The chapters in this volume were presented at the July–August 2006 NATO Advanced Study Institute on Imaging for Detection and Identification. The conference was held at the beautiful Il Ciocco resort near Lucca, in the glorious Tuscany region of northern Italy. For the eighth time we gathered at this idyllic spot to explore and...

In the last three decades, machine learning research and practice have focused on batch learning usually using small datasets. In batch learning, the whole training data is available to the algorithm, which outputs a decision model after processing the data eventually (or most of the times) multiple times. The rationale behind this...

The ubiquitous nature of the Internet is dramatically revolutionizing the manner in which organizations and individuals share information. Developed out of necessity during the cold war, the Internet was created as a means to help governmental institutions and collegiate institutions send documents and research materials electronically...

When computer software succeeds—when it meets the needs of the people who use it, when it performs flawlessly over a long period of time, when it is easy to modify and even easier to use—it can and does change things for the better. But when software fails—when its users are dissatisfied, when it is error prone, when...

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) continue to evolve as new technologies are added to their capabilities. The PLC started out as a replacement for hardwired relay control systems. Gradually, various math and logic manipulation functions were added. Today PLCs are the controller of choice for the vast majority of automated...

3D scene understanding and object recognition are among the grandest challenges in computer vision. A wide variety of techniques and goals, such as structure from motion, optical flow, stereo, edge detection, and segmentation, could be viewed as subtasks within scene understanding and recognition. Many of these applicable methods are...

Rob...

Nicholas Argeneau was once a successful hunter who went after rogue vampires who broke the immortal law. Except no one has mentioned his name in the last fifty years, not since he turned into a rogue himself. But once a hunter, always a hunter. When...

Rather than deciding whether or not to get involved in global sourcing, many companies are facing decisions about whether or not to apply agile methods in their distributed projects. These companies are often motivated by the opportunities to solve the coordination and communication difficulties associated with global software development....

The close anatomical proximity of the colon, rectum and anus to the gynecologic and urologic organs often results in a disease affecting one of these organ systems to create complications in another. Many colorectal, gynecologic, and urologic diseases, and the management of their complications, necessitate technically-challenging...

This graduate textbook provides an in-depth description of the transport phenomena relevant to systems of nanoscale dimensions. The different theoretical approaches are critically discussed, with emphasis on their basic assumptions and approximations. The book also covers information content in the measurement of currents, the role of initial...