Artech House
Concepts, models, and tools for information fusion.
The ever-increasing amount of raw data and information in the contemporary world poses a significant challenge to command and control systems for military and public security operations, necessitating practices of data and information fusion, broadly characterized by the authors (of DRDC Valcartier, a Canadian military research organization, and the Defence Science and Technology in Organisation in Australia) as "the process of utilizing one or more data sources over time to assemble a representation of aspects of interest in an environment." These "aspects of interest" include traditional issues of military target tracking and newer issues pertaining to biography, economy, society, transport and telecommunications, geography, and politics. Drawing on concepts from psychology, human factors, knowledge representation, artificial intelligence, mathematical logic, and signal processing, they provide an explanation of data and information fusion for command and control systems. Concepts, definitions, and models are introduced, followed by discussion of quantitative, qualitative, and hybrid approaches to information fusion. Finally, the authors review computational implementation of information fusion, covering such topics as the design and performance of information systems and concepts in knowledge-based and artificial intelligence systems that impact higher-level fusion processes. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Counterdeception principles and applications for national security.
Bennet (an intelligence consultant with both government and private sector experience) and Waltz (Intelligence Innovation Division, BAE Systems Advanced Technologies) provide a technical overview of the principles and practices of deception and counterdeception when dealing with foreign intelligence organizations. They first introduce the topic of deception, covering cognitive aspects and technical methods. Turning to counterdeception, they offer chapters on nontechnical approaches, technical methods, and organizational architectures and technologies. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Dielectric resonator antenna handbook.
The final two decades of the 20th century saw the emergence of the dielectric resonator antenna as a viable alternative to conventional low-gain elements such as dipoles, monopoles, and microstrip patches. Petosa (antenna design and development, Communications Research Centre, Canada) synthesizes the growing body of knowledge about them into a single volume that can serve as a textbook or a design handbook. The example designs use simple equations for graphs to allow rapid design without resort to complex analytical or numerical calculations. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
OFDM towards fixed and mobile broadband wireless access.
Practitioners and managers Jha and Prasad describe what works behind the next wave of broadband wireless access technology, including the standards developed in IEEE 802.16. With accessible text and illustrations they introduce wireless network classifications, range, signaling, infrastructure, WiMAX, WiBri, and new high-data rate wireless communications technologies. They describe and analyze orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems and their issues, including frequency-hopping, orthogonal frequency division multiple access schemes, broadband wireless access fundamentals, fixed broadband wireless access, and mobile broadband wireless access, giving a wide variety of current and future applications for each, along with relevant standards. The result is a well-balanced approach to learning complex concepts and standards, so this will serve as a text, self-study guide and reference for some time to come. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Phase-locked looped engineering handbook for integrated circuits. (CD-ROM included)
Integrated circuits for a variety of applications are increasingly calling for higher frequencies, those ranging from 200 to 4,000 MHz. Monolithic phase-lock looped (PLL) devices can meet these frequencies but designing a new monolithic PLL is daunting. Practitioner Goldman presents practical solutions, SPICE listings and simulation techniques, in-depth information on testing and measurement, and detailed guidance as he covers initial steps, system analysis, system requirements, components, loop compensation synthesis, test and measurement for PLLs, simulation, applications and extensions. With each chapter he provides a list of questions for classroom use and a list of references. The illustrations are especially well done. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Role-based access control.
Role-based access control (RBAC) helps simplify the security administration of large networked applications by using roles, hierarchies, and constraints to organize access privileges. Bringing together the research literature on RBAC into one volume, the authors (all of the Computer Security Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology) explain the technology, describe its cost advantages, and discuss issues related to implementation and migration from conventional access control methods. For the second edition they have added chapters on privacy and regulatory issues and on role engineering. Intending the treatment to be useful to security professionals, technology managers, and users in industry and government; software developers for database systems, enterprise management, security, and cryptographic products; and computer science and information technology students and instructors, they have relegated mathematical descriptions of RBAC properties to sidebars and the text is understandable without reference to them. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Statistical multisource-multitarget information fusion.
Mahler applies his decades of experience in tactical systems along with his expertise in theory to this all-inclusive resource on finite-set statistics (FSST), a new method that unites much of information fusion under a single Bayesian paradigm. He focuses on the needs of practitioners for complete information on unified single-target multisource integration, including single-target filtering, general data modeling, random set uncertainty representation, measurements of UGA and AGA as well as AGU, generalized state estimates and finite-set measurements, then covers unified multitarget multisource integration in terms of conventional filtering, calculus, likelihood functions, Markov densities, and the Bayes filter. He closes with approximate multitarget filtering including particle and moment approximation, and Bernoulli approximation. Each chapter includes exercises, and Mahler supplies support information for such complex topics as Dirac delta functions, mathematical proofs, probability theory, gradient derivatives and Gaussian identity. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Systems bioinformatics; an engineering case-based approach. (CD-ROM included)
Beginning from an engineering perspective and written for engineering students, this textbook presents applications in systems bioinformatics, the intersection of systems biology and bioinformatics. The approach adopted by the editors (both of Harvard Medical School) is to match familiar engineering ideas, such as analysis, design, and reverse engineering with their applications in systems bioinformatics. Thus, a section on signal processing addresses biological signal processing and signal processing methods for mass spectrometry, a section on control and systems explores modeling cellular networks, and a section on probabilistic data networks and communications contains chapters on topological analysis of biomolecular networks and on Bayesian networks for genetic analysis. Other topics addressed include fundamentals of design for synthetic biology, applied cellular engineering, DNA/RNA sequence hybridization, biomolecular computing and cryptography, and chemotaxis. The CD-ROM contains a variety of computer programs for data analysis, modeling, and other purposes. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Utility computing strategies, standards, and technologies.
Writing for business executives, technology and information officers, and others interested parties, Mendoza (IBM Systems and Technology Division) introduces the standards, technologies, and architectures of utility computing, a new business model whereby computer resources are provided on an on-demand and pay-per-use basis, which theoretically optimizes use and cost and is comparable to such other utilities as electricity and phone usage. He also discusses the design of applications, the transformation of traditional enterprise applications into "Software as a Service," describes a future business environment in which utility computing has been widely adopted. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
