Evolutionary algorithms are general-purpose search procedures based on the mechanisms of natural selection and population genetics. They are appealing because they are simple, easy to interface, and easy to extend. This volume is concerned with applications of evolutionary algorithms and associated strategies in engineering. It will be useful for engineers, designers, developers, and researchers in any scientific discipline interested in the applications of evolutionary algorithms. The volume consists of five parts, each with four or five chapters. The topics are chosen to emphasize application areas in different fields of engineering. Each chapter can be used for self-study or as a reference by practitioners to help them apply evolutionary algorithms to problems in their engineering domains.

This is a pioneering work on the emerging field of artificial immune systems-highly distributed systems based on the principles of the natural system. Like artificial neural networks, artificial immune systems can learn new information and recall previously learned information. This book provides an overview of artificial immune systems, explaining its applications in areas such as immunological memory, anomaly detection algorithms, and modeling the effects of prior infection on vaccine efficacy.

Evolutionary algorithms are general-purpose search procedures based on the mechanisms of natural selection and population genetics. They are appealing because they are simple, easy to interface, and easy to extend. This volume is concerned with applications of evolutionary algorithms and associated strategies in engineering. It will be useful for engineers, designers, developers, and researchers in any scientific discipline interested in the applications of evolutionary algorithms. The volume consists of five parts, each with four or five chapters. The topics are chosen to emphasize application areas in different fields of engineering. Each chapter can be used for self-study or as a reference by practitioners to help them apply evolutionary algorithms to problems in their engineering domains.

Clearly, nature has been very effective in creating organisms that are capable of protecting themselves against a wide variety of pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, and parasites. The powerful information-processing capabilities of the immune system, such as feature extraction, pattern recognition, learning, memory, and its distributive nature provide rich metaphors that researchers are finding very useful for the development of computational models. While some of these models are designed to give us a better understanding of the immune system, other models are being developed to solve complex real-world problems such as anomaly detection, pattern recognition, data analysis (clustering), function optimization, and computer security.

Immunological Computation: Theory and Applications is devoted to discussing different immunological mechanisms and their relation to information processing and problem solving. This unique volume presents a compendium of up-to-date work related to immunity-based techniques. After presenting the general abstractions of immune elements and processes used in computational models, it then—

Reviews standard procedures, representations, and matching rules that are used in all immunological computation models

Covers the details of one of the earliest and most well-known immune algorithms, based on the negative selection (NS) process that occurs in the thymus

Examines promising immune models, including those based on danger theory, cytokine network models, and MHC-based models

The text goes further to describe a wide variety of applications, which include computer security, the detection and analysis of anomalies and faults, robotics, and data mining among others. To enhance understanding of this emerging field of study, each chapter includes a summary, review questions, and exercis

Table of Contents

Immunology Basics. Modeling the Biological Immune System. Negative Selection. Artificial Immune Networks. Clonal Selection Algorithm and Hybrid Models. Applications.

Clearly, nature has been very effective in creating organisms that are capable of protecting themselves against a wide variety of pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, and parasites. The powerful information-processing capabilities of the immune system, such as feature extraction, pattern recognition, learning, memory, and its distributive nature provide rich metaphors that researchers are finding very useful for the development of computational models. While some of these models are designed to give us a better understanding of the immune system, other models are being developed to solve complex real-world problems such as anomaly detection, pattern recognition, data analysis (clustering), function optimization, and computer security. Immunological Computation: Theory and Applications is devoted to discussing different immunological mechanisms and their relation to information processing and problem solving. This unique volume presents a compendium of up-to-date work related to immunity-based techniques. After presenting the general abstractions of immune elements and processes used in computational models, it then- Reviews standard procedures, representations, and matching rules that are used in all immunological computation models Covers the details of one of the earliest and most well-known immune algorithms, based on the negative selection (NS) process that occurs in the thymus Examines promising immune models, including those based on danger theory, cytokine network models, and MHC-based models The text goes further to describe a wide variety of applications, which include computer security, the detection and analysis of anomalies and faults, robotics, and data mining among others. To enhance understanding of this emerging field of study, each chapter includes a summary, review questions, and exercis