Call Admission Control (CAC) and Dynamic Channel Assignments (DCA) are important decision-making problems in mobile cellular communication systems. Current research in mobile communication considers them as two independent problems, although the former greatly depends on the resulting free channels obtained as the outcome of the latter. This book provides a solution to the CAC problem, considering DCA as an integral part of decision-making for call admission. Further, current technical resources ignore movement issues of mobile stations and fluctuation in network load (incoming calls) in the control strategy used for call admission. In addition, the present techniques on call admission offers solution globally for the entire network, instead of considering the cells independently. CAC here has been formulated by two alternative approaches. The first approach aimed at handling the uncertainty in the CAC problem by employing fuzzy comparators. The second approach is concerned with formulation of CAC as an optimization problem to minimize call drop, satisfying a set of constraints on feasibility and availability of channels, hotness of cells, and velocity and angular displacement of mobile stations. Evolutionary techniques, including Genetic Algorithm and Biogeography Based Optimization, have been employed to solve the optimization problems. The proposed approaches outperform traditional methods with respect to grade and quality of services.

"Blue Pelican Java" is a somewhat unusual high school computer science textbook. Most computer science texts will begin with a section on the history of computers followed with a flurry of definitions that are just "so many words" to the average student. The approach here is to first give the student some experience upon which to hang the definitions that come later. The usual practice of introducing classes and objects is deferred until the student has a firm grasp of the fundamentals (loops, decision structures, etc). Thus, the beginning student is not overwhelmed by the simultaneous introduction of OOPs and the fundamentals. The book includes plenty of exercises (many in "contest" form), programming projects, and a huge appendix.

Despite solid advances, numerous challenges have yet to be resolved by Web services-enabled service-oriented architecture systems. Web Services Security Development and Architecture: Theoretical and Practical Issues explores a global approach to methodical development in constructing safety architectures for online systems. Addressing security concerns during the full development lifecycle of Web services-based systems, this critical mass of the most sought after knowledge bridges the gap between practical and theoretical approaches in the field.

Who are we in simulated worlds? Will experiencing worlds that are not 'actual' change our ways of structuring thought? Can virtual worlds open up new possibilities to philosophize? Virtual Worlds as Philosophical Tools tries to answer these questions from a perspective that combines philosophy of technology with videogame design.

The book describes recent research results in the areas of modelling, creation, management and presentation of interactive 3D multimedia content. The book describes the current state of the art in the field and identifies the most important research and design issues. Consecutive chapters address these issues. These are: database modelling of 3D content, security in 3D environments, describing interactivity of content, searching content, visualization of search results, modelling mixed reality content, and efficient creation of interactive 3D content. Each chapter is illustrated with example applications based on the proposed approach. The final chapter discusses some important ethical issues related to the widespread use of virtual environments in everyday life. The book provides ready to use solutions for many important problems related to the creation of interactive 3D multimedia applications and will be a primary reading for researchers and developers working in this domain.

COOP 2012 is the tenth COOP conference, marking twenty years from the first conference in 1992. In this special anniversary edition we asked researchers and practitioners to reflect on what have been the successes and the failures in designing cooperative systems, and what challenges still need to be addressed. We have come a long way in understanding the intricacies of cooperation and in designing systems that support work practices and collective activities. These advances would not have been possible without the concerted effort of contributions from a plethora of domains including CSCW, HCI, Information Systems, Knowledge Engineering, Multi-agent systems, organizational and management sciences, sociology, psychology, anthropology, ergonomics, linguistics, etc. The COOP community is going from strength to strength in developing new technologies, advancing and proposing new methodological approaches, and forging theories.

This book focuses on recent technical advancements and state-of-the art technologies for analyzing characteristic features and probabilistic modelling of complex social networks and decentralized online network architectures. Such research results in applications related to surveillance and privacy, fraud analysis, cyber forensics, propaganda campaigns, as well as for online social networks such as Facebook. The text illustrates the benefits of using advanced social network analysis methods through application case studies based on practical test results from synthetic and real-world data. This book will appeal to researchers and students working in these areas.

Mobile user experience is a new frontier. Untethered from a keyboard and mouse, this rich design space is lush with opportunity to invent new and more human ways for people to interact with information. Invention requires casting off many anchors and conventions inherited from the last 50 years of computer science and traditional design and jumping head first into a new and unfamiliar design space.

This is the second volume of Morgan Kaufmann's "GPU Computing Gems," offering an all-new set of insights, ideas, and practical "hands-on" skills from researchers and developers worldwide. Each chapter gives you a window into the work being performed across a variety of application domains, and the opportunity to witness the impact of parallel GPU computing on the efficiency of scientific research.

"GPU Computing Gems: Jade Edition" showcases the latest research solutions with GPGPU and CUDA, including: Improving memory access patterns for cellular automata using CUDALarge-scale gas turbine simulations on GPU clustersIdentifying and mitigating credit risk using large-scale economic capital simulationsGPU-powered MATLAB acceleration with JacketBiologically-inspired machine visionAn efficient CUDA algorithm for the maximum network flow problem"30 more chapters" of innovative GPU computing ideas, written to be accessible to researchers from any industry

"GPU Computing Gems: Jade Edition" contains 100% new material covering a variety of application domains: algorithms and data structures, engineering, interactive physics for games, computational finance, and programming tools.
This second volume of "GPU Computing Gems "offers 100% new material of interest across industry, including finance, medicine, imaging, engineering, gaming, environmental science, green computing, and more Covers new tools and frameworks for productive GPU computing application development and offers immediate benefit to researchers developing improved programming environments for GPUsEven more hands-on, proven techniques demonstrating how general purpose GPU computing is changing scientific research Distills the best practices of the community of CUDA programmers; each chapter provides insights and ideas as well as 'hands on' skills applicable to a variety of fields

Web Services are among the most important emerging technologies in the e-business, computer software, and communication industries with the potential to redefine the ways that companies do business and exchange information. Web Service Composition and New Frameworks in Designing Semantics: Innovations highlights new developments in Semantic Web services, service-oriented systems, and Web services composition, among others. This book is a valuable resource providing leading technologies, developments, ideas, and trends to an international readership of researchers and engineers in the field of Web services.

Computer technologies are forever evolving and it is vital that computer science educators find new methods of teaching programming in order to maintain the rapid changes occurring in the field. One of the ways to increase student engagement and retention is by integrating games into the curriculum. Gamification-Based E-Learning Strategies for Computer Programming Education evaluates the different approaches and issues faced in integrating games into computer education settings. Featuring emergent trends on the application of gaming to pedagogical strategies and technological tactics, as well as new methodologies and approaches being utilized in computer programming courses, this book is an essential reference source for practitioners, researchers, computer science teachers, and students pursuing computer science.

The book describes the emergence of big data technologies and the role of Spark in the entire big data stack. It compares Spark and Hadoop and identifies the shortcomings of Hadoop that have been overcome by Spark. The book mainly focuses on the in-depth architecture of Spark and our understanding of Spark RDDs and how RDD complements big data's immutable nature, and solves it with lazy evaluation, cacheable and type inference. It also addresses advanced topics in Spark, starting with the basics of Scala and the core Spark framework, and exploring Spark data frames, machine learning using Mllib, graph analytics using Graph X and real-time processing with Apache Kafka, AWS Kenisis, and Azure Event Hub. It then goes on to investigate Spark using PySpark and R. Focusing on the current big data stack, the book examines the interaction with current big data tools, with Spark being the core processing layer for all types of data. The book is intended for data engineers and scientists working on massive datasets and big data technologies in the cloud. In addition to industry professionals, it is helpful for aspiring data processing professionals and students working in big data processing and cloud computing environments.

This book examines the possibilities of incorporating elements of user-centred design (UCD) such as user experience (UX) and usability with agile software development. It explores the difficulties and problems inherent in integrating these two practices despite their relative similarities, such as their emphasis on stakeholder collaboration. Developed from a workshop held at NordiCHI in 2014, this edited volume brings together researchers from across the software development, UCD and creative design fields to discuss the current state-of-the-art. Practical case studies of integrating UCD in Agile development across diverse contexts are presented, whilst the different futures for UCD and other design practices in the context of agile software development are identified and explored. Integrating User Centred Design in Agile Development will be ideal for researchers, designers and academics who are interested in software development, user-centred design, agile methodologies and related areas.

This book provides extensive insight into the possibilities and challenges of XML in building new information management solutions in networked organizations. After a brief introduction to Web communication features and XML fundamentals, the book examines the benefits of adopting XML and illustrates various types of XML use: XML in document management; XML for data-centric and multimedia components; XML as a format for metadata, including metadata for the Semantic Web; and XML in support of data interchange between software applications and among organizations. The challenges of adopting XML in large-scale information management are also discussed. In addition, applications across a broad spectrum are examined and numerous case studies pertaining to the adoption of XML are presented. The book is particularly suitable for courses offered in Information Studies, Information Systems, or Information Technology. It also serves as an excellent practical guide for professionals in information management and provides important support material for courses in Computer Science and in Business.

A 3D user interface (3DUI) is an interface in which the user performs tasks in three dimensions. For example, interactions using hand/body gestures, interaction using a motion controller (e.g. Sony PlayStation Move), interaction with virtual reality devices using tracked motion controllers, etc. All these technologies which let a user interact in three dimensions are called 3D user interface technologies. These 3D user interfaces have the potential to make games more immersive & engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technologies are available for games, it is unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. This book presents state of the art research on exploring 3D user interface technologies for improving video games. It also presents a review of research work done in this area and describes experiments focused on usage of stereoscopic 3D, head tracking, and hand gesture-based control in gaming scenarios. These experiments are systematic studies in gaming environments and are aimed at understanding the effect of the underlined 3D interface technology on the gaming experience of a user. Based on these experiments, several design guidelines are presented which can aid game designers in designing better immersive games.

..".the perfect companion to "Programming Massively Parallel Processors" by Hwu & Kirk." -Nicolas Pinto, Research Scientist at Harvard & MIT, NVIDIA Fellow 2009-2010

Graphics processing units (GPUs) can do much more than render graphics. Scientists and researchers increasingly look to GPUs to improve the efficiency and performance of computationally-intensive experiments across a range of disciplines.

"GPU Computing Gems: Emerald Edition" brings their techniques to you, showcasing GPU-based solutions including: Black hole simulations with CUDAGPU-accelerated computation and interactive display of molecular orbitalsTemporal data mining for neuroscienceGPU -based parallelization for fast circuit optimizationFast graph cuts for computer visionReal-time stereo on GPGPU using progressive multi-resolution adaptive windowsGPU image demosaicingTomographic image reconstruction from unordered lines with CUDAMedical image processing using GPU -accelerated ITK image filters"41 more chapters" of innovative GPU computing ideas, written to be accessible to researchers from any domain

"GPU Computing Gems: Emerald Edition" is the first volume in Morgan Kaufmann's Applications of GPU Computing Series, offering the latest insights and research in computer vision, electronic design automation, emerging data-intensive applications, life sciences, medical imaging, ray tracing and rendering, scientific simulation, signal and audio processing, statistical modeling, and video / image processing.
Covers the breadth of industry from scientific simulation and electronic design automation to audio / video processing, medical imaging, computer vision, and moreMany examples leverage NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing architecture, the most widely-adopted massively parallel programming solutionOffers insights and ideas as well as practical "hands-on" skills you can immediately put to use

The Internet has become the major form of map delivery. The current presentation of maps is based on the use of online services. This session examines developments related to online methods of map delivery, particularly Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs) and MapServices in general, including Google Maps API and similar services. Map mashups have had a major impact on how spatial information is presented. The advantage of using a major online mapping site is that the maps represent a common and recognizable representation of the world. Overlaying features on top of these maps provides a frame of reference for the map user. A particular advantage for thematic mapping is the ability to spatially reference thematic data.

The book 'BiLBIQ: A biologically inspired Robot with walking and rolling locomotion' deals with implementing a locomotion behavior observed in the biological archetype Cebrennus villosus to a robot prototype whose structural design needs to be developed. The biological sample is investigated as far as possible and compared to other evolutional solutions within the framework of nature's inventions. Current achievements in robotics are examined and evaluated for their relation and relevance to the robot prototype in question. An overview of what is state of the art in actuation ensures the choice of the hardware available and most suitable for this project. Through a constant consideration of the achievement of two fundamentally different ways of locomotion with one and the same structure, a robot design is developed and constructed taking hardware constraints into account. The development of a special leg structure that needs to resemble and replace body elements of the biological archetype is a special challenge to be dealt with. Finally a robot prototype was achieved, which is able to walk and roll - inspired by the spider Cebrennus villosus.

A principal aim of computer graphics is to generate images that look as real as photographs. Realistic computer graphics imagery has however proven to be quite challenging to produce, since the appearance of materials arises from complicated physical processes that are difficult to analytically model and simulate, and image-based modeling of real material samples is often impractical due to the high-dimensional space of appearance data that needs to be acquired.

This book presents a general framework based on the inherent coherency in the appearance data of materials to make image-based appearance modeling more tractable. We observe that this coherence manifests itself as low-dimensional structure in the appearance data, and by identifying this structure we can take advantage of it to simplify the major processes in the appearance modeling pipeline. This framework consists of two key components, namely the coherence structure and the accompanying reconstruction method to fully recover the low-dimensional appearance data from sparse measurements. Our investigation of appearance coherency has led to three major forms of low-dimensional coherence structure and three types of coherency-based reconstruction upon which our framework is built.

This coherence-based approach can be comprehensively applied to all the major elements of image-based appearance modeling, from data acquisition of real material samples to user-assisted modeling from a photograph, from synthesis of volumes to editing of material properties, and from efficient rendering algorithms to physical fabrication of objects. In this book we present several techniques built on this coherency framework to handle various appearance modeling tasks both for surface reflections and subsurface scattering, the two primary physical components that generate material appearance. We believe that coherency-based appearance modeling will make it easier and more feasible for practitioners to bring computer graphics imagery to life.

This book is aimed towards readers with an interest in computer graphics. In particular, researchers, practitioners and students will benefit from this book by learning about the underlying coherence in appearance structure and how it can be utilized to improve appearance modeling. The specific techniques presented in our manuscript can be of value to anyone who wishes to elevate the realism of their computer graphics imagery. For understanding this book, an elementary background in computer graphics is assumed, such as from an introductory college course or from practical experience with computer graphics.

SQL Clearly Explained, Third Edition, provides an in-depth introduction to using SQL (Structured Query Language). Readers will learn not only SQL syntax, but also how SQL works. Although the core of the SQL language remains relatively unchanged, the most recent release of the SQL standard (SQL:2008) includes two sets of extensions: 1) support for object-relational databases and 2) support for XML. As a result, the set of standard SQL commands has been greatly extended and this new edition takes that into account. This new edition includes updated tips and tricks to reflect the current concepts of SQL and XML standards; several new chapters covering object-relational and XML extensions; and an ancillary package that includes case studies, a syllabus, exams and more. This book is intended for working SQL programmers, database administrators, database designers, database analysts, and application system developers as well as those who are developing new features for database management systems who want to know about user needs. This would include anyone working with electronic content in the relational database context but also XML. Web services, etc.