Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Computing & IT > General theory of computing
With recent advances in IT in areas such as AI and IoT, collaboration systems such as business chat, cloud services, conferencing systems, and unified communications are rapidly becoming widely used as new IT applications in global corporations' strategic activities. Through in-depth longitudinal studies of global corporations, the book presents a new theoretical framework and implications for IT-enabled dynamic capabilities using collaboration systems from the perspective of micro strategy theory and organization theory. The content of the book is based on longitudinal analyses that employ various qualitative research methods including ethnography, participant observation, action research and in-depth case studies of global corporations in Europe, the United States and Asia that actively use collaboration systems. It presents a new concept of micro dynamism whereby dynamic "IT-enabled knowledge communities" such as "IT-enabled communities of practice" and "IT-enabled strategic communities" create "IT-enabled dynamic capabilities" through the integration of four research streams - an information systems view, micro strategy view, micro organization view and knowledge-based view. The book demonstrates that collaboration systems create, maintain and develop "IT-enabled knowledge communities" within companies and are strategic IT applications for enhancing the competitiveness of companies in the ongoing creation of new innovation and the realization of sustainable growth in a 21st century knowledge-based society. This book is primarily written for academics, researchers and graduate students, but will also offer practical implications for business leaders and managers. Its use is anticipated not only in business and management schools, graduate schools and university education environments around the world but also in the broad business environment including management and leadership development training.
This book demands that we question what we are told about security, using tools we have had for thousands of years. The work considers the history of security rhetoric in a number of distinct but related contexts, including the United States' security strategy, the "war" on Big Tech, and current concerns such as cybersecurity. Focusing on the language of security discourse, it draws common threads from the ancient world to the present day and the near future. The book grounds recent comparisons of Donald Trump to the Emperor Nero in a linguistic evidence base. It examines the potential impact on society of policy-makers' emphasis on the novelty of cybercrime, their likening of the internet to the Wild West, and their claims that criminals have "gone dark". It questions governments' descriptions of technology companies in words normally reserved for terrorists, and asks who might benefit. Interdisciplinary in approach, the book builds on existing literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences, most notably studies on rhetoric in Greco-Roman texts, and on the articulation of security concerns in law, international relations, and public policy contexts. It adds value to this body of research by offering new points of comparison, and a fresh but tried and tested way of looking at problems that are often presented as unprecedented. It will be essential to legal and policy practitioners, students of Law, Politics, Media, and Classics, and all those interested in employing critical thinking.
This book seeks to generalize techniques and experiences in designing and analyzing cryptographic schemes for blockchain. It devotes three chapters to review the background and basic knowledge, four chapters to discuss specific types of cryptographic primitive design for blockchain, one chapter to discuss optimization tools and another chapter for blockchain regulation and economies. This book covers the systematic survey of research objects, as well as detailed reviews of cryptographic schemes, lectures and methodologies to practice cryptography. The main findings of this book are summarized as following, first, the practical design and analysis of cryptographic schemes for blockchain can address major problems in blockchain at algorithmic level. Then, some intrinsic deficiencies in some traditional cryptographic primitives, like centralized setup, impractical design, etc, prevent the successful application of these primitives in blockchain. However, huge efforts are being made to make these primitives practical and applicable for researchers. Finally, the formal and rigorous design and analysis of public key cryptographic algorithms is vital to blockchain. Design and Analysis of Cryptographic Algorithms in Blockchain is a useful textbook for graduate students and PhD students, or researches who wish to connect cryptography with blockchain for research and developing projects.
Project risk management is regarded as a necessary dimension of effective project delivery. Current practices tend to focus on tangible issues such as late delivery of equipment or the implications of technology. This book introduces a framework to identify emergent behavior-centric intangible risks and the conditions that initiate them. Decision Making in Risk Management: Quantifying Intangible Risk Factors in Projects identifies the quantitative measures to assess behavior-induced risks by presenting a framework that limits the interpersonal tension of addressing behavioral risks. Included in the book is an illustrative case study from the oil and gas sector that demonstrates the use of the framework. The missing dimension of behavior-centric intangible risk factors in current risk identification is explored. The book goes on to cover management processes, providing a systematic analytical approach to mitigate subjectivity when addressing behavioral risks in projects. This book is useful to those working in the fields of Project Management, Systems Engineering, Risk Management, and Behavioral Science.
The resurgence of artificial intelligence has been fueled by the availability of the present generation of high-performance computational tools and techniques. This book is designed to provide introductory guidance to artificial intelligence, particularly from the perspective of digital systems engineering. Artificial Intelligence and Digital Systems Engineering provides a general introduction to the origin of AI and covers the wide application areas and software and hardware interfaces. It will prove to be instrumental in helping new users expand their knowledge horizon to the growing market of AI tools, as well as showing how AI is applicable to the development of games, simulation, and consumer products, particularly using artificial neural networks. This book is for the general reader, university students, and instructors of industrial, production, civil, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering. It will also be of interest to managers of technology, projects, business, plants, and operations.
This book seeks to generalize techniques and experiences in designing and analyzing cryptographic schemes for blockchain. It devotes three chapters to review the background and basic knowledge, four chapters to discuss specific types of cryptographic primitive design for blockchain, one chapter to discuss optimization tools and another chapter for blockchain regulation and economies. This book covers the systematic survey of research objects, as well as detailed reviews of cryptographic schemes, lectures and methodologies to practice cryptography. The main findings of this book are summarized as following, first, the practical design and analysis of cryptographic schemes for blockchain can address major problems in blockchain at algorithmic level. Then, some intrinsic deficiencies in some traditional cryptographic primitives, like centralized setup, impractical design, etc, prevent the successful application of these primitives in blockchain. However, huge efforts are being made to make these primitives practical and applicable for researchers. Finally, the formal and rigorous design and analysis of public key cryptographic algorithms is vital to blockchain. Design and Analysis of Cryptographic Algorithms in Blockchain is a useful textbook for graduate students and PhD students, or researches who wish to connect cryptography with blockchain for research and developing projects.
Numerical Methods for Unsteady Compressible Flow Problems is written to give both mathematicians and engineers an overview of the state of the art in the field, as well as of new developments. The focus is on methods for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations, the solutions of which can exhibit shocks, boundary layers and turbulence. The idea of the text is to explain the important ideas to the reader, while giving enough detail and pointers to literature to facilitate implementation of methods and application of concepts. The book covers high order methods in space, such as Discontinuous Galerkin methods, and high order methods in time, in particular implicit ones. A large part of the text is reserved to discuss iterative methods for the arising large nonlinear and linear equation systems. Ample space is given to both state-of-the-art multigrid and preconditioned Newton-Krylov schemes. Features Applications to aerospace, high-speed vehicles, heat transfer, and more besides Suitable as a textbook for graduate-level courses in CFD, or as a reference for practitioners in the field
This new volume, Cognitive Computing Systems: Applications and Technological Advancements, explores the emerging area of artificial intelligence that encompasses machine self-learning, human-computer interaction, natural language processing, data mining and more. It introduces cognitive computing systems, highlights their key applications, discusses the technologies used in cognitive systems, and explains underlying models and architectures. Focusing on scientific work for real-world applications, each chapter presents the use of cognitive computing and machine learning in specific application areas. These include the use of speech recognition technology, application of neural networks in construction management, elevating competency in education, comprehensive health monitoring systems, predicting type 2 diabetes, applications for smart agricultural technology, human resource management, and more. With chapters from knowledgeable researchers in the area of artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, and allied areas, this book will be an asset for researchers, faculty, advances students, and industry professionals in many fields.
Highlights cultural differences in terms of Quality of Life Provides a guide to the current field of global well-being and to future research Suggests improvements in Quality of Life Recognizes the presence of cultural differences resulting from social status, age, gender, class, race, and ethnicity Offers background information for governments, professionals, and policy makers
Techniques for Designing and Analyzing Algorithms Design and analysis of algorithms can be a difficult subject for students due to its sometimes-abstract nature and its use of a wide variety of mathematical tools. Here the author, an experienced and successful textbook writer, makes the subject as straightforward as possible in an up-to-date textbook incorporating various new developments appropriate for an introductory course. This text presents the main techniques of algorithm design, namely, divide-and-conquer algorithms, greedy algorithms, dynamic programming algorithms, and backtracking. Graph algorithms are studied in detail, and a careful treatment of the theory of NP-completeness is presented. In addition, the text includes useful introductory material on mathematical background including order notation, algorithm analysis and reductions, and basic data structures. This will serve as a useful review and reference for students who have covered this material in a previous course. Features The first three chapters provide a mathematical review, basic algorithm analysis, and data structures Detailed pseudocode descriptions of the algorithms along with illustrative algorithms are included Proofs of correctness of algorithms are included when appropriate The book presents a suitable amount of mathematical rigor After reading and understanding the material in this book, students will be able to apply the basic design principles to various real-world problems that they may encounter in their future professional careers.
Based on the practical experiences of its authors, who collectively have spent several decades teaching software skills to scientists. Readers only need a basic understanding of Python includes over a hundred exercises to allow readers to practice their skills
This book explains how AI and Machine Learning can be applied to help businesses solve problems, support critical thinking and ultimately create customer value and increase profit. By considering business strategies, business process modeling, quality assurance, cybersecurity, governance and big data and focusing on functions, processes, and people's behaviors it helps businesses take a truly holistic approach to business optimization. It contains practical examples that make it easy to understand the concepts and apply them. It is written for practitioners (consultants, senior executives, decision-makers) dealing with real-life business problems on a daily basis, who are keen to develop systematic strategies for the application of AI/ML/BD technologies to business automation and optimization, as well as researchers who want to explore the industrial applications of AI and higher-level students.
Active student engagement is key to this classroom-tested combinatorics text, boasting 1200+ carefully designed problems, ten mini-projects, section warm-up problems, and chapter opening problems. The author - an award-winning teacher - writes in a conversational style, keeping the reader in mind on every page. Students will stay motivated through glimpses into current research trends and open problems as well as the history and global origins of the subject. All essential topics are covered, including Ramsey theory, enumerative combinatorics including Stirling numbers, partitions of integers, the inclusion-exclusion principle, generating functions, introductory graph theory, and partially ordered sets. Some significant results are presented as sets of guided problems, leading readers to discover them on their own. More than 140 problems have complete solutions and over 250 have hints in the back, making this book ideal for self-study. Ideal for a one semester upper undergraduate course, prerequisites include the calculus sequence and familiarity with proofs.
The bright future of green IoT will change our tomorrow environment to become healthier and green, with very high quality of service that is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable. This book covers the most recent advances in IoT, it discusses Smart City implementation, and offers both quantitative and qualitative research. It focuses on greening things such as green communication and networking, green design and implementations, green IoT services and applications, energy saving strategies, integrated RFIDs and sensor networks, mobility and network management, the cooperation of homogeneous and heterogeneous networks, smart objects, and green localization. This book with its wide range of related topics in IoT and Smart City, will be useful for graduate students, researchers, academicians, institutions, and professionals that are interested in exploring the areas of IoT and Smart City.
McKinsey Global Institute predicts Internet of Things (IoT) could generate up to $11.1 trillion a year in economic value by 2025. Gartner Research Company expects 20 billion inter-connected devices by 2020 and, as per Gartner, the IoT will have a significant impact on the economy by transforming many enterprises into digital businesses and facilitating new business models, improving efficiency and increasing employee and customer engagement. It's clear from above and our research that the IoT is a game changer and will have huge positive impact in foreseeable future. In order to harvest the benefits of IoT revolution, the traditional software development paradigms must be fully upgraded. The mission of our book, is to prepare current and future software engineering teams with the skills and tools to fully utilize IoT capabilities. The book introduces essential IoT concepts from the perspectives of full-scale software development with the emphasis on creating niche blue ocean products. It also: Outlines a fundamental full stack architecture for IoT Describes various development technologies in each IoT layer Explains IoT solution development from Product management perspective Extensively covers security and applicable threat models as part of IoT stack The book provides details of several IoT reference architectures with emphasis on data integration, edge analytics, cluster architectures and closed loop responses.
For over 80 years, the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) has been a leader in the promotion of ethical practice within the field of engineering. One of the Society's greatest contributions is the formation and adoption of the NSPE Code of Ethics. But the code, with its six "Fundamental Canons," is only truly instructive if engineers can bridge the gap between principles and action. Here there is no substitute for personal reflection on the ethical and philosophical issues that underlie the code. If done well, such reflection provides an indispensable basis for moral problem solving. Beyond the Code: A Philosophical Guide to Engineering Ethics is designed to complement the NSPE Code of Ethics by helping readers "go beyond" in their understanding of the philosophical issues bound up in the code. Each chapter addresses one of the Fundamental Canons of the NSPE code, and provides a philosophical analysis of the various parts of each canon by employing contemporary and classical texts. This unique approach to engineering ethics guides students and professionals in their readings of the appended selections to refine their understanding of the code in order to apply it to the practical challenges of today's engineers. Key Features: Is the first introduction to engineering ethics that helps students understand and apply the NSPE Code of Ethics to engineering practice Includes a Preface from Arthur E. Schwartz, NSPE Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel, and NAFE Executive Director As a hybrid text, includes primary philosophical texts with extensive introductions and guided reading questions from the book's three authors Offers case studies from the NSPE Board of Ethical Review, allowing students to see a direct connection between the issues discussed in the text and real-world engineering practice Includes the following pedagogical aids: "Key Terms and Concepts" for each chapter "Preparing to Read" sections before each primary source reading "Guided Reading Questions" after each primary source reading "Going Beyond-Our Questions for a Deep Dive" after each case study.
Most organizations have been caught off-guard with the proliferation of smart devices. The IT organization was comfortable supporting the Blackberry due to its ease of implementation and maintenance. But the use of Android and iOS smart devices have created a maintenance nightmare not only for the IT organization but for the IT auditors as well. This book will serve as a guide to IT and Audit professionals on how to manage, secure and audit smart device. It provides guidance on the handling of corporate devices and the Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) smart devices.
This book explores a broad cross section of research and actual case studies to draw out new insights that may be used to build a benchmark for IT security professionals. This research takes a deeper dive beneath the surface of the analysis to uncover novel ways to mitigate data security vulnerabilities, connect the dots and identify patterns in the data on breaches. This analysis will assist security professionals not only in benchmarking their risk management programs but also in identifying forward looking security measures to narrow the path of future vulnerabilities.
This book provides emergent knowledge relating to physical, cyber, and human risk mitigation in a practical and readable approach for the corporate environment. It presents and discusses practical applications of risk management techniques along with useable practical policy change options. This practical organizational security management approach examines multiple aspects of security to protect against physical, cyber, and human risk. A practical more tactical focus includes managing vulnerabilities and applying countermeasures. The book guides readers to a greater depth of understanding and action-oriented options.
In this multidisciplinary book, experts from around the globe examine how data-driven political campaigning works, what challenges it poses for personal privacy and democracy, and how emerging practices should be regulated. The rise of big data analytics in the political process has triggered official investigations in many countries around the world, and become the subject of broad and intense debate. Political parties increasingly rely on data analytics to profile the electorate and to target specific voter groups with individualised messages based on their demographic attributes. Political micro-targeting has become a major factor in modern campaigning, because of its potential to influence opinions, to mobilise supporters and to get out votes. The book explores the legal, philosophical and political dimensions of big data analytics in the electoral process. It demonstrates that the unregulated use of big personal data for political purposes not only infringes voters' privacy rights, but also has the potential to jeopardise the future of the democratic process, and proposes reforms to address the key regulatory and ethical questions arising from the mining, use and storage of massive amounts of voter data. Providing an interdisciplinary assessment of the use and regulation of big data in the political process, this book will appeal to scholars from law, political science, political philosophy and media studies, policy makers and anyone who cares about democracy in the age of data-driven political campaigning.
Unique selling point: * Presents a human as the core constituent of the complex system, and solves problems of optimizing such an Enterprise Core audience: * Professionals and researcers interested in the theory of complex systems, management and operations research Place in the market: * Introduces new research for individual and group activity supported by advanced models of applied mathematics.
This important book addresses how long term and large scale shifts from one socio-technical system to another come about, using insights from evolutionary economics, sociology of technology and innovation studies. These major changes involve not just technological changes, but also changes in markets, regulation, culture, industrial networks and infrastructure. The book develops a multi-level perspective, arguing that transitions take place through the alignment of multiple processes at three levels: niche, regime and landscape. This perspective is illustrated by detailed historical case studies: the transition from sailing ships to steamships, the transition from horse-and-carriage to automobiles and the transition from propeller-piston engine aircraft to turbojets. This book will be of great interest to researchers in innovation studies, evolutionary economics, sociology of technology and environmental studies. It will also be useful for policy makers involved in long-term sustainability and systems transitions issues.
Intelligent and Connected Vehicles (ICVs) are moving into the mainstream of the worldwide automotive industry. A lot of advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence, big data, millimeter wave radar, LiDAR and high-definition camera based real-time environmental perception, etc., are increasingly being applied in ICVs, making them more intelligent and connected with devices surrounding the vehicles. However, although the versatile connection and information exchange among ICVs, external devices and human beings provides vehicles with a better and faster perception of surrounding environments and a better driving experience for users, they also create a series of intrusion portals for malicious attackers which threaten the safety of drivers and passengers. This book is concerned with the recognition and protection against such threats. Security for ICVs includes information across the fields of automobile engineering, artificial intelligence, computer, microelectronics, automatic control, communication technology, big data, edge/cloud computing and others. This book comprehensively and systematically introduces security threats to ICVs coming from automotive technology development, on-board sensors, vehicle networking, automobile communications, intelligent transportation, big data, cloud computing, etc. Then, through discussion of some typical automobile cyber-attack cases studies, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the working principle of ICVs, so that they can test vehicles more objectively and scientifically. In this way they will find the existence of vulnerabilities and security risks and take the corresponding protective measures to prevent malicious attacks. Technical topics discussed in the book include but are not limited to: Electronic Control Unit and Vehicular Bus Security; Intra-vehicle Communication Security; V2X Communication Security; VANET Security; Unmanned Driving Security and Navigation Deception
This book meant for those who seek to apply evolutionary algorithms to problems in engineering and science. To this end, it provides the theoretical background necessary to the understanding of the presented evolutionary algorithms and their shortcomings, while also discussing themes that are pivotal to the successful application of evolutionary algorithms to real-world problems. The theoretical descriptions are illustrated with didactical Python implementations of the algorithms, which not only allow readers to consolidate their understanding, but also provide a sound starting point for those intending to apply evolutionary algorithms to optimization problems in their working fields. Python has been chosen due to its widespread adoption in the Artificial Intelligence community. Those familiar with high level languages such as MATLAB (TM) will not have any difficulty in reading the Python implementations of the evolutionary algorithms provided in the book. Instead of attempting to encompass most of the existing evolutionary algorithms, past and present, the book focuses on those algorithms that researchers have recently applied to difficult optimization problems, such as control problems with continuous action spaces and the training of high-dimensional convolutional neural-networks. The basic characteristics of real-world optimization problems are presented, together with recommendations on its proper application to evolutionary algorithms. The applied nature of the book is reinforced by the presentation of successful cases of the application of evolutionary algorithms to optimization problems. This is complemented by Python source codes, giving users an insight into the idiosyncrasies of the practical application of evolutionary algorithms.
This book explores the strategic decisions made by organizations when implementing cybersecurity controls and leveraging economic models and theories from the economics of information security and risk-management frameworks. Based on unique and distinct research completed within the field of risk-management and information security, this book provides insight into organizational risk-management processes utilized in determining cybersecurity investments. It describes how theoretical models and frameworks rely on either specific scenarios or controlled conditions and how decisions on cybersecurity spending within organizations-specifically, the funding available in comparison to the recommended security measures necessary for compliance-vary depending on stakeholders. As the trade-off between the costs of implementing a security measure and the benefit derived from the implementation of security controls is not easily measured, a business leader's decision to fund security measures may be biased. The author presents an innovative approach to assess cybersecurity initiatives with a risk-management perspective and leverages a data-centric focus on the evolution of cyber-attacks. This book is ideal for business school students and technology professionals with an interest in risk management. |
You may like...
Discovering Computers 2018 - Digital…
Misty Vermaat, Steven Freund, …
Paperback
Discovering Computers (c)2017
Mark Frydenberg, Misty Vermaat, …
Paperback
(3)
Systems Analysis And Design In A…
John Satzinger, Robert Jackson, …
Hardcover
(1)
Dynamic Web Application Development…
David Parsons, Simon Stobart
Paperback
|