Research in the field of pattern recognition both in theo retical terms and in the area of appl ication continues to flourish. Pattern recognition is a fairly diverse field involving researchers whose primary disciplines spread over at least a half dozen fields. Possibly because of the great diversity of backgrounds but a common interest in certain broad areas of application, the field has grown so rapidly and yet seems to promise at least a similar growth rate for the future. This book is a collection containing some of the papers that were presented at the N. A. T. O. Advanced Study Institute held in Bandol, France, September 1975. The main purpose of the institute was to present material which would provide a basic background in the field. Thus, survey papers covering syntactic methods, picture processing, classification theory, and speech recognition were presented. This should have provided the listener (and we hope now, the reader) with an acquaintance with the basic tools, a look at some of the appl ications and an appraisal of how each of the particular topics will evolve. A more recent addition to the pattern recognition "family" is the work in the areas of economics and group choice. Since the process of recognizing and inter preting patterns is so fundamental, it probably is no surprise when a particular discipline is discovered to be amenable to the already developed techniques."

This volume is based on lectures presented at the N.A.T.O. Advanced Studies Institute on Data Base Management Theory and Applications. The meeting took place in Estoril Portugal for a two week periQd in June 1981. The lecturers represented distinguished research centers in industry, gvvernment and academia. Lectures presented basic material in data base management, as well as sharing recent developments in the field. The participants were drawn from data processing groups in government, industry and academia, located in N.A.T.O. countries. All participants had a common goal of learning about the exciting new developments in the field of data base management with the potential for application to their fields of interest. In addition to formal lectures and the informal discussions among participants, which are characteristic of N.A.T.O. AS! gatherings, participants had the opportunity for hands-on experience in building application systems with a data base management system. Participants were organized into groups that designed and implemented application systems using data base technology on micro computers. The collection of papers is organized into four major sections. The first section deals with various aspects of data modeling from the conceptual and logical perspectives. These issues are crucial in the initial design of application systems.

This volume is based on lectures presented at the N.A.T.O. Advanced Studies Institute on Data Base Management Theory and Applications. The meeting took place in Estoril Portugal for a two week periQd in June 1981. The lecturers represented distinguished research centers in industry, gvvernment and academia. Lectures presented basic material in data base management, as well as sharing recent developments in the field. The participants were drawn from data processing groups in government, industry and academia, located in N.A.T.O. countries. All participants had a common goal of learning about the exciting new developments in the field of data base management with the potential for application to their fields of interest. In addition to formal lectures and the informal discussions among participants, which are characteristic of N.A.T.O. AS! gatherings, participants had the opportunity for hands-on experience in building application systems with a data base management system. Participants were organized into groups that designed and implemented application systems using data base technology on micro computers. The collection of papers is organized into four major sections. The first section deals with various aspects of data modeling from the conceptual and logical perspectives. These issues are crucial in the initial design of application systems.