Computational Mechanics

Ecosystems and sustainable development VI; proceedings.

A September 2007 conference encouraged interdisciplinary communication between scientists, engineers, and professionals working in ecological systems and sustainable development. Papers from the conference describe research related to different aspects of ecosystems and sustainable development, including physical sciences and modeling. Material is grouped in 13 sections on ecosystem modeling, environmental management, mathematical and system modeling, environmental risk, natural resources management, sustainability indicators, ecological areas studies, energy and the environment, socio-economic factors, sustainable tourism, soil and agricultural issues, sustainable waste management, and water resources. There is no subject index. The US Office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Mobile agents; principles of operation and applications.

This text was written in collaboration with final-year students in computer engineering at the U. of Palermo, who were requested to prepare seminars on selected topics in the operating systems and distributed systems classes provided by Genco; the final synthesis, revision, and management was carried out within the Ph.D. school in computer engineering by professors, researchers, and doctoral students. The chapters describe the mobile agent principles of operation in detail, beginning with some definitions and then illustrating their main features such as mobility, communication, coordination, interoperability, fault tolerance and security. Comparisons of these features between most relevant multi-agent developing platforms are then discussed, followed by a discussion on a mobile agent application field — data mining and information retrieval — showing how mobile agents can help us to face these field related problems. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Modelling in medicine and biology; proceedings.

Thirty papers from the September 2007 conference present recent research on the numerical and computer modeling of cardiovascular systems, biomechanics, intercranial pressure dynamics, and skin properties. A special session on exposure to electromagnetic fields explores human exposure to low frequency electric fields generated by a power substation and currents induced in the eye during conductive keratoplasty. Other topics include platelet aggregation in aneurysms, finite element analysis of prosthetic knee joints, a comparison of dental implant support, brain neural pathway visualization using DT-MRI, and fetal electrocardiogram signal analysis. No subject index is provided. The U.S. office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Urban transport XIII; urban transport and the environment in the 21st century; proceedings.

These proceedings of the September 2007 conference include papers on transport sustainability (a case study of greenhouse gases and a study of the quality of public transport as a determinant of the number of care commuters), urban transport planning and management (reinforcement of bus lanes and road space, intermodal congestion solutions, virtual mobility, cost reduction within environmental guidelines, alternate goods delivery systems), transport modeling and simulation (logistics analysis, computerized decision support, fuzzy forecasting), traffic integration and control (signals designed with Petri nets, regional road management), public transport (detour guidance systems, bus optimization), energy and transport fuels, land use and transport integration, transport safety and security, economic and social issues, environmental and ecological aspects, and safety of users in road evaluation. Some interesting papers on innovative systems include vehicle tracking systems using GPS and schedule-oriented navigation for travelers. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)