The book is inspired by the third seminar in a cycle connected to the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Politecnico di Milano (July 2013). "Educating by Image. Teaching Styles vs Learning Styles" was the motto of this meeting. The contributions (coming from lectures, the poster session, interviews and round table) aim to propose an updated look at visual education, highlighting how digital tools and networks have profoundly affected the "representational styles" of the teachers and the "cognitive styles" of the learners, while at the same time reaffirming the importance of the interaction between the two groups. As Herbert Alexander Simon once said, "Learning results... only from what the student does and thinks"; therefore "the teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn". That is no mean feat if we consider that, according to Benjamin Samuel Bloom, visual education not only involves the pure cognition, but also the affective and the psychomotor domains, not to mention the social aspects. This is why, alongside some theoretical and historical retrospectives, the contributions recommend a continuous revision of "what" and "how" could be included in the academic curricula, also in connection with secondary schools, the professional world, targeted Lifelong Learning Programmes for students and teachers. The volume includes an interview with the science journalist and writer Piero Angela.

This comprehensive monograph addresses crucial issues in the protection of railway systems, with the objective of enhancing the understanding of railway infrastructure security. Based on analyses by academics, technology providers and railway operators, it explains how to assess terrorist and criminal threats, design countermeasures, and implement effective security strategies. In so doing, it draws upon a range of experiences from different countries in Europe and beyond. The book is the first to be devoted entirely to this subject. It will serve as a timely reminder of the attractiveness of the railway infrastructure system as a target for criminals and terrorists and, more importantly, as a valuable resource for stakeholders and professionals in the railway security field aiming to develop effective security based on a mix of methodological, technological and organizational tools. Besides researchers and decision makers in the field, the book will appeal to students interested in critical infrastructure protection.

This three volume set, CCIS 771, 772, 773, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the CCF Chinese Conference on Computer Vision, CCCV 2017, held in Tianjin, China, in October 2017. The total of 174 revised full papers presented in three volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 465 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: biological vision inspired visual method; biomedical image analysis; computer vision applications; deep neural network; face and posture analysis; image and video retrieval; image color and texture; image composition; image quality assessment and analysis; image restoration; image segmentation and classification; image-based modeling; object detection and classification; object identification; photography and video; robot vision; shape representation and matching; statistical methods and learning; video analysis and event recognition; visual salient detection.

This book proposes complex hierarchical deep architectures (HDA) for predicting bankruptcy, a topical issue for business and corporate institutions that in the past has been tackled using statistical, market-based and machine-intelligence prediction models. The HDA are formed through fuzzy rough tensor deep staking networks (FRTDSN) with structured, hierarchical rough Bayesian (HRB) models. FRTDSN is formalized through TDSN and fuzzy rough sets, and HRB is formed by incorporating probabilistic rough sets in structured hierarchical Bayesian model. Then FRTDSN is integrated with HRB to form the compound FRTDSN-HRB model. HRB enhances the prediction accuracy of FRTDSN-HRB model. The experimental datasets are adopted from Korean construction companies and American and European non-financial companies, and the research presented focuses on the impact of choice of cut-off points, sampling procedures and business cycle on the accuracy of bankruptcy prediction models. The book also highlights the fact that misclassification can result in erroneous predictions leading to prohibitive costs to investors and the economy, and shows that choice of cut-off point and sampling procedures affect rankings of various models. It also suggests that empirical cut-off points estimated from training samples result in the lowest misclassification costs for all the models. The book confirms that FRTDSN-HRB achieves superior performance compared to other statistical and soft-computing models. The experimental results are given in terms of several important statistical parameters revolving different business cycles and sub-cycles for the datasets considered and are of immense benefit to researchers working in this area.

This three volume set, CCIS 771, 772, 773, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the CCF Chinese Conference on Computer Vision, CCCV 2017, held in Tianjin, China, in October 2017. The total of 174 revised full papers presented in three volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 465 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: biological vision inspired visual method; biomedical image analysis; computer vision applications; deep neural network; face and posture analysis; image and video retrieval; image color and texture; image composition; image quality assessment and analysis; image restoration; image segmentation and classification; image-based modeling; object detection and classification; object identification; photography and video; robot vision; shape representation and matching; statistical methods and learning; video analysis and event recognition; visual salient detection

This three volume set, CCIS 771, 772, 773, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the CCF Chinese Conference on Computer Vision, CCCV 2017, held in Tianjin, China, in October 2017. The total of 174 revised full papers presented in three volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 465 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: biological vision inspired visual method; biomedical image analysis; computer vision applications; deep neural network; face and posture analysis; image and video retrieval; image color and texture; image composition; image quality assessment and analysis; image restoration; image segmentation and classification; image-based modeling; object detection and classification; object identification; photography and video; robot vision; shape representation and matching; statistical methods and learning; video analysis and event recognition; visual salient detection.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Advanced Hybrid Information Processing, ADHIB 2017, held in Harbin, China, in July 2017. The 64 full papers were selected from 134 submissions and focus on advanced methods and applications for hybrid information processing.

This four-volume set (CCIS 643, 644, 645, 646) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th Asia Simulation Conference and the First Autumn Simulation Multi-Conference, AsiaSim / SCS AutumnSim 2016, held in Beijing, China, in October 2016. The 265 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 651 submissions. The papers in this fourth volume of the set are organized in topical sections on Modeling and Simulation Applications; Simulation Software; Social Simulations; Verification, Validation and Accreditation.

This book presents bond graph model-based fault detection with a focus on hybrid system models. The book addresses model design, simulation, control and model-based fault diagnosis of multidisciplinary engineering systems. The text beings with a brief survey of the state-of-the-art, then focuses on hybrid systems. The author then uses different bond graph approaches throughout the text and provides case studies.

One of the most significant challenges in the development of embedded and cyber-physical systems is the gap between the disciplines of software and control engineering. In a marketplace, where rapid innovation is essential, engineers from both disciplines need to be able to explore system designs collaboratively, allocating responsibilities to software and physical elements, and analyzing trade-offs between them. To this end, this book presents a framework that allows the very different kinds of design models - discrete-event (DE) models of software and continuous time (CT) models of the physical environment - to be analyzed and simulated jointly, based on common scenarios. The individual chapters provide introductions to both sides of this co-simulation technology, and give a step-by-step guide to the methodology for designing and analyzing co-models. They are grouped into three parts: Part I introduces the technical basis for collaborative modeling and simulation with the Crescendo technology. Part II continues with different methodological guidelines for creating co-models and analyzing them in different ways using case studies. Part III then delves into more advanced topics and looks into the potential future of this technology in the area of cyber-physical systems. Finally various appendices provide summaries of the VDM and 20-sim technologies, a number of valuable design patterns applicable for co-models, and an acronym list along with indices and references to other literature. By combining descriptions of the underlying theory with records of real engineers' experience in using the framework on a series of case studies the book appeals to scientists and practitioners alike. It is complemented by tools, examples, videos, and other material on www.crescendotool.org. Scientists/researchers and graduate students working in embedded and cyber-physical systems will learn the semantic foundations for collaborative modeling and simulation, as well as the current capabilities and limitations of methods and tools in this field. Practitioners will be able to develop an appreciation of the capabilities of the co-modeling techniques, to assess the benefits of more collaborative approaches to modeling and simulation, and will benefit from the included guidelines and modeling patterns.

The second part of a yearly series on simulation technology, OBJECT-ORIENTED SIMULATION presents an outstanding variety of the very latest advances in simulation techniques. This leading-edge volume contains a cohesive selection of presentations written by the world-renowned experts in a broad range of topics. OBJECT-ORIENTED SIMULATION is a key resource for anyone involved in computer simulator research and design as well as developers, producers, scholars, and managers. It is an excellent tool for preparing proposals for simulation in commercial and military fields.

This volume contains the articles presented at the 22nd International Meshing Roundtable (IMR) organized, in part, by Sandia National Laboratories and was held on Oct 13-16, 2013 in Orlando, Florida, USA. The first IMR was held in 1992, and the conference series has been held annually since. Each year the IMR brings together researchers, developers, and application experts in a variety of disciplines, from all over the world, to present and discuss ideas on mesh generation and related topics. The technical papers in this volume present theoretical and novel ideas and algorithms with practical potential, as well as technical applications in science and engineering, geometric modeling, computer graphics and visualization.

This book contains contributions presented during the international conference on Model-Based Reasoning (MBR012), held on June 21-23 in Sestri Levante, Italy. Interdisciplinary researchers discuss in this volume how scientific cognition and other kinds of cognition make use of models, abduction, and explanatory reasoning in order to produce important or creative changes in theories and concepts. Some of the contributions analyzed the problem of model-based reasoning in technology and stressed the issues of scientific and technological innovation. The book is divided in three main parts: models, mental models, representations; abduction, problem solving and practical reasoning; historical, epistemological and technological issues. The volume is based on the papers that were presented at the international

The ability to communicate cultural codes in multimedia depends on their meaning and beauty, as perceived by different audiences around the globe. In this book, the ongoing research on computational modeling of visual, musical and textual contents is described in terms of identifying and mapping their semantic representations across different cultures. The underlying psychology of sense-making is quantified through analysis of aesthetics in terms of organizational and structural aspects of the contents that influence an audience's formation of expectations for future signals, violations of these expectations, and explanations of their meaning. Complexity-accuracy tradeoffs in sound representation are further used to develop new computational methods that capture poietic and aesthetic aspects in music communication. Experimental studies are reported that try to characterize preferences for complexity in abstract, classical and traditional art and music across samples of Western and Far Eastern cultures. These experiments illustrate how aesthetics can be computed in terms of semantic and information measures, highlighting commonalities and uncovering differences in aesthetic preferences across cultures and individuals.

The present book provides guidance to understanding complicated coupled processes based on the experimental data available and implementation of developed algorithms in numerical codes. Results of selected test cases in the fields of closed-form solutions (e.g., deformation processes), single processes (such as groundwater flow) as well as coupled processes are presented. It is part of the OpenGeoSys initiative - an open source project to share knowledge and experience in environmental analysis and scientific computation with the community.

The Handbook of Simulation Optimization presents an overview of the state of the art of simulation optimization, providing a survey of the most well-established approaches for optimizing stochastic simulation models and a sampling of recent research advances in theory and methodology. Leading contributors cover such topics as discrete optimization via simulation, ranking and selection, efficient simulation budget allocation, random search methods, response surface methodology, stochastic gradient estimation, stochastic approximation, sample average approximation, stochastic constraints, variance reduction techniques, model-based stochastic search methods and Markov decision processes. This single volume should serve as a reference for those already in the field and as a means for those new to the field for understanding and applying the main approaches. The intended audience includes researchers, practitioners and graduate students in the business/engineering fields of operations research, management science, operations management and stochastic control, as well as in economics/finance and computer science.

In the present authors attempted to have a clear insight into the interworking of geotectonic, geomorphic, hydrologic and anthropogenic factors leading to landslide in the Shiv khola Watershed, the most worst affected region of Darjiling Himalaya. This book includes the parameters responsible for landslide events in mountainous areas. It provides knowledge and understanding to the local people, planners, and policy makers about the causes and consequences of landslides as well as provides a suitable method to mitigate the landslips. The book deals with the role of land, water and soil in landslide phenomena. These three attributes have been described in terms of critical rainfall, critical slope, critical height and changes and development of drainage network in landslides. Mitigations and site-specific management options are evaluated considering the roles of local govt., community and other organizations in both pre-slide and post-slide periods. Various scientific methods have been used to assess the landslides that will bring about tremendous help to researchers in the field. In particular, Researchers in Mountain Geomorphology and Geological and Geographical Society will get tremendous help from some topics such as 1-D slope stability model, SCS Curve Number Technique, Assessment of morphological parameters, application of RS & GIS, Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process. Semi-quantitative approach is followed for understanding spatial distribution of cohesion, friction angle slope, lithology and lineaments, drainage, upslope contributing area, land use and land cover types etc. This book also reveals some techniques and models for initiating slope instability.

The model investigated in this work, a particular cellular automaton with stochastic evolution, was introduced as the simplest case of self-organized-criticality, that is, a dynamical system which shows algebraic long-range correlations without any tuning of parameters. The author derives exact results which are potentially also interesting outside the area of critical phenomena. Exact means also site-by-site and not only ensemble average or coarse graining. Very complex and amazingly beautiful periodic patterns are often generated by the dynamics involved, especially in deterministic protocols in which the sand is added at chosen sites. For example, the author studies the appearance of allometric structures, that is, patterns which grow in the same way in their whole body, and not only near their boundaries, as commonly occurs. The local conservation laws which govern the evolution of these patterns are also presented. This work has already attracted interest, not only in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, but also in mathematics, both in probability and in combinatorics. There are also interesting connections with number theory. Lastly, it also poses new questions about an old subject. As such, it will be of interest to computer practitioners, demonstrating the simplicity with which charming patterns can be obtained, as well as to researchers working in many other areas.

This book highlights recent advances in natural computing, including biology and its theory, bio-inspired computing, computational aesthetics, computational models and theories, computing with natural media, philosophy of natural computing and educational technology. It presents extended versions of the best papers selected from the symposium "7th International Workshop on Natural Computing" (IWNC7), held in Tokyo, Japan, in 2013. The target audience is not limited to researchers working in natural computing but also those active in biological engineering, fine/media art design, aesthetics and philosophy.

The interaction between a user and a device forms the foundation of today's application design. Covering the following topics: A suite of five structural principles helping designers to structure their mockups; An agile method for exploiting desktop eye tracker equipment in combination with mobile devices; An approach to explore large-scale collections based on classification systems; A framework based on the use of modeling and components composition techniques to simplify the development of organizational collaborative systems; A low-cost virtual reality system that provides highly satisfying virtual experiences; Popular hardware and software tools and technologies for developing augmented and virtual reality applications; An implementation to handle connectivity between virtual reality applications and SensAble (R) Technology Phantom Haptic Devices; The results of a research study implementing a teaching technological strategy to help Down syndrome children develop their reading skills; Platform independent models decreasing the level of cohesion between communication technologies and software for ubiquitous computing; A method for applying gamification as a tool to improve the participation and motivation of people in performing different tasks. New Trends in Interaction, Virtual Reality and Modeling collects the best research from Interaccion 2012 and MexIHC 2012, and presents the state-of-the-art in human-computer interaction, user interfaces, user experience and virtual reality. Written by researchers from leading universities, research institutes and industry, this volume forms a valuable source of reference for researchers in HCI and VR.

This four-volume set (CCIS 643, 644, 645, 646) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th Asia Simulation Conference and the First Autumn Simulation Multi-Conference, AsiaSim / SCS AutumnSim 2016, held in Beijing, China, in October 2016. The 265 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 651 submissions. The papers in this second volume of the set are organized in topical sections on HMI and robot simulations; modeling and simulation for intelligent manufacturing; military simulation; visualization and virtual reality.

This four-volume set (CCIS 643, 644, 645, 646) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th Asia Simulation Conference and the First Autumn Simulation Multi-Conference, AsiaSim / SCS AutumnSim 2016, held in Beijing, China, in October 2016. The 265 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 651 submissions. The papers in this third volume of the set are organized in topical sections on Cloud technologies in simulation applications; fractional calculus with applications and simulations; modeling and simulation for energy, environment and climate; SBA virtual prototyping engineering technology; simulation and Big Data.

Benjamin Meyer performs several psycho-physical experiments to measure the re-adaptation process of glared drivers in traffic scenarios. The author then develops a novel tone mapping algorithm to simulate the recurring contrast perception of the human eye by adjusting the displayed contrast. Depending on background illumination, bright light sources cause considerable perception restrictions for a glared viewer and can deter the driver from perceiving critical objects for several seconds and severely increase the risk of accidents. Based on the results of the conducted user studies, this vision impairment is integrated into a night driving simulator. The modified driving simulation provides a more realistic visualization and enables the analysis of critical traffic scenarios including short-time headlight glares. This leads to better transferability of driving simulator results and enables investigating driving behavior in the presence of glare.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Concept Mapping, CMC 2016, held in Tallinn, Estonia, in September 2016. The 25 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 135 submissions. The papers address issues such as facilitation of learning; eliciting, capturing, archiving, and using "expert" knowledge; planning instruction; assessment of "deep" understandings; research planning; collaborative knowledge modeling; creation of "knowledge portfolios"; curriculum design; eLearning, and administrative and strategic planning and monitoring.

The Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) has emerged as the next frontier for wireless communications networking in both the military and commercial arena. Handbook of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks for Mobility Models introduces 40 different major mobility models along with numerous associate mobility models to be used in a variety of MANET networking environments in the ground, air, space, and/or under water mobile vehicles and/or handheld devices. These vehicles include cars, armors, ships, under-sea vehicles, manned and unmanned airborne vehicles, spacecrafts and more. This handbook also describes how each mobility pattern affects the MANET performance from physical to application layer; such as throughput capacity, delay, jitter, packet loss and packet delivery ratio, longevity of route, route overhead, reliability, and survivability. Case studies, examples, and exercises are provided throughout the book. Handbook of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks for Mobility Models is for advanced-level students and researchers concentrating on electrical engineering and computer science within wireless technology. Industry professionals working in the areas of mobile ad hoc networks, communications engineering, military establishments engaged in communications engineering, equipment manufacturers who are designing radios, mobile wireless routers, wireless local area networks, and mobile ad hoc network equipment will find this book useful as well.