Effective technologies and tools for e-collaboration are central to the development and evolution of modern work and educational landscapes. Studies on the design, implementation, and evaluation of e-collaboration applications help individuals and businesses in their pursuit of effective tools for increasingly virtual modes of communication. Advancing Collaborative Knowledge Environments: New Trends in E-Collaboration discusses the latest findings in knowledge-intensive, collaborative environments, focusing on frameworks and solutions for improving collaboration online. Uniting research on the effectiveness of instant messaging, the role of presence and awareness in real-time collaboration, and other key concepts, this reference is useful for those interested in frameworks for new collaboration technologies, as well as existing users of new technologies and applications.

Interest in the area of control of systems defined by partial differential Equations has increased strongly in recent years. A major reason has been the requirement of these systems for sensible continuum mechanical modelling and optimization or control techniques which account for typical physical phenomena. Particular examples of problems on which substantial progress has been made are the control and stabilization of mechatronic structures, the control of growth of thin films and crystals, the control of Laser and semi-conductor devices, and shape optimization problems for turbomachine blades, shells, smart materials and microdiffractive optics. This volume contains original articles by world reknowned experts in the fields of optimal control of partial differential equations, shape optimization, numerical methods for partial differential equations and fluid dynamics, all of whom have contributed to the analysis and solution of many of the problems discussed. The collection provides a state-of-the-art overview of the most challenging and exciting recent developments in the field. It is geared towards postgraduate students and researchers dealing with the theoretical and practical aspects of a wide variety of high technology problems in applied mathematics, fluid control, optimal design, and computer modelling.

The series, Contemporary Perspectives on Data Mining, is composed of blind refereed scholarly research methods and applications of data mining. This series will be targeted both at the academic community, as well as the business practitioner. Data mining seeks to discover knowledge from vast amounts of data with the use of statistical and mathematical techniques. The knowledge is extracted form this data by examining the patterns of the data, whether they be associations of groups or things, predictions, sequential relationships between time order events or natural groups. Data mining applications are seen in finance (banking, brokerage, insurance), marketing (customer relationships, retailing, logistics, travel), as well as in manufacturing, health care, fraud detection, home-land security, and law enforcement.

This book presents a comprehensive study of multivariate time series with linear state space structure. The emphasis is put on both the clarity of the theoretical concepts and on efficient algorithms for implementing the theory. In particular, it investigates the relationship between VARMA and state space models, including canonical forms. It also highlights the relationship between Wiener-Kolmogorov and Kalman filtering both with an infinite and a finite sample. The strength of the book also lies in the numerous algorithms included for state space models that take advantage of the recursive nature of the models. Many of these algorithms can be made robust, fast, reliable and efficient. The book is accompanied by a MATLAB package called SSMMATLAB and a webpage presenting implemented algorithms with many examples and case studies. Though it lays a solid theoretical foundation, the book also focuses on practical application, and includes exercises in each chapter. It is intended for researchers and students working with linear state space models, and who are familiar with linear algebra and possess some knowledge of statistics.

As Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) gains a wider global acceptance, the need for understanding its life cycle becomes inevitable, not only for developers, but also for users. Service Life Cycle Tools and Technologies: Methods, Trends and Advances compiles the latest research on SOC life cycles, detailing methodologies and applications in this emerging field. The development of service-oriented applications not only depends on constructing service providers, but also composition and delivery. Service requesters, service providers, and developers, alike, will benefit from the views and models in a service life cycle. This volume offers research that has been conducted in both industry and academia to address issues in the SOC domain, including service discovery, service composition, and service management. It serves as a vital reference for those on either side of the service field.

Recent decades have seen a very rapid success in developing numerical methods based on explicit control over approximation errors. It may be said that nowadays a new direction is forming in numerical analysis, the main goal of which is to develop methods ofreliable computations. In general, a reliable numerical method must solve two basic problems: (a) generate a sequence of approximations that converges to a solution and (b) verify the accuracy of these approximations. A computer code for such a method must consist of two respective blocks: solver and checker.
In this book, we are chiefly concerned with the problem (b) and try to present the main approaches developed for a posteriori error estimation in various problems.
The authors try to retain a rigorous mathematical style, however, proofs are constructive whenever possible and additional mathematical knowledge is presented when necessary. The book contains a number of new mathematical results and lists a posteriori error estimation methods that have been developed in the very recent time.
- computable bounds of approximation errors
- checking algorithms
- iteration processes
- finite element methods
- elliptic type problems
- nonlinear variational problems
- variational inequalities

Computing is transforming how we interact with music. New theories and new technologies have emerged that present fresh challenges and novel perspectives for researchers and practitioners in music and human-computer interaction (HCI). In this collection, the interdisciplinary field of music interaction is considered from multiple viewpoints: designers, interaction researchers, performers, composers, audiences, teachers and learners, dancers and gamers. The book comprises both original research in music interaction and reflections from leading researchers and practitioners in the field. It explores a breadth of HCI perspectives and methodologies: from universal approaches to situated research within particular cultural and aesthetic contexts. Likewise, it is musically diverse, from experimental to popular, classical to folk, including tango, laptop orchestras, composition and free improvisation.

This uniquely accessible book helps readers use CABology to solve real-world business problems and drive real competitive advantage. It provides reliable, concise information on the real benefits, usage and operationalization aspects of utilizing the "Trio Wave" of cloud, analytic and big data. Anyone who thinks that the game changing technology is slow paced needs to think again. This book opens readers' eyes to the fact that the dynamics of global technology and business are changing. Moreover, it argues that businesses must transform themselves in alignment with the Trio Wave if they want to survive and excel in the future. CABology focuses on the art and science of optimizing the business goals to deliver true value and benefits to the customer through cloud, analytic and big data. It offers business of all sizes a structured and comprehensive way of discovering the real benefits, usage and operationalization aspects of utilizing the Trio Wave.

In order to be useful and transfer adequate knowledge skills to the learner, a multimedia program design needs to have a sound pedagogical base. Technology-Assisted Problem Solving for Engineering Education: Interactive Multimedia Applications explores best practices in assisting students in understanding engineering concepts through interactive and virtual environments. A critical mass of leading international findings, this advanced publication delivers quality research using learning and consultancy for developing tactics to decipher dilemmas within the field.

This book covers the key advances in computerized facial beauty analysis, with an emphasis on data-driven research and the results of quantitative experiments. It takes a big step toward practical facial beauty analysis, proposes more reliable and stable facial features for beauty analysis and designs new models, methods, algorithms and schemes while implementing a facial beauty analysis and beautification system. This book also tests some previous putative rules and models for facial beauty analysis by using computationally efficient mathematical models and algorithms, especially large scale database-based and repeatable experiments.The first section of this book provides an overview of facial beauty analysis. The base of facial beauty analysis, i.e., facial beauty features, is presented in part two. Part three describes hypotheses on facial beauty, while part four defines data-driven facial beauty analysis models. This book concludes with the authors explaining how to implement their new facial beauty analysis system.This book is designed for researchers, professionals and post graduate students working in the field of facial beauty analysis, computer vision, human-machine interface, pattern recognition and biometrics. Those involved in interdisciplinary fields with also find the contents useful. The ideas, means and conclusions for beauty analysis are valuable for researchers and the system design and implementation can be used as models for practitioners and engineers.

The first wave of Overwatch cinematics captured the imagination of millions of fans around the world. After the game released in 2016, Blizzard Entertainment embarked on a new mission to take cinematic storytelling to the next level. From the intense, action-packed rush of "Shooting Star" to the somber, noble ethos of "Honor and Glory," the creative team wanted to highlight a different side of the game's beloved heroes. In pursuit of their objectives, the crew added new artists in the mix, devised novel methods for making movies, and ventured into formats they hadn't tried before, such as in-game cinematics and stop-motion animation. Covering all the official Overwatch cinematics made from 2017-2020, including the Overwatch 2 announcement trailer, The Cinematic Art of Overwatch: Volume II showcases hundreds of pieces of never-before-seen artwork and documents the epic creative journey that Blizzard took to bring these films to life.

"By guiding teachers and their students through the workings of Excel, this book ultimately leads to high-ordered decision making about data management and interpretation?a compelling reality of the 21^st century."
Nancy Tanner Edwards, Professor of Education
Missouri Western State College
St. Joseph, MO

  Make Microsoft Excel™ work for you?in the classroom and at your desk!

Using Excel in the Classroom is the essential how-to for teachers at all grade levels, filled with specific, classroom-tested templates, and techniques that teachers need most!

This book features research contributions from The Abel Symposium on Statistical Analysis for High Dimensional Data, held in Nyvagar, Lofoten, Norway, in May 2014. The focus of the symposium was on statistical and machine learning methodologies specifically developed for inference in "big data" situations, with particular reference to genomic applications. The contributors, who are among the most prominent researchers on the theory of statistics for high dimensional inference, present new theories and methods, as well as challenging applications and computational solutions. Specific themes include, among others, variable selection and screening, penalised regression, sparsity, thresholding, low dimensional structures, computational challenges, non-convex situations, learning graphical models, sparse covariance and precision matrices, semi- and non-parametric formulations, multiple testing, classification, factor models, clustering, and preselection. Highlighting cutting-edge research and casting light on future research directions, the contributions will benefit graduate students and researchers in computational biology, statistics and the machine learning community.

The book covers computational statistics, its methodologies and applications for IoT device. It includes the details in the areas of computational arithmetic and its influence on computational statistics, numerical algorithms in statistical application software, basics of computer systems, statistical techniques, linear algebra and its role in optimization techniques, evolution of optimization techniques, optimal utilization of computer resources, and statistical graphics role in data analysis. It also explores computational inferencing and computer model's role in design of experiments, Bayesian analysis, survival analysis and data mining in computational statistics.

The typesetting system TeX, invented by Donald Knuth, is thirty-two years old in 2010. For this anniversary, a commemorative book has been prepared containing example papers by Knuth and the Stanford graduate students who helped develop TeX. These papers all were selected from the TeX Users Group's TUGboat journal archive.

A state-of-the-art guide for the implementation of distributed simulation technology.

The rapid expansion of the Internet and commodity parallel computers has made parallel and distributed simulation (PADS) a hot technology indeed. Applications abound not only in the analysis of complex systems such as transportation or the next-generation Internet, but also in computer-generated virtual worlds for military and professional training, interactive computer games, and the entertainment industry.

In this book, PADS expert Richard M. Fujimoto provides software developers with cutting-edge techniques for speeding up the execution of simulations across multiple processors and dealing with data distribution over wide area networks ,including the Internet. With an emphasis on parallel and distributed discrete event simulation technologies, Dr. Fujimoto compiles and consolidates research results in the field spanning the last twenty years, discussing the use of parallel and distributed computers in both the modeling and analysis of system behavior and the creation of distributed virtual environments.

While other books on PADS concentrate on applications, Parallel and Distributed Simulation Systems clearly shows how to implement the technology. It explains in detail the synchronization algorithms needed to properly realize the simulations, including an in-depth discussion of time warp and advanced optimistic techniques. Finally, the book is richly supplemented with references, tables and illustrations, and examples of contemporary systems such as the Department of Defense's High Level Architecture (HLA), which has become the standard architecture for defense programs in the United States.

This handbook serves as a comprehensive, systematic reference to the major mathematical models used in radio engineering and communications, and presents computer simulation algorithms to help the reader estimate parameters of radio systems. It provides the technical details necessary to design and analyze radar, communication, radio navigation, radio control, electronic intelligence and electronic warfare systems. Mathcad routines, cited in the handbook, should help the reader to optimize radar system performance analysis, and can be used to create custom-made software that better answers specific needs.

This book proposes new algorithms to ensure secured communications and prevent unauthorized data exchange in secured multimedia systems. Focusing on numerous applications' algorithms and scenarios, it offers an in-depth analysis of data hiding technologies including watermarking, cryptography, encryption, copy control, and authentication. The authors present a framework for visual data hiding technologies that resolves emerging problems of modern multimedia applications in several contexts including the medical, healthcare, education, and wireless communication networking domains. Further, it introduces several intelligent security techniques with real-time implementation. As part of its comprehensive coverage, the book discusses contemporary multimedia authentication and fingerprinting techniques, while also proposing personal authentication/recognition systems based on hand images, surveillance system security using gait recognition, face recognition under restricted constraints such as dry/wet face conditions, and three-dimensional face identification using the approach developed here. This book equips perception technology professionals with the latest technologies, techniques, and strategies for multimedia security systems, offering a valuable resource for engineers and researchers working to develop security systems.

This book is a selection of peer-reviewed contributions presented at the third Bayesian Young Statisticians Meeting, BAYSM 2016, Florence, Italy, June 19-21. The meeting provided a unique opportunity for young researchers, M.S. students, Ph.D. students, and postdocs dealing with Bayesian statistics to connect with the Bayesian community at large, to exchange ideas, and to network with others working in the same field. The contributions develop and apply Bayesian methods in a variety of fields, ranging from the traditional (e.g., biostatistics and reliability) to the most innovative ones (e.g., big data and networks).

An increasing amount of research is being developed in the area where technology and humans meet. The success or failure of technologies and the question whether technology helps humans to fulfill their goals or whether it hinders them is in most cases not a technical one.User Perception and Influencing Factors of Technology in Everyday Life addresses issues of human and technology interaction. The research in this work is interdisciplinary, ranging from more technical subjects such as computer science, engineering, and information systems, to non-technical descriptions of technology and human interaction from the point of view of sociology or philosophy. This book is perfect for academics, researchers, and professionals alike as it presents a set of theories that allow us to understand the interaction of technology and humans and to put it to practical use.