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Digital computers have been used more and more to control different industrial processes during the last decade. As of today, many sy­ stems are designed to include a process control computer as a vital part. The use of computers has created a need for sophisticated me­ thods for the operation and supervision of complex industrial proces­ ses. To summarize the state of the art from the practical as well as from the theoretical point of view, the 4th IFACIIFIP International Conference on'Digital Computer Applications to Process Control'will be held at Zurich from March 19 to 22, 1974. The first two vo­ lumes of the proceedings contain the accepted papers submitted to the conference mentioned above. The papers are arranged according to the topics of the conference. A third volume will include the six follow­ ing survey papers: 1. Digital Control Algorithms Prof. A. P. Sage, Dallas Texas I USA 2. Interface Problems for Process Control Prof. T. J. Williams, Lafayette Indiana I USA 3. Software for Process Computers Dr. J. Gertler, Budapest I Hungary Dr. J. Sedlak, Prague I CSSR 4. Digital Computer Applications in Metallurgical Processes Mr. W. E. Miller, Salem I USA Mr. W. G. Wright, Schenectady I USA 5. Digital Computer Applications in Power Systems Mr. D. Ernst, Erlangen / FRG 6. Digital Computer Applications in Chemical and Oil Industries Dr. H.

This volume of Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing contains accepted papers presented at SOCO 2012, held in the beautiful and historic city of Ostrava (Czech Republic), in September 2012. Soft computing represents a collection or set of computational techniques in machine learning, computer science and some engineering disciplines, which investigate, simulate, and analyze very complex issues and phenomena. After a through peer-review process, the SOCO 2012 International Program Committee selected 75 papers which are published in these conference proceedings, and represents an acceptance rate of 38%. In this relevant edition a special emphasis was put on the organization of special sessions. Three special sessions were organized related to relevant topics as: Soft computing models for Control Theory & Applications in Electrical Engineering, Soft computing models for biomedical signals and data processing and Advanced Soft Computing Methods in Computer Vision and Data Processing. The selection of papers was extremely rigorous in order to maintain the high quality of the conference and we would like to thank the members of the Program Committees for their hard work in the reviewing process. This is a crucial process to the creation of a high standard conference and the SOCO conference would not exist without their help.

The International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) initiated and sponsored an International Symposium on Nonlinear Dynamics in Engineering Systems held in 1989 in Stuttgart, FRG. The Symposium was intended to bring together scientists working in different fields of dynamics to exchange ideas and to discuss new trends with special emphasis on nonlinear dynamics in engineering systems. A Scientific Committee was appointed by the Bureau of IUTAM with the following members: S. Arimoto (Japan), F.L. Chernousko (USSR), P.J. Holmes (USA), C.S. Hsu (USA), G. looss (France), F.C. Moon (USA), W. Schiehlen (FRG), Chairman, G. Schmidt (GDR), W. Szemplinska-Stupnicka (Poland), J.M.T. Thompson (UK), H. Troger (Austria). This committee selected the participants to be invited and the papers to be presented at the Symposium. As a result of this procedure 78 active scientific participants from 22 countries followed the invitation, and 44 papers were presented in lecture and poster sessions. They are collected in this volume. At the Symposium an exhibition with experiments took place and the movie'An Introduction to the Analysis of Chaotic Dynamics'by E.J. Kreuzer et.al. was presented. The scientific lectures were devoted to the following topics: o Dynamic Structural Engineering Problems, o Analysis of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems, o Bifurcation Problems, o Chaotic Dynamics and Control Problems, o Miscellaneous Problems, o Experimental and Theoretical Investigations, o Chaotic Oscillations of Engineering Systems, o Characterization of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems, o Nonlinear Stochastic Systems.

The volume includes a set of selected papers extended and revised from the I2009 Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Software Engineering (KESE 2009) was held on December 19~ 20, 2009, Shenzhen, China. Volume 2 is to provide a forum for researchers, educators, engineers, and government officials involved in the general areas of Knowledge Engineering and Communication Technology to disseminate their latest research results and exchange views on the future research directions of these fields. 135 high-quality papers are included in the volume. Each paper has been peer-reviewed by at least 2 program committee members and selected by the volume editor Prof.Yanwen Wu. On behalf of the this volume, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to all of authors and referees for their efforts reviewing the papers. Hoping you can find lots of profound research ideas and results on the related fields of Knowledge Engineering and Communication Technology.

CSIE 2011 is an international scientific Congress for distinguished scholars engaged in scientific, engineering and technological research, dedicated to build a platform for exploring and discussing the future of Computer Science and Information Engineering with existing and potential application scenarios. The congress has been held twice, in Los Angeles, USA for the first and in Changchun, China for the second time, each of which attracted a large number of researchers from all over the world. The congress turns out to develop a spirit of cooperation that leads to new friendship for addressing a wide variety of ongoing problems in this vibrant area of technology and fostering more collaboration over the world. The congress, CSIE 2011, received 2483 full paper and abstract submissions from 27 countries and regions over the world. Through a rigorous peer review process, all submissions were refereed based on their quality of content, level of innovation, significance, originality and legibility. 688 papers have been accepted for the international congress proceedings ultimately.

CSIE 2011 is an international scientific Congress for distinguished scholars engaged in scientific, engineering and technological research, dedicated to build a platform for exploring and discussing the future of Computer Science and Information Engineering with existing and potential application scenarios. The congress has been held twice, in Los Angeles, USA for the first and in Changchun, China for the second time, each of which attracted a large number of researchers from all over the world. The congress turns out to develop a spirit of cooperation that leads to new friendship for addressing a wide variety of ongoing problems in this vibrant area of technology and fostering more collaboration over the world. The congress, CSIE 2011, received 2483 full paper and abstract submissions from 27 countries and regions over the world. Through a rigorous peer review process, all submissions were refereed based on their quality of content, level of innovation, significance, originality and legibility. 688 papers have been accepted for the international congress proceedings ultimately.

The Intelligent Decision Technologies (IDT) International Conference encourages an interchange of research on intelligent systems and intelligent technologies that enhance or improve decision making. The focus of IDT is interdisciplinary and includes research on all aspects of intelligent decision technologies, from fundamental development to real applications. IDT has the potential to expand their support of decision making in such areas as finance, accounting, marketing, healthcare, medical and diagnostic systems, military decisions, production and operation, networks, traffic management, crisis response, human-machine interfaces, financial and stock market monitoring and prediction, and robotics. Intelligent decision systems implement advances in intelligent agents, fuzzy logic, multi-agent systems, artificial neural networks, and genetic algorithms, among others. Emerging areas of active research include virtual decision environments, social networking, 3D human-machine interfaces, cognitive interfaces, collaborative systems, intelligent web mining, e-commerce, e-learning, e-business, bioinformatics, evolvable systems, virtual humans, and designer drugs. This volume contains papers from the Fourth KES International Symposium on Intelligent Decision Technologies (KES IDT'12), hosted by researchers in Nagoya University and other institutions in Japan. This book contains chapters based on papers selected from a large number of submissions for consideration for the conference from the international community. The volume represents the current leading thought in intelligent decision technologies.

Each year the Safety-critical Systems Symposium brings together practitioners and researchers in a quest to inculcate a higher degree of safety engineering into the development and operation of critical software-based systems. On this, the Symposium's seventh occasion, it explores recent work and experience which lead us further'towards system safety'. This book of the Proceedings covers the entire event. The first paper is the course text of a tutorial run on the first day of the Symposium, included here to provide readers with a coverage of the entire event. The next fourteen papers were presented, on the second and third days, in six sessions: Safety Cases, Systems Engineering, Safety Analysis and Safety Integrity, Tools for Software Safety, Solving Safety Problems, and Qllestions and Competences. Eight of the fourteen papers were authored in industry, four in universities, and two in other research establishments. Four of them report on work outside the UK: in France, Germany, Norway and Brazil. There are three papers on safety cases, each taking a different perspective. Skogstad from Norway and Boyce and Hamilton of GEC-Marconi both report on experience in the field, the former in attempting to apply European norms to project documentation and the latter in attempting to build up a retrospective safety case. The third paper, by Goodman, takes a more philosophical stance, examining the lack of useful measurement in safety assurance.

Advances in Soft Computing contains the most recent developments in the field of soft computing in engineering design and manufacture. The book comprises a selection of papers that were first presented in June 1998 at the 3rd On-line World Conference on Soft Computing in Engineering Design and Manufacturing. Amongst these are four invited papers by World-renowned researchers in the field. Soft computing is a collection of methodologies which aim to exploit tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth to achieve tractability, robustness and low solution cost. The area of applications of soft computing is extensive. Principally the constituents of soft computing are: fuzzy computing, neuro-computing, genetic computing and probabilistic computing. The topics in this book are well focused on engineering design an d manufacturing. This broad collection of 43 research papers, has been arranged into nine parts by the editors. These include: Design Support Systems, Intelligent Control, Data Mining and New Topics in EA basics. The papers on evolutionary design and optimisation are of particular interest. Innovative techniques are explored and the reader is introduced to new, highly advanced research results. The editors present a unique collection of papers that provide a comprehensive overview of current developments in soft computing research around the world.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on the Impact of Virtual, Remote and Real Logistic Labs, ImViReLL 2012, held in Bremen, Germany, in Februar/March 2012. The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on fundamentals and historic background of lab-based research in logistics; infrastructure and design of virtual, remote and real labs; educational implications of virtual, remote and real labs; test-beds and demonstrators; lab-based process improvements in logistics; lab-supported product developments.

Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters BCI (WoS).Powder metallurgy is one of the leading processes used for forming engineering components. The technology, as developed at the beginning of the 20th century, has since advanced significantly from both the materials and energy-conservation points of view. Novel, and automated, equipment has played a significant role in enhancing the growth of the powder metallurgy industry. The present work includes, in addition to the editor's introductory paper, eleven invited papers from organizations of international repute. In brief, the book presents expert assessments from the major metal-powder and powder-metallurgy equipment-makers in the world. This distinguishes it from other works, which are contributed mainly by academics. The book concentrates on particular topics of interest and does not attempt to be comprehensive.

Selected from papers presented at the 8th Scientific Computation in Electrical Engineering conference in Toulouse in 2010, the contributions to this volume cover every angle of numerically modelling electronic and electrical systems, including computational electromagnetics, circuit theory and simulation and device modelling. On computational electromagnetics, the chapters examine cutting-edge material ranging from low-frequency electrical machine modelling problems to issues in high-frequency scattering. Regarding circuit theory and simulation, the book details the most advanced techniques for modelling networks with many thousands of components. Modelling devices at microscopic levels is covered by a number of fundamental mathematical physics papers, while numerous papers on model order reduction help engineers and systems designers to bring their modelling of industrial-scale systems within the reach of present-day computational power. Complementing these more specific papers, the volume also contains a selection of mathematical methods which can be used in any application domain.

As the role of computer simulations began to increase in importance, we sensed a need for a'meeting place'for both experienced simulators and neophytes to discuss new techniques and results in an evironment which promotes extended discussion. As a consequence of these concerns, The Center for Simulational Physics established an annual workshop on Recent Developments in Computer Simulation Studies in Condensed-Matter Physics. This year's workshop was the fifth in this series and the interest which the scientific community has shown demonstrates quite clearly the useful purpose which the series has served. The workshop was held at the University of Georgia, February 17-21, 1992, and these proceedings form a record of the workshop which is published with the goal of timely dissemination of the papers to a wider audience. The proceedings are divided into four parts. The first part contains invited papers which deal with simulational studies of classical systems and includes an introduction to some new simulation techniques and special purpose computers as well. A separate section of the proceedings is devoted to invited papers on quantum systems including new results for strongly correlated electron and quan­ tum spin models. The third section is comprised of a single, invited description of a newly developed software shell designed for running parallel programs. The contributed presentations comprise the final chapter.

Components of System Safety contains the invited papers presented at the tenth annual Safety-critical Systems Symposium, held in Southampton, February 2002. The papers included in this volume are representative of modern safety thinking, the questions that arise from it, and the investigations that result. They are all aimed at the transfer of technology, experience, and lessons to and within industry, and they offer a broad range of views. Not only do they show what has been done and what could be done, but they also lead the reader to speculate on ways in which safety might be improved.

Digital computers have been used more and more to control different industrial processes during the last decade. As of today, many sy­ stems are designed to include a process control computer as a vital part. The use of computers has created a need for sophisticated me­ thods for the operation and supervision of complex industrial proces­ ses. To summarize the state of the art from the practical as well as from the theoretical point of view, the 4th IFAC/IFIP International Conference on'Digital Computer Applications to Process Control'will be held at Zurich from March 19 to 22, 1974. The first two vo­ lumes of the proceedings contain the accepted papers submitted to the conference mentioned above. The papers are arranged according to the topics of the conference. A third volume will include the six follow­ ing survey papers: 1. Digital Control Algorithms Prof. A. P. Sage, Dallas Texas / USA 2. Interface Problems for Process Control Prof. T. J. Williams, Lafayette Indiana / USA 3. Software for Process Computers Dr. J. Gertler, Budapest / Hungary Dr. J. Sedlak, Prague / CSSR 4. Digital Computer Applications in Metallurgical Processes Mr. W. E. Miller, Salem / USA Mr. W. G. Wright, Schenectady / USA 5. Digital Computer Applications in Power Systems Mr. D. Ernst, Erlangen / FRG 6. Digital Computer Applications in Chemical and Oil Industries Dr. H. Amrehn, Marl / FRG We hope, that the publication of these papers from specialists.

The main contemporary human-system interaction (H-SI) problems consist in design and/or improvement of the tools for effective exchange of information between individual humans or human groups and technical systems created for humans aiding in reaching their vital goals. This book is a second issue in a series devoted to the novel in H-SI results and contributions reached for the last years by many research groups in European and extra-European countries. The preliminary (usually shortened) versions of the chapters were presented as conference papers at the 3rd International Conference on H-SI held in Rzeszow, Poland, in 2010. A large number of valuable papers selected for publication caused a necessity to publish the book in two volumes. The given, 1st Volume consists of sections devoted to: I. Decision Supporting Systems, II. Distributed Knowledge Bases and WEB Systems and III. Impaired Persons Aiding Systems. The decision supporting systems concern various application areas, like enterprises management, healthcare, agricultural products storage, visual design, planning of sport trainings, etc. Other papers in this area are devoted to general decision supporting methods and tools. In the group of papers concerning knowledge bases and WEB-based systems are some focused on new computer networks technologies, models of malicious network traffic and selected problems of distributed networks resources organization and tagging. The concepts of a distributed virtual museum and of managing the process of intellectual capital creation in this part of the book are also presented. The last part of this volume contains a dozen of papers concerning various concepts and realizations of disabled persons aiding systems. Among them, the systems aimedat aiding visual or motion disability affected persons can be mentioned. The problems of residential infrastructure for ubiquitous health supervision and graphics- and gesture-based interactive children therapy supporting systems design in this volume are also presented.

Human-in-the-Loop Simulations is a compilation of articles from experts in the design, development, and use of human-in-the-loop simulations.The first section of the handbook consists of papers on fundamental concepts in human-in-the-loop simulations, such as object-oriented simulation development, interface design and development, and performance measurement. The second section includes papers from researchers who utilized HITL simulations to inform models of cognitive processes to include decision making and metacognition. The last section describes human-in-the-loop processes for complex simulation models in trade space exploration and epidemiological analyses. Human-in-the-Loop Simulations is a useful tool for multiple audiences, including graduate students and researchers in engineering and computer science.

Geomaterials exhibit complex but rich mechanical behaviour with a variety of failure modes ranging from diffuse to localized deformation depending on stress, density, microstructure, and loading conditions. These failure modes are a result of an instability of material and/or geometric nature that can be studied within the framework of bifurcation theory. Degradation is another related phenomenon arising from cyclic loading, ageing, weathering, chemical attack, and capillary effects, among others. The methodology of analyzing the various types of instabilities is crucial in the adequate modelling and safe design of numerous problems in geomechanics.The present volume contains a sampling of enlarged versions of papers presented at the International Workshop on Bifurcation and Degradations in Geomaterials (IWBDG 2008) held in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, May 28-31, 2008. These papers capture the state-of-the-art in the specialized field of geomechanics and contemporary approaches to solving the central issue of failure. Some engineering applications are presented in the areas of energy resource extraction and soil-machine interaction.

Session 1 includes 109 papers selected from 2011 3rd International Asia Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (CAR 2011), held on December 24-25, 2011, Shenzhen, China. This session will act as an international forum for researchers and practitioners interested in the advances in and applications of Intelligent Control Systems. It is an opportunity to present and observe the latest research, results, and ideas in these areas. Intelligent control is a rapidly developing, complex, and challenging field of increasing practical importance and still greater potential. Its applications have a solid core in robotics and mechatronics but branch out into areas as diverse as process control, automotive industry, medical equipment, renewable energy and air conditioning. So, this session will aim to strengthen relationships between industry, research laboratories and universities. All papers published in session 1 will be peer evaluated by at least two conference reviewers. Acceptance will be based primarily on originality and contribution.

The fields of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology have been growing steadily over the last few years boosted by an increasing need for computational techniques that can efficiently handle the huge amounts of data produced by the new experimental techniques in Biology. This calls for new algorithms and - proaches from fields such as Data Integration, Statistics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Optimization, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Also, new global approaches, such as Systems Biology, have been emerging replacing the reductionist view that dominated biological research in the last d- ades. Indeed, Biology is more and more a science of information needing tools from the information technology field. The interaction of researchers from diff- ent scientific fields is, more than ever, of foremost importance and we hope this event will contribute to this effort. IWPACBB'10 technical program included a total of 30 papers (26 long papers and 4 short papers) spanning many different sub-fields in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Therefore, the technical program of the conference will certainly be diverse, challenging and will promote the interaction among computer scientists, mathematicians, biologists and other researchers. We would like to thank all the contributing authors, as well as the members of the Program Committee and the Organizing Committee for their hard and highly valuable work. Their work has helped to contribute to the success of the IWAPCBB'10 event. IWPACBB'10 wouldn't exist without your contribution.

Advances in Gas Processing: Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Gas Processing Symposium 11-1 4 January, 2010, Doha, Qatar, reviews the state of knowledge in gas processing. The contributions are organized around five main themes: (i) environmental sustainability; (ii) natural gas processing technologies; (iii) energy efficiency in operations; (iv) design and safety; and (v) operational excellence. The papers on environmental sustainability cover topics such as the biogasification of waste monoethanolamine; the role of LNG in a carbon constrained world; and sustainable water management. The papers on natural gas processing technologies include the removal of acid gases from natural gas streams via membrane technology and selective control of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis hydrocarbons product distribution. The papers on energy efficiency in operations cover lifted turbulent jet flame in a cross-flow; novel hybrid biomass and coal processes; and the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The papers on design and safety include studies on the optimal design and operation of a GTL process and efficient design, operating, and control strategies for LNG plants. The papers on operational excellence deal with topics such as chemicals in gas processing; the monitoring and optimization of hydrocarbon separation equipment; and the inhibition of gas hydrate formation.• Provides a state-of-the-art review of gas processing technologies • Covers design, operating tools, and methodologies • Includes case studies and practical applications

The International Symposium of Hungarian Researchers on Computational Intel- th gence and Informatics celebrated its 10 edition in 2009. This volume contains a careful selection of papers that are based on and are extensions of corresponding l- tures presented at the jubilee conference. This annual Symposium was launched by Budapest Tech (previously Budapest Polytechnic) and by the Hungarian Fuzzy Association in 2000, with the aim to bring together Hungarian speaking researchers working on computational intelligence and related topics from all over the world, but with special emphasis on the Central Eu- pean Region. th The Symposium of the 10 jubilee anniversary contained 70 reviewed papers. The growing interests, the enthusiasm of the participants have proved that the Symposium has become an internationally recognized scientific event providing a good platform for the annual meeting of Hungarian researchers. The main subject area called Computational Intelligence includes diverse topics. Therefore, we offer snapshots rather than a full coverage of a small particular subject to the interested reader. This principle is also supported by the common national root of the authors. The book begins with Information Systems and Communication. This part contains papers on graphs of grammars, software and hardware solution for Mojette transf- mation, statistical intrusion detection, congestion forecast, and 3D-based internet communication and control.

The papers in this volume were selected for presentation at the 19th International Meshing Roundtable (IMR), held October 3–6, 2010 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. The conference was started by Sandia National Laboratories in 1992 as a small meeting of organizations striving to establish a common focus for research and development in the field of mesh generation. Now after 19 consecutive years, the International Meshing Roundtable has become recognized as an international focal point annually attended by researchers and developers from dozens of co- tries around the world. The 19th International Meshing Roundtable consists of technical presentations from contributed papers, research notes, keynote and invited talks, short course presentations, and a poster session and competition. The Program Committee would like to express its appreciation to all who participate to make the IMR a successful and enriching experience. The papers in these proceedings were selected by the Program Committee from among numerous submissions. Based on input from peer reviews, the committee selected these papers for their perceived quality, originality, and appropriateness to the theme of the International Meshing Roundtable. We would like to thank all who submitted papers. We would also like to thank the colleagues who provided reviews of the submitted papers. The names of the reviewers are acknowledged in the following pages. We extend special thanks to Jacqueline Hunter for her time and effort to make the 19th IMR another outstanding conference.

This is the second volume of a series of edited books whose aim is to collect c- tributed papers within a framework that can serve as a collection of persons in MMS (Mechanism and Machine Science). This is a continuation of the first volume that was published in 2008, again combining very ancient and very recent scholars in order to give not only an encyclopaedic character to this project but also to emphasize the significance of MMS over time. This project has the characteristic that the papers illustrate, by recognizing p- sons and their scientific work, mainly technical developments in the historical evolution of the fields that today are grouped in MMS. Thus, emphasis is also given to biographical notes describing efforts and experiences of people who have c- tributed to the technical achievements whose technical survey is the core of each contributed paper. This second volume of the project has been possible thanks to the invited authors who have enthusiastically shared in this initiative and who have spent time and effort in preparing the papers. The stand-alone papers cover the wide field of the History of Mechanical Engineering with specific focus on MMS. I believe that readers will take advantage of the papers in this book and future ones by supplying further satisfaction and motivation for her or his work (historical or not).

This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on String Processing and Information Retrieval, ICOST 2022, held in Paris, France, in June 2022. The 15 full papers and 10 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 33 submissions. They cover topics such as design, development, deployment, and evaluation of AI for health, smart urban environments, assistive technologies, chronic disease management, and coaching and health telematics systems.

This open access two-volume set LNCS 13371 and 13372 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 34rd International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2022, which was held in Haifa, Israel, in August 2022. The 40 full papers presented together with 9 tool papers and 2 case studies were carefully reviewed and selected from 209 submissions. The papers were organized in the following topical sections: Part I: Invited papers; formal methods for probabilistic programs; formal methods for neural networks; software Verification and model checking; hyperproperties and security; formal methods for hardware, cyber-physical, and hybrid systems. Part II: Probabilistic techniques; automata and logic; deductive verification and decision procedures; machine learning; synthesis and concurrency. This is an open access book.

A flexagon is a motion structure that has the appearance of a ring of hinged polygons. It can be flexed to display different pairs of faces, usually in cyclic order. Flexagons can be appreciated as toys or puzzles, as a recreational mathematics topic, and as the subject of serious mathematical study. Workable paper models of flexagons are easy to make and entertaining to manipulate. The mathematics of flexagons is complex, and how a flexagon works is not immediately obvious on examination of a paper model. Recent geometric analysis, included in the book, has improved theoretical understanding of flexagons, especially relationships between different types. This profusely illustrated book is arranged in a logical order appropriate for a textbook on the geometry of flexagons. It is written so that it can be enjoyed at both the recreational mathematics level, and at the serious mathematics level. The only prerequisite is some knowledge of elementary geometry, including properties of polygons. A feature of the book is a compendium of over 100 nets for making paper models of some of the more interesting flexagons, chosen to complement the text. These are accurately drawn and reproduced at half full size. Many of the nets have not previously been published. Instructions for assembling and manipulating the flexagons are included.

The 31st Conference and the 25th Symposium of the International Committee on Aeronautical Fatigue will be hosted in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, by the National Aerospace Laboratory NLR, under the auspices of the Netherlands Association of Aeronautical Engineers NVvL, the Technical University of Delft and Stork Fokker AESP B.V. These Proceedings will consist of reviews of aeronautical fatigue activities presented by the national delegates of the 14 member nations of ICAF. It will also contain specialist papers presented by international authors with design, manufacturing, airworthiness regulations, operations and research backgrounds. The papers will be based on the theme “Bridging the gap between theory and operational practice”.

The papers in this volume were selected for presentation at the 16th Int- national Meshing Roundtable (IMR), held October 14–17, 2007 in Seattle, Washington, USA. The conference was started by Sandia National Labora- riesin1992asasmallmeetingoforganizationsstrivingtoestablishacommon focus for research and development in the?eld of mesh generation. Now after 16 consecutive years, the International Meshing Roundtable has become r- ognized as an international focal point annually attended by researchers and developers from dozens of countries around the world. The 16th International Meshing Roundtable consists of technical pres- tations from contributed papers, keynote and invited talks, short course p- sentations, and a poster session and competition. The Program Committee would like to express its appreciation to all who participate to make the IMR a successful and enriching experience. The papers in these proceedings were selected from among 41 submissions by the Program Committee. Based on input from peer reviews, the committee selected these papers for their perceived quality, originality, and appropria- ness to the theme of the International Meshing Roundtable. We would like to thank all who submitted papers. We would also like to thank the colleagues who provided reviews of the submitted papers. The names of the reviewers are acknowledged in the following pages. We extend special thanks to Lynn Washburn, Bernadette Watts, and Jacqueline Finley for their time and e?ort to make the 16th IMR another outstanding conference.

A material continuum moving axially at high speed can be met in numerous different technical applications. These comprise band saws, web papers during manufacturing, processing and printing processes, textile bands during manufacturing and processing, pipes transporting fluids, transmission belts as well as flat objects moving at high speeds in space. In all these so varied technical applications, the maximum transport speed or the transportation speed is aimed at in order to increase efficiency and optimize investment and performance costs of sometimes very expensive and complex machines and installations. The dynamic behavior of axially moving systems very often hinders from reaching these aims. The book is devoted to dynamics of axially moving material objects of low flexural stiffness that are referred to as webs. Webs are moving at high speed, for example, in paper production the paper webs are transported with longitudinal speeds of up to 3000 m/min. Above the critical speed one can expect various dynamical instabilities mainly of divergent and flutter type. The up-to-date state of investigations conducted in the field of the axially moving system dynamics is presented in the beginning of the book. Special attention is paid on nonlinear dynamic investigations of translating systems. In the next chapters various mathematical models that can be employed in dynamic investigations of such objects and the results of analysis of the dynamic behavior of the axially moving orthotropic material web are presented. To make tracing the dynamic considerations easier, a paper web is the main object of investigations in the book.

The papers in this volume were selected for presentation at the 17th International Meshing Roundtable (IMR), held October 12–15, 2008 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The conference was started by Sandia National Laboratories in 1992 as a small meeting of organizations striving to establish a common focus for research and dev- opment in the field of mesh generation. Now after 17 consecutive years, the Inter- tional Meshing Roundtable has become recognized as an international focal point annually attended by researchers and developers from dozens of countries around the world. The 17th International Meshing Roundtable consists of technical presentations from contributed papers, research notes, keynote and invited talks, short course pr- entations, and a poster session and competition. The Program Committee would like to express its appreciation to all who participate to make the IMR a successful and enriching experience. The papers in these proceedings were selected from more than 50 paper subm- sions. Based on input from peer reviews, the committee selected these papers for their perceived quality, originality, and appropriateness to the theme of the International Meshing Roundtable. We would like to thank all who submitted papers. We would also like to thank the colleagues who provided reviews of the submitted papers. The names of the reviewers are acknowledged in the following pages. We extend special thanks to Jacqueline Hunter and Bernadette Watts for their time and effort to make the 17th IMR another outstanding conference. August 2008 17th IMR Program Committee Organization