This book constitutes the proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems, PRIMA 2015, held in Bertinoro, Italy, in October 2015. The 29 full papers and 24 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 94 submissions. The conference brings together active researchers, developers and practitioners from both a…
Though noise reduction and speech enhancement problems have been studied for at least five decades, advances in our understanding and the development of reliable algorithms are more important than ever, as they support the design of tailored solutions for clearly defined applications. In this work, the authors propose a conceptual framework that can be applied to the many different aspects of n…
This book offers readers a set of new approaches and tools a set of tools and techniques for facing challenges in parallelization with design of embedded systems. It provides an advanced parallel simulation infrastructure for efficient and effective system-level model validation and development so as to build better products in less time. Since parallel discrete event simulation (PDES) has th…
This book provides an archival forum for researchers, academics, practitioners and industry professionals interested and/or engaged in the reform of the ways of teaching and learning through advancing current learning environments towards smart learning environments. The contributions of this book are submitted to the International Conference on Smart Learning Environments (ICSLE 2014). The foc…
The book introduces gas explosion technology (GET) and its applications in biomass refineries. In this book an overview of GET is provided, the mechanisms are thoroughly discussed. The chapters also cover the latest processes and equipments of GET, including equipment selection, parameter determination and engineering scaling-up. Last but not least the applications of GET are introduced in deta…
This volume describes the design of relay-based circuit systems from device fabrication to circuit micro-architectures. This book is ideal for both device engineers as well as circuit system designers, and highlights the importance of co-design across design hierarchies when trying to optimize system performance (in this case, energy-efficiency). The book will also appeal to researchers and eng…
This landmark volume brings together leading scholars in the field to investigate recent conceptual shifts, research findings and policy debates on the informal economy as well as future challenges and directions for research and policy. Well over half of the global workforce and the vast majority of the workforce in developing countries work in the informal economy, and in countries around the…
Crime and the fear of crime are issues high in public concern and on political agendas in most developed countries. This book takes these issues and relates them to the contribution that urban planners and participative planning processes can make in response to these problems. Its focus is thus on the extent to which crime opportunities can be prevented or reduced through the design, planning …