Evolutionary Algorithms, in particular Evolution Strategies, Genetic Algorithms, or Evolutionary Programming, have found wide acceptance as robust optimization algorithms in the last ten years. Compared with the broad propagation and the resulting practical prosperity in different scientific fields, the theory has not progressed as much.This monograph provides the framework and the first steps toward the theoretical analysis of Evolution Strategies (ES). The main emphasis is on understanding the functioning of these probabilistic optimization algorithms in real-valued search spaces by investigating the dynamical properties of some well-established ES algorithms. The book introduces the basic concepts of this analysis, such as progress rate, quality gain, and self-adaptation response, and describes how to calculate these quantities. Based on the analysis, functioning principles are derived, aiming at a qualitative understanding of why and how ES algorithms work.

Computers are those unfathomable contraptions everyone everywhere loves to hate. We can't live with them, but we can't live without them. Contempt for our byte-based existence has developed universal appeal crossing boundaries of culture, economics, religion, and language. Everyone you know has a "those stupid computers" story. If you think you have heard it all, STOP.

The digital revolution began in 1951. "Computer Factoids" chronicles behind-the-scenes digital weirdness from Day One. Kirk Kirksey covers the landscape of computer history, cyber legend, digital mythology, and Internet lore. Put away your pocket protector because you won't find any techno-babble on these pages. Each of these 39 high-tech yarns is an easy-read with a serious dose of attitude. Whether it is a computer powered by rotting potatoes or a symphony performed by obsolete dot-matrix printers or a computerized bra equipped with a modem, these tales of the digital surreal will make you stand up and shout, "Honey, you're not going to believe this."

This volume, the 6th volume in the DRUMS Handbook series, is part of the after math of the successful ESPRIT project DRUMS (Defeasible Reasoning and Un certainty Management Systems) which took place in two stages from 1989-1996. In the second stage (1993-1996) a work package was introduced devoted to the topics Reasoning and Dynamics, covering both the topics of 'Dynamics of Rea soning', where reasoning is viewed as a process, and 'Reasoning about Dynamics', which must be understood as pertaining to how both designers of and agents within dynamic systems may reason about these systems. The present volume presents work done in this context. This work has an emphasis on modelling and formal techniques in the investigation of the topic "Reasoning and Dynamics," but it is not mere theory that occupied us. Rather research was aimed at bridging the gap between theory and practice. Therefore also real-life applications of the modelling techniques were considered, and we hope this also shows in this volume, which is focused on the dynamics of reasoning processes. In order to give the book a broader perspective, we have invited a number of well-known researchers outside the project but working on similar topics to contribute as well. We have very pleasant recollections of the project, with its lively workshops and other meetings, with the many sites and researchers involved, both within and outside our own work package."

This book discusses recent developments and contemporary research in mathematics, statistics and their applications in computing. All contributing authors are eminent academicians, scientists, researchers and scholars in their respective fields, hailing from around the world. The conference has emerged as a powerful forum, offering researchers a venue to discuss, interact and collaborate and stimulating the advancement of mathematics and its applications in computer science. The book will allow aspiring researchers to update their knowledge of cryptography, algebra, frame theory, optimizations, stochastic processes, compressive sensing, functional analysis, complex variables, etc. Educating future consumers, users, producers, developers and researchers in mathematics and computing is a challenging task and essential to the development of modern society. Hence, mathematics and its applications in computer science are of vital importance to a broad range of communities, including mathematicians and computing professionals across different educational levels and disciplines.

The theme of inserting new digital technologies into the teaching and learning of mathematics from primary and secondary schools has provoked a wide and interesting debate. One such debate is the reformation of the foundations of mathematics to include computation (what and how to calculate) among the traditional themes (Arithmetic, Geometry, etc.) of mathematics. Thus, the authors propose the MatCos Project as a new approach for solving this issue. Computer-Based Mathematics Education and the Use of MatCos Software in Primary and Secondary Schools is a critical reference source that proposes a new pedagogical-learning paradigm that guides students in the formation of an active, logical-sequential, intuitive, and creative thinking that directs them towards problem-solving and starts students with computational thinking and programming in a natural way. The content of the book is divided into two parts, with the first exploring theoretical and pedagogical notes on mathematics and the second examining the MatCos programming environment and its systematic inclusion in teaching practice. Highlighting themes that include computer-assisted instruction, teaching-learning sequences, and programming, this book is ideal for in-service teachers, mathematics instructors, academicians, researchers, and students.

The primary objective of this book is to teach the architectures, design principles, and troubleshooting techniques of a LAN. This will be imparted through the presentation of a broad scope of data and computer communication standards, real-world inter-networking techniques, architectures, hardware, software, protocols, technologies and services as they relate to the design, implementation and troubleshooting of a LAN. The logical and physical design of hardware and software is not the only process involved in the design and implementation of a LAN. The latter also encompasses many other aspects including making the business case, compiling the requirements, choosing the technology, planning for capacity, selecting the vendor, and weighing all the issues before the actual design begins.

This book presents an updated selection of the most representative contributions to the 2nd and 3rd IEEE Workshops on Signal Propagation on Interconnects (SPI) which were held in TravemA1/4nde (Baltic Sea), Germany, May 13-15, 1998, and in Titisee-Neustadt (Black Forest), Germany, May 19-21, 1999. Interconnects in VLSI Design addresses the need of developers and researchers in the field of VLSI chip and package design. It offers a survey of current problems regarding the influence of interconnect effects on the electrical performance of electronic circuits and suggests innovative solutions. In this sense Interconnects in VLSI Design represents a continuation and a supplement to the first book, Signal Propagation on Interconnects, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998. The papers in Interconnects in VLSI Design cover a wide area of research directions. Apart from describing general trends they deal with the solution of signal integrity problems, the modeling of interconnects, parameter extraction using calculations and measurements and last, but not least, actual problems in the field of optical interconnects.

Embedded Processor-Based Self-Test is a guide to self-testing strategies for embedded processors. Embedded processors are regularly used today in most System-on-Chips (SoCs). Testing of microprocessors and embedded processors has always been a challenge because most traditional testing techniques fail when applied to them. This is due to the complex sequential structure of processor architectures, which consists of high performance datapath units and sophisticated control logic for performance optimization. Structured Design-for-Testability (DfT) and hardware-based self-testing techniques, which usually have a non-trivial impact on a circuit's performance, size and power, can not be applied without serious consideration and careful incorporation into the processor design.

Embedded Processor-Based Self-Test shows how the powerful embedded functionality that processors offer can be utilized as a self-testing resource. Through a discussion of different strategies the book emphasizes on the emerging area of Software-Based Self-Testing (SBST). SBST is based on the idea of execution of embedded software programs to perform self-testing of the processor itself and its surrounding blocks in the SoC. SBST is a low-cost strategy in terms of overhead (area, speed, power), development effort and test application cost, as it is applied using low-cost, low-speed test equipment.

Embedded Processor-Based Self-Test can be used by designers, DfT engineers, test practitioners, researchers and students working on digital testing, and in particular processor and SoC test. This book sets the framework for comparisons among different SBST methodologies by discussing key requirements. It presents successful applications of SBST to a number of embedded processors of different complexities and instruction set architectures.

Software design is becoming increasingly complex and difficult as we move to applications that support people interacting with information and with each other over networks. Computer supported cooperative work applications are a typical example of this. The problems to be solved are no longer just technical, they are also social: how do we build systems that meet the real needs of the people who are asked to use them and that fit into their contexts of use. We can characterise these as wicked problems, where our traditional software engineering techniques for understanding requirements and driving these through into design are no longer adequate.

This book presents the Locales Framework - and its five aspects of locale foundations, civic structures, individual views, interaction trajectory and mutuality - as a way of dealing with the intertwined problem-solution space of wicked problems. A locale is based on a metaphor of place as the lived relationship between people and the spaces and resources they use in their interactions. The Locales Framework provides a coherent mediating framework for ethnographers, designers, and software engineers to facilitate both understanding requirements of complex social situations and designing solutions to support these situations in all their complexity.

This book presents state-of-the-art developments in the area of computationally intelligent methods applied to various aspects and ways of Web exploration and Web mining. Some novel data mining algorithms that can lead to more effective and intelligent Web-based systems are also described. Scientists, engineers, and research students can expect to find many inspiring ideas in this volume.

ESL or "Electronic System Level" is a buzz word these days, in the electronic design automation (EDA) industry, in design houses, and in the academia. Even though numerous trade magazine articles have been written, quite a few books have been published that have attempted to de?ne ESL, it is still not clear what exactly it entails. However, what seems clear to every one is that the "Register Transfer Level" (RTL) languages are not adequate any more to be the design entry point for today's and tomorrow's complex electronic system design. There are multiple reasons for such thoughts. First, the c- tinued progression of the miniaturization of the silicon technology has led to the ability of putting almost a billion transistors on a single chip. Second, applications are becoming more and more complex, and integrated with c- munication, control, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, and hence the need for ever faster, ever more reliable, and more robust electronic systems is pu- ing designers towards a productivity demand that is not sustainable without a fundamental change in the design methodologies. Also, the hardware and software functionalities are getting interchangeable and ability to model and design both in the same manner is gaining importance. Given this context, we assume that any methodology that allows us to model an entire electronic system from a system perspective, rather than just hardware with discrete-event or cycle based semantics is an ESL method- ogy of some kind.

System-on-Chip Methodologies & Design Languages brings together a selection of the best papers from three international electronic design language conferences in 2000. The conferences are the Hardware Description Language Conference and Exhibition (HDLCon), held in the Silicon Valley area of USA; the Forum on Design Languages (FDL), held in Europe; and the Asia Pacific Chip Design Language (APChDL) Conference. The papers cover a range of topics, including design methods, specification and modeling languages, tool issues, formal verification, simulation and synthesis. The results presented in these papers will help researchers and practicing engineers keep abreast of developments in this rapidly evolving field.

To optimally design and manage a directory service, IS architects and managers must understand current state-of-the-art products. Directory Services covers Novell's NDS eDirectory, Microsoft's Active Directory, UNIX directories and products by NEXOR, MaxWare, Siemens, Critical Path and others. Directory design fundamentals and products are woven into case studies of large enterprise deployments. Cox thoroughly explores replication, security, migration and legacy system integration and interoperability. Business issues such as how to cost justify, plan, budget and manage a directory project are also included. The book culminates in a visionary discussion of future trends and emerging directory technologies including the strategic direction of the top directory products, the impact of wireless technology on directory enabled applications and using directories to customize content delivery from the Enterprise Portal.
Directory Services is a comprehensive and practical guide that provides organizations and consultants with a roadmap used to create the directory enabled global enterprise. To provide the reader with the core knowledge required for designing directory services, the book discusses directory fundamentals including X.500, X.509 and LDAP as well as how to cost justify, plan, budget and manage a directory project
Provides critical info for design, integration, or migration for multiple messaging platforms
Covers all major directories
Provides case studies and guidelines for deployment and integration issues

There has been a common perception that computational complexity is a theory of "bad news" because its most typical results assert that various real-world and innocent-looking tasks are infeasible. In fact, "bad news" is a relative term, and, indeed, in some situations (e.g., in cryptography), we want an adversary to not be able to perform a certain task. However, a "bad news" result does not automatically become useful in such a scenario. For this to happen, its hardness features have to be quantitatively evaluated and shown to manifest extensively.
The book undertakes a quantitative analysis of some of the major results in complexity that regard either classes of problems or individual concrete problems. The size of some important classes are studied using resource-bounded topological and measure-theoretical tools. In the case of individual problems, the book studies relevant quantitative attributes such as approximation properties or the number of hard inputs at each length.
One chapter is dedicated to abstract complexity theory, an older field which, however, deserves attention because it lays out the foundations of complexity. The other chapters, on the other hand, focus on recent and important developments in complexity. The book presents in a fairly detailed manner concepts that have been at the centre of the main research lines in complexity in the last decade or so, such as: average-complexity, quantum computation, hardness amplification, resource-bounded measure, the relation between one-way functions and pseudo-random generators, the relation between hard predicates and pseudo-random generators, extractors, derandomization of bounded-error probabilistic algorithms, probabilistically checkable proofs, non-approximability of optimization problems, and others.
The book should appeal to graduate computer science students, and to researchers who have an interest in computer science theory and need a good understanding of computational complexity, e.g., researchers in algorithms, AI, logic, and other disciplines.
-Emphasis is on relevant quantitative attributes of important results in complexity.
-Coverage is self-contained and accessible to a wide audience.
-Large range of important topics including: derandomization techniques, non-approximability of optimization problems, average-case complexity, quantum computation, one-way functions and pseudo-random generators, resource-bounded measure and topology.

This book gives an overview of constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs), adapts related search algorithms and consistency algorithms for applications to multi-agent systems, and consolidates recent research devoted to cooperation in such systems. The techniques introduced are applied to various problems in multi-agent systems. Among the new approaches is a hybrid-type algorithm for weak-commitment search combining backtracking and iterative improvement; also, an extension of the basic CSP formalization called partial CSP is introduced in order to handle over-constrained CSPs.The book is written for advanced students and professionals interested in multi-agent systems or, more generally, in distributed artificial intelligence and constraint satisfaction. Researchers active in the area will appreciate this book as a valuable source of reference.

In Silico Chemistry and Biology: Current and Future Prospects provides a compact overview on recent advances in this highly dynamic branch of chemistry. Various methods of protein modelling and computer-assisted drug design are presented, including fragment- and ligand-based approaches. Many successful practical applications of these techniques are demonstrated. The authors also look to the future and describe the main challenges of the field.

Java programs--does this word haunt you? Programming skills--do you want to enhance them? Arrays, strings, and data structure--do you want to master them?

The book deals with a variety of programs in every section.

This book is the essential guide for any student undertaking a computing/IS project, and will give you everything you need to achieve outstanding results. Undertaking a project is a key component of nearly all computing/information systems degree programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Projects in Computing and Information Systems covers the four key aspects of project work (planning, conducting, presenting and taking the project further) in chronological fashion, and provides the reader with the skills to excel.

Refinement is one of the cornerstones of the formal approach to software engineering, and its use in various domains has led to research on new applications and generalisation. This book brings together this important research in one volume, with the addition of examples drawn from different application areas. It covers four main themes: Data refinement and its application to Z Generalisations of refinement that change the interface and atomicity of operations Refinement in Object-Z Modelling state and behaviour by combining Object-Z with CSP Refinement in Z and Object-Z: Foundations and Advanced Applications provides an invaluable overview of recent research for academic and industrial researchers, lecturers teaching formal specification and development, industrial practitioners using formal methods in their work, and postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students. This second edition is a comprehensive update to the first and includes the following new material: Early chapters have been extended to also include trace refinement, based directly on partial relations rather than through totalisation Provides an updated discussion on divergence, non-atomic refinements and approximate refinement Includes a discussion of the differing semantics of operations and outputs and how they affect the abstraction of models written using Object-Z and CSP Presents a fuller account of the relationship between relational refinement and various models of refinement in CSP Bibliographic notes at the end of each chapter have been extended with the most up to date citations and research

A fundamental understanding of algorithmic bioprocesses is key to learning how information processing occurs in nature at the cell level. The field is concerned with the interactions between computer science on the one hand and biology, chemistry, and DNA-oriented nanoscience on the other. In particular, this book offers a comprehensive overview of research into algorithmic self-assembly, RNA folding, the algorithmic foundations for biochemical reactions, and the algorithmic nature of developmental processes.

The editors of the book invited 36 chapters, written by the leading researchers in this area, and their contributions include detailed tutorials on the main topics, surveys of the state of the art in research, experimental results, and discussions of specific research goals. The main subjects addressed are sequence discovery, generation, and analysis; nanoconstructions and self-assembly; membrane computing; formal models and analysis; process calculi and automata; biochemical reactions; and other topics from natural computing, including molecular evolution, regulation of gene expression, light-based computing, cellular automata, realistic modelling of biological systems, and evolutionary computing.

This subject is inherently interdisciplinary, and this book will be of value to researchers in computer science and biology who study the impact of the exciting mutual interaction between our understanding of bioprocesses and our understanding of computation.

History of the Book The last three decades have witnessed an explosive development in integrated circuit fabrication technologies. The complexities of cur rent CMOS circuits are reaching beyond the 100 nanometer feature size and multi-hundred million transistors per integrated circuit. To fully exploit this technological potential, circuit designers use sophisticated Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools. While supporting the talents of innumerable microelectronics engineers, these CAD tools have become the enabling factor responsible for the successful design and implemen tation of thousands of high performance, large scale integrated circuits. This research monograph originated from a body of doctoral disserta tion research completed by the first author at the University of Rochester from 1994 to 1999 while under the supervision of Prof. Eby G. Friedman. This research focuses on issues in the design of the clock distribution net work in large scale, high performance digital synchronous circuits and particularly, on algorithms for non-zero clock skew scheduling. During the development of this research, it has become clear that incorporating timing issues into the successful integrated circuit design process is of fundamental importance, particularly in that advanced theoretical de velopments in this area have been slow to reach the designers' desktops."

This book presents the proceedings of the 8th international Symposium "Information Fusion and Intelligent Geographic Information Systems 2017" (IF&ICIS'2017), which took place at Shanghai Maritime University, China, from May 10 to 12, 2017. The goal of the symposium was to bring together leading global experts in the field of spatial information integration and intelligent GIS (IGIS) to exchange cutting-edge research ideas and experiences, to discuss perspectives on the fast-paced development of geospatial information theory, methods and models in order to demonstrate the latest advances in IGIS and discover new ways of collaboration. The topics focus on IGIS fundamentals, models, technologies and services in maritime research, such as underwater acoustics, radiolocation, navigation, marine energy, logistics, environmental management, seafood, safety of maritime navigation and others. In addition the book discusses the integration of IGIS technologies in the emerging field of digital humanities research.