It is time to hand over the chairmanship of the IEEE-CS Technical Committee on Data Engineering. I took over from Erich Neuhold in 2007. I have had the pleasure of working with an oustanding TCDE Executive Committee comprised of Calton Pu, Thomas Risse, Erich Neuhold, Guy Lohman, Karl Aberer, Masaru Kitsuregawa, David Lomet and Yannis Ioannides. TCDE has continued to sponsor several conferences...

Literary texts are the product of individual unconscious psyche and collective consciousness. In Iranian mythology, Fereydoun and Zahhak are symbols of good and evil. This research is an attempt to demonstrate aspects of growth and decay according to Erich Fromm’s theories. It aims at finding aspects of growth (love of life, love of humanity, freedom from the archetypal Mother) and contra...

TCDE, I would also like to thank Erich Neuhold for his leadership over the last four years. The activities of the TCDE are led by an Executive Committee whose members are selected by the chair. I am pleased to announce that the Executive Committee for 2007-2008 consists of Karl Aberer (Switzerland), Masaru Kitsuregawa (Japan), Per-Åke (Paul) Larson, chair, (USA), Sam Lightstone (Canada), David ...

Coniferous forests represent canopies with a high heterogeneity in the horizontal and as well in the vertical dimension. Consequently the interaction of incident radiation is dominated by the complex 3-D canopy structure and architecture. Radiative transfer approaches based on coupled leaf and canopy radiative transfer models (RTM) still allow the simulation of the multidirectional canopy refle...