Provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts of fuzziness together with a compilation of recent advances in the application to medicine. The tutorials in the first part of the book range from basic concepts through theoretical frameworks to rule simplification through data clustering methodologies and the design of multivariate rule bases through self-learning by mapping fuzzy systems onto neural network structures. The case studies which follow are representative of the wide range of applications currently pursued in relation to medicine. The majority of applications presented in this book are about bridging the gap between low-level sensor measurements and intermediate or high-level data representations. The book offers a comprehensive perspective from leading authorities world-wide and provides a tantalising glimpse into the role of sophisticated knowledge engineering methods in shaping the landscape of medical technology in the future.

This book presents state-of-the-art developments in the area of computationally intelligent methods applied to various aspects and ways of Web exploration and Web mining. Some novel data mining algorithms that can lead to more effective and intelligent Web-based systems are also described. Scientists, engineers, and research students can expect to find many inspiring ideas in this volume.

The Web is the nervous system of information society. As such, it has a pervasive influence on our daily lives. And yet, in some ways the Web does not have a high MIQ (Machine IQ). What can be done to enhance it? This is the leitmotif of "Intelligent Exploration of the Web," (lEW)--a collection of articles co-edited by Drs. Szczepaniak, Segovia, Kacprzyk and, to a small degree, myself. The articles that comprise lEW address many basic problems ranging from structure analysis of Internet documents and Web dialogue management to intelligent Web agents for extraction of information, and bootstrapping an ontology-based information extraction system. Among the basic problems, one that stands out in importance is the problem of search. Existing search engines have many remarkable capabilities. But what is not among them is the deduction capability--the capability to answer a query by drawing on information which resides in various parts of the knowledge base. An example of a query might be "How many Ph.D. degrees in computer science were granted by European universities in 1996?" No existing search engine is capable of dealing with queries of comparable or even much lower complexity. Basically, what we would like to do is to add deduction capability to a search engine, with the aim of transforming it into a question-answering system, or a QI A system, for short. This is a problem that is of major importance and a challenge that is hard to meet.

This book covers significant recent developments in the field of Intelligent Meth ods applied to eCommerce. The Intelligent Methods considered are mainly Soft Computing Methods that include fuzzy sets, rough sets, neural networks, evolutionary computations, probabilistic and evidential reasoning, multivalued logic, and related fields. There is not doubt about the relevance of eCommerce in our daily environ ments and in the work carried out at many research centers throughout the world. The application of AI to Commerce is growing as fast as the computers and net works are being integrated in all business and commerce aspects. We felt that it was time to sit down and see how was the impact into that field of low-level AI, i.e. softcomputing. We found many scattered contributions disseminated in con ferences, workshops, journal, books or even technical reports, but nothing like a common framework that could serve as a basis for further research, comparison or even prototyping for a direct transfer to the industry. We felt then the need to set up a reference point, a book like this. We planned this book as a recompilation of the newest developments of re searchers who already made some contribution into the field. The authors were se lected based on the originality and quality of their work and its relevance to the field. Authors came from prestigious universities and research centers with differ ent backgrounds."

The Atlantic Web Intelligence Conferences bring together scientists, en- neers, computer users, and students to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas, and research results about all aspects (theory, applications and tools)ofintelligentmethodsappliedtoWebbasedsystems,andtodiscussthe practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted. Previous AWIC eventswereheld in Spain - 2003,Mexico - 2004,Poland- 2005,Israel- 2006 and France - 2007. th This year, the 6 Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference (AWIC2009) held during September 9-11, 2009, at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of theCharlesUniversityinthehistoricalcitycenterofPrague,CzechRepublic. AWIC2009 is organized by the Machine Intelligence Research Labs (MIR ? Labs-http://www.mirlabs.org),VSB-TechnicalUniversityofOstrava,Czech Republic and the Institute of Computer Science, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Conference has attracted submissions from several parts of the world and each paper was reviewed by three or more reviewers. We are sure that the diversity of the topics dealt with in these papers and the quality of their contents, and the three keynote speakers (Peter Vojt' a? s, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, George Feuerlicht, Department of Information Technologies, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic & Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, UTS, Australia and Juan D. Velasqu ' ez, University of Chile, Chile) make for an exciting conference. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the program comm- tee, local organizing committee and the numerous referees who helped us evaluate the papers and make AWIC2009 a very successful scienti?c event. VI Preface Grateful appreciation is expressed to Professor Janusz Kacprzyk, Editor of theseriespublishingthis bookaswellastotheSpringerteamforits excellent work.

Mastering and effective exploration of the web environment needs new ideas, adaptation of known methods as well as application of sophisticated and robust technical implementations. Among new research directions present in relation to Web applications, a remarkable place is occupied by intelligent methods defining the topic of soft computing. This edited book includes reports from the front of diverse fields of the Web: application of artificial intelligence, design, information retrieval and interpretation, user profiling, security, engineering, etc. The material has been presented at the 5th Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference a " AWICa (TM)2007 held in Fontainbleau (France) and organized by Esigetel, Technical University of Lodz, and Polish Academy of Sciences.

This book presents state-of-the-art developments in the area of computationally intelligent methods applied to various aspects and ways of Web exploration and Web mining. Some novel data mining algorithms that can lead to more effective and intelligent Web-based systems are also described. Scientists, engineers, and research students can expect to find many inspiring ideas in this volume.

In recent years the Internet has become a source of data and information of indisputable importance and has immensely gained in acceptance and popularity. The World Wide Web (WWW or Web, for short), frequently named "the nervous system of the infor- tion society," offers numerous valuable services leaving no doubt about the signi?cance of the Web in our daily activities at work and at home. Consequently, we have a clear aspiration to meet the obvious need for effective use of its potential by making - provements in both the methods and the technology applied. Among the new research directions observable in Web-related applications, intelligent methods from within the broadly perceived topic of soft computing occupy an important place. AWIC, the "Atlantic Web Intelligence Conferences" are intended to be a forum for exchange of new ideas and novel practical solutions in this new and exciting ?eld. The conference was born as an initiative of the WIC-Poland and the WIC-Spain Research Centres, both belonging to the Web Intelligence Consortium - WIC (http: //wi-consortium.org/). So far, three AWIC conferences have been held: in Madrid, Spain (2003), in Cancun, Mexico (2004), and in ?odz, Poland (2005)."

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference, AWIC 2003, held in Madrid, Spain in May 2003. The 32 revised full papers presented together with 3 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 70 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on general issues in Web intelligence, Web security, semantic Web, Web authoring and design, Web information retrieval, agents for the Web, and user behavior.

The Web is the nervous system of information society. As such, it has a pervasive influence on our daily lives. And yet, in some ways the Web does not have a high MIQ (Machine IQ). What can be done to enhance it? This is the leitmotif of "Intelligent Exploration of the Web," (lEW)--a collection of articles co-edited by Drs. Szczepaniak, Segovia, Kacprzyk and, to a small degree, myself. The articles that comprise lEW address many basic problems ranging from structure analysis of Internet documents and Web dialogue management to intelligent Web agents for extraction of information, and bootstrapping an ontology-based information extraction system. Among the basic problems, one that stands out in importance is the problem of search. Existing search engines have many remarkable capabilities. But what is not among them is the deduction capability--the capability to answer a query by drawing on information which resides in various parts of the knowledge base. An example of a query might be "How many Ph.D. degrees in computer science were granted by European universities in 1996?" No existing search engine is capable of dealing with queries of comparable or even much lower complexity. Basically, what we would like to do is to add deduction capability to a search engine, with the aim of transforming it into a question-answering system, or a QI A system, for short. This is a problem that is of major importance and a challenge that is hard to meet.

This book covers significant recent developments in the field of Intelligent Meth ods applied to eCommerce. The Intelligent Methods considered are mainly Soft Computing Methods that include fuzzy sets, rough sets, neural networks, evolutionary computations, probabilistic and evidential reasoning, multivalued logic, and related fields. There is not doubt about the relevance of eCommerce in our daily environ ments and in the work carried out at many research centers throughout the world. The application of AI to Commerce is growing as fast as the computers and net works are being integrated in all business and commerce aspects. We felt that it was time to sit down and see how was the impact into that field of low-level AI, i.e. softcomputing. We found many scattered contributions disseminated in con ferences, workshops, journal, books or even technical reports, but nothing like a common framework that could serve as a basis for further research, comparison or even prototyping for a direct transfer to the industry. We felt then the need to set up a reference point, a book like this. We planned this book as a recompilation of the newest developments of re searchers who already made some contribution into the field. The authors were se lected based on the originality and quality of their work and its relevance to the field. Authors came from prestigious universities and research centers with differ ent backgrounds."

The Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference brings together scientists, engineers, computer users, and students to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas, and research results about all aspects (theory, applications and tools) of intelligent methods applied to Web based systems, and to discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted. Previous AWIC events were held in Spain 2003, Mexico 2004, Poland 2005, Israel 2006, France 2007 and Czech Rep. 2009.

The present 7th Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference (AWIC 2011) was held during January 26-28, 2011, at the University of Applied Sciences of Fribourg, Switzerland. AWIC2011 is organized by the Multimedia Information System Group (MISG), Institute of the Technologies of Information and Communication (iTIC) of the University of Applied Sciences of Fribourg.

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