The construction enterprise is being transformed by visual modelling. Once principally used by researchers and in niche industries, tools such as 3D/4D CAD and virtual reality are now in widespread use in construction. This book is both a survey of the changes being made in practice and a detailed guide to future directions for research and development bringing together the work of leading practitioners and academics. A particular strength of the book is its many detailed case studies and examples, making it an excellent resource for practitioners, researchers, and students seeking to understand the details of how new tools and methods are applied in a business context. The 11 chapters address following topics: - Uses of 3D/4D CAD and its costs and benefits, - Applications of visual modelling at the work face, - Applications of visual modelling in the designer office, - Technical integration of visual modelling tools such as 3D/4D CAD and virtual reality.

In this book, the author's strong commitment to the multi-disciplinary field of regional science emerges to provide a unifying framework between spatial modelling traditions from quantitative geography and those from spatial economics, whereby each is enhanced. Starting with a detailed discussion of each field illustrated with numerical examples, the two traditions are brought together by either making the economic models probabilistic or transforming the objectives of the geographic models to reflect both utility theory and production theory. The ideas are applied to develop urban models of activity analysis, face-to-face contacts and housing supply, as well as regional models in the areas of input-output analysis, imperfect competition and interregional migration.

This book is intended for practitioners and applied researchers in remote sensing applications and also for graduate students in the field. This reference provides a surface scattering model covering the entire frequency axis instead of only high- or low-frequency models. The text includes extensive model behaviours and case studies and demonstrates the effectiveness of combining the models and neural networks to classify and retrieve terrain and rough surface parameters.

This book illustrates the current work of leading multilevel modeling (MLM) researchers from around the world.

The book's goal is to critically examine the real problems that occur when trying to use MLMs in applied research, such as power, experimental design, and model violations. This presentation of cutting-edge work and statistical innovations in multilevel modeling includes topics such as growth modeling, repeated measures analysis, nonlinear modeling, outlier detection, and meta analysis.

This volume will be beneficial for researchers with advanced statistical training and extensive experience in applying multilevel models, especially in the areas of education; clinical intervention; social, developmental and health psychology, and other behavioral sciences; or as a supplement for an introductory graduate-level course.

"Examines classic algorithms, geometric diagrams, and mechanical principles for enhances visualization of statistical estimation procedures and mathematical concepts in physics, engineering, and computer programming."

In this thesis, novel Monte Carlo methods for precisely calculating the critical phenomena of the effectively frustrated quantum spin system are developed and applied to the critical phenomena of the spin-Peierls systems. Three significant methods are introduced for the first time: a new optimization algorithm of the Markov chain transition kernel based on the geometric weight-allocation approach, the extension of the worm (directed-loop) algorithm to nonconserved particles, and the combination with the level spectroscopy. Utilizing these methods, the phase diagram of the one-dimensional XXZ spin-Peierls system is elucidated. Furthermore, the multi-chain and two-dimensional spin-Peierls systems with interchain lattice interaction are investigated. The unbiased simulation shows that the interesting quantum phase transition between the 1D-like liquid phase and the macroscopically-degenerated dimer phase occurs on the fully-frustrated parameter line that separates the doubly-degenerated dimer phases in the two-dimensional phase diagram. The spin-phonon interaction in the spin-Peierls system introduces the spin frustration, which usually hinders the quantum Monte Carlo analysis, owing to the notorious negative sign problem. In this thesis, the author has succeeded in precisely calculating the critical phenomena of the effectively frustrated quantum spin system by means of the quantum Monte Carlo method without the negative sign.

This book is based on a number of systems concepts, of which the following are emphasized here: oThe interacting systems of society and the environment are dynamic and evolution ary oEvolution of these systems carries them through stages of differential stability and instability, continuity and discontinuity oAssociated with evolution and instability is structural change that is essentially irre versible oThe present is a stage of world transformation that may not have been equaled for decades or even centuries oPolicies and decisions must match the times, in the present case the stage of world transformation The time 11:59:59 PM, approximately, on December 31, 2000 has an impor tant symbolic meaning. It marks the end of a minute, the end of an hour, the end of a day, the end of a year, the end of a decade, the end of a century, and the end of a millennium. The time and date provide a convenient yardstick against which we can evaluate the evolution of our thinking and the adequacy of our assumptions, mental models, paradigms, and policies. Will the beginning tum out to be appropriately dif ferent from the end? We hope that this book is helpful in such evaluation. This is a new-paradigm book, which both presents and advances the new way of thinking about the systems of science, technology, society, economics, politics, and the environment, and actively calls for the replacement of the worn out cognitive/sociotechnical paradigm."

"Fundamentals of Wearable Computers and Augmented Reality" presents a broad coverage of the technologies and interface design issues associated with wearable computers and augmented reality displays both rapidly developing fields in computer science, engineering, and human interface design. This book presents concepts related to the use and underlying technologies of augmented reality and wearable computer systems. There are many application areas for this technology, such as medicine, manufacturing, training, and recreation. Wearable computers will allow a much closer association of information with the user than is possible with traditional desktop computers.
This book addresses an important aspect of wearable computers and augmented reality, either from the conceptual or from an application framework. Given the wide coverage of topics on issues related to the display of computer-generated images in the environment, this book can be used as a text for computer science, computer engineering, and interface design courses.

Many types of engineering structures exhibit nonlinear behavior under real operating conditions. Sometimes the unpredicted nonlinear behavior of a system results in catastrophic failure. In civil engineering, grandstands at sporting events and concerts may be prone to nonlinear oscillations due to looseness of joints, friction, and crowd movements. In the aerospace industry, nonlinear motions may have serious implications for fatigue life. In the automotive industry, examples include brake sequel and undesirable engine mounting oscillations. Engineers of all types encounter nonlinear behavior in a system at some time in their working lives and should be able to recognize it.
Nonlinearity in Structural Dynamics: Detection, Identification and Modeling provides a background in techniques that can be applied to situations in which nonlinearity plays, or is suspected to play, a role in the dynamic structural behavior. Striking a good balance between theory and application, the book covers both analytical and experimental methods and describes their application to real structures. The authors include numerous examples of nonlinearity in real engineering systems. The book is essential reading for engineers and scientists in the fields of structural dynamics and nonlinearity as well as a useful supplement for graduate and senior undergraduate students in engineering courses.

The latest volume in this influential series brings together topical and authoritative contributions from leading international professionals involved in the use of games and simulations. With contributors offering examples drawn from a wide variety of countries including the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia and Russia, the book provides a global perspective on a key topic.

This volume contains the results of the Manchester Benchmarking exercise for railway vehicle dynamics simulation packages. Five of the main computer packages currently used for this purpose were examined in the exercise and the results are presented in the form of tables and graphs.

This volume contains the articles presented at the 18th International Meshing Roundtable (IMR) organized, in part, by Sandia National Laboratories and held October 25-28, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The volume presents recent results of mesh generation and adaptation which has applications to finite element simulation. It introduces theoretical and novel ideas with practical potential.

Rapid regeneration of city areas has placed the quality of urban design high on public and policy agendas worldwide. This work examines the achievement of quality in the urban environment, in a planning context. Tracing urban design from its roots, the authors draw on both historical and current practices to examine the key physical, political and economic forces at play and the social pressures and impacts brought about by both failures and achievements in urban design. This illustrated critique of towns and cities draws on examples from across Western Europe, South Africa and USA to examine both public and private sector development practices, controls and fiscal policies within a diverse range of localities. The authors indicate the need for a reinstitution of region-provincial approaches, for closer co-ordination bewteen sectors, and revised fiscal policies in planning and development in order to enhance the quality of urban social experience and environments.

This book is on urban resilience - how to design and operate cities that can withstand major threats such as natural disasters and economic downturns and how to recover from them. It is a collection of latest research results from two separate but collaborating research groups, namely, researchers in urban design and those on general resilience theory. The book systematically deals with the core aspects of urban resilience: systems, management issues and populations. The taxonomy can be broken down into threats, systems, resilience cycles and recovery types in the context of urban resilience. It starts with a discussion of systems resilience models, focusing on the central idea that resilience is a moving average of costs (a set of trajectories in a two-player game paradigm). The second section explores management issues, including planning, operating and emergency response in cities with specific examples such as land-use planning and carbon-neutral scenarios for urban planning. The next section focuses on urban dwellers and specific people-related issues in the context of resilience. Agent-based simulation of behaviour and perception-based resilience, as well as brand crisis management are representative examples of the topics discussed. A further section examines systems like public utilities - including managing power supplies, cyber-security issues and models for pandemics. It concludes with a discussion of the future challenges and risks facing complex systems, for example in resilient power grids, making it essential reading for a wide range of researchers and policymakers.

The contributed volume collects cutting-edge research in GeoComputational Analysis of Regional Systems. The contributions emphasize methodological innovations or substantive breakthroughs on many facets of the socio-economic and environmental reality of regional contexts.

Structured Biological Modelling presents a straightforward introduction for computer-aided analysis, mathematical modelling, and simulation of cell biological systems. This unique guide brings together the physiological, structural, molecular biological, and theoretical aspects of the signal transduction network that regulates growth and proliferation in normal and tumor cells. It provides comprehensive survey of functional and theoretical features of intracellular signal processing and introduces the concept of cellular self-organization. Exemplified by oscillatory calcium waves, strategies for the design of computer experiments are presented that can assist or even substitute for time-consuming biological experiments. The presented minimal model for proliferation-associated signal transduction clearly shows the alterations of the cellular signal network involved in neoplastic growth. This book will be useful to cell and molecular biologists, oncologists, physiologists, theoretical biologists, computer scientists, and all other researchers and students studying functional aspects of cellular signaling.

Contents:
Generalisation: State of the Art and Issues; GIS-Based Compilation and Generalisation; Three Essential Building Blocks for Automated Generalisation; Data and Knowledge Modelling for Generalisation; Controlling the Effects of Generalisation on GIS Map Manipulations; A Hierarchical top-down bottom-up Approach to Topographic Map Generalisation.

With the widespread use of VRML browsers, e.g., as part of the Netscape and Internet Explorer standard distributions, everyone connected to the Internet can directly enter a virtual world without installing a new kind of software. The VRML technology offers the basis for new forms of customer service such as interactive three-dimensional product configuration, spare part ordering, or customer training. Also, this technology can be used for CSCW in intranets.The reader should be familiar with programming languages and computers and, in particular, should know Java or at least an object-oriented programming language. The book not only provides and explains source code, which can be used as a starting point for own implementations, but it also describes the fundamental problems and how currently known solutions work. It discusses a variety of different techniques and trade-offs. Many illustrations help the reader to understand and memorize the underlying principles.

Highlighting and illustrating several important and interesting theoretical trends that have emerged in the continuing development of instructional technology, this book's organizational framework is based on the notion of two opposing camps. One evolves out of the intelligent tutoring movement, which employs artificial-intelligence technologies in the service of student modeling and precision diagnosis, and the other emerges from a constructivist/developmental perspective that promotes exploration and social interaction, but tends to reject the methods and goals of the student modelers. While the notion of opposing camps tends to create an artificial rift between groups of researchers, it represents a conceptual distinction that is inherently more interesting and informative than the relatively meaningless divide often drawn between "intelligent" and "unintelligent" instructional systems.
An evident trend is that researchers in both "camps" view their computer learning environments as "cognitive tools" that can enhance learning, performance, and understanding. Cognitive tools are objects provided by the instructional environment that allow students to incorporate new auxiliary methods or symbols into their social problem solving which otherwise would be unavailable. A final section of the book represents researchers who are assimilating and accommodating the wisdom and creativity of their neighbors from both camps, perhaps forming the look of technology for the future. When the idea of model tracing in a computer-based environment is combined with appreciation for creative mind-extension cognitive tools and for how a community of learners can facilitate learning, a camp is created where AI technologists and social constructivist learning theorists can feel equally at home.

CAAd Futures is a Bi-annual Conference that aims at promoting the advancement of computer aided architectural design in the service of those concerned with the quality of the built environment. The conferences are organised under the auspices of the CAAD Futures Foundation which has its secretariat at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The Series of conferences started in 1985 in Delft, and has since travelled through Eindhoven, Boston, Zurich, Pittsburgh, Singapore, Munich, and Atlanta. The book contains the proceedings of the 9th CAAD Futures conference which took place at Eindhoven University of Technology, 8-11 of July, 2001. The Articles in this book cover a wide range of subjects and provide an excellent overview of the state-of-the-art in research on computer aided architectural design. The following categories of articles are included: Capturing design; Information modelling; CBR techniques; Virtual reality; CAAD education; (Hyper) Media; Design evaluation; Design systems development; Collaboration; Generation; Design representation; Knowledge management; Form programming; Simulation; Architectural analysis; Urban design. Information on the CAAD Futures Foundation and its conferences can be found at: www.caadfutures.arch.tue.nl. Information about the 2001 Conference and this book is available from: www.caadfutures.arch.tue.nl/2001.

Systems approaches are excellent in integrating insights in the physical, chemical, Systemsapproachesareexcellentinintegratinginsightsinthephysical, chemical, physiological and ecological processes that dictate the behaviour of living systems, of physiologicalandecologicalprocessesthatdictatethebehaviouroflivingsystems, of which which agro-ecosystems agro-ecosystems are are important importantones. ones. Furthermore, Furthermore, they theyhelp help to tobridge bridge the the gap gap between betweendetailed detailed process processoriented oriented studies studies and and higher higherintegration integration levels. levels. Systems Systems approaches approaches are are roughly roughlycategorized categorized in inthree three groups groups of of studies: studies: (i) (i) predictive predictive studies studies to to support support decision decision making making and and guide guide interventions, interventions, (ii) (ii) systems systemsanalysis analysis and and simulation simulation in inorder order to toget get insight insight and and understanding understandingof of the the functioning functioningof of (living) (living) systems, systems, and and (iii) (iii) explorative explorative studies studies to to investigate investigate possible possible options options for for development development and and trade trade offs offs of of aims, aims, objectives objectives and andconstraints. constraints. All All these these systems systems approaches approaches are are now nowwidely widely used used in inecological ecological systems systems including including agriculture, agriculture, and and applied appliedin in land landuse use planning. planning. This This book book is is an an introduction introduction to toone one of ofthe the major majorfields: fields: systems systems analysis analysis and and simula simula tion. tion."

This text provides a reference on the early 1990s state of the art in this field covering topics such as physics, chemistry, toxicology and human behaviour. It contains nearly 100 scientific papers on all aspects of the subject. Many papers are included which illustrate the early 1990s state of development in the mathematical modelling of fire phenomena using computing.

How do people behave in different traffic situations? Are there general laws for mathematical modelling of decision dynamics? The answers, given at the first international workshop on "Human Behaviour in Traffic Networks," are presented in this volume. In 13 articles, well-known experts report about their current work on experiments and modelling in this area. The topics range from psychological behaviour in traffic situations, traffic simulations of various aspects and market analysis to experiments with human participants used in experimental economics. The articles filled with many illustrations are aimed at interested students as well as experts in this field.

The scope of this book is to identify and emphasize the successful link between computational materials modeling as a simulation and design tool and its synergistic application to experimental research and alloy development. The book provides a more balanced perspective of the role that computational modeling can play in every day research and development efforts. Each chapter describes one or more particular computational tool and how they are best used.

This monograph on fast stochastic simulation deals with methods of adaptive importance sampling (IS). The concept of IS is introduced and described in detail with several numerical examples in the context of rare event simulation. Adaptive simulation and system parameter optimization to achieve specified performance criteria are described. The techniques are applied to the analysis and design of radar CFAR (constant false alarm rate) detectors. Development of robust detection algorithms using ensemble - or E-CFAR processing is described. A second application treats the performance evaluation and parameter optimization of digital communication systems that cannot be handled analytically or even by using standard numerical techniques.