This book presents a peer reviewed selection of extended versions of ten original papers that were presented at the 15th International Symposium on Computers in Education (SIIE 2013) held in Viseu, Portugal. The book provide a representative view of current Information and Communications Technology (ICT) educational research approaches in the Ibero-American context as well as internationally. It includes studies that range from elementary to higher education, from traditional to distance learning settings. It considers special needs and other inclusive issues, across a range of disciplines, using multiple and diverse perspectives and technologies to furnish detailed information on the latest trends in ICT and education globally. Design, development and evaluation of educational software; ICT use and evaluation methodologies; social web and collaborative systems; and learning communities are some of the topics covered.

The book presents a comprehensive view on Flow-Aware Networking. It starts with a brief overview of the known QoS architectures based on the concept of a flow. Then, the original FAN concept is presented, along with its variations proposed by the authors. The next chapter covers a very valuable feature of the FAN architecture, namely its ability to assure net neutrality. The chapters that follow will discuss, in detail, a variety of issues making the FAN concept implementable, including congestion control, fairness, resilience to failures, service differentiation and degradation. The final chapter presents the test implementation of the FAN router, including the environment used and performance tests. Chapters are supplemented with problems to solve, along with their solutions. The pedagogical character of the book is supported by a number of illustrative examples contained in most of the chapters. At the end of the book, a glossary of the key terms is included, along with a comprehensive bibliography. Flow-based traffic management is currently becoming a mainstream. There is plenty of Quality of Service (QoS) techniques based on flows. Software-Defined Networking with its dominant protocol OpenFlow also follows this trend. Flow-Aware Networking (FAN) is a promising QoS architecture. Information on FAN can be found in various research papers. It is, therefore highly scattered. This book gathers practically all relevant information regarding FAN and puts it together. Quality of Service assurance is one of the key challenges of today's Internet. The existing approaches to provide QoS do not meet expectations of network operators, managers and users although numerous efforts in this area have been reported. One of the most promising concepts is the Flow-Aware Network (FAN). FAN can play a key role in assuring the net neutrality, smoothly combining interests of all the involved parties. The authors of the proposal have been involved in FAN research practically since its inception at the start of the 21st century. The book reports the wide experiences the authors accumulated in the subject area during the work on common FAN-related projects conducted with the team of James Roberts that proposed the original FAN concept as well as other leading research groups in Europe and the USA. One of the aims of the book is to accompany courses taught by the authors.

The availability of today's online information systems rapidly increases the relevance of dynamic decision making within a large number of operational contexts. Whenever a sequence of interdependent decisions occurs, making a single decision raises the need for anticipation of its future impact on the entire decision process. Anticipatory support is needed for a broad variety of dynamic and stochastic decision problems from different operational contexts such as finance, energy management, manufacturing and transportation. Example problems include asset allocation, feed-in of electricity produced by wind power as well as scheduling and routing. All these problems entail a sequence of decisions contributing to an overall goal and taking place in the course of a certain period of time. Each of the decisions is derived by solution of an optimization problem. As a consequence a stochastic and dynamic decision problem resolves into a series of optimization problems to be formulated and solved by anticipation of the remaining decision process.

However, actually solving a dynamic decision problem by means of approximate dynamic programming still is a major scientific challenge. Most of the work done so far is devoted to problems allowing for formulation of the underlying optimization problems as linear programs. Problem domains like scheduling and routing, where linear programming typically does not produce a significant benefit for problem solving, have not been considered so far. Therefore, the industry demand for dynamic scheduling and routing is still predominantly satisfied by purely heuristic approaches to anticipatory decision making. Although this may work well for certain dynamic decision problems, these approaches lack transferability of findings to other, related problems.

This book has serves two major purposes:

It provides a comprehensive and unique view of anticipatory optimization for dynamic decision making. It fully integrates Markov decision processes, dynamic programming, data mining and optimization and introduces a new perspective on approximate dynamic programming. Moreover, the book identifies different degrees of anticipation, enabling an assessment of specific approaches to dynamic decision making.

It shows for the first time how to successfully solve a dynamic vehicle routing problem by approximate dynamic programming. It elaborates on every building block required for this kind of approach to dynamic vehicle routing. Thereby the book has a pioneering character and is intended to provide a footing for the dynamic vehicle routing community."

The aim of this book is to provide detailed coverage of the topics in the new OCR AS and A Level Computer Science specifications H046 / H446. The book is divided into twelve sections and within each section, each chapter covers material that can comfortably be taught in one or two lessons. Material that is applicable only to the second year of the full A Level is clearly marked. Sometimes this may include an entire chapter and at other times, just a small part of a chapter. Each chapter contains exercises and questions, some new and some from past examination questions. Answers to all these are available to teachers only in a free Teacher's Pack which can be ordered from our website www.pgonline.co.uk. This book has been written to cover the topics which will be examined in the written papers at both AS and A Level. Sections 10, 11 and 12 relate principally to problem solving skills, with programming techniques covered in sufficient depth to allow students to answer questions in Component 02. Pseudocode, rather than any specific programming language, is used in the algorithms given in the text. Sample Python programs which implement many of the algorithms are included in a folder with the Teacher's Pack.

This powerful new volume explores the diverse and sometimes unexpected roles that IoT and AI technologies played during the recent COVID-19 global pandemic. The book discusses the how existing and new state-of-the art technology has been and can be applied for global health crises in a multitude of ways. The chapters in Pandemic Detection and Analysis through Smart Computing Technologies look at exciting technological solutions for virus detection, prediction, classification, prevention, and communication outreach. The book considers the various modes of transmission of the virus as well as how technology has been implemented for personalized healthcare systems and how it can be used for future pandemics. The huge importance of social and mobile communication and networks during the pandemic is addressed such as in business, education, and healthcare; in research and development; for health information and outreach; in social life; and more. A chapter also addresses using smart computing for forecasting the damage caused by COVID-19 using time series analyses. This up-to-the-minute volume illuminates on the many ways AI, IoT, machine learning, and other technologies have important roles in the diverse challenges faced during COVID-19 and how they can be enhanced for future pandemic situations. The volume will be of high interest to those in different fields of computer science and other domains as well as to data scientists, government agencies and policymakers, doctors and healthcare professionals, engineers, economists, and many other professionals. This book will also be very helpful to faculty, students, and research scholars in understanding the pre- and post-effect of this pandemic.

The International Conference on Informatics and Management Science (IMS) 2012 will be held on November 16-19, 2012, in Chongqing, China, which is organized by Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nanyang Technological University, University of Michigan, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, and sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The objective of IMS 2012 is to facilitate an exchange of information on best practices for the latest research advances in a range of areas. Informatics and Management Science contains over 600 contributions to suggest and inspire solutions and methods drawing from multiple disciplines including: * Computer Science * Communications and Electrical Engineering * Management Science * Service Science * Business Intelligence

A new class of provably capacity achieving error-correction codes, polar codes are suitable for many problems, such as lossless and lossy source coding, problems with side information, multiple access channel, etc. The first comprehensive book on the implementation of decoders for polar codes, the authors take a tutorial approach to explain the practical decoder implementation challenges and trade-offs in either software or hardware. They also demonstrate new trade-offs in latency, throughput, and complexity in software implementations for high-performance computing and GPGPUs, and hardware implementations using custom processing elements, full-custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and field-programmable-gate arrays (FPGAs). Presenting a good overview of this research area and future directions, High-Speed Decoders for Polar Codes is perfect for any researcher or SDR practitioner looking into implementing efficient decoders for polar codes, as well as students and professors in a modern error correction class. As polar codes have been accepted to protect the control channel in the next-generation mobile communication standard (5G) developed by the 3GPP, the audience includes engineers who will have to implement decoders for such codes and hardware engineers designing the backbone of communication networks.

- The complete guide to mastering the technical challenges of lighting and flash - Explores locations, subjects and styles, and all the technical skills, tools and tips needed to master them - Written by multi award-winning photographer Richard Bradbury Aimed at the serious amateur, this is a practical guide to achieving professional results in digital photography. Light is at the very heart of photography and plays a fundamental role in creating successful images. Not only does light affect brightness, it also determines tone, mood, atmosphere, texture, colour and luminosity. Mastering Lighting & Flash Photography contains everything you need to know about controlling and manipulating light to capture the beauty of the world around you in your own signature style. Written and photographed by a multi award-winning photographer, the book describes and demonstrates all the key topics: from understanding light and how to use it; through choosing the best kit and mastering the essential techniques; to different forms of flash photography and studio lighting, tips from leading professionals, and elevating your prints in post-production. .

The sequential analysis of data and information gathered from past to present is called time series analysis. Time series data are of high dimension, large size and updated continuously. A time series depends on various factors like trend, seasonality, cycle and irregular data set, and is basically a series of data points well-organized in time. Time series forecasting is a significant area of machine learning. There are various prediction problems that are time-dependent and these problems can be handled through time series analysis. Computational intelligence (CI) is a developing computing approach for the forthcoming several years. CI gives the litheness to model the problem according to given requirements. It helps to find swift solutions to the problems arising in numerous disciplines. These methods mimic human behavior. The main objective of CI is to develop intelligent machines to provide solutions to real world problems, which are not modelled or too difficult to model mathematically. This book aims to cover the recent advances in time series and applications of CI for time series analysis.

The book investigates various MPPT algorithms, and the optimization of solar energy using machine learning and deep learning. It will serve as an ideal reference text for senior undergraduate, graduate students, and academic researchers in diverse engineering domains including electrical, electronics and communication, computer, and environmental. This book: Discusses data acquisition by the internet of things for real-time monitoring of solar cells. Covers artificial neural network techniques, solar collector optimization, and artificial neural network applications in solar heaters, and solar stills. Details solar analytics, smart centralized control centers, integration of microgrids, and data mining on solar data. Highlights the concept of asset performance improvement, effective forecasting for energy production, and Low-power wide-area network applications. Elaborates solar cell design principles, the equivalent circuits of single and two diode models, measuring idealist factors, and importance of series and shunt resistances. The text elaborates solar cell design principles, the equivalent circuit of single diode model, the equivalent circuit of two diode model, measuring idealist factor, and importance of series and shunt resistances. It further discusses perturb and observe technique, modified P&O method, incremental conductance method, sliding control method, genetic algorithms, and neuro-fuzzy methodologies. It will serve as an ideal reference text for senior undergraduate, graduate students, and academic researchers in diverse engineering domains including electrical, electronics and communication, computer, and environmental.

The methodological needs of environmental studies are unique in the breadth of research questions that can be posed, calling for a textbook that covers a broad swath of approaches to conducting research with potentially many different kinds of evidence. Fully updated to address new developments such as the effects of the internet, recent trends in the use of computers, remote sensing, and large data sets, this new edition of Research Methods for Environmental Studies is written specifically for social science-based research into the environment. This revised edition contains new chapters on coding, focus groups, and an extended treatment of hypothesis testing. The textbook covers the best-practice research methods most used to study the environment and its connections to societal and economic activities and objectives. Over five key parts, Kanazawa introduces quantitative and qualitative approaches, mixed methods, and the special requirements of interdisciplinary research, emphasizing that methodological practice should be tailored to the specific needs of the project. Within these parts, detailed coverage is provided on key topics including the identification of a research project, hypothesis testing, spatial analysis, the case study method, ethnographic approaches, discourse analysis, mixed methods, survey and interview techniques, focus groups, and ethical issues in environmental research. Drawing on a variety of extended and updated examples to encourage problem-based learning and fully addressing the challenges associated with interdisciplinary investigation, this book will be an essential resource for students embarking on courses exploring research methods in environmental studies.

As Information Technology continues to evolve as a key strategic enabler, many establishments feel the need to think more holistically about how IT can support corporate sustainability efforts. This book aims to recognize these efforts and best practices in numerous business settings. Sustainability is expensive, and requires collaboration between many different areas of the business. The solution to growing burden of carbon emission lies within the technology innovation as continued advancements in processes make businesses lean and smart. The multidisciplinary approach the book uses will be appreciated by students, academics and researchers in Information Technology, Management, Corporate, and Sustainability Champions. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Teach students to maximize the use of mobile devices, make the most of online tools for collaboration and communications, and fully utilize today's Internet capabilities with the latest edition DISCOVERING COMPUTERS ENHANCED. Introductory computing students see how technology skills assist in employment and advancing careers. This edition highlights the most recent developments in computer tools and technology with new emphasis on Web Development, creating a strong web presence, and the latest Windows 10 information. To keep content as current as possible, online coverage of contemporary technology developments builds on the book's discussions.

The authors emphasize actionable content with a proven learning structure and practice to reinforce key skills. Self-assessments open each chapter, enabling learners to target study and learn more in less time. DISCOVERING COMPUTERS ENHANCED presents the content students need to succeed in a way that ensures understanding.

This book systematically summarizes the fundamentals and various technologies in both terrestrial radio wireless networks and underwater acoustic networks (UWANs). It addresses the basic issues frequently investigated in terrestrial radio wireless networks and the key technologies suitable for the newly developing research area of UWANs. Starting with a review of our current understanding of wireless networks, it then introduces the principles of the main technologies, including error control, medium access control (MAC) protocols, routing protocols, end-to-end transmission control and mobility issues as well as network security for terrestrial radio wireless networks, and offers detailed surveys of these technologies for UWANs. Providing readers with the basic knowledge of terrestrial radio wireless networking technologies and raising readers' awareness of the developing topic of UWANs in ocean , it is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in terrestrial radio wireless networks and UWANs.

This volume covers a variety of topics related to the practice of rule-based modeling, a type of mathematical modeling useful for studying biomolecular site dynamics. There is an emphasis on software tools and detailed descriptions of techniques. The chapters in this book discuss topics such as software tools and frameworks for compartmental modeling (Pycellerator, RuleBuilder, Prgy, rxncon, MSMB, and ML-Rules); tools for spatial modeling (Simmune, Smoldyn, MCell-R, SRSim, and CellOrganizer); rule-based models to analyze proteomic data; model annotation; Markov chain aggregation; BioJazz; and methods to identify model parameters (Data2Dynamics, RKappa, and BioNetFit). Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary resources, step-by-step, readily reproducible protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and thorough, Modeling Biomolecular Site Dynamics: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for both the novice and expert rule-based modeler. It will also appeal to systems biologists and help them enhance their studies with easy-to-read and write rule-based models.

This new volume discusses how integrating IoT devices and cyber-physical systems can help society by providing multiple efficient and affordable services to users. It covers the various applications of IoT-based cyber-physical systems, such as satellite imaging in relation to climate change, industrial control systems, e-healthcare applications, security uses, automotive and traffic monitoring and control, urban smart city planning, and more. The authors also outline the methods, tools, and algorithms for IoT-based cyber-physical systems and explore the integration of machine learning, blockchain, and Internet of Things-based cloud applications. With the continuous emerging new technologies and trends in IoT technology and CPS, this volume will be a helpful resource for scientists, researchers, industry professionals, faculty and students, and others who wish to keep abreast of new developments and new challenges for sustainable development in Industry 4.0.

This book was motivated by the problems being faced with shrinking IC process feature sizes. It is well known that as process feature sizes shrink, a host of electrical problems like cross-talk, electromigration, self-heat, etc. are becoming important. Cross-talk is one of the major problems since it results in unpredictable design behavior. In particular, it can result in significant delay variation or signal integrity problems in a wire, depending on the state of its neighboring wires. Typical approaches to tackle the cross-talk problem attempt to fix the problem once it is created. In our approach, we ensure that cross-talk is eliminated by design. The work described in this book attempts to take an "outside-the-box" view and propose a radically different design style. This design style first imposes a fixed layout pattern (or fabric) on the integrated circuit, and then embeds the circuit being implemented into this fabric. The fabric is chosen carefully in order to eliminate the cross-talk problem being faced in modem IC processes. With our choice of fabric, cross-talk between adjacent wires on an IC is reduced by between one and two orders of magnitude. In this way, the fabric concept eliminates cross-talk up-front, and by design. We propose two separate design flows, each of which uses the fabric concept to implement logic. The first flow uses fabric-compliant standard cells as an im plementation vehicle. We call these cells fabric cells, and they have the same logic functionality as existing standard cells with which they are compared."

This authored volume presents the fundamentals of NeuroIS, which is an emerging subfield within the Information Systems discipline that makes use of neuroscience and neurophysiological tools and knowledge to better understand the development, use, and impact of information and communication technologies. This book is an initial guide to this new research domain. The target audience primarily comprises PhD students and researchers, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students and practitioners.

The book presents the life and works of one of Germany's most famous computer scientists, Carl Adam Petri. It is written in a vivid and entertaining manner, providing an in-depth discussion of the background behind Petri's best-known contribution to computer science, the Petri net. In this way the book can be read as a first introduction to nets, but it also covers the theoretical, physical and philosophical foundations behind nets, thus facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the wider range of Petri's works. The book is intended for readers with a previous knowledge in computer science, as well as for "interested non-professionals", who want to get to know a remarkable personality of contemporary science.

There are very few books that focus on the unique challenges of technology leadership that are written by a technology leader. This book examines leadership challenges that technologists face and provides simple strategies and practical tools for increasing personal leadership skills. The book provides a path to move from being an average leader to being a great leader.

This book gathers selected papers presented at the International Conference on Advances in Applied Probability and Stochastic Processes, held at CMS College, Kerala, India, on 7-10 January 2019. It showcases high-quality research conducted in the field of applied probability and stochastic processes by focusing on techniques for the modelling and analysis of systems evolving with time. Further, it discusses the applications of stochastic modelling in queuing theory, reliability, inventory, financial mathematics, operations research, and more. This book is intended for a broad audience, ranging from researchers interested in applied probability, stochastic modelling with reference to queuing theory, inventory, and reliability, to those working in industries such as communication and computer networks, distributed information systems, next-generation communication systems, intelligent transportation networks, and financial markets.

The book discusses the fundamentals of high-performance computing. The authors combine visualization, comprehensibility, and strictness in their material presentation, and thus influence the reader towards practical application and learning how to solve real computing problems. They address both key approaches to programming modern computing systems: multithreading-based parallelizing in shared memory systems, and applying message-passing technologies in distributed systems. The book is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, and for researchers and practitioners engaged with high-performance computing systems. Each chapter begins with a theoretical part, where the relevant terminology is introduced along with the basic theoretical results and methods of parallel programming, and concludes with a list of test questions and problems of varying difficulty. The authors include many solutions and hints, and often sample code.