This book presents a framework for the control of networked systems utilizing submodular optimization techniques. The main focus is on selecting input nodes for the control of networked systems, an inherently discrete optimization problem with applications in power system stability, social influence dynamics, and the control of vehicle formations. The first part of the book is devoted to background information on submodular functions, matroids, and submodular optimization, and presents algorithms for distributed submodular optimization that are scalable to large networked systems. In turn, the second part develops a unifying submodular optimization approach to controlling networked systems based on multiple performance and controllability criteria. Techniques are introduced for selecting input nodes to ensure smooth convergence, synchronization, and robustness to environmental and adversarial noise. Submodular optimization is the first unifying approach towards guaranteeing both performance and controllability with provable optimality bounds in static as well as time-varying networks. Throughout the text, the submodular framework is illustrated with the help of numerical examples and application-based case studies in biological, energy and vehicular systems. The book effectively combines two areas of growing interest, and will be especially useful for researchers in control theory, applied mathematics, networking or machine learning with experience in submodular optimization but who are less familiar with the problems and tools available for networked systems (or vice versa). It will also benefit graduate students, offering consistent terminology and notation that greatly reduces the initial effort associated with beginning a course of study in a new area.

Estimation and Control of Large Scale Networked Systems is the first book that systematically summarizes results on large-scale networked systems. In addition, the book also summarizes the most recent results on structure identification of a networked system, attack identification and prevention. Readers will find the necessary mathematical knowledge for studying large-scale networked systems, as well as a systematic description of the current status of this field, the features of these systems, difficulties in dealing with state estimation and controller design, and major achievements. Numerical examples in chapters provide strong application backgrounds and/or are abstracted from actual engineering problems, such as gene regulation networks and electricity power systems. This book is an ideal resource for researchers in the field of systems and control engineering. - Provides necessary mathematical knowledge for studying large scale networked systems - Introduces new features for filter and control design of networked control systems - Summarizes the most recent results on structural identification of a networked system, attack identification and prevention

This book explores the key idea that the dynamical properties of complex systems can be determined by effectively calculating specific structural features using network science-based analysis. Furthermore, it argues that certain dynamical behaviours can stem from the existence of specific motifs in the network representation. Over the last decade, network science has become a widely applied methodology for the analysis of dynamical systems. Representing the system as a mathematical graph allows several network-based methods to be applied, and centrality and clustering measures to be calculated in order to characterise and describe the behaviours of dynamical systems. The applicability of the algorithms developed here is presented in the form of well-known benchmark examples. The algorithms are supported by more than 50 figures and more than 170 references; taken together, they provide a good overview of the current state of network science-based analysis of dynamical systems, and suggest further reading material for researchers and students alike. The files for the proposed toolbox can be downloaded from a corresponding website.

Many everyday dilemmas existing in the real world are complex and difficult to solve or fix, ranging from tax evasion to dispatching taxis to scheduling patient visits in hospitals, and much more. Within these complicated problems, however, lies the potential to be simplified or solved by intelligent agents and multi-agent systems. Theoretical and Practical Frameworks for Agent-Based Systems tackles these real problems and many more, bringing the theoretical research of intelligent agents to researchers and practitioners in academia, government, and innumerable industries. Professionals and experts in every field ranging from education to healthcare and beyond will find this reference to be essential in the understanding of agents, and researchers currently working in the field of intelligent agents will benefit from this exciting examination of practical applications.

This book surveys the well-known results and also presents a series of original results on the mathematical modeling of social networks, focusing on models of informational influence, control and confrontation. Online social networks are intended for communication, opinion exchange and information acquisition for their members, but recently, online social networks have been intensively used as the objects and means of informational control and an arena of informational confrontation. They have become a powerful informational influence tool, particularly for the manipulation of individuals, social groups and society as a whole, as well as a battlefield of information warfare (cyberwars). This book aimed at under- and postgraduate university students as well as experts in information technology and modeling of social systems and processes.

Optimization in Science and Engineering is dedicated in honor of the 60th birthday of Distinguished Professor Panos M. Pardalos. Pardalos’s past and ongoing work has made a significant impact on several theoretical and applied areas in modern optimization. As tribute to the diversity of Dr. Pardalos’s work in Optimization, this book comprises a collection of contributions from experts in various fields of this rich and diverse area of science. Topics highlight recent developments and include: Deterministic global optimization Variational inequalities and equilibrium problems Approximation and complexity in numerical optimization Non-smooth optimization Statistical models and data mining Applications of optimization in medicine, energy systems, and complex network analysis This volume will be of great interest to graduate students, researchers, and practitioners, in the fields of optimization and engineering.

This Second Volume in the series Handbook of Dynamic Data Driven Applications Systems (DDDAS) expands the scope of the methods and the application areas presented in the first Volume and aims to provide additional and extended content of the increasing set of science and engineering advances for new capabilities enabled through DDDAS. The methods and examples of breakthroughs presented in the book series capture the DDDAS paradigm and its scientific and technological impact and benefits. The DDDAS paradigm and the ensuing DDDAS-based frameworks for systems’ analysis and design have been shown to engender new and advanced capabilities for understanding, analysis, and management of engineered, natural, and societal systems (“applications systems”), and for the commensurate wide set of scientific and engineering fields and applications, as well as foundational areas. The DDDAS book series aims to be a reference source of many of the important research and development efforts conducted under the rubric of DDDAS, and to also inspire the broader communities of researchers and developers about the potential in their respective areas of interest, of the application and the exploitation of the DDDAS paradigm and the ensuing frameworks, through the examples and case studies presented, either within their own field or other fields of study. As in the first volume, the chapters in this book reflect research work conducted over the years starting in the 1990’s to the present. Here, the theory and application content are considered for: Foundational Methods Materials Systems Structural Systems Energy Systems Environmental Systems: Domain Assessment & Adverse Conditions/Wildfires Surveillance Systems Space Awareness Systems Healthcare Systems Decision Support Systems Cyber Security Systems Design of Computer Systems The readers of this book series will benefit from DDDAS theory advances such as object estimation, information fusion, and sensor management. The increased interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Neural Networks (NN) provides opportunities for DDDAS-based methods to show the key role DDDAS plays in enabling AI capabilities; address challenges that ML-alone does not, and also show how ML in combination with DDDAS-based methods can deliver the advanced capabilities sought; likewise, infusion of DDDAS-like approaches in NN-methods strengthens such methods. Moreover, the “DDDAS-based Digital Twin” or “Dynamic Digital Twin”, goes beyond the traditional DT notion where the model and the physical system are viewed side-by-side in a static way, to a paradigm where the model dynamically interacts with the physical system through its instrumentation, (per the DDDAS feed-back control loop between model and instrumentation).

The customer base is an important value driver of software companies and a reliable prediction of its development is fundamental for investment decisions. A particularity in software markets is that an individual’s purchasing decision is often influenced by other users’ choices. Although such customer network effects are evident, their quantitative assessment remain elusive with conventional approaches. This book contributes to closing this gap by developing methods for measuring network effects and their implications for valuation in software markets. Based on the theory of complex networks the book reveals that such diffusion processes highly depend on structural properties of customer networks. Moreover, it depicts that such insights are contributions to improve the quality of valuations in software markets. But the implications of this research also comprise social and political aspects as they can be applied in order to prevent corporate failures in all network effect markets.