This book presents the state of the art of artificial intelligence techniques applied to structural engineering. The 28 revised full papers by leading scientists were solicited for presentation at a meeting held in Ascona, Switzerland, in July 1998.
The recent advances in information technology, in particular decreasing hardware cost, Internet communication, faster computation, increased bandwidth, etc., allow for the application of new AI techniques to structural engineering. The papers presented deal with new aspects of information technology support for the design, analysis, monitoring, control and diagnosis of various structural engineering systems.This book presents the state of the art of artificial intelligence techniques applied to structural engineering. The 28 revised full papers by leading scientists were solicited for presentation at a meeting held in Ascona, Switzerland, in July 1998.
The recent advances in information technology, in particular decreasing hardware co… More >>

Artificial Intelligence in Structural Engineering: Information Technology for Design, Collaboration, Maintenance, and Monitoring

This book discusses the implications of new information
technologies and cognitive psychology for mathematical
problem solving research and practice.Based on a NATO
Advanced Research Workshop held in Portugal in 1991, it
offers both empirical research and theoretical papers.
The book includes a thorough discussion on the nature and
purpose of problem solving as a mathematical activity,
providing a view of the importance of complementary
activities such as investigations, conjecturing and problem
posing. It focuses on cognitive processes, instruction,
classroom processes, and the teacher’s role, and contains
new assessment and teacher education proposals.
At a time of important reform movements, when emphasis is
put on the role of new information technologies, the book
provides an up-to-date view of the developmental work being
done on computerized learning environments in the discipline
of mathematics, as w… More >>

Mathematical Problem Solving and New Information Technologies: Research in Contexts of Practice

Architecture Description Languages is an essential reference for both academic and professional researchers in the field of system engineering and design.  The papers presented in this volume were selected from the workshop of the same name that was held as part of the World Computer Congress 2004 Conference, held in Toulouse, France in August 2004.  This collection presents significant research and innovative developments and applications from both academic researchers and industry practitioners on topics ranging from Semantics to Tool and Development Environments.
The aim of an ADL is to formally describe software and hardware architectures.  Usually, an ADL describes components, their interfaces, their structures, their interactions (structure of data flow and control flow) and the mappings to hardware systems.  A major goal of such description is to allow analysis with respect to several aspects like timing, safety, reliability. The papers in this state… More >>

Architecture Description Languages: IFIP TC-2 Workshop on Architecture Description Languages

Networking Infrastructure for Pervasive Computing: Enabling Technologies & Systems is a comprehensive guide to tomorrow’s world of ubiquitous computing where users can access and manipulate information from everywhere at all times.
The emphasis is on networking, systems and standards rather than detailed physical implementation. Addressed are many technical obstacles, such as, connectivity, levels of service, performance, and reliability and fairness. The authors also describe the existing enabling off-the-shelf technologies and its underlying infrastructure known as pervasive networking (PervNet). PervNet ties different sets of smart nodes together enabling them to communicate with each other to provide pervasive computing services to users. Throughout the book, important issues related to scalability, transparency, security, energy management, QoS provisioning, fault tolerance, and disconnected operations are discussed.
This work provides a research and devel… More >>

Networking Infrastructure for Pervasive Computing: Enabling Technologies and Systems

Workers in hazardous environments such as mining are constantly exposed to the health and safety hazards of dynamic and unpredictable conditions. One approach to enable them to manage these hazards is to provide them with situational awareness: real-time data (environmental, physiological, and physical location data) obtained from wireless, wearable, smart sensor technologies deployed at the work area. The scope of this approach is limited to managing the hazards of the immediate work area for prevention purposes; it does not include technologies needed after a disaster. Three critical technologies emerge and converge to support this technical approach: smart-wearable sensors, wireless sensor networks, and low-power embedded computing. The major focus of this report is on smart sensors and wireless sensor networks. Wireless networks form the infrastructure to support the realization of situational awareness; therefore, there is a significant focus on wireless networks. Lastly, the “Fut… More >>

A Technology Review of Smart Sensors with Wireless Networks for Applications in Hazardous Work Environments

Cet ouvrage, associant des chercheurs de disciplines et de préoccupations très diverses, a trois objectifs : faire le point sur la question de la douleur et des états associés chez l’animal, interroger l’une par l’autre douleur animale et douleur humaine, clarifier les bases éthiques du débat. Si l’animal, faute de langage comparable au nôtre, ne peut nous déclarer sa douleur, son comportement est cependant loin d’être silencieux. Cette question peut ainsi être ressaisie sous un plus large horizon que celui strictement humain, permettant une compréhension renouvelée. En retour, la reconnaissance de la douleur animale pose à l’homme des problèmes éthiques qu’il ne peut indéfiniment différer.
Cet ouvrage, associant des chercheurs de disciplines et de préoccupations très diverses, a trois objectifs : faire le point sur la question de la douleur et des états associés chez l’animal, interroger l’une par l’autre douleur animale et douleur humaine, clarifier les ba… More >>

Douleur animale, douleur humaine: Données scientifiques, perspectives anthropologiques, questions éthiques

This volume presents findings and insights from contemporary thinking and research on the application of Information Technology in Educational Management. Management of Education in the Information Age: The Role of ICT analyses the ways in which Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been used, across a range of educational institutions, to support various aspects of educational management. The contents are organized into five sections:
-ICT for Managing Student Learning;
-ICT for Managing Educational Institutions;
-The Management of e-Learning;
-ICT Training for Educational Professionals;
-Reports from Discussion Groups. Management of Education in the Information Age: The Role of ICT contains peer-reviewed papers selected from the proceedings of the Fifth International Working Conference on Information Technology in Educational Management (ITEM 2002), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Inf… More >>

Management of Education in the Information Age: The Role of ICT

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies, MATES 2004, held in Erfurt, Germany, in September 2004.
The 22 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 60 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on learning and social agents, analysis and security, negotiation and control, agents and software engineering, simulation and agents, and policies and testing. This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies, MATES 2004, held in Erfurt, Germany, in September 2004.
The 22 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 60 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on learning and social agents, analysis and security, negotiation and control, agents and software engineering, simulation and agents, and polici… More >>

Multiagent System Technologies: Second German Conference, MATES 2004, Erfurt, Germany, September 29-30, 2004, Proceedings

In the United States, desalination technologies are increasingly used for municipal and industrial water supplies and reclamation of contaminated supplies. At issue for Congress is the federal role in desalination research, demonstration and full-scale facilities, and regulatory requirements. Constraints on wider adoption include financial, environmental, regulatory issues and concerns.

Desalination processes generally treat seawater or brackish water to produce a stream of freshwater, and a separate, saltier stream of water that has to be disposed (often called waste concentrate). Its attractions include creation of a new freshwater source from otherwise unusable waters, and its independence from precipitation, runoff, storage, and recharge. Many states (most notably Florida, California, and Texas) and cities are actively researching and investigating the feasibility of large-scale desalination plants for municipal water supplies. Coastal communities are increasingly consid… More >>

Desalination: Technologies, Use, and Congressional Issues

At the macroeconomic level innovation increasingly means the ability of institutions to cope with uncertainty and change. This change can be associated with technological advances, but also with modifications to the regulatory framework of an industry, shifts in consumer preferences, emerging demographic trends, or even major alternations of global geopolitics. The changes brought about by these conditions ripple throughout an economy, affecting national institutions and individual citizens alike. Innovation for All? considers the case of Portugal from the perspective of innovation theory, providing new insights on how knowledge is generated and diffused over time and across space. The lessons from Portugal’s experience can be applied more broadly to understand the challenges of developing policies that simultaneously promote scientific and technological innovation, societal creativity, and economic growth.At the macroeconomic level innovation increasingly means the ability of institut… More >>

Innovation for All?: Learning from the Portuguese Path to Technical Change and the Dynamics of Innovation