The first edition of the Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science (ECSS, 2009) presented a comprehensive overview of granular computing (GrC) broadly divided into several categories: Granular computing from rough set theory, Granular Computing in Database Theory, Granular Computing in Social Networks, Granular Computing and Fuzzy Set Theory, Grid/Cloud Computing, as well as general issues in granular computing. In 2011, the formal theory of GrC was established, providing an adequate infrastructure to support revolutionary new approaches to computer/data science, including the challenges presented by so-called big data. For this volume of ECSS, Second Edition, many entries have been updated to capture these new developments, together with new chapters on such topics as data clustering, outliers in data mining, qualitative fuzzy sets, and information flow analysis for security applications. Granulations can be seen as a natural and ancient methodology deeply rooted in the human mind. Many daily "things" are routinely granulated into sub "things": The topography of earth is granulated into hills, plateaus, etc., space and time are granulated into infinitesimal granules, and a circle is granulated into polygons of infinitesimal sides. Such granules led to the invention of calculus, topology and non-standard analysis. Formalization of general granulation was difficult but, as shown in this volume, great progress has been made in combing discrete and continuous mathematics under one roof for a broad range of applications in data science.

The first edition of the Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science (ECSS, 2009) presented a comprehensive overview of granular computing (GrC) broadly divided into several categories: Granular computing from rough set theory, Granular Computing in Database Theory, Granular Computing in Social Networks, Granular Computing and Fuzzy Set Theory, Grid/Cloud Computing, as well as general issues in granular computing. In 2011, the formal theory of GrC was established, providing an adequate infrastructure to support revolutionary new approaches to computer/data science, including the challenges presented by so-called big data. For this volume of ECSS, Second Edition, many entries have been updated to capture these new developments, together with new chapters on such topics as data clustering, outliers in data mining, qualitative fuzzy sets, and information flow analysis for security applications. Granulations can be seen as a natural and ancient methodology deeply rooted in the human mind. Many daily "things" are routinely granulated into sub "things": The topography of earth is granulated into hills, plateaus, etc., space and time are granulated into infinitesimal granules, and a circle is granulated into polygons of infinitesimal sides. Such granules led to the invention of calculus, topology and non-standard analysis. Formalization of general granulation was difficult but, as shown in this volume, great progress has been made in combing discrete and continuous mathematics under one roof for a broad range of applications in data science.

In this book, a new method for hybrid intelligent systems is proposed. The proposed method is based on a granular computing approach applied in two levels. The techniques used and combined in the proposed method are modular neural networks (MNNs) with a Granular Computing (GrC) approach, thus resulting in a new concept of MNNs; modular granular neural networks (MGNNs). In addition fuzzy logic (FL) and hierarchical genetic algorithms (HGAs) are techniques used in this research work to improve results. These techniques are chosen because in other works have demonstrated to be a good option, and in the case of MNNs and HGAs, these techniques allow to improve the results obtained than with their conventional versions; respectively artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms.

FLINS, originally an acronym for Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Technologies in Nuclear Science, is now extended to Computational Intelligence for applied research. The contributions to the 11th of FLINS conference cover state-of-the-art research, development, and technology for computational intelligence systems, both from the foundations and the applications points-of-view.

This volume contains the papers selected for presentation at the 9th International Conference on Rough Sets, Fuzzy Sets, Data Mining and Granular Computing (RSFDGrC 2003) held at Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, P.R. China, May 26–29, 2003. There were 245 submissions for RSFDGrC 2003 excluding for 2 invited keynote papers and 11 invited plenary papers. Apart from the 13 invited papers, 114 papers were accepted for RSFDGrC 2003 and were included in this volume. The acceptance rate was only 46.5%. These papers were divided into 39 regular oral presentation papers (each allotted 8 pages), 47 short oral presentation papers (each allotted 4 pages) and 28 poster presentation papers (each allotted 4 pages) on the basis of reviewer evaluations. Each paper was reviewed by three referees. The conference is a continuation and expansion of the International Workshops on Rough Set Theory and Applications. In particular, this was the ninth meeting in the series and the first international conference. The aim of RSFDGrC2003 was to bring together researchers from diverse fields of expertise in order to facilitate mutual understanding and cooperation and to help in cooperative work aimed at new hybrid paradigms. It is our great pleasure to dedicate this volume to Prof. Zdzislaw Pawlak, who first introduced the basic ideas and definitions of rough sets theory over 20 years ago.

Although the notion is a relatively recent one, the notions and principles of Granular Computing (GrC) have appeared in a different guise in many related fields including granularity in Artificial Intelligence, interval computing, cluster analysis, quotient space theory and many others. Recent years have witnessed a renewed and expanding interest in the topic as it begins to play a key role in bioinformatics, e-commerce, machine learning, security, data mining and wireless mobile computing when it comes to the issues of effectiveness, robustness and uncertainty. The Handbook of Granular Computing offers a comprehensive reference source for the granular computing community, edited by and with contributions from leading experts in the field. Includes chapters covering the foundations of granular computing, interval analysis and fuzzy set theory; hybrid methods and models of granular computing; and applications and case studies. Divided into 5 sections: Preliminaries, Fundamentals, Methodology and Algorithms, Development of Hybrid Models and Applications and Case Studies. Presents the flow of ideas in a systematic, well-organized manner, starting with the concepts and motivation and proceeding to detailed design that materializes in specific algorithms, applications and case studies. Provides the reader with a self-contained reference that includes all pre-requisite knowledge, augmented with step-by-step explanations of more advanced concepts. The Handbook of Granular Computing represents a significant and valuable contribution to the literature and will appeal to a broad audience including researchers, students and practitioners in the fields of Computational Intelligence, pattern recognition, fuzzy sets and neural networks, system modelling, operations research and bioinformatics.

Welcome to the 12th International Conference on Rough Sets, Fuzzy Sets, Data Mining and Granular Computing (RSFDGrC 2009), held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, India, during December 15-18, 2009. RSFDGrC is a series of conferences spanning over the last 15 years. It investigates the me- ing points among the four major areas outlined in its title. This year, it was co-organized with the Third International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (PReMI 2009), which provided additional means for multi-facetedinteractionofboth scientists andpractitioners.Itwasalsothe core component of this year's Rough Set Year in India project. However, it remained a fully international event aimed at building bridges between countries. The ?rst sectin contains the invited papers and a short report on the abo- mentioned project. Let us note that all the RSFDGrC 2009 plenary speakers, Ivo Düntsch, Zbigniew Suraj, Zhongzhi Shi, Sergei Kuznetsov, Qiang Shen, and Yukio Ohsawa, contributed with the full-length articles in the proceedings. The remaining six sections contain 56 regular papers that were selected out of 130 submissions, each peer-reviewed by three PC members. We thank the authors for their high-quality papers submitted to this volume and regret that many deserving papers could not be accepted because of our urge to maintain strict standards. It is worth mentioning that there was quite a good number of papers on the foundations of rough sets and fuzzy sets, many of them authored byIndianresearchers.ThefuzzysettheoryhasbeenpopularinIndiaforalonger time. Now, we can see the rising interest in the rough set theory.

The two volume set LNAI 3641 and LNAI 3642 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Rough Sets, Fuzzy Sets, Data Mining, and Granular Computing, RSFDGrC 2005, held in Regina, Canada in August/September 2005. The 119 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 277 submissions. They comprise the two volumes together with 6 invited papers, 22 approved workshop papers, and 5 special section papers that all were carefully selected and thoroughly revised. The first volume includes 75 contributions related to rough set approximations, rough-algebraic foundations, feature selection and reduction, reasoning in information systems, rough-probabilistic approaches, rough-fuzzy hybridization, fuzzy methods in data analysis, evolutionary computing, machine learning, approximate and uncertain reasoning, probabilistic network models, spatial and temporal reasoning, non-standard logics, and granular computing. The second volume contains 77 contributions and deals with rough set software, data mining, hybrid and hierarchical methods, information retrieval, image recognition and processing, multimedia applications, medical applications, web content analysis, business and industrial applications, the approved workshop papers and the papers accepted for a special session on intelligent and sapient systems.

Pattern Recognition Algorithms for Data Mining addresses different pattern recognition (PR) tasks in a unified framework with both theoretical and experimental results. Tasks covered include data condensation, feature selection, case generation, clustering/classification, and rule generation and evaluation. This volume presents various theories, methodologies, and algorithms, using both classical approaches and hybrid paradigms. The authors emphasize large datasets with overlapping, intractable, or nonlinear boundary classes, and datasets that demonstrate granular computing in soft frameworks. Organized into eight chapters, the book begins with an introduction to PR, data mining, and knowledge discovery concepts. The authors analyze the tasks of multi-scale data condensation and dimensionality reduction, then explore the problem of learning with support vector machine (SVM). They conclude by highlighting the significance of granular computing for different mining tasks in a soft paradigm.

This book offers a comprehensive report on the state-of-the art in the broadly-intended field of “intelligent systems”. After introducing key theoretical issues, it describes a number of promising models for data and system analysis, decision making, and control. It discusses important theories, including possibility theory, the Dempster-Shafer theory, the theory of approximate reasoning, as well as computing with words, together with novel applications in various areas, such as information aggregation and fusion, linguistic data summarization, participatory learning, systems modeling, and many others. By presenting the methods in their application contexts, the book shows how granular computing, soft computing and fuzzy logic techniques can provide novel, efficient solutions to real-world problems. It is dedicated to Professor Ronald R. Yager for his great scientific and scholarly achievements, and for his long-lasting service to the fuzzy logic, and the artificial and computational intelligence communities. It has been motivated by the authors’ appreciation of his original thinking and groundbreaking ideas, with a special thought to his valuable research on the computerized implementation of various aspects of human cognition for decision-making and problem-solving.