Technology has vastly advanced over the years and created new developments and uses across various industries. By applying these new approaches in the business world, process management and organization can be significantly improved. Maximizing Business Performance and Efficiency through Intelligent Systems is an essential reference publication for the latest research on methods to use artificial intelligence in organizational settings. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as information retrieval, fuzzy systems, and neural networks, this book is ideally designed for students, professionals, and researchers seeking research on emerging advances in business technology applications.

The contributions gathered here provide an overview of current research projects and selected software products of the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI. They show the wide range of challenges that scientific computing currently faces, the solutions it offers, and its important role in developing applications for industry. Given the exciting field of applied collaborative research and development it discusses, the book will appeal to scientists, practitioners, and students alike. The Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI combines excellent research and application-oriented development to provide added value for our partners. SCAI develops numerical techniques, parallel algorithms and specialized software tools to support and optimize industrial simulations. Moreover, it implements custom software solutions for production and logistics, and offers calculations on high-performance computers. Its services and products are based on state-of-the-art methods from applied mathematics and information technology.

Save the Magaambya! The heroes return to the Magaambya magic academy to find the villain they’d vanquished on a distant planet had set another scheme in motion long ago. Students and teachers have been twisted by evil magic, and the heroes must engage in legendary tests to gain the means to free them. While a monstrous foe thrashes through the Magaambya, it’s up to the heroes to save the school from utter destruction! “Shadows of the Ancients” is a Pathfinder adventure for four 18th-level characters by Saif Ansari. This adventure concludes the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, a six-part, monthly campaign in which the heroes rise from humble students to influential teachers, and ultimately decide the fate of the Magaambya. This adventure provides guidance to tell stories that are like fables or set in truly unusual adventure locations, and concludes with a look at powerful monsters, magic, and abilities that only the mightiest Magaambyan heroes can claim! Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world’s oldest fantasy RPG.

Mobile user experience is a new frontier. Untethered from a keyboard and mouse, this rich design space is lush with opportunity to invent new and more human ways for people to interact with information. Invention requires casting off many anchors and conventions inherited from the last 50 years of computer science and traditional design and jumping head first into a new and unfamiliar design space.

Most books on linear systems for undergraduates cover discrete and continuous systems material together in a single volume. Such books also include topics in discrete and continuous filter design, and discrete and continuous state-space representations. However, with this magnitude of coverage, the student typically gets a little of both discrete and continuous linear systems but not enough of either. Minimal coverage of discrete linear systems material is acceptable provided that there is ample coverage of continuous linear systems. On the other hand, minimal coverage of continuous linear systems does no justice to either of the two areas. Under the best of circumstances, a student needs a solid background in both these subjects. Continuous linear systems and discrete linear systems are broad topics and each merit a single book devoted to the respective subject matter. The objective of this set of two volumes is to present the needed material for each at the undergraduate level, and present the required material using MATLAB (R) (The MathWorks Inc.).

Game design is a sibling discipline to software and Web design, but they're siblings that grew up in different houses. They have much more in common than their perceived distinction typically suggests, and user experience practitioners can realize enormous benefit by exploiting the solutions that games have found to the real problems of design. This book will show you how.

Feast on all of the delicious offerings found in the world of Skyrim in this beautifully crafted cookbook based on the award-winning game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Immerse yourself in the diverse cuisine of Skyrim with these recipes inspired by food found in the Old Kingdom and across Tamriel. With over seventy delicious recipes for fan-favorite recipes including Apple Cabbage Stew Sunlight Souffle, Sweetrolls, and more, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The Official Cookbook will delight every hungry Dragonborn.

Volume 37 is concerned with the use and role of modelling in chemical kinetics and seeks to show the interplay of theory or simulation with experiment in a diversity of physico-chemical areas in which kinetics measurements provide significant physical insight. Areas of application covered within the volume include electro- and interfacial chemistry, physiology, biochemistry, solid state chemistry and chemical engineering.
A leading contributor to this general area has been Professor W. John Albery, FRS, to whom the contributors and editors dedicate this book.

This text reviews the issues involved in handling and processing digital documents. Examining the full range of a document s lifetime, the book covers acquisition, representation, security, pre-processing, layout analysis, understanding, analysis of single components, information extraction, filing, indexing and retrieval. Features: provides a list of acronyms and a glossary of technical terms; contains appendices covering key concepts in machine learning, and providing a case study on building an intelligent system for digital document and library management; discusses issues of security, and legal aspects of digital documents; examines core issues of document image analysis, and image processing techniques of particular relevance to digitized documents; reviews the resources available for natural language processing, in addition to techniques of linguistic analysis for content handling; investigates methods for extracting and retrieving data/information from a document."

'Rough Computing' explores the application of rough set theory, which has attracted attention because of the ability to enhance databases by allowing for the management of uncertainty, a comparative analysis between rough sets, and other intelligent data analysis.

Expert systems--problem-solving computer programs that contain the encoded knowledge of experts in a specific application area such as financial planning--represent a crucial turning point in how the typical organization utilizes its computer environment. This volume, written for practitioners in finance and accounting as well as MIS managers who wish to broaden their expertise, offers a comprehensive look at the use of expert systems in the everyday operations of finance and accounting. The author presents selected areas that are viable candidates for expert systems, demonstrating the ways in which organizations can successfully augment their present management information systems with expert systems. Actual programs using a typical PC expert system shell (EXSYS) further illustrate the relative ease with which expert systems for finance and accounting can be developed, implemented, and maintained.

Divided into four parts, the book begins by offering a framework for developing expert systems in finance and accounting. In the second part, Thierauf reviews the current state of development for programming languages in expert systems, the computer hardware necessary to run expert systems, and expert system shells useful in developing business expert systems. Part three presents an in-depth examination of the procedures used in developing expert systems, while the final part focuses on typical applications of expert systems in finance and accounting. Following a chapter on general business and nonbusiness applications, Thierauf addresses finance applications of expert systems and then uses the EXSYS program to develop demonstration and field prototypes and operational expert systems for standard finance applications. The final two chapters take the same approach to accounting applications. An appendix lists vendors of artificial intelligence/expert systems hardware and software.

Over the last several years there has been a growing interest in developing computational methodologies for modeling and analyzing movements and behaviors of 'crowds' of people. This interest spans several scientific areas that includes Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, and Pedestrian Evacuation Dynamics. Despite the fact that these different scientific fields are trying to model the same physical entity (i.e. a crowd of people), research ideas have evolved independently. As a result each discipline has developed techniques and perspectives that are characteristically their own. The goal of this book is to provide the readers a comprehensive map towards the common goal of better analyzing and synthesizing the pedestrian movement in dense, heterogeneous crowds. The book is organized into different parts that consolidate various aspects of research towards this common goal, namely the modeling, simulation, and visual analysis of crowds. Through this book, readers will see the common ideas and vision as well as the different challenges and techniques, that will stimulate novel approaches to fully grasping "crowds."

This book examines modern artificial intelligence to display how it may be applied to computer games. It spans the divide that exists between the academic research community working with advanced artificial intelligence and the games programming community which must create and release new and interesting games.

This volume includes papers presented at IIH-MSP 2017, the 13th International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, held from 12 to 15 August 2017 in Matsue, Shimane, Japan. The conference addresses topics ranging from information hiding and security, and multimedia signal processing and networking, to bio-inspired multimedia technologies and systems. This volume of Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies focuses on subjects related to massive image/video compression and transmission for emerging networks, advances in speech and language processing, information hiding and signal processing for audio and speech signals, intelligent distribution systems and applications, recent advances in security and privacy for multimodal network environments, multimedia signal processing, and machine learning. Updated with the latest research outcomes and findings, the papers presented appeal to researchers and students who are interested in the corresponding fields.

Value Chain Marketing (VCM) is a promising strategy to overcome immediate customers' innovation resistance. By pursuing VCM, material suppliers enlarge their target group beyond their immediate customers and address their downstream customers as well. Treading on relatively unexplored grounds, this book explores the relevance of VCM and comprehends its process; identifies the critical factors for suppliers' marketing success, and compares the performance of VCM trials, using a multi-method design linking case study research and computational modeling.

Images support connections between biology, engineering, and material sciences resulting in a growing partnership among academia, laboratories, and industry. Scientists focus on biology-inspired research to understand how biological systems work, and then create systems and materials that would have efficiency and precision of living structures. The Art Science connection has become one of prominent trends exemplified by themes presented in journals, conferences, and books. Biologically-Inspired Computing for the Arts: Scientific Data through Graphics comprises a collection of authors individual approaches to the relationship between nature, science, and art created with the use of computers. Themes discussed in the book relate to the use of visual language in communication about biologically-inspired scientific data, visual literacy in science, and application of practitioner s approach. This comprehensive reference will assist programmers, scientists, engineers, computer science and science-oriented students in creating and effectively communicating their projects using science-related knowledge.

In today s world, most global companies face enormous challenges in dealing with an inflexible budget climate when complex changes are required. "Secrets to a Successful Commercial Software Implementation" will help guide business leaders to gain understanding of how commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) software like SAP, Seibel, and PeopleSoft should be applied in order to ultimately achieve significant cost savings.

Project management professional Nick Berg utilizes his strong background in domestic and international Systems Applications and Products to teach others the potential benefits of implementing COTS products such as faster deployment time, enhanced quality and reliability, reduced development risk, provided periodic upgrades and improvements, and an already established support system. He introduces a unique process for COTS development, presents best-practice processes for COTS projects, and defines the architecture procedures within the COTS environment. Finally, he walks through each project phase of a COTS-based project by introducing the objectives, road map, roles, activities, artifacts, and milestone of the phase.

The cultural impact on an organization facing this decision is profound, but if implemented with forethought, planning, and dedicated guidance and execution, the benefits to an organization will be long reaching and significant.

Ambient intelligence began as a vision for the future of technology and has now become a reality. The widespread use of modern technology has quickly expanded into the use of our everyday lives. On a daily basis, we are instantly connected to people, places, ideas, and information which have led to the acceleration of knowledge. As the continuing development of new technologies becomes available, those technologies will play an integral role in the future. Pervasive and Ubiquitous Technology Innovations for Ambient Intelligence Environments is a collection of research on the subject matter of human computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, embedded systems, and other areas of study which contribute to ambient intelligence. This comprehensive reference aims to broaden the overall knowledge on ambient intelligence as it relates to the aspects of modern life.

Using a unique in-depth, case-based approach, Cengage's NEW PERSPECTIVES COLLECTION, MICROSOFT (R) 365 (R) & EXCEL (R) 2021 COMPREHENSIVE helps you prepare for the Microsoft (R) Office (R) Specialist (MOS) certification exam -- and success in your future career. As you apply Microsoft (R) Office (R) skills to real-world business scenarios based on Burning Glass market insights, you will sharpen your critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Professional tips and insights incorporated throughout provide context and relevancy to real-world practice, while ProSkills Boxes help strengthen your employability skills, including written and verbal communication. The text also offers updated coverage of Microsoft (R) 365 (R) features as well as enhanced support for Mac users. In addition, MindTap and up-to-date SAM (Skills Assessment Manager) online resources provide interactive study tools to help maximize your study time -- and results.

Session 2 includes 110 papers selected from 2011 3rd International Asia Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (CAR 2011), held on December 24-25, 2011, Shenzhen, China. As we all know, the ever growing technology in robotics and automation will help build a better human society. This session will provide a unique opportunity for the academic and industrial communities to address new challenges, share solutions, and discuss research directions for the future. Robotics research emphasizes intelligence and adaptability to cope with unstructured environments. Automation research emphasizes efficiency, productivity, quality, and reliability, focusing on systems that operate autonomously. The main focus of this session is on the autonomous acquisition of semantic information in intelligent robots and systems, as well as the use of semantic knowledge to guide further acquisition of information.