Flexible Query Answering Systems is an edited collection of contributed chapters. It focuses on developing computer systems capable of transforming a query into an answer with useful information. The emphasis is on problems associated with high-level intelligent answering systems. The coverage is multidisciplinary with chapters by authors from information science, logic, fuzzy systems, databases, artificial intelligence and knowledge representation. Each contribution represents a theory involving flexibility in query-answering, and each addresses specific answering problems. Coverage includes topics such as fuzzy sets in flexible querying, non-standard database interactions, metareasoning and agents, and many others. Contributions for this volume were written by leading researchers from their respective subject areas, including Patrick Bosc, Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier, Amihai Motro, Henri Prade and Ron Yager, among others. Flexible Query Answering Systems is a timely contribution for researchers working on high-level query mechanism systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2013, held in Granada, Spain, in September 2013. The 59 full papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in a general session train and a parallel special session track. The general session train covers the following topics: querying-answering systems; semantic technology; patterns and classification; personalization and recommender systems; searching and ranking; and Web and human-computer interaction. The special track covers some specific and, typically, newer fields, namely: environmental scanning for strategic early warning; generating linguistic descriptions of data; advances in fuzzy querying and fuzzy databases: theory and applications; fusion and ensemble techniques for online learning on data streams; and intelligent information extraction from texts.

Flexible Query Answering Systems is an edited collection of contributed chapters. It focuses on developing computer systems capable of transforming a query into an answer with useful information. The emphasis is on problems associated with high-level intelligent answering systems. The coverage is multidisciplinary with chapters by authors from information science, logic, fuzzy systems, databases, artificial intelligence and knowledge representation. Each contribution represents a theory involving flexibility in query-answering, and each addresses specific answering problems. Coverage includes topics such as fuzzy sets in flexible querying, non-standard database interactions, metareasoning and agents, and many others. Contributions for this volume were written by leading researchers from their respective subject areas, including Patrick Bosc, Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier, Amihai Motro, Henri Prade and Ron Yager, among others. Flexible Query Answering Systems is a timely contribution for researchers working on high-level query mechanism systems.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 7th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context, CONTEXT 2011, held in Karlsruhe, Germany in September 2011. The 17 full papers and 7 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 54 submissions. In addition the book contains two keynote speeches and 8 poster papers. They cover cutting-edge results from the wide range of disciplines concerned with context, including the cognitive sciences (linguistics, psychology, philosophy, computer science, neuroscience), the social sciences and organization sciences, and all application areas.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2009, held in Roskilde, Denmark, in October 2009.

The 57 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 90 submissions. They are structured in topical sections on database management, information retrieval, extraction and mining, ontologies and semantic web, intelligent information extraction from texts, advances in fuzzy querying, personalization, preferences, context and recommendation, and Web as a stream.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2006, held in Milan, Italy in June 2006. The book presents 60 revised full papers, organized in topical sections on flexibility in database management and querying, vagueness and uncertainty in XML querying and retrieval, information retrieval and filtering, multimedia information access, user modeling and personalization, knowledge and data extraction, and more.

This volume contains selected and thoroughly revised papers plus contributions from invited speakers presented at the First International Workshop on C- straint Solving and Language Processing, held in Roskilde, Denmark, September 1-3, 2004. Constraint Programming and Constraint Solving, in particular Constraint Logic Programming, appear to be a very promising platform, perhaps the most promising present platform, for bringing forward the state of the art in natural language processing, this due to the naturalness in speci?cation and the direct relation to e?cient implementation. Language, in the present context, may - fer to written and spoken language, formal and semiformal language, and even general input data to multimodal and pervasive systems, which can be handled in very much the same ways using constraint programming. The notion of constraints, with slightly di?ering meanings, apply in the ch- acterization of linguistic and cognitive phenomena, in formalized linguistic m- els as well as in implementation-oriented frameworks. Programming techniques for constraint solving have been, and still are, in a period with rapid devel- ment of new e?cient methods and paradigms from which language processing can pro?t. A common metaphor for human language processing is one big c- straintsolvingprocessinwhichthedi?erent(-lyspeci?ed)linguisticandcognitive phases take place in parallel and with mutual cooperation, which ?ts quite well with current constraint programming paradigms.

ThisvolumeconstitutestheproceedingsoftheSixthInternationalConferenceon Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2004, held in Lyon, France, on June 24-26, 2004. FQAS is the premier conference for researchers and practitioners concerned with the vital task of providing easy, ?exible, and intuitive access to information for every type of need. This multidisciplinary conference draws on several research areas, including databases, information retrieval, knowledge representation, soft computing, multimedia, and human-computer interaction. With FQAS 2004, the FQAS conference series celebrated its tenth anniversary as it has been held every two years since 1994. The overall theme of the FQAS conferences is innovative query systems aimed at providing easy, ?exible, and intuitive access to information. Such systems are intended to facilitate retrieval from information repositories such as databases, libraries, and the Web. These repositories are typically equipped with standard query systems that are often inadequate for users. The focus of FQAS is the development of query systems that are more expressive, informative, cooperative, productive, and intuitive to use.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2002, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2002. The 29 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. Among the fields covered are database management, information retrieval, domain modeling, knowledge representation and ontologies, knowledge discovery and data mining, artificial intelligence, classical and nonclassical logics, computational linguistics, natural language processing, multimedia information systems, and human-computer interaction.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the Third International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS'98, held in Roskilde, Denmark, in May 1998.
The 32 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and went through two rounds of selection for inclusion in the proceedings. This book is the first one focused on flexible query answering systems; this emerging area of research and development builts on results from mathematical logic, fuzzy logic, various database paradigms, information retrieval, linguistics, and human computer-interaction. The papers deal with issues occuring in querying databases and the Internet.

This book presents the refereed proceedings of the Second COST 237 International Workshop, held in Copenhagen, Denmark in November 1995 in the framework of the CEC COST 237 Multimedia Telecommunications Services Project.
The 15 papers included in revised full versions were chosen from 24 workshop submissions individually solicited from groups of researchers and developers known to be active in the areas of interest. The papers are grouped in sections on multipeer communications, teleservices and applications support, broadband network and transport services, QoS assurance, and multimedia support.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2019, held in Amantea, Italy, in July 2019. The 27 full papers and 10 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 43 submissions. The papers present emerging research trends with a special focus on flexible querying and analytics for smart cities and smart societies in the age of big data. They are organized in the following topical sections: flexible database management and querying; ontologies and knowledge bases; social networks and social media; argumentation-based query answering; data mining and knowledge discovery; advanced flexible query answering methodologies and techniques; flexible query answering methods and techniques; flexible intelligent information-oriented and network-oriented approaches; big data veracity and soft computing; flexibility in tools; and systems and miscellanea.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2017, held in London, UK, in June 2017. The 21 full papers presented in this book together with 4 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 43 submissions. The papers cover the following topics: foundations of flexible querying; recommendation and ranking; technologies for flexible representations and querying; knowledge discovery and information/data retrieval; intuitionistic sets; and generalized net model.

This volume contains the papers presented at the Eleventh Flexible Query Answering Systems 2015 (FQAS-2015) held on October 26-28, 2015 in Cracow, Poland. The international conferences on Flexible Query Answering Systems (FQAS) are a series of premier conferences focusing on the key issue in the information society of providing easy, flexible, and intuitive access to information and knowledge to everybody, even people with a very limited computer literacy. In targeting this issue, the Conference draws on several research areas, such as information retrieval, database management, information filtering, knowledge representation, soft computing, management of multimedia information, and human-computer interaction. The Conference provides a unique opportunity for researchers, developers and practitioners to explore new ideas and approaches in a multidisciplinary forum.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 9th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context, CONTEXT 2015, held in Larnaca, Cyprus, in November 2015. The 33 full papers and 13 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 91 submissions. The main theme of CONTEXT 2015 was "Back to the roots", focusing on the importance of interdisciplinary cooperations and studies of the phenomenon. Context, context modeling and context comprehension are central topics in linguistics, philosophy, sociology, artificial intelligence, computer science, art, law, organizational sciences, cognitive science, psychology, etc. and are also essential for the effectiveness of modern, complex and distributed software systems. CONTEXT 2015 embedded also a Doctoral Symposium, and three workshops; Smart University 3.0; CATI: Context Awareness and Tactile Design for Mobile Interaction; and SHAPES 3.0: The Shape of Things.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Methodologies for Intelligent Systems, ISMIS 2014, held in Roskilde, Denmark, in June 2014. The 61 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 111 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on complex networks and data stream mining; data mining methods; intelligent systems applications; knowledge representation in databases and systems; textual data analysis and mining; special session: challenges in text mining and semantic information retrieval; special session: warehousing and OLAPing complex, spatial and spatio-temporal data; ISMIS posters.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS 2011, held in Roskilde, Denmark, in October 2011. The 43 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on logical approaches to flexible querying, fuzzy logic in spatial and temporal data modeling and querying, knowledge-based approaches, multimedia, data fuzziness, reliability and trust, information retrieval, preference queries, flexible querying of graph data, ranking, ordering and statistics, query recommendation and interpretation, as well as on fuzzy databases and applications (8 papers presented in a special session).

The first performances by Joseph Beuys were a radical turning point for twentieth-century art. Beuys saw art as a transformative action that is both personal and communal, and his expanded artistic practice engaged spirituality, personal mythology, political structures, and symbolic materials. For Manresa, one of his legendary performance actions, which took place on December 15, 1966 in Dusseldorf, he collaborated with the Danish artists Henning Christiansen and Bjorn Norgaard. This book presents never-before-seen materials from the performance, including texts, images, scripts, and preparatory drawings, alongside contributions from scholars and critics that offer further insight. Friedhelm Mennekes, an art critic and Jesuit priest, analyses Saint Ignatius of Loyola's imprint on Beuys's work while elucidating its spiritual complexity, looking beyond the popular vision of the artist as shaman. Pilar Parcerisas examines Beuys's spiritual geography, explaining the importance the town of Manresa within it and also laying out the physical and mystical coordinates of Eurasia, a site that was always present in Beuys's work. Klaus-D. Pohl addresses the paradoxical union between Beuys's mysticism and the neo-Dadaists of Fluxus. Beuys's collaborator Bjorn Norgaard recalls his time working with the German artist and reflects on the paths he opened up. Finally, art historian Harald Szeemann considers the possibility of liberating politics through spirituality.

The concept of "constraint" is widely used in linguistics, computer science, and psychology. However, its implementation varies widely depending on the research domain: namely, language description, knowledge representation, cognitive modelling, and problem solving. These various uses of constraints offer complementary views on intelligent mechanisms. For example, in-depth descriptions implementing constraints are used in linguistics to filter out syntactic or discursive structures by means of dedicated description languages and constraint ranking. In computer science, the constraint programming paradigm views constraints as a whole, which can be used, for example, to build specific structures. Finally, in psycholinguistics, experiments are carried out to investigate the role of constraints within cognitive processes (both in comprehension and production), with various applications such as dialog modelling for people with disabilities. In this context, Constraints and Language builds an extended overview of the use of constraints to model and process language. This book will be useful for researchers willing to get a grip on the various uses of constraints in natural language processing, and also as a class book for academic staff who want to set up advanced courses around the concept of constraint-based natural language processing.