Texts in Computer Science – serie

Computer Vision: Algorithms and Applications explores the variety of techniques used to analyze and interpret images. It also describes challenging real-world applications where vision is being successfully used, both in specialized applications such as image search and autonomous navigation, as well as for fun, consumer-level tasks that students can apply to their own personal photos and videos.More than just a source of “recipes,” this exceptionally authoritative and comprehensive textbook/reference takes a scientific approach to the formulation of computer vision problems. These problems are then analyzed using the latest classical and deep learning models and solved using rigorous engineering principles.Topics and features:Structured to support active curricula and project-oriented courses, with tips in the Introduction for using the book in a variety of customized coursesIncorporates totally new material on deep learning and applications such as mobile computational photography, autonomous navigation, and augmented realityPresents exercises at the end of each chapter with a heavy emphasis on testing algorithms and containing numerous suggestions for small mid-term projectsIncludes 1,500 new citations and 200 new figures that cover the tremendous developments from the last decadeProvides additional material and more detailed mathematical topics in the Appendices, which cover linear algebra, numerical techniques, estimation theory, datasets, and softwareSuitable for an upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level course in computer science or engineering, this textbook focuses on basic techniques that work under real-world conditions and encourages students to push their creative boundaries. Its design and exposition also make it eminently suitable as a unique reference to the fundamental techniques and current research literature in computer vision.

"My absolute favorite for this kind of interview preparation is Steven Skiena’s The Algorithm Design Manual. More than any other book it helped me understand just how astonishingly commonplace … graph problems are -- they should be part of every working programmer’s toolkit. The book also covers basic data structures and sorting algorithms, which is a nice bonus. … every 1 – pager has a simple picture, making it easy to remember. This is a great way to learn how to identify hundreds of problem types." (Steve Yegge, Get that Job at Google)"Steven Skiena’s Algorithm Design Manual retains its title as the best and most comprehensive practical algorithm guide to help identify and solve problems. … Every programmer should read this book, and anyone working in the field should keep it close to hand. … This is the best investment … a programmer or aspiring programmer can make." (Harold Thimbleby, Times Higher Education)"It is wonderful to open to a random spot and discover aninteresting algorithm. This is the only textbook I felt compelled to bring with me out of my student days.... The color really adds a lot of energy to the new edition of the book!" (Cory Bart, University of Delaware)"The is the most approachable book on algorithms I have."   (Megan Squire, Elon University)---This newly expanded and updated third edition of the best-selling classic continues to take the "mystery" out of designing algorithms, and analyzing their efficiency.  It serves as the primary textbook of choice for algorithm design courses and interview self-study, while maintaining its status as the premier practical reference guide to algorithms for programmers, researchers, and students. The reader-friendly Algorithm Design Manual provides straightforward access to combinatorial algorithms technology, stressing design over analysis.  The first part, Practical Algorithm Design, provides accessible instruction on methods for designing and analyzing computer algorithms.  The second part, the Hitchhiker's Guide to Algorithms, is intended for browsing and reference, and comprises the catalog of algorithmic resources, implementations, and an extensive bibliography. NEW to the third edition: -- New and expanded coverage of randomized algorithms, hashing, divide and conquer, approximation algorithms, and quantum computing -- Provides full online support for lecturers, including an improved website component with lecture slides and videos -- Full color illustrations and code instantly clarify difficult concepts -- Includes several new "war stories" relating experiences from real-world applications-- Over 100 new problems, including programming-challenge problems from LeetCode and Hackerrank. -- Provides up-to-date links leading to the best implementations available in C, C++, and Java Additional Learning Tools: -- Contains a unique catalog identifying the 75 algorithmic problems that arise most often in practice, leading the reader down the right path to solve them -- Exercises include "job interview problems" from major software companies -- Highlighted "take home lessons" emphasize essential concepts -- The "no theorem-proof" style provides a uniquely accessible and intuitive approach to a challenging subject -- Many algorithms are presented with actual code (written in C) -- Provides comprehensive references to both survey articles and the primary literature Written by a well-known algorithms researcher who received the IEEE Computer Science and Engineering Teaching Award, this substantially enhanced third edition of The Algorithm Design Manual is an essential learning tool for students and professionals needed a solid grounding in algorithms.   Professor Skiena is also the author of the popular Springer texts, The Data Science Design Manual and Programming Challenges: The Programming Contest Training Manual.

This textbook describes the theory and methodology of digital forensic examinations, presenting examples developed in collaboration with police authorities to ensure relevance to real-world practice. The coverage includes discussions on forensic artifacts and constraints, as well as forensic tools used for law enforcement and in the corporate sector. Emphasis is placed on reinforcing sound forensic thinking, and gaining experience in common tasks through hands-on exercises.This enhanced third edition describes practical digital forensics with open-source tools and includes an outline of current challenges and research directions.Topics and features:Outlines what computer forensics is, and what it can do, as well as what its limitations areDiscusses both the theoretical foundations and the fundamentals of forensic methodologyReviews broad principles that are applicable worldwideExplains how to find and interpret several important artifactsDescribes free and open-source software toolsFeatures content on corporate forensics, ethics, SQLite databases, triage, and memory analysisIncludes new supporting video lectures on YouTubeThis easy-to-follow primer is an essential resource for students of computer forensics, and will also serve as a valuable reference for practitioners seeking instruction on performing forensic examinations.

There are many distinct pleasures associated with computer programming. Craftsmanship has its quiet rewards, the satisfaction that comes from building a useful object and making it work. Excitement arrives with the flash of insight that cracks a previously intractable problem. The spiritual quest for elegance can turn the hacker into an artist. There are pleasures in parsimony, in squeezing the last drop of performance out of clever algorithms and tight coding.The games, puzzles, and challenges of problems from international programming competitions are a great way to experience these pleasures while improving your algorithmic and coding skills. This book contains over 100 problems that have appeared in previous programming contests, along with discussions of the theory and ideas necessary to attack them. Instant onlinegrading for all of these problems is available from two WWW robot judging sites. Combining this book with a judge gives an exciting new way to challenge and improve your programming skills.This book can be used for self-study, for teaching innovative courses in algorithms and programming, and in training for international competition.The problems in this book have been selected from over 1,000 programming problems at the Universidad de Valladolid online judge. The judge has ruled on well over one million submissions from 27,000 registered users around the world to date. We have taken only the best of the best, the most fun, exciting, and interesting problems available.

Assembly language continues to hold a core position in the programming world because of its similar structure to machine language and its very close links to underlying computer-processor architecture and design. These features allow for high processing speed, low memory demands, and the capacity to act directly on the system's hardware. This completely revised second edition of the highly successful Introduction to Assembly Language Programming introduces the reader to assembly language programming and its role in computer programming and design. The focus is on providing readers with a firm grasp of the main features of assembly programming, and how it can be used to improve a computer's performance. The revised edition covers a broad scope of subjects and adds valuable material on protected-mode Pentium programming, MIPS assembly language programming, and use of the NASM and SPIM assemblers for a Linux orientation. All of the language's main features are covered in depth. The book requires only some basic experience with a structured, high-level language.Topics and Features: Introduces assembly language so that readers can benefit from learning its utility with both CISC and RISC processors [ NEW ].- Employs the freely available NASM assembler, which works with both Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems [ NEW ].- Contains a revised chapter on "Basic Computer Organization" [ NEW].- Uses numerous examples, hands-on exercises, programming code analyses and challenges, and chapter summaries.- Incorporates full new chapters on recursion, protected-mode interrupt processing, and floating-point instructions [ NEW ].Assembly language programming is part of several undergraduate curricula in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering. In addition, this newly revised text/reference can be used as an ideal companion resource in a computer organization course or as a resource for professional courses.

An introductory course in Software Engineering remains one of the hardest subjects to teach. Much of the difficulty stems from the fact that Software Engineering is a very wide field which includes a wide range of topics. Con­ sequently, what should be the focus of an introductory course remains a challenge with many possible viewpoints. This third edition of the book approaches the problem from the perspec­ tive of what skills a student should possess after the introductory course, particularly if it may be the only course on software engineering in the stu­ dent's program. The goal of this third edition is to impart to the student knowledge and skills that are needed to successfully execute a project of a few person-months by employing proper practices and techniques. In- dently, a vast majority of the projects executed in the industry today are of this scope—executed by a small team over a few months. Another objective of the book is to lay the foundation for the student for advanced studies in Software Engineering. Executing any software project requires skills in two key dimensions— engineering and project management. While engineering deals with issues of architecture, design, coding, testing, etc., project management deals with planning, monitoring, risk management, etc. Consequently, this book fo­ cuses on these two dimensions, and for key tasks in each, discusses concepts and techniques that can be applied effectively on projects.

The aim of this textbook is to present an account of the theory of computation. After introducing the concept of a model of computation and presenting various examples, the author explores the limitations of effective computation via basic recursion theory. Self-reference and other methods are introduced as fundamental and basic tools for constructing and manipulating algorithms. From there the book considers the complexity of computations and the notion of a complexity measure is introduced. Finally, the book culminates in considering time and space measures and in classifying computable functions as being either feasible or not. The author assumes only a basic familiarity with discrete mathematics and computing, making this textbook ideal for a graduate-level introductory course. It is based on many such courses presented by the author and so numerous exercises are included. In addition, the solutions to most of these exercises are provided.

In writing this book, our goal was to produce a text suitable for a first course in mathematical logic more attuned than the traditional textbooks to the re­ cent dramatic growth in the applications oflogic to computer science. Thus, our choice oftopics has been heavily influenced by such applications. Of course, we cover the basic traditional topics: syntax, semantics, soundnes5, completeness and compactness as well as a few more advanced results such as the theorems of Skolem-Lowenheim and Herbrand. Much ofour book, however, deals with other less traditional topics. Resolution theorem proving plays a major role in our treatment of logic especially in its application to Logic Programming and PRO­ LOG. We deal extensively with the mathematical foundations ofall three ofthese subjects. In addition, we include two chapters on nonclassical logics - modal and intuitionistic - that are becoming increasingly important in computer sci­ ence. We develop the basic material on the syntax and semantics (via Kripke frames) for each of these logics. In both cases, our approach to formal proofs, soundness and completeness uses modifications of the same tableau method in­ troduced for classical logic. We indicate how it can easily be adapted to various other special types of modal logics. A number of more advanced topics (includ­ ing nonmonotonic logic) are also briefly introduced both in the nonclassical logic chapters and in the material on Logic Programming and PROLOG.

Concurrent computing is gaining ground in interest as it becomes increasingly feasible to implement distributed computing across networks of workstations. This book, by one of the subject's leading figures, provides a comprehensive survey of the subject beginning with proposotional logic and concluding with concurrent programming. It is based on graduate courses taught at Cornell University and is designed to be used as a graduate text. There are exercises at the end of each chapter to extend and illustrate the main themes covered. Professor Schneier emphasizes the use of formal methods and assertional reasoning using notation and paradigms drawn from programming to drive the exposition. As a result, all those interested in studying concurrent computing will find this to be an invaluable approach to the subject.

Many books focus on increasing the quality of software through the use of formal methods. However, most books embrace one particular method, and present it as the suggested solution for the software reliability problem. This book presents a wider picture of formal methods, through a collection of notations and techniques. It compares them, and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. One of the main challenges of formal methods is in transferring the tech­ nology developed by researchers to the software development community. Re­ cently, we seem to be starting to have a better understanding of the important ingredients of formal methods tools. This manifests itself in the growing ac­ ceptance of such tools in the software and hardware development industry. Ideally, formal methods need to be intuitive to use (preferably using graphi­ cal interfaces), do not impose on the user an extensive learning period, and incur only small overhead to the development process. Formal methods are much more acceptable today than ten or twenty years ago, in particular in the hardware industry. Yet there is still a lively contention between different approaches.

Computer science and engineering curricula have been evolving at a fast pace to keep up with the developments in the area. There are separate books available on assembly language programming and computer organization. There is a definite need to support the courses that combine assembly language programming and computer organization. The book is suitable for a first course in computer organization. The style is similar to that of the author's assembly language book in that it strongly supports self-study by students. This organization facilitates compressed presentation of material. Emphasis is also placed on related concepts to practical designs/chips. Topics and features: - material presentation suitable for self-study;- concepts related to practical designs and implementations; - extensive examples and figures;- details provided on several digital logic simulation packages;- free MASM download instructions provided;- end-of-chapter exercises.

Much current research in computer science is concerned with two questions: is a program correct? And how can we improve a correct program preserving correctness? This latter question is known as the refinement of programs and the purpose of this book is to consider these questions in a formal setting. In fact, correctness turns out to be a special case of refinement and so the focus is on refinement. Although a reasonable background knowledge is assumed from mathematics and CS, the book is a self-contained introduction suitable for graduate students and researchers coming to this subject for the first time. There are numerous exercises provided of varying degrees of challenge.

A basic issue in computer science is the complexity of problems. Computational complexity measures how much time or memory is needed as a function of the input problem size. Descriptive complexity is concerned with problems which may be described in first-order logic. By virtue of the close relationship between logic and relational databses, it turns out that this subject has important applications to databases such as analysing the queries computable in polynomial time, analysing the parallel time needed to compute a query, and the analysis of nondeterministic classes. This book is written as a graduate text and so aims to provide a reasonably self-contained introduction to this subject. The author has provided numerous examples and exercises to further illustrate the ideas presented.

Recently, temporal and modal logic, process calculus, and model checking have become essential software techniques for the formal verification of systems. With a clarity of presentation and its many illuminating examples, this book makes this technical material easy to grasp. It is perfectly suited for an advanced undergraduate or graduate class in formal verification and will serve as a valuable resource to practitioners of formal methods in all areas of computer science and software programming.

A new text/reference presenting the theory and applications of "constraint database" systems, which provide new methods for the design of data models and query languages. Constraint databases bring techniques from a variety of fields, such as logic and model theory, algebraic and computational geometry, as well as symbolic computation, to the design and analysis of data models and query languages.An essential resource for advanced students, practitioners, and professionals in computer science, database systems, and information systems.

This extensively revised and updated new edition of Specification of Software Systems builds upon the original focus on software specification with added emphasis on the practice of formal methods for specification and verification activities for different types of software systems and at different stages of developing software systems. Topics and features: provides a wide coverage of formal specification techniques and a clear writing style, supported by end-of-chapter bibliographic notes for further reading; presents a logical structure, with sections devoted to specification fundamentals, basics of formalism, logic, set theory and relations, property-oriented specification methods, and model-based specification techniques; contains end-of-chapter exercises and numerous case studies, with potential course outlines suggested in the Preface; covers Object-Z, B-Method, and Calculus of Communicating Systems; offers material that can be taught with tool-supported laboratory projects.

This book presents a broad overview of computer graphics (CG), its history, and the hardware tools it employs. Covering a substantial number of concepts and algorithms, the text describes the techniques, approaches, and algorithms at the core of this field. Emphasis is placed on practical design and implementation, highlighting how graphics software works, and explaining how current CG can generate and display realistic-looking objects. The mathematics is non-rigorous, with the necessary mathematical background introduced in the Appendixes. Features: includes numerous figures, examples and solved exercises; discusses the key 2D and 3D transformations, and the main types of projections; presents an extensive selection of methods, algorithms, and techniques; examines advanced techniques in CG, including the nature and properties of light and color, graphics standards and file formats, and fractals; explores the principles of image compression; describes the important input/output graphics devices.

This textbook provides a hands-on treatment of the subject of optimization. A comprehensive set of problems and exercises makes it suitable for use in one or two semesters of an advanced undergraduate course or a first-year graduate course. Each half of the book contains a full semester’s worth of complementary yet stand-alone material. The practical orientation of the topics chosen and a wealth of useful examples also make the book suitable as a reference work for practitioners in the field.In this second edition the authors have added sections on recent innovations, techniques, and methodologies.

Assembly language continues to hold a core position in the programming world because of its similar structure to machine language and its very close links to underlying computer-processor architecture and design. These features allow for high processing speed, low memory demands, and the capacity to act directly on the system's hardware. This completely revised second edition of the highly successful Introduction to Assembly Language Programming introduces the reader to assembly language programming and its role in computer programming and design. The focus is on providing readers with a firm grasp of the main features of assembly programming, and how it can be used to improve a computer's performance. The revised edition covers a broad scope of subjects and adds valuable material on protected-mode Pentium programming, MIPS assembly language programming, and use of the NASM and SPIM assemblers for a Linux orientation. All of the language's main features are covered in depth. The book requires only some basic experience with a structured, high-level language.Topics and Features: Introduces assembly language so that readers can benefit from learning its utility with both CISC and RISC processors [ NEW ].- Employs the freely available NASM assembler, which works with both Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems [ NEW ].- Contains a revised chapter on "Basic Computer Organization" [ NEW].- Uses numerous examples, hands-on exercises, programming code analyses and challenges, and chapter summaries.- Incorporates full new chapters on recursion, protected-mode interrupt processing, and floating-point instructions [ NEW ].Assembly language programming is part of several undergraduate curricula in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering. In addition, this newly revised text/reference can be used as an ideal companion resource in a computer organization course or as a resource for professional courses.

Many books focus on increasing the quality of software through the use of formal methods. However, most books embrace one particular method, and present it as the suggested solution for the software reliability problem. This book presents a wider picture of formal methods, through a collection of notations and techniques. It compares them, and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. One of the main challenges of formal methods is in transferring the tech­ nology developed by researchers to the software development community. Re­ cently, we seem to be starting to have a better understanding of the important ingredients of formal methods tools. This manifests itself in the growing ac­ ceptance of such tools in the software and hardware development industry. Ideally, formal methods need to be intuitive to use (preferably using graphi­ cal interfaces), do not impose on the user an extensive learning period, and incur only small overhead to the development process. Formal methods are much more acceptable today than ten or twenty years ago, in particular in the hardware industry. Yet there is still a lively contention between different approaches.

Recently, temporal and modal logic, process calculus, and model checking have become essential software techniques for the formal verification of systems. With a clarity of presentation and its many illuminating examples, this book makes this technical material easy to grasp. It is perfectly suited for an advanced undergraduate or graduate class in formal verification and will serve as a valuable resource to practitioners of formal methods in all areas of computer science and software programming.

A new text/reference presenting the theory and applications of "constraint database" systems, which provide new methods for the design of data models and query languages. Constraint databases bring techniques from a variety of fields, such as logic and model theory, algebraic and computational geometry, as well as symbolic computation, to the design and analysis of data models and query languages.An essential resource for advanced students, practitioners, and professionals in computer science, database systems, and information systems.

An introductory course in Software Engineering remains one of the hardest subjects to teach. Much of the difficulty stems from the fact that Software Engineering is a very wide field which includes a wide range of topics. Con­ sequently, what should be the focus of an introductory course remains a challenge with many possible viewpoints. This third edition of the book approaches the problem from the perspec­ tive of what skills a student should possess after the introductory course, particularly if it may be the only course on software engineering in the stu­ dent's program. The goal of this third edition is to impart to the student knowledge and skills that are needed to successfully execute a project of a few person-months by employing proper practices and techniques. In- dently, a vast majority of the projects executed in the industry today are of this scope—executed by a small team over a few months. Another objective of the book is to lay the foundation for the student for advanced studies in Software Engineering. Executing any software project requires skills in two key dimensions— engineering and project management. While engineering deals with issues of architecture, design, coding, testing, etc., project management deals with planning, monitoring, risk management, etc. Consequently, this book fo­ cuses on these two dimensions, and for key tasks in each, discusses concepts and techniques that can be applied effectively on projects.

This book describes the key concepts, principles and implementation options for creating high-assurance cloud computing solutions. The guide starts with a broad technical overview and basic introduction to cloud computing, looking at the overall architecture of the cloud, client systems, the modern Internet and cloud computing data centers. It then delves into the core challenges of showing how reliability and fault-tolerance can be abstracted, how the resulting questions can be solved, and how the solutions can be leveraged to create a wide range of practical cloud applications. The author’s style is practical, and the guide should be readily understandable without any special background. Concrete examples are often drawn from real-world settings to illustrate key insights. Appendices show how the most important reliability models can be formalized, describe the API of the Isis2 platform, and offer more than 80 problems at varying levels of difficulty.

HIS BOOK CONTAINS a most comprehensive text that presents syntax-directed and compositional methods for the formal veri?- T cation of programs. The approach is not language-bounded in the sense that it covers a large variety of programming models and features that appear in most modern programming languages. It covers the classes of - quential and parallel, deterministic and non-deterministic, distributed and object-oriented programs. For each of the classes it presents the various c- teria of correctness that are relevant for these classes, such as interference freedom, deadlock freedom, and appropriate notions of liveness for parallel programs. Also, special proof rules appropriate for each class of programs are presented. In spite of this diversity due to the rich program classes cons- ered, there exist a uniform underlying theory of veri?cation which is synt- oriented and promotes compositional approaches to veri?cation, leading to scalability of the methods. The text strikes the proper balance between mathematical rigor and - dactic introduction of increasingly complex rules in an incremental manner, adequately supported by state-of-the-art examples. As a result it can serve as a textbook for a variety of courses on di?erent levels and varying durations. It can also serve as a reference book for researchers in the theory of veri?- tion, in particular since it contains much material that never before appeared in book form. This is specially true for the treatment of object-oriented p- grams which is entirely novel and is strikingly elegant.

Introduced forty years ago, relational databases proved unusually succe- ful and durable. However, relational database systems were not designed for modern applications and computers. As a result, specialized database systems now proliferate trying to capture various pieces of the database market. Database research is pulled into di?erent directions, and speci- ized database conferences are created. Yet the current chaos in databases is likely only temporary because every technology, including databases, becomes standardized over time. The history of databases shows periods of chaos followed by periods of dominant technologies. For example, in the early days of computing, users stored their data in text ?les in any format and organization they wanted. These early days were followed by information retrieval systems, which required some structure for text documents, such as a title, authors, and a publisher. The information retrieval systems were followed by database systems, which addedeven more structure to the data and made querying easier. In the late 1990s, the emergence of the Internet brought a period of relative chaos and interest in unstructured and “semistructured data” as it wasenvisionedthateverywebpagewouldbelikeapageinabook.However, with the growing maturity of the Internet, the interest in structured data was regained because the most popular websites are, in fact, based on databases. The question is not whether future data stores need structure but what structure they need.

The frequency of new editions of this book is indicative of the rapid and trem- dous changes in the fields of computer and information sciences. First published in 1995, the book has rapidly gone through three editions already and now we are in the fourth. Over this period, we have become more dependent on computer and telecommunication technology than ever before and computer technology has become ubiquitous. Since I started writing on social computing, I have been ad- cating a time when we, as individuals and as nations, will become totally dependent on computing technology. That time is almost on us. Evidence of this is embodied in the rapid convergence of telecommunication, broadcasting, and computing devices; the miniaturization of these devices; and the ever increasing storage capacity , speed of computation, and ease of use. These qualities have been a big pulling force sucking in millions of new users every day, sometimes even those unwilling. Other appealing features of these devices are the increasing number of applications, apps, as they are increasingly becoming known, and being wireless and easily portable. Whether small or big, these new gizmos have become the c- terpiece of an individual’s social and economic activities and the main access point for all information. Individuals aside, computing technology has also become the engine that drives the nations’ strategic and security infrastructures that control power grids, gas and oil storage facilities, transportation, and all forms of national communication, including emergency services.

Each passing year bears witness to the development of ever more powerful computers, increasingly fast and cheap storage media, and even higher bandwidth data connections. This makes it easy to believe that we can now – at least in principle – solve any problem we are faced with so long as we only have enough data.Yet this is not the case. Although large databases allow us to retrieve many different single pieces of information and to compute simple aggregations, general patterns and regularities often go undetected. Furthermore, it is exactly these patterns, regularities and trends that are often most valuable.To avoid the danger of “drowning in information, but starving for knowledge” the branch of research known as data analysis has emerged, and a considerable number of methods and software tools have been developed. However, it is not these tools alone but the intelligent application of human intuition in combination with computational power, of sound background knowledge with computer-aided modeling, and of critical reflection with convenient automatic model construction, that results in successful intelligent data analysis projects. Guide to Intelligent Data Analysis provides a hands-on instructional approach to many basic data analysis techniques, and explains how these are used to solve data analysis problems.Topics and features: guides the reader through the process of data analysis, following the interdependent steps of project understanding, data understanding, data preparation, modeling, and deployment and monitoring; equips the reader with the necessary information in order to obtain hands-on experience of the topics under discussion; provides a review of the basics of classical statistics that support and justify many data analysis methods, and a glossary of statistical terms; includes numerous examples using R and KNIME, together with appendices introducing the open source software; integrates illustrations and case-study-style examplesto support pedagogical exposition.This practical and systematic textbook/reference for graduate and advanced undergraduate students is also essential reading for all professionals who face data analysis problems. Moreover, it is a book to be used following one’s exploration of it.Dr. Michael R. Berthold is Nycomed-Professor of Bioinformatics and Information Mining at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Dr. Christian Borgelt is Principal Researcher at the Intelligent Data Analysis and Graphical Models Research Unit of the European Centre for Soft Computing, Spain. Dr. Frank Höppner is Professor of Information Systems at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Dr. Frank Klawonn is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Head of the Data Analysis and Pattern Recognition Laboratory at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He is also Head of the Bioinformatics and Statistics group at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.

CSP notation has been used extensively for teaching and applying concurrency theory, ever since the publication of the text Communicating Sequential Processes by C.A.R. Hoare in 1985. Both a programming language and a specification language, the theory of CSP helps users to understand concurrent systems, and to decide whether a program meets its specification. As a member of the family of process algebras, the concepts of communication and interaction are presented in an algebraic style.An invaluable reference on the state of the art in CSP, Understanding Concurrent Systems also serves as a comprehensive introduction to the field, in addition to providing material for a number of more advanced courses. A first point of reference for anyone wanting to use CSP or learn about its theory, the book also introduces other views of concurrency, using CSP to model and explain these. The text is fully integrated with CSP-based tools such as FDR, and describes how to create new tools based on FDR. Most of the book relies on no theoretical background other than a basic knowledge of sets and sequences. Sophisticated mathematical arguments are avoided whenever possible.Topics and features: presents a comprehensive introduction to CSP; discusses the latest advances in CSP, covering topics of operational semantics, denotational models, finite observation models and infinite-behaviour models, and algebraic semantics; explores the practical application of CSP, including timed modelling, discrete modelling, parameterised verifications and the state explosion problem, and advanced topics in the use of FDR; examines the ability of CSP to describe and enable reasoning about parallel systems modelled in other paradigms; covers a broad variety of concurrent systems, including combinatorial, timed, priority-based, mobile, shared variable, statecharts, buffered and asynchronous systems; contains exercises and case studies to support the text; supplies further tools and information at theassociated website: http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/ucs/.From undergraduate students of computer science in need of an introduction to the area, to researchers and practitioners desiring a more in-depth understanding of theory and practice of concurrent systems, this broad-ranging text/reference is essential reading for anyone interested in Hoare’s CSP.