The dream of a cosmopolitical utopia has been around for thousands of years. Yet the promise of being locally situated while globally connected and mobile has never seemed more possible than today. Through a classical sociological approach, this book analyzes the political, technological and cultural systems underlying cosmopolitanism.

Artificial intelligence is a consortium of data-driven methodologies which includes artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, probabilistic belief networks and machine learning as its components. We have witnessed a phenomenal impact of this data-driven consortium of methodologies in many areas of studies, the economic and financial fields being of no exception. In particular, this volume of collected works will give examples of its impact on the field of economics and finance. This volume is the result of the selection of high-quality papers presented at a special session entitled 'Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Economics and Finance' at the '2003 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence' (IC-AI '03) held at the Monte Carlo Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, June 23-26 2003. The special session, organised by Jane Binner, Graham Kendall and Shu-Heng Chen, was presented in order to draw attention to the tremendous diversity and richness of the applications of artificial intelligence to problems in Economics and Finance. This volume should appeal to economists interested in adopting an interdisciplinary approach to the study of economic problems, computer scientists who are looking for potential applications of artificial intelligence and practitioners who are looking for new perspectives on how to build models for everyday operations.

There are still many important Artificial Intelligence disciplines yet to be covered. Among them are the methodologies of independent component analysis, reinforcement learning, inductive logical programming, classifier systems and Bayesian networks, not to mention many ongoing and highly fascinating hybridsystems. A way to make up for their omission is to visit this subject again later. We certainly hope that we can do so in the near future with another volume of 'Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Economics and Finance'.

"Medicine and Surgery" is an exciting new book that contains the core information needed by medical students in the run up to exams.

This is the only book available that covers both medicine and surgery.

It encompasses all of the major systems and core subjects
Every condition is discussed under the key headings of definition, epidemiology, aetiology, pathophysiology, clinical features, investigations, management and prognosis
The content follows a very consistent and familiar style, so that information is easily accessible, digestible and memorable
Each chapter opens with an overview of clinical method before discussing the most common conditions relevant to that speciality

"Medicine and Surgery: A Concise Textbook" is written specifically for medical students as essential revision preparation, for junior doctors as a refresher on the wards and for other allied health professionals who want a quick reminder of key facts and data.

Reviews

"I like the way the book goes through each disease using the same system of definition, aetiology etc. This makes it easier to learn....The content is exactly what the undergraduate brain needs"

Final year student, University of Oxford