Combinatorial designs represent an important area of contemporary discrete mathematics closely related to such fields as finite geometries, regular graphs and multigraphs, factorisations of graphs, linear algebra, number theory, finite fields, group and quasigroup theory, Latin squares, and matroids. It has a history of more than 150 years when it started as a collection of unrelated problems. Nowadays the field is a well-developed theory with deep mathematical results and a wide range of applications in coding theory, cryptography, computer science, and other areas. In the most general setting, a combinatorial design consists of a ground set of elements and a collection of subsets of these elements satisfying some specific restrictions; the latter are often expressed in the language of graphs. On the other side, hypergraph theory is a relatively new field which started in early 60s of the last century as a generalization of graph theory. A hypergraph consists of a ground set of elements and a collection of subsets of these elements without any specific restrictions. In this sense the concept of hypergraph is more general than the concept of combinatorial design. While it started as a generalization of graph theory, hypergraph theory soon became a separate subject because many new properties have been discovered that miss or degenerate in graphs. Compared to graph theory, the language of hypergraphs not only allows us to formulate and solve more general problems, it also helps us to understand and solve several graph theory problems by simplifying and unifying many previously unrelated concepts. The main feature of this book is applying the hypergraph approach to the theory of combinatorial designs. An alternative title of it could be "Combinatorial designs as hypergraphs". There is no analogue to this book on the market. Its primary audience is researchers and graduate students taking courses in design theory, combinatorial geometry, finite geometry, discrete mathematics, graph theory, combinatorics, cryptography, information and coding theory, and similar areas. The aim of this book is to show the connection and mutual benefit between hypergraph theory and design theory. It does not intend to give a survey of all important results or methods in any of these subjects.

This book provides an introduction to hypergraphs, its aim being to overcome the lack of recent manuscripts on this theory. In the literature hypergraphs have many other names such as set systems and families of sets. This work presents the theory of hypergraphs in its most original aspects, while also introducing and assessing the latest concepts on hypergraphs. The variety of topics, their originality and novelty are intended to help readers better understand the hypergraphs in all their diversity in order to perceive their value and power as mathematical tools. This book will be a great asset to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and mathematics. It has been the subject of an annual Master's course for many years, making it also ideally suited to Master's students in computer science, mathematics, bioinformatics, engineering, chemistry, and many other fields. It will also benefit scientists, engineers and anyone else who wants to understand hypergraphs theory.

Finite Permutation Groups provides an introduction to the basic facts of both the theory of abstract finite groups and the theory of permutation groups. This book deals with older theorems on multiply transitive groups as well as on simply transitive groups. Organized into five chapters, this book begins with an overview of the fundamental concepts of notation and Frobenius group. This text then discusses the modifications of multiple transitivity and can be used to deduce an improved form of the classical theorem. Other chapters consider the concept of simply transitive permutation groups. This book discusses as well permutation groups in the framework of representation theory. The final chapter deals with Frobenius' theory of group characters. This book is a valuable resource for engineers, mathematicians, and research workers. Graduate students and readers who are interested in finite permutation groups will also find this book useful.

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This book is for math and computer science majors, for students and representatives of many other disciplines (like bioinformatics, for example) taking courses in graph theory, discrete mathematics, data structures, algorithms. It is also for anyone who wants to understand the basics of graph theory, or just is curious. No previous knowledge in graph theory or any other significant mathematics is required. The very basic facts from set theory, proof techniques and algorithms are sufficient to understand it; but even those are explained in the text. Structurally, the text is divided into two parts where Part II is the generalisation of Part I. The first part discusses the key concepts of graph theory with emphasis on trees, bipartite graphs, cycles, chordal graphs, planar graphs and graph colouring. The second part considers generalisations of Part I and discusses hypertrees, bipartite hypergraphs, hypercycles, chordal hypergraphs, planar hypergraphs and hypergraph colouring. There is an interaction between the parts and within the parts to show how ideas of generalisations work. The main point is to exhibit the ways of generalisations and interactions of mathematical concepts from the very simple to the most advanced. One of the features of this text is the duality of hypergraphs. This fundamental concept is missing in graph theory (and in its introductory teaching) because dual graphs are not properly graphs, they are hypergraphs. However, as Part II shows, the duality is a very powerful tool in understanding, simplifying and unifying many combinatorial relations; it is basically a look at the same structure from the opposite (vertices versus edges) point of view.

The area of graph grammars is theoretically attractive and well motivated byvarious applications. More than 20 years ago, the concept of graph grammars was introduced by A. Rosenfeld as a formulation of some problems in pattern recognition and image processing, as well as by H.J. Schneider as a method for data type specification. Within graph-grammar theory one maydistinguish the set-theoretical approach, the algebraic approach, and the logical approach. These approaches differ in the method in which graph replacement is described. Specific approaches, node replacement and hyperedge replacement, concern the basic units of a hypergraph, nodes and hyperedges. This monograph is mainly concerned with the hyperedge-replacement approach. Hyperedge-replacement grammars are introduced as a device for generating hypergraph languages including graph languages and string languages. The concept combines a context-free rewriting with a comparatively large generative power. The volume includes a foreword by H. Ehrig.

This is the latest volume in the 'Workshops in Computing' series, and contains papers from the International Workshop on Hpyermedia Design, held in Montpellier, France, from 1 - 2 June 1995. The workshop aimed to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds to discuss the many facets of hypermedia design. Among the specific topics covered by the papers are: design methods, multimedia modelling, higher structures in hypermedia design spaces, user-interface design for hypermedia, building distributed web applications, and hyperdialogs. The resulting volume provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in this important field. It will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and students involved in any aspect of hypermedia design.