and use these to inform the process of plan-making and policy. This book is one of the first to show how this can be consistently done and it is a triumph of demonstrating how such systems can be made operational. Essential reading for planners, analysts and GI scientists." - Prof. Michael Batty, University College London

To examine, analyze, and manipulate a problem to the point of designing an algorithm for solving it is an exercise of fundamental value in many fields. With so many everyday activities governed by algorithmic principles, the power, precision, reliability and speed of execution demanded by users have transformed the design and construction of algorithms from a creative, artisanal activity into a full-fledged science in its own right. This book is aimed at all those who exploit the results of this new science, as designers and as consumers. The first chapter is an overview of the related history, demonstrating the long development of ideas such as recursion and more recent formalizations such as computability. The second chapter shows how the design of algorithms requires appropriate techniques and sophisticated organization of data. In the subsequent chapters the contributing authors present examples from diverse areas - such as routing and networking problems, Web search, information security, auctions and games, complexity and randomness, and the life sciences - that show how algorithmic thinking offers practical solutions and also deepens domain knowledge. The contributing authors are top-class researchers with considerable academic and industrial experience; they are also excellent educators and communicators and they draw on this experience with enthusiasm and humor. This book is an excellent introduction to an intriguing domain and it will be enjoyed by undergraduate and postgraduate students in computer science, engineering, and mathematics, and more broadly by all those engaged with algorithmic thinking.

In this introductory textbook the author explains the key topics in cryptography. He takes a modern approach, where defining what is meant by "secure" is as important as creating something that achieves that goal, and security definitions are central to the discussion throughout. The author balances a largely non-rigorous style - many proofs are sketched only - with appropriate formality and depth. For example, he uses the terminology of groups and finite fields so that the reader can understand both the latest academic research and "real-world" documents such as application programming interface descriptions and cryptographic standards. The text employs colour to distinguish between public and private information, and all chapters include summaries and suggestions for further reading. This is a suitable textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, mathematics and engineering, and for self-study by professionals in information security. While the appendix summarizes most of the basic algebra and notation required, it is assumed that the reader has a basic knowledge of discrete mathematics, probability, and elementary calculus.

Algorithms specify the way computers process information and how they execute tasks. Many recent technological innovations and achievements rely on algorithmic ideas - they facilitate new applications in science, medicine, production, logistics, traffic, communication and entertainment. Efficient algorithms not only enable your personal computer to execute the newest generation of games with features unimaginable only a few years ago, they are also key to several recent scientific breakthroughs - for example, the sequencing of the human genome would not have been possible without the invention of new algorithmic ideas that speed up computations by several orders of magnitude. The greatest improvements in the area of algorithms rely on beautiful ideas for tackling computational tasks more efficiently. The problems solved are not restricted to arithmetic tasks in a narrow sense but often relate to exciting questions of nonmathematical flavor, such as: How can I find the exit out of a maze? How can I partition a treasure map so that the treasure can only be found if all parts of the map are recombined? How should I plan my trip to minimize cost? Solving these challenging problems requires logical reasoning, geometric and combinatorial imagination, and, last but not least, creativity - the skills needed for the design and analysis of algorithms. In this book we present some of the most beautiful algorithmic ideas in 41 articles written in colloquial, nontechnical language. Most of the articles arose out of an initiative among German-language universities to communicate the fascination of algorithms and computer science to high-school students. The book can be understood without any prior knowledge of algorithms and computing, and it will be an enlightening and fun read for students and interested adults.

Cryptography has experienced rapid development, with major advances recently in both secret and public key ciphers, cryptographic hash functions, cryptographic algorithms and multiparty protocols, including their software engineering correctness verification, and various methods of cryptanalysis. This textbook introduces the reader to these areas, offering an understanding of the essential, most important, and most interesting ideas, based on the authors' teaching and research experience. After introducing the basic mathematical and computational complexity concepts, and some historical context, including the story of Enigma, the authors explain symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, electronic signatures and hash functions, PGP systems, public key infrastructures, cryptographic protocols, and applications in network security. In each case the text presents the key technologies, algorithms, and protocols, along with methods of design and analysis, while the content is characterized by a visual style and all algorithms are presented in readable pseudocode or using simple graphics and diagrams. The book is suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses in computer science and engineering, particularly in the area of networking, and it is also a suitable reference text for self-study by practitioners and researchers. The authors assume only basic elementary mathematical experience, the text covers the foundational mathematics and computational complexity theory.

This book surveys key algorithm developments between 1990 and 2012, with brief descriptions, a unified pseudocode for each algorithm and downloadable program code. Provides a taxonomy to clarify similarities and differences as well as historical relationships.

The two main themes of this book, logic and complexity, are both essential for understanding the main problems about the foundations of mathematics. Logical Foundations of Mathematics and Computational Complexity covers a broad spectrum of results in logic and set theory that are relevant to the foundations, as well as the results in computational complexity and the interdisciplinary area of proof complexity. The author presents his ideas on how these areas are connected, what are the most fundamental problems and how they should be approached. In particular, he argues that complexity is as important for foundations as are the more traditional concepts of computability and provability. Emphasis is on explaining the essence of concepts and the ideas of proofs, rather than presenting precise formal statements and full proofs. Each section starts with concepts and results easily explained, and gradually proceeds to more difficult ones. The notes after each section present some formal definitions, theorems and proofs. Logical Foundations of Mathematics and Computational Complexity is aimed at graduate students of all fields of mathematics who are interested in logic, complexity and foundations. It will also be of interest for both physicists and philosophers who are curious to learn the basics of logic and complexity theory.

This book provides an introduction to fuzzy logic approaches useful in image processing. The authors start by introducing image processing tasks of low and medium level such as thresholding, enhancement, edge detection, morphological filters, and segmentation and shows how fuzzy logic approaches apply. The book is divided into two parts. The first includes vagueness and ambiguity in digital images, fuzzy image processing, fuzzy rule based systems, and fuzzy clustering. The second part includes applications to image processing, image thresholding, color contrast enhancement, edge detection, morphological analysis, and image segmentation. Throughout, they describe image processing algorithms based on fuzzy logic under methodological aspects in addition to applicative aspects. Implementations in java are provided for the various applications.

Meet the people who design the algorithms that capture our musical tastes. The people who make music recommender systems have lofty goals: they want to broaden listeners' horizons and help obscure musicians find audiences, taking advantage of the enormous catalogs offered by companies like Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora. But for their critics, recommender systems seem to embody all the potential harms of algorithms: they flatten culture into numbers, they normalize ever-broadening data collection, and they profile their users for commercial ends. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork, anthropologist Nick Seaver describes how the makers of music recommendation navigate these tensions: how product managers understand their relationship with the users they want to help and to capture; how scientists conceive of listening itself as a kind of data processing; and how engineers imagine the geography of the world of music as a space they care for and control. Computing Taste rehumanizes the algorithmic systems that shape our world, drawing attention to the people who build and maintain them. In this vividly theorized book, Seaver brings the thinking of programmers into conversation with the discipline of anthropology, opening up the cultural world of computation in a wide-ranging exploration that travels from cosmology to calculation, myth to machine learning, and captivation to care.

This two-volume set (LNAI 9875 and LNAI 9876) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Collective Intelligence, ICCCI 2016, held in Halkidiki, Greece, in September 2016. The 108 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 277 submissions. The aim of this conference is to provide an internationally respected forum for scientific research in the computer-based methods of collective intelligence and their applications in (but not limited to) such fields as group decision making, consensus computing, knowledge integration, semantic web, social networks and multi-agent systems.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Knowledge Management and Acquisition for Intelligent Systems, PKAW 2016, held in Phuket, Thailand, in August 2016. The 16 full papers and 5 short papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 61 initial submissions. They deal with knowledge acquisition and machine learning; knowledge acquisition and natural language processing; knowledge acquisition from network and big data; and knowledge acquisition and applications.

Edited in collaboration with FoLLI, the Association of Logic, Language and Information this book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 23rd Workshop on Logic, Language, Information and Communication, WoLLIC 2016, held in Puebla, Mexico, in August 2016.The 23 contributed papers, presented together with 9 invited lectures and tutorials, were carefully reviewed and selected from 33 submissions. The focus of the workshop is to provide a forum on inter-disciplinary research involving formal logic, computing and programming theory, and natural language and reasoning.