There is widespread interest in the way that smart energy control systems, such as assessment and monitoring techniques for low carbon, nearly-zero energy and net positive buildings can contribute to a Sustainable future, for current and future generations. There is a turning point on the horizon for the supply of energy from finite resources such as natural gas and oil become less reliable in economic terms and extraction become more challenging, and more unacceptable socially, such as adverse public reaction to 'fracking'. Thus, in 2016 these challenges are having a major influence on the design, optimisation, performance measurements, operation and preservation of: buildings, neighbourhoods, cities, regions, countries and continents. The source and nature of energy, the security of supply and the equity of distribution, the environmental impact of its supply and utilization, are all crucial matters to be addressed by suppliers, consumers, governments, industry, academia, and financial institutions. This book entitled 'Smart Energy Control Systems for Sustainable Buildings' contains eleven chapters written by international experts based on enhanced conference papers presented at the Sustainability and Energy in Buildings International conference series. This book will be of interest to University staff and students; and also industry practioners.

The book presents an integrative review of paleoneurology, the study of endocranial morphology in fossil species. The main focus is on showing how computed methods can be used to support advances in evolutionary neuroanatomy, paleoanthropology and archaeology and how they have contributed to creating a completely new perspective in cognitive neuroscience. Moreover, thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, the book addresses students and researchers approaching human paleoneurology from different angles and for different purposes, such as biologists, physicians, anthropologists, archaeologists and computer scientists. The individual chapters, written by international experts, represent authoritative reviews of the most important topics in the field. All the concepts are presented in an easy-to-understand style, making them accessible to university students, newcomers and also to anyone interested in understanding how methods like biomedical imaging, digital anatomy and computed and multivariate morphometrics can be used for analyzing ontogenetic and phylogenetic changes according to the principles of functional morphology, morphological integration and modularity.

This book explains the most prominent and some promising new, general techniques that combine metaheuristics with other optimization methods. A first introductory chapter reviews the basic principles of local search, prominent metaheuristics, and tree search, dynamic programming, mixed integer linear programming, and constraint programming for combinatorial optimization purposes. The chapters that follow present five generally applicable hybridization strategies, with exemplary case studies on selected problems: incomplete solution representations and decoders; problem instance reduction; large neighborhood search; parallel non-independent construction of solutions within metaheuristics; and hybridization based on complete solution archives. The authors are among the leading researchers in the hybridization of metaheuristics with other techniques for optimization, and their work reflects the broad shift to problem-oriented rather than algorithm-oriented approaches, enabling faster and more effective implementation in real-life applications. This hybridization is not restricted to different variants of metaheuristics but includes, for example, the combination of mathematical programming, dynamic programming, or constraint programming with metaheuristics, reflecting cross-fertilization in fields such as optimization, algorithmics, mathematical modeling, operations research, statistics, and simulation. The book is a valuable introduction and reference for researchers and graduate students in these domains.

This book examines the principles of and advances in personalized task recommendation in crowdsourcing systems, with the aim of improving their overall efficiency. It discusses the challenges faced by personalized task recommendation when crowdsourcing systems channel human workforces, knowledge, skills and perspectives beyond traditional organizational boundaries. The solutions presented help interested individuals find tasks that closely match their personal interests and capabilities in a context of ever-increasing opportunities of participating in crowdsourcing activities. In order to explore the design of mechanisms that generate task recommendations based on individual preferences, the book first lays out a conceptual framework that guides the analysis and design of crowdsourcing systems. Based on a comprehensive review of existing research, it then develops and evaluates a new kind of task recommendation service that integrates with existing systems. The resulting prototype provides a platform for both the field study and the practical implementation of task recommendation in productive environments.

This edited volume is devoted to Big Data Analysis from a Machine Learning standpoint as presented by some of the most eminent researchers in this area. It demonstrates that Big Data Analysis opens up new research problems which were either never considered before, or were only considered within a limited range. In addition to providing methodological discussions on the principles of mining Big Data and the difference between traditional statistical data analysis and newer computing frameworks, this book presents recently developed algorithms affecting such areas as business, financial forecasting, human mobility, the Internet of Things, information networks, bioinformatics, medical systems and life science. It explores, through a number of specific examples, how the study of Big Data Analysis has evolved and how it has started and will most likely continue to affect society. While the benefits brought upon by Big Data Analysis are underlined, the book also discusses some of the warnings that have been issued concerning the potential dangers of Big Data Analysis along with its pitfalls and challenges.

This monograph presents the concept of agents and agent systems. It starts with a formal approach and then presents examples of practical applications. In order to form the principles of construction of autonomous agents, a model of the agent is introduced. Subsequent parts of the monograph include several examples of applications of the term agent. Descriptions of different examples of applications of agent systems in such fields as evolution systems, mobile robot systems, artificial intelligence systems are given. The book constitutes an outline of methodology of the design and realization of agent systems based on the M-agent architecture oriented on different areas of applications.

This thesis develops several systematic and unified approaches for analyzing dynamic systems with positive characteristics or a more general cone invariance property. Based on these analysis results, it uses linear programming tools to address static output feedback synthesis problems with a focus on optimal gain performances. Owing to their low computational complexity, the established controller design algorithms are applicable for large-scale systems. The theory and control strategies developed will not only be useful in handling large-scale positive delay systems with improved solvability and at lower cost, but also further our understanding of the system characteristics in other related areas, such as distributed coordination of networked multi-agent systems, formation control of multiple robots.

This book presents a unique approach to stream data mining. Unlike the vast majority of previous approaches, which are largely based on heuristics, it highlights methods and algorithms that are mathematically justified. First, it describes how to adapt static decision trees to accommodate data streams; in this regard, new splitting criteria are developed to guarantee that they are asymptotically equivalent to the classical batch tree. Moreover, new decision trees are designed, leading to the original concept of hybrid trees. In turn, nonparametric techniques based on Parzen kernels and orthogonal series are employed to address concept drift in the problem of non-stationary regressions and classification in a time-varying environment. Lastly, an extremely challenging problem that involves designing ensembles and automatically choosing their sizes is described and solved. Given its scope, the book is intended for a professional audience of researchers and practitioners who deal with stream data, e.g. in telecommunication, banking, and sensor networks.

This is the proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition (DCC'18) held at the Polytecnico di Milano in Italy. This volume presents both advances in theory and applications and demonstrates the depth and breadth of design computing and design cognition. Design thinking, the label given to the acts of designing, has become a paradigmatic view that has transcended the discipline of design and is now widely used in business and elsewhere. As a consequence there is an increasing interest in design research. This volume contains papers that represent the state-of-the-art research and developments in design computing and design cognition. This book is of particular interest to researchers, developers and users of advanced computation in design and those who need to gain a better understanding of designing that can be obtained through empirical studies.

DeLancey shows that our best philosophical and scientific understanding of the emotions provides essential insights on key questions in the philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence. This is the first such book to offer this perspective. Passionate Engines also provides a bold new approach to the study of the mind based on the latest scientific research and along the way, provides an accessible overview of the science of emotion, with minimal jargon and explanation of the technical issues that arise. It is accessible to a wide range of readers, including philosophers, psychologists, computer scientists, and others in disciplines touching on cognitive science.

This book provides an overview of intelligent decision-making techniques and discusses their application in production and retail operations. Manufacturing and retail enterprises have stringent standards for using advanced and reliable techniques to improve decision-making processes, since these processes have significant effects on the performance of relevant operations and the entire supply chain. In recent years, researchers have been increasingly focusing attention on using intelligent techniques to solve various decision-making problems. The opening chapters provide an introduction to several commonly used intelligent techniques, such as genetic algorithm, harmony search, neural network and extreme learning machine. The book then explores the use of these techniques for handling various production and retail decision-making problems, such as production planning and scheduling, assembly line balancing, and sales forecasting.

This book addresses information technologies recently applied in the field of construction safety. Combining case studies, literature reviews and interviews to study the issue, it presents cutting-edge applications of various information technologies (ITs) in construction in different parts of the world, together with a wealth of figures, tables and examples. Though primarily intended for researchers and experts in the field, the book will also benefit graduate students.

This book provides readers with a timely and comprehensive yet concise view on the field of fuzzy logic and its real-world applications. The chapters, written by authoritative scholars in the field, report on promising new models for data analysis, decision making, and systems modeling, with a special emphasis on their applications in management science. The book is a token of appreciation from the fuzzy research community to Professor Christer Carlsson for his long time research and organizational commitment, which have among other things resulted in the foundation and success of the Institute for Advanced Management Systems Research (IAMSR) at Abo Akademi University, in Abo (Turku), Finland. The book serves as timely guide for the fuzzy logic and operations research communities alike.

This book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date treatise of a range of methodological and algorithmic issues. It also discusses implementations and case studies, identifies the best design practices, and assesses data analytics business models and practices in industry, health care, administration and business.Data science and big data go hand in hand and constitute a rapidly growing area of research and have attracted the attention of industry and business alike. The area itself has opened up promising new directions of fundamental and applied research and has led to interesting applications, especially those addressing the immediate need to deal with large repositories of data and building tangible, user-centric models of relationships in data. Data is the lifeblood of today's knowledge-driven economy.Numerous data science models are oriented towards end users and along with the regular requirements for accuracy (which are present in any modeling), come the requirements for ability to process huge and varying data sets as well as robustness, interpretability, and simplicity (transparency). Computational intelligence with its underlying methodologies and tools helps address data analytics needs.The book is of interest to those researchers and practitioners involved in data science, Internet engineering, computational intelligence, management, operations research, and knowledge-based systems.

This book gathers the proceedings of the Multidisciplinary International Conference of Research Applied to Defense and Security (MICRADS), held at the Military Engineering Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 8 to 10th May 2019. It covers a variety of topics in systems, communication and defense; strategy and political-administrative vision in defense; and engineering and technologies applied to defense. Given its scope, it offers a valuable resource for practitioners, researchers, and students alike.

This book reviews the state-of-the-art developments in nature-inspired algorithms and their applications in various disciplines, ranging from feature selection and engineering design optimization to scheduling and vehicle routing. It introduces each algorithm and its implementation with case studies as well as extensive literature reviews, and also includes self-contained chapters featuring theoretical analyses, such as convergence analysis and no-free-lunch theorems so as to provide insights into the current nature-inspired optimization algorithms. Topics include ant colony optimization, the bat algorithm, B-spline curve fitting, cuckoo search, feature selection, economic load dispatch, the firefly algorithm, the flower pollination algorithm, knapsack problem, octonian and quaternion representations, particle swarm optimization, scheduling, wireless networks, vehicle routing with time windows, and maximally different alternatives. This timely book serves as a practical guide and reference resource for students, researchers and professionals.

Decision has inspired reflection of many thinkers since the ancient times. With the rapid development of science and society, appropriate dynamic decision making has been playing an increasingly important role in many areas of human activity including engineering, management, economy and others. In most real-world problems, decision makers usually have to make decisions sequentially at different points in time and space, at different levels for a component or a system, while facing multiple and conflicting objectives and a hybrid uncertain environment where fuzziness and randomness co-exist in a decision making process. This leads to the development of fuzzy-like multiple objective multistage decision making. This book provides a thorough understanding of the concepts of dynamic optimization from a modern perspective and presents the state-of-the-art methodology for modeling, analyzing and solving the most typical multiple objective multistage decision making practical application problems under fuzzy-like uncertainty, including the dynamic machine allocation, closed multiclass queueing networks optimization, inventory management, facilities planning and transportation assignment. A number of real-world engineering case studies are used to illustrate in detail the methodology. With its emphasis on problem-solving and applications, this book is ideal for researchers, practitioners, engineers, graduate students and upper-level undergraduates in applied mathematics, management science, operations research, information system, civil engineering, building construction and transportation optimization

This book clarifies the common misconception that there are no systematic instruments to support ideation, heuristics and creativity. Using a collection of articles from professionals practicing the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), this book presents an overview of current trends and enhancements within TRIZ in an international context, and shows its different roles in enhancing creativity for innovation in research and practice. Since its first introduction by Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller in 1956 in the USSR, the TRIZ method has been widely used by inventors, design engineers and has become a standard element of innovation support tools in many Fortune 500 companies. However, TRIZ has only recently entered the domain of scientific publications and discussion. This collection of articles is meant as a record of scientific discussion on TRIZ that reflects the most interesting talking points, research interests, results and expectations. Topics such as Creative and Inventive Design, Patent Mining, and Knowledge Harvesting are also covered in this book.

This book presents current innovative, alternative and creative approaches that challenge traditional mechanisms in and across disciplines and industries targeting societal impact. A common thread throughout the book is human-centered, uni and multi-modal strategies across the range of human technologies, including sensing and stimuli; virtual and augmented worlds; games for serious applications; accessibility; digital-ethics and more. Focusing on engaging, meaningful, and motivating activities that at the same time offer systemic information on human condition, performance and progress, the book is of interest to anyone seeking to gain insights into the field, be they students, teachers, practicing professionals, consultants, or family representatives. By offering a wider perspective, it addresses the need for a core text that evokes and provokes, engages and demands and stimulates and satisfies.

This book covers the most recent advances in the field of evolutionary multiobjective optimization. With the aim of drawing the attention of up-and coming scientists towards exciting prospects at the forefront of computational intelligence, the authors have made an effort to ensure that the ideas conveyed herein are accessible to the widest audience. The book begins with a summary of the basic concepts in multi-objective optimization. This is followed by brief discussions on various algorithms that have been proposed over the years for solving such problems, ranging from classical (mathematical) approaches to sophisticated evolutionary ones that are capable of seamlessly tackling practical challenges such as non-convexity, multi-modality, the presence of multiple constraints, etc. Thereafter, some of the key emerging aspects that are likely to shape future research directions in the field are presented. These include: optimization in dynamic environments, multi-objective bilevel programming, handling high dimensionality under many objectives, and evolutionary multitasking. In addition to theory and methodology, this book describes several real-world applications from various domains, which will expose the readers to the versatility of evolutionary multi-objective optimization.

This book presents an exhaustive and timely review of key research work on fuzzy XML data management, and provides readers with a comprehensive resource on the state-of-the art tools and theories in this fast growing area. Topics covered in the book include: representation of fuzzy XML, query of fuzzy XML, fuzzy database models, extraction of fuzzy XML from fuzzy database models, reengineering of fuzzy XML into fuzzy database models, and reasoning of fuzzy XML. The book is intended as a reference guide for researchers, practitioners and graduate students working and/or studying in the field of Web Intelligence, as well as for data and knowledge engineering professionals seeking new approaches to replace traditional methods, which may be unnecessarily complex or even unproductive.

With the inundation of emergent online- and Web-centered technologies, there has been an increased focus on intelligent information technologies that are designed to enable users to accomplish complex tasks with relative ease.

This book is dedicated to Professor Selim G. Akl to honour his groundbreaking research achievements in computer science over four decades. The book is an intellectually stimulating excursion into emergent computing paradigms, architectures and implementations. World top experts in computer science, engineering and mathematics overview exciting and intriguing topics of musical rhythms generation algorithms, analyse the computational power of random walks, dispelling a myth of computational universality, computability and complexity at the microscopic level of synchronous computation, descriptional complexity of error detection, quantum cryptography, context-free parallel communicating grammar systems, fault tolerance of hypercubes, finite automata theory of bulk-synchronous parallel computing, dealing with silent data corruptions in high-performance computing, parallel sorting on graphics processing units, mining for functional dependencies in relational databases, cellular automata optimisation of wireless sensors networks, connectivity preserving network transformers, constrained resource networks, vague computing, parallel evolutionary optimisation, emergent behaviour in multi-agent systems, vehicular clouds, epigenetic drug discovery, dimensionality reduction for intrusion detection systems, physical maze solvers, computer chess, parallel algorithms to string alignment, detection of community structure. The book is a unique combination of vibrant essays which inspires scientists and engineers to exploit natural phenomena in designs of computing architectures of the future.

The thesis presents new results on multi-agent formation control, focusing on the distributed stabilization control of rigid formation shapes. It analyzes a range of current research problems such as problems concerning the equilibrium and stability of formation control systems, or the problem of cooperative coordination control when agents have general dynamical models, and discusses practical considerations arising during the implementation of established formation control algorithms. In addition, the thesis presents models of increasing complexity, from single integrator models, to double integrator models, to agents modeled by nonlinear kinematic and dynamic equations, including the familiar unicycle model and nonlinear system equations with drift terms. Presenting the fruits of a close collaboration between several top control groups at leading universities including Yale University, Groningen University, Purdue University and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), the thesis spans various research areas, including robustness issues in formations, quantization-based coordination, exponential stability in formation systems, and cooperative coordination of networked heterogeneous systems.