Fuzzy set and logic theory suggest that all natural language linguistic expressions are imprecise and must be assessed as a matter of degree. But in general membership degree is an imprecise notion which requires that Type 2 membership degrees be considered in most applications related to human decision making schemas. Even if the membership functions are restricted to be Type1, their combinations generate an interval – valued Type 2 membership. This is part of the general result that Classical equivalences breakdown in Fuzzy theory. Thus all classical formulas must be reassessed with an upper and lower expression that are generated by the breakdown of classical formulas.Key features:- Ontological grounding- Epistemological justification- Measurement of Membership- Breakdown of equivalences- FDCF is not equivalent to FCCF- Fuzzy Beliefs- Meta-Linguistic axioms- Ontological grounding- Epistemological justification- Measurement of Membership- Breakdown of equivalences- FDCF is not equivalent to FCCF- Fuzzy Beliefs- Meta-Linguistic axioms

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.

These proceedings from the 2012 symposium on "Chaos, complexity and leadership" reflect current research results from all branches of Chaos, Complex Systems and their applications in Management. Included are the diverse results in the fields of applied nonlinear methods, modeling of data and simulations, as well as theoretical achievements of Chaos and Complex Systems. Also highlighted are Leadership and Management applications of Chaos and Complexity Theory.

Humans employ mostly natural languages in describing and representing problems, c- puting and reasoning, arriving at ?nal conclusions described similarly as words in a natural language or as the form of mental perceptions. To make machines imitate humans’ mental activities, the key point in terms of machine intelligence is to process uncertain information by means of natural languages with vague and imprecise concepts. Zadeh (1996a) proposed a concept of Computing with Words (CWW) to model and c- pute with linguistic descriptions that are propositions drawn from a natural language. CWW, followed the concept of linguistic variables (Zadeh, 1975a,b) and fuzzy sets (Zadeh, 1965), has been developed intensively and opened several new vast research ?elds as well as applied in various areas, particularly in the area of arti?cial intelligence. Zadeh (1997, 2005) emphasized that the core conceptions in CWW are linguistic variables and fuzzy logic (or approximate reasoning). In a linguistic variable, each linguistic value is explained by a fuzzy set (also called semantics of the linguistic value), its membership function is de?ned on the universe of discourse of the linguistic variable. By fuzzy sets, linguistic information or statements are quanti?ed by membership functions, and infor- tion propagation is performed by approximate reasoning. The use of linguistic variables implies processes of CWW such as their fusion, aggregation, and comparison. Different computational approaches in the literature addressed those processes (Wang, 2001; Zadeh and Kacprzyk, 1999a, b). Membership functions are generally at the core of many fuzzy-set theories based CWW.

This book presents a comprehensive report on the evolution of Fuzzy Logic since its formulation in Lotfi Zadeh’s seminal paper on “fuzzy sets,” published in 1965. In addition, it features a stimulating sampling from the broad field of research and development inspired by Zadeh’s paper. The chapters, written by pioneers and prominent scholars in the field, show how fuzzy sets have been successfully applied to artificial intelligence, control theory, inference, and reasoning. The book also reports on theoretical issues; features recent applications of Fuzzy Logic in the fields of neural networks, clustering, data mining and software testing; and highlights an important paradigm shift caused by Fuzzy Logic in the area of uncertainty management. Conceived by the editors as an academic celebration of the fifty years’ anniversary of the 1965 paper, this work is a must-have for students and researchers willing to get an inspiring picture of the potentialities, limitations, achievements and accomplishments of Fuzzy Logic-based systems.

This book shows that the term “interpretability” goes far beyond the concept of readability of a fuzzy set and fuzzy rules. It focuses on novel and precise operators of aggregation, inference, and defuzzification leading to flexible Mamdani-type and logical-type systems that can achieve the required accuracy using a less complex rule base. The individual chapters describe various aspects of interpretability, including appropriate selection of the structure of a fuzzy system, focusing on improving the interpretability of fuzzy systems designed using both gradient-learning and evolutionary algorithms. It also demonstrates how to eliminate various system components, such as inputs, rules and fuzzy sets, whose reduction does not adversely affect system accuracy. It illustrates the performance of the developed algorithms and methods with commonly used benchmarks. The book provides valuable tools for possible applications in many fields including expert systems, automatic control and robotics.

This book offers a multifaceted perspective on fuzzy set theory, discussing its developments over the last 50 years. It reports on all types of fuzzy sets, from ordinary to hesitant fuzzy sets, with each one explained by its own developers, authoritative scientists well known for their previous works. Highlighting recent theorems and proofs, the book also explores how fuzzy set theory has come to be extensively used in almost all branches of science, including the health sciences, decision science, earth science and the social sciences alike. It presents a wealth of real-world sample applications, from routing problem to robotics, and from agriculture to engineering. By offering a comprehensive, timely and detailed portrait of the field, the book represents an excellent reference guide for researchers, lecturers and postgraduate students pursuing research on new fuzzy set extensions.

Information granules and their processing permeate a way in which we perceive the world, carryout processing at the conceptual (abstract) level, and communicate our findings to the surrounding environment. The importance of information granulation becomes even more apparent when we are faced with a rapidly growing flood of data, become challenged to make decisions in complex data settings and are required to appreciate the context from which the data is derived. Human centricity of systems that claim to be “intelligent” and the granular computing come hand in hand. It is not surprising at all to witness that the paradigm of Granular Computing has started to gain visibility and continues along this path by gathering interest from the circles of academics and practitioners. It is quite remarkable that the spectrum of application and research areas that have adopted information granulation as a successful strategy for dealing with information complexity covers such diverse fields as bioinformatics, image understanding, environmental monitoring, urban sustainability, to mention few most visible in the literature. Undoubtedly, there are two important aspects of Granular Computing that are worth stressing. First, there are several formalisms in which information granules are articulated so be intervals (sets), fuzzy sets, rough sets, soft sets, approximate sets, near sets and alike. They are complementary and each of them offers some interesting views at the complexity of the world and cyberspace.

This is volume 2 of the two-volume Soft Computing and Its Applications. This volume discusses several advanced features of soft computing and hybrid methodologies. This new book essentially contains the advanced features of soft computing and different hybrid methodologies for soft computing. The book contains an abundance of examples and detailed

This two-volume set explains the primary tools of soft computing as well as provides an abundance of working examples and detailed design studies. The books start with coverage of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic and their various approaches to fuzzy reasoning and go on to discuss several advanced features of soft computing and hybrid methodologies. Toge