Hardle, W. / Hlavka, Z, / Klinke, S.
Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Germany

XploRe

Application Guide

2000. IV, 526 pp. With CD-ROM.
3-540-67545-0

This book offers a detailed application guide to XploRe - the interactive statistical computing environment -
with case studies of real data analysis situations. It helps the beginner in statistical data analysis to learn in
gradual steps how XploRe works in real life applications. Many examples from practice are discussed and
analysed in full length. Great emphasis is put on graphics based understanding of the data interrelations.
The case studies include: Survival modelling with Cox's proportional hazard regression.- Vitamine C data
analysis with Quantile Regression.- Human capital allocation with smoothing methods.- Cluster analysis of
butterfly data.- Money market analysis with Dynamic Partial Least Squares.- Media metrics with
correspondance analysis.- Multiple and flexible time series analysis of macro economic data.- as well as
other case studies

Keywords: Statistics, Finance, XploRe

Contents: Part I: Regression Models Quantile Regression.- Errors in Variable Models.- Hazard Regression.-
Generalized Additive Models.- Generalized Partial Linear Models Part II: Data Exploration Human capital
accumulation versus human capital stocks as sources of sustained growth.- Cluster Analysis.-
Classification and Regression Trees.- DPLS - A Partial-Least Squares Program for Dynamic Models.-
Uncovered Interest Parity (UIP) - What can we learn from panel data?.- Correspondance Analysis Part III:
Dynamic Statistical Systems Long-memory Analysis.- Exploring Persistence in Financial Time Series.-
Flexible Time Series Analysis.- Multiple Time Series.- Robust Kalman-Filtering

System requirements: Netscape Navigator 4.x or Internet Explorer 4.x; Windows 95/98/NT; 32 MB of RAM;
90 MB of free hard disk space; Intel pentium or compatible processor.

Deco, G., Siemens AG, Munich, Germany
Schurmann, B., Siemens AG, Munich, Germany

Information Dynamics
Foundations and Applications

2000. Approx. 305 pp. 89 figs.
0-387-95047-8

Contents: Introduction.- Dynamical Systems Overview.- Statistical Structure Extraction in Dynamical
Systems: Parametric Formulation.- Applications: Parametric Characterization of Time Series.- Statistical
Structure Extraction in Dynamical Systems: Nonparametric Formulation.- Applications: Nonparametric
Characterization of Time Series.- Statistical Structure Extraction in Dynamical Systems: Semiparametric
Formulation.- Applications: Semiparametric Characterization of Time Series.- Information Processing and
Coding in Spatio-Temporal Dynamical Systems.- Applications: Information Processing and Coding in
Spatio-Temporal Dynamical Systems.- Appendixes A,B,C,D.- References.

Fields: Coding and Information Theory; Algorithm Analysis and Problem Complexity

Written for: Graduates, researchers, professionals
Book category: Monograph
Publication language: English

Diehl, S., University of Saarland, Saarbruken, Germany

Distributed Virtual Worlds

Foundations and Implementation Techniques Using VRML, Java, and CORBA

2000. XII, 168 pp.
3-540-67624-4


With the widespread use of VRML browsers, e.g., as part of the Netscape and Internet Explorer standard
distributions, everyone connected to the Internet can directly enter a virtual world without installing a new
kind of software. The VRML technology offers the basis for new forms of customer service such as
interactive three-dimensional product configuration, spare part ordering or customer training. Also, this
technology can be used for CSCW in intranets.
The reader should be familiar with programming languages and computers and, in particular, should know
Java or at least an object-oriented programming language. The book not only provides and explains source
code which can be used as a starting point for own implementations, but it also describes the fundamental
problems and how currently known solutions work. It discusses a variety of different techniques and
trade-offs. Many illustrations help the reader to understand and memorize the underlying principles.

Keywords: VRML, Distributed Systems, Virtual Reality, Multi-User Applications, Internet, Web Design

Contents: I. Introduction: Motivation; Technical Aspects; User Perspective.- II. Fundamentals:
Three-Dimensional Computer Graphics; Virtual Reality Modeling Language VRML; Protocols for
Distributed Virtual Worlds; VRML Extensions for Distributed Virtual Worlds; Partitioning of Distributed
Virtual Worlds; Streaming; Other 3D Technologies for the Internet.- III. Implementation: Implementing
Multi-User Worlds with VRML; Java Network Programming: A Simple, Distributed, Virtual World;
Implementing Multi-User Worlds with CORBA.- References.

David N Yetter (Kansas State University)

FUNCTORIAL KNOT THEORY
Catagories of Tangles, Coherence, Categorical Deformations, andTopological Invariants

Series on Knots and Everything


Almost since the advent of skein-theoretic invariants of knots and links (the Jones, HOMFLY, and Kauffman polynomials), the important role of categories of tangles in the connection between low-dimensional topology and quantum-group theory has been recognized. The rich categorical structures naturally arising from the considerations of cobordisms have suggested functorial views of topological field theory.

This book begins with an exposition of the key ideas in the discovery of certain monoidal categories as central objects of study in low-dimensional topology. The focus then turns to the deformation theory of monoidal categories and the related deformation theory of monoidal functors, which is a proper generalization of Gerstenhaber's deformation theory of associative algebras. These serve as the building blocks for a deformation theory of braided monoidal categories which gives rise to sequences of Vassiliev invariants of framed links, and clarify their interrelations. The deformation theories discussed were suggested by aspects of "categorification" conjectures in topological field theory and shed light on the as-yet-incompletely-known process of categorification.

Readership: Mathematicians and theoretical physicists.

260pp (approx.)
Pub. date: Scheduled Winter 2000
ISBN 981-02-4443-6