Guest editors’ preface to the special issue devoted to the 2nd International Conference “Numerical Computations: Theory and Algorithms”, June 19–25, 2016, Pizzo Calabro, Italy

This special issue of the Journal of Global Optimization contains twelve high-quality research papers devoted to different aspects of global optimization such as theory, numerical methods and real-life applications. The papers included in this special issue are based on the presentations carefully selected by the guest editors among the talks delivered at the 2nd International Conference “Numerical Computations: Theory and Algorithms (NUMTA)” held in June 19–25, 2016 in Pizzo Calabro, Italy (the first NUMTA conference took place in Falerna, Italy in 2013). The NUMTA 2016 has been organized by the University of Calabria, Rende (CS), Italy, in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, USA. The guest editors actively participated in the organization of the conference: the Program Committee of the NUMTA 2016 was chaired by Yaroslav D. Sergeyev, in their turn, Renato De Leone and Anatoly Zhigljavsky took part in the Program Committee. The goal of the NUMTA 2016 was creation of a multidisciplinary round table for an open discussion on numerical modeling nature by using traditional and emerging computational paradigms. Participants of this conference discussed several aspects of numerical computations and modeling from foundations of mathematics and computer science to advanced numerical techniques. A large part of presentations has been dedicated to optimization. Selected papers presented at the conference in the field of numerical analysis and respective applications have been published in the special issue of the international journal Applied Mathematics and Computation, Volume 318 (2018). In its turn, the present special issue contains articles dealing with global optimization. Let us give a brief description of the papers included in this special issue

Computer Simulations of Cosmic Reionization

The cosmic reionization of hydrogen was the last major phase transition in the evolution of the universe, which drastically changed the ionization and thermal conditions in the cosmic gas. To the best of our knowledge today, this process was driven by the ultra-violet radiation from young, star-forming galaxies and from first quasars. We review the current observational constraints on cosmic reionization, as well as the dominant physical effects that control the ionization of intergalactic gas. We then focus on numerical modeling of this process with computer simulations. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in solving the radiative transfer of ionizing photons from many sources through the highly inhomogeneous distribution of cosmic gas in the expanding universe. With modern simulations, we have finally converged on a general picture for the reionization process, but many unsolved problems still remain in this young and exciting field of numerical cosmology.Comment: Invited Review to appear on Advanced Science Letters (ASL), Special Issue on Computational Astrophysics, edited by Lucio Maye

Simulation and Modeling of Nanomaterials

This Special Issue focuses on computational detailed studies (simulation, modeling, and calculations) of the structures, main properties, and peculiarities of the various nanomaterials (nanocrystals, nanoparticles, nanolayers, nanofibers, nanotubes, etc.) based on various elements, including organic and biological components, such as amino acids and peptides. For many practical applications in nanoelectronics., such materials as ferroelectrics and ferromagnetics, having switching parameters (polarization, magnetization), are highly requested, and simulation of dynamics and kinetics of their switching are a very important task. An important task for these studies is computer modeling and computational research of the properties on the various composites of the other nanostructures with polymeric ferroelectrics and with different graphene-like 2-dimensional structures. A wide range of contemporary computational methods and software are used in all these studies

Statistical Data Modeling and Machine Learning with Applications

The modeling and processing of empirical data is one of the main subjects and goals of statistics. Nowadays, with the development of computer science, the extraction of useful and often hidden information and patterns from data sets of different volumes and complex data sets in warehouses has been added to these goals. New and powerful statistical techniques with machine learning (ML) and data mining paradigms have been developed. To one degree or another, all of these techniques and algorithms originate from a rigorous mathematical basis, including probability theory and mathematical statistics, operational research, mathematical analysis, numerical methods, etc. Popular ML methods, such as artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM), decision trees, random forest (RF), among others, have generated models that can be considered as straightforward applications of optimization theory and statistical estimation. The wide arsenal of classical statistical approaches combined with powerful ML techniques allows many challenging and practical problems to be solved. This Special Issue belongs to the section “Mathematics and Computer Science”. Its aim is to establish a brief collection of carefully selected papers presenting new and original methods, data analyses, case studies, comparative studies, and other research on the topic of statistical data modeling and ML as well as their applications. Particular attention is given, but is not limited, to theories and applications in diverse areas such as computer science, medicine, engineering, banking, education, sociology, economics, among others. The resulting palette of methods, algorithms, and applications for statistical modeling and ML presented in this Special Issue is expected to contribute to the further development of research in this area. We also believe that the new knowledge acquired here as well as the applied results are attractive and useful for young scientists, doctoral students, and researchers from various scientific specialties

Special Issue on the AMCIS 2001 Workshops: Business Information Systems Modeling with Computer Assisted Systems Engineering (Case) Software

This paper describes and critiques a workshop in business information systems modeling with Computer Assisted Systems Engineering (CASE) tools held at the 2001 Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS). The workshop demonstrated the effectiveness of Visible Analyst Workbench (VAW) as a systems modeling tool that generates comprehensive Process Models with multi-level Data Flow Diagrams, Data Models with Entity Relationship Diagrams, Structure Charts for automatic code generation, and Functional Decomposition Diagrams as system planning tools. A simulated teaching case with four structured exercises integrated the conceptual foundations of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) with the practical difficulties of building complex business information systems models. The workshop also discussed how simulated teaching cases and CASE software could be used as pedagogical tools for foundational courses in systems analysis and design

Modeling and Simulation of Lipid Membranes

Cell membranes are complex structures able to contain the main elements of the cell and to protect them from the external surroundings, becoming the most fundamental interface in Biology. The main subject of this book is the study of the structure and characteristics of lipid membranes in a wide variety of environments, ranging from simple phospholipid membranes to complex systems including proteins, peptides, or oncogenes as well as the analysis of the interactions of the membrane components with small molecules and drugs. The scope of this book is to provide recent developments on membrane structure, composition and function by means of theoretical and experimental techniques, some of them combining computer simulations with available data obtained at the laboratory.This Special Issue aims to report brand new key contributions to the field and also to give an overview about the connection between experiments and computer simulations, addressing fundamental aspects and applied research in biological membranes, with particular attention paid to the applications of computer modeling and simulation to medicine

Advanced Topics in Systems Safety and Security

This book presents valuable research results in the challenging field of systems (cyber)security. It is a reprint of the Information (MDPI, Basel) - Special Issue (SI) on Advanced Topics in Systems Safety and Security. The competitive review process of MDPI journals guarantees the quality of the presented concepts and results. The SI comprises high-quality papers focused on cutting-edge research topics in cybersecurity of computer networks and industrial control systems. The contributions presented in this book are mainly the extended versions of selected papers presented at the 7th and the 8th editions of the International Workshop on Systems Safety and Security—IWSSS. These two editions took place in Romania in 2019 and respectively in 2020. In addition to the selected papers from IWSSS, the special issue includes other valuable and relevant contributions. The papers included in this reprint discuss various subjects ranging from cyberattack or criminal activities detection, evaluation of the attacker skills, modeling of the cyber-attacks, and mobile application security evaluation. Given this diversity of topics and the scientific level of papers, we consider this book a valuable reference for researchers in the security and safety of systems