For a brief time in history, it was possible to imagine that a sufficiently advanced intellect could, given sufficient time and resources, in principle understand how to mathematically prove everything that was true. They could discern what math corresponds to physical laws, and use those laws to predict anything that happens before it happens. That time has passed. Goedel's undecidability results (the incompleteness theorems), Turing's proof of non-computable values, the formulation of quantum theory, chaos, and other developments over the past century have shown that there are rigorous arguments limiting what we can prove, compute, and predict. While some connections between these results have come to light, many remain obscure, and the implications are unclear. Are there, for example, real consequences for physics - including quantum mechanics - of undecidability and non-computability? Are there implications for our understanding of the relations between agency, intelligence, mind, and the physical world? This book, based on the winning essays from the annual FQXi competition, contains ten explorations of Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability. The contributions abound with connections, implications, and speculations while undertaking rigorous but bold and open-minded investigation of the meaning of these constraints for the physical world, and for us as humans.

Stig Kanger (1924-1988) made important contributions to logic and formal philosophy. Kanger's most original achievements were in the areas of general proof theory, the semantics of modal and deontic logic, and the logical analysis of the concept of rights. But he contributed significantly to action theory, preference logic and the theory of measurement as well. This is the second of two volumes dedicated to the work of Stig Kanger. The first volume is a complete collection of Kanger's philosophical papers. The present volume contains critical essays on the various aspects of Kanger's work as well as some biographical sketches. Lennart A...qvist, Jan Berg, Brian Chellas, Anatoli Degtyarev, Lars Gustafsson, SAren HalldA(c)n, Kaj BA, rge Hansen, Sven Ove Hansson, Risto Hilpinen, Jaakko Hintikka, Ghita HolmstrAm-Hintikka, Lars Lindahl, Sten LindstrAm, Ingmar PArn, Dag Prawitz, Wlodek Rabinowicz, Krister Segerberg, Amartya Sen, SAren Stenlund, GAran Sundholm, and Andrei Voronkov have contributed to this volume.

* Written by an interdisciplinary group of specialists from the arts, humanities and sciences at Oxford University * Suitable for a wide non-academic readership, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in mathematics, science and philosophy.

The aim of this book volume is to explain the importance of Markov state models to molecular simulation, how they work, and how they can be applied to a range of problems.

The Markov state model (MSM) approach aims to address two key challenges of molecular simulation:

1) How to reach long timescales using short simulations of detailed molecular models.

2) How to systematically gain insight from the resulting sea of data.

MSMs do this by providing a compact representation of the vast conformational space available to biomolecules by decomposing it into states sets of rapidly interconverting conformations and the rates of transitioning between states.This kinetic definition allows one to easily vary the temporal and spatial resolution of an MSM from high-resolution models capable of quantitative agreement with (or prediction of) experiment to low-resolution models that facilitate understanding. Additionally, MSMs facilitate the calculation of quantities that are difficult to obtain from more direct MD analyses, such as the ensemble of transition pathways.

This book introduces the mathematical foundations of Markov models, how they can be used to analyze simulations and drive efficient simulations, and some of the insights these models have yielded in a variety of applications of molecular simulation."

The book Advances in Distance Learning in Times of Pandemic is devoted to the issues and challenges faced by universities in the field of distance learning in COVID-19 times. It covers both the theoretical and practical aspects connected to distance education. It elaborates on issues regarding distance learning, its challenges, assessment by students and their expectations, the use of tools to improve distance learning, and the functioning of e-learning in the industry 4.0 and society 5.0 eras. The book also devotes a lot of space to the issues of Web 3.0 in university e-learning, quality assurance, and knowledge management. The aim and scope of this book is to draw a holistic picture of ongoing online teaching-activities before and during the lockdown period and present the meaning and future of e-learning from students’ points of view, taking into consideration their attitudes and expectations as well as industry 4.0 and society 5.0 aspects. The book presents the approach to distance learning and how it has changed, especially during a pandemic that revolutionized education. It highlights • the function of online education and how that has changed before and during the pandemic. • how e-learning is beneficial in promoting digital citizenship. • distance learning characteristic in the era of industry 4.0 and society 5.0. • how the era of industry 4.0 treats distance learning as a desirable form of education. The book covers both scientific and educational aspects and can be useful for university-level undergraduate, postgraduate and research-grade courses and can be referred to by anyone interested in exploring the diverse aspects of distance learning.

This book features a series of lectures that explores three different fields in which functor homology (short for homological algebra in functor categories) has recently played a significant role. For each of these applications, the functor viewpoint provides both essential insights and new methods for tackling difficult mathematical problems. In the lectures by Aurelien Djament, polynomial functors appear as coefficients in the homology of infinite families of classical groups, e.g. general linear groups or symplectic groups, and their stabilization. Djament's theorem states that this stable homology can be computed using only the homology with trivial coefficients and the manageable functor homology. The series includes an intriguing development of Scorichenko's unpublished results. The lectures by Wilberd van der Kallen lead to the solution of the general cohomological finite generation problem, extending Hilbert's fourteenth problem and its solution to the context of cohomology. The focus here is on the cohomology of algebraic groups, or rational cohomology, and the coefficients are Friedlander and Suslin's strict polynomial functors, a conceptual form of modules over the Schur algebra. Roman Mikhailov's lectures highlight topological invariants: homoto py and homology of topological spaces, through derived functors of polynomial functors. In this regard the functor framework makes better use of naturality, allowing it to reach calculations that remain beyond the grasp of classical algebraic topology. Lastly, Antoine Touze's introductory course on homological algebra makes the book accessible to graduate students new to the field. The links between functor homology and the three fields mentioned above offer compelling arguments for pushing the development of the functor viewpoint. The lectures in this book will provide readers with a feel for functors, and a valuable new perspective to apply to their favourite problems.

A thorough introduction to Borel sets and measurable selections, acting as a stepping stone to descriptive set theory by presenting such important techniques as universal sets, prewellordering, scales, etc. It contains significant applications to other branches of mathematics and serves as a self-contained reference accessible by mathematicians in many different disciplines. Written in an easily understandable style, and using only naive set theory, general topology, analysis, and algebra, it is thus well suited for graduates exploring areas of mathematics for their research and for those requiring Borel sets and measurable selections in their work.

The book presents a thoroughly elaborated logical theory of generalized truth-values understood as subsets of some established set of (basic) truth values. After elucidating the importance of the very notion of a truth value in logic and philosophy, we examine some possible ways of generalizing this notion. The useful four-valued logic of first-degree entailment by Nuel Belnap and the notion of a bilattice (a lattice of truth values with two ordering relations) constitute the basis for further generalizations. By doing so we elaborate the idea of a multilattice, and most notably, a trilattice of truth values - a specific algebraic structure with information ordering and two distinct logical orderings, one for truth and another for falsity. Each logical order not only induces its own logical vocabulary, but determines also its own entailment relation. We consider both semantic and syntactic ways of formalizing these relations and construct various logical calculi.

Looking at a sequence of zeros and ones, we often feel that it is not random, that is, it is not plausible as an outcome of fair coin tossing. Why? The answer is provided by algorithmic information theory: because the sequence is compressible, that is, it has small complexity or, equivalently, can be produced by a short program. This idea, going back to Solomonoff, Kolmogorov, Chaitin, Levin, and others, is now the starting point of algorithmic information theory. The first part of this book is a textbook-style exposition of the basic notions of complexity and randomness; the second part covers some recent work done by participants of the "Kolmogorov seminar" in Moscow (started by Kolmogorov himself in the 1980s) and their colleagues. This book contains numerous exercises (embedded in the text) that will help readers to grasp the material.

This book contains the courses given at the Fifth School on Complex Systems held at Santiago, Chile, from 9th .to 13th December 1996. At this school met researchers working on areas related with recent trends in Complex Systems, which include dynamical systems, cellular automata, symbolic dynamics, spatial systems, statistical physics and thermodynamics. Scientists working in these subjects come from several areas: pure and applied mathematics, physics, biology, computer science and electrical engineering. Each contribution is devoted to one of the above subjects. In most cases they are structured as surveys, presenting at the same time an original point of view about the topic and showing mostly new results. The paper of Bruno Durand presents the state of the art on the relationships between the notions of surjectivity, injectivity and reversibility in cellular automata when finite, infinite or periodic configurations are considered, also he discusses decidability problems related with the classification of cellular automata as well as global properties mentioned above. The paper of Eric Goles and Martin Matamala gives a uniform presentation of simulations of Turing machines by cellular automata. The main ingredient is the encoding function which must be fixed for all Turing machine. In this context known results are revised and new results are presented.

Fuzzy Sets in Decision Analysis, Operations Research and Statistics includes chapters on fuzzy preference modeling, multiple criteria analysis, ranking and sorting methods, group decision-making and fuzzy game theory. It also presents optimization techniques such as fuzzy linear and non-linear programming, applications to graph problems and fuzzy combinatorial methods such as fuzzy dynamic programming. In addition, the book also accounts for advances in fuzzy data analysis, fuzzy statistics, and applications to reliability analysis. These topics are covered within four parts: Decision Making, Mathematical Programming, Statistics and Data Analysis, and Reliability, Maintenance and Replacement. The scope and content of the book has resulted from multiple interactions between the editor of the volume, the series editors, the series advisory board, and experts in each chapter area. Each chapter was written by a well-known researcher on the topic and reviewed by other experts in the area. These expert reviewers sometimes became co-authors because of the extent of their contribution to the chapter. As a result, twenty-five authors from twelve countries and four continents were involved in the creation of the 13 chapters, which enhances the international character of the project and gives an idea of how carefully the Handbook has been developed.

During his lifetime, Kurt Goedel was not well known outside the professional world of mathematicians, philosophers and theoretical physicists. Early in his career, for his doctoral thesis and then for his Habilitation (Dr.Sci.), he wrote earthshaking articles on the completeness and provability of mathematical-logical systems, upsetting the hypotheses of the most famous mathematicians/philosophers of the time. He later delved into theoretical physics, finding a unique solution to Einstein's equations for gravity, the 'Goedel Universe', and made contributions to philosophy, the guiding theme of his life. This book includes more details about the context of Goedel's life than are found in earlier biographies, while avoiding an elaborate treatment of his mathematical/scientific/philosophical works, which have been described in great detail in other books. In this way, it makes him and his times more accessible to general readers, and will allow them to appreciate the lasting effects of Goedel's contributions (the latter in a more up-to-date context than in previous biographies, many of which were written 15-25 years ago). His work spans or is relevant to a wide spectrum of intellectual endeavor, and this is emphasized in the book, with recent examples. This biography also examines possible sources of his unusual personality, which combined mathematical genius with an almost childlike naivete concerning everyday life, and striking scientific innovations with timidity and hesitancy in practical matters. How he nevertheless had a long and successful career, inspiring many younger scholars along the way, with the help of his loyal wife Adele and some of his friends, is a fascinating story in human nature.

This book delves into finite mathematics and its application in physics, particularly quantum theory. It is shown that quantum theory based on finite mathematics is more general than standard quantum theory, whilst finite mathematics is itself more general than standard mathematics.As a consequence, the mathematics describing nature at the most fundamental level involves only a finite number of numbers while the notions of limit, infinite/infinitesimal and continuity are needed only in calculations that describe nature approximately. It is also shown that the concepts of particle and antiparticle are likewise approximate notions, valid only in special situations, and that the electric charge and baryon- and lepton quantum numbers can be only approximately conserved.

In this book we develop powerful techniques based on formal methods for the verification of correctness, consistency and safety properties related to dynamic reconfiguration and communication in complex distributed systems. In particular, static analysis techniques based on types and type systems are an adequate methodology considering their success in guaranteeing not only basic safety properties, but also more sophisticated ones like deadlock or lock freedom in concurrent settings.The main contributions of this book are twofold. i) We design a type system for a concurrent object-oriented calculus to statically ensure consistency of dynamic reconfigurations. ii) We define an encoding of the session pi-calculus, which models communication in distributed systems, into the standard typed pi-calculus. We use this encoding to derive properties like type safety and progress in the session pi-calculus by exploiting the corresponding properties in the standard typed pi-calculus.

How should we think about the meaning of the words that make up our language? How does reference of these terms work, and what is their referent when these are connected to abstract objects rather than to concrete ones? Can logic help to address these questions? This collection of papers aims to unify the questions of syntax and semantics of language, which span across the fields of logic, philosophy and ontology of language. The leading motif of the presented selection is the differentiation between linguistic tokens (material, concrete objects) on the one hand and linguistic types (ideal, abstract objects) on the other. Through a promenade among articles that span over all of the Author's career, this book addresses the complex philosophical question of the ontology of language by following the crystalline conceptual tools offered by logic. At the core of Wybraniec-Skardowska's scholarship is the idea that language is an ontological being, characterized in compliance with the logical conception of language proposed by Ajdukiewicz. The application throughout the book of tools of classical logic and set theory results fosters the emergence of a general formal logical theory of syntax, semantics and of the pragmatics of language, which takes into account the duality token-type in the understanding of linguistic expressions. Via a functional approach to language itself, logic appears as ontologically neutral with respect to existential assumptions relating to the nature of linguistic expressions and their extra-linguistic counterparts. The book is addressed to readers both at the graduate and undergraduate level, but also to a more general audience interested in getting a firmer grip on the interplay between reality and the language we use to describe and understand it.

Whether the source is more industry-based or academic research, there certainly appears to be a growing interest in the field of cryptocurrency. The New York Times had a cover story on March 24, 2022, titled "Time to Enter the Crypto Zone?," and they talked about institutional investors pouring billions into digital tokens, salaries being taken in Bitcoins, and even Bitcoin ATMs in grocery stores. Certainly, there have been ups and downs in crypto, but it has a kind of alluring presence that tempts one to include crypto as part of one’s portfolio. Those who are "prime crypto-curious" investors are usually familiar with the tech/pop culture and feel they want to diversify a bit in this fast-moving market. Even universities are beginning to offer more courses and create "Centers on Cryptocurrency." Some universities are even requiring their students who take a crypto course to pay the course tuition via cryptocurrency. In response to the growing interest and fascination about the crypto industry and cryptocurrency in general, Cryptocurrency Concepts, Technology, and Applications brings together many leading worldwide contributors to discuss a broad range of issues associated with cryptocurrency. The book covers a wide array of crypto-related topics, including: Blockchain NFTs Data analytics and AI Crypto crime Crypto industry and regulation Crypto and public choice Consumer confidence Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Presenting various viewpoints on where the crypto industry is heading, this timely book points out both the advantages and limitations of this emerging field. It is an easy-to-read, yet comprehensive, overview of cryptocurrency in the U.S. and international markets.

Whether the source is more industry-based or academic research, there certainly appears to be a growing interest in the field of cryptocurrency. The New York Times had a cover story on March 24, 2022, titled "Time to Enter the Crypto Zone?," and they talked about institutional investors pouring billions into digital tokens, salaries being taken in Bitcoins, and even Bitcoin ATMs in grocery stores. Certainly, there have been ups and downs in crypto, but it has a kind of alluring presence that tempts one to include crypto as part of one’s portfolio. Those who are "prime crypto-curious" investors are usually familiar with the tech/pop culture and feel they want to diversify a bit in this fast-moving market. Even universities are beginning to offer more courses and create "Centers on Cryptocurrency." Some universities are even requiring their students who take a crypto course to pay the course tuition via cryptocurrency. In response to the growing interest and fascination about the crypto industry and cryptocurrency in general, Cryptocurrency Concepts, Technology, and Applications brings together many leading worldwide contributors to discuss a broad range of issues associated with cryptocurrency. The book covers a wide array of crypto-related topics, including: Blockchain NFTs Data analytics and AI Crypto crime Crypto industry and regulation Crypto and public choice Consumer confidence Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Presenting various viewpoints on where the crypto industry is heading, this timely book points out both the advantages and limitations of this emerging field. It is an easy-to-read, yet comprehensive, overview of cryptocurrency in the U.S. and international markets.

The book contains 8 detailed expositions of the lectures given at the Kaikoura 2000 Workshop on Computability, Complexity, and Computational Algebra. Topics covered include basic models and questions of complexity theory, the Blum-Shub-Smale model of computation, probability theory applied to algorithmics (randomized alogrithms), parametric complexity, Kolmogorov complexity of finite strings, computational group theory, counting problems, and canonical models of ZFC providing a solution to continuum hypothesis. The text addresses students in computer science or mathematics, and professionals in these areas who seek a complete, but gentle introduction to a wide range of techniques, concepts, and research horizons in the area of computational complexity in a broad sense.

This volume provides an introduction to the properties of functional differential equations and their applications in diverse fields such as immunology, nuclear power generation, heat transfer, signal processing, medicine and economics. In particular, it deals with problems and methods relating to systems having a memory (hereditary systems). The book contains eight chapters. Chapter 1 explains where functional differential equations come from and what sort of problems arise in applications. Chapter 2 gives a broad introduction to the basic principle involved and deals with systems having discrete and distributed delay. Chapters 3-5 are devoted to stability problems for retarded, neutral and stochastic functional differential equations. Problems of optimal control and estimation are considered in Chapters 6-8. For applied mathematicians, engineers, and physicists whose work involves mathematical modeling of hereditary systems. This volume can also be recommended as a supplementary text for graduate students who wish to become better acquainted with the properties and applications of functional differential equations.

This monograph presents a new model of mathematical structures called weak n-categories. These structures find their motivation in a wide range of fields, from algebraic topology to mathematical physics, algebraic geometry and mathematical logic. While strict n-categories are easily defined in terms associative and unital composition operations they are of limited use in applications, which often call for weakened variants of these laws. The author proposes a new approach to this weakening, whose generality arises not from a weakening of such laws but from the very geometric structure of its cells; a geometry dubbed weak globularity. The new model, called weakly globular n-fold categories, is one of the simplest known algebraic structures yielding a model of weak n-categories. The central result is the equivalence of this model to one of the existing models, due to Tamsamani and further studied by Simpson. This theory has intended applications to homotopy theory, mathematical physics and to long-standing open questions in category theory. As the theory is described in elementary terms and the book is largely self-contained, it is accessible to beginning graduate students and to mathematicians from a wide range of disciplines well beyond higher category theory. The new model makes a transparent connection between higher category theory and homotopy theory, rendering it particularly suitable for category theorists and algebraic topologists. Although the results are complex, readers are guided with an intuitive explanation before each concept is introduced, and with diagrams showing the interconnections between the main ideas and results.

An engaging, accessible introduction into how numbers work and why we shouldn't be afraid of them, from maths expert Rachel Riley. Do you know your fractions from your percentages? Your adjacent to your hypotenuse? And who really knows how to do long division, anyway? Puzzled already? Don't blame you... But fret not! You won't be At Sixes and Sevens for long. In this brilliant, well-rounded guide, Countdown's Rachel Riley will take you back to the very basics, allow you to revisit what you learnt at school (and may have promptly forgotten, *ahem*), build your understanding of maths from the get-go and provide you with the essential toolkit to gain confidence in your numerical abilities. Discover how to divide and conquer, make your decimal debut, become a pythagoras professional and so much more with these easy-to-learn tips and tricks. Packed full of working examples, fool-proof methods, quirky trivia and brainteasers to try from puzzle-pro Dr Gareth Moore, this book is an absolute must-read for anyone and everyone who ever thought maths was 'above' them. Because the truth is: you can do it. What's more, it can be pretty fun too!

A more accessible approach than most competitor texts, which move into advanced, research-level topics too quickly for today's students. Part I is comprehensive in providing all necessary mathematical underpinning, particularly for those who need more opportunity to develop their mathematical competence. More confident students may move directly to Part II and dip back into Part I as a reference. Ideal for use as an introductory text for courses in quantum computing. Fully worked examples illustrate the application of mathematical techniques. Exercises throughout develop concepts and enhance understanding. End-of-chapter exercises offer more practice in developing a secure foundation.

Problems books are popular with instructors and students alike, as well as among general readers. The key to this book is the many alternative solutions to single problems. Mathematics educators, secondary mathematics teachers, and university instructors will find the book interesting and useful.