Soft Computing (SC) techniques have been recognized nowadays as attractive solutions for modeling highly nonlinear or partially defined complex systems and processes. These techniques resemble biological processes more closely than conventional (more formal) techniques. However, despite its increasing popularity, soft computing lacks...

Concurrent processes can exhibit extremely complicated behavior, and neither informal reasoning nor testing is reliable enough to establish their correctness. In this thesis, we develop a new technique for the verification of parallel programs. The technique is stated in terms of axioms and inference rules, and it is used to prove...

This is a research monograph intended primarily for those researchers in Theoretical Computer Science interested in the areas of logics of programs, programming language semantics and program verification. It is also aimed at mathematically-inclined researchers in Logic, Linguistics and Philosophy, interested in a well-motivated...

The aim of this work is to provide a practical introduction to the formal specification of concurrent and real-time systems. It is intended for those with some basic knowledge or experience of computing but does not assume knowledge of the particular problems of concurrent and real-time systems. It concentrates on one group of languages,...

In the last decade, multi-agent systems have both become widely applied and also increasingly complex. The applications include the use of agents as automous decision makers in often safety-critical, dangerous, or high impact scenarios (traffic control, autonomous satellites, computational markets). The complexity arises from the fact...

The concept of fuzzy sets is one of the most fundamental and influential tools in computational intelligence. Fuzzy sets can provide solutions to a broad range of problems of control, pattern classification, reasoning, planning, and computer vision. This book bridges the gap that has developed between theory and practice. The authors explain...

Every year ESWC brings together researchers and practitioners dealing with different aspects of semantic technologies. Following a successful re-launch in 2010 as a multi-track conference, the 8th Extended Semantic Web Conference built on the success of the ESWC conference series initiated in 2004. Through its extended concept this...

We wrote this book because we love games. We also love sound and music, and we love what they can bring to games to make them thrilling, involving, and moving. We want you to be able to try out your sound and your music in a real game. For a book whose examples are based exclusively around one piece of software, it may appear...

Event-based distributed systems are playing an ever increasing role in areas such as enterprise management, information dissemination, finance, environmental monitoring and geo-spatial systems. Event-based processing originated with the introduction of Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules to database systems in the 1980s. Since then,...

Being an effective analyst or a well-informed consumer of analyses requires that you know how to properly define the problem, apply suitable statistical techniques, and clearly and honestly communicate the results. Being a well-informed consumer of analyses requires the same skills so that you can recognize them in action. Robert Carver's...

Since the publication of the first edition of The Description Logic Handbook in 2003, the interest in Description Logics (DL) has steadily increased. This applies both to the number of active DL researchers working on DL theory and implementations of reasoning services, and to the number of applications based on DL technology. One...

The proliferation of personal computers in the home and in schools has meant that there are large numbers of people who have had exposure to using computers...