Authoritative, clear and concise, this highly acclaimed book continues to be an essential text for all medical, surgical and allied health professionals who are seeking a quick and respected guide to systematically reviewing the literature. The third edition features a new chapter on 'Publishing systematic reviews' and numerous new case studies covering the latest developments in the field, including umbrella reviews, reviews of test accuracy, qualitative evidence and prognostic studies, and practice guidelines. The highly experienced authors, who have each contributed to numerous systematic reviews that have helped form policy and practice, ensure that this practical text, which avoids technical jargon, continues to be the reference of choice for all health professionals undertaking literature reviews, including those specializing in epidemiology and public health.

Authoritative, clear and concise, this highly acclaimed book continues to be an essential text for all medical, surgical and allied health professionals who are seeking a quick and respected guide to systematically reviewing the literature. The third edition features a new chapter on 'Publishing systematic reviews' and numerous new case studies covering the latest developments in the field, including umbrella reviews, reviews of test accuracy, qualitative evidence and prognostic studies, and practice guidelines. The highly experienced authors, who have each contributed to numerous systematic reviews that have helped form policy and practice, ensure that this practical text, which avoids technical jargon, continues to be the reference of choice for all health professionals undertaking literature reviews, including those specializing in epidemiology and public health.

Automatic biometrics recognition techniques are increasingly important in corporate and public security systems and have increased in methods due to rapid field development. This book discusses classic behavioral biometrics as well as collects the latest advances in techniques, theoretical approaches, and dynamic applications. This future-looking book is an important reference tool for researchers, practitioners, academicians, and technologists. While there are existing books that focus on physiological biometrics or algorithmic approaches deployed in biometrics, this book addresses a gap in the existing literature for a text that is solely dedicated to the topic of behavioral biometrics.

First published in 1998, this second edition includes the 10 published essays and 3 working papers collected in the first edition, as well as additional writings on sustainable development penned by Saeed and his students over the subsequent six years. Two of the original working papers were revised and published between editions and their published versions now appear. Lastly, the conclusion has been reformulated and the introduction contains insights from extended research. Part I comprises the first 7 chapters and deals with modelling generic issues concerning sustainable development. Part II comprises chapters 8 to 10 and extends the concepts from part I to the controversies on poverty and hunger, technological development, and entrepreneurship. Part III relates six case studies covering a variety of local issues in selected developing countries, including agricultural development policy in Pakistan, the impact of the rural credit system on Thailand's agricultural economy, the problem of food self-sufficiency in Vietnam and water resources management in Saudi Arabia.

First published in 1998, this second edition includes the 10 published essays and 3 working papers collected in the first edition, as well as additional writings on sustainable development penned by Saeed and his students over the subsequent six years. Two of the original working papers were revised and published between editions and their published versions now appear. Lastly, the conclusion has been reformulated and the introduction contains insights from extended research. Part I comprises the first 7 chapters and deals with modelling generic issues concerning sustainable development. Part II comprises chapters 8 to 10 and extends the concepts from part I to the controversies on poverty and hunger, technological development, and entrepreneurship. Part III relates six case studies covering a variety of local issues in selected developing countries, including agricultural development policy in Pakistan, the impact of the rural credit system on Thailand's agricultural economy, the problem of food self-sufficiency in Vietnam and water resources management in Saudi Arabia.

This book features extended versions of selected papers that were presented and discussed at the 7th International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2020) held in Kolkata, India on February 28-29, 2020. Organized by the Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and A. K. Choudhury School of Information Technology, both from the University of Calcutta, the symposium's international partners were Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. The chapters cover topics such as biometrics, image processing, pattern recognition, algorithms, cloud computing, wireless sensor networks and security systems, reflecting the various symposium sessions.

This book features extended versions of selected papers that were presented and discussed at the 6th International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2019) held in Kolkata, India on 12-13 March, 2019. Organized by the Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and A. K. Choudhury School of Information Technology, both from the University of Calcutta, the symposium's international partners were Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. The chapters cover topics such as biometrics, image processing, pattern recognition, algorithms, cloud computing, wireless sensor networks and security systems, reflecting the various symposium sessions.

This book features extended versions of selected papers that were presented and discussed at the 6th International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2019) held in Kolkata, India on 12-13 March, 2019. Organized by the Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and A.K. Choudhury School of Information Technology, both from the University of Calcutta, the symposium's international partners were Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. The chapters cover topics such as biometrics, image processing, pattern recognition, algorithms, cloud computing, wireless sensor networks and security systems, reflecting the various symposium sessions.

The book includes extended versions of selected papers discussed and presented at the 5th International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2018) held in Kolkata, India on February 9-11, 2018. The symposium was organized by the University of Calcutta's Department of Computer Science & Engineering and A. K. Choudhury School of Information Technology, and the International partners were Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. Reflect the symposium's sessions, the book discusses topics such as biometrics, image processing, pattern recognition, algorithms, cloud computing, wireless sensor networks and security systems.

The book includes extended versions of selected papers discussed and presented at the 5th International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2018) held in Kolkata, India on February 9-11, 2018. The symposium was organized by the University of Calcutta's Department of Computer Science & Engineering and A. K. Choudhury School of Information Technology, and the International partners were Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. Reflect the symposium's sessions, the book discusses topics such as biometrics, image processing, pattern recognition, algorithms, cloud computing, wireless sensor networks and security systems.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management Applications, CISIM 2018, held in Olomouc, Czech Republic, in September 2018. The 42 full papers presented together with 4 keynotes were carefully reviewed and selected from 69 submissions. The main topics covered by the chapters in this book are biometrics, security systems, multimedia, classification and clustering, and industrial management. Besides these, the reader will find interesting papers on computer information systems as applied to wireless networks, computer graphics, and intelligent systems. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: biometrics and pattern recognition applications; computer information systems; industrial management and other applications; machine learning and high performance computing; modelling and optimization; and various aspects of computer security.

This book features a collection of high-quality research papers presented at the 9th International Symposium on Applied Computing for Software and Smart systems (ACSS 2022), to be held during September 09-10, 2022 in Kolkata, India. The book presents innovative works by undergraduate, graduate students and as well as PhD scholars. The emphasis of the workshop is on software and smart systems and research outcomes on other relevant areas pertaining to advancement of computing.

This book contains extended version of selected works that have been discussed and presented in the fourth International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2017) held in Patna, India during March 17-19, 2017. The symposium was organized by the Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and A. K. Choudhury School of Information Technology, both from University of Calcutta in collaboration with NIT, Patna. The International partners for ACSS 2016 had been Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. This bi-volume book has a total of 21 papers divided in 7 chapters. The chapters reflect the sessions in which the works have been discussed during the symposium. The different chapters in the book include works on biometrics, image processing, pattern recognition, algorithms, cloud computing, wireless sensor networks and security systems.

This book contains extended version of selected works that have been discussed and presented in the fourth International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2017) held in Patna, India during March 17-19, 2017. The symposium was organized by the Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and A. K. Choudhury School of Information Technology, both from University of Calcutta in collaboration with NIT, Patna. The International partners for ACSS 2016 had been Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. This bi-volume book has a total of 21 papers divided in 7 chapters. The chapters reflect the sessions in which the works have been discussed during the symposium. The different chapters in the book include works on biometrics, image processing, pattern recognition, algorithms, cloud computing, wireless sensor networks and security systems.

The book focuses on both theory and applications in the broad areas of communication technology, computer science and information security. This two volume book contains the Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced Computing and Intelligent Engineering. These volumes bring together academic scientists, professors, research scholars and students to share and disseminate information on knowledge and scientific research works related to computing, networking, and informatics to discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted. The book also promotes translation of basic research into applied investigation and convert applied investigation into practice.

This book presents extended versions of papers originally presented and discussed at the 3rd International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2016) held from August 12 to 14, 2016 in Kolkata, India. The symposium was jointly organized by the AGH University of Science & Technology, Cracow, Poland; Ca' Foscari University, Venice, Italy; and the University of Calcutta, India. The book is divided into two volumes, Volumes 3 and 4, and presents dissertation works in the areas of Image Processing, Biometrics-based Authentication, Soft Computing, Data Mining, Next-Generation Networking and Network Security, Remote Healthcare, Communications, Embedded Systems, Software Engineering and Service Engineering. The first two volumes of the book published the works presented at the ACSS 2015, which was held from May 23 to 25, 2015 in Kolkata, India.

This book presents extended versions of papers originally presented and discussed at the 3rd International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2016) held from August 12 to 14, 2016 in Kolkata, India. The symposium was jointly organized by the AGH University of Science & Technology, Cracow, Poland; Ca' Foscari University, Venice, Italy; and the University of Calcutta, India. The book is divided into two volumes, Volumes 3 and 4, and presents dissertation works in the areas of Image Processing, Biometrics-based Authentication, Soft Computing, Data Mining, Next-Generation Networking and Network Security, Remote Healthcare, Communications, Embedded Systems, Software Engineering and Service Engineering. The first two volumes of the book published the works presented at the ACSS 2015, which was held from May 23 to 25, 2015 in Kolkata, India.

The book focuses on an image processing technique known as binarization. It provides a comprehensive survey over existing binarization techniques for both document and graphic images. A number of evaluation techniques have been presented for quantitative comparison of different binarization methods. The book provides results obtained comparing a number of standard and widely used binarization algorithms using some standard evaluation metrics. The comparative results presented in tables and charts facilitates understanding the process. In addition to this, the book presents techniques for preparing a reference image which is very much important for quantitative evaluation of the binarization techniques. The results are produced taking image samples from standard image databases.

The book contains the extended version of the works that have been presented and discussed in the Second International Doctoral Symposium on Applied Computation and Security Systems (ACSS 2015) held during May 23-25, 2015 in Kolkata, India. The symposium has been jointly organized by the AGH University of Science & Technology, Cracow, Poland; Ca' Foscari University, Venice, Italy and University of Calcutta, India. The book is divided into volumes and presents dissertation works in the areas of Image Processing, Biometrics-based Authentication, Soft Computing, Data Mining, Next Generation Networking and Network Security, Remote Healthcare, Communications, Embedded Systems, Software Engineering and Service Engineering.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Computational Science reflects recent developments in the field of Computational Science, conceiving the field not as a mere ancillary science but rather as an innovative approach supporting many other scientific disciplines. The journal focuses on original high-quality research in the realm of computational science in parallel and distributed environments, encompassing the facilitating theoretical foundations and the applications of large-scale computations and massive data processing. It addresses researchers and practitioners in areas ranging from aerospace to biochemistry, from electronics to geosciences, from mathematics to software architecture, presenting verifiable computational methods, findings and solutions and enabling industrial users to apply techniques of leading-edge, large-scale, high performance computational methods. This, the 25th issue of the Transactions on Computational Science journal, consists of two parts. Part I, which is guest edited by Khalid Saeed, Nabendu Chaki and Soharab Hossain Shaikh, covers the areas of computer vision, image processing for biometric security, information fusion, and Kinect activity recognition. The papers in Part II focus on optimization through novel methods for data fusion, clustering in WSN, fault-tolerance, probability, weight assignment and risk analysis.

Information Processing and Security Systems is a collection of forty papers that were originally presented at an international multi-conference on Advanced Computer Systems (ACS) and Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management Applications (CISIM) held in Elk, Poland. This volume describes the latest developments in advanced computer systems and their applications within artificial intelligence, biometrics and information technology security. The volume also includes contributions on computational methods, algorithms and applications, computational science, education and industrial management applications.

Biometrics and Kansei Engineering is the first book to bring together the principles and applications of each discipline. The future of biometrics is in need of new technologies that can depend on people's emotions and the prediction of their intention to take an action. Behavioral biometrics studies the way people walk, talk, and express their emotions, and Kansei Engineering focuses on interactions between users, products/services and product psychology. They are becoming quite complementary. This book also introduces biometric applications in our environment, which further illustrates the close relationship between Biometrics and Kansei Engineering. Examples and case studies are provided throughout this book. Biometrics and Kansei Engineering is designed as a reference book for professionals working in these related fields. Advanced-level students and researchers studying computer science and engineering will find this book useful as a reference or secondary text book as well.