3. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Lecture Notes in Computer Science (ISSN 0302-9743), in short LNCS, is the LNCS series with subseries of Artificial Intelligence from Springer Verlag, one of the world's leading scientific publishing houses. LNCS reports new developments in computer science research and teaching from the first volume in 1973 to current volumes. Furthermore, LNCS includes more than 100 online volumes called LNCS Online through the LINK service of nearly 450 journals, 5 book series and 4 expert systems provided by the Springer Group of Companies on the Internet, and LINK is awarded the Prix Moebius Germany in 1999. LNCS Online via LINK allows free access to tables of contents and abstracts available in 11 topics. They are Chemical Sciences, Computer Sciences, Economics, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, Law, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Medicine, and Physics & Astronomy. Print subscribers can have full access to full-text papers and complete graphics in PDF documents with items searched are highlighted in HTML.