In the past decade visualization established its importance both in scientific research and in real-world applications. In this book 21 research papers and 9 case studies report on the latest results in volume and flow visualization and information visualization. Thus it is a valuable source of information not only for researchers but also for practitioners developing or using visualization applications.

The correct development of large / com plex pieces of software demands a thorough structuring of the design process. In a first phase the requirements engineering is relevant for capturing the relevant functionality and its adequate formalization in precise mathematical definitions. Prototyping can can be used as a means for checking the functional behaviour at this early stage of development. The ade quate specification resulting from the first phase is then the basis for the second phase which comprises the derivation of an implementation. This phase requires the use of formal methods and tools to verify/validate the implementation. A prerequisite for applying this approach is to have a suitable mechanical support. This volume contains the proceedings of the International Workshop Tool Support for System Specification, Development and Verification organized June 1 - 4, 1998, in Malente, Germany. This workshop is the third in a series of events devoted to this topic. The first two workshops were held in 1994 in Kiel and 1996 in Bremen, Germany. The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for researchers interested in the use and development of tools which support the use of mathematical techniques for the specification, development and verification of systems. The workshop covers the spectrum from verification tools to graphical editors and compilers. The program of the workshop included an invited lecture and 26 talks. The invited lecture was given by F.W. von Henke (University ofUlm) on Mechanized formal methods and system design."

The 9th Eurographics workshop on Animation and Simulation was held on Au- gust 31st -September 1st, 1998, at INESC Lisbon. The workshop was chaired by Bruno Arnaldi (IRISA Rennes, France) and Gerard Hegron (Ecole des Mines de Nantes, France). The local organizer Mario Rui Gomes (INESC Lisbon, Por- tugal) notably contributed to provide a harmonious environment. The main theme of this seventh workshop was centered on Virtual Reality versus Anima- tion and Simulation: from real time animation/simulation to physical perception of virtual environments. About twenty participants attended the workshop, rep- resenting eight countries: France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal, Germany and USA. The Program Committee selected eight papers among sub- mitted papers. Thirteen minutes of presentation and fifteen minutes discussion time per paper was also planned; this approach succeeded in creating a stimu- lating exchange atmosphere during the two days. Four sessions have been organized : Applications : in this session, two papers were presented, the first one deals with the use of simulation in natural desasters prevention while the second one concerns dynamic light sources for radiosity environments natural simulation : the first paper of this session presents works on real time behavioral simulation from psychological studies, the second one deals with identification of motion for living beeing. Interaction : the first paper presents a method for interactively animate solid using displacement contraints and the second paper presents the modeling of objects for interactive virtual human tasks.

Systems approaches are excellent in integrating insights in the physical, chemical, Systemsapproachesareexcellentinintegratinginsightsinthephysical, chemical, physiological and ecological processes that dictate the behaviour of living systems, of physiologicalandecologicalprocessesthatdictatethebehaviouroflivingsystems, of which which agro-ecosystems agro-ecosystems are are important importantones. ones. Furthermore, Furthermore, they theyhelp help to tobridge bridge the the gap gap between betweendetailed detailed process processoriented oriented studies studies and and higher higherintegration integration levels. levels. Systems Systems approaches approaches are are roughly roughlycategorized categorized in inthree three groups groups of of studies: studies: (i) (i) predictive predictive studies studies to to support support decision decision making making and and guide guide interventions, interventions, (ii) (ii) systems systemsanalysis analysis and and simulation simulation in inorder order to toget get insight insight and and understanding understandingof of the the functioning functioningof of (living) (living) systems, systems, and and (iii) (iii) explorative explorative studies studies to to investigate investigate possible possible options options for for development development and and trade trade offs offs of of aims, aims, objectives objectives and andconstraints. constraints. All All these these systems systems approaches approaches are are now nowwidely widely used used in inecological ecological systems systems including including agriculture, agriculture, and and applied appliedin in land landuse use planning. planning. This This book book is is an an introduction introduction to toone one of ofthe the major majorfields: fields: systems systems analysis analysis and and simula simula tion. tion."

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the First International Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems and Agent-Based Simulation, MABS'98, held in Paris, France in July 1998 in conjunction with Agent World 1998. The 15 revised full papers presented together with an introduction by the volume editors were selected from a total of more than 50 submissions. Among the topics covered are multi-agent systems, social simulation, agent-based modelling, cognitive emergence, honey-bee colonies, artificial societies, economic aspects, cultural evolution, roles in agent systems, applications in various areas, etc.

19 papers presented by international experts give a state-of-the-art survey of the relevant problems and issues in modeling, CAD/CAM, scientific visualization, and computational geometry. The following topics are treated: * surface design and fairing * subdivision schemes * variational design * NURBS * reverse engineering * physically-based modelling * medical imaging

The CAPTECH'98 workshop took place at the University of Geneva on November 26-27, 1998, sponsored by FIP Working Group 5.10 (Computer Graphics and Virtual Worlds) and the Suisse Romande regional doctoral seminar in computer science. The subject of the conference was ongoing research in data capture and interpretation. The goals of capturing real world data in order to perceive, understand, and interpret them and then reacting to them in a suitable way are currently important research problems. These data can be very diverse: sounds, emotions, shapes, motions, forces, muscles, actions, etc. Once captured, they have to be treated either to make the invisible visible, or to understand a particular phenomenon so as to formulate an appropriate reaction, or to integrate various information in a new multimedia format. The conference included six sessions of presented papers and three panel discussions. Invited speakers treating various aspects of the topic were: Professor R. Earnshaw from Bradford University, Professor T. L. Kunii from Hosei University, and Professor P. Robert from EPFL. Professor K. Bauknecht, of the University of Zurich, President of IFIP, offered the welcoming address. Mr. E. Badique, project officer for the EU in Brussels, discussed recent results of the EU ACTS research program. Finally, the Geneva Computer Animation '98 Film Festival highlighted the evening of November 26."

I would like to welcome you to Singapore and the 17th International Conf- enceonConceptualModeling(ER 98).Thisconferenceprovidesaninternational forum for technical discussion on conceptual modeling of information systems among researchers, developers and users. This is the ?rst time that this c- ference is held in Asia, and Singapore is a very exciting place to host ER 98. We hope that you will ?nd the technical program and workshops useful and stimulating. The technical program of the conference was selected by the distinguished program committee consisting of two co-chairs and 83 members. Credit for the excellent?nalprogramisduetoTokWangLingandSudhaRam.Specialthanks to Frederick H. Lochovsky for selecting interesting panels, and Alain Pirotte for preparation of attractive tutorials. I would also like to thank Yong Meng Teo (PublicityChair), andtheregionco-ordinators, AlbertoLaender, ErichNeuhold, Shiwei Tang, and Masaaki Tsubaki, for taking care of publicity. The following three workshops are also organized to discuss speci?c t- ics of data modeling and databases: International Workshop on Data Wa- housing and Data Mining organized by Sham Navathe (Workshop chair) and MukeshMohania(ProgramCommitteeChair), InternationalWorkshoponNew Database Technologies for Collaborative Work Support and Spatio-Temporal DataManagement organizedbyYoshifumiMasunaga, and InternationalWo- shop on Mobile Data Access organized by Dik L. Lee. Ee Peng Lim took care of all detailed work related to the workshops. I would like to thank all these people who organized the workshops as well as the members of program committees. The workshop proceedings will be published jointly after the workshop."

Some of the best current research on realistic rendering is included in this volume. It emphasizes the current "hot topics in this field: image based rendering, and efficient local and global-illumination calculations. In the first of these areas, there are several contributions on real-world model acquisition and display, on using image-based techniques for illumination and on efficient ways to parameterize and compress images or light fields, as well as on clever uses of texture and compositing hardware to achieve image warping and 3D surface textures. In global and local illumination, there are contributions on extending the techniques beyond diffuse reflections, to include specular and more general angle dependent reflection functions, on efficiently representing and approximating these reflection functions, on representing light sources and on approximating visibility and shadows. Finally, there are two contributions on how to use knowledge about human perception to concentrate the work of accurate rendering only where it will be noticed, and a survey of computer graphics techniques used in the production of a feature length computer-animated film with full 3D characters.

In twelve selected papers common problems in scientific visualization are discussed: adaptive and multi-resolution methods, feature extraction, flow visualization, and visualization quality. Four papers focus on aspects of mesh reduction, mesh compression, and increasing the quality of the resulting mesh. Two extentions on particle tracing are presented as well as a paper on the simulation of material transport. Two papers are on feature extraction in dynamics systems and on the accuracy of algorithmic extracted features. Three papers focus on stereoscopic volume rendering, on the visualization of atomic collision cascades and of quality of visualization systems in general.

Aiming to "modernise" the course through the integration of Mathematica, this publication introduces students to its multivariable uses, instructs them on its use as a tool in simplifying calculations, and presents introductions to geometry, mathematical physics, and kinematics. The authors make it clear that Mathematica is not algorithms, but at the same time, they clearly see the ways in which Mathematica can make things cleaner, clearer and simpler. The sets of problems give students an opportunity to practice their newly learned skills, covering simple calculations, simple plots, a review of one-variable calculus using Mathematica for symbolic differentiation, integration and numerical integration, and also cover the practice of incorporating text and headings into a Mathematica notebook. The accompanying diskette contains both Mathematica 2.2 and 3.0 version notebooks, as well as sample examination problems for students, which can be used with any standard multivariable calculus textbook. It is assumed that students will also have access to an introductory primer for Mathematica.

High-temperature materials is a fast-moving research area with numerous practical applications. Materials that can withstand extremely high temperatures and extreme environments are generating considerable attention worldwide; however, designing materials that have low densities, elevated melting temperatures, oxidation resistance, creep resistance, and intrinsic toughness encompass some of the most challenging problems in materials science.
The current search for high-temperature materials is largely based on traditional, trial-and-error experimental methods which are costly and time-consuming. An effective way to accelerate research in this field is to use recent advances in materials simulations and high performance computing and communications (HPCC) to guide experiments. This synergy between experiment and advanced materials modeling will significantly enhance the synthesis of novel high-temperature materials.
This volume collects recent work from experimental and computational scientists on high-temperature materials and emphasizes the potential for collaboration. It features state-of-the-art materials modeling and recent experimental developments in high-temperature materials. Topics include fundamental phenomena and properties; measurements and modeling of interfacial phenomena, stresses, growth of defects, strain, and fracture; and electronic structure and molecular dynamics.

This volume will contain papers from the 5th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, University of Birmingham, UK, 8-10 September 1998. The theme of the workshop is Connectionist Models in Cognitive Neuroscience, a topic which covers many important issues ranging from modelling physiological structure, to cognitive function and its disorders in neuropsychological and psychiatric cases. The workshop is intended to bring together researchers from such diverse disciplines as artificial intelligence, applied mathematics, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, philosophy and psychology, to discuss their work on the connectionist modelling of psychology. The papers will provide a state of the art summary of ongoing research in this exciting and fast-moving field. As such this volume will provide a valuable contribution to the Perspectives in Neural Computing series.

We never create anything, We discover and reproduce. The Twelfth International Conference on Industrial and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems has a distinguished theme. It is concerned with bridging the gap between the academic and the industrial worlds of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Expert Systems. The academic world is mainly concerned with discovering new algorithms, approaches, and methodologies; however, the industrial world is mainly driven by profits, and concerned with producing new products or solving customers problems. Ten years ago, the artificial intelligence research gap between academia and industry was very broad. Recently, this gap has been narrowed by the emergence of new fields and new joint research strategies in academia. Among the new fields which contributed to the academic-industrial convergence are knowledge representation, machine learning, searching, reasoning, distributed AI, neural networks, data mining, intelligent agents, robotics, pattern recognition, vision, applications of expert systems, and others. It is worth noting that the end results of research in these fields are usually products rather than empirical analyses and theoretical proofs. Applications of such technologies have found great success in many domains including fraud detection, internet service, banking, credit risk and assessment, telecommunication, etc. Progress in these areas has encouraged the leading corporations to institute research funding programs for academic institutes. Others have their own research laboratories, some of which produce state of the art research."

Computer simulation is increasingly used in physics and engineering to predict the probable outcome of experiments and to aid in their interpretation. The methods of simulation are based on a range of numerical techniques for treating ordinary and partial differential equations. Since much of physics can be broken down into a relatively small set of fundamental equations, there is a set of very general methods which can be widely applied. This text aims to give an introduction to those methods suitable for readers at an undergraduate level and those meeting the subject for the first time at postgraduate level. The methods are illustrated with simple programs and problems. The book covers a range of material not available in a simple form in a single text elsewhere.

Turbidite sandstone successions are common elements of the stratigraphic content of sedimentary basins, and are important hydrocarbon reservoirs in many parts of the world. This book addresses the important issue of mass-flow sedimentation modelling in the framework of basin-fill dynamics and sequence stratigraphy. The proposed computer algorithm, based on the slope instability criterion and DEMOSTRAT's diffusion equation, can be used to predict the timing and spatial effects of mass-flow sedimentation in a sedimentary basin under conditions specified by the modeller. This volume is for researchers, lecturers and postgraduate students. It will be of particular interest to petroleum geologists and those working for oil companies concerned with exploration of deep-marine siliciclastic successions for hydrocarbon reserves.

Economists are increasingly using computer simulations to understand the implications of their theoretical models and to make policy recommendations. New model solution techniques are required to deal with the increasingly important role of dynamics and uncertainty in macroeconomics. This book consists of articles by leading contributors in the field showing how to use these techniques in the context of standard macroeconomic models.

This book contains papers presented at the Noblesse Workshop on Non-linear model based image analysis held in Glasgow, 1-3 July 1998. Current models have mainly been developed for image coding purposes. They are rather simple and far away from being optimal and do not contribute to more complex tasks like those needed in image databases. This book meets the challenging tasks in multimedia applications by discussing new sophisticated model-based schemes for a high-level description of images and image sequences. Novel results are covered in the papers presented in this book, opening new potential fields of application like the support for building databases in multimedia applications, image archiving and image sequence coding, including such topics as: - 3D Image Models; Image/Video Restoration; Segmentation and Object Oriented Coding; Colour Image Processing; Database Retrieval; Image Models; Video Pre- and Post processing

Written by leaders in the field of computer clothing design and simulation, Cloth Modeling and Animation is a vital resource for researchers and developers of cloth simulation software as well as computer animators and graphics programmers. Readers will learn about cloth's nature and structure, scientific approaches to understanding its behavior and look, and the latest modeling and simulation techniques for automatically animating cloth on the computer.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery, DGCI '97, held in Montpellier, France, in December 1997. The volume presents 17 revised full papers together with three invited full papers. The contributions are organized in sections on 2D recognition, discrete shapes and planes, surfaces, topology, features, and from principles to applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER '97, held in Los Angeles, California, USA, in November 1997.
The 32 revised full papers presented in the book were carefully selected from a total of 93 submissions. Also included are two full invited papers.The volume is divided in topical sections on automated design, temporal modeling, languages, activity modeling, applied modeling, object-oriented modeling, theoretical issues in modeling, experience and applications, distributed systems, integration, and tools.

This book constitutes a refereed post-workshop selection of papers presented at the 6th International Workshop on Computer-Aided Systems Theory, EUROCAST'97, held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, in February 1997. The 50 revised full papers presented were carefully selected for inclusion in the volume. The book is divided into sections on design environments and tools, theory and methods, engineering systems, intelligent systems, signal processing, and specific methods and applications.

This volume contains the research papers presented at the Eighth Eurographics Workshop on Computer Animation and Simulation which took place in Budapest, Hungary, September 2-3, 1997. The workshop is an international forum for research in human animation, physically-based modeling, motion control, animation systems, and other key aspects of animation and simulation. The problem of realistically and efficiently modeling the motion of people, ob- jects, fluids, etc. remains a significant challenge in computer graphics. This workshop is representative of the continuing interest in this field of study. This year, animation and simulation of human shape and motion is of particular interest. In fact, nine of the papers in this volume deal with techniques which are applicable to human animation. Others are concerned with equally interesting dy- namic natural phenomena, such as clouds, plant development, and coastal scenes. The call for papers required submission of the full papers for review, and each paper was reviewed by at least 3 members on the international program committee, consisting of: Bruno Arnaldi (IRISA/INRIA Rennes, France) Norman Badler (University of Pennsylvania, U. S. A. ) Ronan Boulic (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland) Michael Cohen (Microsoft, U. S. A. ) Sabine Coquillart (INRIA, France) David Forsey (University of British Columbia, Canada) Marie-Paule Gascuel (iMAGIS-IMAG, France) Gerard Hegron (Ecoles des Mines de Nantes, France) Jessica Hodgins (Georgia Institute of Technology, U. S. A.

th This book is devoted to the 19 Meeting of the EURO Working Group on Financial Modelling, held in Chania, Crete, Greece,November28-30, 1996. The EURO Working Group on Financial Modelling was founded in September 1986 in Lisbon. The primary field of interest for the Working Group can be described as "the development of financial models that help to solve problems facedby financial managers in the firm". From this point of view, the following objectivesof the Working Group are distinguished: * providing an international forum for exchange of information and experience on financial modelling; * encouraging research in financial modelling (i. e. new techniques, methodologies, software,empirical studies,etc. ); * stimulating and strengthening the interaction between financial economic theory and the practice of financial decision making; * cooperating and exchanging information with universities and financial institutions throughout Europe. According to the aboveobjectives,the basic aim of this book is to present some new operational approaches (i. e. neural nets, multicriteria analysis, new optimization algorithms, decision software, etc. ) for financial modelling, both in a theoretical and practical levels. Thus, the present volume is divided in nine chapters. The first chapter refers to the new trends in financial modelling and includes two invited papers by Gil-Aluja and Pardalos. The second chapter involves papers on the topic of high performance computing and finance which is a European union project in which participate some members of the EURO Working Group on Financial Modelling (Spronk, Zenios, Dempster, etc. ).

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th European Workshop on Knowledge Acquisition, Modelling and Management, EKAW '97, held in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Catalonia, Spain, in October 1997.
The 20 revised full papers and 11 short papers presented were carefully selected from numerous submissions. Also included is one invited presentation. Among the topics covered are the mainstream knowledge acquisition issues, but also more innovative ones, knowledge integration, enterprise modelling, knowledge reuse, natural language processing, problem solving, knowledge extraction, Web-based knowledge systems, machine learning, data mining, etc.