The two-volume set LNAI 6634 and 6635 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, PAKDD 2011, held in Shenzhen, China in May 2011. The total of 32 revised full papers and 58 revised short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 331 submissions. The papers present new ideas, original research results, and practical development experiences from all KDD-related areas including data mining, machine learning, artificial intelligence and pattern recognition, data warehousing and databases, statistics, knowledge engineering, behavior sciences, visualization, and emerging areas such as social network analysis.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 7th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries held in Pisa, Italy, in January 2011. The 20 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and cover topics of interest such as system interoperability and data integration; formal and methodological foundations of digital libraries; semantic web and linked data for digital libraries; multilingual information access; digital library infrastructures; metadata creation and management; search engines for digital library systems; evaluation and log data; handling audio/visual and non-traditional objects; user interfaces and visualization; digital library quality.

The two-volume set LNAI 7120 and LNAI 7121 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advanced Data Mining and Applications, ADMA 2011, held in Beijing, China, in December 2011. The 35 revised full papers and 29 short papers presented together with 3 keynote speeches were carefully reviewed and selected from 191 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics presenting original research findings in data mining, spanning applications, algorithms, software and systems, and applied disciplines.

Advances in Computational Algorithms and Data Analysis offers state of the art tremendous advances in computational algorithms and data analysis. The selected articles are representative in these subjects sitting on the top-end-high technologies. The volume serves as an excellent reference work for researchers and graduate students working on computational algorithms and data analysis.

The use of geospatial technologies has become ubiquitous since the leading Internet vendors delivered a number of popular map websites. This book covers a wide spectrum of techniques, model methodologies and theories on development and applications of GIS relative to the internet. It includes coverage of business process services, and integration of GIS into global enterprise information systems and service architectures. The world's experts in this emerging field present examples and case studies for location-based services, coastal restoration, urban planning, battlefield planning, rehearsal environmental analysis and assessment.

The ?eld of bioinformatics has two main objectives: the creation and main- nance of biological databases and the analysis of life sciences data in order to unravel the mysteries of biological function. Computer science methods such as patternrecognition,machinelearning,anddatamining haveagreatdealtoo?er the ?eld of bioinformatics. The Pattern Recognition in Bioinformatics (PRIB) meeting was established in 2006 under the auspices of the International Asso- ation of Pattern Recognition (IAPR) to create a focus for the application and development of computer science methods to life science data. The 5th PRIB conference was held in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, on 22-24 September 2010. A total of 46 papers were submitted to the conference for peer review. Of those, 38 (83%) were accepted for publication in these proceedings. The invited speakers were Rita Casadio (Bologna Biocomputing Group, Italy), Florence d'Alch' e-Buc (Universit' e d'Evry-Val d'Essonne, France), Daniel - son (Tu ..bingen University, Germany), and Natasa Przulj (Imperial College L- don, UK). Tutorials weredeliveredby Concettina Guerra (Universit' adi Padova, Italy), Clarisse Dhaenens (Laboratoire LIFL/INRIA, France), Laetitia Jourdan (Laboratoire LIFL/INRIA, France), Neil Lawrence (University of Manchester, UK), and Dick de Ridder (Delft University of Technology).

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Databases in Networked Information Systems, DNIS 2011, held in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan in December 2011. The 18 revised full papers presented together with 6 invited talks and 1 keynote lecture were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The workshop generally puts the main focus on data semantics and infrastructure for information management and interchange. The papers are organized in topical sections on cloud computing; access to information resources; information and knowledge management; bio-medical information management; information extraction from data resources; geo-spatial decision making; networked information systems: infrastructure.

Mobile communications and ubiquitous computing generate large volumes of data. Mining this data can produce useful knowledge, yet individual privacy is at risk. This book investigates the various scientific and technological issues of mobility data, open problems, and roadmap. The editors manage a research project called GeoPKDD, Geographic Privacy-Aware Knowledge Discovery and Delivery, and this book relates their findings in 13 chapters covering all related subjects.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Nonlinear Speech Processing, NoLISP 2011, held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, in November 2011. The purpose of the workshop is to present and discuss new ideas, techniques and results related to alternative approaches in speech processing that may depart from the main stream. The 33 papers presented together with 2 keynote talks were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this book. The topics of NOLISP 2011 were non-linear approximation and estimation; non-linear oscillators and predictors; higher-order statistics; independent component analysis; nearest neighbors; neural networks; decision trees; non-parametric models; dynamics of non-linear systems; fractal methods; chaos modeling; and non-linear differential equations.

The three volume set LNCS 7062, LNCS 7063, and LNCS 7064 constitutes the proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Neural Information Processing, ICONIP 2011, held in Shanghai, China, in November 2011.
The 262 regular session papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers of part I are organized in topical sections on perception, emotion and development, bioinformatics, biologically inspired vision and recognition, bio-medical data analysis, brain signal processing, brain-computer interfaces, brain-like systems, brain-realistic models for learning, memory and embodied cognition, Clifford algebraic neural networks, combining multiple learners, computational advances in bioinformatics, and computational-intelligent human computer interaction. The second volume is structured in topical sections on cybersecurity and data mining workshop, data mining and knowledge doscovery, evolutionary design and optimisation, graphical models, human-originated data analysis and implementation, information retrieval, integrating multiple nature-inspired approaches, kernel methods and support vector machines, and learning and memory. The third volume contains all the contributions connected with multi-agent systems, natural language processing and intelligent Web information processing, neural encoding and decoding, neural network models, neuromorphic hardware and implementations, object recognition, visual perception modelling, and advances in computational intelligence methods based pattern recognition.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Knowledge, Information, and Creativity Support Systems, KCIS 2010, held in Chang Mai, Thailand, in November 2010.
The 23 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 72 submissions. The papers cover a broad range of topics related to all knowledge science-related areas including creativity support, decision science, knowledge science, data mining, machine learning, databases, statistics, knowledge acquisition, automatic scientific discovery, data/knowledge visualization, and knowledge-based systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Multiple Classifier Systems, MCS 2011, held in Naples, Italy, in June 2011. The 36 revised papers presented together with two invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 50 submissions. The contributions are organized into sessions dealing with classifier ensembles; trees and forests; one-class classifiers; multiple kernels; classifier selection; sequential combination; ECOC; diversity; clustering; biometrics; and computer security.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th Asia Information Retrieval Societies Conference AIRS 2011, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in December 2011.
The 31 revised full papers and 25 revised poster papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 132 submissions. All current aspects of information retrieval - in theory and practice - are addressed; the papers are organized in topical sections on information retrieval models and theories; information retrieval applications and multimedia information retrieval; user study, information retrieval evaluation and interactive information retrieval; Web information retrieval, scalability and adversarial information retrieval; machine learning for information retrieval; natural language processing for information retrieval; arabic script text processing and retrieval.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Web Information Systems Engineering, WISE 2011, held in Sydney, Australia, in October 2011.
The 17 revised full papers and 11 revised short papers presented together with 7 demo papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 96 submissions. The papers contained in these proceedings address challenging issues in software services, Web application engineering and modelling, Web search, social networks, Web semantics, and information retrieval and extraction.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2011, held in Palermo, Italy, in September 2010.
The 30 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 158 submissions. The book also includes 12 short papers, 8 poster papers, and 2 invited paper. There are many interesting papers on topics such as web 2.0 and social media, recommender systems, learning analytics, collaborative learning, interoperability of tools, etc.

The two-volume set LNCS 6987 and 6988 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Web Information Systems and Mining, WISM 2011, held in Taiyuan, China, in September 2011. The 112 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 472 submissions. The second volume includes 56 papers organized in the following topical sections: management information systems; semantic Web and ontologies; Web content mining; Web information classification; Web information extraction; Web intelligence; Web interfaces and applications; Web services and e-learning; and XML and semi-structured data.

The 13th issue of the Transactions on Computational Science journal consists of two parts. The six papers in Part I span the areas of computing collision probability, digital image contour extraction, multiplicatively weighted Voronoi diagrams, multi-phase segmentation, the rough-set approach to incomplete information systems, and fault-tolerant systolic arrays for matrix multiplications. The five papers in Part II focus on neural-network-based trajectory prediction, privacy in vehicular ad-hoc networks, augmented reality for museum display and the consumer garment try-on experience, and geospatial knowledge discovery for crime analysis.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Information Technology in Bio- and Medical Informatics, ITBAM 2011, held in Toulouse, France, in August/September 2011, in conjunction with DEXA 2011.

The 13 long papers and 5 short papers were carefully selected and address the following topics: decision support and data management in biomedicine; medical data mining and information retrieval; workflow management and decision support in medicine; and classification in bioinformatics. The papers show how broad the spectrum of topics in applications of information technology to biomedical engineering and medical informatics is.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Active Media Technology, AMT 2011, held in Lanzhou, China, in September 2011. The 30 revised full papers and 6 keynote talks were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. They are grouped in topcial sections on data mining and pattern analysis in active media; active human-Web interaction and social media; active Web intelligence applications; active multi-agent and network systems; as well as technology intelligence.

The only book you need to understand blockchain: what it is, how it works and how it will transform business, society and our everyday lives. Basic Blockchain is an accessible, non-technical introduction to a revolutionary technology. 'Makes it easy for the average business executive to understand blockchain' -- Chris Larsen, founder and chairman, Ripple 'An essential tool for those looking to distinguish information from noise' -- Eva Kaili, MEP and Chair of The Committee for the Future of Science and Technology A revolution is under way across the globe, yet very few people understand it. Basic Blockchain will explain everything you need to know to understand the technology that will soon disrupt and revolutionise everything from financial and health services to the property market and how we vote. Born of an obscure body of research on game theory developed by NASA, originally championed by drug dealers seeking to launder ill-gotten gains, accelerated by entrepreneurs seeking to improve financial access for the poor, funded by giant corporate interests attracted to the potential for billions of dollars of cost savings, blockchain heralds a new era of financial inclusion, legal inclusion for the dispossessed and lower prices for consumers. In short, it will enact radical change on our lives. In this book, David L. Shrier, one of MIT and Oxford University's leading futurists, explains for the general reader: - The history of blockchain, its apocryphal progenitor Satoshi Nakamoto and the socioeconomic context of its origins in the 2008 financial crisis. - How blockchain works, including the core technologies that drive it such as cryptographic hashes and network theory, all described in simple, understandable terms. - The potential of blockchain, including its impact on our jobs, industry and society as a whole. Blockchain will disrupt and transform our world in profound ways. This accessible book, written by a global authority on blockchain, is the essential introduction to the next technological revolution.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Symposium on Information and Automation, ISIA 2010, held in Guangzhou, China, in November 2010. The 110 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The symposium provides a forum for researchers, educators, engineers, and government officials to present and discuss their latest research results and exchange views on the future research directions in the general areas of Information and Automation.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Social Informatics, SocInfo 2011, held in Singapore in October 2011. The 15 full papers, 8 short papers and 13 posters included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 68 full paper and 13 poster submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections named: network analysis; eGovernance and knowledge management; applications of network analysis; community dynamics; case studies; trust, privacy and security; peer-production.

The LNCS Journal on Data Semantics is devoted to the presentation of notable work that, in one way or another, addresses research and development on issues related to data semantics. The scope of the journal ranges from theories supporting the formal definition of semantic content to innovative domain-specific applications of semantic knowledge. The journal addresses researchers and advanced practitioners working on the semantic web, interoperability, mobile information services, data warehousing, knowledge representation and reasoning, conceptual database modeling, ontologies, and artificial intelligence. Volume XV results from a rigorous selection among 25 full papers received in response to two calls for contributions issued in 2009 and 2010. In addition, this volume contains a special report on the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative, an event that has been held once a year in the last five years and has attracted considerable attention from the ontology community. This is the last LNCS transactions volume of the Journal on Data Semantics; the next issue will appear as a regular Springer Journal, published quarterly starting from 2012.

Searching Multimedia Databases by Content bridges the gap between the database and signal processing communities by providing the necessary background information for the reader and presenting it along with the intuition and mechanics of the best existing tools in each area. The first half of Searching Multimedia Databases by Content reviews the most successful database access methods, in increasing complexity, reaching up to spatial access methods and text retrieval. In all cases, the emphasis is on practical approaches that have been incorporated in commercial systems, or that seem very promising. The second half of the book uses the above access methods to achieve fast searching in a database of signals. A general methodology is presented, which suggests extracting a few good features from each multimedia object, thus mapping objects into points in a metric space. Finally, the book concludes by presenting some recent successful applications of the methodology on time series and color images. Searching Multimedia Databases by Content is targeted towards researchers and developers of multimedia systems. The book can also serve as a textbook for a graduate course on multimedia searching, covering both access methods as well as the basics of signal processing.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Systems, Technology and Management, ICISTM 2011, held in Gurgaon, India, in March 2011. The 35 revised full papers presented together with 4 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 106 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on information management, information systems, information technology, healthcare information management and technology, business intelligence, applications, as well as management science and education.