This hands-on textbook/reference presents an introduction to the fundamental aspects of modelling and simulation, both for those wishing to learn about this methodology and also for those who have a need to apply it in their work. The text is supported by illustrative examples, drawn from projects formulated within the domains of discrete-event dynamic systems (DEDS) and continuous-time dynamic systems (CTDS). This updated new edition has been enhanced with new illustrative case studies, and additional examples demonstrating some new features and the effectiveness of the ABCmod conceptual modelling framework. Changes that facilitate the development of simulation models with ABSmod/J are illustrated. New material includes a presentation of the experimentation strategy called "design of experiments" and three new chapters that explore the optimization-simulation interface. Topics and features: presents a goal-based and project-oriented perspective of modelling and simulation; describes the ABCmod framework, an activity-based conceptual modelling framework for DEDS; examines the simulation-optimization interface in both the CTDS and DEDS domains; provides numerous illustrative examples, case studies and useful algorithms, as well as exercises and projects at the end of most chapters; includes appendices on probability and statistics, the GPSS programming environment, and relevant MATLAB features; provides supplementary software and teaching support material at an associated website, including lecture slides and a methodology for organizing student projects. Serving as an essential guide to the foundations of modelling and simulation, this practical primer is ideal for senior undergraduate and junior graduate-level students. Also suitable for self-study, the book will be of great benefit to professionals seeking insight into the vast potential of this rapidly evolving problem-solving paradigm.

Constraint Programming is a problem-solving paradigm that establishes a clear distinction between two pivotal aspects of a problem: (1) a precise definition of the constraints that define the problem to be solved and (2) the algorithms and heuristics enabling the selection of decisions to solve the problem. It is because of these capabilities that Constraint Programming is increasingly being employed as a problem-solving tool to solve scheduling problems. Hence the development of Constraint-Based Scheduling as a field of study. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the most widely used Constraint-Based Scheduling techniques. Following the principles of Constraint Programming, the book consists of three distinct parts: The first chapter introduces the basic principles of Constraint Programming and provides a model of the constraints that are the most often encountered in scheduling problems. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 are focused on the propagation of resource constraints, which usually are responsible for the "hardness" of the scheduling problem. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 are dedicated to the resolution of several scheduling problems. These examples illustrate the use and the practical efficiency of the constraint propagation methods of the previous chapters. They also show that besides constraint propagation, the exploration of the search space must be carefully designed, taking into account specific properties of the considered problem (e.g., dominance relations, symmetries, possible use of decomposition rules). Chapter 9 mentions various extensions of the model and presents promising research directions.

Optimization methods have been considered in many articles, monographs, and handbooks. However, experts continue to experience difficulties in correctly stating optimization problems in engineering. These troubles typically emerge when trying to define the set of feasible solutions, i.e. the constraints imposed on the design variables, functional relationships, and criteria. The Parameter Space Investigation (PSI) method was developed specifically for the correct statement and solution of engineering optimization problems. It is implemented in the MOVI 1.0 software package, a tutorial version of which is included in this book. The PSI method and MOVI 1.0 software package have a wide range of applications. The PSI method can be successfully used for the statement and solution of the following multicriteria problems: design, identification, design with control, the optional development of prototypes, finite element models, and the decomposition and aggregation of large-scale systems.

Audience: The PSI method will be of interest to researchers, graduate students, and engineers who work in engineering, mathematical modelling and industrial mathematics, and in computer and information science.

Many auditors are now encountering Agile management methodologies for the first time. In some cases, this can cause problems for the audit process because the methodology is very different from traditional approaches. Aside from the difficulties faced by the auditor, an ineffective audit can have a negative effect on an Agile project by giving a false impression of its progress. It might even harm the final project outcome. Written for auditors and Agile managers, Agile Governance and Audit bridges the gap between traditional auditing approaches and the requirements of Agile methodologies. It provides an overview of Agile for auditors and other risk professionals who have not encountered the approach before. The book also tells Agile teams what auditors and risk professionals need, and the sort of questions they are likely to ask. Each chapter includes hints and tips for auditors, and a selection of case studies is included to illustrate the practical issues involved in auditing Agile projects. This makes it an ideal book for any auditor encountering the Agile methodology, and any Agile teams preparing for a management audit. This book will enable you to understand how to get the most out of Agile audits, whatever your role.

Exploratory data analysis helps to recognize natural patterns hidden in the data. This book describes the tools for hypothesis generation by visualizing data through graphical representation and provides insight into advanced analytics concepts in an easy way. The book addresses the complete data visualization technologies workflow, explores basic and high-level concepts of computer science and engineering in medical science, and provides an overview of the clinical scientific research areas that enables smart diagnosis equipment. It will discuss techniques and tools used to explore large volumes of medical data and offers case studies that focus on the innovative technological upgradation and challenges faced today. The primary audience for the book includes specialists, researchers, graduates, designers, experts, physicians, and engineers who are doing research in this domain.

This volume contains the edited texts of the lectures presented at the Workshop on Nonlinear Optimization held in Erice, Sicily, at the "G. Stampacchia" School of Mathematics of the "E. Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture, June 23 -July 2, 1998. In the tradition of these meetings, the main purpose was to review and discuss recent advances and promising research trends concerning theory, algorithms and innovative applications in the field of Nonlinear Optimization, and of related topics such as Convex Optimization, Nonsmooth Optimization, Variational Inequalities and Complementarity Problems. The meeting was attended by 83 people from 21 countries. Besides the lectures, several formal and informal discussions took place. The result was a wide and deep knowledge of the present research tendencies in the field. We wish to express our appreciation for the active contribution of all the par ticipants in the meeting. Our gratitude is due to the Ettore Majorana Centre in Erice, which offered its facilities and rewarding environment: its staff was certainly instrumental for the success of the meeting. Our gratitude is also due to Francisco Facchinei and Massimo Roma for the effort and time devoted as members of the Organising Committee. We are indebted to the Italian National Research Council, and in particular to the Group on Functional Analysis and its Applications and to the Committees on Engineering Sciences and on Information Sciences and Technolo gies for their financial support. Finally, we address our thanks to Kluwer Academic Publishers for having offered to publish this volume."

"CUDA Fortran for Scientists and Engineers" shows how high-performance application developers can leverage the power of GPUs using Fortran, the familiar language of scientific computing and supercomputer performance benchmarking. The authors presume no prior parallel computing experience, and cover the basics along with best practices for efficient GPU computing using CUDA Fortran.

To help you add CUDA Fortran to existing Fortran codes, the book explains how to understand the target GPU architecture, identify computationally intensive parts of the code, and modify the code to manage the data and parallelism and optimize performance. All of this is done in Fortran, without having to rewrite in another language. Each concept is illustrated with actual examples so you can immediately evaluate the performance of your code in comparison.
Leverage the power of GPU computing with PGI s CUDA Fortran compilerGain insights from members of the CUDA Fortran language development teamIncludes multi-GPU programming in CUDA Fortran, covering both peer-to-peer and message passing interface (MPI) approachesIncludes full source code for all the examples and several case studies Download source code and slides from the book's companion website"

The Art of Game Design guides you through the design process step-by-step, helping you to develop new and innovative games that will be played again and again. It explains the fundamental principles of game design and demonstrates how tactics used in classic board, card and athletic games also work in top-quality video games. Good game design happens when you view your game from as many perspectives as possible, and award-winning author Jesse Schell presents over 100 sets of questions to ask yourself as you build, play and change your game until you finalise your design. This latest third edition includes examples from new VR and AR platforms as well as from modern games such as Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us, Free to Play games, hybrid games, transformational games, and more. Whatever your role in video game development an understanding of the principles of game design will make you better at what you do. For over 10 years this book has provided inspiration and guidance to budding and experienced game designers - helping to make better games faster.

Whether you are just starting out in web development or you would like to update your existing skills, this book gets you off to a fast start! In fact, in just the first 6 chapters, you will learn more about web development than you can from most full books. By the end of this crash course, you will be developing web pages the professional way, with HTML or XHTML for the content and CSS for the formatting and page layout. That includes sophisticated page layouts that require the use of the box model, floating, and positioning. In section 2, you will learn all the other skills that you need for developing web pages. Those skills include how to develop forms that are submitted to web servers, how to add audio or video to a page, how to use a style sheet for printing, how to develop pages for mobile devices ...everything you need for modern web pages. You will also learn how to take your web pages to the next level by using tested JavaScript code for effects like image rollovers and slide shows. In the last section, now that you know how to develop web pages, you will learn how to design an entire web site using today's best practices. You will also learn how to deploy your web site, and how to get it into the major search engines and directories. When you are done, you will have all the perspective and skills you need to develop professional web pages.

This 2 volume-set of IFIP AICT 583 and 584 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th IFIP WG 12.5 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations, AIAI 2020, held in Neos Marmaras, Greece, in June 2020.* The 70 full papers and 5 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 149 submissions. They cover a broad range of topics related to technical, legal, and ethical aspects of artificial intelligence systems and their applications and are organized in the following sections: Part I: classification; clustering - unsupervised learning -analytics; image processing; learning algorithms; neural network modeling; object tracking - object detection systems; ontologies - AI; and sentiment analysis - recommender systems. Part II: AI ethics - law; AI constraints; deep learning - LSTM; fuzzy algebra - fuzzy systems; machine learning; medical - health systems; and natural language. *The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Provides a clear and concise overview of how AI is used in game development Gives a brief overview of the history of AI in games Considers the different models, techniques and algorithms that are used in creating game AI

This textbook grew out of notes for the ECE143 Programming for Data Analysis class that the author has been teaching at University of California, San Diego, which is a requirement for both graduate and undergraduate degrees in Machine Learning and Data Science. This book is ideal for readers with some Python programming experience. The book covers key language concepts that must be understood to program effectively, especially for data analysis applications. Certain low-level language features are discussed in detail, especially Python memory management and data structures. Using Python effectively means taking advantage of its vast ecosystem. The book discusses Python package management and how to use third-party modules as well as how to structure your own Python modules. The section on object-oriented programming explains features of the language that facilitate common programming patterns. After developing the key Python language features, the book moves on to third-party modules that are foundational for effective data analysis, starting with Numpy. The book develops key Numpy concepts and discusses internal Numpy array data structures and memory usage. Then, the author moves onto Pandas and details its many features for data processing and alignment. Because strong visualizations are important for communicating data analysis, key modules such as Matplotlib are developed in detail, along with web-based options such as Bokeh, Holoviews, Altair, and Plotly. The text is sprinkled with many tricks-of-the-trade that help avoid common pitfalls. The author explains the internal logic embodied in the Python language so that readers can get into the Python mindset and make better design choices in their codes, which is especially helpful for newcomers to both Python and data analysis. To get the most out of this book, open a Python interpreter and type along with the many code samples.

The Elixir programming language has become a go-to tool for creating reliable, fault-tolerant, and robust server-side applications. Thanks to Nerves, those same exact benefits can be realized in embedded applications. This book will teach you how to structure, build, and deploy production grade Nerves applications to network-enabled devices. The weather station sensor hub project that you will be embarking upon will show you how to create a full stack IoT solution in record time. You will build everything from the embedded Nerves device to the Phoenix backend and even the Grafana time-series data visualizations. Elixir as a programming language has found its way into many different software domains, largely in part to the rock-solid foundation of the Erlang virtual machine. Thanks to the Nerves framework, Elixir has also found success in the world of embedded systems and IoT. Having access to all of the Elixir and OTP constructs such as concurrency, supervision, and immutability makes for a powerful IoT recipe. Find out how to create fault-tolerant, reliable, and robust embedded applications using the Nerves framework. Build and deploy a production-grade weather station sensor hub using Elixir and Nerves, all while leveraging the best practices established by the Nerves community for structuring and organizing Nerves applications. Capture all of your weather station sensor data using Phoenix and Ecto in a lightweight server-side application. Efficiently store and retrieve the time-series weather data collected by your device using TimescaleDB (the Postgres extension for time-series data). Finally, complete the full stack IoT solution by using Grafana to visualize all of your time-series weather station data. Discover how to create software solutions where the underlying technologies and techniques are applicable to all layers of the project. Take your project from idea to production ready in record time with Elixir and Nerves.

Courses in computer programming combine a number of different concepts, from general problem-solving to mathematical precepts such as algorithms and computational intelligence. Due to the complex nature of computer science education, teaching the novice programmer can be a challenge. Innovative Teaching Strategies and New Learning Paradigms in Computer Programming brings together pedagogical and technological methods to address the recent challenges that have developed in computer programming courses. Focusing on educational tools, computer science concepts, and educational design, this book is an essential reference source for teachers, practitioners, and scholars interested in improving the success rate of students.

a collection of interviews from renowned author, David L. Craddock

This book will be a key contribution to both Gothic and digital game scholarship as it argues for close proximity between Gothic culture and the videogame medium itself This book explores the many ways Gothic literature and media have informed videogame design The book moves beyond the study of generic influences of horror on digital gaming, and focuses in on the Gothic, a less visceral mode tending towards the unsettling, the uncertain and the uncanny The book will have resonance with scholars and students in both Gothic and digital game scholarship, as well as those interested in Gothic novels, media and popular culture, digital games and interactive fiction

This book explores the impact of a video game's degree of realism or fictionality on its linguistic dimensions, investigating the challenges and strategies for translating realia and irrealia, the interface of the real world and the game world where culture-specificity manifests itself. The volume outlines the key elements in the translation of video games, such as textual non-linearity, multitextuality, and playability, and introduces the theoretical framework used to determine a game's respective degree of realism or fictionality. Pettini applies an interdisciplinary approach drawing on video game research and Descriptive Translation Studies to the linguistic and translational analysis of in-game dialogs in English-Italian and English-Spanish language pairs from a corpus of three war video games. This approach allows for an in-depth look at the localization challenges posed by the varying degree of realism and fictionality across video games and the different strategies translators employ in response to these challenges. A final chapter offers a comparative analysis of the three games and subsequently avenues for further research on the role of culture-specificity in game localization. This book is key reading for students and scholars interested in game localization, audiovisual translation studies, and video game research.

Many-valued logics is becoming increasingly important in many branches of science. This is the second volume of a comprehensive two-volume handbook on many-valued logics by two leading members of the famous Polish school of logic. While the first volume of 1992 was mainly concerned with theoretical foundations, this volume emphasizes automated reasoning, practical applications, and latest developments in closely related fields, such as fuzzy logics and rough set theory. It offers an extensive overview of Gentzen deduction systems and multi-sequential systems in many-valued logics and shows the application of the resolution principle to this logics. It discusses applications in such areas as software specification and electronic circuit verification and presents fuzzy logics and rough set theory in detail.

The so called information society is being shaped by products and services that either contain software as the core element, are themselves software, or have been designed and manufactured with the help of sophisticated software applications. The new global environment in which these systems are being developed and deployed, in addition to other pressing issues, such as time-to-market and dependability, are pushing the skills of software developers and engineers to the limit. With few exceptions, those products and services will influence the social environment where they will be deployed, because people will operate them or be affected by them, or both. So another challenging issue is the ability of these systems to integrate with their social environment in a way that is perceived as beneficial, trustworthy and acceptable. Given these challenges, defining the requirements that establish what a future system should do, and validating that the system has achieved its goals, is an immense task. In this book the reader will find a detailed account of the challenges posed by the elicitation, specification, validation and management of requirements for the definition of this kind of application: from embedded software in cars to internet-based applications, COTS packages, health-care, and others.

Generating Abstraction Hierarchies presents a completely automated approach to generating abstractions for problem solving. The abstractions are generated using a tractable, domain-independent algorithm whose only inputs are the definition of a problem space and the problem to be solved and whose output is an abstraction hierarchy that is tailored to the particular problem. The algorithm generates abstraction hierarchies that satisfy the `ordered monotonicity' property, which guarantees that the structure of an abstract solution is not changed in the process of refining it. An abstraction hierarchy with this property allows a problem to be decomposed such that the solution in an abstract space can be held invariant while the remaining parts of a problem are solved. The algorithm for generating abstractions is implemented in a system called ALPINE, which generates abstractions for a hierarchical version of the PRODIGY problem solver. Generating Abstraction Hierarchies formally defines this hierarchical problem solving method, shows that under certain assumptions this method can reduce the size of a search space from exponential to linear in the solution size, and describes the implementation of this method in PRODIGY. The abstractions generated by ALPINE are tested in multiple domains on large problem sets and are shown to produce shorter solutions with significantly less search than problem solving without using abstraction. Generating Abstraction Hierarchies will be of interest to researchers in machine learning, planning and problem reformation.

Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) is becoming one of the great concerns of researchers and practitioners within the academic areas of computer science and the software industry. After the focus on object-oriented programming, design and modelling during the 90's, reuse and reusability of software entities is nowadays slowed down by new factors. The size of components, their deployment capability, their compatibility and interoperability features in order to be incorporated into heterogeneous cooperative environments, their faults tolerance, and above all, their ability to fulfill performance conditions, are critical expectations of software engineers.
Despite the maturity of the component market and some available results coming from academic research, software engineering and as a result CBSE, remain somehow, a backward discipline, since no modern technique of component composition has been recognized as satisfactory. Business Component-Based Software Engineering, an edited volume, aims to complement some other reputable books on CBSE, by stressing how components are built for large-scale applications, within dedicated development processes and for easy and direct combination. This book will emphasize these three facets and will offer a complete overview of some recent progresses. Projects and works explained herein will prompt graduate students, academics, software engineers, project managers and developers to adopt and to apply new component development methods gained from and validated by the authors. The authors of Business Component-Based Software Engineering are academic and professionals, experts in the field, who will introduce the state of the art on CBSE fromtheir shared experience by working on the same projects.
Business Component-Based Software Engineering is designed to meet the needs of practitioners and researchers in industry, and graduate-level students in Computer Science and Engineering.