If you look around you will find that all computer systems, from your portable devices to the strongest supercomputers, are heterogeneous in nature. The most obvious heterogeneity is the existence of computing nodes of different capabilities (e.g. multicore, GPUs, FPGAs, ...). But there are also other heterogeneity factors that exist in computing systems, like the memory system components, interconnection, etc. The main reason for these different types of heterogeneity is to have good performance with power efficiency. Heterogeneous computing results in both challenges and opportunities. This book discusses both. It shows that we need to deal with these challenges at all levels of the computing stack: from algorithms all the way to process technology. We discuss the topic of heterogeneous computing from different angles: hardware challenges, current hardware state-of-the-art, software issues, how to make the best use of the current heterogeneous systems, and what lies ahead. The aim of this book is to introduce the big picture of heterogeneous computing. Whether you are a hardware designer or a software developer, you need to know how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. The main goal is to bring researchers and engineers to the forefront of the research frontier in the new era that started a few years ago and is expected to continue for decades. We believe that academics, researchers, practitioners, and students will benefit from this book and will be prepared to tackle the big wave of heterogeneous computing that is here to stay.

Developments and Applications for ECG Signal Processing: Modeling, Segmentation, and Pattern Recognition covers reliable techniques for ECG signal processing and their potential to significantly increase the applicability of ECG use in diagnosis. This book details a wide range of challenges in the processes of acquisition, preprocessing, segmentation, mathematical modelling and pattern recognition in ECG signals, presenting practical and robust solutions based on digital signal processing techniques. Users will find this to be a comprehensive resource that contributes to research on the automatic analysis of ECG signals and extends resources relating to rapid and accurate diagnoses, particularly for long-term signals. Chapters cover classical and modern features surrounding f ECG signals, ECG signal acquisition systems, techniques for noise suppression for ECG signal processing, a delineation of the QRS complex, mathematical modelling of T- and P-waves, and the automatic classification of heartbeats.

There is a significant deficiency among contemporary medicine practices reflected by experts making medical decisions for a large proportion of the population for which no or minimal data exists. Fortunately, our capacity to procure and apply such information is rapidly rising. As medicine becomes more individualized, the implementation of health IT and data interoperability become essential components to delivering quality healthcare. Quality Assurance in the Era of Individualized Medicine is a collection of innovative research on the methods and utilization of digital readouts to fashion an individualized therapy instead of a mass-population-directed strategy. While highlighting topics including assistive technologies, patient management, and clinical practices, this book is ideally designed for health professionals, doctors, nurses, hospital management, medical administrators, IT specialists, data scientists, researchers, academicians, and students.

Deep Learning through Sparse Representation and Low-Rank Modeling bridges classical sparse and low rank models-those that emphasize problem-specific Interpretability-with recent deep network models that have enabled a larger learning capacity and better utilization of Big Data. It shows how the toolkit of deep learning is closely tied with the sparse/low rank methods and algorithms, providing a rich variety of theoretical and analytic tools to guide the design and interpretation of deep learning models. The development of the theory and models is supported by a wide variety of applications in computer vision, machine learning, signal processing, and data mining. This book will be highly useful for researchers, graduate students and practitioners working in the fields of computer vision, machine learning, signal processing, optimization and statistics.

In this technological age, the information technology (IT) industry is an important facet of society and business. The IT industry is able to become more efficient and successful through the examination of its structure and a larger understanding of the individuals that work in the field. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals is a critical scholarly resource that focuses on IT as an industry and examines it from an array of academic viewpoints. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics, such as employee online communities, role stress, and competence frameworks, this book is targeted toward academicians, students, and researchers seeking relevant research on IT as an industry.

Though in the past online learning was considered of poorer professional quality than classroom learning, it has become a useful and, in some cases, vital tool for promoting the inclusivity of education. Some of its benefits include allowing greater accessibility to educational resources previously unattainable by those in rural areas, and in current times, it has proven to be a critical asset as universities shut down due to natural disasters and pandemics. Examining the current state of distance learning and determining online assessment tools and processes that can enhance the online learning experience are clearly crucial for the advancement of modern education. The Handbook of Research on Determining the Reliability of Online Assessment and Distance Learning is a collection of pioneering investigations on the methods and applications of digital technologies in the realm of education. It provides a clear and extensive analysis of issues regarding online learning while also offering frameworks to solve these addressed problems. Moreover, the book reviews and evaluates the present and intended future of distance learning, focusing on the societal and employer perspective versus the academic proposals. While highlighting topics including hybrid teaching, blended learning, and telelearning, this book is ideally designed for teachers, academicians, researchers, educational administrators, and students.

Artificial Intelligence in the Age of Neural Networks and Brain Computing demonstrates that existing disruptive implications and applications of AI is a development of the unique attributes of neural networks, mainly machine learning, distributed architectures, massive parallel processing, black-box inference, intrinsic nonlinearity and smart autonomous search engines. The book covers the major basic ideas of brain-like computing behind AI, provides a framework to deep learning, and launches novel and intriguing paradigms as future alternatives. The success of AI-based commercial products proposed by top industry leaders, such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Amazon can be interpreted using this book.

Blockchain technology allows value exchange without the need for a central authority and ensures trust powered by its decentralized architecture. As such, the growing use of the internet of things (IoT) and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) are to be benefited immensely by this technology that can offer devices and applications data security, decentralization, accountability, and reliable authentication. Bringing together blockchain technology, AI, and IoT can allow these tools to complement the strengths and weaknesses of the others and make systems more efficient. Multidisciplinary Functions of Blockchain Technology in AI and IoT Applications deliberates upon prospects of blockchain technology using AI and IoT devices in various application domains. This book contains a comprehensive collection of chapters on machine learning, IoT, and AI in areas that include security issues of IoT, farming, supply chain management, predictive analytics, and natural languages processing. While highlighting these areas, the book is ideally intended for IT industry professionals, students of computer science and software engineering, computer scientists, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, and academicians interested in updated and advanced research surrounding the functions of blockchain technology in AI and IoT applications across diverse fields of research.

During these uncertain and turbulent times, intelligent technologies including artificial neural networks (ANN) and machine learning (ML) have played an incredible role in being able to predict, analyze, and navigate unprecedented circumstances across a number of industries, ranging from healthcare to hospitality. Multi-factor prediction in particular has been especially helpful in dealing with the most current pressing issues such as COVID-19 prediction, pneumonia detection, cardiovascular diagnosis and disease management, automobile accident prediction, and vacation rental listing analysis. To date, there has not been much research content readily available in these areas, especially content written extensively from a user perspective. Biomedical and Business Applications Using Artificial Neural Networks and Machine Learning is designed to cover a brief and focused range of essential topics in the field with perspectives, models, and first-hand experiences shared by prominent researchers, discussing applications of artificial neural networks (ANN) and machine learning (ML) for biomedical and business applications and a listing of current open-source software for neural networks, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. It also presents summaries of currently available open source software that utilize neural networks and machine learning. The book is ideal for professionals, researchers, students, and practitioners who want to more fully understand in a brief and concise format the realm and technologies of artificial neural networks (ANN) and machine learning (ML) and how they have been used for prediction of multi-disciplinary research problems in a multitude of disciplines.