This volume explores advances in information processing by describing a number of research approaches in symbolic computationalism and neural networks.

How does the mind work? How is data stored in the brain? How does the mental world connect with the physical world? The hybrid system developed in this book shows a radically new view on the brain. Briefly, in this model memory remains permanent by changing the homeostasis rebuilding the neuronal organelles. These transformations are approximately abstracted as all-or-none operations. Thus the computer-like neural systems become plausible biological models. This illustrated book shows how artificial animals with such brains learn invariant methods of behavior control from their repeated actions. These robots can make decisions in any circumstances and reason by analogy whenever possible.This new and expanded edition includes a prologue exploring the problems which have stopped the development of fully fledged brain models. The causes of these deadlocks are listed as potential misconceptions about brain principles, neural networks, nervous systems, robotics, programming and decision logic.

The theme of the symposium, computation and cognition, was designed to explore the relations between very different modes of computation, and to bring together views of the computation process from different disciplines.

Knowledge acquisition is one of the most important aspects influencing the quality of methods used in artificial intelligence and the reliability of expert systems. The various issues dealt with in this volume concern many different approaches to the handling of partial knowledge and to the ensuing methods for reasoning and decision making under uncertainty, as applied to problems in artificial intelligence. The volume is composed of the invited and contributed papers presented at the Workshop on Mathematical Models for Handling Partial Knowledge in Artificial Intelligence, held at the Ettore Majorana Center for Scientific Culture of Erice (Sicily, Italy) on June 19-25, 1994, in the framework of the International School of Mathematics "G.Stampacchia". It includes also a transcription of the roundtable held during the workshop to promote discussions on fundamental issues, since in the choice of invited speakers we have tried to maintain a balance between the various schools of knowl edge and uncertainty modeling. Choquet expected utility models are discussed in the paper by Alain Chateauneuf: they allow the separation of perception of uncertainty or risk from the valuation of outcomes, and can be of help in decision mak ing. Petr Hajek shows that reasoning in fuzzy logic may be put on a strict logical (formal) basis, so contributing to our understanding of what fuzzy logic is and what one is doing when applying fuzzy reasoning.

This book covers technical fundamentals, complexity and social networks, and communication and language. It raises readers’ interest in social networks, the importance of language in the emergence and maintenance of networks, the integral patterns of interconnectivity, and the means to measure and model social structure. It presents a broad range of ideas from several fields of research endeavor. It also explores social networks and their integration with communication and language, thereby providing a discussion of relevant theory, modeling, metrics, and application to business, natural resource management, and technology.

Advances in the fields of materials and testing have introduced hundreds of concepts and terms. This second edition of the Dictionary of Materials and Testing, emphasizes "engineered" materials that can withstand stress or unusual environments for an extended period of time.

This book presents the vocabulary of a continually evolving and fundamental technical field which is finding ever broad applications in industry. It provides special attention to the language of national and international standards and recommendations, as well as appropriate field indications.