Management and Engineering of Critical Infrastructures focuses on two important aspects of CIS, management and engineering. The book provides an ontological foundation for the models and methods needed to design a set of systems, networks and assets that are essential for a society's functioning, and for ensuring the security, safety and economy of a nation. Various examples in agriculture, the water supply, public health, transportation, security services, electricity generation, telecommunication, and financial services can be used to substantiate dangers. Disruptions of CIS can have serious cascading consequences that would stop society from functioning properly and result in loss of life. Malicious software (a.k.a., malware), for example, can disrupt the distribution of electricity across a region, which in turn can lead to the forced shutdown of communication, health and financial sectors. Subsequently, proper engineering and management are important to anticipate possible risks and threats and provide resilient CIS. Although the problem of CIS has been broadly acknowledged and discussed, to date, no unifying theory nor systematic design methods, techniques and tools exist for such CIS.

Distrust. Division. Disparity. Is our world in disrepair? Ethics and civics have always mattered, but perhaps they matter now more than ever before. Recently, with the rise of online teaching and movements like #PlayApartTogether, games have become increasingly acknowledged as platforms for civic deliberation and value sharing. We the Gamers explores these possibilities by examining how we connect, communicate, analyze, and discover when we play games. Combining research-based perspectives and current examples, this volume shows how games can be used in ethics, civics, and social studies education to inspire learning, critical thinking, and civic change. We the Gamers introduces and explores various educational frameworks through a range of games and interactive experiences including board and card games, online games, virtual reality and augmented reality games, and digital games like Minecraft, Executive Command, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Fortnite, When Rivers Were Trails, Politicraft, Quandary, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The book systematically evaluates the types of skills, concepts, and knowledge needed for civic and ethical engagement, and details how games can foster these skills in classrooms, remote learning environments, and other educational settings. We the Gamers also explores the obstacles to learning with games and how to overcome those obstacles by encouraging equity and inclusion, care and compassion, and fairness and justice. Featuring helpful tips and case studies, We the Gamers shows teachers the strengths and limitations of games in helping students connect with civics and ethics, and imagines how we might repair and remake our world through gaming, together.

Collecting the work of the foremost scientists in the field, Discrete-Event Modeling and Simulation: Theory and Applications presents the state of the art in modeling discrete-event systems using the discrete-event system specification (DEVS) approach. It introduces the latest advances, recent extensions of formal techniques, and real-world examples of various applications. The book covers many topics that pertain to several layers of the modeling and simulation architecture. It discusses DEVS model development support and the interaction of DEVS with other methodologies. It describes different forms of simulation supported by DEVS, the use of real-time DEVS simulation, the relationship between DEVS and graph transformation, the influence of DEVS variants on simulation performance, and interoperability and composability with emphasis on DEVS standardization. The text also examines extensions to DEVS, new formalisms, and abstractions of DEVS models as well as the theory and analysis behind real-world system identification and control. To support the generation and search of optimal models of a system, a framework is developed based on the system entity structure and its transformation to DEVS simulation models. In addition, the book explores numerous interesting examples that illustrate the use of DEVS to build successful applications, including optical network-on-chip, construction/building design, process control, workflow systems, and environmental models. A one-stop resource on advances in DEVS theory, applications, and methodology, this volume offers a sampling of the best research in the area, a broad picture of the DEVS landscape, and trend-setting applications enabled by the DEVS approach. It provides the basis for future research discoveries and encourages the development of new applications.

Introduction to Mathcad 15, 3/e is ideal for Freshman or Introductory courses in Engineering and Computer Science. Introduces Mathcad's basic mathematical and data analysis functions (e.g., trigonometric, regression, and interpolation functions) using easy-to-follow examples, then applies the functions to examples drawn from emerging or rapidly developing fields in engineering. ESource-Prentice Hall's Engineering Source-provides a complete, flexible introductory engineering and computing program. ESource allows professors to fully customize their textbooks through the ESource website. Professors are not only able to pick and choose modules, but also sections of modules, incorporate their own materials, and re-paginate and re-index the complete project. prenhall.com/esource

Mastering modelling, and in particular numerical models, is becoming a crucial and central question in modern computational mechanics. Various tools, able to quantify the quality of a model with regard to another one taken as the reference, have been derived. Applied to computational strategies, these tools lead to new computational methods which are called "adaptive." The present book is concerned with outlining the state of the art and the latest advances in both these important areas.

Papers are selected from a Workshop (Cachan 17-19 September 1997) which is the third of a series devoted to Error Estimators and Adaptivity in Computational Mechanics. The Cachan Workshop dealt with latest advances in adaptive computational methods in mechanics and their impacts on solving engineering problems. It was centered too on providing answers to simple questions such as: what is being used or can be used at present to solve engineering problems? What should be the state of art in the year 2000? What are the new questions involving error estimators and their applications?

Continued progress in Speech Technology in the face of ever-increasing demands on the performance levels of applications is a challenge to the whole speech and language science community. Robust recognition and understanding of spontaneous speech in varied environments, good comprehensibility and naturalness of expressive speech synthesis are goals that cannot be achieved without a change of paradigm. This book argues for interdisciplinary communication and cooperation in problem-solving in general, and discusses the interaction between speech and language engineering and phonetics in particular. With a number of reports on innovative speech technology research as well as more theoretical discussions, it addresses the practical, scientific and sometimes the philosophical problems that stand in the way of cross-disciplinary collaboration and illuminates some of the many possible ways forward.

Audience: Researchers and professionals in speech technology and computational linguists.

Multimedia data comprising of images, audio and video is becoming increasingly common. The decreasing costs of consumer electronic devices such as digital cameras and digital camcorders, along with the ease of transportation facilitated by the Internet, has lead to a phenomenal rise in the amount of multimedia data generated and distributed. Given that this trend of increased use of multimedia data is likely to accelerate, there is an urgent need for providing a clear means of capturing, storing, indexing, retrieving, analyzing and summarizing such data. Content-based access to multimedia data is of primary importance since it is the natural way by which human beings interact with such information. To facilitate the content-based access of multimedia information, the first step is to derive feature measures from these data so that a feature space representation of the data content can be formed. This can subsequently allow for mapping the feature space to the symbol space (semantics) either automatically or through human intervention. Thus, signal to symbol mapping, useful for any practical system, can be successfully achieved. Perspectives on Content-Based Multimedia Systems provides a comprehensive set of techniques to tackle these important issues. This book offers detailed solutions to a wide range of practical problems in building real systems by providing specifics of three systems built by the authors. While providing a systems focus, it also equips the reader with a keen understanding of the fundamental issues, including a formalism for content-based multimedia database systems, multimedia feature extraction, object-based techniques, signature-based techniques and fuzzy retrieval techniques. The performance evaluation issues of practical systems is also explained. This book brings together essential elements of building a content-based multimedia database system in a way that makes them accessible to practitioners in computer science and electrical engineering. It can also serve as a textbook for graduate-level courses.

This book looks closely at the endings of narrative digital games, examining their ways of concluding the processes of both storytelling and play in order to gain insight into what endings are and how we identify them in different media. While narrative digital games share many representational strategies for signalling their upcoming end with more traditional narrative media - such as novels or movies - they also show many forms of endings that often radically differ from our conventional understanding of conclusion and closure. From vast game worlds that remain open for play after a story's finale, to multiple endings that are often hailed as a means for players to create their own stories, to the potentially tragic endings of failure and "game over", digital games question the traditional singularity and finality of endings. Using a broad range of examples, this book delves deeply into these and other forms and their functions, both to reveal the closural specificities of the ludonarrative hybrid that digital games are, as well as to find the core elements that characterise endings in any medium. It examines how endings make themselves known to players and raises the question of how well-established closural conventions blend with play and a player's effort to achieve a goal. As an interdisciplinary study that draws on game studies as much as on transmedial narratology, Forms and Functions of Endings in Narrative Digital Games is suited for scholars and students of digital games as well as for narratologists yet to become familiar with this medium.

Today, e-businesses are adopting pervasive computing with passion but at the same time aware of the operational, ethical, legal, and financial risks involved in it. ""Risk Assessment and Management in Pervasive Computing: Operational, Legal, Ethical, and Financial Perspectives"" examines the implications of pervasive computing from operational, legal, and ethical perspectives so that current and future e-business managers can make responsible decisions about where, when, and how to use this technology. Containing 19 chapters from an international pool of leading experts and field practitioners, this unmatched resource will enhance the awareness of emerging and global issues in e-business risk management.

E-business standards can better adapt to the changing needs of tomorrow's networked organizations by applying information communication technologies today. ""Information Communication Technology Standardization for E-Business Sectors: Integrating Supply and Demand Factors"" studies the nature, relevance, and quality of standards involved with ICTs and the impact they have on businesses. This ""Premier Reference Source"" discusses the dynamics and mutual impact of factors that condition demand for standards and supply.

The Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System (PHIGS) is a computer-graphics standard defining an interface between an application program and a computer-graphics system. PHIGS has been actively under development since 1980. Much of this development has been performed by Technical Committee X3H3 under the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) procedures. PHIGS is also an international standard sponsored by the United States and developed by the international computer-graphics committee, ISO TC97/SC21/WG2. In addition, PHIGS has been selected as the graphics extension to the X-window standard and as part of the Intel i860 P.A.X. standard. The PHIGS standard has received wide acceptance throughout the computer graphics industry. PHIGS libraries are available on most of the high performance three-dimensional graphics platforms. These include IBM, DEC, HP, Sun, Alliant, Stardent, and Silicon Graphics. Despite this acceptance, there are few texts that provide the software engineer with an overview of the standard. The only currently available PHIGS references are in the form of the ANSI functional description, technical papers, and device-specific PHIGS to the novice PHIGS programmer."

Several studies have been made to determine the effectiveness of information and communication technologies within small business enterprises, but the focus on e-readiness assessments have been very limited. ""Digital Economies: SMEs and E-Readiness"" provides valuable insights into the current state of the digital economy and the ability of SMEs to leverage information and communication technologies in overcoming their position in the global business market. This innovative collection provides vital information for developing strategic objectives and frameworks that promote economic growth, infrastructure development, capacity building, and educational training.

Resource Management for Distributed Multimedia Systems addresses the problems and challenges of handling several continuous- media data streams in networked multimedia environments. The work demonstrates how resource management mechanisms can be integrated into a stream handling system. The resulting system includes functions for Quality of Service (QoS) calculations, scheduling, determination of resource requirements, and methods to reduce resource requirements. The work explains the following: a suitable system architecture and resource management scheme that allows for the provision and enforcement of QoS guarantee, resource scheduling mechanisms for CPU and buffer space, mechanisms to measure and collect resource requirements, methods to extend resource management to future scenarios by allowing the reservation of resources in advance and offering sealing mechanisms. . Resource Management for Distributed Multimedia Systems is a comprehensive view of resource management for a broad technical audience that includes computer scientists and engineers involved in developing multimedia applications.

Nature-Inspired Computing Paradigms in Systems: Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety and Cost (RAMS+C) and Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) covers several areas that include bioinspired techniques and optimization approaches for system dependability. The book addresses the issue of integration and interaction of the bioinspired techniques in system dependability computing so that intelligent decisions, design, and architectures can be supported. It brings together these emerging areas under the umbrella of bio- and nature-inspired computational intelligence. The primary audience of this book includes experts and developers who want to deepen their understanding of bioinspired computing in basic theory, algorithms, and applications. The book is also intended to be used as a textbook for masters and doctoral students who want to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the role of bioinspired techniques in system dependability.

Praised by instructors for its concise, focused approach and user-friendly format, the Illustrated Series engages both computer rookies and hot shots in mastering Microsoft Office 2013 applications quickly and efficiently. Skills are accessible and easy-to-follow thanks to the Illustrated Series' hallmark 2-page layout, which allows students to see an entire task in one view. New Learning Outcomes outline the skills covered in each lesson, and larger full-color screens represent exactly what students should see on their own computers. Each unit begins with a brief overview of the principles of the lesson, and introduces a case study for further application.

Applied Linear Regression for Business Analytics with R introduces regression analysis to business students using the R programming language with a focus on illustrating and solving real-time, topical problems. Specifically, this book presents modern and relevant case studies from the business world, along with clear and concise explanations of the theory, intuition, hands-on examples, and the coding required to employ regression modeling. Each chapter includes the mathematical formulation and details of regression analysis and provides in-depth practical analysis using the R programming language.

As this comprehensive and multi-disciplinary anthology makes clear, virtuality has a pedigree that pre-dates the computer age and modern virtual worlds, a pedigree that can be traced back to classical mythology and beyond. Equally, the concept of virtuality is not the province of one field of study alone but is the foundation and driving force of many, both theoretical and applied. Our conceptualizations and applications of virtuality are multiple, as is shown across the nine sections of the book that move from philosophy to technologies and applications before returning to philosophy again for a discussion of the utopias and dystopias of virtuality. The almost 50 essays contained within range freely across subjects that include the potential of virtuality, ethics, virtuality and self, presence and immersion, virtual emotions, image, sound and literature, computer games, AI and A-Life, Augmented Reality and Real Virtuality, law and economics, medical and military applications, religion, and cybersex. Throughout, contributors discuss differences between virtuality, reality, and actuality, in debates filtered through the lenses of the disciplines represented here, and speculate on future directions. It is not at all clear that there are differences and, if such distinctions are to be found, the boundaries between virtuality, reality, and actuality continually shift as ideas, modes of organization, and behaviors constantly flow from one to the other regardless of direction. The Handbook presents no unified definition of virtuality to comfort the reader, rather a multiplicity of questions and approaches underpinned by provocative statements that should further fuel the debates surrounding our notions of virtuality.

The widespread use of high-speed networks has made the global distribution of digital media contents readily available in an instant. As a result, data hiding was created in an attempt to control the distribution of these copies by verifying or tracking the media signals picked up from copyright information, such as the author or distributor ID. Multimedia Information Hiding Technologies and Methodologies for Controlling Data presents the latest methods and research results in the emerging field of Multimedia Information Hiding (MIH). This comprehensive collection is beneficial to all researchers and engineers working globally in this field and aims to inspire new graduate-level students as they explore this promising field.

Featuring stunning concept art and visual details, this is the second volume of artwork of Blizzard's Hearthstone game. Something stirs in the dark... The second volume of The Art of Hearthstone dives deep into the depths of the Year of the Kraken, the first year of Hearthstone's standard format. Consisting of hundreds of illustrations from the corruptive cults of Whispers of the Old Gods, the glamourous disco of One Night in Karazhan, and the turf wars of Means Streets of Gadgetzan, this book goes into detail about the Hearthstone team's artistic process for card art, game boards, and other visual designs, while also exploring the challenges and triumphs of creating a game enjoyed by millions upon millions of players around the globe.

The recent rapid advances in wireless technologies have created a demand for high quality multimedia applications and services. These advanced multimedia applications give rise to a new set of challenges in providing Quality of Service (QoS) when delivering these services over wireless networks. The Handbook of Research on Wireless Multimedia: Quality of Service and Solutions highlights and discusses the underlying QoS issues that arise in the delivery of real-time multimedia services over wireless networks. This cutting-edge book presents state-of-the-art solutions from leading researchers active in the field to address the QoS issues for different wireless multimedia applications.

This volume contains papers presented at the NATO sponsored Advanced Research Workshop on "Software for Parallel Computation" held at the University of Calabria, Cosenza, Italy, from June 22 to June 26, 1992. The purpose of the workshop was to evaluate the current state-of-the-art of the software for parallel computation, identify the main factors inhibiting practical applications of parallel computers and suggest possible remedies. In particular it focused on parallel software, programming tools, and practical experience of using parallel computers for solving demanding problems. Critical issues relative to the practical use of parallel computing included: portability, reusability and debugging, parallelization of sequential programs, construction of parallel algorithms, and performance of parallel programs and systems. In addition to NATO, the principal sponsor, the following organizations provided a generous support for the workshop: CERFACS, France, C.I.R.A., Italy, C.N.R., Italy, University of Calabria, Italy, ALENIA, Italy, The Boeing Company, U.S.A., CISE, Italy, ENEL - D.S.R., Italy, Alliant Computer Systems, Bull RN Sud, Italy, Convex Computer, Digital Equipment Corporation, Rewlett Packard, Meiko Scientific, U.K., PARSYTEC Computer, Germany, TELMAT Informatique, France, Thinking Machines Corporation.