This volume is composed of the best papers submitted to the HOIT2000 conference held in Wolverhampton, U. K. in June 2000. The conference, entitled "IT at home: Virtual influences on everyday life," and the papers reflect the wide variety of these influences that are coming to bear on our everyday experience, be it through the increasing use of computers or the rapid development of new telecommunications systems. The conference has been organised by IFIP Working Group 9. 3 - Home-Oriented Informatics and Telematics (HOIJ), in association with IFIP Working Group 13. 2- Methodology for...

System Modelling and Optimization covers research issues within systems theory, optimization, modelling, and computing. It includes contributions to structural mechanics, integer programming, nonlinear programming, interior point methods, dynamical systems, stability analysis, stochastic optimization, bilevel optimization, and semidefinite programming. Several survey papers written by leading experts in their fields complement new developments in theory and applications.
This book contains most of the invited papers and a few carefully selected submitted papers that were...

IFIP/SEC2000, being part of the 16th IFIP World Computer Congress (WCC2000), is being held in Beijing, China from August 21 to 25, 2000. SEC2000 is the annual conference of TCll (Information Security) of the International Federation of Information Processing. The conference focuses on the seamless integration of information security services as an integral part of the Global Information Infrastructure in the new millenniUm. SEC2000 is sponsored by the China Computer Federation (CCF), IFIP/TCll, and Engineering Research Centre for Information Security Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences...

Learning plays a fundamental role in the production planning and growth of all organizations. With the need for more rapid changes in the global economy, the management of organizational change is a key factor in sustaining competitiveness in today's economy. This book has been developed with these learning needs' in mind. Human Learning: From Learning Curves to Learning Organizations covers a broad range of learning models and related topics beginning with learning curves to recent research on learning organizations. The book's focus is to enable researchers and...

Smart cards or IC cards offer a huge potential for information processing purposes. The portability and processing power of IC cards allow for highly secure conditional access and reliable distributed information processing. IC cards that can perform highly sophisticated cryptographic computations are already available. Their application in the financial services and telecom industries are well known. But the potential of IC cards go well beyond that. Their applicability in mainstream Information Technology and the Networked Economy is limited mainly by our imagination; the information...

Welcome to the third International Conference on Management of Multimedia Networks and Services (MMNS'2000) in Fortaleza (Brazil) The first MMNS was held in Montreal ( Canada) in july 1997 and the second MMNS was held in Versailles (France) in November 1998. The MMNS conference takes place every year and a half and is aimed to be a truly international event by bringing together researchers and practitioners from all around the world and by organising the conference each time in a different continent/country. Over the past several years, there has been a considerable amount of research within...

Database Semantics: Semantic Issues in Multimedia Systems reflects the state of the art of emerging research on the meaning of multimedia information, as presented during IFIP's Eighth Data Semantics Working Conference (DS-8), organized by its Working Group 2.6 on Databases, and held at Rotorua, New Zealand, in January 1999. DS-8 was planned as an active forum for researchers and practitioners focusing on those issues that involve the semantics of the information represented, stored, and manipulated by multimedia systems. Depending on the topic and state of research, issues may be...

Formal Methods for Open Object-Based Distributed Systems presents the leading edge in several related fields, specifically object-orientated programming, open distributed systems and formal methods for object-oriented systems. With increased support within industry regarding these areas, this book captures the most up-to-date information on the subject.
Many topics are discussed, including the following important areas: object-oriented design and programming; formal specification of distributed systems; open distributed platforms; types, interfaces and behaviour; formalisation...

New technology is always evolving and companies must have appropriate security for their business to be able to keep up-to-date with the changes. With the rapid growth in internet and www facilities, database security will always be a key topic in business and in the public sector and has implications for the whole of society.
Database Security Volume XII covers issues related to security and privacy of information in a wide range of applications, including:

• Electronic Commerce
• Informational Assurances
• Workflow
• Privacy
• Policy...

Mastering interoperability in a computing environment consisting of different operating systems and hardware architectures is a key requirement which faces system engineers building distributed information systems. Distributed applications are a necessity in most central application sectors of the contemporary computerized society, for instance, in office automation, banking, manufacturing, telecommunication and transportation. This book focuses on the techniques available or under development, with the goal of easing the burden of constructing reliable and maintainable interoperable...