IEEE CONTROL SYSTEMS SOCIETY TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
ON DISCRETE EVENT SYSTEMS

    Ryan J. Leduc
    Chair, IEEE CSS Technical Committee on DES
    Dept. of Computing and Software
    McMaster University
    1280 Main Street West
    Hamilton, Ontario
    Canada L8S 4K1

    Phone: (905) 525-9140 Ext. 27962
    Fax: (905) 524-0340
    e-mail: leduc@mcmaster.ca
    WWW: http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~leduc/

DESTC Web Page: http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/destc/

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Contents:

1. Editorial


2. Books
 2.1 Advances in Mathematical Finance", by M.C.Fu, R.A.Jarrow, J.Yen,
     R.J. Elliott

3. Conferences
 3.1 ICINCO 2008, Funchal, Madeira - Portugal, May 11 - 15, 2008

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume: 52,
     Issue: 8, August 2007

Welcome to the newsletter of the IEEE Control Systems Technical Committee on Discrete Event Systems!

See http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/destc/ for information on the DESTC.

Personal note from the editor:

Welcome to the August edition of the DESTC newsletter,

Ryan

Contributed by: Michael Fu <mfu@rhsmith.umd.edu>

ADVANCES IN MATHEMATICAL FINANCE

M.C.Fu, R.A.Jarrow, J.Yen, R.J. Elliott
Birkhauser/Springer, 2007
ISBN 978-0-8176-4544-1
http://www.springer.com/978-0-8176-4544-1

Although this book is on Mathematical Finance (financial applications),
it may be of interest to DES researchers interested in stochastic and 
performance issues.

This self-contained volume brings together a collection of chapters by 
some of the most distinguished researchers and practitioners in the 
fields of mathematical finance and financial engineering. Presenting 
state-of-the-art developments in theory and practice, the Festschrift 
is dedicated to Dilip B. Madan on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

Specific topics covered include:
* Theory and application of the Variance-Gamma process
* Levy process driven fixed-income and credit-risk models, including 
CDO pricing
* Numerical PDE and Monte Carlo methods
* Asset pricing and derivatives valuation and hedging
* Ito formulas for fractional Brownian motion
* Martingale characterization of asset price bubbles
* Utility valuation for credit derivatives and portfolio management

Advances in Mathematical Finance is a valuable resource for graduate 
students, researchers, and practitioners in mathematical finance and 
financial engineering.

Contributors: H. Albrecher, D. C. Brody, P. Carr, E. Eberlein, R. J. 
Elliott, M. C. Fu, H. Geman, M. Heidari, A. Hirsa, L. P. Hughston, R. 
A. Jarrow, X. Jin, W. Kluge, S. A. Ladoucette, A. Macrina, D. B. 
Madan, F. Milne, M. Musiela, P. Protter, W. Schoutens, E. Seneta, K. 
Shimbo, R. Sircar, J. van der Hoek, M.Yor, T. Zariphopoulou

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Career Highlights and List of Publications: Dilip B. Madan

Part I Variance-Gamma and Related Stochastic Processes
The Early Years of the Variance-Gamma Process, Eugene Seneta 
Variance-Gamma and Monte Carlo, Michael C. Fu
Some Remarkable Properties of Gamma Processes, Marc Yor 
A Note About Selberg's Integrals in Relation with the Beta-Gamma 
Algebra, Marc Yor 
Ito Formulas for Fractional Brownian Motion, Robert J. Elliott and 
John van der Hoek 

Part II Asset and Option Pricing
A Tutorial on Zero Volatility and Option Adjusted Spreads, Robert 
Jarrow 
Asset Price Bubbles in Complete Markets, Robert A. Jarrow, Philip 
Protter, and Kazuhiro Shimbo 
Taxation and Transaction Costs in a General Equilibrium Asset Economy, 
Xing Jin and Frank Milne 
Calibration of Levy Term Structure Models, Ernst Eberlein and 
Wolfgang Kluge 
Pricing of Swaptions in Affine Term Structures with Stochastic 
Volatility, Massoud Heidari, Ali Hirsa, and Dilip B. Madan 
Forward Evolution Equations for Knock-Out Options, Peter Carr and Ali 
Hirsa 
Mean Reversion Versus Random Walk in Oil and Natural Gas Prices, 
Helyette Geman 

Part III Credit Risk and Investments
Beyond Hazard Rates: A New Framework for Credit-Risk Modelling, Dorje 
C. Brody, Lane P. Hughston, and Andrea Macrina 
A Generic One-Factor Levy Model for Pricing Synthetic CDOs,
Hansjorg 
Albrecher, Sophie A. Ladoucette, and Wim Schoutens 
Utility Valuation of Credit Derivatives: Single and Two-Name Cases, 
Ronnie Sircar and Thaleia Zariphopoulou 
Investment and Valuation Under Backward and Forward Dynamic 
Exponential Utilities in a Stochastic Factor Model, Marek Musiela and 
Thaleia Zariphopoulou

Contributed by: Mariagrazia Dotoli <dotoli@deemail.poliba.it>

ICINCO 2008
Funchal, Madeira - Portugal
May 11 - 15, 2008

Co-organized by INSTICC and University of Madeira
In cooperation with AAAI - American Association for Artificial 
Intelligence

Proceedings indexed by INSPEC, DBLP and ISI Proceedings*SM
Best papers published by Springer-Verlag


SCOPE

The purpose of the 5th International Conference on Informatics in 
Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO) is to bring together 
researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the 
application of informatics to Control, Automation and Robotics. Three 
simultaneous tracks will be held, covering Intelligent Control 
Systems, Optimization, Robotics, Automation, Signal Processing, 
Systems Modeling and Control.

Informatics applications are pervasive in many areas of Control, 
Automation and Robotics; This conference intends to emphasize this 
connection, therefore, authors should highlight the benefits of 
Information Technology (IT) in these areas. Ideas on how to solve 
problems using IT, both in R&D and industrial applications, are 
welcome. Papers describing advanced prototypes, systems, tools and 
techniques and general survey papers indicating future directions are 
also encouraged. Papers describing original work are invited in any 
of the areas listed below. Accepted papers, presented at the 
conference by one of the authors, will be published in the 
Proceedings of ICINCO, with an ISBN. Acceptance will be based on 
quality, relevance and originality. Both full research reports and 
work-in-progress reports are welcome. There will be both oral and 
poster sessions. 

Special sessions, dedicated to case-studies and commercial 
presentations, as well as tutorials dedicated to technical/scientific 
topics are also envisaged: companies interested in presenting their 
products/methodologies or researchers interested in holding a 
tutorial or organizing a workshop are invited to contact the 
conference secretariat. Additional information can be found at 
http://www.icinco.org/. 


CONFERENCE AREAS

Each of these topic areas is expanded below but the sub-topics list 
is not exhaustive. Papers may address one or more of the listed sub-
topics, although authors should not feel limited by them. Unlisted 
but related sub-topics are also acceptable, provided they fit in one 
of the following conference areas: 
Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization 
Robotics and Automation 
Signal Processing, Systems Modeling and Control 

1. Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization
 Decision support systems
 Distributed control systems
 Expert systems for industry
 Intelligent fault detection and identification
 Knowledge-based systems applications
 Planning and Scheduling
 Machine learning in control applications
 Hybrid learning systems
 Mechatronic systems
 Neural networks based control systems
 Optimization algorithms
 Software agents for intelligent control systems
 Soft computing
 Fuzzy control
 Genetic algorithms
 Evolutionary computation and control 

2. Robotics and Automation
 Robot design, development and control
 Human-robots interfaces 
 Network robotics 
 Mobile robots and autonomous systems 
 Human augmentation and shared control 
 Cybernetics 
 Space and underwater robots 
 Intelligent transportation technologies and systems 
 Vehicle control applications 
 Telerobotics and Teleoperation 
 Industrial networks and automation 
 Intelligent warehouses 
 Modeling, simulation and architectures 
 Vision, recognition and reconstruction 
 Virtual Reality 
 Image processing 
 Surveillance 
 Control and supervision systems 
 Web-based control 
 Autonomous agents 
 Petri nets (system design/verification with nets, protocols and 
networks)
 Reasoning about action for intelligent robots
 Natural language dialogue with robots	

3. Signal Processing, Systems Modeling and Control 
 Speech recognition
 Signal reconstruction
 Computer and microprocessor-based control
 Hierarchical control 
 Instrumentation networks and software 
 Field-buses 
 Real-time systems control 
 Environmental monitoring and control
 Time series and system modeling 
 Time-frequency analysis 
 Feature extraction 
 Information-based models for control 
 Discrete event systems 
 Hybrid dynamical systems 
 System identification 
 Adaptive signal processing and control 
 Nonlinear signals and systems 
 Optimization problems in signal processing 
 Change detection problems


KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

ICINCO 2008 will have several invited keynote speakers, who are 
internationally recognized experts in their areas. Their names are 
not yet confirmed. 


SPECIAL SESSIONS

There is an open invitation to submit special sessions proposals. 
Please see details on how to submit a special session proposal at 
http://www.icinco.org/Special_Sessions.htm


WORKSHOPS

International Workshop on Multi-Agent Robotic Systems (MARS)
International Workshop on Artificial Neural Networks and Intelligent 
Information Processing (ANNIIP) 
International Workshop on Intelligent Vehicle Control Systems (IVCS)


PAPER SUBMISSION

Authors should submit a paper in English of up to 8 A4 pages, 
carefully checked for correct grammar and spelling, using the on-line 
submission procedure indicated below. 
The guidelines for paper formatting provided at the conference web 
site must be strictly used for all submitted papers. The submission 
format is the same as the camera-ready format. Please check and 
carefully follow the instructions and templates provided. 
The program committee will review all papers and the contact author 
(the author who submits the paper) of each paper will be notified of 
the result, by e-mail. 
Each paper should clearly indicate the nature of its 
technical/scientific contribution, and the problems, domains or 
environments to which it is applicable.

Submission procedure: 
A "double-blind" paper evaluation method will be used. To facilitate 
that, the authors are kindly requested to produce and provide the 
full paper, WITHOUT any reference to any of the authors. The 
manuscript must contain, in its first page, the paper title, an 
abstract and a list of keywords but NO NAMES OR CONTACT DETAILS 
WHATSOEVER are to be included in any part of this file. 
The web submission facility automatically sends an acknowledgement, 
by e-mail, to the contact author. Please contact the secretariat if 
no acknowledgement is received. 

If the author is unable to use the web-based procedure then he/she 
can send the paper by e-mail to the secretariat attaching an 
additional file containing: the title, author(s), affiliation(s), 
contact details, a list of keywords and an abstract. Authors must 
also indicate the conference area (including the topics) or the 
workshop, to which the paper is submitted. 


PUBLICATIONS

All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, 
under an ISBN reference, in paper and in CD-ROM support. 
A book including a selection of the best conference papers will be 
edited and published by Springer. 
The proceedings will be indexed by ISI, INSPEC and DBLP. 


IMPORTANT DATES

Full Paper Submission: November 20, 2007 
Authors Notification: January 25, 2008 
Final Paper Submission and Registration: February 11, 2008


SECRETARIAT

ICINCO Secretariat 
Address: Av. D.Manuel I, 27A 2ºesq.
2910-595 Setubal - Portugal
Tel.: +351 265 520 185
Fax: +351 265 520 186
Email: secretariat@icinco.org
Web: http://www.icinco.org


VENUE

The conference will be held in the Hotel Tivoli Ocean Park. The 
Tivoli Ocean Park is a truly stunning property located 5 minutes from 
Funchal city centre and 30 minutes from Madeira International 
Airport. This award-winning hotel overlooks the beachfront promenade 
and guests are guaranteed gorgeous views of the sea with direct 
access from the hotel to the sandy beach.


CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS

Jorge Cardoso, UMA, Madeira, Portugal
Joaquim Filipe, Polytechnic Institute of Setubal / INSTICC, Portugal


LOCAL CHAIR

Laura Rodrigues, UMA, Madeira, Portugal


PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS

Juan Andrade Cetto, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain 
Jean-Louis Ferrier, University of Angers, France


PROGRAM COMMITTEE 

Available soon.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc At mcmmaster dOt ca>

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL
VOLUME: 52, ISSUE: 8
AUGUST, 2007

1) Minimal Communication for Essential Transitions in a Distributed
Discrete-Event System

 Lin, F.; Rudie, K.; Lafortune, S.

Abstract:

In a distributed discrete-event system with decentralized information,
agents at the various sites (e.g., controllers or diagnosers) may be
required to communicate in order to correctly perform some prescribed
tasks. Bandwidth, power, or security constraints motivate the design of
communication protocols among agents that minimize the number of
required communications. This note presents an algorithm that can
synthesize such a communication protocol given a set of "essential
transitions" that constitute the initial required communications. The
synthesized communication protocol is shown to be minimal.

web site: click here