This handbook covers recent advances in the integration of three areas, namely, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, and the Internet of things which is expected to have a tremendous impact on our daily lives. It contains a total of thirteen peer-reviewed and edited chapters. This book covers topics such as context-aware cyber-physical systems, sustainable cloud computing, fog computing, and cloud monitoring; both the theoretical and practical aspects belonging to these topics are discussed. All the chapters also discuss open research challenges in the areas mentioned above. Finally, the handbook presents three use cases regarding healthcare, smart buildings and disaster management to assist the audience in understanding how to develop next-generation IoT- and cloud-enabled cyber-physical systems. This timely handbook is edited for students, researchers, as well as professionals who are interested in the rapidly growing fields of cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, and the Internet of things.

This book covers theoretical work, applications, approaches, and techniques for computational models of information and its presentation by language (artificial, human, or natural in other ways). Computational and technological developments that incorporate natural language are proliferating. Adequate coverage encounters difficult problems related to ambiguities and dependency on context and agents (humans or computational systems). The goal is to promote computational systems of intelligent natural language processing and related models of computation, language, thought, mental states, reasoning, and other cognitive processes.

In the literature of information science, a number of studies have been carried out attempting to model cognitive, affective, behavioral, and contextual factors associated with human information seeking and retrieval. On the other hand, only a few studies have addressed the exploration of creative thinking in music, focusing on understanding and describing individuals' information seeking behavior during the creative process. Trends in Music Information Seeking, Behavior, and Retrieval for Creativity connects theoretical concepts in information seeking and behavior to the music creative process. This publication presents new research, case studies, surveys, and theories related to various aspects of information retrieval and the information seeking behavior of diverse scholarly and professional music communities. Music professionals, theorists, researchers, and students will find this publication an essential resource for their professional and research needs.

This book presents efficient metaheuristic algorithms for optimal design of structures. Many of these algorithms are developed by the author and his graduate students, consisting of Particle Swarm Optimization, Charged System Search, Magnetic Charged System Search, Field of Forces Optimization, Democratic Particle Swarm Optimization, Dolphin Echolocation Optimization, Colliding Bodies Optimization, Ray Optimization. These are presented together with algorithms which are developed by other authors and have been successfully applied to various optimization problems. These consist of Partical Swarm Optimization, Big Band Big Crunch algorithm, Cuckoo Search Optimization, Imperialist Competitive Algorithm and Chaos Embedded Metaheuristic Algorithm. Finally a multi-objective Optimization is presented to Solve large scale structural problems based on the Charged System Search algorithm, In the second edition seven new chapters are added consisting of Enhance colliding bodies optimization, Global sensitivity analysis, Tug of War Optimization, Water evaporation optimization, Vibrating System Optimization and Cyclical Parthenogenesis Optimization algorithm. In the third edition, five new chapters are included consisting of the recently developed algorithms. These are Shuffled Shepherd Optimization Algorithm, Set Theoretical Shuffled Shepherd Optimization Algorithm, Set Theoretical Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization Algorithm, Thermal Exchange Metaheuristic Optimization Algorithm, and Water Strider Optimization Algorithm and Its Enhancement. The concepts and algorithm presented in this book are not only applicable to optimization of skeletal structure, finite element models, but can equally be utilized for optimal design of other systems such as hydraulic and electrical networks.

This book highlights a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental statistical mechanics underneath the inner workings of neural networks. The book discusses in details important concepts and techniques including the cavity method, the mean-field theory, replica techniques, the Nishimori condition, variational methods, the dynamical mean-field theory, unsupervised learning, associative memory models, perceptron models, the chaos theory of recurrent neural networks, and eigen-spectrums of neural networks, walking new learners through the theories and must-have skillsets to understand and use neural networks. The book focuses on quantitative frameworks of neural network models where the underlying mechanisms can be precisely isolated by physics of mathematical beauty and theoretical predictions. It is a good reference for students, researchers, and practitioners in the area of neural networks.

In recent years, the need for smart equipment has increased exponentially with the upsurge in technological advances. To work to their fullest capacity, these devices need to be able to communicate with other devices in their network to exchange information and receive instructions. Computational Intelligence in the Internet of Things is an essential reference source that provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area of computational intelligence and the Internet of Things. Featuring research on topics such as data analytics, machine learning, and neural networks, this book is ideally designed for IT specialists, managers, professionals, researchers, and academicians.

This book presents several novel constructive methodologies for global stabilization and H-infinity control in switched dynamic systems by using the systems' structure information. The main features of these new approaches are twofold: i) Novel Lyapunov functions are constructed and new switching strategies are designed to guarantee global finite-time stabilization of the closed-loop switched dynamic systems,while ii) without posing any internal stability requirements on subsystems, the standard H-infinity control problem of the switched dynamic systems is solved by means of dwell-time switching techniques. Systematically presenting constructive methods for analyzing and synthesizing switched systems, the content is of great significance to theoretical research and practical applications involving switched systems alike. The book provides a unified framework for stability analysis, stabilization and H-infinity control of switched systems, making it a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students who want to learn about the state of the art in the analysis and synthesis of switched systems, as well as recent advances in switched linear systems. In addition, it offers a wealth of cutting-edge constructive methods and algorithm designs for researchers who work with switched dynamic systems and graduate students of control theory and control engineering.

Due to applications in recent electronic appliances and pervasive devices, Automated Hand Gesture Recognition (HGR) is of particular interest nowadays. HGR developments have come a long way from the traditional Sign Language Recognition (SLR) systems to innovations such as wearable sensor based electronic devices. A large amount of research on HGR is still on the way, both from the industry and academia, that is working towards introducing more practical gesture recognition systems and associated algorithms. This book highlights state-of-the-art practices in the direction of HGR research. It is organized into five coherent heads: HGR introduction, modalities, and challenges, practical hand segmentation schemes capable of working under cluttered backgrounds, gesture recognition schemes targeting different acquisition mechanisms, solutions sticking to different, practiced methodologies, and conclusions from the HGR works witnessed so far and future options. The book is ideal for undergraduates, researchers at all levels, and the developer community as it provides a basis of information about HGR, as well as new and in-depth research in the field.

Privacy protection within large databases can be a challenge. By examining the current problems and challenges this domain is facing, more efficient strategies can be established to safeguard personal information against invasive pressures. HCI Challenges and Privacy Preservation in Big Data Security is an informative scholarly publication that discusses how human-computer interaction impacts privacy and security in almost all sectors of modern life. Featuring relevant topics such as large scale security data, threat detection, big data encryption, and identity management, this reference source is ideal for academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, and engineers that are interested in staying current on the advancements and drawbacks of human-computer interaction within the world of big data.

Emotions, creativity, aesthetics, artistic behavior, divergent thoughts, and curiosity are both fundamental to the human experience and instrumental in the development of human-centered artificial intelligence systems that can relate, communicate, and understand human motivations, desires, and needs. In this book the editors put forward two core propositions: creative artistic behavior is one of the key challenges of artificial intelligence research, and computer-assisted creativity and human-centered artificial intelligence systems are the driving forces for research in this area. The invited chapters examine computational creativity and more specifically systems that exhibit artistic behavior or can improve humans' creative and artistic abilities. The authors synthesize and reflect on current trends, identify core challenges and opportunities, and present novel contributions and applications in domains such as the visual arts, music, 3D environments, and games. The book will be valuable for researchers, creatives, and others engaged with the relationship between artificial intelligence and the arts.

This book focuses on the implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Business, Education and Healthcare, It includes research articles and expository papers on the applications of Artificial Intelligence on Decision Making, Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Healthcare, Education, Public Sector, FinTech, and RegTech. It also discusses the role of Artificial Intelligence in the current COVID-19 pandemic, in the health sector, education, and others. It also discusses the impact of Artificial Intelligence on decision-making in vital sectors of the economy.

This compendium discusses the adaptive enterprise architecture (AEA) as information to support decisions and actions for desired efficiency and innovation (outcomes and impacts). This comprehensive information-driven approach uses data, analytics, and intelligence (AI/ML) for architecting intelligent enterprises.The unique reference text includes practical artefacts and vivid examples based on both practice and research. It benefits chief information officers, chief data officers, chief enterprise architects, enterprise architects, business architects, information architects, data architects, and anyone who has an interest in adaptive and digital enterprise architecture.

This book takes a hemispheric approach to contemporary urban intervention, examining urban ecologies, communication technologies, and cultural practices in the twenty-first century. It argues that governmental and social regimes of control and forms of political resistance converge in speculation on disaster and that this convergence has formed a vision of urban environments in the Americas in which forms of play and imaginations of catastrophe intersect in the vertical field. Schifani explores a diverse range of resistant urban interventions, imagining the city as on the verge of or enmeshed in catastrophe. She also presents a model of ecocriticism that addresses aesthetic practices and forms of play in the urban environment. Tracing the historical roots of such tactics as well as mapping their hopes for the future will help the reader to locate the impacts of climate change not only on the physical space of the city, but also on the epistemological and aesthetic strategies that cities can help to engender. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Urban Studies, Media Studies, American Studies, Global Studies, and the broad and interdisciplinary field of Environmental Humanities.

This book tackles the latest research trends in technology acceptance models and theories. It presents high-quality empirical and review studies focusing on the main theoretical models and their applications across various technologies and contexts. It also provides insights into the theoretical and practical aspects of different technological innovations that assist decision-makers in formulating the required policies and procedures for adopting a specific technology.

This book aims to explore and discuss theories and technologies for the development of socially competent and culture-aware embodied conversational agents for elderly care. To tackle the challenges in ageing societies, this book was written by experts who have a background in assistive technologies for elderly care, culture-aware computing, multimodal dialogue, social robotics and synthetic agents. Chapter 1 presents a vision of an intelligent agent to illustrate the current challenges for the design and development of adaptive systems. Chapter 2 examines how notions of trust and empathy may be applied to human-robot interaction and how it can be used to create the next generation of emphatic agents, which address some of the pressing issues in multicultural ageing societies. Chapter 3 discusses multimodal machine learning as an approach to enable more effective and robust modelling technologies and to develop socially competent and culture-aware embodied conversational agents for elderly care. Chapter 4 explores the challenges associated with real-world field tests and deployments. Chapter 5 gives a short introduction to socio-cognitive language processing that describes the idea of coping with everyday language, irony, sarcasm, humor, paralinguistic information such as the physical and mental state and traits of the dialogue partner, and social aspects. This book grew out of the Shonan Meeting seminar entitled "Multimodal Agents for Ageing and Multicultural Societies" held in 2018 in Japan. Researchers and practitioners will be helped to understand the emerging field and the identification of promising approaches from a variety of disciplines such as human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, modelling, and learning.

Recently, the event-based paradigm, a burgeoning technology receiving attention in research as well as industry, has gained momentum in the commercial world causing a need for further research in the field. Principles and Applications of Distributed Event-Based Systems showcases event-based systems in real-world applications, providing an overview of relevant terminology and content approachable for readers from a variety of backgrounds. Containing expert international contributions, this advanced publication provides professionals, researchers, and students in systems design with a rich compendium of latest applications in the field.

Emotions convey significant information through means of natural language analysis, embodiment, and emotional signing. Machines equipped with the ability to experience and interpret emotions perform better in complex environments and share in the emotionally-rich social context. The Handbook of Research on Synthesizing Human Emotion in Intelligent Systems and Robotics presents a solid framework for taking human-robot interaction closer to its full potential. Presenting a close look at all the factors involved in modeling emotions and applying a thorough understanding of human emotional recognition to technology, this volume appeals to active researchers in the fields of artificial emotions, artificial intelligence, computing, robotics, philosophy, and psychology, as well as to students interested in the research of synthetic emotions.

In The Political Economy and Feasibility of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies Spencer J. Pack brings his authority as a scholar and advisor to this study of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from the perspective of the history of economic thought. Major theorists analyzed in depth include Aristotle, Smith, Law, Marx, Keynes, Rothbard and Hayek, and the book draws extensively upon the ideas of Schumpeter, Galbraith and Sraffa. The book argues for reconceptualization of the basic microeconomic categories into rental, sale and financial asset prices along with a reconsideration of Keynes' general theory to his special theory and Rothbard's relationship to Rousseau. The author posits that intense theoretical and practical struggles will continue over who should control the quantity of money, the cause of the capitalist economy's instability, and who or what is more dangerous: concentrated centers of private wealth and private enterprises or the contemporary state. He concludes that in terms of the quality of money, the cryptocurrency community is probably correct, with new forms of money potentially being better than sovereign fiat currency. The book's relevance will appeal to members of the history of economic thought community, economic theorists, and political science and political theory scholars as well as to policy makers and members of the cryptocurrency community.

This book introduces readers to the fundamentals of transportation problems under the fuzzy environment and its extensions. It also discusses the limitations and drawbacks of (1) recently proposed aggregation operators under the fuzzy environment and its various extensions; (2) recently proposed methods for solving transportation problems under the fuzzy environment; and (3) recently proposed methods for solving transportation problems under the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. In turn, the book proposes simplified methods to overcome these limitations.

Big data consists of data sets that are too large and complex for traditional data processing and data management applications. Therefore, to obtain the valuable information within the data, one must use a variety of innovative analytical methods, such as web analytics, machine learning, and network analytics. As the study of big data becomes more popular, there is an urgent demand for studies on high-level computational intelligence and computing services for analyzing this significant area of information science. Big Data Analytics for Sustainable Computing is a collection of innovative research that focuses on new computing and system development issues in emerging sustainable applications. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics such as data filtering, knowledge engineering, and cognitive analytics, this publication is ideally designed for data scientists, IT specialists, computer science practitioners, computer engineers, academicians, professionals, and students seeking current research on emerging analytical techniques and data processing software.