th This book is devoted to the 19 Meeting of the EURO Working Group on Financial Modelling, held in Chania, Crete, Greece,November28-30, 1996. The EURO Working Group on Financial Modelling was founded in September 1986 in Lisbon. The primary field of interest for the Working Group can be described as "the development of financial models that help to solve problems facedby financial managers in the firm". From this point of view, the following objectivesof the Working Group are distinguished: * providing an international forum for exchange of information and experience on financial modelling; * encouraging research in financial modelling (i. e. new techniques, methodologies, software,empirical studies,etc. ); * stimulating and strengthening the interaction between financial economic theory and the practice of financial decision making; * cooperating and exchanging information with universities and financial institutions throughout Europe. According to the aboveobjectives,the basic aim of this book is to present some new operational approaches (i. e. neural nets, multicriteria analysis, new optimization algorithms, decision software, etc. ) for financial modelling, both in a theoretical and practical levels. Thus, the present volume is divided in nine chapters. The first chapter refers to the new trends in financial modelling and includes two invited papers by Gil-Aluja and Pardalos. The second chapter involves papers on the topic of high performance computing and finance which is a European union project in which participate some members of the EURO Working Group on Financial Modelling (Spronk, Zenios, Dempster, etc. ).

This book constitutes the strictly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the German Conference on Bioinformatics, GCB'96, held in Leipzig, Germany, in September/October 1996. The volume presents 18 revised full papers together with three invited papers; these contributions were selected after a second round of reviewing from the 91 conference presentations. The book addresses current issues in computational biology and biologically inspired computing. The papers are organized in sections on biological and metabolic pathways, sequence analysis, molecular modeling, visualization, and formal languages, and DNA.

This is the first volume in a suite of short, inexpensive, paperbound volumes intended for student usage as textbooks, or course supplements, and for purchase as single-copy reference works for professionals in specific disciplines, and, in some cases, for interdisciplinary use. This title focuses on cellular automata simulations while using Mathematica, thus its audience is a generally broad one, although physicists, life scientists and engineers will find this title to be of particular interest.
Those familiar with Gaylord's previous book, coauthored with Paul Wellin, "Computer Simulations with Mathematica - Explorations in Complex Biological and Physical Systems," also published by TELOS, will find this new title to be an in-depth extension of some topics dealt with in that book. Modeling Nature: Cellular Automata Simulations with Mathematica, however, contains simulations not found in the Gaylord-Wellin volume. This book will have a DOS-diskette packaged with it, enabling cross-platform access to the code. These data files will also be made accessible online via the Internet at telospub.com FTP and WWW sites.

The 14 papers in this volume vividly demonstrate the current state of research in real-time animation. Half of the papers are dedicated to algorithm allowing the real-time animation of complex articulated structure in particular (humans, legged robots, plants) and of dynamic scenes in general. The proposed approaches cover from motion capture to motion reusability which are essential issues for high-end applications as 3D games, virtual reality, etc. Other topics treated are motion management for fast design of realistic movements, 2D and 3D deformations, and various optimization techniques for simulation (adaptive mass-spring refinement, huge particule systems).

Neural networks are a computing paradigm that is finding increasing attention among computer scientists. In this book, theoretical laws and models previously scattered in the literature are brought together into a general theory of artificial neural nets. Always with a view to biology and starting with the simplest nets, it is shown how the properties of models change when more general computing elements and net topologies are introduced. Each chapter contains examples, numerous illustrations, and a bibliography. The book is aimed at readers who seek an overview of the field or who wish to deepen their knowledge. It is suitable as a basis for university courses in neurocomputing.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery, DGCI '97, held in Montpellier, France, in December 1997. The volume presents 17 revised full papers together with three invited full papers. The contributions are organized in sections on 2D recognition, discrete shapes and planes, surfaces, topology, features, and from principles to applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First Australian Workshop on Distributed Artificial Intelligence, held in Canberra, ACT, Australia, in November 1995.
The 16 full papers included in the book are revised versions of the contributions accepted for presentation at the workshop; they cover a wide range of current issues in the field of DAI, such as formal frameworks, methodology, theory, and architecture; various aspects of agents and multi-agent systems are addressed.

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th European Workshop on Knowledge Acquisition, Modelling and Management, EKAW '97, held in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Catalonia, Spain, in October 1997.
The 20 revised full papers and 11 short papers presented were carefully selected from numerous submissions. Also included is one invited presentation. Among the topics covered are the mainstream knowledge acquisition issues, but also more innovative ones, knowledge integration, enterprise modelling, knowledge reuse, natural language processing, problem solving, knowledge extraction, Web-based knowledge systems, machine learning, data mining, etc.

Visualization is now recognized as a powerful approach to get insight in large datasets produced by scientific experimentations and simulations. The contributions to this book cover technical aspects as well as concrete applications of visualization in various domains such as finance, physics, astronomy and medicine, providing researchers and engineers with valuable information for setting up new powerful environments.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Coordination Models and Languages, COORDINATION '97, held in Berlin, Germany, in September 1997.
The 22 revised full papers and 6 posters presented in the book were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 69 submissions. Also included are three invited papers. The papers are devoted to an emerging class of languages and models, which have been variously termed coordination languages, configuration languages, and architectural description languages. These formalisms provide a clean separation between software components and their interaction in the overall software organization, which is particularly important for large-scale applications and open systems.

This book contains a selection of papers about a broad range of topics relating to CAD modelling and graphics. These papers present an excellent overview of the research and application work done at different R&D institutions in Europe and USA. The papers are grouped into sections. First, issues in feature-based product development (such as representation of form features, consistency management, and reasoning) are addressed from different perspectives. Next, CAD models and architectures are introduced from an application perspective. Then some design techniques are presented. The following sections deal with communication in design and analysis, input and interaction techniques, and visualization.

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER '96, held in Cottbus, Germany, in October 1996.
The volume presents three invited contributions together with 29 revised full papers selected from 110 submissions. The papers cover all current aspects of the entity-relationship approach and conceptual modeling; they are organized in sections on advanced schema design, processes, query languages, representation, integration, principles of database design, transformation, enhanced modelling, capturing design information, and evolution.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery, DGCI'96, held in Lyon, France, in November 1996.
Computer imaging essentially depends on discrete models for coding, processing, recognition, representation, etc. The volume presents 24 revised full papers selected from 41 submissions together with 3 invited contributions and a tutorial paper, which bridges the gap between theory and practice. The issues addressed are topology, geometry, shape representation, 3D surfaces and volumes, models for discrete space, image transformation and generation.

Alongside experimental and theoretical work, computer simulation now forms one of the major tools of research in physics. The Monte Carlo method is the most important simulation method in the area of condensed matter physics. This book, written by foremost experts in the field, describes the state of the art of simulation methods in solid state physics. It also reviews selected applications in areas of particular current interest like simulations of growth processes far from equilibrium, interfacial phenomena, quantum and classical fluids, polymers, quantum problems on lattices, and random systems. A new chapter on recent developments in the Monte Carlo simulation of condensed matter has been attached.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Evolutionary Programming, EP 97, held in Indianapolis, IN, USA, in April 1997.
The 36 revised full papers presented were carefully selected for inclusion in the proceedings. The papers are organized in sections on evolutionary methods for modeling and training, alternative frameworks for the computational study of evolutionary social systems, genetic programming: issues and applications, issues in evolutionary optimization, enhanced evolutionary operators, theory and analysis of evolutionary computations, issues in adaptability: theory and practice, and evolution and NP-hard problems.

The three-dimensional structure of proteins is a key factor in their biological activity. There is an increasing need to be able to predict the structure of a protein once its amino-acid sequence is known; this book presents practical methods of achieving that ambitious aim, using the latest computer modelling algorithms.

Protein engineering endeavors to design new peptides and proteins or to change the structural and/or functional characteristics of existing ones for specific purposes, opening the way for the development of new drugs. This work develops in a comprehensive way the theoretical formulation for the methods used in computer-assisted modeling and predictions, starting from the basic concepts and proceeding to the more sophisticated methods, such as Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics. An evaluation of the approximations inherent to the simulations will allow the reader to obtain a perspective of the possible deficiencies and difficulties and approach the task with realistic expectations. Examples from the authors laboratories, as well as from the literature provide useful information.

This volume contains thoroughly refereed full versions of the best papers presented at the 5th European Workshop on Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, MAAMAW '93, held in NeuchA[tel, Switzerland in August 1993.
The volume opens with a detailed introduction by the volume editors bringing the papers in line and offering a readers' guide. The 15 full research papers reflect the state-of-the-art in this dynamic field of research; they are organized in sections on emergence of global properties, emergence of sociality, multi-agent planning, multi-agent communication, and multi-agent architectures.

This volume contains research papers that were presented at the Sixth Eurographics Workshop on Animation and Simulation which took place at Maastricht, The Nether lands, September 2-3, 1995. A core area within computer graphics, animation is concerned with the computer synthesis of dynamic scenes. The creation of realistic animation based on the simulation of physical and biological phenomena is a unify ing and rapidly evolving research theme. This series of workshops, an activity of the Eurographics Working Group on Animation and Simulation, is an international forum where researchers representing the animation and simulation communities convene to exchange knowledge and experience related to this theme and to physics-based mod elling, human modelling, motion control, visualization, etc. Of keen interest at this sixth workshop were novel animation techniques and animation systems that simulate the dynamics and interactions of physical objects-solid, fluid, and gaseous-as well as the behaviors of living systems such as plants, lower animals, and humans. The workshop continued to promote the confluence of animation and simulation as a leading edge of computer graphics research that is providing animators with sophisticated new algorithms for synthesizing dynamic scenes. The call for extended abstracts for the workshop, issued in February 1995, elicited an enthusiastic response."

Macrosystems are systems in which the stochastic behaviour of the elements is transformed into deterministic behaviour of the system as a whole. This publication discusses equilibrium in these systems. Mathematical models of stationary states using the principle of maximum entropy are presented. This is developed and generalized for macrosystems with constrained resources. Parametric properties which characterize a model's response to data variations are discussed. The author has developed new computational methods for the computer-aided realization of stationary state models. Algorithms and computer experiments are evaluated. Mathematical modelling methods are applied to problems of hierarchical structures, interregional product exchange and image reconstruction.

This book is based on the author's PhD thesis which was selected during the 1993 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Competition as one of the three best submissions.
This monograph investigates the problem of selecting adequate models for reasoning about physical systems and applications to engineering problem solving. An elegant treatment of both the theoretical and practical sides are presented: the problem is precisely formalized, its computational complexity is analyzed in detail, and an efficient algorithm for finding adequate models is derived; on the practical side, a methodology for building systems that automatically construct adequate models is provided, and implementational aspects and tests are described.

Written by leading experts from around the world, Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics Simulations in Polymer Science comprehensively reviews the latest simulation techniques for macromolecular materials. Focusing in particular on numerous new techniques, the book offers authoritative introductions to solutions of neutral polymers and polyelectrolytes; dynamics of polymer melts, rubbers and gels, and glassy materials; thermodynamics of polymer mixing and mesophase formation, and polymers confined at interfaces and grafted to walls. Throughout, contributors offer practical advice on how to overcome the unique challenges posed by the large size and slow relaxation of polymer coils. Students and researchers in polymer chemistry, polymer physics, chemical engineering, and materials and computational science will all benefit from the cogent, step-by-step introductions contained in this important new book.

This book is the first comprehensive volume on the computer simulation of plant development. It contains a full account of the algorithms used to model plant shapes and developmental processes, Lindenmayer systems in particular. With nearly 50 color plates, the spectacular results of the modelling are vividly illustrated. "This marvelous book will occupy an important place in the scientific literature." #Professor Heinz-Otto Peitgen# "The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants will perform a valuable service by popularizing this enlightening and bewitching form of mathematics." #Steven Levy# " ... the garden here is full of delights and an excellent introduction to L-systems, ..." #Alvy Ray Smith, IEEE Computer Graphics and its Applications#

This monograph is devoted to the problem of inferring geometric information about arbitrarily curved surfaces from visual cues; this is a central problem in computer vision with immediate relevance for robot manipulation and navigation.
The author develops computational theories and techniques relating visual information arising from viewer movements to the differential geometry of visible surfaces. The theories developed have been implemented and tested using a real-time tracking system based on deformable contours. Applications of the techniques to geometric modelling, obstacle avoidance, navigation, and object manipulation are presented.

It is well-known that some 85% of the resources necessary to design and bring to market a product are committed by decisions taken in the first 10% of the design activity. This together with the wish to reduce further the time-to-market of high quality innovative products has increased the need for computer support at the conceptual design stage of the engineering design process life-style. This proceedings firmly focuses on the continuing research into new uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) during the conceptual design process. It shows how novel applications of AI may be integrated with aspects of solid modelling, simulation optimisation and multiple criterion decision- making. A particular emphasis is placed on the use of AI methods in the overall design of products from major Civil Engineering structures to Consumer Electronics.