Computational Methods for Agricultural Research: Advances and Applications brings computing solutions to ancient practices and modern concerns, sowing the seeds for a sustainable, constant food supply. This book treats subjects as old modeling flood patterns and predicting potential climates to distinctly 21st century topics such as pesticide leaching models and the impact of agricultural policy. All of these studies utilize cutting-edge computational techniques of interest to both academics and practitioners in agriculture but also computational modeling researchers, creating a reference practical significance.

Like systems and procedures in most areas of modern society, the functioning of courts throughout the world has been enormously affected by information and communication technologies (ICT). It has become crucial for lawyers to keep pace with technical changes in judicial systems, especially in international cases where an understanding of procedural variations from one system to another could spell the difference between success and failure. This text has been written by experts who have been engaged in the planning and implementation of ICT in the courts of their respective countries. To ensure information that is as homogeneous as possible, and to facilitate cross-border comparisons, the authors have followed a common and detailed "blueprint" which includes a brief description of the judicial system under discussion. Specific areas of court technology covered include case management systems, electronic filing, and electronic data interchange. Although the emphasis is on EU Member States, a general overview of ICT applications in some Latin American judiciaries is also provided.

The latest advances in technology development have been particularly useful to actor-network theory as a structure for much of its research. With a socio-technical approach to the understanding of information systems and applications, the actor-network theory aims to bring support for social influence on technological innovations. Social and Professional Applications of Actor-Network Theory for Technology Development presents a platform for the approaches and implementations on the actor-network theory and its relationship with technology development. This book provides researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of the usefulness of the social and technical connection.

Institutions of higher education have increasingly embraced distance education with the number of students enrolled in online courses rapidly rising in colleges and universities throughout the world. Given its popularity and increased usage, it is imperative that administrators and instructors monitor the current state and future directions relating to distance education in order to meet the needs and challenges of tomorrow. Distance Learning Technology, Current Instruction, and the Future of Education: Applications of Today, Practices of Tomorrow provides present and prospective directions of online education from various research fields, reporting on discussions from students, faculty members, researchers, and practitioners. This innovative publication contains significant and unique research findings influencing future developments in technology-enhanced education and industry.

This book comprises the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computational Engineering (ICCE 2017), held in Darmstadt, Germany on September 28-29, 2017. The conference is intended to provide an interdisciplinary meeting place for researchers and practitioners working on computational methods in all disciplines of engineering, applied mathematics and computer science. The aims of the conference are to discuss the state of the art in this challenging field, exchange experiences, develop promising perspectives for future research and initiate further cooperation. Computational Engineering is a modern and multidisciplinary science for computer-based modeling, simulation, analysis, and optimization of complex engineering applications and natural phenomena. The book contains an overview of selected approaches from numerics and optimization of Partial Differential Equations as well as uncertainty quantification techniques, typically in multiphysics environments. Where possible, application cases from engineering are integrated. The book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners of Computational Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Engineering Sciences and Computer Science.

There is a broad consensus amongst law firms and in-house legal departments that next generation "Legal Tech" - particularly in the form of Blockchain-based technologies and Smart Contracts - will have a profound impact on the future operations of all legal service providers. Legal Tech startups are already revolutionizing the legal industry by increasing the speed and efficiency of traditional legal services or replacing them altogether with new technologies. This on-going process of disruption within the legal profession offers significant opportunities for all business. However, it also poses a number of challenges for practitioners, trade associations, technology vendors, and regulators who often struggle to keep up with the technologies, resulting in a widening regulatory "gap." Many uncertainties remain regarding the scope, direction, and effects of these new technologies and their integration with existing practices and legacy systems. Adding to the challenges is the growing need for easy-to-use contracting solutions, on the one hand, and for protecting the users of such solutions, on the other. To respond to the challenges and to provide better legal communications, systems, and services Legal Tech scholars and practitioners have found allies in the emerging field of Legal Design. This collection brings together leading scholars and practitioners working on these issues from diverse jurisdictions. The aim is to introduce Blockchain and Smart Contract technologies, and to examine their on-going impact on the legal profession, business and regulators.

Technological innovation continues to be present in all areas of our lives, offering seemingly endless possibilities. As technology is increasingly implemented in healthcare applications, it is necessary to understand whether users respond to a predefined organizational strategy of model of care or whether they will become wholly dependent on the healthcare technology. This understanding is especially crucial when dealing with the possibility of generating inequities, especially with individuals that are elderly. Exploring the Role of ICTs in Healthy Aging is a collection of innovative research that proposes the detailed study of a strategic framework for the development of technological innovation in healthcare and for its adoption by health organizations. While highlighting topics including emotional health, quality of life, and telemedicine, this book is ideally designed for physicians, nurses, hospital staff, medical professionals, home care providers, hospital administrators, academicians, students, and researchers. Moreover, the book will provide insights and support executives concerned with the management of expertise, knowledge, information, and organizational development in different types of healthcare units at various levels.

Recently, educators have begun to consider what is required in literacy curricula and best teaching practices given the demands placed on the educator sector and on literacy in general. ""Multiliteracies and Technology Enhanced Education: Social Practice and the Global Classroom"" features theoretical reflections and approaches on the use of multiliteracies and technologies in the improvement of education and social practices. Assisting educators at different teaching levels and fostering professional development and progress in this growing field, this innovative publication supports practitioners concerned with teaching at both a local and global level.

The modeling of healthcare components and systems in order to develop a complete understanding of component interactions is one of the more challenging simulation and modeling problems for software agent systems. ""Multi-Agent Systems for Healthcare Simulation and Modeling: Applications for System Improvement"" provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings used by medical professionals in the implementation of multi-agent systems. This ""Premier Reference Source"" disseminates understanding on the strategic role of systems modeling in healthcare, a valuable resource to academicians, researchers, and field practitioners.

Applications and Developments in Grid, Cloud, and High Performance Computing provides insight into the current trends and emerging issues by investigating grid and cloud evolution, workflow management, and the impact new computing systems have on the education fields as well as the industries. This book is practical for both researchers and IT professionals.

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.

Significant research and development advancement has been achieved in enterprise computing, integration, and management. The results of this advancement stimulate the creation of a new class of mission-critical infrastructures, a new category of integration methods and software tools, and a new group of business platforms for cost-effectively exploiting, integrating, and managing business operations across enterprises. ""Enterprise Service Computing: From Concept To Deployment"" presents the emerging service computing, or service-enabled computing, technologies currently preferably used in integrating enterprise-wide and cross-enterprise applications. The topics covered range from concept development, system design, modeling, and development technologies, to the final deployment, providing both theoretical research results and practical applications.

A key focus in recent years has been on sustainable development and promoting environmentally conscious practices. In today's rapidly evolving technological world, it is important to consider how technology can be applied to solve problems across disciplines and fields in these areas. Further study is needed in order to understand how technology can be applied to sustainability and the best practices, considerations, and challenges that follow. Futuristic Trends for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Ecosystems discusses recent advances and innovative research in the area of information and communication technology for sustainable development and covers practices in several artificial intelligence fields such as knowledge representation and reasoning, natural language processing, machine learning, and the semantic web. Covering topics such as blockchain, deep learning, and renewable energy, this reference work is ideal for computer scientists, industry professionals, researchers, academicians, scholars, instructors, and students.

Today's enterprises are increasingly going global by becoming more distributed, leveraging resource bases in all parts of the world. Whether through offshore relationships, global support or application development programs, or linking disparate parts of organizations, enterprises are reducing costs by managing applications centrally, boosting security, and assuring network uptime. The Handbook of Research on Global Information Technology Management in the Digital Economy provides comprehensive coverage and definitions of the most important issues, concepts, trends and technologies in the field of the emerging sub-discipline of global information technology management, covering topics such as the technical platform for global IS applications, information systems projects spanning cultures, managing information technology in multidomestic/ international/global/transnational corporations, and global information technology systems and socioeconomic development in developing countries. With 25 authoratative contributions from 34 of the world's leading experts, this publication is a must-have for academic and research libraries.

From cloud computing to big data to mobile technologies, there is a vast supply of information being mined and collected. With an abundant amount of information being accessed, stored, and saved, basic controls are needed to protect and prevent security incidents as well as ensure business continuity. Applications of Security, Mobile, Analytic, and Cloud (SMAC) Technologies for Effective Information Processing and Management is a vital resource that discusses various research findings and innovations in the areas of big data analytics, mobile communication and mobile applications, distributed systems, and information security. With a focus on big data, the internet of things (IoT), mobile technologies, cloud computing, and information security, this book proves a vital resource for computer engineers, IT specialists, software developers, researchers, and graduate-level students seeking current research on SMAC technologies and information security management systems.

This book explores the emerging concept of cultural DNA, considering its application across different fields and examining commonalities in approach. It approaches the subject from four different perspectives, in which the topics include theories, analysis and synthesis of cultural DNA artefacts. After an opening section which reviews theoretical work on cultural DNA research, the second section discusses analysis & synthesis of cultural DNA at the urban scale. Section three covers analysis & synthesis of cultural DNA artefacts, and the final section offers approaches to grammar-based cultural DNA research. The book places emphasis on two specific axes: one is the scale of the object under discussion, which ranges from the small (handheld artefacts) to the very large (cities); and the other is the methodology used from analysis to synthesis. This diverse approach with detailed information about grammar-based methodologies toward cultural DNA makes the book unique. This book will serve as a source of inspiration for designers and researchers trying to find the essence, archetype, and the building blocks of our environment for the incorporation of social and cultural factors into their designs.

The ability to communicate with anyone at anytime, anywhere, necessitates a need to provide reliable, resilient, and sustainable applications to support the evolving uses of mobile technologies. Movement-Aware Applications for Sustainable Mobility: Technologies and Approaches focuses on the use of location sensing technology and its wider applicability in supporting sustainable mobility, and presents current research on developing innovative approaches for gathering, representing, storing and analyzing movement data sets being generated from location sensing technology. Offering a unique opportunity for learning about how different techniques are being used to develop new movement-aware applications, this reference work gives students, researchers and practitioners the opportunity to acquire new concepts in the production, awareness and use of sensors, data, and information products for supporting sustainable mobility.

This book of conference proceedings contains papers presented at the Art and Design International Conference (AnDIC 2016). It examines the impact of Cyberology, also known as Internet Science, on the world of art and design. It looks at how the rapid growth of Cyberology and the creation of various applications and devices have influenced human relationships. The book discusses the impact of Cyberology on the behaviour, attitudes and perceptions of users, including the way they work and communicate. With a strong focus on how the Cyberology world influences and changes the methods and works of artists, this book features topics that are relevant to four key players - artists, intermediaries, policy makers, and the audience - in a cultural system, especially in the world of art and design. It examines the development, problems and issues of traditional cultural values, identity and new trends in contemporary art. Most importantly, the book attempts to discuss the past, present and future of art and design whilst looking at some underlying issues that need to be addressed collectively.

Business processes are becoming increasingly complex and dynamic as they seek to cope with a wide range of internal and external interactions and changes. ""The Handbook of Research on Complex Dynamic Process Management: Techniques for Adaptability in Turbulent Environments"" investigates the nature and history of dynamic processes essential to understanding the need for flexibility and adaptability as well as the requirements to improve solutions. This innovative collection covers the development of various strategies, architectures, and techniques for achieving adaptive processes in environments.