Collection of technical papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Stochastic Structural Dynamics (SSD03) in Hangzhou, China during May 26-28, 2003. Topics include direct transfer substructure method for random response analysis, generation of bounded stochastic processes, and sample path behavior of Gaussian processes.

This book contains a series of original contributions in the area of Stochastic Dynamics, which demonstrates the impact of Mike Lin's research and teaching in the area of random vibration and structural dynamics.

Nonlinearity and stochastic structural dynamics is of common interest to engineers and applied scientists belonging to many disciplines. Recent research in this area has been concentrated on the response and stability of nonlinear mechanical and structural systems subjected to random escitation. Simultaneously the focus of research has also been directed towards understanding intrinsic nonlinear phenomena like bifurcation and chaos in deterministic systems. These problems demand a high degree of sophistication in the analytical and numerical approaches. At the same time they arise from considerations of nonlinear system response to turbulence, earthquacke, wind, wave and guidancy excitations. The topic thus attracts votaries of both analytical rigour and practical applications. This books gives important and latest developments in the field presenting in a coherent fashion the research findings of leading international groups working in the area of nonlinear random vibration and chaos.

The IUTAM Symposium on Advances in Nonlinear Stochastic Mechanics, held in Trondheim July 3-7, 1995, was the eighth of a series of IUTAM sponsored symposia which focus on the application of stochastic methods in mechanics. The previous meetings took place in Coventry, UK (1972), Sout'hampton, UK (1976), FrankfurtjOder, Germany (1982), Stockholm, Sweden (1984), Innsbruckjlgls, Austria (1987), Turin, Italy (1991) and San Antonio, Texas (1993). The symposium provided an extraordinary opportunity for scholars to meet and discuss recent advances in stochastic mechanics. The participants represented a wide range of expertise, from pure theoreticians to people primarily oriented toward applications. A significant achievement of the symposium was the very extensive discussions taking place over the whole range from highly theoretical questions to practical engineering applications. Several presentations also clearly demonstrated the substantial progress that has been achieved in recent years in terms of developing and implement ing stochastic analysis techniques for mechanical engineering systems. This aspect was further underpinned by specially invited extended lectures on computational stochastic mechanics, engineering applications of stochastic mechanics, and nonlinear active control. The symposium also reflected the very active and high-quality research taking place in the field of stochastic stability. Ten presentations were given on this topic ofa total of47 papers. A main conclusion that can be drawn from the proceedings of this symposium is that stochastic mechanics as a subject has reached great depth and width in both methodology and applicability.

This volume contains eighteen selected papers presented at the Second International Conference on Stochastic Structural Dynamics, which are related to new practical applications in the field. This and a companion volume, related to new theoretical developments, constitute the proceedings of the conference, and reflect the state of the art of the rapidly developing subject. The conference was held in Boca Raton, Florida during May 9-11, 1990 hosted by the Center for Applied Stochastic Research of Florida Atlantic University. A total of 20 technical sessions were organized, and attended by eighty participants from 12 countries. Special emphases of the conference were placed on two areas: applications to earthquake engineering and stochastic stability of nonlinear systems. Two sessions were dedicated to the memory of late Professor Frank Kozin, one of the founders and most active contributors to the stochastic stability theory. We are indebted to the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER) for financial support. Most credit belongs to each of the authors whose contributions were the very basis for the undoubted success of the conference. We are grateful to the reviewers who carefully refereed the contributions for these two volumes. Our special thanks are due to Mrs. Christine Mikulski, who carried out all the necessary secretarial tasks associated with the conference with dedication.

Many tasks in operations management require the solution of complex optimization problems. Problems in which decisions are taken sequentially over time can be modeled and solved by dynamic programming. Real-world dynamic programming problems, however, exhibit complexity that cannot be handled by conventional solution techniques. This complexity may stem from large state and solution spaces, huge sets of possible actions, non-convexities in the objective function, and uncertainty. In this book, three highly complex real-world problems from the domain of operations management are modeled and solved by newly developed solution techniques based on stochastic dynamic programming. First, the problem of optimally scheduling participating demand units in an energy transmission network is considered. These units are scheduled such that total cost of supplying demand for electric energy is minimized under uncertainty in demand and generation. Second, the integrated problem of investment in and optimal operations of a network of battery swap stations under uncertain demand and energy prices is modeled and solved. Third, the inventory control problem of a multi-channel retailer selling through independent sales channels is modeled and optimality conditions for replenishment policies of simple structure are proven. This book introduces efficient approximation techniques based on approximate dynamic programming (ADP) and extends existing proximal point algorithms to the stochastic case. The methods are applicable to a wide variety of dynamic programming problems of high dimension.

This book contains state-of-the-art review articles on specific research areas in the civil engineering discipline-the areas include geotechnical engineering, hydraulics and water resources engineering, and structural engineering. The articles are written by invited authors who are currently active at the international level in their respective research fields.

This is the second and final issue of the collection of papers that were contributed by friends and colleagues of (Late) Professor P. R. "Pat" Sethna of the University of Minnesota to commemorate his 70th birthday on May 26, 1993. The first set of contributions was published in Nonlinear Dynamics as the last issue (no. 6) of Vol. 4 in 1993. As circumstances would have it, Professor Sethna was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 1992 and, after an extended battle with the disease, he passed away on November 4, 1993, just a few days before the first set of contributed papers appeared in print. It is gratifying to report that the organizers of these vi Foreword commemorative issues in Nonlinear Dynamics were able to present to Professor Sethna, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, complete details of the planned commemorative issues. This second set of contributions is dedicated, in memoriam, to Professor P. R. Sethna. As many of you are well aware, Professor Sethna was an active researcher in the field of nonlinear vibrations and dynamics for nearly forty years, making many fundamental and significant contributions to both the theoretical and applied aspects of this field. He was also recognized for his outstanding leadership and administrative abilities, amply demonstrated through his position as the Head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Minnesota for twenty-six years (1966-1992).

This book is to provide readers with up-to-date advances in applied and interdisciplinary engineering science and technologies related to nonlinear dynamics, vibration, control, robotics, and their engineering applications, developed in the most recent years. All the contributed chapters come from active scholars in the area, which cover advanced theory & methods, innovative technologies, benchmark experimental validations and engineering practices. Readers would benefit from this state-of-the-art collection of applied nonlinear dynamics, in-depth vibration engineering theory, cutting-edge control methods and technologies, and definitely find stimulating ideas for their on-going R&D work. This book is intended for graduate students, research staff and scholars in academics, and also provides useful hand-up guidance for professional and engineers in practical engineering missions.

This is Volume I of a three volume set constituting the refereed proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Neural Networks, ISNN 2006. 616 revised papers are organized in topical sections on neurobiological analysis, theoretical analysis, neurodynamic optimization, learning algorithms, model design, kernel methods, data preprocessing, pattern classification, computer vision, image and signal processing, system modeling, robotic systems, transportation systems, communication networks, information security, fault detection, financial analysis, bioinformatics, biomedical and industrial applications, and more.