The Distinguished Dissertation Series is published on behalf of the Conference of Professors and Heads of Computing and the British Computer Society, who annually select the best British PhD dissertations in computer science for publication. The dissertations are selected on behalf of the CPHC by a panel of eight academics. Each dissertation chosen makes a noteworthy contribution to the subject and reaches a high standard of exposition, placing all results clearly in the context of computer science as a whole. In this way computer scientists with significantly different interests are able to grasp the essentials - or even find a means of entry - to an unfamiliar research topic. Constraint satisfaction is a fundamental technique for knowledge representation and inference in Artificial Intelligence. This success is founded on simplicity and generality: a constraint simply expresses a set of admissible value combinations among a number of variables. However, the classical formulation of a static constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) with inflexible constraints, all of which a solution must satisfy, is insufficient to model many real problems. Recent work has addressed these shortcomings via two separate extensions, known as dynamic CSP and flexible CSP. Representing three years of PhD work by Dr. Ian Miguel, this book demonstrates how a range of instances of these two powerful extensions can be combined in order to solve more complex problems. As an application of this work, Artificial Intelligence Planning is extended to support compromise. Preferences are attached to plan goals and to the set of actions available to achieve these goals, allowing a systematic comparison of candidate plans. Although a plan may not completely satisfy all goals, nor perform the actions it uses in the most preferred situations, it may be significantly shorter than a compromise-free plan. Dr. Miguel has implemented Flexible Graphplan, a planning system based on dynamic flexible CSP, which generates a range of plans from an input problem, trading plan length against the number and severity of compromises made.

RecentyearshaveseentheapplicationofvariousNaturalComputing algorithms for the purposes of ?nancial modelling. In this context Natural Computing - gorithms can be broadly de?ned as computer algorithms whose design draws inspirationfromphenomena in the naturalworld. Particularfeatures of?nancial markets, including their dynamic and interconnected characteristics, bear p- allels with processes in the natural world and prima facie, this makes Natural Computingmethods'interesting'for?nancialmodellingapplications. Inaddition to the problem-solving potential of natural processes which Natural computing seeks to embody in its algorithms, we can also consider Natural Computing in terms of its potential to understand the natural processes which themselves serve as inspiration. For example, ?nancial and biological systems exhibit the phenomenon of emergence, or the activities of multiple individual agents c- bining to co-evolve their own environment, and a stream of work has emerged which applies learning mechanisms drawn from Natural Computing algorithms for the purposes of agent-based modelling in ?nance and economics. This book consists of eleven chapters each of which was selected following a rigorous,peer-reviewed,selectionprocess. Thechaptersillustratetheapplication of a range of cutting-edge natural computing and agent-based methodologies in computational ?nance and economics. While describing cutting edge appli- tions, the chapters are written so that they are accessible to a wide audience. Hence, they should be of interest to academics,students and practitionersin the ?elds of computational ?nance and economics.

1. The increasing number of research papers appeared in the last years that either make use of aggregation functions or contribute to its theoretieal study asses its growing importance in the field of Fuzzy Logie and in others where uncertainty and imprecision play a relevant role. Since these papers are pub lished in many journals, few books and several proceedings of conferences, books on aggregation are partieularly welcome. To my knowledge, "Agrega tion Operators. New Trends and Applications" is the first book aiming at generality, and I take it as a honour to write this Foreword in response to the gentle demand of its editors, Radko Mesiar, Tomasa Calvo and Gaspar Mayor. My pleasure also derives from the fact that twenty years aga I was one of the first Spaniards interested in the study of aggregation functions, and this book includes work by several Spanish authors. The book contains nice and relevant original papers, authored by some of the most outstanding researchers in the field, and since it can serve, as the editors point out in the Preface, as a small handbook on aggregation, the book is very useful for those entering the subject for the first time. The book also contains apart dealing with potential areas of application, so it can be helpful in gaining insight on the future developments."

Nature-inspired algorithms such as cuckoo search and firefly algorithm have become popular and widely used in recent years in many applications. These algorithms are flexible, efficient and easy to implement. New progress has been made in the last few years, and it is timely to summarize the latest developments of cuckoo search and firefly algorithm and their diverse applications. This book will review both theoretical studies and applications with detailed algorithm analysis, implementation and case studies so that readers can benefit most from this book. Application topics are contributed by many leading experts in the field. Topics include cuckoo search, firefly algorithm, algorithm analysis, feature selection, image processing, travelling salesman problem, neural network, GPU optimization, scheduling, queuing, multi-objective manufacturing optimization, semantic web service, shape optimization, and others.

This book can serve as an ideal reference for both graduates and researchers in computer science, evolutionary computing, machine learning, computational intelligence, and optimization, as well as engineers in business intelligence, knowledge management and information technology.

"

The contributions in this volume are written by the foremost international researchers and practitioners in the GP arena. They examine the similarities and differences between theoretical and empirical results on real-world problems. The text explores the synergy between theory and practice, producing a comprehensive view of the state of the art in GP application.

Topics include: FINCH: A System for Evolving Java, Practical Autoconstructive Evolution, The Rubik Cube and GP Temporal Sequence Learning, Ensemble classifiers: AdaBoost and Orthogonal Evolution of Teams, Self-modifying Cartesian GP, Abstract Expression Grammar Symbolic Regression, Age-Fitness Pareto Optimization, Scalable Symbolic Regression by Continuous Evolution, Symbolic Density Models, GP Transforms in Linear Regression Situations, Protein Interactions in a Computational Evolution System, Composition of Music and Financial Strategies via GP, and Evolutionary Art Using Summed Multi-Objective Ranks.

Readers will discover large-scale, real-world applications of GP to a variety of problem domains via in-depth presentations of the latest and most significant results in GP .

With the emergence of smart technology and automated systems in today's world, artificial intelligence (AI) is being incorporated into an array of professions. The aviation and aerospace industry, specifically, is a field that has seen the successful implementation of early stages of automation in daily flight operations through flight management systems and autopilot. However, the effectiveness of aviation systems and the provision of flight safety still depend primarily upon the reliability of aviation specialists and human decision making. Artificial Intelligence Applications in the Aviation and Aerospace Industries is a pivotal reference source that explores best practices for AI implementation in aviation to enhance security and the ability to learn, improve, and predict. While highlighting topics such as computer-aided design, automated systems, and human factors, this publication explores the enhancement of global aviation security as well as the methods of modern information systems in the aeronautics industry. This book is ideally designed for pilots, scientists, engineers, aviation operators, air crash investigators, teachers, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the application of AI in the field of aviation.

This professional guide and reference examines the challenges of assessing security vulnerabilities in computing infrastructure. Various aspects of vulnerability assessment are covered in detail, including recent advancements in reducing the requirement for expert knowledge through novel applications of artificial intelligence. The work also offers a series of case studies on how to develop and perform vulnerability assessment techniques using start-of-the-art intelligent mechanisms. Topics and features: provides tutorial activities and thought-provoking questions in each chapter, together with numerous case studies; introduces the fundamentals of vulnerability assessment, and reviews the state of the art of research in this area; discusses vulnerability assessment frameworks, including frameworks for industrial control and cloud systems; examines a range of applications that make use of artificial intelligence to enhance the vulnerability assessment processes; presents visualisation techniques that can be used to assist the vulnerability assessment process. In addition to serving the needs of security practitioners and researchers, this accessible volume is also ideal for students and instructors seeking a primer on artificial intelligence for vulnerability assessment, or a supplementary text for courses on computer security, networking, and artificial intelligence.

This book carefully defines the technologies involved in web service composition and provides a formal basis for all of the composition approaches and shows the trade-offs among them. By considering web services as a deep formal topic, some surprising results emerge, such as the possibility of eliminating workflows. It examines the immense potential of web services composition for revolutionizing business IT as evidenced by the marketing of Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs). The author begins with informal considerations and builds to the formalisms slowly, with easily-understood motivating examples. Chapters examine the importance of semantics for web services and ways to apply semantic technologies. Topics included range from model checking and Golog to WSDL and AI planning. This book is based upon lectures given to economics students and is suitable for business technologist with some computer science background. The reader can delve as deeply into the technologies as desired.

In the modern data-driven era, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies that allow a computer to mimic intelligent human behavior are essential for organizations to achieve business excellence and assist organizations in extracting useful information from raw data. AI and ML have existed for decades, but in the age of big data, this sort of analysis is in higher demand than ever, especially for customer support and analytics. AI and Machine Learning Applications and Implications in Customer Support and Analytics investigates the applications of AI and ML and how they can be implemented to enhance customer support and analytics at various levels of organizations. This book is ideal for marketing professionals, managers, business owners, researchers, practitioners, academicians, instructors, university libraries, and students, and covers topics such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, supervised learning, deep learning, customer sentiment analysis, data mining, neural networks, and business analytics.

In the field of genetic and evolutionary algorithms (GEAs), a large amount of theory and empirical study has been focused on operators and test problems, while problem representation has often been taken as given. This book breaks with this tradition and provides a comprehensive overview on the influence of problem representations on GEA performance. The book summarizes existing knowledge regarding problem representations and describes how basic properties of representations, such as redundancy, scaling, or locality, influence the performance of GEAs and other heuristic optimization methods. Using the developed theory, representations can be analyzed and designed in a theory-guided matter. The theoretical concepts are used for solving integer optimization problems and network design problems more efficiently. The book is written in an easy-readable style and is intended for researchers, practitioners, and students who want to learn about representations. This second edition extends the analysis of the basic properties of representations and introduces a new chapter on the analysis of direct representations.

How can we solve engineering problems while taking into account data characterized by different types of measurement and estimation uncertainty: interval, probabilistic, fuzzy, etc.? This book provides a theoretical basis for arriving at such solutions, as well as case studies demonstrating how these theoretical ideas can be translated into practical applications in the geosciences, pavement engineering, etc. In all these developments, the authors' objectives were to provide accurate estimates of the resulting uncertainty; to offer solutions that require reasonably short computation times; to offer content that is accessible for engineers; and to be sufficiently general - so that readers can use the book for many different problems. The authors also describe how to make decisions under different types of uncertainty. The book offers a valuable resource for all practical engineers interested in better ways of gauging uncertainty, for students eager to learn and apply the new techniques, and for researchers interested in processing heterogeneous uncertainty.

Supply Chain Management Under Fuzziness presents recently developed fuzzy models and techniques for supply chain management. These include: fuzzy PROMETHEE, fuzzy AHP, fuzzy ANP, fuzzy VIKOR, fuzzy DEMATEL, fuzzy clustering, fuzzy linear programming, and fuzzy inference systems. The book covers both practical applications and new developments concerning these methods. This book offers an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners in supply chain management and logistics, and will provide them with new suggestions and directions for future research. Moreover, it will support graduate students in their university courses, such as specialized courses on supply chains and logistics, as well as related courses in the fields of industrial engineering, engineering management and business administration.

Distributed AI is the branch of AI concerned with how to coordinate behavior among a collection of semi-autonomous problem-solving agents: how they can coordinate their knowledge, goals and plans to act together, to solve joint problems, or to make individually or globally rational decisions in the face of uncertainty and multiple, conflicting perspectives. Distributed, coordinated systems of problem solvers are rapidly becoming practical partners in critical human problem-solving environments, and DAI is a rapidly developing field of both application and research, experiencing explosive growth around the world. This book presents a collection of articles surveying several major recent developments in DAI. The book focuses on issues that arise in building practical DAI systems in real-world settings, and covers work undertaken in a number of major research and development projects in the U.S. and in Europe. It provides a synthesis of recent thinking, both theoretical and applied, on major problems of DAI in the 1990s.

The notion of Fuzziness stands as one of the really new concepts that have recently enriched the world of Science. Science grows not only through technical and formal advances on one side and useful applications on the other side, but also as consequence of the introduction and assimilation of new concepts in its corpus. These, in turn, produce new developments and applications. And this is what Fuzziness, one of the few new concepts arisen in the XX Century, has been doing so far. This book aims at paying homage to Professor Lotfi A. Zadeh, the "father of fuzzy logic" and also at giving credit to his exceptional work and personality. In a way, this is reflected in the variety of contributions collected in the book. In some of them the authors chose to speak of personal meetings with Lotfi; in others, they discussed how certain papers of Zadeh were able to open for them a new research horizon. Some contributions documented results obtained from the author/s after taking inspiration from a particular idea of Zadeh, thus implicitly acknowledging him. Finally, there are contributions of several "third generation fuzzysists or softies" who were firstly led into the world of Fuzziness by a disciple of Lotfi Zadeh, who, following his example, took care of opening for them a new road in science. Rudolf Seising is Adjoint Researcher at the European Centre for Soft Computing in Mieres, Asturias (Spain). Enric Trillas and Claudio Moraga are Emeritus Researchers at the European Centre for Soft Computing, Mieres, Asturias (Spain). Settimo Termini is Professor of Theoretical Computer Science at the University of Palermo, Italy and Affiliated Researcher at the European Centre for Soft Computing, Mieres, Asturias (Spain)

This book presents applications of Newton-like and other similar methods to solve abstract functional equations involving fractional derivatives. It focuses on Banach space-valued functions of a real domain - studied for the first time in the literature. Various issues related to the modeling and analysis of fractional order systems continue to grow in popularity, and the book provides a deeper and more formal analysis of selected issues that are relevant to many areas - including decision-making, complex processes, systems modeling and control - and deeply embedded in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics, economics, and the social and life sciences. The book offers a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students, and can also be used as a textbook for seminars on the above-mentioned subjects. All chapters are self-contained and can be read independently. Further, each chapter includes an extensive list of references.

In Part I, the impact of an integro-differential operator on parity logic engines (PLEs) as a tool for scientific modeling from scratch is presented. Part II outlines the fuzzy structural modeling approach for building new linear and nonlinear dynamical causal forecasting systems in terms of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs). Part III introduces the new type of autogenetic algorithms (AGAs) to the field of evolutionary computing. Altogether, these PLEs, FCMs, and AGAs may serve as conceptual and computational power tools.

This book presents various recent applications of Artificial Intelligence in Information and Communication Technologies such as Search and Optimization methods, Machine Learning, Data Representation and Ontologies, and Multi-agent Systems. The main aim of this book is to help Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) practitioners in managing efficiently their platforms using AI tools and methods and to provide them with sufficient Artificial Intelligence background to deal with real-life problems.

Robot manipulation is a great challenge; it encompasses versatility -adaptation to different situations-, autonomy -independent robot operation-, and dependability -for success under modeling or sensing errors. A complete manipulation task involves, first, a suitable grasp or contact configuration, and the subsequent motion required by the task. This monograph presents a unified framework by introducing task-related aspects into the knowledge-based grasp concept, leading to task-oriented grasps. Similarly, grasp-related issues are also considered during the execution of a task, leading to grasp-oriented tasks which is called framework for physical interaction (FPI). The book presents the theoretical framework for the versatile specification of physical interaction tasks, as well as the problem of autonomous planning of these tasks. A further focus is on sensor-based dependable execution combining three different types of sensors: force, vision and tactile. The FPI approach allows to perform a wide range of robot manipulation tasks. All contributions are validated with several experiments using different real robots placed on household environments; for instance, a high-DoF humanoid robot can successfully operate unmodeled mechanisms with widely varying structure in a general way with natural motions. This research was recipient of the European Georges Giralt Award and the Robotdalen Scientific Award Honorary Mention.

Scholarpedia's Encyclopedia of Touch provides a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed articles written by leading researchers, detailing our current scientific understanding of tactile sensing and its neural substrates in animals including humans. The encyclopedia allows ideas and insights to be shared between researchers working on different aspects of touch and in different species, including research in synthetic touch systems. In addition, this encyclopedia raises awareness of research in tactile sensing and increases scientific and public interest in the field. The articles address subjects including tactile control, whiskered robots, vibrissal coding, the molecular basis of touch, invertebrate mechanoreception, fingertip transducers and tactile sensing. All the articles in this encyclopedia provide in-depth and state-of-the-art scholarly treatment of the academic topics concerned, making it an excellent reference work for academics, professionals and students.

This book contains the papers presented at the International Workshop on Visual Fonn, held in Capri (Italy) on May 27-30, 1991. The workshop, sponsored by the International Association for Pattern Recognition ( APR), has been jointly organized by the Dipartimento di Infonnatica e Sisternistica of the University of Naples and the Istituto di Cibemetica of the National Research Council of Italy, and has focussed on Shape. Shape is a distinctive feature of most patterns, so that recognition can often be attained through shape discrimination. The organizers of the workshop shared the general feeling manifested by researchers, that it was time for holding a meeting exclusively devoted to a feature so crucial for both human and machine perception. During this meeting, problems and prospects in the field of 2D and 3D shape analysis could be discussed extensively, so as to provide an effective, updated picture of the current research activity in which shape plays a central role. Indeed, many highly qualified researchers in the field positively reacted to the Call for Papers.

Quantum Neural Computation is a graduate level monographic textbook. It presents a comprehensive introduction, both non-technical and technical, into modern quantum neural computation, the science behind the fiction movie Stealth. Classical computing systems perform classical computations (i.e., Boolean operations, such as AND, OR, NOT gates) using devices that can be described classically (e.g., MOSFETs). On the other hand, quantum computing systems perform classical computations using quantum devices (quantum dots), that is devices that can be described only using quantum mechanics. Any information transfer between such computing systems involves a state measurement. This book describes this information transfer at the edge of classical and quantum chaos and turbulence, where mysterious quantum-mechanical linearity meets even more mysterious brain s nonlinear complexity, in order to perform a super high speed and error free computations. This monograph describes a crossroad between quantum field theory, brain science and computational intelligence."

What is combinatorial optimization? Traditionally, a problem is considered to be c- binatorial if its set of feasible solutions is both ?nite and discrete, i. e. , enumerable. For example, the traveling salesman problem asks in what order a salesman should visit the cities in his territory if he wants to minimize his total mileage (see Sect. 2. 2. 2). The traveling salesman problem's feasible solutions - permutations of city labels - c- prise a ?nite, discrete set. By contrast, Differential Evolution was originally designed to optimize functions de?ned on real spaces. Unlike combinatorial problems, the set of feasible solutions for real parameter optimization is continuous. Although Differential Evolution operates internally with ?oating-point precision, it has been applied with success to many numerical optimization problems that have t- ditionally been classi?ed as combinatorial because their feasible sets are discrete. For example, the knapsack problem's goal is to pack objects of differing weight and value so that the knapsack's total weight is less than a given maximum and the value of the items inside is maximized (see Sect. 2. 2. 1). The set of feasible solutions - vectors whose components are nonnegative integers - is both numerical and discrete. To handle such problems while retaining full precision, Differential Evolution copies ?oating-point - lutions to a temporary vector that, prior to being evaluated, is truncated to the nearest feasible solution, e. g. , by rounding the temporary parameters to the nearest nonnegative integer.

Can psychoanalysis offer a new computer model? Can computer designers help psychoanalysts to understand their theory better?In contemporary publications human psyche is often related to neural networks. Why? The wiring in computers can also be related to application software. But does this really make sense?

Artificial Intelligence has tried to implement functions of human psyche. The reached achievements are remarkable; however, the goal to get a functional model of the mental apparatus was not reached. Was the selected direction incorrect?The editors are convinced: yes, and they try to give answers here. If one accepts that the brain is an information processing system, then one also has to accept that computer theories can be applied to the brain s functions, the human mental apparatus.

The contributors of this book - Solms, Panksepp, Sloman and many others who are all experts in computer design, psychoanalysis and neurology are united in one goal: finding synergy in their interdisciplinary fields."

This book paves the way for researchers working on the sustainable interdependent networks spread over the fields of computer science, electrical engineering, and smart infrastructures. It provides the readers with a comprehensive insight to understand an in-depth big picture of smart cities as a thorough example of interdependent large-scale networks in both theory and application aspects. The contributors specify the importance and position of the interdependent networks in the context of developing the sustainable smart cities and provide a comprehensive investigation of recently developed optimization methods for large-scale networks. There has been an emerging concern regarding the optimal operation of power and transportation networks. In the second volume of Sustainable Interdependent Networks book, we focus on the interdependencies of these two networks, optimization methods to deal with the computational complexity of them, and their role in future smart cities. We further investigate other networks, such as communication networks, that indirectly affect the operation of power and transportation networks. Our reliance on these networks as global platforms for sustainable development has led to the need for developing novel means to deal with arising issues. The considerable scale of such networks, due to the large number of buses in smart power grids and the increasing number of electric vehicles in transportation networks, brings a large variety of computational complexity and optimization challenges. Although the independent optimization of these networks lead to locally optimum operation points, there is an exigent need to move towards obtaining the globally-optimum operation point of such networks while satisfying the constraints of each network properly. The book is suitable for senior undergraduate students, graduate students interested in research in multidisciplinary areas related to future sustainable networks, and the researchers working in the related areas. It also covers the application of interdependent networks which makes it a perfect source of study for audience out of academia to obtain a general insight of interdependent networks.

This book is a composition of diverse points of view regarding the application of Computational Intelligence techniques and methods into Remote Sensing data and problems. It is the general consensus that classi?cation, and related data processing, and global optimization methods are the main topics of Compu- tional Intelligence. Global random optimization algorithms appear in this book, such as the Simulated Annealing in chapter 6 and the Genetic Algorithms p- posedinchapters3and9. Muchofthecontentsofthe bookaredevotedto image segmentationandrecognition, using diversetoolsfromregionsofComputational Intelligence, ranging from Arti?cial Neural Networks to Markov Random Field modelling. However, there are some fringe topics, such the parallel implem- tation of some algorithms or the image watermarking that make evident that thefrontiersbetweenComputationalIntelligenceandneighboringcomputational disciplines are blurred and the fences run low and full of holes in many places. The book starts with a review of the current designs of hyperspectral sensors, more appropriately named Imaging Spectrometers. Knowing the shortcomings and advantages of the diverse designs may condition the results on some app- cations of Computational Intelligence algorithms to the processing and und- standing of them Remote Sensing images produced by these sensors. Then the book contentsmovesinto basic signalprocessing techniquessuch ascompression and watermarking applied to remote sensing images. With the huge amount of remotesensinginformationandtheincreasingrateatwhichitisbeingproduced, itseems only naturalthatcompressiontechniques willleapintoa prominentrole in the near future, overcoming the resistances of the users against uncontrolled manipulation of "their" data. Watermarkingis the way to address issues of o- ership authentication in digital contents.