In this monograph, a new process modelling approach for the public sector is described: the PICTURE method. The approach takes into account the specific characteristics of public administrations. Hence several advantages are derived: increased modelling speed, improved user acceptance and enhanced analysis capabilities.

Much has been written about Building Information Modelling (BIM) driving collaboration and innovation, but how will future quality managers and engineers develop digital capabilities in augmented and video realities, with business intelligence platforms, robots, new materials, artificial intelligence, blockchains, drones, laser scanning, data trusts, 3D printing and many other types of technological advances in construction? These emerging technologies are potential game changers that require new skills and processes. Digital Quality Management in Construction is the first 'how to' book on harnessing novel disruptive technology in construction quality management. The book takes a tour of the new technologies and relates them to the management of quality, but also sets out a road map to build on proven lean construction techniques and embed technologically based processes to raise quality professionals' digital capabilities. With the mountain of data being generated, quality managers need to unlock its value to drive the quality of construction in the twenty-first century, and this book will help them do that and allow those working in construction Quality Management to survive and thrive, creating higher quality levels and less waste. This book is essential reading for quality managers, project managers and all professionals in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry (AEC). Students interested in new and disruptive technologies will also learn a great deal from reading this book, written by a professional quality manager with nearly thirty years' experience in both the public and private sectors.

'Points, questions, stories, and occasional rants introduce the 24 chapters of this engaging volume. With a focus on mathematics and peppered with a scattering of computer science settings, the entries range from lightly humorous to curiously thought-provoking. Each chapter includes sections and sub-sections that illustrate and supplement the point at hand. Most topics are self-contained within each chapter, and a solid high school mathematics background is all that is needed to enjoy the discussions. There certainly is much to enjoy here.'CHOICEEver notice how people sometimes use math words inaccurately? Or how sometimes you instinctively know a math statement is false (or not known)?Each chapter of this book makes a point like those above and then illustrates the point by doing some real mathematics through step-by-step mathematical techniques.This book gives readers valuable information about how mathematics and theoretical computer science work, while teaching them some actual mathematics and computer science through examples and exercises. Much of the mathematics could be understood by a bright high school student. The points made can be understood by anyone with an interest in math, from the bright high school student to a Field's medal winner.

The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) 2019 is an international, multidisciplinary conference for the presentation and discussion of current research in the theory and application of computational methods in problems of biological significance. Presentations are rigorously peer reviewed and are published in an archival proceedings volume. PSB 2019 will be held on January 3 - 7, 2019 in Kohala Coast, Hawaii. Tutorials and workshops will be offered prior to the start of the conference.PSB 2019 will bring together top researchers from the US, the Asian Pacific nations, and around the world to exchange research results and address open issues in all aspects of computational biology. It is a forum for the presentation of work in databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modeling, and other computational methods, as applied to biological problems, with emphasis on applications in data-rich areas of molecular biology.The PSB has been designed to be responsive to the need for critical mass in sub-disciplines within biocomputing. For that reason, it is the only meeting whose sessions are defined dynamically each year in response to specific proposals. PSB sessions are organized by leaders of research in biocomputing's 'hot topics.' In this way, the meeting provides an early forum for serious examination of emerging methods and approaches in this rapidly changing field.

Prevention of Pressure Sores: Engineering and Clinical Aspects collects together material from throughout the literature. The book first discusses the causes of pressure sores and then describes warning signs and behavior to prevent the incidence of pressure sores. It also examines the numerous different devices used to alleviate and prevent pressure sores, including various types of seat cushions, hospital beds, complex pressure relief methods, wheelchair pressure reliefs, and other preventative methods. After comparing the accuracy of various methods of measuring pressure distributions using different types of sensors, the book discusses the treatment of pressure sores. It contains a large number of references, allowing readers to refer back to the important original work in the different fields of this subject.

Abstract Biological vision is a rather fascinating domain of research. Scientists of various origins like biology, medicine, neurophysiology, engineering, math ematics, etc. aim to understand the processes leading to visual perception process and at reproducing such systems. Understanding the environment is most of the time done through visual perception which appears to be one of the most fundamental sensory abilities in humans and therefore a significant amount of research effort has been dedicated towards modelling and repro ducing human visual abilities. Mathematical methods play a central role in this endeavour. Introduction David Marr's theory v DEGREESas a pioneering step tov DEGREESards understanding visual percep tion. In his view human vision was based on a complete surface reconstruction of the environment that was then used to address visual subtasks. This approach was proven to be insufficient by neuro-biologists and complementary ideas from statistical pattern recognition and artificial intelligence were introduced to bet ter address the visual perception problem. In this framework visual perception is represented by a set of actions and rules connecting these actions. The emerg ing concept of active vision consists of a selective visual perception paradigm that is basically equivalent to recovering from the environment the minimal piece information required to address a particular task of interest."

Concrete-filled stainless steel tubular (CFSST) columns are increasingly used in modern composite construction due to their high strength, high ductility, high corrosion resistance, high durability and aesthetics and ease of maintenance. Thin-walled CFSST columns are characterized by the different strain-hardening behavior of stainless steel in tension and in compression, local buckling of stainless steel tubes and concrete confinement. Design codes and numerical models often overestimate or underestimate the ultimate strengths of CFSST columns. This book presents accurate and efficient computational models for the nonlinear inelastic analysis and design of CFSST short and slender columns under axial load and biaxial bending. The effects of different strain-hardening characteristics of stainless steel in tension and in compression, progressive local and post-local buckling of stainless steel tubes and concrete confinement are taken into account in the computational models. The numerical models simulate the axial load-strain behavior, moment-curvature curves, axial load-deflection responses and axial load-moment strength interaction diagrams of CFSST columns. The book describes the mathematical formulations, computational procedures and model verifications for circular and rectangular CFSST short and slender columns. The behavior of CFSST columns under various loading conditions is demonstrated by numerous numerical examples. This book is written for practising structural and civil engineers, academic researchers and graduate students in civil engineering who are interested in the latest computational techniques and design methods for CFSST columns.

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.

Lankhorst and his co-authors present ArchiMate (R) 3.0, enterprise modelling language that captures the complexity of architectural domains and their relations and allows the construction of integrated enterprise architecture models. They provide architects with concrete instruments that improve their architectural practice. As this is not enough, they additionally present techniques and heuristics for communicating with all relevant stakeholders about these architectures. Since an architecture model is useful not only for providing insight into the current or future situation but can also be used to evaluate the transition from 'as-is' to 'to-be', the authors also describe analysis methods for assessing both the qualitative impact of changes to an architecture and the quantitative aspects of architectures, such as performance and cost issues. The modelling language presented has been proven in practice in many real-life case studies and has been adopted by The Open Group as an international standard. So this book is an ideal companion for enterprise IT or business architects in industry as well as for computer or management science students studying the field of enterprise architecture. This fourth edition of the book has been completely reworked to be compatible with ArchiMate (R) 3.0, and it includes a new chapter relating this new version to other standards. New sections on capability analysis, risk analysis, and business architecture in general have also been introduced.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge approaches for decision-making in hierarchical organizations. It presents soft-computing-based techniques, including fuzzy sets, neural networks, genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization, and shows how these approaches can be effectively used to deal with problems typical of this kind of organization. After introducing the main classical approaches applied to multiple-level programming, the book describes a set of soft-computing techniques, demonstrating their advantages in providing more efficient solutions to hierarchical decision-making problems compared to the classical methods. Based on the book Fuzzy and Multi-Level Decision Making (Springer, 2001) by Lee E.S and Shih, H., this second edition has been expanded to include the most recent findings and methods and a broader spectrum of soft computing approaches. All the algorithms are presented in detail, together with a wealth of practical examples and solutions to real-world problems, providing students, researchers and professionals with a timely, practice-oriented reference guide to the area of interactive fuzzy decision making, multi-level programming and hierarchical optimization.

This book analyses the impact computerization has had on contemporary science and explains the origins, technical nature and epistemological consequences of the current decisive interplay between technology and science: an intertwining of formalism, computation, data acquisition, data and visualization and how these factors have led to the spread of simulation models since the 1950s. Using historical, comparative and interpretative case studies from a range of disciplines, with a particular emphasis on the case of plant studies, the author shows how and why computers, data treatment devices and programming languages have occasioned a gradual but irresistible and massive shift from mathematical models to computer simulations.

This book covers the methodological, epistemological and practical issues of integrating qualitative and socio-anthropological factors into archaeological modeling. This text fills the gap between conceptual modeling (which usually relies on narratives describing the life of a past community) and formalized/computer-based modeling which are usually environmentally-determined. Methods combining both environmental and social issues through niche and agent-based modeling are presented. These methods help to translate data from paleo-environmental and archaeological society life cycles (such as climate and landscape changes) into the local spatial scale. The epistemological discussions will appeal to readers as well as the resilience socio-anthropological factors provide facing climatic fluctuations. Integrating Qualitative and Social Science Factors in Archaeological Modelling will appeal to students and researchers in the field.

This textbook teaches the essential background and skills for understanding and quantifying uncertainties in a computational simulation, and for predicting the behavior of a system under those uncertainties. It addresses a critical knowledge gap in the widespread adoption of simulation in high-consequence decision-making throughout the engineering and physical sciences. Constructing sophisticated techniques for prediction from basic building blocks, the book first reviews the fundamentals that underpin later topics of the book including probability, sampling, and Bayesian statistics. Part II focuses on applying Local Sensitivity Analysis to apportion uncertainty in the model outputs to sources of uncertainty in its inputs. Part III demonstrates techniques for quantifying the impact of parametric uncertainties on a problem, specifically how input uncertainties affect outputs. The final section covers techniques for applying uncertainty quantification to make predictions under uncertainty, including treatment of epistemic uncertainties. It presents the theory and practice of predicting the behavior of a system based on the aggregation of data from simulation, theory, and experiment. The text focuses on simulations based on the solution of systems of partial differential equations and includes in-depth coverage of Monte Carlo methods, basic design of computer experiments, as well as regularized statistical techniques. Code references, in python, appear throughout the text and online as executable code, enabling readers to perform the analysis under discussion. Worked examples from realistic, model problems help readers understand the mechanics of applying the methods. Each chapter ends with several assignable problems. Uncertainty Quantification and Predictive Computational Science fills the growing need for a classroom text for senior undergraduate and early-career graduate students in the engineering and physical sciences and supports independent study by researchers and professionals who must include uncertainty quantification and predictive science in the simulations they develop and/or perform.

Model-based Systems Architecting is a key tool for designing complex industrial systems. It is dedicated to the working systems architects, engineers and modelers, in order to help them master the complex integrated systems that they are dealing with in their day-to-day professional lives. It presents the CESAMES Systems Architecting Method (CESAM), a systems architecting and modeling framework which has been developed since 2003 in close interaction with many leading industrial companies, providing rigorous and unambiguous semantics for all classical systems architecture concepts. This approach is practically robust and easy-to-use: during the last decade, it was deployed in more than 2,000 real system development projects within the industry, and distributed to around 10,000 engineers around the globe.

This book, originally published in 1970, concerns the new technique of computer simulation in psychology at the time. Computer programs described include models of learning, problem-solving, pattern recognition, the use of language, and personality. More general topics are discussed including the evaluation of such models, the relation of the field to cybernetics, and the problem posed by consciousness. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

This book studies the pitfalls of regional climate models in simulating track and intensity of tropical cyclone over western North Pacific for the East Asian summer monsoon climate.A number of sensitivity experiments related to tropical cyclone simulation with different model configurations and model physical schemes, including model resolution, model lateral boundary condition, effect of sea surface temperature, cumulus parameterization scheme and model microphysics scheme, as well as the features and the failure of tropical cyclone simulation in regional climate models were carefully analyzed with model output with high temporal resolution, to investigate shortcomings of the models, so as to come up with better models to simulate and study tropical cyclone track and intensity.The book is suitable for graduate students in meteorology with focuses in the tropical cyclone simulation, as well as professionals devoted to model development and study of tropical cyclone activities.

Since the early 1980s, CAD frameworks have received a great deal of attention, both in the research community and in the commercial arena. It is generally agreed that CAD framework technology promises much: advanced CAD frameworks can turn collections of individual tools into effective and user-friendly design environments. But how can this promise be fulfilled? CAD Frameworks: Principles and Architecture describes the design and construction of CAD frameworks. It presents principles for building integrated design environments and shows how a CAD framework can be based on these principles. It derives the architecture of a CAD framework in a systematic way, using well-defined primitives for representation. This architecture defines how the many different framework sub-topics, ranging from concurrency control to design flow management, relate to each other and come together into an overall system. The origin of this work is the research and development performed in the context of the Nelsis CAD Framework, which has been a working system for well over eight years, gaining functionality while evolving from one release to the next. The principles and concepts presented in this book have been field-tested in the Nelsis CAD Framework. CAD Frameworks: Principles and Architecture is primarily intended for EDA professionals, both in industry and in academia, but is also valuable outside the domain of electronic design. Many of the principles and concepts presented are also applicable to other design-oriented application domains, such as mechanical design or computer-aided software engineering (CASE). It is thus a valuable reference for all those involved in computer-aided design.

The International Conference on Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning is organised bi-annually by the Eindhoven University of Technology. This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the eighth conference that was held at the Kapellerput Conference Centre in the village of Heeze, near Eindhoven, The Netherlands, from 4 to 7 July, 2006.

Traditionally, the DDSS conferences aim to be a platform for both starting and experienced researchers who focus on the development and application of computer support in the areas of urban planning and architectural design. This results in an interesting mix of well-established research projects and first explorations. It also leads to a very valuable cross-over of theories, methods, and technologies for support systems in the two different areas, architecture and urban planning. This volume contains 31 peer reviewed papers from this yeara (TM)s conference that are organised into seven sections:

a [ Land Use Simulation and Visualisation

a [ Multi-Agent Models for Movement Simulation

a [ Multi-Agent Models for Urban Development

a [ Managing and Deploying Design Knowledge

a [ Urban Decision-Making

a [ Design Interactivity and Design Automation

a [ Virtual Environments and Augmented Reality.

This book will bring researchers together and is a valuable resource for their continuous joint effort to improve the design and planning of our environment.

Any study on the historical evolution of nations and countries points out the decisive importance of productivity trends. We are all very familiar with the main evolution which started with a hunting society at the dawn of civilization, then moved to an agricultural society, and quickly to craftsmanship and com merce. The beginning of the industrial society dates back to the end of the eighteenth century in England, with the introduction of the assembly line in the textile and smelting industries. However, in the last few decades, we are becoming more and more acutely aware of the paramount importance of the production of "information". Indeed, according to a few economists today, we should be classified as living in an information society which has superseded the industrial society. At this point it simply becomes necessary to talk about the computer informa tion industry, which is more and more pervading our lives, from the personal computer, to the workstation, to information networks and electronic mail, to the blueprint executed by robots, to the supercomputer necessary in any major scientific and engineering task. The computer has already brought about a momentous change in the production line - less and less man-size, more and more robot-size. But this rush to tech nical innovation has not stopped at this point. Artificial intelligence and expert systems are becoming a more and more important factor for production by many enterprises and activities.

Database technology and entity-relationship (ER) modeling have meanwhile reached the level of an established technology. This book presents the achievements of research in this field in a comprehensive survey. It deals with the entity-relationship model and its extensions with regard to an integrated development and modeling of database applications and, consequently, the specification of structures, behavior and interaction. Apart from research on the ER model and the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of database modeling the book also presents techniques for the translation of the ER model into classical database models and languages such as relational, hierarchical, and network models and languages, and also into object-oriented models. The book is of interest for all database theoreticians as well as practitioners who are provided with the relevant foundations of database modeling.

In recent decades, science has experienced a revolutionary shift. The development and extensive application of computer modelling and simulation has transformed the knowledge-making practices of scientific fields as diverse as astro-physics, genetics, robotics and demography. This epistemic transformation has brought with it a simultaneous heightening of political relevance and a renewal of international policy agendas, raising crucial questions about the nature and application of simulation knowledges throughout public policy. Through a diverse range of case studies, spanning over a century of theoretical and practical developments in the atmospheric and environmental sciences, this book argues that computer modelling and simulation have substantially changed scientific and cultural practices and shaped the emergence of novel 'cultures of prediction'. Making an innovative, interdisciplinary contribution to understanding the impact of computer modelling on research practice, institutional configurations and broader cultures, this volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present and future of climate change and the environmental sciences.

This textbook presents a general multi-objective optimization framework for optimizing chemical processes by implementing a link between process simulators and metaheuristic techniques. The proposed approach is general and shows how to implement links between different process simulators such as Aspen Plus (R), HYSIS (R), Super Pro Designer (R) linked to a variety of metaheuristic techniques implemented in Matlab (R), Excel (R), C++, and others, eliminating the numerical complications through the optimization process. Furthermore, the proposed framework allows the use of thermodynamic, design and constitutive equations implemented in the process simulator to implement any process. Aimed at graduate and undergraduate students, it presents introductory chapters for process simulators and metaheuristic optimization techniques and provides several worked exercises as well as proposed exercises. In addition, accompanying tutorial videos clearly explaining the implemented methodologies are available online. Also, some Matlab (R) routines are included as electronic supporting material.

This book addresses computationally-efficient multi-objective optimization of antenna structures using variable-fidelity electromagnetic simulations, surrogate modeling techniques, and design space reduction methods. Based on contemporary research, it formulates multi-objective design tasks, highlights related challenges in the context of antenna design, and discusses solution approaches. Specific focus is on providing methodologies for handling computationally expensive simulation models of antenna structures in the sense of their multi-objective optimization. Also given is a summary of recent developments in antenna design optimization using variable-fidelity simulation models. Numerous examples of real-world antenna design problems are provided along with discussions and recommendations for the readers interested in applying the considered methods in their design work.Written with researchers and students in mind, topics covered can also be applied across a broad spectrum of aeronautical, mechanical, electrical, biomedical and civil engineering. It is of particular interest to those dealing with optimization, computationally expensive design tasks and simulation-driven design.

This book is designed primarily for upper level undergraduate and graduate level students taking a course in multilevel modelling and/or statistical modelling with a large multilevel modelling component. The focus is on presenting the theory and practice of major multilevel modelling techniques in a variety of contexts, using Mplus as the software tool, and demonstrating the various functions available for these analyses in Mplus, which is widely used by researchers in various fields, including most of the social sciences. In particular, Mplus offers users a wide array of tools for latent variable modelling, including for multilevel data.

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.