Cooperative networks have gained a tremendous amount of attention over the last several years because of their existence not only in biological, social and economic arenas, but because of direct applications in many more areas such as communications, robotics and military sciences. This volume reflects a cross-fertilization of ideas from a broad set of disciplines and creativity from a diverse array of scientific and engineering research.While the benefits of networks in general have been recognized for quite some time, the idea of cooperative networks has several novel implications. Because distributed processing by heterogeneous nodes promises significant increases in system capability, performance and efficiency, research has intensified with a breadth of promising applications. Topics in this volume include networks of unmanned vehicles in uncertain environments, networks subject to eavesdropping and jamming, optimal node task-allocation, network complexity analysis, cooperative search involving multiple unmanned vehicles, and cooperative communications in ad-hoc networks, optimal control and optimization in man-in-the-loop scenarios. A broad array of readers, including faculty, graduate students and researchers interested in optimization, computer science, engineering, the social and behavioral sciences and related applications in cooperative systems will find this volume of great value.

This book presents the best papers from the 2nd International Conference on Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy (MARBLE) 2020, held in Vilamoura, Portugal. While most blockchain conferences and forums are dedicated to business applications, product development or Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launches, this conference focused on the mathematics behind blockchain to bridge the gap between practice and theory. Blockchain Technology has been considered as the most fundamental and revolutionising invention since the Internet. Every year, thousands of blockchain projects are launched and circulated in the market, and there is a tremendous wealth of blockchain applications, from finance to healthcare, education, media, logistics and more. However, due to theoretical and technical barriers, most of these applications are impractical for use in a real-world business context. The papers in this book reveal the challenges and limitations, such as scalability, latency, privacy and security, and showcase solutions and developments to overcome them.

This book provides an overview of state-of-the-art research on "Systems and Optimization Aspects of Smart Grid Challenges." The authors have compiled and integrated different aspects of applied systems optimization research to smart grids, and also describe some of its critical challenges and requirements.

The promise of a smarter electricity grid could significantly change how consumers use and pay for their electrical power, and could fundamentally reshape the current Industry. Gaining increasing interest and acceptance, Smart Grid technologies combine power generation and delivery systems with advanced communication systems to help save energy, reduce energy costs and improve reliability. Taken together, these technologies support new approaches for load balancing and power distribution, allowing optimal runtime power routing and cost management. Such unprecedented capabilities, however, also present a set of new problems and challenges at the technical and regulatory levels that must be addressed by Industry and the Research Community.

This book presents the best papers from the 3rd International Conference on Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy (MARBLE) 2022, held in Vilamoura, Portugal. While most blockchain conferences and forums are dedicated to business applications, product development or Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launches, this conference focuses on the mathematics behind blockchain to bridge the gap between practice and theory. Blockchain Technology has been considered as the most fundamental and revolutionising invention since the Internet. Every year, thousands of blockchain projects are launched and circulated in the market, and there is a tremendous wealth of blockchain applications, from finance to healthcare, education, media, logistics and more. However, due to theoretical and technical barriers, most of these applications are impractical for use in a real-world business context. The papers in this book reveal the challenges and limitations, such as scalability, latency, privacy and security, and showcase solutions and developments to overcome them.

This book presents the best papers from the 1st International Conference on Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy (MARBLE) 2019, held in Santorini, Greece. While most blockchain conferences and forums are dedicated to business applications, product development or Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launches, this conference focused on the mathematics behind blockchain to bridge the gap between practice and theory. Every year, thousands of blockchain projects are launched and circulated in the market, and there is a tremendous wealth of blockchain applications, from finance to healthcare, education, media, logistics and more. However, due to theoretical and technical barriers, most of these applications are impractical for use in a real-world business context. The papers in this book reveal the challenges and limitations, such as scalability, latency, privacy and security, and showcase solutions and developments to overcome them.

Metaheuristics for Resource Deployment under Uncertainty in Complex Systems analyzes how to set locations for the deployment of resources to incur the best performance at the lowest cost. Resources can be static nodes and moving nodes while services for a specific area or for customers can be provided. Theories of modeling and solution techniques are used with uncertainty taken into account and real-world applications used. The authors present modeling and metaheuristics for solving resource deployment problems under uncertainty while the models deployed are related to stochastic programming, robust optimization, fuzzy programming, risk management, and single/multi-objective optimization. The resources are heterogeneous and can be sensors and actuators providing different tasks. Both separate and cooperative coverage of the resources are analyzed. Previous research has generally dealt with one type of resource and considers static and deterministic problems, so the book breaks new ground in its analysis of cooperative coverage with heterogeneous resources and the uncertain and dynamic properties of these resources using metaheuristics. This book will help researchers, professionals, academics, and graduate students in related areas to better understand the theory and application of resource deployment problems and theories of uncertainty, including problem formulations, assumptions, and solution methods.

This volume is the first (I) of four under the main themes of Digitizing Agriculture and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The four volumes cover rapidly developing processes including Sensors (I), Data (II), Decision (III), and Actions (IV). Volumes are related to 'digital transformation" within agricultural production and provision systems, and in the context of Smart Farming Technology and Knowledge-based Agriculture. Content spans broadly from data mining and visualization to big data analytics and decision making, alongside with the sustainability aspects stemming from the digital transformation of farming. The four volumes comprise the outcome of the 12th EFITA Congress, also incorporating chapters that originated from select presentations of the Congress. The focus in this volume is on different aspects of sensors implementation in agricultural production (e.g., types of sensors, parameters monitoring, network types, connectivity, accuracy, reliability, durability, and needs to be covered) and provides variety of information and knowledge in the subject of sensors design, development, and deployment for monitoring agricultural production parameters. The book consists of four (4) Sections. The first section presents an overview on the state-off-the art in sensing technologies applied in agricultural production while the rest of the sections are dedicated to remote sensing, proximal sensing, and wireless sensor networks applications. Topics include: Emerging sensing technologies Soil reflectance spectroscopy LoRa technologies applications in agriculture Wireless sensor networks deployment and applications Combined remote and proximal sensing solutions Crop phenology monitoring Sensors for geophysical properties Combined sensing technologies with geoinformation systems

Metaheuristics for Resource Deployment under Uncertainty in Complex Systems analyzes how to set locations for the deployment of resources to incur the best performance at the lowest cost. Resources can be static nodes and moving nodes while services for a specific area or for customers can be provided. Theories of modeling and solution techniques are used with uncertainty taken into account and real-world applications used. The authors present modeling and metaheuristics for solving resource deployment problems under uncertainty while the models deployed are related to stochastic programming, robust optimization, fuzzy programming, risk management, and single/multi-objective optimization. The resources are heterogeneous and can be sensors and actuators providing different tasks. Both separate and cooperative coverage of the resources are analyzed. Previous research has generally dealt with one type of resource and considers static and deterministic problems, so the book breaks new ground in its analysis of cooperative coverage with heterogeneous resources and the uncertain and dynamic properties of these resources using metaheuristics. This book will help researchers, professionals, academics, and graduate students in related areas to better understand the theory and application of resource deployment problems and theories of uncertainty, including problem formulations, assumptions, and solution methods.

This book presents the best papers from the 2nd International Conference on Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy (MARBLE) 2020, held in Vilamoura, Portugal. While most blockchain conferences and forums are dedicated to business applications, product development or Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launches, this conference focused on the mathematics behind blockchain to bridge the gap between practice and theory. Blockchain Technology has been considered as the most fundamental and revolutionising invention since the Internet. Every year, thousands of blockchain projects are launched and circulated in the market, and there is a tremendous wealth of blockchain applications, from finance to healthcare, education, media, logistics and more. However, due to theoretical and technical barriers, most of these applications are impractical for use in a real-world business context. The papers in this book reveal the challenges and limitations, such as scalability, latency, privacy and security, and showcase solutions and developments to overcome them.

This book presents the best papers from the 1st International Conference on Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy (MARBLE) 2019, held in Santorini, Greece. While most blockchain conferences and forums are dedicated to business applications, product development or Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launches, this conference focused on the mathematics behind blockchain to bridge the gap between practice and theory. Every year, thousands of blockchain projects are launched and circulated in the market, and there is a tremendous wealth of blockchain applications, from finance to healthcare, education, media, logistics and more. However, due to theoretical and technical barriers, most of these applications are impractical for use in a real-world business context. The papers in this book reveal the challenges and limitations, such as scalability, latency, privacy and security, and showcase solutions and developments to overcome them.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Mathematical Optimization Theory and Operations Research, MOTOR 2019, held in Ekaterinburg, Russia, in July 2019. The 48 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 170 submissions. MOTOR 2019 is a successor of the well-known International and All-Russian conference series, which were organized in Ural, Siberia, and the Far East for a long time. The selected papers are organized in the following topical sections: mathematical programming; bi-level optimization; integer programming; combinatorial optimization; optimal control and approximation; data mining and computational geometry; games and mathematical economics.

This book constitutes extended, revised and selected papers from the 7th International Conference on Optimization Problems and Their Applications, OPTA 2018, held in Omsk, Russia in July 2018. The 27 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 73 submissions. The papers are listed in thematic sections, namely location problems, scheduling and routing problems, optimization problems in data analysis, mathematical programming, game theory and economical applications, applied optimization problems and metaheuristics.

This book constitutes the post-conference proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Machine Learning, Optimization, and Big Data, MOD 2017, held in Volterra, Italy, in September 2017. The 50 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 126 submissions. The papers cover topics in the field of machine learning, artificial intelligence, computational optimization and data science presenting a substantial array of ideas, technologies, algorithms, methods and applications.

This book provides an overview of state-of-the-art research on “Systems and Optimization Aspects of Smart Grid Challenges.� The authors have compiled and integrated different aspects of applied systems optimization research to smart grids, and also describe some of its critical challenges and requirements. The promise of a smarter electricity grid could significantly change how consumers use and pay for their electrical power, and could fundamentally reshape the current Industry. Gaining increasing interest and acceptance, Smart Grid technologies combine power generation and delivery systems with advanced communication systems to help save energy, reduce energy costs and improve reliability. Taken together, these technologies support new approaches for load balancing and power distribution, allowing optimal runtime power routing and cost management. Such unprecedented capabilities, however, also present a set of new problems and challenges at the technical and regulatory levels that must be addressed by Industry and the Research Community.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 9th Russian Summer School on Information Retrieval, RuSSIR 2015, held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in August 2015. The volume includes 5 tutorial papers, summarizing lectures given at the event, and 6 revised papers from the school participants. The papers focus on various aspects of information retrieval.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 22nd  International Conference on Mathematical Optimization Theory and Operations Research, MOTOR 2023, held in Ekaterinburg, Russia, during July 2–8, 2023. The 28 full papers and 1 short paper included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 89 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Mathematical programming and applications; discrete and combinatorial optimization; stochastic optimization; scheduling; game theory; and optimal control and mathematical economics. The book also contains one invited talk in full paper length. 

Solving combinatorial optimization problems can often lead to runtime growing exponentially as a function of the input size. But important real-world problems, industrial applications, and academic research challenges, may demand exact optimal solutions. In such situations, parallel processing can reduce the runtime from days or months, typical when one workstation is used, to a few minutes or even seconds.
Partners of the CEC-sponsored SCOOP Project (Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems in Parallel) contributed, on invitation, to this book; much attention was paid to competent coverage of the topic and the style of writing. Readers will include students, scientists, engineers, and professionals interested in the design and implementation of parallel algorithms for solving combinatorial optimization problems.

This volume is the first (I) of four under the main themes of Digitizing Agriculture and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The four volumes cover rapidly developing processes including Sensors (I), Data (II), Decision (III), and Actions (IV). Volumes are related to ‘digital transformation� within agricultural production and provision systems, and in the context of Smart Farming Technology and Knowledge-based Agriculture. Content spans broadly from data mining and visualization to big data analytics and decision making, alongside with the sustainability aspects stemming from the digital transformation of farming. The four volumes comprise the outcome of the 12th EFITA Congress, also incorporating chapters that originated from select presentations of the Congress.  The focus in this volume is on different aspects of sensors implementation in agricultural production (e.g., types of sensors, parameters monitoring, network types, connectivity, accuracy, reliability, durability, and needs to be covered) and provides variety of information and knowledge in the subject of sensors design, development, and deployment for monitoring agricultural production parameters. The book consists of four (4) Sections.  The first section presents an overview on the state-off-the art in sensing technologies applied in agricultural production while the rest of the sections are dedicated to remote sensing, proximal sensing, and wireless sensor networks applications. Topics include:  Emerging sensing technologies  Soil reflectance spectroscopy  LoRa technologies applications in agriculture Wireless sensor networks deployment and applications  Combined remote and proximal sensing solutions  Crop phenology monitoring  Sensors for geophysical properties   Combined sensing technologies with geoinformation systems 

This two-volume set, LNCS 13810 and 13811, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Machine Learning, Optimization, and Data Science, LOD 2022, together with the papers of the Second Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, ACAIN 2022. The total of 84 full papers presented in this two-volume post-conference proceedings set was carefully reviewed and selected from 226 submissions. These research articles were written by leading scientists in the fields of machine learning, artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, computational optimization, neuroscience, and data science presenting a substantial array of ideas, technologies, algorithms, methods, and applications.

This two-volume set, LNCS 13810 and 13811, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Machine Learning, Optimization, and Data Science, LOD 2022, together with the papers of the Second Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, ACAIN 2022. The total of 84 full papers presented in this two-volume post-conference proceedings set was carefully reviewed and selected from 226 submissions. These research articles were written by leading scientists in the fields of machine learning, artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, computational optimization, neuroscience, and data science presenting a substantial array of ideas, technologies, algorithms, methods, and applications.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Mathematical Optimization Theory and Operations Research, MOTOR 2022, held in Petrozavodsk, Russia, in July 2022. The 21 full papers presented together with 6 invited abstracts lectures and 2 tutorial abstracts in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 88 submissions. The conference focuses on the following topics: Mathematical programming, bi-level and global optimization, integer programming and combinatorial optimization, approximation algorithms with theoretical guarantees and approximation schemes, heuristics and meta-heuristics, game theory, optimal control, optimization in machine learning and data analysis, and their valuable applications in operations research and economics.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Mathematical Optimization Theory and Operations Research, MOTOR 2021, held in Irkutsk, Russia, in July 2021. The 29 full papers and 1 short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 102 submissions. Additionally, 2 full invited papers are presented in the volume. The papers are grouped in the following topical sections: combinatorial optimization; mathematical programming; bilevel optimization; scheduling problems; game theory and optimal control; operational research and mathematical economics; data analysis.

This two-volume set, LNCS 12565 and 12566, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Machine Learning, Optimization, and Data Science, LOD 2020, held in Siena, Italy, in July 2020. The total of 116 full papers presented in this two-volume post-conference proceedings set was carefully reviewed and selected from 209 submissions. These research articles were written by leading scientists in the fields of machine learning, artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, computational optimization, and data science presenting a substantial array of ideas, technologies, algorithms, methods, and applications.

This two-volume set, LNCS 12565 and 12566, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Machine Learning, Optimization, and Data Science, LOD 2020, held in Siena, Italy, in July 2020. The total of 116 full papers presented in this two-volume post-conference proceedings set was carefully reviewed and selected from 209 submissions. These research articles were written by leading scientists in the fields of machine learning, artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, computational optimization, and data science presenting a substantial array of ideas, technologies, algorithms, methods, and applications.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Mathematical Optimization Theory and Operations Research, MOTOR 2020, held in Novosibirsk, Russia, in July 2020. The 31 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 102 submissions. The papers are grouped in these topical sections: discrete optimization; mathematical programming; game theory; scheduling problem; heuristics and metaheuristics; and operational research applications.