This volume has its origin in the Seventeenth International Workshop on Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods, MAXENT 97. The workshop was held at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, on August 4 -8, 1997. As in the past, the purpose of the workshop was to bring together researchers in different fields to present papers on applications of Bayesian methods (these include maximum entropy) in science, engineering, medicine, economics, and many other disciplines. Thanks to significant theoretical advances and the personal computer, much progress has been made since our first Workshop in 1981. As indicated by several papers in these proceedings, the subject has matured to a stage in which computational algorithms are the objects of interest, the thrust being on feasibility, efficiency and innovation. Though applications are proliferating at a staggering rate, some in areas that hardly existed a decade ago, it is pleasing that due attention is still being paid to foundations of the subject. The following list of descriptors, applicable to papers in this volume, gives a sense of its contents: deconvolution, inverse problems, instrument (point-spread) function, model comparison, multi sensor data fusion, image processing, tomography, reconstruction, deformable models, pattern recognition, classification and group analysis, segmentation/edge detection, brain shape, marginalization, algorithms, complexity, Ockham's razor as an inference tool, foundations of probability theory, symmetry, history of probability theory and computability. MAXENT 97 and these proceedings could not have been brought to final form without the support and help of a number of people.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology, Inscrypt 2011, held in Beijing, China, in November/December 2011. The 24 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 80 submissions. The papers present research advances in the areas of information security, cryptology, and their applications.

High performance computing consumes and generates vast amounts of data, and the storage, retrieval, and transmission of this data are major obstacles to effective use of computing power. Challenges inherent in all of these operations are security, speed, reliability, authentication and reproducibility. This workshop focused on a wide variety of technical results aimed at meeting these challenges. Topics ranging from the mathematics of coding theory to the practicalities of copyright preservation for Internet resources drew spirited discussion and interaction among experts in diverse but related fields. We hope this volume contributes to continuing this dialogue.

Informational Macrodynamics (IMD) presents the unified information systemic approach with common information language for modeling, analysis and optimization of a variety of interactive processes, such as physical, biological, economical, social, and informational, including human activities. Comparing it with thermodynamics, which deals with transformation energy and represents a theoretical foundation of physical technology, IMD deals with transformation information, and can be considered a theoretical foundation of Information Computer Technology (ICT). ICT includes but is not limited to applied computer science, computer information systems, computer and data communications, software engineering, and artificial intelligence. In ICT, information flows from different data sources, and interacts to create new information products. The information flows may interact physically or via their virtual connections, initiating an information dynamic process that can be distributed in space. As in physics, a problem is understanding general regularities of the information processes in terms of information law, for the engineering and technological design, control, optimization, and development of computer technology, operations, manipulations, and management of real information objects. Information Systems Analysis and Modeling: An Informational Macrodynamics Approach belongs to an interdisciplinary science that represents the new theoretical and computer-based methodology for system informational description and improvement, including various activities in such interdisciplinary areas as thinking, intelligent processes, management, and other nonphysical subjects with their mutual interactions, informational superimpositions, and the information transferred between interactions. Information Systems Analysis and Modeling: An Informational Macrodynamics Approach can be used as a textbook or secondary text in courses on computer science, engineering, business, management, education, and psychology and as a reference for research and industry.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Network and System Security, NSS 2012, held in Wuyishan, Fujian, China, in November 2012. The 39 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 173 submissions. The papers cover the following topics: network security, system security, public key cryptography, privacy, authentication, security analysis, and access control.

The book introduces new techniques which imply rigorous lower bounds on the complexity of some number theoretic and cryptographic problems. These methods and techniques are based on bounds of character sums and numbers of solutions of some polynomial equations over finite fields and residue rings. It also contains a number of open problems and proposals for further research. We obtain several lower bounds, exponential in terms of logp, on the de grees and orders of * polynomials; * algebraic functions; * Boolean functions; * linear recurring sequences; coinciding with values of the discrete logarithm modulo a prime p at suf ficiently many points (the number of points can be as small as pI/He). These functions are considered over the residue ring modulo p and over the residue ring modulo an arbitrary divisor d of p - 1. The case of d = 2 is of special interest since it corresponds to the representation of the right most bit of the discrete logarithm and defines whether the argument is a quadratic residue. We also obtain non-trivial upper bounds on the de gree, sensitivity and Fourier coefficients of Boolean functions on bits of x deciding whether x is a quadratic residue. These results are used to obtain lower bounds on the parallel arithmetic and Boolean complexity of computing the discrete logarithm. For example, we prove that any unbounded fan-in Boolean circuit. of sublogarithmic depth computing the discrete logarithm modulo p must be of superpolynomial size.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Security, Privacy and Applied Cryptography Engineering held in Chennai, India, in November 2012.

The 11 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 61 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on symmetric-key algorithms and cryptanalysis, cryptographic implementations, side channel analysis and countermeasures, fault tolerance of cryptosystems, physically unclonable functions, public-key schemes and cryptanalysis, analysis and design of security protocol, security of systems and applications, high-performance computing in cryptology and cryptography in ubiquitous devices.

Cryptography in Chinese consists of two characters meaning "secret coded". Thanks to Ch'in Chiu-Shao and his successors, the Chinese Remainder Theorem became a cornerstone of public key cryptography. Today, as we observe the constant usage of high-speed computers interconnected via the Internet, we realize that cryptography and its related applications have developed far beyond "secret coding". China, which is rapidly developing in all areas of technology, is also writing a new page of history in cryptography. As more and more Chinese become recognized as leading researchers in a variety of topics in cryptography, it is not surprising that many of them are Professor Xiao's former students. Progress on Cryptography: 25 Years of Cryptography in China is a compilation of papers presented at an international workshop in conjunction with the ChinaCrypt, 2004. After 20 years, the research interests of the group have extended to a variety of areas in cryptography. This edited volume includes 32 contributed chapters. The material will cover a range of topics, from mathematical results of cryptography to practical applications. This book also includes a sample of research, conducted by Professor Xiao's former and current students. Progress on Cryptography: 25 Years of Cryptography in China is designed for a professional audience, composed of researchers and practitioners in industry. This book is also suitable as a secondary text for graduate-level students in computer science, mathematics and engineering.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information and Communications Security, ICICS 2012, held in Hong Kong, China, in October 2012. The 23 regular papers and 26 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 101 submissions. The papers cover many important areas in information security such as privacy, security in mobile systems, software and network security, cryptanalysis, applied cryptography as well as GPU-enabled computation.

This is the second volume in a series of innovative proceedings entirely devoted to the connections between mathematics and computer science. Here mathematics and computer science are directly confronted and joined to tackle intricate problems in computer science with deep and innovative mathematical approaches.

The book serves as an outstanding tool and a main information source for a large public in applied mathematics, discrete mathematics and computer science, including researchers, teachers, graduate students and engineers. It provides an overview of the current questions in computer science and the related modern and powerful mathematical methods. The range of applications is very wide and reaches beyond computer science.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th Nordic Conference on Secure IT Systems, NordSec 2012, held in Karlskrona, Sweden, in October 2012. The 16 revised papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on application security, security management, system security, network security, and trust management.

This book offers a new, theoretical approach to information dynamics, i.e., information processing in complex dynamical systems. The presentation establishes a consistent theoretical framework for the problem of discovering knowledge behind empirical, dynamical data and addresses applications in information processing and coding in dynamical systems. This will be an essential reference for those in neural computing, information theory, nonlinear dynamics and complex systems modeling.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed conference proceedings of the 4th International Conference on E-Voting and Identity, Vote ID 2013, held in Guildford, UK, during July 17-19, 2013. The 12 revised full papers presented were carefully selected from 26 submissions. The papers include a range of works on end-to-end verifiable election systems, verifiably correct complex tallying algorithms, human perceptions of verifiability, formal models of verifiability and, of course, attacks on systems formerly advertised as verifiable.

YUNMIN ZHU In the past two decades, multi sensor or multi-source information fusion tech niques have attracted more and more attention in practice, where observations are processed in a distributed manner and decisions or estimates are made at the individual processors, and processed data (or compressed observations) are then transmitted to a fusion center where the final global decision or estimate is made. A system with multiple distributed sensors has many advantages over one with a single sensor. These include an increase in the capability, reliability, robustness and survivability of the system. Distributed decision or estimation fusion prob lems for cases with statistically independent observations or observation noises have received significant attention (see Varshney's book Distributed Detec tion and Data Fusion, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1997, Bar-Shalom's book Multitarget-Multisensor Tracking: Advanced Applications, vol. 1-3, Artech House, 1990, 1992,2000). Problems with statistically dependent observations or observation noises are more difficult and have received much less study. In practice, however, one often sees decision or estimation fusion problems with statistically dependent observations or observation noises. For instance, when several sensors are used to detect a random signal in the presence of observation noise, the sensor observations could not be statistically independent when the signal is present. This book provides a more complete treatment of the fundamentals of multi sensor decision and estimation fusion in order to deal with general random ob servations or observation noises that are correlated across the sensors."

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Mathematical Methods, Models, and Architectures for Computer Network Security, MMM-ACNS 2012, held in St. Petersburg, Russia in October 2012. The 14 revised full papers and 8 revised short presentations were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 44 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on applied cryptography and security protocols, access control and information protection, security policies, security event and information management, instrusion prevention, detection and response, anti-malware techniques, security modeling and cloud security.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed conference proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Trusted Systems, INTRUST 2013, held in Graz, Austria, in December 2013. The revised full papers focus on the theory, technologies and applications of trusted systems. They cover all aspects of trusted computing systems, including trusted modules, platforms, networks, services and applications, from their fundamental features and functionalities to design principles, architecture and implementation technologies.

Introduction to Convolutional Codes with Applications is an introduction to the basic concepts of convolutional codes, their structure and classification, various error correction and decoding techniques for convolutionally encoded data, and some of the most common applications. The definition and representations, distance properties, and important classes of convolutional codes are also discussed in detail. The book provides the first comprehensive description of table-driven correction and decoding of convolutionally encoded data. Complete examples of Viterbi, sequential, and majority-logic decoding technique are also included, allowing a quick comparison among the different decoding approaches. Introduction to Convolutional Codes with Applications summarizes the research of the last two decades on applications of convolutional codes in hybrid ARQ protocols. A new classification allows a natural way of studying the underlying concepts of hybrid schemes and accommodates all of the new research. A novel application of fast decodable invertible convolutional codes for lost packet recovery in high speed networks is described. This opens the door for using convolutional coding for error recovery in high speed networks. Practicing communications, electronics, and networking engineers who want to get a better grasp of the underlying concepts of convolutional coding and its applications will greatly benefit by the simple and concise style of explanation. An up-to-date bibliography of over 300 papers is included. Also suitable for use as a textbook or a reference text in an advanced course on coding theory with emphasis on convolutional codes.

"Digital Communications" presents the theory and application of the philosophy of Digital Communication systems in a unique but lucid form. The book inserts equal importance to the theory and application aspect of the subject whereby the authors selected a wide class of problems.

The Salient features of the book are:

1. The foundation of Fourier series, Transform and wavelets are introduces in a unique way but in lucid language.

2. The application area is rich and resemblance to the present trend of research, as we are attached with those areas professionally.

3. Elegant exercise section is designed in such a way that, the readers can get the flavor of the subject and get attracted towards the future scopes of the subject.

4. Unparallel tabular, flow chart based and pictorial methodology description will be there for sustained impression of the proposed design/algorithms in mind.

Physicists, when modelling physical systems with a large number of degrees of freedom, and statisticians, when performing data analysis, have developed their own concepts and methods for making the `best' inference. But are these methods equivalent, or not? What is the state of the art in making inferences? The physicists want answers. More: neural computation demands a clearer understanding of how neural systems make inferences; the theory of chaotic nonlinear systems as applied to time series analysis could profit from the experience already booked by the statisticians; and finally, there is a long-standing conjecture that some of the puzzles of quantum mechanics are due to our incomplete understanding of how we make inferences. Matter enough to stimulate the writing of such a book as the present one. But other considerations also arise, such as the maximum entropy method and Bayesian inference, information theory and the minimum description length. Finally, it is pointed out that an understanding of human inference may require input from psychologists. This lively debate, which is of acute current interest, is well summarized in the present work.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 9th International ICST Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, held in Sydney, Australia, in September 2013. The 26 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 70 submissions. The papers are grouped in topical sections on: security and privacy in mobile, sensor and ad hoc networks; malware, botnets and distributed denial of service; security for emerging technologies: VoIP, peer-to-peer and cloud computing; encryption and key management; security in software and machine learning; network and system security model; security and privacy in pervasive and ubiquitous computing.

New technology is always evolving and companies must have appropriate security for their businesses to be able to keep up to date with the changes. With the rapid growth of the internet and the world wide web, data and applications security will always be a key topic in industry as well as in the public sector, and has implications for the whole of society. Data and Applications Security covers issues related to security and privacy of information in a wide range of applications, including: * Electronic Commerce, XML and Web Security; * Workflow Security and Role-based Access Control; * Distributed Objects and Component Security; * Inference Problem, Data Mining and Intrusion Detection; * Language and SQL Security; * Security Architectures and Frameworks; * Federated and Distributed Systems Security; * Encryption, Authentication and Security Policies. This book contains papers and panel discussions from the Fourteenth Annual Working Conference on Database Security, which is part of the Database Security: Status and Prospects conference series sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).The conference was held in Schoorl, The Netherlands in August 2000.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Information Security, ISC 2015, held in Passau, Germany, in September 2012. The 23 revised full papers presented together with one invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 72 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on cryptography and cryptanalysis, mobility, cards and sensors, software security, processing encrypted data, authentication and identification, new directions in access control, GPU for security, and models for risk and revocation.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security, CANS 2013, held in Paraty, Brazil, in November 2013.

The 18 revised full papers presented together with four invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 57 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on cryptanalysis, zero-knowledge protocols, distributed protocols, network security and applications, advanced cryptographic primitives, and verifiable computation.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th European Symposium on Computer Security, ESORICS 2012, held in Pisa, Italy, in September 2012. The 50 papers included in the book were carefully reviewed and selected from 248 papers. The articles are organized in topical sections on security and data protection in real systems; formal models for cryptography and access control; security and privacy in mobile and wireless networks; counteracting man-in-the-middle attacks; network security; users privacy and anonymity; location privacy; voting protocols and anonymous communication; private computation in cloud systems; formal security models; identity based encryption and group signature; authentication; encryption key and password security; malware and phishing; and software security.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, CHES 2012, held in Leuven, Belgium, in September 2012. The 32 papers presented together with 1 invited talk were carefully reviewed and selected from 120 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: intrusive attacks and countermeasures; masking; improved fault attacks and side channel analysis; leakage resiliency and security analysis; physically unclonable functions; efficient implementations; lightweight cryptography; we still love RSA; and hardware implementations.