In this second edition every chapter of the first edition of Pattern Analysis has been updated and expanded. The general view of a system for pattern analysis and understanding has remained unchanged, but many details have been revised. A short account of light and sound has been added to the introduction, some normalization techniques and a basic introduction to morphological operations have been added to the second chapter. Chapter 3 has been expanded significantly by topics like motion, depth, and shape from shading; additional material has also been added to the already existing sections of this chapter. The old sections of Chap. 4 have been reorganized, a general view of the classification problem has been added and material provided to incorporate techniques of word and object recognition and to give a short account of some types of neural nets. Almost no changes have been made in Chap. 5. The part on representation of control structures in Chap. 6 has been shortened, a section on the judgement of results has been added. Chapter 7 has been rewritten almost completely; the section on formal grammars has been reduced, the sections on production systems, semantic networks, and knowledge acquisition have been expanded, and sections on logic and explanation added. The old Chaps. 8 and 9 have been omitted. In summary, the new edition is a thorough revision and extensive update of the first one taking into account the progress in the field during recent years.

Hybrid Intelligent Techniques for Pattern Analysis and Understanding outlines the latest research on the development and application of synergistic approaches to pattern analysis in real-world scenarios. An invaluable resource for lecturers, researchers, and graduates students in computer science and engineering, this book covers a diverse range of hybrid intelligent techniques, including image segmentation, character recognition, human behavioral analysis, hyperspectral data processing, and medical image analysis.

Software design patterns are known to play a vital role in enhancing the quality of software systems while reducing development time and cost. However, the use of these design patterns has also been known to introduce problems that can significantly reduce the stability, robustness, and reusability of software. This book introduces a new process for creating software design patterns that leads to highly stable, reusable, and cost-effective software. The basis of this new process is a topology of software patterns called knowledge maps. This book provides readers with a detailed view of the art and practice of creating meaningful knowledge maps. It demonstrates how to classify software patterns within knowledge maps according to their application rationale and nature. It provides readers with a clear methodology in the form of step-by-step guidelines, heuristics, and quality factors that simplify the process of creating knowledge maps. This book is designed to allow readers to master the basics of knowledge maps from their theoretical aspects to practical application. It begins with an overview of knowledge map concepts and moves on to knowledge map goals, capabilities, stable design patterns, development scenarios, and case studies. Each chapter of the book concludes with an open research issue, review questions, exercises, and a series of projects.

Software analysis patterns play an important role in reducing the overall cost and compressing the time of software project lifecycles. However, building reusable and stable software analysis patterns is still considered a major and delicate challenge. This book proposes a novel concept for building analysis patterns based on software stability and is a modern approach for building stable, highly reusable, and widely applicable analysis patterns. The book also aims to promote better understanding of problem spaces and discusses how to focus requirements analysis accurately. It demonstrates a new approach to discovering and creating stable analysis patterns (SAPs). This book presents a pragmatic approach to understanding problem domains, utilizing SAPs for any field of knowledge, and modeling stable software systems, components, and frameworks. It helps readers attain the basic knowledge that is needed to analyze and extract analysis patterns from any domain of interest. Readers also learn to master methods to document patterns in an effective, easy, and comprehensible manner. Bringing significant contributions to the field of computing, this book is a unique and comprehensive reference manual on SAPs. It provides insight on handling the understanding of problem spaces and supplies methods and processes to analyze user requirements accurately as well as ways to use SAPs in building myriad cost-effective and highly maintainable systems. The book also shows how to link SAPs to the design phase thereby ensuring a smooth transition between analysis and design.

This book presents the selected results of research on the further development of the shape understanding system (SUS) described in our previous book titled “Shape Understanding System: the First Steps Toward the Visual Thinking Machines”. This is the second book that presents the results of research in the area of thinking and understanding carried out by authors in the newly founded the Queen Jadwiga Research Institute of Understanding. In this book, the new term knowledge implementation is introduced to denote the new method of the meaningful learning in the context of machine understanding. SUS ability to understand is related to the different categories of objects such as the category of visual objects, the category of sensory objects and the category of text objects. In this book, new terms and concepts are introduced in order to describe and explain some issues connected with SUS development. These terms are explained by referring to the content of our books and other our works rather than to existing literature in related areas of research. This book raises many questions that are discussed in the area of cognitive science or philosophy of mind.

Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.

The Science of Crime Scenes, Second Edition offers a science-based approach to crime scenes, emphasizing that understanding is more important than simply knowing. Without sacrificing technical details, the book adds significantly to the philosophy and theory of crime scene science. This new edition addresses the science behind the scenes and demonstrates the latest methods and technologies with updated figures and images. It covers the philosophy of the crime scene, the personnel involved at a scene (including the media), the detection of criminal traces and their reconstruction, and special crime scenes, such as mass disasters and terroristic events. Written by an international trio of authors with decades of crime scene experience, this book is the next generation of crime scene textbooks. This volume will serve both as a textbook for forensic programs, and as an excellent reference for forensic practitioners and crime scene technicians with science backgrounds. - Includes in-depth coverage of disasters and mass murder, terror crime scenes and CBRN (Chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear) – topics not covered in any other text - Includes an instructor site with lecture slides, images and links to resources for teaching and training

Presenting innovative research methods, this second edition of a bestseller describes a simple and practical methodology for conducting cutting-edge design science research (DSR). It provides comprehensive guidance on how to conduct such research and supplies in-depth treatment of design science theory and the different types of theory that ca