Information Systems (IS) as a discipline draws on diverse areas including, technology, organisational theory, management and social science. The field is recognized as very broad and encompassing many themes and areas. However, the development of artefacts, or information systems development (ISD), in the broadest sense, is a central concern of the discipline. Significantly, ISD impacts on the organisational and societal contexts through the use of the artefacts constructed by the development. Today, that impact also needs to be evaluated in terms of its effects on the environment. Sustainable, or "green," IT is a catch-all term used to describe the development, manufacture, management, use and disposal of ICT in a way that minimizes damage to the environment. As a result, the term has many different meanings, depending on the role assumed in the life span of the ICT artefact. The theme of the proposed work is to critically examine the whole range of issues around ISD from the perspective of sustainability. Sustainable IT is an emerging theme in academic research and industry practice in response to an individual concern for the environment and the embryonic regulatory environments being enacted globally to address the environmental impact of ICT. In this work we intend to bring together in one volume the diverse research around the development of sustainable IS."

Asynchronous Pulse Logic is a comprehensive analysis of a newly developed asynchronous circuit family. The book covers circuit theory, practical circuits, design tools and an example of the design of a simple asynchronous microprocessor using the circuit family. Asynchronous Pulse Logic will be of interest to industrial and academic researcher working on high-speed VLSI systems. Graduate students will find this useful reference for computer-aided design of asynchronous or related VLSI systems.

This book explores the intricate connection between the Single Market, characterized by the freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and labor within and across Europe, and the Digital Single Market, the virtual space that promotes freedom of movement of information and data. Both a result and catalyst of the Single Market, the Digital Single Market has become a different space from the Single Market, as the former is based on the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs), while the latter is the result of concerted actions and concessions by Member States in the European Union. The author argues that, similar to the Single Market, the Digital Single Market is an instrument, built by the influence of the Internet, which can provide a new means of socio-economic growth and development in Europe. While sharing many similar characteristics, the Single Market and the Digital Single Market diverge in important aspects, particularly with respect to policy. The research analyzes the interaction between policy actors, their influence in the European decision-making process, and their interests in order to establish a digital policy model, in comparison with market policy. Moreover, this volume considers the implementation process and the success of such initiatives under the current policy model, and puts forward policy recommendations. Ultimately, the author considers the utility of such research on digital policy, considering the current focus on migration, vulnerabilities to internal challenges (e.g., Brexit) and security threats, maintaining that the discussion of digital policies relates to an innovative vision of the European integration process and prospects for its future.

An in-depth look at soft computing methods and their applications in the human sciences, such as the social and the behavioral sciences. Soft computing methods - including fuzzy systems, neural networks, evolutionary computing and probabilistic reasoning - are state-of-the-art methods in theory formation and model construction. The powerful application areas of these methods in the human sciences are demonstrated, including the replacement of statistical models by simpler numerical or linguistic soft computing models and the use of computer simulations with approximate and linguistic constituents. "Dr. Niskanen's work opens new vistas in application of soft computing, fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory to the human sciences. This book is likely to be viewed in retrospect as a landmark in its field" (Lotfi A. Zadeh, Berkeley)

In the last decade, there has been a burgeoning of activity in the design and implementation of algorithms for algebraic geometric computation. The workshop on Algorithms in Algebraic Geometry that was held in the framework of the IMA Annual Program Year in Applications of Algebraic Geometry by the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications on September 2006 is one tangible indication of the interest. This volume of articles captures some of the spirit of the IMA workshop.

This volume of Analog Circuit Design concentrates on three topics: Operational Amplifiers. A-to-D converters and Analog CAD. The book comprises six papers on each topic written by internationally recognised experts. These papers have a tutorial nature aimed at improving the design of analog circuits. The book is divided into three parts. Part I, Operational Amplifiers, presents new technologies for the design of Op-Amps in both bipolar and CMOS technologies. Two papers demonstrate techniques for improving frequency and gain behavior at high voltage. Low voltage bipolar Op-Amp design is treated in another paper. The realization high-speed and high gain VLSI building blocks in CMOS is demonstrated in two papers. The final paper shows how to provide output power with CMOS buffer amplifiers. Part II, Analog-to-Digital Conversion, presents papers which address very high conversion speeds and very high resolution implementations using sigma-delta modulation architectures. Analog to Digital converters provide the link between the analog world of transducers and the digital world of signal processing and computing. High-performance bipolar and MOS technologies result in high-resolution or high-speed convertors which can be applied in digital audio or video systems. Furthermore, the advanced high-speed bipolar technologies show an increase in conversion speed into the gigahertz range. Part III, Analog Computer Aided Design, presents the latest research towards providing analog circuit designers with the tools needed to automate much of the design process. The techniques and methodologies described demonstrate the advances being made in developing analog design tools comparable with those alreadyavailable for digital design. The papers in this volume are based on those presented at the Workshop on Advances in Analog Circuit Design held in Delft, The Netherlands in 1992. The main intention of the workshop was to brainstorm with a group of about 100 analog design experts on the new possibilities and future developments on the above topics. The result of this brainstorming is contained in Analog Circuit Design, which is thus an important reference for researchers and design engineers working in the forefront of analog circuit design and research.

This book focuses on object-oriented concurrent computing, which can be considered a model of concurrent programming, and proposes a new programming language, ConcurrentSmalltalk, which is based on object-oriented concurrent computing. The book also shows the efficiency of object-oriented concurrent computing through the design, implementation, and evaluation of ConcurrentSmalltalk. ConcurrentSmalltalk is designed to be upwardly compatible with Smalltalk-80. In the book, the ConcurrentSmalltalk object model is first proposed. Next, issues which arise from maintaining compatibility with Smalltalk-80 are discussed. Finally, the ConcurrentSmalltalk virtual machine which executes the ConcurrentSmalltalk programs is proposed.

Client/Server applications are of increasing importance in industry, and have been improved by advanced distributed object-oriented techniques, dedicated tool support and both multimedia and mobile computing extensions. Recent responses to this trend are standardized distributed platforms and models including the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) of the Open Software Foundation (OS F), Open Distributed Processing (ODP), and the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) of the Object Management Group (OMG). These proceedings are the compilation of papers from the technical stream of the IFIPIIEEE International Conference on Distributed Platforms, Dresden, Germany. This conference has been sponsored by IFIP TC6.1, by the IEEE Communications Society, and by the German Association of Computer Science (GI -Gesellschaft fur Informatik). ICDP'96 was organized jointly by Dresden University of Technology and Aachen University of Technology. It is closely related to the International Workshop on OSF DCE in Karlsruhe, 1993, and to the IFIP International Conference on Open Distributed Processing. ICDP has been designed to bring together researchers and practitioners who are studying and developing new methodologies, tools and technologies for advanced client/server environ ments, distributed systems, and network applications based on distributed platforms."

In todaya (TM)s competitive world, industries are focusing on shorter lead times, improved quality, reduced cost, increased profit, improved productivity and better customer service. As ERP and other information management systems have been widely implemented, information growth poses new challenges to decision makers in areas ranging from shop floor control to supply chain management and design.

Frontiers in Computing Technologies for Manufacturing Applications presents an overview of the state-of-the-art intelligent computing in manufacturing. Modelling, data processing, algorithms and computational analysis of difficult problems found in advanced manufacturing are discussed. It is the first book to bring together combinatorial optimization, information systems and fault diagnosis and monitoring in a consistent manner. Techniques are presented in order to aid decision makers needing to consider multiple, conflicting objectives in their decision processes. In particular, the use of metaheuristic optimization techniques for multi-objective problems is discussed. Readers will learn about computational technologies that can improve the performance of manufacturing systems ranging from manufacturing equipment to supply chains.

Frontiers in Computing Technologies for Manufacturing Applications will be of interest to students in industrial and mechanical engineering as well as information engineers needing practical examples for the successful integration of information in manufacturing applications. The book will also appeal to technical decision makers involved in production planning, logistics, supply chain, industrial ecology, manufacturing information systems, faultdiagnosis and monitoring.

On Optimal Interconnections for VLSI describes, from a geometric perspective, algorithms for high-performance, high-density interconnections during the global and detailed routing phases of circuit layout. First, the book addresses area minimization, with a focus on near-optimal approximation algorithms for minimum-cost Steiner routing. In addition to practical implementations of recent methods, the implications of recent results on spanning tree degree bounds and the method of Zelikovsky are discussed. Second, the book addresses delay minimization, starting with a discussion of accurate, yet algorithmically tractable, delay models. Recent minimum-delay constructions are highlighted, including provably good cost-radius tradeoffs, critical-sink routing algorithms, Elmore delay-optimal routing, graph Steiner arborescences, non-tree routing, and wiresizing. Third, the book addresses skew minimization for clock routing and prescribed-delay routing formulations. The discussion starts with early matching-based constructions and goes on to treat zero-skew routing with provably minimum wirelength, as well as planar clock routing. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of multiple (competing) objectives, i.e., how to optimize area, delay, skew, and other objectives simultaneously. These techniques are useful when the routing instance has heterogeneous resources or is highly congested, as in FPGA routing, multi-chip packaging, and very dense layouts. Throughout the book, the emphasis is on practical algorithms and a complete self-contained development. On Optimal Interconnections for VLSI will be of use to both circuit designers (CAD tool users) as well as researchers and developers in the area of performance-driven physical design.

Computer Aided Innovation (CAI) is a young domain, the goal of which is to support enterprises throughout the complete innovation process. This comprehensive book presents the most up-to-date research on CAI. It addresses the main motivations of the industrial sector regarding the engineering innovation activity with computer tools and methods. The book also discusses organizational, technological and cognitive aspects of the application of CAI methods and tools.

Computational models can be found everywhere in present day science and engineering. In providing a logical framework and foundation for the specification and design of specification languages, Raymond Turner uses this framework to introduce and study computable models. In doing so he presents the first systematic attempt to provide computational models with a logical foundation.

Computable models have wide-ranging applications from programming language semantics and specification languages, through to knowledge representation languages and formalism for natural language semantics. They are also implicit in computer modelling in many areas of physical and social science.

This detailed investigation into the logical foundations of specification and specification languages and their application to the definition of programming languages, coupled with a clear exposition of theories of data and computable models as mathematical notions will be welcomed by researchers and graduate students.

"Pro Crystal Enterprise/BusinessObjects XI Programming" shows you how to create customized solutions using the Business Objects/Crystal Enterprise object model. Here youll see the object model utilized to create professional-quality tools like on-demand web services, report metadata extraction, scheduling, security, and user management.

Author Carl Ganz explains in detail how to build advanced reporting solutions for Crystal Enterprise/Business Objects XI. He shows how to integrate CE/BO XI with .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio to create more flexible, tailored, and responsive reporting solutions than have previously been possible. In short, you'll surpass what you thought you could achieve, and learn to create almost any imaginable reporting solution that Business Objects XI can handle.

Sparse grids have gained increasing interest in recent years for the numerical treatment of high-dimensional problems. Whereas classical numerical discretization schemes fail in more than three or four dimensions, sparse grids make it possible to overcome the curse of dimensionality to some degree, extending the number of dimensions that can be dealt with. This volume of LNCSE collects the papers from the proceedings of the second workshop on sparse grids and applications, demonstrating once again the importance of this numerical discretization scheme. The selected articles present recent advances on the numerical analysis of sparse grids as well as efficient data structures, and the range of applications extends to uncertainty quantification settings and clustering, to name but a few examples.
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As instructors move further into the incorporation of 21st century technologies in adult education, a new paradigm of digitally-enriched mediated learning has emerged. ""Adult Learning in the Digital Age: Perspectives on Online Technologies and Outcomes"" provides a comprehensive framework of trends and issues related to adult learning for the facilitation of authentic learning in the age of digital technology. This significant reference source offers researchers, academicians, and practitioners a valuable compendium of expert ideas, practical experiences, field challenges, and potential opportunities concerning the advancement of new technological and pedagogical techniques used in adult schooling.

In recent years, building information modeling has become a very active research area of construction informatics with investigation of ICT use within construction industry processes and organizations. The Handbook of Research on Building Information Modeling and Construction Informatics: Concepts and Technologies addresses the problems related to information integration and interoperability throughout the lifecycle of a building, from feasibility and conceptual design through to demolition and recycling stages. Containing research from leading international experts, this Handbook of Research provides comprehensive coverage and definitions of the most important issues, concepts, trends, and technologies within the field.

Organisational Semiotics offers an effective approach to analysing organisations and modelling organisational behaviour. The methods and techniques derived from Organisational Semiotics enable us to study the organisation by examining how information is created and used for communication, coordination and performance of actions towards organisational objectives. The latest development of the young discipline and its applications have been reported in this book, which provides a useful guide and a valuable reference to anyone working in the areas of organisational study and information systems development.

With the rapid advancement in information technologies, e-business is rapidly growing in significance and is having a direct impact upon business applications and technologies.

Privacy, Security and Trust within the Context of Pervasive Computing is an edited volume based on a post workshop at the second international conference on Pervasive Computing. The workshop was held April18-23, 2004, in Vienna, Austria.

The goal of the workshop was not to focus on specific, even novel mechanisms, but rather on the interfaces between mechanisms in different technical and social problem spaces. An investigation of the interfaces between the notions of context, privacy, security, and trust will result in a deeper understanding of the "atomic" problems, leading to a more complete understanding of the social and technical issues in pervasive computing.

This book encapsulates some work done in the DIRC project concerned with trust and responsibility in socio-technical systems. It brings together a range of disciplinary approaches - computer science, sociology and software engineering - to produce a socio-technical systems perspective on the issues surrounding trust in technology in complex settings. Computer systems can only bring about their purported benefits if functionality, users and usability are central to their design and deployment. Thus, technology can only be trusted in situ and in everyday use if these issues have been brought to bear on the process of technology design, implementation and use. The studies detailed in this book analyse the ways in which trust in technology is achieved and/or worked around in everyday situations in a range of settings - including hospitals, a steelworks, a public enquiry, the financial services sector and air traffic control.

While a typical project manager s responsibility and accountability are both limited to a project with a clear start and end date, IT managers are responsible for an ongoing, ever-changing process for which they must adapt and evolve to stay updated, dependable, and secure in their field. Professional Advancements and Management Trends in the IT Sector offers the latest managerial trends within the field of information technology management. By collecting research from experts from around the world, in a variety of sectors and levels of technical expertise, this volume offers a broad variety of case studies, best practices, methodologies, and research within the field of information technology management. It will serve as a vital resource for practitioners and academics alike.

Digital Timing Macromodeling for VLSI Design Verification first of all provides an extensive history of the development of simulation techniques. It presents detailed discussion of the various techniques implemented in circuit, timing, fast-timing, switch-level timing, switch-level, and gate-level simulation. It also discusses mixed-mode simulation and interconnection analysis methods. The review in Chapter 2 gives an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the many techniques applied in modern digital macromodels. The book also presents a wide variety of techniques for performing nonlinear macromodeling of digital MOS subcircuits which address a large number of shortcomings in existing digital MOS macromodels. Specifically, the techniques address the device model detail, transistor coupling capacitance, effective channel length modulation, series transistor reduction, effective transconductance, input terminal dependence, gate parasitic capacitance, the body effect, the impact of parasitic RC-interconnects, and the effect of transmission gates. The techniques address major sources of errors in existing macromodeling techniques, which must be addressed if macromodeling is to be accepted in commercial CAD tools by chip designers. The techniques presented in Chapters 4-6 can be implemented in other macromodels, and are demonstrated using the macromodel presented in Chapter 3. The new techniques are validated over an extremely wide range of operating conditions: much wider than has been presented for previous macromodels, thus demonstrating the wide range of applicability of these techniques.

The papers in this volume comprise the refereed proceedings of the First Int- national Conference on Computer and Computing Technologies in Agriculture (CCTA 2007), in Wuyishan, China, 2007. This conference is organized by China Agricultural University, Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and the Beijing Society for Information Technology in Agriculture. The purpose of this conference is to facilitate the communication and cooperation between institutions and researchers on theories, methods and implementation of computer science and information technology. By researching information technology development and the - sources integration in rural areas in China, an innovative and effective approach is expected to be explored to promote the technology application to the development of modern agriculture and contribute to the construction of new countryside. The rapid development of information technology has induced substantial changes and impact on the development of China's rural areas. Western thoughts have exerted great impact on studies of Chinese information technology devel- ment and it helps more Chinese and western scholars to expand their studies in this academic and application area. Thus, this conference, with works by many prominent scholars, has covered computer science and technology and information development in China's rural areas; and probed into all the important issues and the newest research topics, such as Agricultural Decision Support System and Expert System, GIS, GPS, RS and Precision Farming, CT applications in Rural Area, Agricultural System Simulation, Evolutionary Computing, etc.