This book provides a de?nition and study of a knowledge representation and r- soning formalism stemming from conceptual graphs, while focusing on the com- tational properties of this formalism. Knowledge can be symbolically represented in many ways. The knowledge representation and reasoning formalism presented here is a graph formalism - knowledge is represented by labeled graphs, in the graph theory sense, and r- soning mechanisms are based on graph operations, with graph homomorphism at the core. This formalism can thus be considered as related to semantic networks. Since their conception, semantic networks have faded out several times, but have always returned to the limelight. They faded mainly due to a lack of formal semantics and the limited reasoning tools proposed. They have, however, always rebounded - cause labeled graphs, schemas and drawings provide an intuitive and easily und- standable support to represent knowledge. This formalism has the visual qualities of any graphic model, and it is logically founded. This is a key feature because logics has been the foundation for knowledge representation and reasoning for millennia. The authors also focus substantially on computational facets of the presented formalism as they are interested in knowledge representation and reasoning formalisms upon which knowledge-based systems can be built to solve real problems. Since object structures are graphs, naturally graph homomorphism is the key underlying notion and, from a computational viewpoint, this moors calculus to combinatorics and to computer science domains in which the algorithmicqualitiesofgraphshavelongbeenstudied, asindatabasesandconstraint networks

This book provides a de?nition and study of a knowledge representation and r- soning formalism stemming from conceptual graphs, while focusing on the com- tational properties of this formalism. Knowledge can be symbolically represented in many ways. The knowledge representation and reasoning formalism presented here is a graph formalism - knowledge is represented by labeled graphs, in the graph theory sense, and r- soning mechanisms are based on graph operations, with graph homomorphism at the core. This formalism can thus be considered as related to semantic networks. Since their conception, semantic networks have faded out several times, but have always returned to the limelight. They faded mainly due to a lack of formal semantics and the limited reasoning tools proposed. They have, however, always rebounded - cause labeled graphs, schemas and drawings provide an intuitive and easily und- standable support to represent knowledge. This formalism has the visual qualities of any graphic model, and it is logically founded. This is a key feature because logics has been the foundation for knowledge representation and reasoning for millennia. The authors also focus substantially on computational facets of the presented formalism as they are interested in knowledge representation and reasoning formalisms upon which knowledge-based systems can be built to solve real problems. Since object structures are graphs, naturally graph homomorphism is the key underlying notion and, from a computational viewpoint, this moors calculus to combinatorics and to computer science domains in which the algorithmicqualitiesofgraphshavelongbeenstudied, asindatabasesandconstraint networks

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS'98, held in Montpellier, France, in August 1998.
The 20 revised full papers and 10 research reports presented were carefully selected from a total of 66 submissions; also included are three invited contributions. The volume is divided in topical sections on knowledge representation and knowledge engineering, tools, conceptual graphs and other models, relationships with logics, algorithms and complexity, natural language processing, and applications.

Melania the Elder and her granddaughter Melania the Younger were major figures in early Christian history, using their wealth, status, and forceful personalities to shape the development of nearly every aspect of the religion we now know as Christianity. This volume examines their influence on late antique Christianity and provides an insightful portrait of their legacies in the modern world. Departing from the traditionally patriarchal view, Melania gives a poignant and sometimes surprising account of how the rise of Christian institutions in the Roman Empire shaped our understanding of women's roles in the larger world.

In this collection of essays, scholars from a range of disciplines explore the activity of knowing in late antiquity by focusing on thirteen major concepts from the intellectual, social, political, and cultural history of the period. They ask two questions about each of these concepts: what did late ancient people know about them, and how was that knowledge expressed in people's actions? Late Ancient Knowing integrates intellectual history, post-structuralist literary theory, and recent trends in cognitive science to examine the ways that historical thought-worlds both shaped individual lives and were in turn shaped by the actions of individuals. Each chapter treats its main concept as a problem both of knowledge and of practice or behavior. The result is a richly imagined description of how people of this time understood and navigated their world, from travel through the countryside and encounters with demons to philosophical medicine and the etiquette of imperial courts.