This book is an attempt to provide a uni?ed methodology to derive models for fatigue life. This includes S-N, ?-N and crack propagation models. This is not a conventional book aimed at describing the fatigue fundamentals, but rather a book in which the basic models of the three main fatigue approaches, the stress-based, the strain-based and the fracture mechanics approaches, are contemplated from a novel and integrated point of view. On the other hand, as an alternative to the preferential attention paid to deterministic models based on the physical, phenomenological and empirical description of fatigue, their probabilistic nature is emphasized in this book, in which stochastic fatigue and crack growth models are presented. This book is the result of a long period of close collaborationbetween its two authors who, although of di?erent backgrounds, mathematical and mechanical, both have a strong sense of engineering with respect to the fatigue problem. When the authors of this book ?rst approached the fatigue ?eld in 1982 (twenty six years ago), they found the following scenario: 1. Linear, bilinear or trilinear models were frequently proposed by relevant laboratoriesandacademiccenterstoreproducetheW] ohler?eld. Thiswas the case of well known institutions, which justi?ed these models based on clientrequirementsorpreferences. Thisledtotheinclusionofsuchmodels and methods as, for example, the up-and-down, in standards and o?cial practical directives (ASTM, Euronorm, etc.), which have proved to be unfortunate."

Performance optimization is vital in the design and operation of modern engineering systems, including communications, manufacturing, robotics, and logistics. Most engineering systems are too complicated to model, or the system parameters cannot be easily identified, so learning techniques have to be applied. This book provides a unified framework based on a sensitivity point of view. It also introduces new approaches and proposes new research topics within this sensitivity-based framework. This new perspective on a popular topic is presented by a well respected expert in the field.

This book applies a step-by-step treatment of the current state-of-the-art of ordinary differential equations used in modeling of engineering systems/processes and beyond. It covers systematically ordered problems, beginning with first and second order ODEs, linear and higher-order ODEs of polynomial form, theory and criteria of similarity, modeling approaches, phase plane and phase space concepts, stability optimization and ending on chaos and synchronization.

Presenting both an overview of the theory of the introductory differential equations in the context of applicability and a systematic treatment of modeling of numerous engineering and physical problems through linear and non-linear ODEs, the volume is self-contained, yet serves both scientific and engineering interests. The presentation relies on a general treatment, analytical and numerical methods, concrete examples and engineering intuition.

The scientific background used is well balanced between elementary and advanced level, making it as a unique self-contained source for both theoretically and application oriented graduate and doctoral students, university teachers, researchers and engineers of mechanical, civil and mechatronic engineering.

This book provides an introduction to the topological classification of smooth structurally stable diffeomorphisms on closed orientable 2- and 3-manifolds.The topological classification is one of the main problems of the theory of dynamical systems and the results presented in this book are mostly for dynamical systems satisfying Smale's Axiom A. The main results on the topological classification of discrete dynamical systems are widely scattered among many papers and surveys. This book presents these results fluidly, systematically, and for the first time in one publication. Additionally, this book discusses the recent results on the topological classification of Axiom A diffeomorphisms focusing on the nontrivial effects of the dynamical systems on 2- and 3-manifolds. The classical methods and approaches which are considered to be promising for the further research are also discussed.< The reader needs to be familiar with the basic concepts of the qualitative theory of dynamical systems which are presented in Part 1 for convenience. The book is accessible to ambitious undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in dynamical systems and low dimensional topology. This volume consists of 10 chapters; each chapter contains its own set of references and a section on further reading. Proofs are presented with the exact statements of the results. In Chapter 10 the authors briefly state the necessary definitions and results from algebra, geometry and topology. When stating ancillary results at the beginning of each part, the authors refer to other sources which are readily available.

The volumes in this authoritative series present a multidisciplinary approach to modeling and simulation of flows in the cardiovascular and ventilatory systems, especially multiscale modeling and coupled simulations. Volume 5 is devoted to cells, tissues, and organs of the cardiovascular and ventilatory systems with an emphasis on mechanotransduction-based regulation of flow. The blood vessel wall is a living tissue that quickly reacts to loads applied on it by the flowing blood. In any segment of a blood vessel, the endothelial and smooth muscle cells can sense unusual time variations in small-magnitude wall shear stress and large-amplitude wall stretch generated by abnormal hemodynamic stresses. These cells respond with a short-time scale (from seconds to hours) to adapt the vessel caliber. Since such adaptive cell activities can be described using mathematical models, a key objective of this volume is to identify the mesoscopic agents and nanoscopic mediators required to derive adequate mathematical models. The resulting biomathematical models and corresponding simulation software can be incorporated into platforms developed in virtual physiology for improved understanding and training.

During the 21st century business environments have become more complex and dynamic than ever before. Companies operate in a world of change influenced by globalisation, volatile markets, legal changes and technical progress. As a result, they have to handle growing volumes of data and therefore require fast storage, reliable data access, intelligent retrieval of information and automated decision-making mechanisms, all provided at the highest level of service quality. Successful enterprises are aware of these challenges and efficiently respond to the dynamic environment in which their business operates. Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) offer solutions to these challenges and provide techniques to enable effective business change. The important aspects of both topics are discussed within this state-of-the-art volume. It covers the strategic support, business applications, methodologies and technologies from the field, and explores the benefits, issues and challenges of each. Issues are analysed from many different perspectives, ranging from strategic management to data technologies, and the different subjects are complimented and illustrated by numerous examples of industrial applications. Contributions are authored by leading academics and practitioners representing various universities, research centres and companies worldwide. Their experience covers multiple disciplines and industries, including finance, construction, logistics, and public services, amongst others. Business Intelligence and Performance Management is a valuable source of reference for graduates approaching MSc or PhD programs and for professionals in industry researching in the fields of BI and PM for industrial application.

shift and dramatic improvementfrom the yearly data of the 1970s. For several years now, disaggregated methods (i. e., single-case comparisons) have been used to test theories (Davenport and Eads 2001; Rasler 1996; Francisco 1993, 1995, 1996). The single area of Snyder's(Snyder 1978)demandsthat has faltered is in linking levels of analysis in the eld of protest and repression. James DeNardo's (DeNardo 1985) and Lichbach's (Lichbach 1996) formal models have for the most part not beentestedempirically, norhaveRonaldWintrobe's(Wintrobe1998)modelsofd- tators' strategic behavior. The dif culty stems from the disjuncture between game theory or micro models and macro, aggregate data. Green and Shapiro (Green and Shapiro 1994) took an extreme position on this problem: little empirical evidence from rational choice and game theory exists. To the extent that empirical evidence comprises our understanding of politics, rational choice and game theory have - guably contributed as much or more than any other approach. Think of interest group theory before Olson's The Logic of Collective Action, of electoral theory before Cox's (Cox 1997) Making Votes Count, or of coalition theory before Riker's (Riker 1963) The Theory of Political Coalitions. There are few social scientists who would not judge these books as great for economics and political science. Cox's book alone has won every major book prize appropriate in political science. On the normative side, too few political scientists researching democratization are aware of the theory of social choice. Its ndings challenge the foundations of democratic theory (Riker 1982).

This book represents the results of cross-fertilization between OR/MS and CS/AI. It is this interface of OR/CS that makes possible advances that could not have been achieved in isolation. Taken collectively, these articles are indicative of the state-of-the-art in the interface between OR/MS and CS/AI and of the high caliber of research being conducted by members of the INFORMS Computing Society.

An Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) "Data Fusion Technologies for Harbour Protection" was held in Tallinn, Estonia 27 June-1 July, 2005. This workshop was organized by request of the NATO Security Through Science Programme and the Defence Investment Division. An ARW is one of many types of funded group support mechanisms established by the NATO Science Committee to contribute to the critical assessment of existing knowledge on new important topics, to identify directions for future research, and to promote close working relationships between scientists from different countries and with different professional experiences. The NATO Science Committee was approved at a meeting of the Heads of Government of the Alliance in December 1957, subsequent to the 1956 recommendation of "Three Wise Men" - Foreign Ministers Lange (Norway), Martino (Italy) and Pearson (Canada) on Non-Military Cooperation in NATO. The NATO Science Committee established the NATO Science Programme in 1958 to encourage and support scientific collaboration between individual scientists and to foster scientific development in its member states. In 1999, following the end of the Cold War, the Science Programme was transformed so that support is now devoted to collaboration between Partner-country and NATO-country scientists or to contributing towards research support in Partner countries. Since 2004, the Science Programme was further modified to focus exclusively on NATO Priority Research Topics (i. e. Defence Against Terrorism or Countering Other Threats to Security) and also preferably on a Partner country priority area.

Optimization is an integral part to science and engineering. Most real-world applications involve complex optimization processes, which are di?cult to solve without advanced computational tools. With the increasing challenges of ful?lling optimization goals of current applications there is a strong drive to advancethe developmentofe?cientoptimizers. The challengesintroduced by emerging problems include: * objective functions which are prohibitively expensive to evaluate, so ty- callysoonlyasmallnumber ofobjectivefunctionevaluationscanbemade during the entire search, * objective functions which are highly multimodal or discontinuous, and * non-stationary problems which may change in time (dynamic). Classical optimizers may perform poorly or even may fail to produce any improvement over the starting vector in the face of such challenges. This has motivated researchers to explore the use computational intelligence (CI) to augment classical methods in tackling such challenging problems. Such methods include population-based search methods such as: a) evolutionary algorithms and particle swarm optimization and b) non-linear mapping and knowledgeembedding approachessuchasarti?cialneuralnetworksandfuzzy logic, to name a few. Such approaches have been shown to perform well in challenging settings. Speci?cally, CI are powerful tools which o?er several potential bene?ts such as: a) robustness (impose little or no requirements on the objective function) b) versatility (handle highly non-linear mappings) c) self-adaptionto improveperformance and d) operationin parallel(making it easy to decompose complex tasks). However, the successful application of CI methods to real-world problems is not straightforward and requires both expert knowledge and trial-and-error experiments.

ThisbookcontainstheproceedingsoftheFourthInternationalConference onComputationalFluidDynamics(ICCFD4),heldinGent,Belgiumfrom July10through16,2006. TheICCFDconferenceseriesisanoutcomeofthe mergeroftwoimportantstreamsofconferencesinComputationalFluid- namics:InternationalConferenceonNumericalMethodsinFluidDynamics, ICNMFD(since1996)andInternationalSymposiumonComputationalFluid Dynamics,ISCFD(since1985). In1998itwasdecidedtojointhetwoand ICCFD emerged as a biannual meeting, held in Kyoto in 2000, Sydney in 2002, Toronto in 2004 and Gent in 2006. Thus, the ICCFD series became theleadinginternationalconferenceseriesforscientists,mathematiciansand engineersinterestedinthecomputationof?uid?ow. The4theditionoftheconferencehasattracted200participantsfromall overtheworld;270abstractswerereceived,ofwhich135wereselectedina carefulpeerreviewprocessbytheexecutivecommittee(C. H. Bruneau,J. -J. Chattot,D. Kwak,N. Satofuka,D. W. Zingg,E. DickandH. Deconinck)for oralpresentationandafurther21forposterpresentation. Thepaperscontainedintheseproceedingsprovideanexcellentsnapshot of the ?eld of Computational Fluid Dynamics as of 2006. Invited keynote lecturesbyrenownedresearchersareincluded,withcontributionsinthe?eld ofdiscretizationschemes,high-endcomputingandengineeringchallenges,and two-phase?ow. Thesekeynotecontributionsarecomplementedby137regular papersonthemostdiverseaspectsofCFD: -Innovativealgorithmdevelopmentfor?owsimulation,optimisationandc- trol:higher-ordermethods(DG,FV,FEandRDmethods),iterativemethods andmultigrid,solutionadaptivemeshtechniques,errorestimationandc- trol,parallelalgorithms. -Innovativemodelingof?owphysicsintheareaofcompressibleandinc- pressible ?ows: hypersonic and reacting ?ows, two-phase ?ows, turbulence (LES,DES,DNS,andtransition),vortexdynamics,boundarylayerstability, multi-scalephysics,magnetohydrodynamics. Preface VII -advancedapplicationsusingtheabovementionedinnovativetechnology,and multidisciplinaryapplicationsincludingaero-elasticityandaero-acoustics. ThanksareduetooursponsorsNASA,theFWOResearchFoundation FlandersandtheEuropeanUnionthroughtheEUA4XMarieCurieproject. Inparticular,thegenerousgrantfromNASAisakeyfactorinthesuccessof thisconferenceseriesandthepublicationoftheseProceedings. Wealsowouldliketothankthesta?andPhDstudentsofthevonKarman InstituteandtheDepartmentof?ow,heatandcombustionmechanicsofthe University of Gent, for the help they provided toward the success of this conference. Sint-Genesius-Rode,Belgium HermanDeconinck vonKarmanInstituteforFluidDynamics Ghent,Belgium ErikDick GhentUniversity September2006 ConferenceChair Contents PartIInvitedSpeakers Twonewtechniquesforgeneratingexactlyincompressible approximatevelocities BernardoCockburn...3 RoleofHigh-EndComputinginMeetingNASA'sScience andEngineeringChallenges RupakBiswas,EugeneL. Tu,WilliamR. VanDalsem...14 RecentAdvancesofMulti-phaseFlowComputationwiththe AdaptiveSoroban-gridCubicInterpolatedPropagation(CIP) Method TakashiYabe,YouichiOgata,KenjiTakizawa...29 PartIISchemes OntheComputationofSteady-StateCompressibleFlows UsingaDGMethod HongLuo,JosephD. Baum,RainaldL..ohner...47 Space-TimeDiscontinuousGalerkinMethodforLarge AmplitudeNonlinearWaterWaves YanXu,JaapJ. W. vanderVegt...53 AdiscontinuousGalerkinmethodwithHancock-typetime integrationforhyperbolicsystemswithsti?relaxationsource terms YoshifumiSuzuki,BramvanLeer...59 Contents IX VeryHighOrder,Non-OscillatoryFluctuationDistribution Schemes M. E. Hubbard,N. Z. Mebrate...65 High-orderresidualdistribution:discontinuitycapturing crosswinddissipationanddi?usion N. Villedieu-Ligout,M. Ricchiuto,H. Deconinck...7 1 High-OrderFluctuation-SplittingSchemesforAdvection- Di?usionEquations HiroakiNishikawaandPhilipRoe...77 ConstructionofHigherOrderResidualDistributionSchemes R'emiAbgrallandC'edricTav'e...83 Stableandconvergentresidualdistributionforti- dependentconservationlaws MarioRicchiuto,R'emiAbgrall...89 AnALEFormulationoftheMultidimensionalResidual DistributionSchemeforComputationsonMovingMeshes Jir'?Dobes,HermanDeconinck...95 SolutionofthesteadyEulerequationsusingFluctuation Splittingschemesonquadrilateralelements D. T. Rubino,P. DePalma,G. Pascazio,M. Napolitano ...101 AResidual-BasedCompactSchemeforAll-SpeedFlowson UnstructuredGrids ChristopheCorre,AlbertoBeccantini,ThibaudKloczko ...107 VorticityPreservingSchemeforUnsteadyCompressible Flows FabriceFalissard,AlainLerat,JacquesSid'es ...113 ExtensionoftheSDMethodtoViscousFlowonUnstructured Grids Z. J. Wang,YuzhiSun,C. Liang,Yen,Liu...119 StrictlyStableHighOrderDi?erenceMethodsforthe CompressibleEulerandNavier-StokesEquations BernhardMul ..ler...125 UniformFlowPreservingPropertyofHighOrderUpwind FiniteDi?erenceSchemesonGeneralizedCoordinateSystem TakuNonomura,NobuyukiIizuka,KozoFujii...1 31 X Contents ImplementationofanEnhancedFluxFormulationfor UnsteadyNavier-StokesSolutions G. Xia,S. Sardeshmukh,V. Sankaran,C. L. Merkle...137 ComputationofEigenspacesofHyperbolicSystems S. K. Godunov,O. B. Feodoritova,V. T. Zhukov...143 AProposedCuretotheCarbunclePhenomenon FarzadIsmail,PhilipL. Roe,HiroakiNishikawa ...149 TheHighOrderWLSQRSchemeanditsApplicationsin Turbomachinery Jivr'?Furst ...

In the field of Dynamical Systems, nonlinear iterative processes play an important role. Nonlinear mappings can be found as immediate models for many systems from different scientific areas, such as engineering, economics, biology, or can also be obtained via numerical methods permitting to solve non-linear differential equations. In both cases, the understanding of specific dynamical behaviors and phenomena is of the greatest interest for scientists. This volume contains papers that were presented at the International Workshop on Nonlinear Maps and their Applications (NOMA 2011) held in Evora, Portugal, on September 15-16, 2011. This kind of collaborative effort is of paramount importance in promoting communication among the various groups that work in dynamical systems and networks in their research theoretical studies as well as for applications. This volume is suitable for graduate students as well as researchers in the field.

Extra dimensions ? beyond space and time ? are the best methods for unifying gravity with particle physics. The basic extension is to five dimensions (5D), as in the induced-matter and membrane theory. This descriptive text gives an up-to-date account of the classical and quantum consequences of 5D physics. It includes topics that range from Einstein's original theory of relativity to modern views on matter. The book is mathematically precise and focuses on new ideas which appeal to readers. Examples of new ideas are: The big-bang universe, which is curved by matter in 4D, may be viewed as a smooth and empty world in 5D; the uncertainty of quantum interactions in spacetime may be regarded as the consequence of deterministic laws in higher dimensions. This book will interest people who think about the ?meaning of things?.

This volume is an interdisciplinary book which introduces, in a very readable way, state-of-the-art research in the fundamental topics of mathematical modelling of Biosystems. In short, the book offers an overview of mathematical and computational modelling of biosystems including biological phenomena in general. There is also a special introduction to Protein Physics which aims to explain the all-or-none first order phase transitions from native to denatured states.

This book focuses on the analysis and design of advanced techniques for on-line automatic computational monitoring of pipelines and pipe networks. It discusses how to improve the systems' security considering mathematical models of the flow, historical flow rate and pressure data, with the main goal of reducing the number of sensors installed along a pipeline. The techniques presented in the book have been implemented in digital systems to enhance the abilities of the pipeline network's operators in recognizing anomalies. A real leak scenario in a Mexican water pipeline is used to illustrate the benefits of these techniques in locating the position of a leak. Intended for an interdisciplinary audience, the book addresses researchers and professionals in the areas of mechanical, civil and control engineering. It covers topics on fluid mechanics, instrumentation, automatic control, signal processing, computing, construction and diagnostic technologies.

Hyperbolic geometry is an essential part of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology. Besides specialists of these domains, many specialists of new domains start to show a growing interest
both to hyperbolic geometry and to cellular automata. This is especially the case in biology and computer science.

This book gives the reader a deep and efficient introduction to an algorithmic approach to hyperbolic geometry. It focuses the attention on the possibilities to obtain in this frame the power of computing everything a computer can compute, that is to say: universality.

The minimal ways to get universality are investigated in a large family of tilings of the hyperbolic plane. In several cases the best results are obtained.In all cases, the results are close to the theoretical best values. This gives rise to fantastic illustrations: the results are jewels in all meanings of the word.

------------------------

Maurice MARGENSTERN is professor emeritus at the University of Lorraine, he is a member of LITA, the research unit of computer science in the campus of Metz of this university. Professor Margenstern is amongst top world experts in theory of computation, mathematical machines and geometry. He is a pioneer
in cellular automata in hyperbolic spaces.

Vehicular communication is a key technology in intelligent transportation systems. For many years now, the academic and industrial research communities have been investigating these communications in order to improve efficiency and safety of future transportation. Vehicular networking offers a wide variety of applications, including safety applications as well as infotainment applications. This book highlights the recent developments in vehicular networking technologies and their interaction with future smart cities in order to promote further research activities and challenges. SAADI BOUDJIT, University of Paris 13, France HAKIMA CHAOUCHI, Telecom SudParis, France YACINE GHAMRI, University La Rochelle, France HALABI HASBULLAH, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia ANIS LAOUITI, Telecom SudParis, France SAOUCENE MAHFOUDH, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia PAUL MUHLETHALER, INRIA, France AMIR QAYYUM, Mohamad Ali Jinnah University, Pakistan NAUFAL SAAD, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia AHMED SOUA, NIST, USA HAJIME TAZAKI, University of Tokyo, Japan APINUN TUNPAN, Aintec, Thailand WEI WEI, Xi'an University, China RACHID ZAGROUBA, ENSI, Tunisia.

Mean field approximation has been adopted to describe macroscopic phenomena from microscopic overviews. It is still in progress; fluid mechanics, gauge theory, plasma physics, quantum chemistry, mathematical oncology, non-equilibirum thermodynamics. spite of such a wide range of scientific areas that are concerned with the mean field theory, a unified study of its mathematical structure has not been discussed explicitly in the open literature. The benefit of this point of view on nonlinear problems should have significant impact on future research, as will be seen from the underlying features of self-assembly or bottom-up self-organization which is to be illustrated in a unified way. The aim of this book is to formulate the variational and hierarchical aspects of the equations that arise in the mean field theory from macroscopic profiles to microscopic principles, from dynamics to equilibrium, and from biological models to models that arise from chemistry and physics.

Symbolic asymptotics has recently undergone considerable theoretical development, especially in areas where power series are no longer an appropriate tool. Implementation is beginning to follow.

The present book, written by one of the leading specialists in the area, is currently the only one to treat this part of symbolic asymptotics. It contains a good deal of interesting material in a new, developing field of mathematics at the intersection of algebra, analysis and computing, presented in a lively and readable way. The associated areas of zero equivalence and Hardy fields are also covered.

The book is intended to be accessible to anyone with a good general background in mathematics, but it nonetheless gets right to the cutting edge of active research. Some results appear here for the first time, while others have hitherto only been given in preprints.

Due to its clear presentation, this book is interesting for a broad audience of mathematicians and theoretical computer scientists.

This textbook focuses on the cohort change ratio (CCR) method. It presents powerful, yet relatively simple ways to generate accurate demographic estimates and forecasts that are cost efficient and require fewer resources than other techniques. The concepts, analytical frameworks, and methodological tools presented do not require extensive knowledge of demographics, mathematics, or statistics. The demographic focus is on the characteristics of populations, especially age and sex composition, but these methods are applicable estimating and forecasting other characteristics and total population. The book contains more traditional applications such as the Hamilton-Perry method, but also includes new applications of the CCR method such as stable population theory. Real world empirical examples are provided for every application; along with excel files containing data and program code, which are accessible online. Topics covered include basic demographic measures, sources of demographic information, forecasting and estimating (both current and historical) populations, modifications to current methods, forecasting school enrollment and other characteristics, estimating life expectancy, stable population theory, decomposition of the CCR into its migration and mortality components, and the utility of the CCR. This textbook is designed to provide material for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course on demographic methods. It can also be used as a supplement for other courses including applied demography, business and economic forecasting and market research.

This volume comprises selected extended papers written by prominent researchers participating in the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2015, Hong Kong, 18-20 March 2015. The conference served as a platform for discussion of frontier topics in theoretical and applied engineering and computer science, and subjects covered include communications systems, control theory and automation, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, data mining, engineering mathematics, scientific computing, engineering physics, electrical engineering, and industrial applications. The book describes the state-of-the-art in engineering technologies and computer science and its applications, and will serve as an excellent reference for industrial and academic researchers and graduate students working in these fields.

This book aims to present a viable alternative to the Hopfield Neural Network (HNN) model for analog computation. It is well known the standard HNN suffers from problems of convergence to local minima, and requirement of a large number of neurons and synaptic weights. Therefore, improved solutions are needed. The non-linear synapse neural network (NoSyNN) is one such possibility and is discussed in detail in this book. This book also discusses the applications in computationally intensive tasks like graph coloring, ranking, and linear as well as quadratic programming. The material in the book is useful to students, researchers and academician working in the area of analog computation.

This volume contains eight state of the art contributions on mathematical aspects and applications of fast boundary element methods in engineering and industry. This covers the analysis and numerics of boundary integral equations by using differential forms, preconditioning of hp boundary element methods, the application of fast boundary element methods for solving challenging problems in magnetostatics, the simulation of micro electro mechanical systems, and for contact problems in solid mechanics. Other contributions are on recent results on boundary element methods for the solution of transient problems. This book is addressed to researchers, graduate students and practitioners working on and using boundary element methods. All contributions also show the great achievements of interdisciplinary research between mathematicians and engineers, with direct applications in engineering and industry.

Inverse Problems is a monograph which contains a self-contained presentation of the theory of several major inverse problems and the closely related results from the theory of ill-posed problems. The book is aimed at a large audience which include graduate students and researchers in mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences and in the area of numerical analysis.

This book provides a practical, comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the use of spatial statistics in epidemiology - the study of the incidence and distribution of diseases. Used appropriately, spatial analytical methods in conjunction with GIS and remotely sensed data can provide significant insights into the biological patterns and processes that underlie disease transmission. In turn, these can be used to understand and predict disease prevalence. This user-friendly text brings together the specialised and widely-dispersed literature on spatial analysis to make these methodological tools accessible to epidemiologists for the first time.
With its focus is on application rather than theory, Spatial Analysis in Epidemiology includes a wide range of examples taken from both medical (human) and veterinary (animal) disciplines, and describes both infectious diseases and non-infectious conditions. Furthermore, it provides worked examples of methodologies using a single data set from the same disease example throughout, and is structured to follow the logical sequence of description of spatial data, visualisation, exploration, modelling and decision support. This accessible text is aimed at graduate students and researchers dealing with spatial data in the fields of epidemiology (both medical and veterinary), ecology, zoology and parasitology, environmental science, geography and statistics.