Selected Areas in Cryptography brings together in one place important contributions and up-to-date research results in this fast moving area. Selected Areas in Cryptography serves as an excellent reference, providing insight into some of the most challenging research issues in the field.

This book is a compilation of scientific articles written by recognized researchers, and select students, participating in the Second Conference on the Study of Complex Systems and their Applications (EDIESCA 2021). EDIESCA 2021 arose from the need for academic and research groups that carry out this scientific research to disseminate their results internationally. The study and characterization of systems with non-linear and/or chaotic behavior has been of great interest to researchers around the world, for which many important results have been obtained with various applications. The dynamic study of chaotic oscillators of different models, such as Roessler, Lorenz, and Chua, has generated important advances in understanding of chemical reactions, meteorological behavior, design of electronic devices, and other applications. Topics at the event included applications for communications systems by masking techniques, financial behavior, networks analysis, nonlinear lasers, numerical modeling, electronic design, and other interesting topics in the area of complex systems. Additionally, there are results on numerical simulation and electronic designs to generate complex dynamic behaviors.

I believe it was the message of the day one Sunday, when he preached about hell. I left church scared for the first time, in fear because of how he described hell. This then started my lifelong quest to understand why. Why is there a hell, and how could this be fair? I did not ask for this. I thought, Who would want to take such a chance to live life and not get these rules right and suffer eternity in hell? This book begins by describing the events of the war in heaven as described in Revelation 12:7-11, as a foundation establishing that life did exist before the earth was created, the proof also being found in Genesis itself. That is where we find Satan as a serpent. This is what could be considered as "Exhibit A"-Satan in the Garden of Eden, proof of his existence on earth after he was cast down from heaven into the earth. This book presents many more important questions that serve as a key to unlocking the mysteries of creation. One example is, how, why, and when our spirits were created. My research and years of study of the Bible reveal to me that our spirits were created before we were born and will still exist after we die.

In the present book, the starting line is defined by a morphogenetic perspective on human communication and culture. The focus is on visual communication, music, religion (myth), and language, i.e., on the "symbolic forms" at the heart of human cultures (Ernst Cassirer). The term "morphogenesis" has more precisely the meaning given by Rene Thom (1923-2002) in his book "Morphogenesis and Structural Stability" (1972) and the notions of "self-organization" and cooperation of subsystems in the "Synergetics" of Hermann Haken (1927- ). The naturalization of communication and cultural phenomena is the favored strategy, but the major results of the involved disciplines (art history, music theory, religious science, and linguistics) are respected. Visual art from the Paleolithic to modernity stands for visual communication. The present book focuses on studies of classical painting and sculpture (e.g., Leonardo da Vinci, William Turner, and Henry Moore) and modern art (e.g., Jackson Pollock and Joseph Beuys). Musical morphogenesis embraces classical music (from J. S. Bach to Arnold Schoenberg) and political songwriting (Bob Dylan, Leonhard Cohen). The myths of pre-literary societies show the effects of self-organization in the re-assembly (bricolage) of traditions. Classical polytheistic and monotheistic religions demonstrate the unfolding of basic germs (religious attractors) and their reduction in periods of crisis, the self-organization of complex religious networks, and rationalized macro-structures (in theologies). Significant tendencies are analyzed in the case of Buddhism and Christianism. Eventually, a holistic view of symbolic communication and human culture emerges based on state- of- the- art in evolutionary biology, cognitive science, linguistics, and semiotics (philosophy of symbolic forms).

This book addresses the COVID-19 pandemic from a quantitative perspective based on mathematical models and methods largely used in nonlinear physics. It aims to study COVID-19 epidemics in countries and SARS-CoV-2 infections in individuals from the nonlinear physics perspective and to model explicitly COVID-19 data observed in countries and virus load data observed in COVID-19 patients. The first part of this book provides a short technical introduction into amplitude spaces given by eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and amplitudes.In the second part of the book, mathematical models of epidemiology are introduced such as the SIR and SEIR models and applied to describe COVID-19 epidemics in various countries around the world. In the third part of the book, virus dynamics models are considered and applied to infections in COVID-19 patients. This book is written for researchers, modellers, and graduate students in physics and medicine, epidemiology and virology, biology, applied mathematics, and computer sciences. This book identifies the relevant mechanisms behind past COVID-19 outbreaks and in doing so can help efforts to stop future COVID-19 outbreaks and other epidemic outbreaks. Likewise, this book points out the physics underlying SARS-CoV-2 infections in patients and in doing so supports a physics perspective to address human immune reactions to SARS-CoV-2 infections and similar virus infections.

This original and timely monograph describes a unique self-contained excursion that reveals to the readers the roles of two basic cognitive abilities, i.e. intention recognition and arranging commitments, in the evolution of cooperative behavior. This book analyses intention recognition, an important ability that helps agents predict others behavior, in its artificial intelligence and evolutionary computational modeling aspects, and proposes a novel intention recognition method. Furthermore, the book presents a new framework for intention-based decision making and illustrates several ways in which an ability to recognize intentions of others can enhance a decision making process. By employing the new intention recognition method and the tools of evolutionary game theory, this book introduces computational models demonstrating that intention recognition promotes the emergence of cooperation within populations of self-regarding agents. Finally, the book describes how commitment provides a pathway to the evolution of cooperative behavior, and how it further empowers intention recognition, thereby leading to a combined improved strategy. "

The essence of this book can be found in a line written by the ancient Roman Stoic Philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca: "Fortune is of sluggish growth, but ruin is rapid". This sentence summarizes the features of the phenomenon that we call "collapse," which is typically sudden and often unexpected, like the proverbial "house of cards." But why are such collapses so common, and what generates them? Several books have been published on the subject, including the well known "Collapse" by Jared Diamond (2005), "The collapse of complex societies" by Joseph Tainter (1998) and "The Tipping Point," by Malcom Gladwell (2000). Why The Seneca Effect? This book is an ambitious attempt to pull these various strands together by describing collapse from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint. The reader will discover how collapse is a collective phenomenon that occurs in what we call today "complex systems," with a special emphasis on system dynamics and the concept of "feedback." From this foundation, Bardi applies the theory to real-world systems, from the mechanics of fracture and the collapse of large structures to financial collapses, famines and population collapses, the fall of entire civilzations, and the most dreadful collapse we can imagine: that of the planetary ecosystem generated by overexploitation and climate change. The final objective of the book is to describe a conclusion that the ancient stoic philosophers had already discovered long ago, but that modern system science has rediscovered today. If you want to avoid collapse you need to embrace change, not fight it. Neither a book about doom and gloom nor a cornucopianist's dream, The Seneca Effect goes to the heart of the challenges that we are facing today, helping us to manage our future rather than be managed by it.

Recently, the subject of nonlinear control systems analysis has grown rapidly and this book provides a simple and self-contained presentation of their stability and feedback stabilization which enables the reader to learn and understand major techniques used in mathematical control theory. In particular: the important techniques of proving global stability properties are presented closely linked with corresponding methods of nonlinear feedback stabilization; a general framework of methods for proving stability is given, thus allowing the study of a wide class of nonlinear systems, including finite-dimensional systems described by ordinary differential equations, discrete-time systems, systems with delays and sampled-data systems; approaches to the proof of classical global stability properties are extended to non-classical global stability properties such as non-uniform-in-time stability and input-to-output stability; and new tools for stability analysis and control design of a wide class of nonlinear systems are introduced. The presentational emphasis of Stability and Stabilization of Nonlinear Systems is theoretical but the theory s importance for concrete control problems is highlighted with a chapter specifically dedicated to applications and with numerous illustrative examples. Researchers working on nonlinear control theory will find this monograph of interest while graduate students of systems and control can also gain much insight and assistance from the methods and proofs detailed in this book."

This book systematically presents the most recent progress in stability and control of impulsive systems with delays. Impulsive systems have recently attracted continued high research interests because they provide a natural framework for mathematical modeling of many real-world processes. It focuses not only on impulsive delayed systems, but also impulsive systems with delayed impulses and impulsive systems with event-triggered mechanism, including their Lyapunov stability, finite-time stability and input-to-state stability synthesis. Special attention is paid to the bilateral effects of the delayed impulses, where comprehensive stability properties are discussed in the framework of time-dependent and state-dependent delays. New original work with event-triggered impulsive control and its applications in multi-agent systems and collective dynamics are also provided. This book will be of use to specialists who are interested in the theory of impulsive differential equations and impulsive control theory, as well as high technology specialists who work in the fields of complex networks and applied mathematics. Also, instructors teaching graduate courses and graduate students will find this book a valuable source of nonlinear system theory.

This monograph explores the analysis and design of model-free optimal control systems based on reinforcement learning (RL) theory, presenting new methods that overcome recent challenges faced by RL. New developments in the design of sensor data efficient RL algorithms are demonstrated that not only reduce the requirement of sensors by means of output feedback, but also ensure optimality and stability guarantees. A variety of practical challenges are considered, including disturbance rejection, control constraints, and communication delays. Ideas from game theory are incorporated to solve output feedback disturbance rejection problems, and the concepts of low gain feedback control are employed to develop RL controllers that achieve global stability under control constraints. Output Feedback Reinforcement Learning Control for Linear Systems will be a valuable reference for graduate students, control theorists working on optimal control systems, engineers, and applied mathematicians.

Complex System Reliability presents a state-of-the-art treatment of complex multi-channel system reliability assessment and provides the requisite tools, techniques and algorithms required for designing, evaluating and optimizing ultra-reliable redundant systems. Critical topics that make Complex System Reliability a unique and definitive resource include: * redundant system analysis for k-out-of-n systems (including complex systems with embedded k-out-of-n structures) involving both perfect and imperfect fault coverage; * imperfect fault coverage analysis techniques, including algorithms for assessing the reliability of redundant systems in which each element is subject to a given coverage value (element level coverage) or in which the system uses voting to avoid the effects of a failed element (fault level coverage); and * state-of-the-art binary decision diagram analysis techniques, including the latest and most efficient algorithms for the reliability assessment of large, complex redundant systems. This practical presentation includes numerous fully worked examples that provide detailed explanations of both the underlying design principles and the techniques (such as combinatorial, recursive and binary decision diagram algorithms) used to obtain quantitative results. Many of the worked examples are based on the design of modern digital fly-by-wire control system technology. Complex System Reliability provides in-depth coverage of systems subject to either perfect or imperfect fault coverage and also the most recent techniques for correctly assessing the reliability of redundant systems that use mid-value-select voting as their primary means of redundancy management. It is a valuable resource for those involved in the design and reliability assessment of highly reliable systems, particularly in the aerospace and automotive sectors.

Discontinuity in Nonlinear Physical Systems explores recent developments in experimental research in this broad field, organized in four distinct sections. Part I introduces the reader to the fractional dynamics and Lie group analysis for nonlinear partial differential equations. Part II covers chaos and complexity in nonlinear Hamiltonian systems, important to understand the resonance interactions in nonlinear dynamical systems, such as Tsunami waves and wildfire propagations; as well as Lev flights in chaotic trajectories, dynamical system synchronization and DNA information complexity analysis. Part III examines chaos and periodic motions in discontinuous dynamical systems, extensively present in a range of systems, including piecewise linear systems, vibro-impact systems and drilling systems in engineering. And in Part IV, engineering and financial nonlinearity are discussed. The mechanism of shock wave with saddle-node bifurcation and rotating disk stability will be presented, and the financial nonlinear models will be discussed.

This book deals with several types of multi-dimensional control problems in the face of data uncertainty for vector cases-multi-dimensional multi-objective control problem with uncertain objective functionals, uncertain constraint functionals, and uncertain objective as well as constraint functionals, uncertain multi-dimensional multi-objective control problem with semi-infinite constraints, uncertain dual multi-dimensional multi-objective variational control problem, and second-order PDE&PDI constrained robust optimization problem. The book provides the solution approaches-an exact l1 penalty function approach, modified objective approach, robust approach-in the simplest way to solve the recent developing optimization problems in the sense of uncertainty.

This book takes Complexity Theory and applies it to medicine where it has previously made little ground. It provides new hypotheses for multiple common but misunderstood diseases. Doctors in particular will understand that many diseases have remained unsolved due to a linear approach to what are complex biological systems, and failure to understand and apply Complexity Theory. Therefore, many common conditions have no known cause and consequently treatments are either ineffectual or non-existant, when many of these diseases are in fact preventable. There is growing interest in non-linear science, dynamic systems, chaos and complexity theory. This trend has directly involved other sciences, including biology, but has been little touched on by medicine. Readers of this book will: * Understand the difference between Linear Science and Complexity Theory, and how medicine has failed to apply the latter. * Recognise the advantages of using this understanding to generate realistic hypotheses for cause of disease. * Read how hypotheses so generated have been formulated for a number of common diseases.

This first book focuses on uncertain graph and network optimization. It covers three different main contents: uncertain graph, uncertain programming and uncertain network optimization. It also presents applications of uncertain network optimization in a lot of real problems such as transportation problems, dispatching medical supplies problems and location problems. The book is suitable for researchers, engineers, teachers and students in the field of mathematics, information science, computer science, decision science, management science and engineering, artificial intelligence, industrial engineering, economics and operations research.

This monograph explores applications of Carleman estimates in the study of stabilization and controllability properties of partial differential equations, including the stabilization property of the damped wave equation and the null-controllability of the heat equation. All analysis is performed in the case of open sets in the Euclidean space; a second volume will extend this treatment to Riemannian manifolds. The first three chapters illustrate the derivation of Carleman estimates using pseudo-differential calculus with a large parameter. Continuation issues are then addressed, followed by a proof of the logarithmic stabilization of the damped wave equation by means of two alternative proofs of the resolvent estimate for the generator of a damped wave semigroup. The authors then discuss null-controllability of the heat equation, its equivalence with observability, and how the spectral inequality allows one to either construct a control function or prove the observability inequality. The final part of the book is devoted to the exposition of some necessary background material: the theory of distributions, invariance under change of variables, elliptic operators with Dirichlet data and associated semigroup, and some elements from functional analysis and semigroup theory.

Summary Explains in easy-to-understand terms what executives and senior managers need to know and do about the ever-changing cyber threat landscape. Gives strategic, business-focused guidance and advice relevant to C-suite executives. Provides an effective and efficient framework for managing cyber governance, risk and compliance. Explains what is required to implement an effective cyber security strategy. Description With high-profile cyber attacks, data breaches and fines for GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) non-compliance hitting the headlines daily, businesses must protect themselves and their reputations, while reassuring stakeholders they take cyber security seriously. Cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent, and the cost of data breaches is soaring. In addition, new regulations and reporting requirements make cyber security a critical business issue. Board members and senior management must understand the threat landscape and the strategies they can employ to establish, implement and maintain effective cyber resilience throughout their organisation. How Cyber Security Can Protect your Business - A guide for all stakeholders provides an effective and efficient framework for managing cyber governance, risk and compliance, which organisations can adapt to meet their own risk appetite and synchronise with their people, processes and technology. It explains what is meant by governance, risk and compliance, how it applies to cyber security and what is required to implement an effective cyber security strategy. The pocket guide: Gives readers a greater understanding of cyber governance, risk and compliance; Explains what executives, senior managers and their advisors need to know and do about the ever-changing cyber threat landscape; Provides context as to why stakeholders need to be aware of and in control of their organisation's cyber risk management and cyber incident response; Gives guidance on building an appropriate and efficient governance framework that enables organisations to demonstrate their cyber approach in a non-technical, strategic, business-focused way; Details an overview process to enable risk assessment, assess existing defence mitigations and provide a framework for developing suitable controls; and Includes a checklist to help readers focus on their higher-priority cyber areas. Suitable for all managers and executives, this pocket guide will be of interest to non-cyber specialists, including non-executive directors, who may be required to review cyber arrangements. For cyber specialists, it provides an approach for explaining cyber issues in non-jargonistic, business-based language. Kick-start your journey to becoming cyber secure - buy this pocket guide today!

These proceedings from the 2013 symposium on "Chaos, complexity and leadership" reflect current research results from all branches of Chaos, Complex Systems and their applications in Management. Included are the diverse results in the fields of applied nonlinear methods, modeling of data and simulations, as well as theoretical achievements of Chaos and Complex Systems. Also highlighted are Leadership and Management applications of Chaos and Complexity Theory.

This monograph introduces a newly developed robust-control design technique for a wide class of continuous-time dynamical systems called the "attractive ellipsoid method." Along with a coherent introduction to the proposed control design and related topics, the monograph studies nonlinear affine control systems in the presence of uncertainty and presents a constructive and easily implementable control strategy that guarantees certain stability properties. The authors discuss linear-style feedback control synthesis in the context of the above-mentioned systems. The development and physical implementation of high-performance robust-feedback controllers that work in the absence of complete information is addressed, with numerous examples to illustrate how to apply the attractive ellipsoid method to mechanical and electromechanical systems. While theorems are proved systematically, the emphasis is on understanding and applying the theory to real-world situations. Attractive Ellipsoids in Robust Control will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students with a background in modern systems theory as well as researchers in the fields of control engineering and applied mathematics.

This monograph explores applications of Carleman estimates in the study of stabilization and controllability properties of partial differential equations, including quantified unique continuation, logarithmic stabilization of the wave equation, and null-controllability of the heat equation. Where the first volume derived these estimates in regular open sets in Euclidean space and Dirichlet boundary conditions, here they are extended to Riemannian manifolds and more general boundary conditions. The book begins with the study of Lopatinskii-Sapiro boundary conditions for the Laplace-Beltrami operator, followed by derivation of Carleman estimates for this operator on Riemannian manifolds. Applications of Carleman estimates are explored next: quantified unique continuation issues, a proof of the logarithmic stabilization of the boundary-damped wave equation, and a spectral inequality with general boundary conditions to derive the null-controllability result for the heat equation. Two additional chapters consider some more advanced results on Carleman estimates. The final part of the book is devoted to exposition of some necessary background material: elements of differential and Riemannian geometry, and Sobolev spaces and Laplace problems on Riemannian manifolds.

This book presents the fundamental theory for non-standard diffusion problems in movement ecology. Levy processes and anomalous diffusion have shown to be both powerful and useful tools for qualitatively and quantitatively describing a wide variety of spatial population ecological phenomena and dynamics, such as invasion fronts and search strategies. Adopting a self-contained, textbook-style approach, the authors provide the elements of statistical physics and stochastic processes on which the modeling of movement ecology is based and systematically introduce the physical characterization of ecological processes at the microscopic, mesoscopic and macroscopic levels. The explicit definition of these levels and their interrelations is particularly suitable to coping with the broad spectrum of space and time scales involved in bio-ecological problems. Including numerous exercises (with solutions), this text is aimed at graduate students and newcomers in this field at the interface of theoretical ecology, mathematical biology and physics.

This book presents a new understanding on how control systems truly operate, and explains how to recognize, simulate, and improve control systems in all fields of activity. It also reveals the pervasive, ubiquitous and indispensable role of control processes in our life and the need to develop a "control-oriented thinking"-based on uncomplicated but effective models derived from systems thinking-that is, a true "discipline of control." Over the book's thirteen chapters, Piero Mella shows that there are simple control systems (rather than complex ones) that can easily help us to manage complexity without drawing upon more sophisticated control systems. It begins by reviewing the basic language of systems thinking and the models it allows users to create. It then introduces the control process, presenting the theoretical structure of three simple control systems we all can observe in order to gain fundamental knowledge from them about the basic structure of a control system. Then, it presents the anatomy of the simplest "magic ring" and the general theoretical model of any control system. This is followed by an introduction to a general typology of control systems and a broader view of control systems by investigating multi-lever control systems and multi-objective systems. The book undertakes the concepts through various environments, increasingly broader in scope to suggest to readers how to recognize therein control systems manifestations in everyday life and in natural phenomena. Updated for the 2nd edition, new chapters explore control systems regulating the biological environment and the organizations, with an in-depth study of the control of quality, productivity, production, stocks and costs. Finally, it concludes by dealing with the learning process, problem-solving, and designing the logical structure of control systems.

This book is mainly focused on the global impulsive synchronization of complex dynamical networks with different types of couplings, such as general state coupling, nonlinear state coupling, time-varying delay coupling, derivative state coupling, proportional delay coupling and distributed delay coupling. Studies on impulsive synchronization of complex dynamical networks have attracted engineers and scientists from various disciplines, such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mathematics, network science, system engineering. Pursuing a holistic approach, the book establishes a fundamental framework for this topic, while emphasizing the importance of network synchronization and the significant influence of impulsive control in the design and optimization of complex networks. The primary audience for the book would be the scholars and graduate students whose research topics including the network science, control theory, applied mathematics, system science and so on.

This text addresses systems with persistent memory that are common mathematical models used in the study of viscoelasticity and thermodynamics with memory. In particular, this class of systems is used to model non-Fickian diffusion in the presence of complex molecular structures. Hence, it has wide applications in biology. The book focuses on the properties and controllability of the archetypal heat and wave equations with memory and introduces the dynamic approach to identification problems and the basic techniques used in the study of stability. The book presents several approaches currently used to study systems with persistent memory: Volterra equation in Hilbert spaces, Laplace transform techniques and semigroup methods. The text is intended for a diverse audience in applied mathematics and engineering and it can be used in PhD courses. Readers are recommended to have a background in the elements of functional analysis. Topics of functional analysis which younger readers may need to familiarize with are presented in the book.