This book is designed both for FPGA users interested in developing new, specific components - generally for reducing execution times -and IP core designers interested in extending their catalog of specific components. The main focus is circuit synthesis and the discussion shows, for example, how a given algorithm executing some complex function can be translated to a synthesizable circuit description, as well as which are the best choices the designer can make to reduce the circuit cost, latency, or power consumption. This is not a book on algorithms. It is a book that shows how to translate efficiently an algorithm to a circuit, using techniques such as parallelism, pipeline, loop unrolling, and others. Numerous examples of FPGA implementation are described throughout this book and the circuits are modeled in VHDL. Complete and synthesizable source files are available for download."

VHDL 101 is written for Electrical Engineers and others wishing to break into FPGA design and assumes a basic knowledge of digital design and some experience with engineering process .

Bill Kafig, industry expert, swiftly brings the reader up to speed on techniques and functions commonly used in VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) as well as commands and data types. Extensive simple, complete designs accompany the content for maximum comprehension. The book concludes with a section on design re-use, which is of utmost importance to today's engineer who needs to meet a deadline and lower costs per unit.

*Gets you up to speed with VHDL fast, reducing time to market and driving down costs

* Companion website with source code and other documents to assist the student in building the reference design used throughout the book (http: //www.elsevierdirect.com/companion.jsp?ISBN=9781856177047)

*Covers the basics including language concepts and includes complete design examples for ease of learning

* Covers widely accepted industry nomenclature

* Learn from "best design practices"

*Gets you up to speed with VHDL fast, reducing time to market and driving down costs

* Companion website with source code and other documents to assist the student in building the reference design used throughout the book (http: //www.elsevierdirect.com/v2/companion.jsp?ISBN=9781856177047)

*Covers the basics including language concepts and includes complete design examples for ease of learning

* Covers widely accepted industry nomenclature

* Learn from "best design practices""

This book provides an overview of crowdsourced data management. Covering all aspects including the workflow, algorithms and research potential, it particularly focuses on the latest techniques and recent advances. The authors identify three key aspects in determining the performance of crowdsourced data management: quality control, cost control and latency control. By surveying and synthesizing a wide spectrum of studies on crowdsourced data management, the book outlines important factors that need to be considered to improve crowdsourced data management. It also introduces a practical crowdsourced-database-system design and presents a number of crowdsourced operators. Self-contained and covering theory, algorithms, techniques and applications, it is a valuable reference resource for researchers and students new to crowdsourced data management with a basic knowledge of data structures and databases.

This book presents a collection of research papers that address the challenge of how to develop software in a principled way that, in particular, enables reasoning. The individual papers approach this challenge from various perspectives including programming languages, program verification, and the systematic variation of software. Topics covered include programming abstractions for concurrent and distributed software, specification and verification techniques for imperative programs, and development techniques for software product lines. With this book the editors and authors wish to acknowledge - on the occasion of his 60th birthday - the work of Arnd Poetzsch-Heffter, who has made major contributions to software technology throughout his career. It features articles on Arnd's broad research interests including, among others, the implementation of programming languages, formal semantics, specification and verification of object-oriented and concurrent programs, programming language design, distributed systems, software modeling, and software product lines. All contributing authors are leading experts in programming languages and software engineering who have collaborated with Arnd in the course of his career. Overall, the book offers a collection of high-quality articles, presenting original research results, major case studies, and inspiring visions. Some of the work included here was presented at a symposium in honor of Arnd Poetzsch-Heffter, held in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in November 2018.

This book focuses on the different representations and cryptographic properties of Booleans functions, presents constructions of Boolean functions with some good cryptographic properties. More specifically, Walsh spectrum description of the traditional cryptographic properties of Boolean functions, including linear structure, propagation criterion, nonlinearity, and correlation immunity are presented. Constructions of symmetric Boolean functions and of Boolean permutations with good cryptographic properties are specifically studied. This book is not meant to be comprehensive, but with its own focus on some original research of the authors in the past. To be self content, some basic concepts and properties are introduced. This book can serve as a reference for cryptographic algorithm designers, particularly the designers of stream ciphers and of block ciphers, and for academics with interest in the cryptographic properties of Boolean functions.

To deal with the flexible architectures and evolving functionalities of complex modern systems, the agent metaphor and agent-based computing are often the most appropriate software design approach. As a result, a broad range of special-purpose design processes has been developed in the last several years to tackle the challenges of these specific application domains. In this context, in early 2012 the IEEE-FIPA Design Process Documentation Template SC0097B was defined, which facilitates the representation of design processes and method fragments through the use of standardized templates, thus supporting the creation of easily sharable repositories and facilitating the composition of new design processes.

Following this standardization approach, this book gathers the documentations of some of the best-known agent-oriented design processes. After an introductory section, describing the goal of the book and the existing IEEE FIPA standard for design process documentation, thirteen processes (including the widely known Open UP, the de facto standard in object-oriented software engineering) are documented by their original creators or other well-known scientists working in the field. As a result, this is the first work to adopt a standard, unified descriptive approach for documenting different processes, making it much easier to study the individual processes, to rigorously compare them, and to apply them in industrial projects.While there are a few books on the market describing the individual agent-oriented design processes, none of them presents all the processes, let alone in the same format. With this handbook, for the first time, researchers as well as professional software developers looking for an overview as well as for detailed and standardized descriptions of design processes will find a comprehensive presentation of the most important agent-oriented design processes, which will be an invaluable resource when developing solutions in various application areas.

This volume provides a comprehensive state of the art overview of a series of advanced trends and concepts that have recently been proposed in the area of green information technologies engineering as well as of design and development methodologies for models and complex systems architectures and their intelligent components. The contributions included in the volume have their roots in the authors' presentations, and vivid discussions that have followed the presentations, at a series of workshop and seminars held within the international TEMPUS-project GreenCo project in United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and the Ukraine, during 2013-2015 and at the 1st - 5th Workshops on Green and Safe Computing (GreenSCom) held in Russia, Slovakia and the Ukraine. The book presents a systematic exposition of research on principles, models, components and complex systems and a description of industry- and society-oriented aspects of the green IT engineering. A chapter-oriented structure has been adopted for this book following a "vertical view" of the green IT, from hardware (CPU and FPGA) and software components to complex industrial systems. The 15 chapters of the book are grouped into five sections: (1) Methodology and Principles of Green IT Engineering for Complex Systems, (2) Green Components and Programmable Systems, (3) Green Internet Computing, Cloud and Communication Systems, (4) Modeling and Assessment of Green Computer Systems and Infrastructures, and (5) Gree

This monograph illustrates important notions in security reductions and essential techniques in security reductions for group-based cryptosystems. Using digital signatures and encryption as examples, the authors explain how to program correct security reductions for those cryptographic primitives. Various schemes are selected and re-proven in this book to demonstrate and exemplify correct security reductions. This book is suitable for researchers and graduate students engaged with public-key cryptography.

Inductive Logic Programming is a research area situated in machine learning and logic programming, two subfields of artificial intelligence. The goal of inductive logic programming is to develop theories, techniques and tools for inducing hypotheses from observations using the representations from computational logic. Inductive Logic Programming has a high potential for applications in data mining, automated scientific discovery, knowledge discovery in databases, as well as automatic programming. This book provides a detailed state-of-the-art overview of Inductive Logic Programming as well as a collection of recent technical contributions to Inductive Logic Programming. The state-of-the-art overview is based on - among others - the succesful ESPRIT basic research project no. 6020 on Inductive Logic Programming, funded by the European Commission from 1992 till 1995. It highlights some of the most important recent results within Inductive Logic Programming and can be used as a thorough introduction to the field. This book is relevant to students, researchers and practitioners of artificial intelligence and computer science, especially those concerned with machine learning, data mining and computational logic.

Addressing the open problem of engineering normative open systems using the multi-agent paradigm, normative open systems are explained as systems in which heterogeneous and autonomous entities and institutions coexist in a complex social and legal framework that can evolve to address the different and often conflicting objectives of the many stakeholders involved. Presenting a software engineering approach which covers both the analysis and design of these kinds of systems, and which deals with the open issues in the area, ROMAS (Regulated Open Multi-Agent Systems) defines a specific multi-agent architecture, meta-model, methodology and CASE tool. This CASE tool is based on Model-Driven technology and integrates the graphical design with the formal verification of some properties of these systems by means of model checking techniques. Utilizing tables to enhance reader insights into the most important requirements for designing normative open multi-agent systems, the book also provides a detailed and easy to understand description of the ROMAS approach and the advantages of using ROMAS. This method is illustrated with case studies, in which the reader may develop a comprehensive understanding of applying ROMAS to a given problem. The case studies are presented with illustrations of the developments. Reading this book will help readers to understand the increasing demand for normative open systems and their development requirements; understand how multi-agent systems approaches can be used to deal with the development of systems of this kind; to learn an easy to use and complete engineering method for large-scale and complex normative systems and to recognize how Model-Driven technology can be used to integrate the analysis, design, verification and implementation of multi-agent systems.

Blockchain and other trustless systems have gone from being relatively obscure technologies, which were only known to a small community of computer scientists and cryptologists, to mainstream phenomena that are now considered powerful game changers for many industries. This book explores and assesses real-world use cases and case studies on blockchain and related technologies. The studies describe the respective applications and address how these technologies have been deployed, the rationale behind their application, and finally, their outcomes. The book shares a wealth of experiences and lessons learned regarding financial markets, energy, SCM, healthcare, law and compliance. Given its scope, it is chiefly intended for academics and practitioners who want to learn more about blockchain applications.

This book highlights the current challenges for engineers involved in product development and the associated changes in procedure they make necessary. Methods for systematically analyzing the requirements for safety and security mechanisms are described using examples of how they are implemented in software and hardware, and how their effectiveness can be demonstrated in terms of functional and design safety are discussed. Given today's new E-mobility and automated driving approaches, new challenges are arising and further issues concerning "Road Vehicle Safety" and "Road Traffic Safety" have to be resolved. To address the growing complexity of vehicle functions, as well as the increasing need to accommodate interdisciplinary project teams, previous development approaches now have to be reconsidered, and system engineering approaches and proven management systems need to be supplemented or wholly redefined. The book presents a continuous system development process, starting with the basic requirements of quality management and continuing until the release of a vehicle and its components for road use. Attention is paid to the necessary definition of the respective development item, the threat-, hazard- and risk analysis, safety concepts and their relation to architecture development, while the book also addresses the aspects of product realization in mechanics, electronics and software as well as for subsequent testing, verification, integration and validation phases. In November 2011, requirements for the Functional Safety (FuSa) of road vehicles were first published in ISO 26262. The processes and methods described here are intended to show developers how vehicle systems can be implemented according to ISO 26262, so that their compliance with the relevant standards can be demonstrated as part of a safety case, including audits, reviews and assessments.

Validation and verification is an area of software engineering that has been around since the early stages of program development, especially one of its more known areas: testing. Testing, the dynamic side of validation and verification (V&V), has been complemented with other, more formal techniques of software engineering, and so the static verification - traditional in formal methods - has been joined by model checking and other techniques. ""Verification, Validation and Testing in Software Engineering"" offers thorough coverage of many valuable formal and semiformal techniques of V&V. It explores, depicts, and provides examples of different applications in V&V that produce many areas of software development - including real-time applications - where V&V techniques are required.

"Computer and Information Sciences" is a unique and comprehensive review of advanced technology and research in the field of Information Technology. It provides an up to date snapshot of research in Europe and the Far East (Hong Kong, Japan and China) in the most active areas of information technology, including Computer Vision, Data Engineering, Web Engineering, Internet Technologies, Bio-Informatics and System Performance Evaluation Methodologies.

This unique textbook/reference presents unified coverage of bioinformatics topics relating to both biological sequences and biological networks, providing an in-depth analysis of cutting-edge distributed algorithms, as well as of relevant sequential algorithms. In addition to introducing the latest algorithms in this area, more than fifteen new distributed algorithms are also proposed. Topics and features: reviews a range of open challenges in biological sequences and networks; describes in detail both sequential and parallel/distributed algorithms for each problem; suggests approaches for distributed algorithms as possible extensions to sequential algorithms, when the distributed algorithms for the topic are scarce; proposes a number of new distributed algorithms in each chapter, to serve as potential starting points for further research; concludes each chapter with self-test exercises, a summary of the key points, a comparison of the algorithms described, and a literature review.

This unique text/reference reviews the key principles and techniques in conceptual modelling which are of relevance to specialists in the field of cultural heritage. Information modelling tasks are a vital aspect of work and study in such disciplines as archaeology, anthropology, history, and architecture. Yet the concepts and methods behind information modelling are rarely covered by the training in cultural heritage-related fields. With the increasing popularity of the digital humanities, and the rapidly growing need to manage large and complex datasets, the importance of information modelling in cultural heritage is greater than ever before. To address this need, this book serves in the place of a course on software engineering, assuming no previous knowledge of the field. Topics and features: Presents a general philosophical introduction to conceptual modelling Introduces the basics of conceptual modelling, using the ConML language as an infrastructure Reviews advanced modelling techniques relating to issues of vagueness, temporality and subjectivity, in addition to such topics as metainformation and feature redefinition Proposes an ontology for cultural heritage supported by the Cultural Heritage Abstract Reference Model (CHARM), to enable the easy construction of conceptual models Describes various usage scenarios and applications of cultural heritage modelling, offering practical tips on how to use different techniques to solve real-world problems This interdisciplinary work is an essential primer for tutors and students (at both undergraduate and graduate level) in any area related to cultural heritage, including archaeology, anthropology, art, history, architecture, or literature. Cultural heritage managers, researchers, and professionals will also find this to be a valuable reference, as will anyone involved in database design, data management, or the conceptualization of cultural heritage in general. Dr. Cesar Gonzalez-Perez is a Staff Scientist at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit), within the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

This book provides a general overview of multiple instance learning (MIL), defining the framework and covering the central paradigms. The authors discuss the most important algorithms for MIL such as classification, regression and clustering. With a focus on classification, a taxonomy is set and the most relevant proposals are specified. Efficient algorithms are developed to discover relevant information when working with uncertainty. Key representative applications are included. This book carries out a study of the key related fields of distance metrics and alternative hypothesis. Chapters examine new and developing aspects of MIL such as data reduction for multi-instance problems and imbalanced MIL data. Class imbalance for multi-instance problems is defined at the bag level, a type of representation that utilizes ambiguity due to the fact that bag labels are available, but the labels of the individual instances are not defined. Additionally, multiple instance multiple label learning is explored. This learning framework introduces flexibility and ambiguity in the object representation providing a natural formulation for representing complicated objects. Thus, an object is represented by a bag of instances and is allowed to have associated multiple class labels simultaneously. This book is suitable for developers and engineers working to apply MIL techniques to solve a variety of real-world problems. It is also useful for researchers or students seeking a thorough overview of MIL literature, methods, and tools.

The latest work by the world's leading authorities on the use of formal methods in computer science is presented in this volume, based on the 1995 International Summer School in Marktoberdorf, Germany. Logic is of special importance in computer science, since it provides the basis for giving correct semantics of programs, for specification and verification of software, and for program synthesis. The lectures presented here provide the basic knowledge a researcher in this area should have and give excellent starting points for exploring the literature. Topics covered include semantics and category theory, machine based theorem proving, logic programming, bounded arithmetic, proof theory, algebraic specifications and rewriting, algebraic algorithms, and type theory.

The last decade has witnessed a rapid surge of interest in new sensing and monitoring devices for wellbeing and healthcare. One key development in this area is wireless, wearable and implantable "in vivo" monitoring and intervention. A myriad of platforms are now available from both academic institutions and commercial organisations. They permit the management of patients with both acute and chronic symptoms, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, treatment of epilepsy and other debilitating neurological disorders. Despite extensive developments in sensing technologies, there are significant research issues related to system integration, sensor miniaturisation, low-power sensor interface, wireless telemetry and signal processing.

In the 2nd edition of this popular and authoritative reference on Body Sensor Networks (BSN), major topics related to the latest technological developments and potential clinical applications are discussed, with contents covering.

Biosensor Design, Interfacing and Nanotechnology

Wireless Communication and Network Topologies

Communication Protocols and Standards

Energy Harvesting and Power Delivery

Ultra-low Power Bio-inspired Processing

Multi-sensor Fusion and Context Aware Sensing

Autonomic Sensing

Wearable, Ingestible Sensor Integration and Exemplar Applications

System Integration and Wireless Sensor Microsystems

The book also provides a comprehensive review of the current wireless sensor development platforms and a step-by-step guide to developing your own BSN applications through the use of BSN development kit.

Multiple criteria decision aid (MCDA) methods are illustrated in this book through theoretical and computational techniques utilizing Python. Existing methods are presented in detail with a step by step learning approach. Theoretical background is given for TOPSIS, VIKOR, PROMETHEE, SIR, AHP, goal programming, and their variations. Comprehensive numerical examples are also discussed for each method in conjunction with easy to follow Python code. Extensions to multiple criteria decision making algorithms such as fuzzy number theory and group decision making are introduced and implemented through Python as well. Readers will learn how to implement and use each method based on the problem, the available data, the stakeholders involved, and the various requirements needed. Focusing on the practical aspects of the multiple criteria decision making methodologies, this book is designed for researchers, practitioners and advanced graduate students in the applied mathematics, information systems, operations research and business administration disciplines, as well as other engineers and scientists oriented in interdisciplinary research. Readers will greatly benefit from this book by learning and applying various MCDM/A methods. (Adiel Teixeira de Almeida, CDSID-Center for Decision System and Information Development, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil) Promoting the development and application of multicriteria decision aid is essential to ensure more ethical and sustainable decisions. This book is a great contribution to this objective. It is a perfect blend of theory and practice, providing potential users and researchers with the theoretical bases of some of the best-known methods as well as with the computing tools needed to practice, to compare and to put these methods to use. (Jean-Pierre Brans, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium) This book is intended for researchers, practitioners and students alike in decision support who wish to familiarize themselves quickly and efficiently with multicriteria decision aiding algorithms. The proposed approach is original, as it presents a selection of methods from the theory to the practical implementation in Python, including a detailed example. This will certainly facilitate the learning of these techniques, and contribute to their effective dissemination in applications. (Patrick Meyer, IMT Atlantique, Lab-STICC, Univ. Bretagne Loire, Brest, France)

This book gathers selected high-quality research papers presented at Arab Conference for Emerging Technologies 2020 organized virtually in Cairo during 21-23 June 2020. This book emphasizes the role and recent developments in the field of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence, and related technologies with a special focus on sustainable development in the Arab world. The book targets high-quality scientific research papers with applications, including theory, practical, prototypes, new ideas, case studies and surveys which cover machine learning applications in data science.

The Internet has become the major form of map delivery. The current presentation of maps is based on the use of online services. This session examines developments related to online methods of map delivery, particularly Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs) and MapServices in general, including Google Maps API and similar services. Map mashups have had a major impact on how spatial information is presented. The advantage of using a major online mapping site is that the maps represent a common and recognizable representation of the world. Overlaying features on top of these maps provides a frame of reference for the map user. A particular advantage for thematic mapping is the ability to spatially reference thematic data.

This book provides a snapshot of the current state-of-the-art in the fields of mobile and wireless technology, security and applications. The proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Mobile and Wireless Technology (ICMWT2015), it represents the outcome of a unique platform for researchers and practitioners from academia and industry to share cutting-edge developments in the field of mobile and wireless science technology, including those working on data management and mobile security. The contributions presented here describe the latest academic and industrial research from the international mobile and wireless community. The scope covers four major topical areas: mobile and wireless networks and applications; security in mobile and wireless technology; mobile data management and applications; and mobile software. The book will be a valuable reference for current researchers in academia and industry, and a useful resource for graduate-level students working on mobile and wireless technology.

The book 'BiLBIQ: A biologically inspired Robot with walking and rolling locomotion' deals with implementing a locomotion behavior observed in the biological archetype Cebrennus villosus to a robot prototype whose structural design needs to be developed. The biological sample is investigated as far as possible and compared to other evolutional solutions within the framework of nature's inventions. Current achievements in robotics are examined and evaluated for their relation and relevance to the robot prototype in question. An overview of what is state of the art in actuation ensures the choice of the hardware available and most suitable for this project. Through a constant consideration of the achievement of two fundamentally different ways of locomotion with one and the same structure, a robot design is developed and constructed taking hardware constraints into account. The development of a special leg structure that needs to resemble and replace body elements of the biological archetype is a special challenge to be dealt with. Finally a robot prototype was achieved, which is able to walk and roll - inspired by the spider Cebrennus villosus.

These contributions, written by the foremost international researchers and practitioners of Genetic Programming (GP), explore the synergy between theoretical and empirical results on real-world problems, producing a comprehensive view of the state of the art in GP. Topics in this volume include: evolutionary constraints, relaxation of selection mechanisms, diversity preservation strategies, flexing fitness evaluation, evolution in dynamic environments, multi-objective and multi-modal selection, foundations of evolvability, evolvable and adaptive evolutionary operators, foundation of injecting expert knowledge in evolutionary search, analysis of problem difficulty and required GP algorithm complexity, foundations in running GP on the cloud - communication, cooperation, flexible implementation, and ensemble methods. Additional focal points for GP symbolic regression are: (1) The need to guarantee convergence to solutions in the function discovery mode; (2) Issues on model validation; (3) The need for model analysis workflows for insight generation based on generated GP solutions - model exploration, visualization, variable selection, dimensionality analysis; (4) Issues in combining different types of data. Readers will discover large-scale, real-world applications of GP to a variety of problem domains via in-depth presentations of the latest and most significant results.