Software product lines are emerging as a critical new paradigm for software development. Product lines are enabling organizations to achieve impressive time-to-market gains and cost reductions. With the increasing number of product lines and product-line researchers and practitioners, the time is right for a comprehensive examination of the issues surrounding the software product line approach. The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is proud to sponsor the first conference on this important subject. This book comprises the proceedings of the First Software Product Line Conference (SPLC1), held August 28-31, 2000, in Denver, Colorado, USA. The twenty-seven papers of the conference technical program present research results and experience reports that cover all aspects of software product lines. Topics include business issues, enabling technologies, organizational issues, and life-cycle issues. Emphasis is placed on experiences in the development and fielding of product lines of complex systems, especially those that expose problems in the design, development, or evolution of software product lines. The book will be essential reading for researchers and practitioners alike.

Many areas of mining engineering gather and use statistical information, provided by observing the actual operation of equipment, their systems, the development of mining works, surface subsidence that accompanies underground mining, displacement of rocks surrounding surface pits and underground drives and longwalls, amongst others. In addition, the actual modern machines used in surface mining are equipped with diagnostic systems that automatically trace all important machine parameters and send this information to the main producer’s computer. Such data not only provide information on the technical properties of the machine but they also have a statistical character. Furthermore, all information gathered during stand and lab investigations where parts, assemblies and whole devices are tested in order to prove their usefulness, have a stochastic character. All of these materials need to be developed statistically and, more importantly, based on these results mining engineers must make decisions whether to undertake actions, connected with the further operation of the machines, the further development of the works, etc. For these reasons, knowledge of modern statistics is necessary for mining engineers; not only as to how statistical analysis of data should be conducted and statistical synthesis should be done, but also as to understanding the results obtained and how to use them to make appropriate decisions in relation to the mining operation. This book on statistical analysis and synthesis starts with a short repetition of probability theory and also includes a special section on statistical prediction. The text is illustrated with many examples taken from mining practice; moreover the tables required to conduct statistical inference are included.

This proceedings volume addresses advances in global optimization—a multidisciplinary research field that deals with the analysis, characterization and computation of global minima and/or maxima of nonlinear, non-convex and nonsmooth functions in continuous or discrete forms. The volume contains selected papers from the third biannual World Congress on Global Optimization in Engineering & Science (WCGO), held in the Yellow Mountains, Anhui, China on July 8-12, 2013. The papers fall into eight topical sections: mathematical programming; combinatorial optimization; duality theory; topology optimization; variational inequalities and complementarity problems; numerical optimization; stochastic models and simulation and complex simulation and supply chain analysis.

The first half of 'Religion and the Natural Sciences' is an introduction to the discussion of science and religion. Here the reader learns why there is any debate at all and what resources exist for responding to it. The second half deals with specific issues that arise in the individual sciences, from astronomy and physics to biology and ecology. Any project hoping to connect science and religion must supply the categories of connection, which are found primarily, although not exclusively, in philosophy. The simplicity of the arrangement and the nature of the selections are intended to make 'Religion and the Natural Sciences' available to as wide an audience as possible, including students from the sciences and technology, the professions, the humanities and liberal studies, and theology.