This book introduces the use of the distinct element method (DEM) in modeling crowd behavior and simulating evacuation processes. Focusing on the mathematical computation of the uncertain behavior of evacuees, which is switching action behavior, it subsequently reproduces the crowd evacuation process under several conjectural scenarios using a DEM-based multi-agent model that has been modified by introducing the switching action behavior. The proposed switching action behavior model describes a person who has to change his/her destination due to the limited space capacity of the designated evacuation area. The change in the destination of a person is determined according to the motion of other individuals in the perception domain during the defined switching action time. The switching action time is formulated in the so-called switching action function, which is described by a convolution integral of the input and unit response functions. The newly developed switching action model is then validated using sensitivity analysis in which the primary focus is the crowd motion and flow of switching action behavior.

This book addresses the problems involved in the modelling and simulation of shale gas reservoirs, and details recent advances in the field. It discusses various modelling and simulation challenges, such as the complexity of fracture networks, adsorption phenomena, non-Darcy flow, and natural fracture networks, presenting the latest findings in these areas. It also discusses the difficulties of developing shale gas models, and compares analytical modelling and numerical simulations of shale gas reservoirs with those of conventional reservoirs. Offering a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art in developing shale gas models and simulators in the upstream oil industry, it allows readers to gain a better understanding of these reservoirs and encourages more systematic research on efficient exploitation of shale gas plays. It is a valuable resource for researchers interested in the modelling of unconventional reservoirs and graduate students studying reservoir engineering. It is also of interest to practising reservoir and production engineers.

This brief highlights the association of different performance variables that influences archery performance and the employment of different machine learning algorithms in the identification of potential archers. The sport of archery is often associated with a myriad of performance indicators namely bio-physiological, psychological, anthropometric as well as physical fitness. Traditionally, the determination of potential archers is carried out by means of conventional statistical techniques. Nonetheless, such methods often fall short in associating non-linear relationships between the variables. This book explores the notion of machine learning that is capable of mitigating the aforesaid issue. This book is valuable for coaches and managers in identifying potential archers during talent identification programs.

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 18th Asia Simulation Conference, AsiaSim 2018, held in Kyoto, Japan, in August 2018. The 45 revised full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 90 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on modeling and simulation technology; soft computing and machine learning; high performance computing and cloud computing; simulation technology for industry; simulation technology for intelligent society; simulation of instrumentation and control application; computational mathematics and computational science; flow simulation; visualization and computer vision to support simulation.

This book explores break-through approaches to tackling and mitigating the well-known problems of compiler optimization using design space exploration and machine learning techniques. It demonstrates that not all the optimization passes are suitable for use within an optimization sequence and that, in fact, many of the available passes tend to counteract one another. After providing a comprehensive survey of currently available methodologies, including many experimental comparisons with state-of-the-art compiler frameworks, the book describes new approaches to solving the problem of selecting the best compiler optimizations and the phase-ordering problem, allowing readers to overcome the enormous complexity of choosing the right order of optimizations for each code segment in an application. As such, the book offers a valuable resource for a broad readership, including researchers interested in Computer Architecture, Electronic Design Automation and Machine Learning, as well as computer architects and compiler developers.

The changing structure of the electric utility industry has had a significant impact on power system design and operation. In particular, the incorporation of flexible a.c. transmission system (FACTS) devices and high voltage direct current (HVDC) links into conventional computational programs presents new challenges in power system modelling. Responding to these changes, Computer Modelling of Electrical Power Systems, Second Edition presents modern analysis tools for the design and improvement of power system performance.
This fully revised and updated edition features:

• The incorporation of HVDC and FACTS devices in power flow and system stability with detailed descriptions of the relevant algorithms.
• Extensive coverage of the EMTP (electromagnetic transient program) method - a key development in power system simulation.
• The use and impact of personal computers in power system simulation, with emphasis on efficient computational techniques for interactive work.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Bio-inspired Computing: Theories and Applications, BIC-TA 2017, held in Harbin, China, December 2017. The 50 full papers presented were selected from 143 submissions. The papers deal with studies abstracting computing ideas such as data structures, operations with data, ways to control operations, computing models from living phenomena or biological systems such as evolution, cells, tissues, neural networks, immune systems, and ant colonies.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 23rd IFIP WG 1.3 International Workshop on Algebraic Development Techniques, WADT 2016, held in September 2016 in Gregynog, UK. The 9 revised papers presented together with two invited talks, one invited paper and two survey papers were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions and focus on foundations of algebraic specification; other approaches to formal specification, including process calculi and models of concurrent, distributed and mobile computing; specification languages, methods, and environments; semantics of conceptual modeling methods and techniques; model-driven development; graph transformations, term rewriting and proof systems; integration of formal specification techniques; formal testing and quality assurance, validation, and verification areas, broadly falling into three categories: multimedia content analysis; multimedia signal processing and communications; and multimedia applications and services.

This book brings together original research on the role of networks in regional economic development and innovation. It presents a comprehensive framework synthesizing extant theories, a palette of real-world cases in the aerospace, automotive, life science, biotechnology and health care industries, and fundamental agent-based computer models elucidating the relation between regional development and network dynamics. The book is primarily intended for researchers in the fields of innovation economics and evolutionary economic geography, and particularly those interested in using agent-based models and empirical case studies. However, it also targets (regional) innovation policy makers who are not only interested in policy recommendations, but also want to understand the state-of-the-art agent-based modeling methods used to experimentally arrive at said recommendations.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Integrated Formal Methods, IFM 2018, held in Maynooth, Ireland, in September 2018. The 17 full papers and 5 short papers presented together with 3 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 60 submissions. The conference covers a broad spectrum of topics: from language design, to verification and analysis techniques, to supporting tools and their integration into software engineering practice.

This book presents the latest in decision-making tools, techniques, and solutions for policy makers to utilize in overcoming the challenges faced by healthcare systems. With contributions from experts world-wide, an array of healthcare management models, techniques, and integrative solutions are presented, drawing on econometric, system dynamics, and agent-based models as well as state-of-the-art empirical studies. As total healthcare spending (both total expenditures on health as a percentage of GDP and average spending on per capita) increases across most of the world's economies, healthcare systems continue to face challenges in terms of cost, quality, and access, as a result of its fragmented nature. Consequently, healthcare managers and policy makers require innovative integrative approaches and solutions to better manage complex, dynamic healthcare systems. This volume offers researchers and policy makers an insightful and critical review of the state of the art in healthcare modeling, with a particular focus on system dynamics, agent-based models, and modern empirical studies. It will be of interest to those in the fields of health, business management, and information systems.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Information Technologies and Mathematical Modelling, ITMM 2017, held in Kazan, Russia, in September/October 2017. The 31 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 85 submissions. The conference covers various aspects of mathematical modeling and information technologies, focusing on probabilistic methods and models, queueing theory and communication networks.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Parallel Computational Technologies, PCT 2017, held in Kazan, Russia, in April 2017. The 24 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 167 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on high performance architectures, tools and technologies; parallel numerical algorithms; supercomputer simulation.

This tutorial provides the application of the coupling interface OGS#IPhreeqc (open-source scientific software) to model reactive mass transport processes in environmental subsurface systems. It contains general information regarding reactive transport modeling and step-by-step model set-up with OGS#IPhreeqc and related components such as GINA and ParaView. Benchmark examples (1D to 2D) are presented in detail. The book is intended primarily for graduate students and applied scientists who deal with reactive transport modeling. It also gives valuable information to the professional geoscientists wishing to advance their knowledge in numerical simulation, with the focus on the fate and transport of nitrate. It is the third volume in a series that represents the further application of computational modeling in hydrological science.

This textbook aims to fill the gap between those that offer a theoretical treatment without many applications and those that present and apply formulas without appropriately deriving them. The balance achieved will give readers a fundamental understanding of key financial ideas and tools that form the basis for building realistic models, including those that may become proprietary. Numerous carefully chosen examples and exercises reinforce the student's conceptual understanding and facility with applications. The exercises are divided into conceptual, application-based, and theoretical problems, which probe the material deeper. The book is aimed toward advanced undergraduates and first-year graduate students who are new to finance or want a more rigorous treatment of the mathematical models used within. While no background in finance is assumed, prerequisite math courses include multivariable calculus, probability, and linear algebra. The authors introduce additional mathematical tools as needed. The entire textbook is appropriate for a single year-long course on introductory mathematical finance. The self-contained design of the text allows for instructor flexibility in topics courses and those focusing on financial derivatives. Moreover, the text is useful for mathematicians, physicists, and engineers who want to learn finance via an approach that builds their financial intuition and is explicit about model building, as well as business school students who want a treatment of finance that is deeper but not overly theoretical.

This volume offers a valuable starting point for anyone interested in learning computational diffusion MRI and mathematical methods for brain connectivity, while also sharing new perspectives and insights on the latest research challenges for those currently working in the field. Over the last decade, interest in diffusion MRI has virtually exploded. The technique provides unique insights into the microstructure of living tissue and enables in-vivo connectivity mapping of the brain. Computational techniques are key to the continued success and development of diffusion MRI and to its widespread transfer into the clinic, while new processing methods are essential to addressing issues at each stage of the diffusion MRI pipeline: acquisition, reconstruction, modeling and model fitting, image processing, fiber tracking, connectivity mapping, visualization, group studies and inference. These papers from the 2016 MICCAI Workshop "Computational Diffusion MRI" - which was intended to provide a snapshot of the latest developments within the highly active and growing field of diffusion MR - cover a wide range of topics, from fundamental theoretical work on mathematical modeling, to the development and evaluation of robust algorithms and applications in neuroscientific studies and clinical practice. The contributions include rigorous mathematical derivations, a wealth of rich, full-color visualizations, and biologically or clinically relevant results. As such, they will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the fields of computer science, MR physics, and applied mathematics.

This book focuses on new and emerging data mining solutions that offer a greater level of transparency than existing solutions. Transparent data mining solutions with desirable properties (e.g. effective, fully automatic, scalable) are covered in the book. Experimental findings of transparent solutions are tailored to different domain experts, and experimental metrics for evaluating algorithmic transparency are presented. The book also discusses societal effects of black box vs. transparent approaches to data mining, as well as real-world use cases for these approaches.As algorithms increasingly support different aspects of modern life, a greater level of transparency is sorely needed, not least because discrimination and biases have to be avoided. With contributions from domain experts, this book provides an overview of an emerging area of data mining that has profound societal consequences, and provides the technical background to for readers to contribute to the field or to put existing approaches to practical use.

This book introduces readers to MesoBioNano (MBN) Explorer - a multi-purpose software package designed to model molecular systems at various levels of size and complexity. In addition, it presents a specially designed multi-task toolkit and interface - the MBN Studio - which enables the set-up of input files, controls the simulations, and supports the subsequent visualization and analysis of the results obtained. The book subsequently provides a systematic description of the capabilities of this universal and powerful software package within the framework of computational molecular science, and guides readers through its applications in numerous areas of research in bio- and chemical physics and material science - ranging from the nano- to the mesoscale. MBN Explorer is particularly suited to computing the system's energy, to optimizing molecular structure, and to exploring the various facets of molecular and random walk dynamics. The package allows the use of a broad variety of interatomic potentials and can, e.g., be configured to select any subset of a molecular system as rigid fragments, whenever a significant reduction in the number of dynamical degrees of freedom is required for computational practicalities. MBN Studio enables users to easily construct initial geometries for the molecular, liquid, crystalline, gaseous and hybrid systems that serve as input for the subsequent simulations of their physical and chemical properties using MBN Explorer. Despite its universality, the computational efficiency of MBN Explorer is comparable to that of other, more specialized software packages, making it a viable multi-purpose alternative for the computational modeling of complex molecular systems. A number of detailed case studies presented in the second part of this book demonstrate MBN Explorer's usefulness and efficiency in the fields of atomic clusters and nanoparticles, biomolecular systems, nanostructured materials, composite materials and hybrid systems, crystals, liquids and gases, as well as in providing modeling support for novel and emerging technologies. Last but not least, with the release of the 3rd edition of MBN Explorer in spring 2017, a free trial version will be available from the MBN Research Center website (mbnresearch.com).

This volume is designed as a 12-lecture textbook, which can serve as a course companion, self teaching guide and handbook for basic concepts. Each lecture comprises 20 pages, in which the methods are introduced, examples shown and the code is given. All examples are computed with open source software, mainly R, and with archaeological data available from the book's website. The book does not describe elaborated high-end models but rather very basic modelling concepts that serve as components in more complex models. The book enables the reader to construct such models by themselves and be sensitive for certain problems. In addition it gives hints for the interpretation of the results. Students are usually quick to apply fancy methods yet fail in the proper interpretation due to a lack of understanding of the underlying principles. This problem is addressed by the proposed book through three concepts: 1. Command line software forces the students to first learn some details before they are able to produce results on their own. 2. The book is focused on principles and methods. When the students understand a few basic principles, they have far better access to a wide range of related methods. 3. Examples of poor analysis highlight common pitfalls. The volume attempts to be an applied, minimalistic and efficient textbook and is based upon several successful courses.

This book presents a collection of results from the interdisciplinary research project "ELLI" published by researchers at RWTH Aachen University, the TU Dortmund and Ruhr-Universitat Bochum between 2011 and 2016. All contributions showcase essential research results, concepts and innovative teaching methods to improve engineering education. Further, they focus on a variety of areas, including virtual and remote teaching and learning environments, student mobility, support throughout the student lifecycle, and the cultivation of interdisciplinary skills.

This volume introduces a series of different data-driven computational methods for analyzing group processes through didactic and tutorial-based examples. Group processes are of central importance to many sectors of society, including government, the military, health care, and corporations. Computational methods are better suited to handle (potentially huge) group process data than traditional methodologies because of their more flexible assumptions and capability to handle real-time trace data. Indeed, the use of methods under the name of computational social science have exploded over the years. However, attention has been focused on original research rather than pedagogy, leaving those interested in obtaining computational skills lacking a much needed resource. Although the methods here can be applied to wider areas of social science, they are specifically tailored to group process research. A number of data-driven methods adapted to group process research are demonstrated in this current volume. These include text mining, relational event modeling, social simulation, machine learning, social sequence analysis, and response surface analysis. In order to take advantage of these new opportunities, this book provides clear examples (e.g., providing code) of group processes in various contexts, setting guidelines and best practices for future work to build upon. This volume will be of great benefit to those willing to learn computational methods. These include academics like graduate students and faculty, multidisciplinary professionals and researchers working on organization and management science, and consultants for various types of organizations and groups.

This book disseminates the current trends among innovative and high-quality research regarding the implementation of conceptual frameworks, strategies, techniques, methodologies, informatics platforms and models for developing advanced industrial tools and techniques and their application in different fields. It presents a collection of theoretical, real-world and original research works in the field of applied industrial tools and techniques. The text goes beyond the state-of-the-art in the field of industrial and software engineering, listing successful applications and use cases of studies of new approaches, applications, methods, techniques for developing advanced industrial tools, methodologies and techniques and their application in different fields. The topics covered in this book are of interest to academics, researchers, students, stakeholders and consultants.

The possibilities for creation are endless with 3D printing, sculpting, scanning, and milling, and new opportunities are popping up faster than artists can keep up with them. 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft takes the mystery out of these exciting new processes by demonstrating how to navigate their digital components and showing their real world applications. Artists will learn to incorporate these new technologies into their studio work and see their creations come to life in a physical form never before possible. Featuring a primer on 3D basics for beginners,interviews, tutorials, and artwork from over 80 artists, intellectual property rights information, and a comprehensive companion website, this book is your field guide to exploring the exhilarating new world of 3D. Follow step-by-step photos and tutorials outlining the techniques, methodologies, and finished products of master artists who have employed 3D technology in new and inventive ways Learn how to enlarge, reduce, and repurpose existing artwork and create virtual pieces in physical forms through a variety of mediums Research your options with an accessible list of pros and cons of the various software, 3D printers, scanners, milling machines, and vendors that provide services in 3D technology Listen to podcasts with the artists and learn more tips and tricks through the book's website at www.digitalsculpting.net

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination, SPICE 2017, held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in October 2017.The 34 full papers presented together with 4 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: SPI in agile approaches; SPI in small settings; SPI and assessment; SPI and models; SPI and functional safety; SPI in various settings; SPI and gamification; SPI case studies; strategic and knowledge issues in SPI; education issues in SPI.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book summarizes work being pursued in the context of the CIPRNet (Critical Infrastructure Preparedness and Resilience Research Network) research project, co-funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The project is intended to provide concrete and on-going support to the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) research communities, enhancing their preparedness for CI-related emergencies, while also providing expertise and technologies for other stakeholders to promote their understanding and mitigation of the consequences of CI disruptions, leading to enhanced resilience. The book collects the tutorial material developed by the authors for several courses on the modelling, simulation and analysis of CIs, representing extensive and integrated CIP expertise. It will help CI stakeholders, CI operators and civil protection authorities understand the complex system of CIs, and help them adapt to these changes and threats in order to be as prepared as possible for mitigating emergencies and crises affecting or arising from CIs.