Manufacturing and operations management paradigms are evolving toward more open and resilient spaces where innovation is driven not only by ever-changing customer needs but also by agile and fast-reacting networked structures. Flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness are properties that the next generation of systems must have in order to successfully support such new emerging trends. Customers are being attracted to be involved in Co-innovation Networks, as - proved responsiveness and agility is expected from industry ecosystems. Renewed production systems needs to be modeled, engineered and deployed in order to achieve cost-effective solutions. BASYS conferences have been developed and organized as a forum in which to share visions and research findings for innovative sustainable and knowledge-based products-services and manufacturing models. Thus, the focus of BASYS is to discuss how human actors, emergent technologies and even organizations are integrated in order to redefine the way in which the val- creation process must be conceived and realized. BASYS 2010, which was held in Valencia, Spain, proposed new approaches in automation where synergies between people, systems and organizations need to be fully exploited in order to create high added-value products and services. This book contains the selection of the papers which were accepted for presentation at the BASYS 2010 conference, covering consolidated and emerging topics of the conference scope.

This book identifies institutional mechanisms that can be used to promote consumer confidence in direct online sales with businesses (B2C e-commerce). It argues that enhancing the access to justice in a multidimensional sense can potentially offer an effective means of boosting consumer confidence. It introduces a conceptual framework for a multidimensional approach to access to justice in the context of consumer protection, describing the various reasonable criteria needed to satisfy consumer demands in B2C e-commerce. The framework, which reflects all essential aspects of consumers' expectations when they engage in online transactions, provides a benchmark for the evaluation of various consumer protection mechanisms. Based on an analysis of different mechanisms and using the framework's criteria, the practice of private ordering, which does not rely on the creation of rules of law but rather on the use of technology as a solution, appears to offer a meaningful way to enhance access to justice in B2C e-commerce. However, though private ordering holds considerable potential, certain weaknesses still need to be eliminated. This book demonstrates how private ordering can be successfully implemented with the help of an intermediary, a neutral third party that plays an integral part in the collaborative task of facilitating various aspects of private ordering, thus helping to limit the risks of failure and ensuring a fairer market setting. In order to move forward, it argues that the state, with its wealth of material resources and incentive options, is the institution best suited to acting as an intermediary in facilitating private ordering. This promising proposal can improve consumer protection, which will in turn boost consumer confidence.

The book describes what these models are, what they are based on, how they function, and then, most innovatively, how they can be used to generate new useful knowledge about the environmental system.

Discusses this generation of knowledge by computer models from an epistemological perspective and illustrates it by numerous examples from applied and fundamental research.

Includes ample technical appendices and is a valuable source of information for graduate students and scientists alike working in the field of environmental sciences.

This book features 13 papers presented at the Fifth International Symposium on Recurrence Plots, held August 2013 in Chicago, IL. It examines recent applications and developments in recurrence plots and recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) with special emphasis on biological and cognitive systems and the analysis of coupled systems using cross-recurrence methods. Readers will discover new applications and insights into a range of systems provided by recurrence plot analysis and new theoretical and mathematical developments in recurrence plots. Recurrence plot based analysis is a powerful tool that operates on real-world complex systems that are nonlinear, non-stationary, noisy, of any statistical distribution, free of any particular model type and not particularly long. Quantitative analyses promote the detection of system state changes, synchronized dynamical regimes or classification of system states. The book will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience of recurrence plot users and researchers interested in time series analysis of complex systems in general.

The advent of multimedia technology is creating a number of new problems in the fields of computer and communication systems. Perhaps the most important of these problems in communication, and certainly the most interesting, is that of designing networks to carry multimedia traffic, including digital audio and video, with acceptable quality. The main challenge in integrating the different services needed by the different types of traffic into the same network (an objective that is made worthwhile by its obvious economic advantages) is to satisfy the performance requirements of continuous media applications, as the quality of audio and video streams at the receiver can be guaranteed only if bounds on delay, delay jitters, bandwidth, and reliability are guaranteed by the network. Since such guarantees cannot be provided by traditional packet-switching technology, a number of researchers and research groups during the last several years have tried to meet the challenge by proposing new protocols or modifications of old ones, to make packet-switching networks capable of delivering audio and video with good quality while carrying all sorts of other traffic. The focus of this book is on HeiTS (the Heidelberg Transport System), and its contributions to integrated services network design. The HeiTS architecture is based on using the Internet Stream Protocol Version 2 (ST-II) at the network layer. The Heidelberg researchers were the first to implement ST-II. The author documents this activity in the book and provides thorough coverage of the improvements made to the protocol. The book also includes coverage of HeiTP as used in error handling, error control, congestion control, and the full specification of ST2+, a new version of ST-II. The ideas and techniques implemented by the Heidelberg group and their coverage in this volume apply to many other approaches to multimedia networking.

Soft computing represents a collection of techniques, such as neural networks, evolutionary computation, fuzzy logic, and probabilistic reasoning. As - posed to conventional "hard" computing, these techniques tolerate impre- sion and uncertainty, similar to human beings. In the recent years, successful applications of these powerful methods have been published in many dis- plines in numerous journals, conferences, as well as the excellent books in this book series on Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing. This volume is dedicated to recent novel applications of soft computing in multimedia processing. The book is composed of 21 chapters written by experts in their respective fields, addressing various important and timely problems in multimedia computing such as content analysis, indexing and retrieval, recognition and compression, processing and filtering, etc. In the chapter authored by Guan, Muneesawang, Lay, Amin, and Lee, a radial basis function network with Laplacian mixture model is employed to perform image and video retrieval. D. Androutsos, P. Androutsos, Plataniotis, and Venetsanopoulos investigate color image indexing and retrieval within a small-world framework. Wu and Yap develop a framework of fuzzy relevance feedback to model the uncertainty of users' subjective perception in image retrieval.

A collection of surveys and research papers on mathematical software and algorithms. The common thread is that the field of mathematical applications lies on the border between algebra and geometry. Topics include polyhedral geometry, elimination theory, algebraic surfaces, Gröbner bases, triangulations of point sets and the mutual relationship. This diversity is accompanied by the abundance of available software systems which often handle only special mathematical aspects. This is why the volume also focuses on solutions to the integration of mathematical software systems. This includes low-level and XML based high-level communication channels as well as general frameworks for modular systems.

This book provides an overview of the theory and application of linear and nonlinear mixed-effects models in the analysis of grouped data, such as longitudinal data, repeated measures, and multilevel data. Over 170 figures are included in the book.

SQL is the ubiquitous language for software developers working with structured data. Most developers who rely on SQL are experts in their favorite language (such as Java, Python, or Go), but they're not experts in SQL. They often depend on antipatterns - solutions that look right but become increasingly painful to work with as you uncover their hidden costs. Learn to identify and avoid many of these common blunders. Refactor an inherited nightmare into a data model that really works. Updated for the current versions of MySQL and Python, this new edition adds a dozen brand new mini-antipatterns for quick wins. No matter which platform, framework, or language you use, the database is the foundation of your application, and the SQL database language is the standard for working with it. Antipatterns are solutions that look simple at the surface, but soon mire you down with needless work. Learn to identify these traps, and craft better solutions for the often-asked questions in this book. Avoid the mistakes that lead to poor performance and quality, and master the principles that make SQL a powerful and flexible tool for handling data and logic. Dive deep into SQL and database design, and learn to recognize the most common missteps made by software developers in database modeling, SQL query logic, and code design of data-driven applications. See practical examples of misconceptions about SQL that can lure software projects astray. Find the greatest value in each group of data. Understand why an intersection table may be your new best friend. Store passwords securely and don't reinvent the wheel. Handle NULL values like a pro. Defend your web applications against the security weakness of SQL injection. Use SQL the right way - it can save you from headaches and needless work, and let your application really shine! What You Need: The SQL examples use the MySQL 8.0 flavor, but other popular brands of RDBMS are mentioned. Other code examples use Python 3.9+ or Ruby 2.7+.

Text mining applications have experienced tremendous advances because of web 2.0 and social networking applications. Recent advances in hardware and software technology have lead to a number of unique scenarios where text mining algorithms are learned.

Mining Text Data introduces an important niche in the text analytics field, and is an edited volume contributed by leading international researchers and practitioners focused on social networks & data mining. This book contains a wide swath in topics across social networks & data mining. Each chapter contains a comprehensive survey including the key research content on the topic, and the future directions of research in the field. There is a special focus on Text Embedded with Heterogeneous and Multimedia Data which makes the mining process much more challenging. A number of methods have been designed such as transfer learning and cross-lingual mining for such cases.

Mining Text Data simplifies the content, so that advanced-level students, practitioners and researchers in computer science can benefit from this book. Academic and corporate libraries, as well as ACM, IEEE, and Management Science focused on information security, electronic commerce, databases, data mining, machine learning, and statistics are the primary buyers for this reference book.

This book is designed to introduce the concepts of data science to professionals in engineering, physics, mathematics, and allied fields. It is a workbook with MATLAB code that creates a common framework and points out various interconnections related to industry. This will allow the reader to connect previous subject knowledge to data science, machine learning, or analytics and apply it to IoT applications. Part One brings together subjects in machine learning, systems theory, linear algebra, digital signal processing, and probability theory. Part Two (Systems Analytics) develops a "universal" nonlinear, time-varying dynamical machine learning solution that can faithfully model all the essential complexities of real-life business problems and shows how to apply it. FEATURES: Introduces the concepts of data science to professionals in engineering, physics, mathematics, and allied fields Develops a "universal," nonlinear, dynamical machine learning solution to model and apply the complexities of modern applications in IoT Covers topics such as machine learning, systems theory, linear algebra, digital signal processing, probability theory, state-space formulation, Bayesian estimation, Kalman filter, causality, and digital twins.

Interviewing is a foundational user research tool that people assume they already possess. Everyone can ask questions, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. Interviewing Users provides invaluable interviewing techniques and tools that enable you to conduct informative interviews with anyone. You'll move from simply gathering data to uncovering powerful insights about people.

In recent years, digital technologies have become more ubiquitous and integrated into everyday life. While once reserved mostly for personal uses, video games and similar innovations are now implemented across a variety of fields. Transforming Gaming and Computer Simulation Technologies across Industries is a pivotal reference source for the latest research on emerging simulation technologies and gaming innovations to enhance industry performance and dependency. Featuring extensive coverage across a range of relevant perspectives and topics, such as user research, player identification, and multi-user virtual environments, this book is ideally designed for engineers, professionals, practitioners, upper-level students, and academics seeking current research on gaming and computer simulation technologies across different industries. Topics Covered: Digital vs. Non-Digital Platforms Ludic Simulations Mathematical Simulations Medical Gaming Multi-User Virtual Environments Player Experiences Player Identification User Research

Multimedia information systems are distinct from traditional information systems, particularly in terms of scheduling, media data, servers, and a number of other important issues. The relatively large size of multimedia data and the high bandwidth requirements for multimedia streams require new storage systems, buffering, delivery, and networking schemes. This work addresses many of these issues by focusing on the following: Disk scheduling and storage hierarchy, Configuration of multimedia servers and buffer management, Delivery scheduling for multimedia streams, Supporting user interactions, Document modeling and temporal modeling of multimedia data, and Integrated multimedia information system. Chapters in this book have been written by well-known and leading researchers in the field. The material is original and includes the most recent research results on topics such as data retrieval from disks, server architecture, buffering, synchronization, and supporting user interactions. The material has been closely edited to form a uniform and cohesive compilation. Multimedia Information Storage and Management can be used for students studying multimedia information and applications. This work will also be of special interest to researchers and developers of multimedia software and hardware systems, network protocol designers, and multimedia tool designers.

Learning spaces offer a rigorous mathematical foundation for practical systems of educational technology. Learning spaces generalize partially ordered sets and are special cases of knowledge spaces. The various structures are investigated from the standpoints of combinatorial properties and stochastic processes.

Leaning spaces have become the essential structures to be used in assessing students' competence of various topics. A practical example is offered by ALEKS, a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system in mathematics and other scholarly fields. At the heart of ALEKS is an artificial intelligence engine that assesses each student individually and continously.

The book is of interest to mathematically oriented readers in education, computer science, engineering, and combinatorics at research and graduate levels. Numerous examples and exercises are included, together with an extensive bibliography.

These are the proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Domain Decomposition Methods, which was held in Lugano, Switzerland. With 172 participants from over 24 countries, this conference continued a long-standing tradition of internationally oriented meetings on Domain Decomposition Methods. The book features a well-balanced mix of established and new topics, such as the manifold theory of Schwarz Methods, Isogeometric Analysis, Discontinuous Galerkin Methods, exploitation of modern HPC architectures and industrial applications. As the conference program reflects, the growing capabilities in terms of theory and available hardware allow increasingly complex non-linear and multi-physics simulations, confirming the tremendous potential and flexibility of the domain decomposition concept.

Looking to become more efficient using Unity? How to Cheat in Unity 5 takes a no-nonsense approach to help you achieve fast and effective results with Unity 5. Geared towards the intermediate user, HTC in Unity 5 provides content beyond what an introductory book offers, and allows you to work more quickly and powerfully in Unity. Packed full with easy-to-follow methods to get the most from Unity, this book explores time-saving features for interface customization and scene management, along with productivity-enhancing ways to work with rendering and optimization. In addition, this book features a companion website at www.alanthorn.net, where you can download the book's companion files and also watch bonus tutorial video content. Learn bite-sized tips and tricks for effective Unity workflows Become a more powerful Unity user through interface customization Enhance your productivity with rendering tricks, better scene organization and more Better understand Unity asset and import workflows Learn techniques to save you time and money during development

Building upon the fundamental principles of decision theory, Decision-Based Design: Integrating Consumer Preferences into Engineering Design presents an analytical approach to enterprise-driven Decision-Based Design (DBD) as a rigorous framework for decision making in engineering design. Once the related fundamentals of decision theory, economic analysis, and econometrics modelling are established, the remaining chapters describe the entire process, the associated analytical techniques, and the design case studies for integrating consumer preference modeling into the enterprise-driven DBD framework. Methods for identifying key attributes, optimal design of human appraisal experiments, data collection, data analysis, and demand model estimation are presented and illustrated using engineering design case studies. The scope of the chapters also provides: A rigorous framework of integrating the interests from both producer and consumers in engineering design, Analytical techniques of consumer choice modelling to forecast the impact of engineering decisions, Methods for synthesizing business and engineering models in multidisciplinary design environments, and Examples of effective application of Decision-Based Design supported by case studies. No matter whether you are an engineer facing decisions in consumer related product design, an instructor or student of engineering design, or a researcher exploring the role of decision making and consumer choice modelling in design, Decision-Based Design: Integrating Consumer Preferences into Engineering Design provides a reliable reference over a range of key topics.

A mobile agent is a software program with the capability to suspend its execution and resume it on another computer. Agents are a relatively recent development in computer science, which have become a popular and useful methodology for the modelling and implementation of distributed systems, particularly those consisting of a number of largely autonomous components. The extensive use of multi-agent systems in various areas including information management, industrial control and manufacturing systems, suggests that the multi-agent systems methodology may also be appropriate for the design of power system automation systems.

IP Network-based Multi-agent Systems for Industrial Automation: Information Management, Condition Monitoring and Control of Power Systems is the first book to present an introduction to the use of the Internet protocol suite and multi-agent systems for the information management, online monitoring and control of distributed power system substations. It proposes an open architecture for information management and control, based on the concepts of multi-agent systems and mobile agents. In this book, mobile agents are applied to the retrieval and analysis of substation data, and to remote operator intervention. This book also describes a prototype implementation of the architecture, in the form of a substation information management system, which has been demonstrated and evaluated using a substation simulator. The architecture is also evaluated theoretically with respect to its performance, modifiability, functionality and reliability.

As mobile agent technologies are in the early stages the real applications of these technologies are rare; IPNetwork-based Multi-agent Systems for Industrial Automation: Information Management, Condition Monitoring and Control of Power Systems will be an excellent reference for postgraduates, researchers and academics in engineering and computer science, as well as engineers in system automation and managers in distributed industrial systems.

Since multimedia systems are required to store and manipulate a variety of media types - including text, graphics, images, sound, audio, and video among many others - applications such as video-on-demand systems, interactive television, and video conferencing are becoming widely available at warp speed. This presents new challenges and obstacles to those in the multimedia industry. ""Multimedia Information Storage and Retrieval"" offers solutions to these challenges, providing data placement techniques, scheduling methods, caching techniques and emerging characteristics of multimedia information. Academicians, students, professionals and practitioners in the multimedia industry will benefit from this ground-breaking publication.

Shape interrogation is the process of extraction of information from a geometric model. It is a fundamental component of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems. The authors focus on shape interrogation of geometric models bounded by free-form surfaces. Free-form surfaces, also called sculptured surfaces, are widely used in the bodies of ships, automobiles and aircraft, which have both functionality and attractive shape requirements. Many electronic devices as well as consumer products are designed with aesthetic shapes, which involve free-form surfaces. This book provides the mathematical fundamentals as well as algorithms for various shape interrogation methods including nonlinear polynomial solvers, intersection problems, differential geometry of intersection curves, distance functions, curve and surface interrogation, umbilics and lines of curvature, geodesics, and offset curves and surfaces. This book will be of interest both to graduate students and professionals.

Data analytics is creeping into the lexicon of our daily language. This book gives the reader a perspective as to the overall data analytics skill set, startingwith a primer on statistics, and works toward the application of those methods.There are a variety of formulas and algorithms used in the data analyticsprocess. These formulas can be plugged into whatever software application thereader uses to obtain the answer they need. There are several demonstrations ofthis process to provide straightforward instruction as to how to bring data analytics skills to your critical thinking. This bookpresents a variety of methods and techniques, as well as case studies, toenrich the knowledge of data analytics for project managers, systems engineers,and cybersecurity professionals. It separates the case studies so that eachprofession can practice some straightforward data analytics specific to their fields. The main purpose of this text is to refresh the statistical knowledgenecessary to build models for data analytics. Along with that, this bookencompasses the analytics thinking that is essential to all three professions. FEATURES: Provides straightforward instruction on data analytics methods Includes methods, techniques, and case studies for project managers, systems engineers, and cybersecurity professionals Refreshes the statistical knowledgeneeded to bring data analytics into your skillset and decision-making Focuses on getting readers up to speed quickly and efficiently to be able to see the impact of data analytics and analytical thinking

Representation and Retrieval of Video Data in Multimedia Systems brings together in one place important contributions and up-to-date research results in this important area. Representation and Retrieval of Video Data in Multimedia Systems serves as an excellent reference, providing insight into some of the most important research issues in the field.