The problems of constructing covering codes and of estimating their parameters are the main concern of this book. It provides a unified account of the most recent theory of covering codes and shows how a number of mathematical and engineering issues are related to covering problems.Scientists involved in discrete mathematics, combinatorics, computer science, information theory, geometry, algebra or number theory will find the book of particular significance. It is designed both as an introductory textbook for the beginner and as a reference book for the expert mathematician and engineer.A number of unsolved problems suitable for research projects are also discussed.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Applied Algebra, Algebraic Algorithms and Error-Correcting Codes, AAECC-13, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA in November 1999. The 42 revised full papers presented together with six invited survey papers were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 86 submissions. The papers are organized in sections on codes and iterative decoding, arithmetic, graphs and matrices, block codes, rings and fields, decoding methods, code construction, algebraic curves, cryptography, codes and decoding, convolutional codes, designs, decoding of block codes, modulation and codes, Gröbner bases and AG codes, and polynomials.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Applied Algebra, Algebraic Algorithms and Error-Correcting Codes, AAECC-17, held in Bangalore, India, in December 2007. Among the subjects addressed are block codes, including list-decoding algorithms; algebra and codes: rings, fields, algebraic geometry codes; algebra: rings and fields, polynomials, permutations, lattices; cryptography: cryptanalysis and complexity; computational algebra.

This volume constitutes the refereed post-proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Information Hiding held in Alexandria, Virginia, in July 2006. Twenty-five carefully reviewed full papers are organized into topical sections covering watermarking, information hiding and networking, data hiding in unusual content, fundamentals, software protection, steganalysis, steganography, and subliminal channels.

Surveys of recent important developments in combinatorics covering a wide range of areas in the field.

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive is the most important directive in the field of trade practices to have emerged from the EC but it builds upon European activity which has sought to regulate trade practices on both a sectoral and horizontal level. It is an umbrella provision, which uses general clauses to protect consumers. How effective this approach is and how it relates the existing acquis are fundamental issues for debate. This work provides a critical appraisal of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive linking discussion of it to general debates about how fair trading should be regulated. It explains how the Directive fits into the existing acquis. It also examines national traditions where these are necessary to explain the European approach, as in the case of general clauses. The book will be a valuable tool for any student of consumer law seeking to understand the thinking behind the directive and how it will affect national laws. It will also influence policy makers by suggesting how the directive should be interpreted and what policy lies behind its formulation. Businesses and their advisers will use the book as a means of understanding the new regulatory climate post-the directive.

The refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Developments in Language Theory, DLT 2003, held in Szeged, Hungary, in July 2003. The 27 revised full papers presented together with 7 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 57 submissions. All current aspects in language theory are addressed, in particular grammars, acceptors, and transducers for strings, trees, graphs, arrays, etc; algebraic theories for automata and languages; combinatorial properties of words and languages; formal power series; decision problems; efficient algorithms for automata and languages; and relations to complexity theory and logic, picture description and analysis, DNA computing, quantum computing, cryptography, and concurrency.