For any organization, analysis of performance and effectiveness through available data allows for informed decision making. Data envelopment analysis, or DEA, is a popular, effective method that can be used to measure productive efficiency in operations management assessment. Data Envelopment Analysis and Effective Performance Assessment addresses the myriad of practical uses and innovative developments of DEA. Emphasizing the importance of analyzing productivity by measuring inputs, goals, economic growth, and performance, this book covers a wide breadth of innovative knowledge. This book is essential reading for managers, business professionals, students of business and ICT, and computer engineers.

Recent innovations have created significant developments in data storage and management. These new technologies now allow for greater security in databases and other applications. Decentralized Computing Using Block Chain Technologies and Smart Contracts: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a concise and informative source of academic research on the latest developments in block chain innovation and their application in contractual agreements. Highlighting pivotal discussions on topics such as cryptography, programming techniques, and decentralized computing, this book is an ideal publication for researchers, academics, professionals, students, and practitioners seeking content on utilizing block chains with smart contracts.

For Database Systems and Database Design and Application courses offered at the junior, senior and graduate levels in Computer Science departments. Written by well-known computer scientists, this introduction to database systems offers a comprehensive approach, focusing on database design, database use, and implementation of database applications and database management systems. The first half of the book provides in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the database designer, user, and application programmer. It covers the latest database standards SQL:1999, SQL/PSM, SQL/CLI, JDBC, ODL, and XML, with broader coverage of SQL than most other texts. The second half of the book provides in-depth coverage of databases from the point of view of the DBMS implementor. It focuses on storage structures, query processing, and transaction management. The book covers the main techniques in these areas with broader coverage of query optimisation than most other texts, along with advanced topics including multidimensional and bitmap indexes, distributed transactions, and information integration techniques.

Usability Testing for Survey Research provides researchers with a guide to the tools necessary to evaluate, test, and modify surveys in an iterative method during the survey pretesting process. It includes examples that apply usability to any type of survey during any stage of development, along with tactics on how to tailor usability testing to meet budget and scheduling constraints. The book's authors distill their experience to provide tips on how usability testing can be applied to paper surveys, mixed-mode surveys, interviewer-administered tools, and additional products. Readers will gain an understanding of usability and usability testing and why it is needed for survey research, along with guidance on how to design and conduct usability tests, analyze and report findings, ideas for how to tailor usability testing to meet budget and schedule constraints, and new knowledge on how to apply usability testing to other survey-related products, such as project websites and interviewer administered tools.

Artificial neural network research is one of the new directions for new generation computers. Current research suggests that open box artificial higher order neural networks (HONNs) play an important role in this new direction. HONNs will challenge traditional artificial neural network products and change the research methodology that people are currently using in control and recognition areas for the control signal generating, pattern recognition, nonlinear recognition, classification, and prediction. Since HONNs are open box models, they can be easily accepted and used by individuals working in information science, information technology, management, economics, and business fields. Emerging Capabilities and Applications of Artificial Higher Order Neural Networks contains innovative research on how to use HONNs in control and recognition areas and explains why HONNs can approximate any nonlinear data to any degree of accuracy, their ease of use, and how they can have better nonlinear data recognition accuracy than SAS nonlinear procedures. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as nonlinear regression, pattern recognition, and data prediction, this book is ideally designed for data analysists, IT specialists, engineers, researchers, academics, students, and professionals working in the fields of economics, business, modeling, simulation, control, recognition, computer science, and engineering research.

Medical imaging is one of the heaviest funded biomedical engineering research areas. The second edition of Pattern Recognition and Signal Analysis in Medical Imaging brings sharp focus to the development of integrated systems for use in the clinical sector, enabling both imaging and the automatic assessment of the resultant data. Since the first edition, there has been tremendous development of new, powerful technologies for detecting, storing, transmitting, analyzing, and displaying medical images. Computer-aided analytical techniques, coupled with a continuing need to derive more information from medical images, has led to a growing application of digital processing techniques in cancer detection as well as elsewhere in medicine. This book is an essential tool for students and professionals, compiling and explaining proven and cutting-edge methods in pattern recognition for medical imaging.

The first book to combine satellite and terrestrial positioning techniques - vital for the understanding and development of new technologies Written and edited by leading experts in the field, with contributors belonging to the European Commission's FP7 Network of Excellence NEWCOM++ Applications to a wide range of fields, including sensor networks, emergency services, military use, location-based billing, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and leisure Location-aware personal devices and location-based services have become ever more prominent in the past few years, thanks to the significant advances in position location technology. Sensor networks, geographic information, emergency services, location management, location-based billing, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and leisure applications are just some of the potential applications that can be enabled by these techniques. Increasingly, satellite and terrestrial positioning techniques are being combined for maximum performance; to produce the next wave of location-based devices and services, engineers need to combine both components. This book is the first to present a holistic view, covering all aspects of positioning: both terrestrial and satellite, both theory and practice, both performance bounds and signal processing techniques. It will provide a valuable resource for product developers and R&D engineers, allowing them to improve existing location techniques and develop future approaches for new systems.

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an "autonomous author" urges the law to rethink authorship, originality, creativity. AI-generated artworks are in search of an author because current copyright laws offer as a solution only public domain or fragile regulatory mechanisms. During the 20th century visual artists have been posing persistent challenges to the law world: Conceptual Art favoured legal mechanisms alternative to copyright law. The case of AI-art is, however, different: for the first time the artworld is discovering the prospective of an art without human authors. Rather than preserving the status quo in the law world, policy makers should consider a reformative conception of AI in copyright law and take inspiration from innovative theories in the field of robot law, where new frames for a legal personhood of artificial agents are proposed. This would have a spill-over effect also on copyright regulations.

Mechanical Behaviors of Carbon Nanotubes: Theoretical and Numerical Approaches presents various theoretical and numerical studies on mechanical behaviors of carbon nanotubes. The main theoretical aspects included in the book contain classical molecular dynamics simulation, atomistic-continuum theory, atomic finite element method, continuum plate, nonlocal continuum plate, and shell models. Detailed coverage is also given to structural and elastic properties, trace of large deformation, buckling and post-buckling behaviors, fracture, vibration characteristics, wave propagation, and the most promising engineering applications. This book not only illustrates the theoretical and numerical methods for analyzing the mechanical behavior of carbon nanotubes, but also contains computational results from experiments that have already taken place.

Annual Reports in Computational Chemistry provides timely and critical reviews of important topics in computational chemistry as applied to all chemical disciplines. Topics covered include quantum chemistry, molecular mechanics, force fields, chemical education, and applications in academic and industrial settings. Focusing on the most recent literature and advances in the field, each article covers a specific topic of importance to computational chemists.

Big Mechanisms in Systems Biology: Big Data Mining, Network Modeling, and Genome-Wide Data Identification explains big mechanisms of systems biology by system identification and big data mining methods using models of biological systems. Systems biology is currently undergoing revolutionary changes in response to the integration of powerful technologies. Faced with a large volume of available literature, complicated mechanisms, small prior knowledge, few classes on the topics, and causal and mechanistic language, this is an ideal resource. This book addresses system immunity, regulation, infection, aging, evolution, and carcinogenesis, which are complicated biological systems with inconsistent findings in existing resources. These inconsistencies may reflect the underlying biology time-varying systems and signal transduction events that are often context-dependent, which raises a significant problem for mechanistic modeling since it is not clear which genes/proteins to include in models or experimental measurements. The book is a valuable resource for bioinformaticians and members of several areas of the biomedical field who are interested in an in-depth understanding on how to process and apply great amounts of biological data to improve research.

Ongoing advancements in modern technology have led to significant developments with smart technologies. With the numerous applications available, it becomes imperative to conduct research and make further progress in this field. Smart Technologies: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice provides comprehensive and interdisciplinary research on the most emerging areas of information science and technology. Including innovative studies on image and speech recognition, human-computer interface, and wireless technologies, this multi-volume book is an ideal source for researchers, academicians, practitioners, and students interested in advanced technological applications and developments.

Advances in Computers, the latest volume in the series published since 1960, presents detailed coverage of innovations in computer hardware, software, theory, design, and applications. In addition, it provides contributors with a medium in which they can explore their subjects in greater depth and breadth than journal articles usually allow. As a result, many articles have become standard references that continue to be of significant, lasting value in this rapidly expanding field.

Diversity in user queries makes it challenging for search engines to effectively return a set of relevant results. Both user intentions to search the web and types of queries are vastly varied; consequently, horizontal and vertical search engines are developed to answer user queries more efficiently. However, these search engines present a variety of problems in web searching. Result Page Generation for Web Searching: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference publication that focuses on taking advantages from text and web mining in order to address the issues of recommendation and visualization in web searching. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as navigational searching, resource identification, and ambiguous queries, this book is ideally designed for computer engineers, web designers, programmers, academicians, researchers, and students.

Digital libraries have been established worldwide to make information more readily available, and this innovation has changed the way information seekers interact with the data they are collecting. Faced with decentralized, heterogeneous sources, these users must be familiarized with high-level search activities in order to sift through large amounts of data. Information Seeking Behavior and Challenges in Digital Libraries addresses the problems of usability and search optimization in digital libraries. With topics addressing all aspects of information seeking activity, the research found in this book provides insight into library user experiences and human-computer interaction when searching online databases of all types. This book addresses the challenges faced by professionals in information management, librarians, developers, students of library science, and policy makers.

In recent decades, the industrial revolution has increased economic growth despite its immersion in global environmental issues such as climate change. Researchers emphasize the adoption of circular economy practices in global supply chains and businesses for better socio-environmental sustainability without compromising economic growth. Integrating blockchain technology into business practices could promote the circular economy as well as global environmental sustainability. Integrating Blockchain Technology Into the Circular Economy discusses the technological advancements in circular economy practices, which provide better results for both economic growth and environmental sustainability. It provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the applications of blockchain technology. Covering topics such as big data analytics, financial market infrastructure, and sustainable performance, this book is an essential resource for managers, operations managers, executives, manufacturers, environmentalists, researchers, industry practitioners, students and educators of higher education, and academicians.