This book constitutes thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the workshops of the 16th International Conference on Parallel Computing, Euro-Par 2010, held in Ischia, Italy, in August/September 2010. The papers of these 9 workshops HeteroPar, HPCC, HiBB, CoreGrid, UCHPC, HPCF, PROPER, CCPI, and VHPC focus on promotion and advancement of all aspects of parallel and distributed computing.

Hopping, climbing and swimming robots, nano-size neural networks, motorless walkers, slime mould and chemical brains - "Artificial Life Models in Hardware" offers unique designs and prototypes of life-like creatures in conventional hardware and hybrid bio-silicon systems. Ideas and implementations of living phenomena in non-living substrates cast a colourful picture of state-of-art advances in hardware models of artificial life.

In recent years, increases in the amount and changes in the distribution of air traffic have been very dramatic and are continuing. The need for changes in the current air traffic systems is equally clear. While automation is generally accepted as a method of improving system safety and performance, high levels of automation in complex human-machine systems can have a negative effect on total system performance and have been identified as contributing factors in many accidents and failures. Those responsible for designing the advanced air traffic control systems to be implemented throughout the alliance during the next decade need to be aware of recent progress concerning the most effective application of automation and artificial intelligence in human-computer systems. This volume gives the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Maratea, Italy, June 18-29, 1990, at which these issues were discussed.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. Current decentralized systems still focus on data and knowledge as their main resource. Feasibility of these systems relies basically on P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques and the support of agent systems with scaling and decentralized control. Synergy between Grids, P2P systems, and agent technologies is the key to data- and knowledge-centered systems in large-scale environments. This special issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems highlights some of the major challenges emerging from the biomedical applications that are currently inspiring and promoting database research. These include the management, organization, and integration of massive amounts of heterogeneous data; the semantic gap between high-level research questions and low-level data; and privacy and efficiency. The contributions cover a large variety of biological and medical applications, including genome-wide association studies, epidemic research, and neuroscience.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Security, ISC 2011, held in Xi'an, China, in October 2011. The 25 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 95 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on attacks; protocols; public-key cryptosystems; network security; software security; system security; database security; privacy; digital signatures.

W.J.Quirk 1.1 Real-time software and the real world Real-time software and the real world are inseparably related. Real time cannot be turned back and the real world will not always forget its history. The consequences of previous influences may last for a long time and the undesired effects may range from being inconvenient to disastrous in both economic and human terms. As a result, there is much pressure to develop and apply techniques to improve the reliability of real-time software so that the frequency and consequences of failure are reduced to a level that is as low as reasonably achievable. This report is about such techniques. After a detailed description of the software life cycle, a chapter is devoted to each of the four principle categories of technique available at present. These cover all stages of the software development process and each chapter identifies relevant techniques, the stages to which they are applicable and their effectiveness in improving real-time software reliability. 1.2 The characteristics of real-time software As well as the enhanced reliability requirement discussed above, real-time software has a number of other distinguishing characteristics. First, the sequencing and timing of inputs are determined by the real world and not by the programmer. Thus the program needs to be prepared for the unexpected and the demands made on the system may be conflicting. Second, the demands on the system may occur in parallel rather than in sequence.

The origin of the development of integrated circuits up to VLSI is found in the invention of the transistor, which made it possible to achieve the ac- tion of a vacuum tube in a semiconducting solid. The structure of the tran- sistor can be constructed by a manufacturing technique such as the intro- duction of a small amount of an impurity into a semiconductor and, in ad- dition, most transistor characteristics can be improved by a reduction of dimensions. These are all important factors in the development. Actually, the microfabrication of the integrated circuit can be used for two purposes, namely to increase the integration density and to obtain an improved perfor- mance, e. g. a high speed. When one of these two aims is pursued, the result generally satisfies both. We use the Engl ish translation "very large scale integration (VLSIl" for "Cho LSI" in Japanese. In the United States of America, however, similar technology is bei ng developed under the name "very hi gh speed integrated circuits (VHSIl". This also originated from the nature of the integrated circuit which satisfies both purposes. Fortunately, the Japanese word "Cho LSI" has a wider meani ng than VLSI, so it can be used ina broader area. However, VLSI has a larger industrial effect than VHSI.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 16th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems, FMICS 2011, held in Trento, Italy, in August 2011. The 16 papers presented together with 2 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 39 submissions. The aim of the FMICS workshop series is to provide a forum for researchers who are interested in the development and application of formal methods in industry. It also strives to promote research and development for the improvement of formal methods and tools for industrial applications.

The creation of the text really began in 1976 with the author being involved with a group of researchers at Stanford University and the Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego. At that time, adaptive techniques were more laboratory (and mental) curiosities than the accepted and pervasive categories of signal processing that they have become. Over the lasl 10 years, adaptive filters have become standard components in telephony, data communications, and signal detection and tracking systems. Their use and consumer acceptance will undoubtedly only increase in the future. The mathematical principles underlying adaptive signal processing were initially fascinating and were my first experience in seeing applied mathematics work for a paycheck. Since that time, the application of even more advanced mathematical techniques have kept the area of adaptive signal processing as exciting as those initial days. The text seeks to be a bridge between the open literature in the professional journals, which is usually quite concentrated, concise, and advanced, and the graduate classroom and research environment where underlying principles are often more important.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems, SSS 2011, held in Grenoble, France, in October 2011. The 29 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 79 submissions. They cover the following areas: ad-hoc, sensor, and peer-to-peer networks; safety and verification; security; self-organizing and autonomic systems; and self-stabilization.

Architecture-independent programming and automatic parallelisation have long been regarded as two different means of alleviating the prohibitive costs of parallel software development. Building on recent advances in both areas, Architecture-Independent Loop Parallelisation proposes a unified approach to the parallelisation of scientific computing code. This novel approach is based on the bulk-synchronous parallel model of computation, and succeeds in automatically generating parallel code that is architecture-independent, scalable, and of analytically predictable performance.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of Industry Oriented Conferences held at IFIP 20th World Computer Congress in September 2008.

The IFIP series publishes state-of-the-art results in the sciences and technologies of information and communication. The scope of the series includes: foundations of computer science; software theory and practice; education; computer applications in technology; communication systems; systems modeling and optimization; information systems; computers and society; computer systems technology; security and protection in information processing systems; artificial intelligence; and human-computer interaction. Proceedings and post-proceedings of refereed international conferences in computer science and interdisciplinary fields are featured. These results often precede journal publication and represent the most current research. The principal aim of the IFIP series is to encourage education and the dissemination and exchange of information about all aspects of computing.

The two-volume set LNCS 6773-6774 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Virtual and Mixed Reality 2011, held as Part of HCI International 2011, in Orlando, FL, USA, in July 2011, jointly with 10 other conferences addressing the latest research and development efforts and highlighting the human aspects of design and use of computing systems. The 43 revised papers included in the first volume were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: augmented reality applications; virtual and immersive environments; novel interaction devices and techniques in VR; human physiology and behavior in VR environments.

The two-volume set LNCS 6773-6774 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Virtual and Mixed Reality 2011, held as Part of HCI International 2011, in Orlando, FL, USA, in July 2011, jointly with 10 other conferences addressing the latest research and development efforts and highlighting the human aspects of design and use of computing systems. The 47 revised papers included in the first volume were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: VR in education, training and health; VR for culture and entertainment; virtual humans and avatars; developing virtual and mixed environments.

This book will provide a comprehensive overview of business analytics, for those who have either a technical background (quantitative methods) or a practitioner business background. Business analytics, in the context of the 4th Industrial Revolution, is the "new normal" for businesses that operate in this digital age. This book provides a comprehensive primer and overview of the field (and related fields such as Business Intelligence and Data Science). It will discuss the field as it applies to financial institutions, with some minor departures to other industries. Readers will gain understanding and insight into the field of data science, including traditional as well as emerging techniques. Further, many chapters are dedicated to the establishment of a data-driven team - from executive buy-in and corporate governance to managing and quantifying the return of data-driven projects.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS 2011, held in Derby, UK, in July 2011. The 18 full papers and 4 short papers presented together with 12 workshop papers were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The volume also contains 3 invited talks. ICCS focuses on the useful representation and analysis of conceptual knowledge with research and business applications. It advances the theory and practice in connecting the user's conceptual approach to problem solving with the formal structures that computer applications need to bring their productivity to bear. Conceptual structures (CS) represent a family of approaches that builds on the successes of artificial intelligence, business intelligence, computational linguistics, conceptual modelling, information and Web technologies, user modelling, and knowledge management. Two of the workshops contained in this volume cover CS and knowledge discovery in under-traversed domains and in task specific information retrieval. The third addresses CD in learning, teaching and assessment.

Despite its importance, the role of HdS is most often underestimated and the topic is not well represented in literature and education. To address this, Hardware-dependent Software brings together experts from different HdS areas. By providing a comprehensive overview of general HdS principles, tools, and applications, this book provides adequate insight into the current technology and upcoming developments in the domain of HdS. The reader will find an interesting text book with self-contained introductions to the principles of Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS), the emerging BIOS successor UEFI, and the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). Other chapters cover industrial applications, verification, and tool environments. Tool introductions cover the application of tools in the ASIP software tool chain (i.e. Tensilica) and the generation of drivers and OS components from C-based languages. Applications focus on telecommunication and automotive systems.

The International Workshop on "Human Interaction with Machines" is the sixth in a successful series of workshops that were established by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Technische Universitat Berlin. The goal of those workshops is to bring together researchers from both universities in order to present research results to an international community. The series of workshops started in 1990 with the International Workshop on "Artificial Intelligence" and was continued with the International Workshop on "Advanced Software Technology" in 1994. Both workshops have been hosted by Shanghai Jiaotong University. In 1998 the third wo- shop took place in Berlin. This International Workshop on "Communi- tion Based Systems" was essentially based on results from the Graduiertenkolleg on Communication Based Systems that was funded by the German Research Society (DFG) from 1991 to 2000. The fourth Int- national Workshop on "Robotics and its Applications" was held in Sha- hai in 2000. The fifth International Workshop on "The Internet Challenge: Technology and Applications" was hosted by TU Berlin in 2002."

This book analyzes the causes of failures in computing systems, their consequences, as weIl as the existing solutions to manage them. The domain is tackled in a progressive and educational manner with two objectives: 1. The mastering of the basics of dependability domain at system level, that is to say independently ofthe technology used (hardware or software) and of the domain of application. 2. The understanding of the fundamental techniques available to prevent, to remove, to tolerate, and to forecast faults in hardware and software technologies. The first objective leads to the presentation of the general problem, the fault models and degradation mechanisms wh ich are at the origin of the failures, and finally the methods and techniques which permit the faults to be prevented, removed or tolerated. This study concerns logical systems in general, independently of the hardware and software technologies put in place. This knowledge is indispensable for two reasons: * A large part of a product' s development is independent of the technological means (expression of requirements, specification and most of the design stage). Very often, the development team does not possess this basic knowledge; hence, the dependability requirements are considered uniquely during the technological implementation. Such an approach is expensive and inefficient. Indeed, the removal of a preliminary design fault can be very difficult (if possible) if this fault is detected during the product's final testing.

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

Networks on Chip presents a variety of topics, problems and approaches with the common theme to systematically organize the on-chip communication in the form of a regular, shared communication network on chip, an NoC for short.

As the number of processor cores and IP blocks integrated on a single chip is steadily growing, a systematic approach to design the communication infrastructure becomes necessary. Different variants of packed switched on-chip networks have been proposed by several groups during the past two years. This book summarizes the state of the art of these efforts and discusses the major issues from the physical integration to architecture to operating systems and application interfaces. It also provides a guideline and vision about the direction this field is moving to. Moreover, the book outlines the consequences of adopting design platforms based on packet switched network. The consequences may in fact be far reaching because many of the topics of distributed systems, distributed real-time systems, fault tolerant systems, parallel computer architecture, parallel programming as well as traditional system-on-chip issues will appear relevant but within the constraints of a single chip VLSI implementation.

The book is organized in three parts. The first deals with system design and methodology issues. The second presents problems and solutions concerning the hardware and the basic communication infrastructure. Finally, the third part covers operating system, embedded software and application. However, communication from the physical to the application level is a central theme throughout the book.

The book serves as an excellent reference source and may be used as a text for advanced courses on the subject.

Innovation in Manufacturing Networks A fundamental concept of the emergent business, scientific and technological paradigms ces area, innovation the ability to apply new ideas to products, processes, organizational practices and business models - is crucial for the future competitiveness of organizations in a continually increasingly globalised, knowledge-intensive marketplace. Responsiveness, agility as well as the high performance of manufacturing systems is responsible for the recent changes in addition to the call for new approaches to achieve cost-effective responsiveness at all the levels of an enterprise. Moreover, creating appropriate frameworks for exploring the most effective synergies between human potential and automated systems represents an enormous challenge in terms of processes characterization, modelling, and the development of adequate support tools. The implementation and use of Automation Systems requires an ever increasing knowledge of enabling technologies and Business Practices. Moreover, the digital and networked world will surely trigger new business practices. In this context and in order to achieve the desired effective and efficiency performance levels, it is crucial to maintain a balance between both the technical aspects and the human and social aspects when developing and applying new innovations and innovative enabling technologies. BASYS conferences have been developed and organized so as to promote the development of balanced automation systems in an attempt to address the majority of the current open issues.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Smart Homes and Health Telematics, ICOST 2011, held in Montreal, Canada, in June 2011. The 25 revised full papers presented together with 16 short papers and 8 student papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 94 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on smart home and village; health telematics and healthcare technology; wellbeing, ageing friendly and enabling technology; and medical health telematics and healthcare technology.

This book synthesizes the results of the seventh in a successful series of workshops that were established by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Technische Universitat Berlin, bringing together researchers from both universities in order to present research results to an international community. Aspects covered here include, among others, Models and specification; Simulation of different properties; Middleware for distributed real-time systems; Signal Analysis; Control methods; Applications in airborne and medical systems."

Pervasive healthcare is the conceptual system of providing healthcare to anyone, at anytime, and anywhere by removing restraints of time and location while increasing both the coverage and the quality of healthcare. Pervasive Healthcare Computing is at the forefront of this research, and presents the ways in which mobile and wireless technologies can be used to implement the vision of pervasive healthcare.

This vision includes prevention, healthcare maintenance and checkups; short-term monitoring (home healthcare), long-term monitoring (nursing home), and personalized healthcare monitoring; and incidence detection and management, emergency intervention, transportation and treatment. The pervasive healthcare applications include intelligent emergency management system, pervasive healthcare data access, and ubiquitous mobile telemedicine.

Pervasive Healthcare Computing includes the treatment of several new wireless technologies and the ways in which they will implement the vision of pervasive healthcare.