When discussing classification, support vector machines are known to be a capable and efficient technique to learn and predict with high accuracy within a quick time frame. Yet, their black box means to do so make the practical users quite circumspect about relying on it, without much understanding of the how and why of its predictions. The question raised in this book is how can this 'masked hero' be made more comprehensible and friendly to the public: provide a surrogate model for its hidden optimization engine, replace the method completely or appoint a more friendly approach to tag along and offer the much desired explanations? Evolutionary algorithms can do all these and this book presents such possibilities of achieving high accuracy, comprehensibility, reasonable runtime as well as unconstrained performance.

The volume, devoted to variational analysis and its applications, collects selected and refereed contributions, which provide an outline of the field. The meeting of the title "Equilibrium Problems and Variational Models," which was held in Erice (Sicily) in the period June 23 - July 2 2000, was the occasion of the presentation of some of these papers; other results are a consequence of a fruitful and constructive atmosphere created during the meeting. New results, which enlarge the field of application of variational analysis, are presented in the book; they deal with the vectorial analysis, time dependent variational analysis, exact penalization, high order deriva tives, geometric aspects, distance functions and log-quadratic proximal methodology. The new theoretical results allow one to improve in a remarkable way the study of significant problems arising from the applied sciences, as continuum model of transportation, unilateral problems, multicriteria spatial price models, network equilibrium problems and many others. As noted in the previous book "Equilibrium Problems: Nonsmooth Optimization and Variational Inequality Models," edited by F. Giannessi, A. Maugeri and P.M. Pardalos, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Vol. 58 (2001), the progress obtained by variational analysis has permitted to han dle problems whose equilibrium conditions are not obtained by the mini mization of a functional. These problems obey a more realistic equilibrium condition expressed by a generalized orthogonality (complementarity) con dition, which enriches our knowledge of the equilibrium behaviour. Also this volume presents important examples of this formulation."

Today's distributed systems are characterized by interactions-often complex-between many different hardware and software components cooperating and exchanging information. To simplify development of interactive systems and facilitate communication and documentation, experts of varying disciplines employ descriptions, or specifications, of a given system's behavior and/or structure. Specification and Development of Interactive Systems offers a unique approach to program and software development suitable for large distributed systems, with an emphasis on modular system development and systems engineering. The authors build a basic method, called FOCUS, that enables interactive systems to be described by characterizing their histories of message interaction. The method covers functional requirements, timing, structure, and implementation issues of systems. In addition, the book describes how to connect the models and techniques to tables and diagram-based methods popular in practical systems engineering. Topics and features: * Specification of interface behavior and modular top-down system development * Specification of time and the modeling of hardware/software systems * Interface refinement and the modeling of development steps leading from one level of abstraction to the next * State transition diagrams and tables and the usage of common description techniques, such as found in UML This book provides a mathematical and logical foundation for the specification and development of interactive systems based on a model that describes systems in terms of their input/output behavior. The reader gains a comprehensive understanding of all fundamental models, techniques, and methods for interactive system design. The book is an essential resource for all researchers and professionals in computer science, software systems engineering and computer engineering.

This edited volume comprises invited chapters that cover five areas of the current and the future development of intelligent systems and information sciences. Half of the chapters were presented as invited talks at the Workshop "Future Directions for Intelligent Systems and Information Sciences" held in Dunedin, New Zealand, 22-23 November 1999 after the International Conference on Neuro-Information Processing (lCONIPI ANZIISI ANNES '99) held in Perth, Australia. In order to make this volume useful for researchers and academics in the broad area of information sciences I invited prominent researchers to submit materials and present their view about future paradigms, future trends and directions. Part I contains chapters on adaptive, evolving, learning systems. These are systems that learn in a life-long, on-line mode and in a changing environment. The first chapter, written by the editor, presents briefly the paradigm of Evolving Connectionist Systems (ECOS) and some of their applications. The chapter by Sung-Bae Cho presents the paradigms of artificial life and evolutionary programming in the context of several applications (mobile robots, adaptive agents of the WWW). The following three chapters written by R.Duro, J.Santos and J.A.Becerra (chapter 3), GCoghill . (chapter 4), Y.Maeda (chapter 5) introduce new techniques for building adaptive, learning robots.

The emergence of the system-on-chip (SoC) era is creating many new challenges at all stages of the design process. Engineers are reconsidering how designs are specified, partitioned and verified. With systems and software engineers programming in C/C++ and their hardware counterparts working in hardware description languages such as VHDL and Verilog, problems arise from the use of different design languages, incompatible tools and fragmented tool flows. Momentum is building behind the SystemC language and modeling platform as the best solution for representing functionality, communication, and software and hardware implementations at various levels of abstraction. The reason is clear: increasing design complexity demands very fast executable specifications to validate system concepts, and only C/C++ delivers adequate levels of abstraction, hardware-software integration, and performance. System design today also demands a single common language and modeling foundation in order to make interoperable system--level design tools, services and intellectual property a reality. SystemC is entirely based on C/C++ and the complete source code for the SystemC reference simulator can be freely downloaded from www.systemc.org and executed on both PCs and workstations. System Design and SystemC provides a comprehensive introduction to the powerful modeling capabilities of the SystemC language, and also provides a large and valuable set of system level modeling examples and techniques. Written by experts from Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and Synopsys, Inc. who were deeply involved in the definition and implementation of the SystemC language and reference simulator, this book will provide you with thekey concepts you need to be successful with SystemC. System Design with SystemC thoroughly covers the new system level modeling capabilities available in SystemC 2.0 as well as the hardware modeling capabilities available in earlier versions of SystemC. designed and implemented the SystemC language and reference simulator, this book will provide you with the key concepts you need to be successful with SystemC. System Design with SystemC will be of interest to designers in industry working on complex system designs, as well as students and researchers within academia. All of the examples and techniques described within this book can be used with freely available compilers and debuggers &endash; no commercial software is needed. Instructions for obtaining the free source code for the examples obtained within this book are included in the first chapter.

Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments researches both how game sound affects a player psychologically, emotionally, and physiologically, and how this relationship itself impacts the design of computer game sound and the development of technology. This compilation also applies beyond the realm of video games to other types of immersive sound, such as soundscape design, gambling machines, emotive and fantastical sound to name a few. The application for this research is wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, and of primary importance for academics and practitioners searching for the right sounds.

Semi-infinite optimization is a vivid field of active research. Recently semi infinite optimization in a general form has attracted a lot of attention, not only because of its surprising structural aspects, but also due to the large number of applications which can be formulated as general semi-infinite programs. The aim of this book is to highlight structural aspects of general semi-infinite programming, to formulate optimality conditions which take this structure into account, and to give a conceptually new solution method. In fact, under certain assumptions general semi-infinite programs can be solved efficiently when their bi-Ievel structure is exploited appropriately. After a brief introduction with some historical background in Chapter 1 we be gin our presentation by a motivation for the appearance of standard and general semi-infinite optimization problems in applications. Chapter 2 lists a number of problems from engineering and economics which give rise to semi-infinite models, including (reverse) Chebyshev approximation, minimax problems, ro bust optimization, design centering, defect minimization problems for operator equations, and disjunctive programming."

Communication protocols form the operational basis of computer networks and tele communication systems. They are behavior conventions that describe how com munication systems inter act with each other, defining the temporal order of the interactions and the formats of the data units exchanged - essentially they determine the efficiency and reliability of computer networks. Protocol Engineering is an important discipline covering the design, validation, and implementation of communication protocols. Part I of this book is devoted to the fundamentals of communication protocols, describing their working principles and implicitly also those of computer networks. The author introduces the concepts of service, protocol, layer, and layered architecture, and introduces the main elements required in the description of protocols using a model language. He then presents the most important protocol functions. Part II deals with the description of communication proto cols, offering an overview of the various formal methods, the essence of Protocol Engineering. The author introduces the fundamental description methods, such as finite state machines, Petri nets, process calculi, and temporal logics, that are in part used as semantic models for formal description techniques. He then introduces one represen tative technique for each of the main description approaches, among others SDL and LOTOS, and surveys the use of UML for describing protocols. Part III covers the protocol life cycle and the most important development stages, presenting the reader with approaches for systematic protocol design, with various verification methods, with the main implementation techniques, and with strategies for their testing, in particular with conformance and interoperability tests, and the test description language TTCN. The author uses the simple data transfer example protocol XDT (eXample Data Transfer) throughout the book as a reference protocol to exemplify the various description techniques and to demonstrate important validation and implementation approaches. The book is an introduction to communication protocols and their development for undergraduate and graduate students of computer science and communication technology, and it is also a suitable reference for engineers and programmers. Most chapters contain exercises, and the author's accompanying website provides further online material including a complete formal description of the XDT protocol and an animated simulation visualizing its behavior.

Both Java and .NET use the idea of a virtual machine (VM) rather than a true executable. While very useful for some purposes, VMs make your source code and hence your intellectual property (IP) inherently less secure because the process can be reversed or decompiled. This book is useful because you must understand how decompilation works in order to properly protect your IP. Anyone interested in protecting Java code from prying eyes will want to buy this one of a kind book as it separates fact from fiction about just how ineffective obfuscators are at protecting your corporate secrets.While it is very easy for anyone to decompile Java code and almost as easy to run it through an obfuscation protection tool, there is very little information on just what happens when you do this. How secure is your code after you run an obfuscator, for example? bytecodes and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) than in any book yet published. This book redresses the imbalance by providing insights into the features and limitations of todays decompilers and obfuscators, as well as offering a detailed look at what JVMs actually do.Virtual machine is the computer science term used when (most often in an attempt to gain greater portability) you create an abstract virtual processor and write code for it instead of having your compiler generate actual machine language for a chip like the Pentium 4. want the code to run. This translates the virtual machine language to the real machine language of your processor. The intermediary code for the virtual machine is what can more easily be decompiled, although with a loss of security, since in order for the code to be converted to real machine language it must be relatively transparent and not just a sequence of 0s and 1s

Genetic algorithms provide a powerful range of methods for solving complex engineering search and optimization algorithms. Their power can also lead to difficulty for new researchers and students who wish to apply such evolution-based methods. "Applied Evolutionary Algorithms in Java" offers a practical, hands-on guide to applying such algorithms to engineering and scientific problems. The concepts are illustrated through clear examples, ranging from simple to more complex problems domains; all based on real-world industrial problems. Examples are taken from image processing, fuzzy-logic control systems, mobile robots, and telecommunication network optimization problems. The Java-based toolkit provides an easy-to-use and essential visual interface, with integrated graphing and analysis tools. Topics and features: *inclusion of a complete Java toolkit for exploring evolutionary algorithms *strong use of visualization techniques, to increase understanding *coverage of all major evolutionary algorithms in common usage *broad range of industrially based example applications *includes examples and an appendix based on fuzzy logic This book is intended for students, researchers, and professionals interested in using evolutionary algorithms in their work. No mathematics beyond basic algebra and Cartesian graphs methods are required, as the aim is to encourage applying the Java toolkit to develop the power of these techniques.

Principles of Verilog PLI is a how to do' text on Verilog Programming Language Interface. The primary focus of the book is on how to use PLI for problem solving. Both PLI 1.0 and PLI 2.0 are covered. Particular emphasis has been put on adopting a generic step-by-step approach to create a fully functional PLI code. Numerous examples were carefully selected so that a variety of problems can be solved through ther use. A separate chapter on Bus Functional Model (BFM), one of the most widely used commercial applications of PLI, is included. Principles of Verilog PLI is written for the professional engineer who uses Verilog for ASIC design and verification. Principles of Verilog PLI will be also of interest to students who are learning Verilog.

Object-Process Methodology (OPM) is a comprehensive novel approach to systems engineering. Integrating function, structure and behavior in a single, unifying model, OPM significantly extends the system modeling capabilities of current object-oriented methods. Founded on a precise generic ontology and combining graphics with natural language, OPM is applicable to virtually any domain of business, engineering and science. Relieved from technical issues, system architects can use OPM to engage in the creative design of complex systems.The book presents the theory and practice of OPM with examples from various industry segments and engineering disciplines, as well as daily life. It includes a CD-ROM demo version of the award-winning OPM-supporting Object-Process CASE Tool (OPCAT). Using the numerous examples and exercises (with answers) in the book, this software enables the reader to gain hands-on experience in developing complex systems.

This book describes how to apply ICONIX Process (a minimal, use case-driven modeling process) in an agile software project. It's full of practical advice for avoiding common agile pitfalls. Further, the book defines a core agile subset so those of you who want to get agile need not spend years learning to do it. Instead, you can simply read this book and apply the core subset of techniques.

The book follows a real-life .NET/C# project from inception and UML modeling, to working code through several iterations. You can then go on-line to compare the finished product with the initial set of use cases.

The book also introduces several extensions to the core ICONIX Process, including combining Test-Driven Development (TDD) with up-front design to maximize both approaches (with examples using Java and JUnit). And the book incorporates persona analysis to drive the projects goals and reduce requirements churn.

Experience gained during a ten-year long involvement in modelling, program ming and application in nonlinear optimization helped me to arrive at the conclusion that in the interest of having successful applications and efficient software production, knowing the structure of the problem to be solved is in dispensable. This is the reason why I have chosen the field in question as the sphere of my research. Since in applications, mainly from among the nonconvex optimization models, the differentiable ones proved to be the most efficient in modelling, especially in solving them with computers, I started to deal with the structure of smooth optimization problems. The book, which is a result of more than a decade of research, can be equally useful for researchers and stu dents showing interest in the domain, since the elementary notions necessary for understanding the book constitute a part of the university curriculum. I in tended dealing with the key questions of optimization theory, which endeavour, obviously, cannot bear all the marks of completeness. What I consider the most crucial point is the uniform, differential geometric treatment of various questions, which provides the reader with opportunities for learning the structure in the wide range, within optimization problems. I am grateful to my family for affording me tranquil, productive circumstances. I express my gratitude to F."

In this edition, the scope and character of the monograph did not change with respect to the first edition. Taking into account the rapid development of the field, we have, however, considerably enlarged its contents. Chapter 4 includes two additional sections 4.4 and 4.6 on theory and algorithms of D.C. Programming. Chapter 7, on Decomposition Algorithms in Nonconvex Optimization, is completely new. Besides this, we added several exercises and corrected errors and misprints in the first edition. We are grateful for valuable suggestions and comments that we received from several colleagues. R. Horst, P.M. Pardalos and N.V. Thoai March 2000 Preface to the First Edition Many recent advances in science, economics and engineering rely on nu merical techniques for computing globally optimal solutions to corresponding optimization problems. Global optimization problems are extraordinarily di verse and they include economic modeling, fixed charges, finance, networks and transportation, databases and chip design, image processing, nuclear and mechanical design, chemical engineering design and control, molecular biology, and environment al engineering. Due to the existence of multiple local optima that differ from the global solution all these problems cannot be solved by classical nonlinear programming techniques. During the past three decades, however, many new theoretical, algorith mic, and computational contributions have helped to solve globally multi extreme problems arising from important practical applications."

Complementarity theory is a new domain in applied mathematics and is concerned with the study of complementarity problems. These problems represent a wide class of mathematical models related to optimization, game theory, economic engineering, mechanics, fluid mechanics, stochastic optimal control etc. The book is dedicated to the study of nonlinear complementarity problems by topological methods. Audience: Mathematicians, engineers, economists, specialists working in operations research and anybody interested in applied mathematics or in mathematical modeling.

This book provides a coherent methodology for Model-Driven Requirements Engineering which stresses the systematic treatment of requirements within the realm of modelling and model transformations. The underlying basic assumption is that detailed requirements models are used as first-class artefacts playing a direct role in constructing software. To this end, the book presents the Requirements Specification Language (RSL) that allows precision and formality, which eventually permits automation of the process of turning requirements into a working system by applying model transformations and code generation to RSL. The book is structured in eight chapters. The first two chapters present the main concepts and give an introduction to requirements modelling in RSL. The next two chapters concentrate on presenting RSL in a formal way, suitable for automated processing. Subsequently, chapters 5 and 6 concentrate on model transformations with the emphasis on those involving RSL and UML. Finally, chapters 7 and 8 provide a summary in the form of a systematic methodology with a comprehensive case study. Presenting technical details of requirements modelling and model transformations for requirements, this book is of interest to researchers, graduate students and advanced practitioners from industry. While researchers will benefit from the latest results and possible research directions in MDRE, students and practitioners can exploit the presented information and practical techniques in several areas, including requirements engineering, architectural design, software language construction and model transformation. Together with a tool suite available online, the book supplies the reader with what it promises: the means to get from requirements to code "in a snap".

This thesis introduces a successfully designed and commissioned intelligent health monitoring system, specifically for use on any industrial robot, which is able to predict the onset of faults in the joints of the geared transmissions. However the developed embedded wireless condition monitoring system leads itself very well for applications on any power transmission equipment in which the loads and speeds are not constant, and access is restricted. As such this provides significant scope for future development. Three significant achievements are presented in this thesis. First, the development of a condition monitoring algorithm based on vibration analysis of an industrial robot for fault detection and diagnosis. The combined use of a statistical control chart with time-domain signal analysis for detecting a fault via an arm-mounted wireless processor system represents the first stage of fault detection. Second, the design and development of a sophisticated embedded microprocessor base station for online implementation of the intelligent condition monitoring algorithm, and third, the implementation of a discrete wavelet transform, using an artificial neural network, with statistical feature extraction for robot fault diagnosis in which the vibration signals are first decomposed into eight levels of wavelet coefficients.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of digital signal processing for a multi-disciplinary audience. It posits that though the theory involved in digital signal processing stems from electrical, electronics, communication, and control engineering, the topic has use in other disciplinary areas like chemical, mechanical, civil, computer science, and management. This book is written about digital signal processing in such a way that it is suitable for a wide ranging audience. Readers should be able to get a grasp of the field, understand the concepts easily, and apply as needed in their own fields. It covers sampling and reconstruction of signals; infinite impulse response filter; finite impulse response filter; multi rate signal processing; statistical signal processing; and applications in multidisciplinary domains. The book takes a functional approach and all techniques are illustrated using Matlab.

This textbook provides a comprehensive modeling, reformulation and optimization approach for solving production planning and supply chain planning problems, covering topics from a basic introduction to planning systems, mixed integer programming (MIP) models and algorithms through the advanced description of mathematical results in polyhedral combinatorics required to solve these problems. Based on twenty years worth of research in which the authors have played a significant role, the book addresses real life industrial production planning problems (involving complex production structures with multiple production stages) using MIP modeling and reformulation approach. The book provides an introduction to MIP modeling and to planning systems, a unique collection of reformulation results, and an easy to use problem-solving library. This approach is demonstrated through a series of real life case studies, exercises and detailed illustrations. Review by Jakub Marecek (Computer Journal) The emphasis put on mixed integer rounding and mixing sets, heuristics in-built in general purpose integer programming solvers, as well as on decompositions and heuristics using integer programming should be praised... There is no doubt that this volume offers the present best introduction to integer programming formulations of lotsizing problems, encountered in production planning. (2007)

The contributors present the main results and techniques of their specialties in an easily accessible way accompanied with many references: historical, hints for complete proofs or solutions to exercises and directions for further research. This volume contains applications which have not appeared in any collection of this type. The book is a general source of information in computation theory, at the undergraduate and research level.