This book addresses extensible and adaptable computing, a broad range of methods and techniques used to systematically tackle the future growth of systems and respond proactively and seamlessly to change. The book is divided into five main sections: Agile Software Development, Data Management, Web Intelligence, Machine Learning and Computing in Education. These sub-domains of computing work together in mutually complementary ways to build systems and applications that scale well, and which can successfully meet the demands of changing times and contexts. The topics under each track have been carefully selected to highlight certain qualitative aspects of applications and systems, such as scalability, flexibility, integration, efficiency and context awareness. The first section (Agile Software Development) includes six contributions that address related issues, including risk management, test case prioritization and tools, open source software reliability and predicting the change proneness of software. The second section (Data Management) includes discussions on myriad issues, such as extending database caches using solid-state devices, efficient data transmission, healthcare applications and data security. In turn, the third section (Machine Learning) gathers papers that investigate ML algorithms and present their specific applications such as portfolio optimization, disruption classification and outlier detection. The fourth section (Web Intelligence) covers emerging applications such as metaphor detection, language identification and sentiment analysis, and brings to the fore web security issues such as fraud detection and trust/reputation systems. In closing, the fifth section (Computing in Education) focuses on various aspects of computer-aided pedagogical methods.

Anant Prasad, a mediocre student, was prodded by his father to complete his M.S. and then a Ph.D., and thus became a reluctant scientist. After completing his studies in Bangalore, he went to Chapel Hill for his post-doctoral work. There he met Sheila Puri, a beautiful and vivacious second generation Indian-American. Sheila got her M.D., and was doing her residency in Internal Medicine. Anant and Sheila get married after a whirlwind romance. Following his post-doctoral work, Anant found a faculty position and they moved to Kansas City, Kansas. After several years of tumultuous relationship, the couple gets divorced. Anant tried to forget Sheila and move on with his life. During his efforts to find a suitable woman he ran into an old flame, Meena Bhat. Meena lured him to New Jersey where they set up a love shack and see each other frequently. Anant divided his time between Kansas and New Jersey. At Kansas, his new research project to discover active cancer chemotherapeutic drugs ran into several problems. In the meanwhile, he and his long time colleague, Petra Sokoloff, suddenly discovered each other and a sizzling affair ensued. Anant was caught between Meena and Petra and was faced with a difficult decision of choosing between the two beautiful damsels.