Hypermedia systems may be one of the most significant contributions to the Internet in recent years. This powerful new technology has revolutionized the delivery of e-content through the internet. However, as the needs of users have changed, the hypermedia systems themselves have also changed. In just the past few years, adaptive and adaptable hypermedia systems have emerged. These systems can custom tailor information to individual end-users. The introduction of these systems yields countless benefits for both users and businesses. Adaptable and Adaptive Hypermedia Systems examines both types of new hypermedia systems; discussing the benefits, impacts and implications of both. This book covers the most current issues in the field, while providing insight into analytical and architectural aspects of the topic. Additionally, applications are provided in real-world settings to allow for a better and more thorough understanding of hypermedia systems.

Weigh the past and seize your destiny-wherever the darkened path may lead-with The Sanctuary Tarot Deck and Guidebook, inspired by the mythos of Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo and its magic-infused world of Sanctuary. In this deluxe boxed set featuring 78 oversize cards and a 96-page guidebook, rekindle the traditions of those who threw bones, read tea leaves, and invoked the supernatural to light their path. With a team of artists led by Konstantin Vavilov and a comprehensive guidebook by Barbara Moore, this tarot set channels the beauty and terror of Sanctuary into an all-encompassing, visually stunning experience that holds the key to understanding-and embracing-your own inner demons.

This book presents an overview of the emerging field of emotion in videogame soundtracking. The emotional impact of music has been well-documented, particularly when used to enhance the impact of a multimodal experience, such as combining images with audio as found in the videogames industry. Soundtracking videogames presents a unique challenge compared to traditional composition (for example film music) in that the narrative of gameplay is non-linear - Player dependent actions can change the narrative and thus the emotional characteristics required in the soundtrack. Historical approaches to emotion measurement, and the musical feature mapping and music selection that might be used in video game soundtracking are outlined, before a series of cutting edge examples are given. These examples include algorithmic composition techniques, automated emotion matching from biosensors, motion capture techniques, emotionally-targeted speech synthesis and signal processing, and automated repurposing of existing music (for example from a players own library). The book concludes with some possibilities for the future.

This volume examines the complex, contradictory discourses of hypertext. Using theoretical material from cultural theory, radical and border pedagogies, and technology criticism, the text discusses three primary ways hypertext is articulated: as automated book (technical communication), as virtual commodity (online databases), and as environment for constructing and exploring multiple subject positions (postmodern hypertext in composition and literature). I would recommend the entire book to researchers and academics who recognize the need to integrate new technologies into our classrooms and pedagogies. - Technical Communication

The present book provides guidance to understanding complicated coupled processes based on the experimental data available and implementation of developed algorithms in numerical codes. Results of selected test cases in the fields of closed-form solutions (e.g., deformation processes), single processes (such as groundwater flow) as well as coupled processes are presented. It is part of the OpenGeoSys initiative - an open source project to share knowledge and experience in environmental analysis and scientific computation with the community.

The present work provides a platform for leading Data designers whose vision and creativity help us to anticipate major changes occurring in the Data Design field, and pre-empt the future. Each of them strives to provide new answers to the question, "What challenges await Data Design?" To avoid falling into too narrow a mind-set, each works hard to elucidate the breadth of Data Design today and to demonstrate its widespread application across a variety of business sectors. With end users in mind, designer-contributors bring to light the myriad of purposes for which the field was originally intended, forging the bond even further between Data Design and the aims and intentions of those who contribute to it. The first seven parts of the book outline the scope of Data Design, and presents a line-up of "viewpoints" that highlight this discipline's main topics, and offers an in-depth look into practices boasting both foresight and imagination. The eighth and final part features a series of interviews with Data designers and artists whose methods embody originality and marked singularity. As a result, a number of enlightening concepts and bright ideas unfold within the confines of this book to help dispel the thick fog around this new and still relatively unknown discipline. A plethora of equally eye-opening and edifying new terms, words, and key expressions also unfurl. Informing, influencing, and inspiring are just a few of the buzz words belonging to an initiative that is, first and foremost, a creative one, not to mention the possibility to discern the ever-changing and naturally complex nature of today's datasphere. Providing an invaluable and cutting-edge resource for design researchers, this work is also intended for students, professionals and practitioners involved in Data Design, Interaction Design, Digital & Media Design, Data & Information Visualization, Computer Science and Engineering.

This book is a comprehensive guide to qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using R. Using Boolean algebra to implement principles of comparison used by scholars engaged in the qualitative study of macro social phenomena, QCA acts as a bridge between the quantitative and the qualitative traditions. The QCA package for R, created by the author, facilitates QCA within a graphical user interface. This book provides the most current information on the latest version of the QCA package, which combines written commands with a cross-platform interface. Beginning with a brief introduction to the concept of QCA, this book moves from theory to calibration, from analysis to factorization, and hits on all the key areas of QCA in between. Chapters one through three are introductory, familiarizing the reader with R, the QCA package, and elementary set theory. The next few chapters introduce important applications of the package beginning with calibration, analysis of necessity, analysis of sufficiency, parameters of fit, negation and factorization, and the construction of Venn diagrams. The book concludes with extensions to the classical package, including temporal applications and panel data. Providing a practical introduction to an increasingly important research tool for the social sciences, this book will be indispensable for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in conducting qualitative research in political science, sociology, business and management, and evaluation studies.

This volume collects selected, peer-reviewed contributions from the 2nd Conference of the International Society for Nonparametric Statistics (ISNPS), held in Cadiz (Spain) between June 11-16 2014, and sponsored by the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability, the Journal of Nonparametric Statistics and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. The 15 articles are a representative sample of the 336 contributed papers presented at the conference. They cover topics such as high-dimensional data modelling, inference for stochastic processes and for dependent data, nonparametric and goodness-of-fit testing, nonparametric curve estimation, object-oriented data analysis, and semiparametric inference. The aim of the ISNPS 2014 conference was to bring together recent advances and trends in several areas of nonparametric statistics in order to facilitate the exchange of research ideas, promote collaboration among researchers from around the globe, and contribute to the further development of the field.

This updated and expanded fourth edition retains the strength of previous editions while adding new material relevant for the changing work environment. The book describes the latest industry trends and incorporates them into a project management framework. By developing practical skills it aids the project manager's own development, and provides a coherent overview of the issues that affect all in the converging industries of communications, media and computing.

This book provides developers, engineers, researchers and students with detailed knowledge about the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. HEVC is the successor to the widely successful H.264/AVC video compression standard, and it provides around twice as much compression as H.264/AVC for the same level of quality. The applications for HEVC will not only cover the space of the well-known current uses and capabilities of digital video they will also include the deployment of new services and the delivery of enhanced video quality, such as ultra-high-definition television (UHDTV) and video with higher dynamic range, wider range of representable color, and greater representation precision than what is typically found today. HEVC is the next major generation of video coding design a flexible, reliable and robust solution that will support the next decade of video applications and ease the burden of video on world-wide network traffic. This book provides a detailed explanation of the various parts of the standard, insight into how it was developed, and in-depth discussion of algorithms and architectures for its implementation."

The rapid evolution of technology continuously changes the way people interact, work, and learn. By examining these advances, researchers can further optimize the various opportunities that technology provides. The Handbook of Research on Human Development in the Digital Age is a pivotal reference source presenting the latest scholarly research on the impact of technology on the population through different theories and perspectives. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics such as cyberbullying, mobile technology, and social skills development, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and practitioners seeking current research on new trends in technology that impact society.

This text presents a wide-ranging and rigorous overview of nearest neighbor methods, one of the most important paradigms in machine learning. Now in one self-contained volume, this book systematically covers key statistical, probabilistic, combinatorial and geometric ideas for understanding, analyzing and developing nearest neighbor methods. Gerard Biau is a professor at Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris). Luc Devroye is a professor at the School of Computer Science at McGill University (Montreal).

Pulsar timing is a promising method for detecting gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz band. In his prize winning Ph.D. thesis Rutger van Haasteren deals with how one takes thousands of seemingly random timing residuals which are measured by pulsar observers, and extracts information about the presence and character of the gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz band that are washing over our Galaxy. The author presents a sophisticated mathematical algorithm that deals with this issue. His algorithm is probably the most well-developed of those that are currently in use in the Pulsar Timing Array community. In chapter 3, the gravitational-wave memory effect is described. This is one of the first descriptions of this interesting effect in relation with pulsar timing, which may become observable in future Pulsar Timing Array projects. The last part of the work is dedicated to an effort to combine the European pulsar timing data sets in order to search for gravitational waves. This study has placed the most stringent limit to date on the intensity of gravitational waves that are produced by pairs of supermassive black holes dancing around each other in distant galaxies, as well as those that may be produced by vibrating cosmic strings. Rutger van Haasteren has won the 2011 GWIC Thesis Prize of the Gravitational Wave International Community for his innovative work in various directions of the search for gravitational waves by pulsar timing. The work is presented in this Ph.D. thesis.

This book discusses recent developments in mathematical programming and game theory, and the application of several mathematical models to problems in finance, games, economics and graph theory. All contributing authors are eminent researchers in their respective fields, from across the world. This book contains a collection of selected papers presented at the 2017 Symposium on Mathematical Programming and Game Theory at New Delhi during 9-11 January 2017. Researchers, professionals and graduate students will find the book an essential resource for current work in mathematical programming, game theory and their applications in finance, economics and graph theory. The symposium provides a forum for new developments and applications of mathematical programming and game theory as well as an excellent opportunity to disseminate the latest major achievements and to explore new directions and perspectives.

Organizational design plays a critical role in the development of larger and more complex multi-agent systems (MAS). As systems grow to include hundreds or thousands of agents, those in the field must move from an agent-centric view of coordination and control to an organization-centric one. ""The Handbook of Research on Multi-Agent Systems: Semantics and Dynamics of Organizational Models"" brings together views and approaches from different communities including MAS, computational organizational simulation, social simulation, organizational theory, and cognitive science, to present the intersections of the different topics. Containing chapters by renowned international authors, this book provides a comprehensive volume on the state-of-the-art on formal semantic models and practical applications for dynamic formalisms of agent organizations. This title offers: 23 authoritative contributions by over 50 of the world's leading experts on multi-agent systems from 11 countries; comprehensive coverage of each specific topic, highlighting recent trends and describing the latest advances in the field; more than 880 references to existing literature and research on multi-agent systems; a compendium of over 150 key terms with detailed definitions. This title is organized by topic and indexed, making it a convenient method of reference for all IT/IS scholars and professionals. It features cross-referencing of key terms, figures, and information pertinent to multi-agent systems and free institution-wide access to the online version with the purchase of the print publication.

This contributed volume, written by leading international researchers, reviews the latest developments of genetic programming (GP) and its key applications in solving current real world problems, such as energy conversion and management, financial analysis, engineering modeling and design, and software engineering, to name a few. Inspired by natural evolution, the use of GP has expanded significantly in the last decade in almost every area of science and engineering. Exploring applications in a variety of fields, the information in this volume can help optimize computer programs throughout the sciences. Taking a hands-on approach, this book provides an invaluable reference to practitioners, providing the necessary details required for a successful application of GP and its branches to challenging problems ranging from drought prediction to trading volatility. It also demonstrates the evolution of GP through major developments in GP studies and applications. It is suitable for advanced students who wish to use relevant book chapters as a basis to pursue further research in these areas, as well as experienced practitioners looking to apply GP to new areas. The book also offers valuable supplementary material for design courses and computation in engineering.

This book introduces the latest visual effects (VFX) techniques that can be applied to game programming. The usefulness of the physicality-based VFX techniques, such as water, fire, smoke, and wind, has been proven through active involvement and utilization in movies and images. However, they have yet to be extensively applied in the game industry, due to the high technical barriers. Readers of this book can learn not only the theories about the latest VFX techniques, but also the methodology of game programming, step by step. The practical VFX processing techniques introduced in this book will provide very helpful information to game programmers. Due to the lack of instructional books about VFX-related game programming, the demand for knowledge regarding these high-tech VFXs might be very high.

Data warehousing and online analysis technologies have shown their effectiveness in managing and analyzing a large amount of disparate data, attracting much attention from numerous research communities. ""Data Warehousing Design and Advanced Engineering Applications: Methods for Complex Construction"" covers the complete process of analyzing data to extract, transform, load, and manage the essential components of a data warehousing system. A defining collection of field discoveries, this advanced title provides significant industry solutions for those involved in this distinct research community.