Information Retrieval (IR) has concentrated on the development of information management systems to support user retrieval from large collections of homogeneous textual material. A variety of approaches have been tried and tested with varying degrees of success over many decades of research. Hypertext (HT) systems, on the other hand, provide a retrieval paradigm based on browsing through a structured information space, following pre-defined connections between information fragments until an information need is satisfied, or appears to be. Information Retrieval and Hypertext addresses the confluence of the areas of IR and HT and explores the work done to date in applying techniques from one area, to the other leading to the development of hypertext information retrieval' (HIR) systems. An important aspect of the work in IR/HT and in any user-centred information system is the emergence of multimedia information and such multimedia information is treated as an integral information type in this text. The contributed chapters cover the development of integrated hypertext information retrieval models, and the application of IR and HT techniques in hypertext construction and the approaches that can be taken in searching HIR systems. These chapters are complemented by two overview chapters covering, respectively, information retrieval and hypertext research and developments. Information Retrieval and Hypertext is important as it is the first text to directly address the combined searching/browsing paradigm of information discovery which is becoming so important in modern computing environments. It will be of interest to researchers and professionals working in a range of areas related to information discovery.

Information Retrieval (IR) has concentrated on the development of information management systems to support user retrieval from large collections of homogeneous textual material. A variety of approaches have been tried and tested with varying degrees of success over many decades of research. Hypertext (HT) systems, on the other hand, provide a retrieval paradigm based on browsing through a structured information space, following pre-defined connections between information fragments until an information need is satisfied, or appears to be. Information Retrieval and Hypertext addresses the confluence of the areas of IR and HT and explores the work done to date in applying techniques from one area, to the other leading to the development of hypertext information retrieval' (HIR) systems. An important aspect of the work in IR/HT and in any user-centred information system is the emergence of multimedia information and such multimedia information is treated as an integral information type in this text. The contributed chapters cover the development of integrated hypertext information retrieval models, and the application of IR and HT techniques in hypertext construction and the approaches that can be taken in searching HIR systems. These chapters are complemented by two overview chapters covering, respectively, information retrieval and hypertext research and developments. Information Retrieval and Hypertext is important as it is the first text to directly address the combined searching/browsing paradigm of information discovery which is becoming so important in modern computing environments. It will be of interest to researchers and professionals working in a range of areas related to information discovery.

th Welcome to the 15 International Multimedia Modeling Conference (MMM 2009), held January 7-9, 2009 at EURECOM, Sophia-Antipolis, France. MMM is a leadinginternationalconference for researchersandindustry practitionersto share their new ideas, original research results and practical development ex- riences from all multimedia-related areas. MMM 2009 was held in co-operation with the ACM Special Interest Group on MultiMedia (ACM SIGMM). It was a great honor to host MMM 2009, one of the most long-standing th multimedia conferences, at EURECOM in Sophia-Antipolis, France. The 15 edition of MMM marked the return of the conference to Europe after numerous years of activity in Asia, and we are proud to have organized such a prestigious conference on the French Riviera. EURECOM is an engineering school in the domain of information and communication technology and a research center in communication systems. Since its creation in 1991 by TELECOM ParisTech and EPFL, it has developed strong international links with both academic and industrial partners. The heart of EURECOM is its internationally renowned research activities which focus on three areas: networking and security, mobile communications, and multimedia.

We greeted the attendees of CIVR 2004 with the following address: "T' aimid an- ' bhroduil ' failte ' a chur romhaibh chuig Ollscoil Chathair Bhaile Atha Cliath agus ' chuig an triu ' Comhdh' ail Idirn' aisiun ' ta ar Aisghabh' ail Iomh' anna agus F' ?se' an. ' T'asuil ' againn go mbeidh am iontach agaibh anseo in Eirinn agus go mbeidh bhur gcuairt taitneamhnach agus sas ' uil. ' T' aimid an-bhroduil ' go hairithe ' failte ' a chur roimh na daoine on ' oiread sin t' ?ortha difriula ' agus na daoine a th' ainig as i bhfad i gc' ein. T'aanoireadsinpaip ' ' ear curtha isteach chuig an chomhdh' ail seo go bhfuil caighde' an na bp' aip' ear agus na bp' ostaer an-ard ar fad agus taimid ' ag s' uil go mor ' le h' ocaid iontach. " rd We were delighted to host the 3 International Conference on Image and Video Retrieval in Dublin City University. We hope that all attendees had a wonderful stay in Ireland and that their visits were enjoyable and rewarding. There were 125 papers in total submitted to the CIVR2004 conference and each was reviewed by at least three independent reviewers. We are grateful to the 64 members of the technical programme committee and the 29 other rev- wers who completed these reviews and allowed us to put together a very strong technical programme.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Advances in Visual Informatics, IVIC 2015, held in Bangi, Malaysia, in November 2015. The five keynotes and 45 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 82 initial submissions. The papers are organized in four tracks on visualization and big data; machine learning and computer vision; computer graphics; as well as virtual reality.