This book focuses on the use of farm level, micro- and macro-data of cooperative systems and networks in developing new robust, reliable and coherent modeling tools for agricultural and environmental policy analysis. The efficacy of public intervention on agriculture is largely determined by the existence of reliable information on the effects of policy options and market developments on farmers' production decisions and in particular, on key issues such as levels of agricultural and non-agricultural output, land use and incomes, use of natural resources, sustainable-centric management, structural change and the viability of family farms. Over the last years, several methods and analytical tools have been developed for policy analysis using various sets of data. Such methods have been based on integrated approaches in an effort to investigate the above key issues and have thus attempted to offer a powerful environment for decision making, particularly in an era of radical change for both agriculture and the wider economy.

This book covers a range of statistical methods useful in the analysis of medical data, from the simple to the sophisticated, and shows how they may be applied using the latest versions of S-PLUS and S-PLUS 6. In each chapter several sets of medical data are explored and analysed using a mixture of graphical and model fitting approaches. At the end of each chapter the S-PLUS script files are listed, enabling readers to reproduce all the analyses and graphics in the chapter. These script files can be downloaded from a web site. The aim of the book is to show how to use S-PLUS as a powerful environment for undertaking a variety of statistical analyses from simple inference to complex model fitting, and for providing informative graphics. All such methods are of increasing importance in handling data from a variety of medical investigations including epidemiological studies and clinical trials. The mix of real data examples and background theory make this book useful for students and researchers alike. For the former, exercises are provided at the end of each chapter to increase their fluency in using the command line language of the S-PLUS software. Professor Brian Everitt is Head of the Department of Biostatistics and Computing at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and Sophia Rabe-Hesketh is a senior lecturer in the same department. Professor Everitt is the author of over 30 books on statistics including two previously co-authored with Dr. Rabe-Hesketh.

This volume is the Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Entertainment Computing (IWEC 2002). Entertainment has been taking very important parts in our life by refreshing us and activating our creativity. Recently by the advancement of computers and networks new types of entertainment have been emerging such as video games, entertainment robots, and network games. As these new games have a strong power to change our lives, it is good time for people who work in this area to discuss various aspects of entertainment and to promote entertainment related researches. Based on these considerations, we have organized a first workshop on entertainment computing. This workshop brings together researchers, developers, and practitioners working in the area of entertainment computing. It covers wide range of entertainment computing such as theoretical issues, hardware/software issues, systems, human interfaces, and applications. The particular areas covered by the workshop are: 1. Computers & Games Computer game algorithms, modeling of players, web technologies for networked games, human interface technologies for game applications. 2. Home/Arcade Games and Interactive Movies Video game computer technologies, motion capture technologies, real-time computer graphics technologies, interactive movie systems, story generation for games/movies, human factors of video games.

This book presents a state-of-the art review of current perspectives on Communications and Multimedia Security. It contains the Proceedings of the 3rd Joint Working Conference of IFIP TC6 and TC11, arranged by the International Federation for Information Processing and held in Athens, Greece in September 1997. The book aims to cover the subject of Communications and Multimedia Systems Security, as fully as possible. It constitutes an essential reading for information technology security specialists; computer professionals; communication systems professionals; EDP managers; EDP auditors; managers, researchers and students working on the subject.

This third volume in the series deals with such topics as information systems practice and theory, information systems and the accounting/auditing environment, and differing perspectives on information systems research.

Emerging business models, value configurations, and information technologies interact over time to create competitive advantage. Modern information technology has to be studied, understood, and applied along the time dimension of months and years, where changes are the rule. Such changes created by interactions between business elements and resources are very well suited for system dynamics modeling. ""Business Dynamics in Information Technology"" presents business-technology alignment processes, interaction processes, and decision processes, helping the reader study information technology from a dynamic, rather than a static, perspective. By introducing two simple tools from system dynamic modeling - causal loops and reference modes - the dynamic perspective will become important to both students and practitioners in the future.

This textbook reviews the theory, applications, and latest breakthroughs in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs). Presenting a specific focus on Opportunistic Mobile Networks (OMNs), the text considers the influence of human aspects, and examines emerging forms of inter-node cooperation. Features: contains review terms and exercises in each chapter, with the solutions and source code available at an associated website; introduces the fundamentals of DTNs, covering OMNs, PSNs, and MOONs; describes the ONE simulator, explaining how to set up a simulation project; provides detailed insights into the development and testing of protocols, together with a set of best practices for increased productivity and optimized performance; examines human aspects in the context of communication networks, from human-centric applications to the impact of emotion on human-network interplay; proposes various schemes for inter-node cooperation in DTNs/OMNs; presents a detailed discussion on aspects of heterogeneity in DTNs.

From environmental management to land planning and geo-marketing, the number of application domains that may greatly benefit from using data enriched with spatio-temporal features is expanding very rapidly. Unfortunately, development of new spatio-temporal applications is hampered by the lack of conceptual design methods suited to cope with the additional complexity of spatio-temporal data. This complexity is obviously due to the particular semantics of space and time, but also to the need for multiple representations of the same reality to address the diversity of requirements from highly heterogeneous user communities. Conceptual design methods are also needed to facilitate the exchange and reuse of existing data sets, a must in geographical data management due to the high collection costs of the data. Yet, current practice in areas like geographical information systems or moving objects databases does not include conceptual design methods very well, if at all.

This book shows that a conceptual design approach for spatio-temporal databases is both feasible and easy to apprehend. While providing a firm basis through extensive discussion of traditional data modeling concepts, the major focus of the book is on modeling spatial and temporal information. Parent, Spaccapietra and Zimanyi provide a detailed and comprehensive description of an approach that fills the gap between application conceptual requirements and system capabilities, covering both data modeling and data manipulation features. The ideas presented summarize several years of research on the characteristics and description of space, time, and perception. In addition to the authors' own data modeling approach, MADS (Modeling of Application Data with Spatio-temporal features), the book also surveys alternative data models and approaches (from industry and academia) that target support of spatio-temporal modeling.

The reader will acquire intimate knowledge of both the traditional and innovative features that form a consistent data modeling approach. Visual notations and examples are employed extensively to illustrate the use of the various constructs. Therefore, this book is of major importance and interest to advanced professionals, researchers, and graduate or post-graduate students in the areas of spatio-temporal databases and geographical information systems.

"For anyone thinking of doing research in this field, or who is developing a system based on spatio-temporal data, this text is essential reading." (Mike Worboys, U Maine, Orono, ME, USA)

"The high-level semantic model presented and validated in this book provides essential guidance to researchers and implementers when improving the capabilities of data systems to serve the actual needs of applications and their users in the temporal and spatial domains that are so prevalent today." (Gio Wiederhold, Stanford U, CA, USA)"

This book introduces readers to the basic concepts of and latest findings in the area of differential equations with uncertain factors. It covers the analytic method and numerical method for solving uncertain differential equations, as well as their applications in the field of finance. Furthermore, the book provides a number of new potential research directions for uncertain differential equation. It will be of interest to researchers, engineers and students in the fields of mathematics, information science, operations research, industrial engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence, automation, economics, and management science.

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

The book reports on the 11th International Workshop on Railway Noise, held on 9 - 13 September, 2013, in Uddevalla, Sweden. The event, which was jointly organized by the Competence Centre Chalmers Railway Mechanics (CHARMEC) and the Departments of Applied Mechanics and Applied Acoustics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, covered a broad range of topics in the field of railway noise and vibration, including: prospects, legal regulations and perceptions; wheel and rail noise; prediction, measurements and monitoring; ground-borne vibration; squeal noise and structure-borne noise; and aerodynamic noise generated by high-speed trains. Further topics included: resilient track forms; grinding, corrugation and roughness; and interior noise and sound barriers. This book, which consists of a collection of peer-reviewed papers originally submitted to the workshop, not only provides readers with an overview of the latest developments in the field, but also offers scientists and engineers essential support in their daily efforts to identify, understand and solve a number of problems related to railway noise and vibration, and to achieve their ultimate goal of reducing the environmental impact of railway systems.

Recent achievements in hardware and software developments have enabled the introduction of a revolutionary technology: in-memory data management. This technology supports the flexible and extremely fast analysis of massive amounts of data, such as diagnoses, therapies, and human genome data. This book shares the latest research results of applying in-memory data management to personalized medicine, changing it from computational possibility to clinical reality. The authors provide details on innovative approaches to enabling the processing, combination, and analysis of relevant data in real-time. The book bridges the gap between medical experts, such as physicians, clinicians, and biological researchers, and technology experts, such as software developers, database specialists, and statisticians. Topics covered in this book include - amongst others - modeling of genome data processing and analysis pipelines, high-throughput data processing, exchange of sensitive data and protection of intellectual property. Beyond that, it shares insights on research prototypes for the analysis of patient cohorts, topology analysis of biological pathways, and combined search in structured and unstructured medical data, and outlines completely new processes that have now become possible due to interactive data analyses.

Multimedia is changing the design of database and information retrieval systems. The accumulation of audio, image, and video content is of little use in these systems if the content cannot be retrieved on demand, a critical requirement that has led to the development of new technologies for the analysis and indexing of media data. In turn, these technologies seek to derive information or features from a data type that can facilitate rapid retrieval, efficient compression, and logical presentation of the data. Significant work that has not been addressed, however, is the benefits of analyzing more than one data type simultaneously. Computed Synchronization for Multimedia Applications presents a new framework for the simultaneous analysis of multiple media data objects. The primary benefit of this analysis is computed synchronization, a temporal and spatial alignment of multiple media objects. Computed Synchronization for Multimedia Applications also presents several specific applications and a general structure for the solution of computed synchronization problems. The applications demonstrate the use of this structure. Two applications in particular are described in detail: the alignment of text to speech audio, and the alignment of simultaneous English language translations of ancient texts. Many additional applications are discussed as future uses of the technology. Computed Synchronization for Multimedia Applications is useful to researchers, students, and developers seeking to apply computed synchronization in many fields. It is also suitable as a reference for a graduate-level course in multimedia data retrieval.

An embedded system is loosely defined as any system that utilizes electronics but is not perceived or used as a general-purpose computer. Traditionally, one or more electronic circuits or microprocessors are literally embedded in the system, either taking up roles that used to be performed by mechanical devices, or providing functionality that is not otherwise possible. The goal of this book is to investigate how formal methods can be applied to the domain of embedded system design. The emphasis is on the specification, representation, validation, and design exploration of such systems from a high-level perspective. The authors review the framework upon which the theories and experiments are based, and through which the formal methods are linked to synthesis and simulation. A formal verification methodology is formulated to verify general properties of the designs and demonstrate that this methodology is efficient in dealing with the problem of complexity and effective in finding bugs. However, manual intervention in the form of abstraction selection and separation of timing and functionality is required. It is conjectured that, for specific properties, efficient algorithms exist for completely automatic formal validations of systems. Synchronous Equivalence: Formal Methods for Embedded Systems presents a brand new formal approach to high-level equivalence analysis. It opens design exploration avenues previously uncharted. It is a work that can stand alone but at the same time is fully compatible with the synthesis and simulation framework described in another book by Kluwer Academic Publishers Hardware-Software Co-Design of Embedded Systems: The POLIS Approach, by Balarin et al. Synchronous Equivalence: Formal Methods for Embedded Systems will be of interest to embedded system designers (automotive electronics, consumer electronics, and telecommunications), micro-controller designers, CAD developers and students, as well as IP providers, architecture platform designers, operating system providers, and designers of VLSI circuits and systems.

This is a book for people who love mechanics of composite materials and ? MATLAB . We will use the popular computer package MATLAB as a matrix calculator for doing the numerical calculations needed in mechanics of c- posite materials. In particular, the steps of the mechanical calculations will be emphasized in this book. The reader will not ?nd ready-made MATLAB programs for use as black boxes. Instead step-by-step solutions of composite material mechanics problems are examined in detail using MATLAB. All the problems in the book assume linear elastic behavior in structural mechanics. The emphasis is not on mass computations or programming, but rather on learning the composite material mechanics computations and understanding of the underlying concepts. The basic aspects of the mechanics of ?ber-reinforced composite materials are covered in this book. This includes lamina analysis in both the local and global coordinate systems, laminate analysis, and failure theories of a lamina.

Before use, standard ERP systems such as SAP R/3 need to be customized to meet the concrete requirements of the individual enterprise. This book provides an overview of the process models, methods, and tools offered by SAP and its partners to support this complex and time-consuming process. It begins by characterizing the foundations of the latest ERP systems from both a conceptual and technical viewpoint, whereby the most important components and functions of SAP R/3 are described. The main part of the book then goes on to present the current methods and tools for the R/3 implementation based on newer process models (roadmaps).

Welcome to the third International Conference on Management of Multimedia Networks and Services (MMNS'2000) in Fortaleza (Brazil) The first MMNS was held in Montreal ( Canada) in july 1997 and the second MMNS was held in Versailles (France) in November 1998. The MMNS conference takes place every year and a half and is aimed to be a truly international event by bringing together researchers and practitioners from all around the world and by organising the conference each time in a different continent/country. Over the past several years, there has been a considerable amount of research within the fields of multimedia networking and network management. Much of that work has taken place within the context of managing Quality-of Service in broadband integrated services digital networks such as the A TM, and more recently in IP-based networks, to respond to the requirements of emerging multimedia applications. A TM networks were designed to support multimedia traffic with diverse characteristics and can be used as the transfer mode for both wired and wireless networks. A new set of Internet protocols is being developed to provide better quality of service, which is a prerequisite for supporting multimedia applications. Multimedia applications have a different set of requirements, which impacts the design of the underlying communication network as well as its management. Several QoS management mechanisms intervening at different layers of the communication network are required including QoS-routing, QoS-based transport, QoS negotiation, QoS adaptation, FCAPS management, and mobility management."

"Intelligent Control" considers non-traditional modelling and control approaches to nonlinear systems. Fuzzy logic, neural networks and evolutionary computing techniques are the main tools used. The book presents a modular switching fuzzy logic controller where a PD-type fuzzy controller is executed first followed by a PI-type fuzzy controller thus improving the performance of the controller compared with a PID-type fuzzy controller.The advantage of the switching-type fuzzy controller is that it uses one rule-base thus minimises the rule-base during execution. A single rule-base is developed by merging the membership functions for change of error of the PD-type controller and sum of error of the PI-type controller. Membership functions are then optimized using evolutionary algorithms. Since the two fuzzy controllers were executed in series, necessary further tuning of the differential and integral scaling factors of the controller is then performed. Neural-network-based tuning for the scaling parameters of the fuzzy controller is then described and finally an evolutionary algorithm is applied to the neurally-tuned-fuzzy controller in which the sigmoidal function shape of the neural network is determined.

The important issue of stability is addressed and the text demonstrates empirically that the developed controller was stable within the operating range. The text concludes with ideas for future research to show the reader the potential for further study in this area.

"Intelligent Control "will be of interest to researchers from engineering and computer science backgrounds working in the intelligent and adaptive control."

Content-based multimedia retrieval is a challenging research field with many unsolved problems. This monograph details concepts and algorithms for robust and efficient information retrieval of two different types of multimedia data: waveform-based music data and human motion data. It first examines several approaches in music information retrieval, in particular general strategies as well as efficient algorithms. The book then introduces a general and unified framework for motion analysis, retrieval, and classification, highlighting the design of suitable features, the notion of similarity used to compare data streams, and data organization.

Instructional quality can make or break the learning experience, especially in digital environments where the expressional nuances of interpersonal communication are lost. The most effective distance education instructors and experts are those who recognize the educational needs of students and are able to address those needs through creative use of the technological tools available to them. Identification, Evaluation, and Perceptions of Distance Education Experts explores the current and future trends, needs, and priorities that affect the development of distance education in a postmodern world. This premier reference work will be of significance to those interested in online learning, teaching and training, communication, and education across multiple sectors such as universities, colleges, schools, profit/non-profit e-organizations, and e-commerce.

DRAG (from un modele de la Demande Routiere, des Accidents et leur Gravite) is a complex computer model that simulates accident propensities under detailed conditions. The DRAG approach constitutes the largest road accident modelling effort ever undertaken. Gaudry is the creator and developer of DRAG and this work explains its nature, purpose and value. Such a model, which explains accidents for a whole region, province or country, has advantages in answering many questions asked about accidents (such as the role of the economic cycle, weather, prices, insurance etc.) that other models fail to take fully into account.
DRAG research is underpinned by a fundamental theoretical innovation which sees a 3-level approach to analysing the determinants of the number of road victims in a given accident: Exposure (the distance travelled), Accident Frequency Risk and Accident Severity Risk (i.e. the number of victims of each type of accident). In applying flexible mathematical forms, the DRAG model also allows significant conceptual and empirical claims to be made about the importance of detecting responses that reverse themselves (to alcohol, and to other factors).
Under Gaudry's guidance, a family of DRAG-inspired models has grown up, based on their development for different countries and this book explores each national model in turn. As more countries seek to adopt the DRAG approach, this book serves as a timely, unique and valuable guide to the model.

Information visualization offers a way to reveal hidden patterns in a visual presentation and allows users to seek information from a visual perspective. Readers of this book will gain an in-depth understanding of the current state of information retrieval visualization. They will be introduced to existing problems along with technical and theoretical findings. The book also provides practical details for the implementation of an information retrieval visualization system.