Dynamic environments abound, encompassing many real-world problems in fields as diverse as finance, engineering, biology and business. A vibrant research literature has emerged which takes inspiration from evolutionary processes to develop problem-solvers for these environments.

Endophytic prokaryotes can invade the tissue of the host plant without triggering defense reactions or disease symptoms. Instead, they promote the growth of the host plant due to their ability to fix atmospheric dinitrogen and/or to produce plant growth-promoting substances.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th IEEE Workshop on IP Operations and Management, IPOM 2009, held in Venice, Italy, on October 29-30, 2009, as part of the 5th International Week on Management of Networks and Services, Manweek 2009.

The theory of group representations is a fundamental subject at the intersection of algebra, geometry and analysis, with innumerable applications in other domains of pure mathematics and in the physical sciences: chemistry, molecular biology and physics, in particular crystallography, classical and quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.

Power analysis attacks allow the extraction of secret information from smart cards. Smart cards are used in many applications including banking, mobile communications, pay TV, and electronic signatures. In all these applications, the security of the smart cards is of crucial importance.