The advent of the high-speed computer with its enormous storage capabilities enabled statisticians as well as researchers from the different topics of life sciences to apply mul tivariate statistical procedures to large data sets to explore their structures. More and more, methods of graphical representation and data analysis are used for investigations. These methods belong to a topic of growing popUlarity, known as "exploratory data analysis" or EDA. In many applications, there is reason to believe that a set of objects can be clus tered into subgroups that differ in meaningful ways. Extensive data sets, for example, are stored in clinical cancer registers. In large data sets like these, nobody would ex pect the objects to be homogeneous. The most commonly used terms for the class of procedures that seek to separate the component data into groups are "cluster analysis" or "numerical taxonomy". The origins of cluster analysis can be found in biology and anthropology at the beginning of the century. The first systematic investigations in cluster analysis are those of K. Pearson in 1894. The search for classifications or ty pologies of objects or persons, however, is indigenous not only to biology but to a wide variety of disciplines. Thus, in recent years, a growing interest in classification and related areas has taken place. Today, we see applications of cluster analysis not only to. biology but also to such diverse areas as psychology, regional analysis, marketing research, chemistry, archaeology and medicine.

Paul Erdös was one of the most influential mathematicians of the twentieth century, whose work in number theory, combinatorics, set theory, analysis, and other branches of mathematics has determined the development of large areas of these fields. In 1999, a conference was organized to survey his work, his contributions to mathematics, and the far-reaching impact of his work on many branches of mathematics. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, this volume undertakes the almost impossible task to describe the ways in which problems raised by him and topics initiated by him (indeed, whole branches of mathematics) continue to flourish. Written by outstanding researchers in these areas, these papers include extensive surveys of classical results as well as of new developments.

The Handbook of Graph Theory is the most comprehensive single-source guide to graph theory ever published. Best-selling authors Jonathan Gross and Jay Yellen assembled an outstanding team of experts to contribute overviews of more than 50 of the most significant topics in graph theory-including those related to algorithmic and optimization approach

In the ten years since the publication of the best-selling first edition, more than 1,000 graph theory papers have been published each year. Reflecting these advances, Handbook of Graph Theory, Second Edition provides comprehensive coverage of the main topics in pure and applied graph theory. This second edition—over 400 pages longer than its predecessor—incorporates 14 new sections. Each chapter includes lists of essential definitions and facts, accompanied by examples, tables, remarks, and, in some cases, conjectures and open problems. A bibliography at the end of each chapter provides an extensive guide to the research literature and pointers to monographs. In addition, a glossary is included in each chapter as well as at the end of each section. This edition also contains notes regarding terminology and notation. With 34 new contributors, this handbook is the most comprehensive single-source guide to graph theory. It emphasizes quick accessibility to topics for non-experts and enables easy cross-referencing among chapters.

This pioneering book presents a study of the interrelationships among operator calculus, graph theory, and quantum probability in a unified manner, with significant emphasis on symbolic computations and an eye toward applications in computer science. Presented in this book are new methods, built on the algebraic framework of Clifford algebras, for tackling important real world problems related, but not limited to, wireless communications, neural networks, electrical circuits, transportation, and the world wide web. Examples are put forward in Mathematica throughout the book, together with packages for performing symbolic computations.

This sequel to volume 19 of Handbook on Statistics on Stochastic Processes: Modelling and Simulation is concerned mainly with the theme of reviewing and, in some cases, unifying with new ideas the different lines of research and developments in stochastic processes of applied flavour. This volume consists of 23 chapters addressing various topics in stochastic processes. These include, among others, those on manufacturing systems, random graphs, reliability, epidemic modelling, self-similar processes, empirical processes, time series models, extreme value therapy, applications of Markov chains, modelling with Monte Carlo techniques, and stochastic processes in subjects such as engineering, telecommunications, biology, astronomy and chemistry. particular with modelling, simulation techniques and numerical methods concerned with stochastic processes. The scope of the project involving this volume as well as volume 19 is already clarified in the preface of volume 19. The present volume completes the aim of the project and should serve as an aid to students, teachers, researchers and practitioners interested in applied stochastic processes.

Combinatorial (or discrete) optimization is one of the most active fields in the interface of operations research, computer science, and applied math ematics. Combinatorial optimization problems arise in various applications, including communications network design, VLSI design, machine vision, air line crew scheduling, corporate planning, computer-aided design and man ufacturing, database query design, cellular telephone frequency assignment, constraint directed reasoning, and computational biology. Furthermore, combinatorial optimization problems occur in many diverse areas such as linear and integer programming, graph theory, artificial intelligence, and number theory. All these problems, when formulated mathematically as the minimization or maximization of a certain function defined on some domain, have a commonality of discreteness. Historically, combinatorial optimization starts with linear programming. Linear programming has an entire range of important applications including production planning and distribution, personnel assignment, finance, alloca tion of economic resources, circuit simulation, and control systems. Leonid Kantorovich and Tjalling Koopmans received the Nobel Prize (1975) for their work on the optimal allocation of resources. Two important discover ies, the ellipsoid method (1979) and interior point approaches (1984) both provide polynomial time algorithms for linear programming. These algo rithms have had a profound effect in combinatorial optimization. Many polynomial-time solvable combinatorial optimization problems are special cases of linear programming (e.g. matching and maximum flow). In addi tion, linear programming relaxations are often the basis for many approxi mation algorithms for solving NP-hard problems (e.g. dual heuristics).

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Stochastic Algorithms: Foundations and Applications, SAGA 2007. The nine revised full papers and five invited papers presented were carefully selected for inclusion in the book. The contributed papers included in this volume cover both theoretical as well as applied aspects of stochastic computations with a special focus on investigating the power of randomization in algorithmics.

This is the second of a multi-volume set. The various volumes deal with several algorithmic approaches for discrete problems as well as with many combinatorial problems. The emphasis is on late-1990s developments. Each chapter is essentially expository in nature, but scholarly in its treatment.

From the Internet to networks of friendship, disease transmission, and even terrorism, the concept--and the reality--of networks has come to pervade modern society. But what exactly is a network? What different types of networks are there? Why are they interesting, and what can they tell us? In recent years, scientists from a range of fields--including mathematics, physics, computer science, sociology, and biology--have been pursuing these questions and building a new "science of networks." This book brings together for the first time a set of seminal articles representing research from across these disciplines. It is an ideal sourcebook for the key research in this fast-growing field. The book is organized into four sections, each preceded by an editors' introduction summarizing its contents and general theme. The first section sets the stage by discussing some of the historical antecedents of contemporary research in the area. From there the book moves to the empirical side of the science of networks before turning to the foundational modeling ideas that have been the focus of much subsequent activity. The book closes by taking the reader to the cutting edge of network science--the relationship between network structure and system dynamics. From network robustness to the spread of disease, this section offers a potpourri of topics on this rapidly expanding frontier of the new science.