The advances in the generation and processing of multimedia data (e. g. documents, images, video, audio, animations, etc. ) have had an immense impact on multimedia applications and, as a result, multimedia has permeated almost every aspect of our daily lives. This development has also brought with it a whole host of issues and ch- lenges which were either not as apparent before or were non-existent. Today, digital media is relied upon as primary news and information resource, as evidence in a court of law, as part of medical records or as financial documents. However, there is still lack of authoritative mechanisms to verify the origin and veracity of media data. - deed, multimedia content has become an extremely valuable asset, and it is being both disseminated and consumed on a larger scale than ever before, but the issues conce- ing how the content owners and publishers should control the distribution of and - cess to their content have not been satisfactorily resolved yet. There are various other issues related to use of multimedia that require further analysis and research. For example, it is a known fact that some criminal organi- tions communicate with its members by posting information embedded media to p- lic forums and web-sites to evade surveillance by law enforcement. Conventional multimedia processing approaches do not provide sufficiently effective means for - fending against such communication.

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

Automated and semi-automated manipulation of so-called labelled transition systems has become an important means in discovering flaws in software and hardware systems. Process algebra has been developed to express such labelled transition systems algebraically, which enhances the ways of manipulation by means of equational logic and term rewriting.The theory of process algebra has developed rapidly over the last twenty years, and verification tools have been developed on the basis of process algebra, often in cooperation with techniques related to model checking. This textbook gives a thorough introduction into the basics of process algebra and its applications.

A reference for the field of particle modelling - the study of dynamical behaviour of solids and fluids in response to external forces, with the solids and fluids modelled as systems of atoms and molecules.

This book contains a rich set of tools for nonparametric analyses, and the purpose of this text is to provide guidance to students and professional researchers on how R is used for nonparametric data analysis in the biological sciences: To introduce when nonparametric approaches to data analysis are appropriate To introduce the leading nonparametric tests commonly used in biostatistics and how R is used to generate appropriate statistics for each test To introduce common figures typically associated with nonparametric data analysis and how R is used to generate appropriate figures in support of each data set The book focuses on how R is used to distinguish between data that could be classified as nonparametric as opposed to data that could be classified as parametric, with both approaches to data classification covered extensively. Following an introductory lesson on nonparametric statistics for the biological sciences, the book is organized into eight self-contained lessons on various analyses and tests using R to broadly compare differences between data sets and statistical approach.

ThisvolumecontainstheproceedingsofIFIPTM2009, theThirdIFIPWG11.11 International Conference on Trust Management, held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA during June 15-19, 2009. IFIPTM 2009 provided a truly global platform for the reporting of research, development, policyandpracticeintheinterdependentareasofprivacy, security, and trust. Building on the traditions inherited from the highly successful iTrust conference series, the IFIPTM 2007 conference in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, and the IFIPTM 2008conferencein Trondheim, Norway, IFIPTM 2009 focusedontrust, privacyand security from multidisciplinary perspectives. The conferenceisanarenafor discussionaboutrelevantproblemsfromboth research and practice in the areas of academia, business, and government. IFIPTM 2009 was an open IFIP conference. The program of the conference featured both theoretical research papers and reports of real-world case studies. IFIPTM 2009 received 44 submissions. The ProgramCommittee selected 17 - pers for presentation and inclusion in the proceedings. In addition, the program and the proceedings include one invited paper and ?ve demo descriptions. The highlights of IFIPTM 2009 included invited talks and tutorials by academic and governmental experts in the ?elds of trust management, privacy and security, including Eugene Spa?ord, Marianne Winslett, and Michael Novak. Running an international conference requires an immense e?ort from all p- ties involved. We would like to thank the Program Committee members and external referees for having provided timely and in-depth reviews of the subm- ted papers.We wouldalsolike to thank the Workshop, Tutorial, Demonstration, Local Arrangements, and Website Chairs, for having provided great help or- nizing the con

This volume contains the lectures given in honor to Georg Farber as tribute to his contributions in the area of real-time and embedded systems. The chapters of many leading scientists cover a wide range of aspects, like robot or automotive vision systems or medical aspects. "

"This book should satisfy those who want a different perspective than the official Oracle documentation. It will cover all important aspects of a data warehouse while giving the necessary examples to make the reading a lively experience."
- Tim Donar, Author and Systems Architect
for Enterprise Data Warehouses
Tuning a data warehouse database focuses on large
transactions, mostly requiring what is known as throughput. Throughput is the passing of large amounts of information through a server, network
and Internet environment, backwards and forwards, constantly! The ultimate objective of a data warehouse is the production of meaningful and useful reporting, from historical and archived data. The trick is to make the reports print within an acceptable time frame.
A data model contains tables and relationships between tables. Tuning a data model involves Normalization and Denormalization. Different approaches are required depending on the application, such as OLTP or a Data Warehouse. Inappropriate database design can make SQL code impossible to tune. Poor data modeling can have a most profound effect on database performance since all SQL code is constructed from the data model.
* Takes users beyond basics to critical issues in running most efficient data warehouse applications
* Illustrates how to keep data going in and out in the most productive way possible
* Focus is placed on Data Warehouse performance tuning

The explosion of information technology has led to substantial growth of web-accessible linguistic data in terms of quantity, diversity and complexity. These resources become even more useful when interlinked with each other to generate network effects.

The general trend of providing data online is thus accompanied by newly developing methodologies to interconnect linguistic data and metadata. This includes linguistic data collections, general-purpose knowledge bases (e.g., the DBpedia, a machine-readable edition of the Wikipedia), and repositories with specific information about languages, linguistic categories and phenomena. The Linked Data paradigm provides a framework for interoperability and access management, and thereby allows to integrate information from such a diverse set of resources.

The contributions assembled in this volume illustrate the band-width of applications of the Linked Data paradigm for representative types of language resources. They cover lexical-semantic resources, annotated corpora, typological databases as well as terminology and metadata repositories. The book includes representative applications from diverse fields, ranging from academic linguistics (e.g., typology and corpus linguistics) over applied linguistics (e.g., lexicography and translation studies) to technical applications (in computational linguistics, Natural Language Processing and information technology).

This volume accompanies the Workshop on Linked Data in Linguistics 2012 (LDL-2012) in Frankfurt/M., Germany, organized by the Open Linguistics Working Group (OWLG) of the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN). It assembles contributions of the workshop participants and, beyond this, it summarizes initial steps in the formation of a Linked Open Data cloud of linguistic resources, the Linguistic Linked Open Data cloud (LLOD).

Multimedia Database Management Systems presents the issues and the techniques used in building multimedia database management systems. Chapter 1 provides an overview of multimedia databases and underlines the new requirements for these applications. Chapter 2 discusses the techniques used for storing and retrieving multimedia objects. Chapter 3 presents the techniques used for generating metadata for various media objects. Chapter 4 examines the mechanisms used for storing the index information needed for accessing different media objects. Chapter 5 analyzes the approaches for modeling media objects, both their temporal and spatial characteristics. Object-oriented approach, with some additional features, has been widely used to model multimedia information. The book discusses two systems that use object-oriented models: OVID (Object Video Information Database) and Jasmine. The models for representing temporal and spatial requirements of media objects are then studied. The book also describes authoring techniques used for specifying temporal and spatial characteristics of multimedia databases. Chapter 6 explains different types of multimedia queries, the methodologies for processing them and the language features for describing them. The features offered by query languages such as SQL/MM (Structured Query Language for Multimedia), PICQUERY+, and Video SQL are also studied. Chapter 7 deals with the communication requirements for multimedia databases. A client accessing multimedia data over computer networks needs to identify a schedule for retrieving various media objects composing the database. The book identifies possible ways for generating a retrieval schedule. Chapter 8 ties together the techniques discussed in the previous chapters by providing a simple architecture of a distributed multimedia database management system. Multimedia Database Management Systems can be used as a text for graduate students and researchers working in the area of multimedia databases. In addition, the book serves as essential reading material for computer professionals who are in (or moving to) the area of multimedia databases.

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

This book collects contributions written by well-known statisticians and econometricians to acknowledge Leopold Simar s far-reaching scientific impact on Statistics and Econometrics throughout his career. The papers contained herein were presented at a conference in
Louvain-la-Neuve in May 2009 in honor of his retirement. The contributions cover a broad variety of issues surrounding frontier
estimation, which Leopold Simar has contributed much to over the past two decades, as well as related issues such as semiparametric regression and models for censored data.

This book collects contributions written by well-known statisticians and econometricians to acknowledge Leopold Simar s far-reaching scientific impact on Statistics and Econometrics throughout his career. The papers contained herein were presented at a conference in
Louvain-la-Neuve in May 2009 in honor of his retirement. The contributions cover a broad variety of issues surrounding frontier
estimation, which Leopold Simar has contributed much to over the past two decades, as well as related issues such as semiparametric regression and models for censored data.

Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments researches both how game sound affects a player psychologically, emotionally, and physiologically, and how this relationship itself impacts the design of computer game sound and the development of technology. This compilation also applies beyond the realm of video games to other types of immersive sound, such as soundscape design, gambling machines, emotive and fantastical sound to name a few. The application for this research is wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, and of primary importance for academics and practitioners searching for the right sounds.

Since the beginning of the seventies computer hardware is available to use programmable computers for various tasks. During the nineties the hardware has developed from the big main frames to personal workstations. Nowadays it is not only the hardware which is much more powerful, but workstations can do much more work than a main frame, compared to the seventies. In parallel we find a specialization in the software. Languages like COBOL for business orientated programming or Fortran for scientific computing only marked the beginning. The introduction of personal computers in the eighties gave new impulses for even further development, already at the beginning of the seven ties some special languages like SAS or SPSS were available for statisticians. Now that personal computers have become very popular the number of pro grams start to explode. Today we will find a wide variety of programs for almost any statistical purpose (Koch & Haag 1995)."

Multimedia Systems discusses the basic characteristics of multimedia operating systems, networking and communication, and multimedia middleware systems. The overall goal of the book is to provide a broad understanding of multimedia systems and applications in an integrated manner: a multimedia application and its user interface must be developed in an integrated fashion with underlying multimedia middleware, operating systems, networks, security, and multimedia devices.

Fundamental characteristics of multimedia operating and distributed communication systems are presented, especially scheduling algorithms and other OS supporting approaches for multimedia applications with soft-real-time deadlines, multimedia file systems and servers with their decision algorithms for data placement, scheduling and buffer management, multimedia communication, transport, and streaming protocols, services with their error control, congestion control and other Quality of Service aware and adaptive algorithms, synchronization services with their skew control methods, and group communication with their group coordinating algorithms and other distributed services.

As businesses, researchers, and practitioners look to devise new and innovative technologies in the realm of e-commerce, the human side in contemporary organizations remains a test in the industry. ""Utilizing and Managing Commerce and Services Online"" broadens the overall body of knowledge regarding the human aspects of electronic commerce technologies and utilization in modern organizations. ""Utilizing and Managing Commerce and Services Online"" provides comprehensive coverage and understanding of the social, cultural, organizational, and cognitive impacts of e-commerce technologies and advances in organizations around the world. E-commerce strategic management, leadership, organizational behavior, development, and employee ethical issues are only a few of the challenges presented in this all-inclusive work.

Multimedia computing has emerged in the last few years as a major area of research. Multimedia computer systems have opened a wide range of applications by combining a variety of information sources, such as voice, graphics, animation, images, audio and full-motion video. Looking at the big picture, multimedia can be viewed as the merging of three industries: computer, communications, and broadcasting industries. Research and development efforts can be divided into two areas. As the first area of research, much effort has been centered on the stand-alone multimedia workstation and associated software systems and tools, such as music composition, computer-aided education and training, and interactive video. However, the combination of multimedia computing with distributed systems offers even greater potential. New applications based on distributed multimedia systems include multimedia information systems, collaborative and video conferencing systems, on-demand multimedia services, and distance learning. Multimedia Systems and Techniques is one of two volumes published by Kluwer, both of which provide a broad introduction into this fast moving area. The book covers fundamental concepts and techniques used in multimedia systems. The topics include multimedia objects and related models, multimedia compression techniques and standards, multimedia interfaces, multimedia storage techniques, multimedia communication and networking, multimedia synchronization techniques, multimedia information systems, scheduling in multimedia systems, and video indexing and retrieval techniques. Multimedia Systems and Techniques, together with its companion volume, Multimedia Tools and Applications, is intended for anyone involved in multimedia system design and applications and can be used as a textbook for advanced courses on multimedia.

Commercial systems built today are increasingly using XML technologies for storing any amount of text or data. Services and Business Computing Solutions with XML: Applications for Quality Management and Best Processes collects the latest research for academicians and practitioners that describes the use and synergy between data structure technologies. This book explores and investigates various issues of XML data and related applications summarized by Web services.

In the healthcare field, there is limited literature published on the subject of global deployment, diffusion, adoption, use, and impact of information communication technologies in the context of health informatics and electronic healthcare applications. Due to a lack of such literature, those involved in healthcare spend a great deal of time searching and gathering information from various sources. ""The Handbook of Research on Advances in Health Informatics and Electronic Healthcare Applications: Global Adoption and Impact of Information Communication Technologies"" for the first time brings to the healthcare community a comprehensive resource elucidating the adoption and usage of health informatics. Gathering an in-depth collection of research articles and case studies from leading experts worldwide, this handbook of research provides a global understanding of the advances in health informatics and electronic applications in healthcare delivery and management.

"Simulation and Verification of Electronic and Biological Systems" provides a showcase for the Circuit and Multi-Domain Simulation Workshop held in San Jose, California, USA, on November 5, 2009. The nine chapters are contributed by experts in the field and provide a broad discussion of recent developments on simulation, modeling and verification of integrated circuits and biological systems.

Specific topics include large scale parallel circuit simulation, industrial practice of fast SPICE simulation, structure-preserving model order reduction of interconnects, advanced simulation techniques for oscillator networks, dynamic stability of static memories and biological systems as well as verification of analog integrated circuits.

Simulation and verification are fundamental enablers for understanding, analyzing and designing an extremely broad range of engineering and biological circuits and systems. The design of nanometer integrated electronic systems and emerging biomedical applications have stimulated the development of novel simulation and verification techniques and methodologies. "Simulation and Verification of Electronic and Biological Systems" provides a broad discussion of recent advances on simulation, modeling and verification of integrated circuits and biological systems and offers a basis for stimulating new innovations.

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