With the vision that machines can be rendered smarter, we have witnessed for more than a decade tremendous engineering efforts to implement intelligent sys tems. These attempts involve emulating human reasoning, and researchers have tried to model such reasoning from various points of view. But we know precious little about human reasoning processes, learning mechanisms and the like, and in particular about reasoning with limited, imprecise knowledge. In a sense, intelligent systems are machines which use the most general form of human knowledge together with human reasoning capability to reach decisions. Thus the general problem of reasoning with knowledge is the core of design methodology. The attempt to use human knowledge in its most natural sense, that is, through linguistic descriptions, is novel and controversial. The novelty lies in the recognition of a new type of un certainty, namely fuzziness in natural language, and the controversality lies in the mathematical modeling process. As R. Bellman [7] once said, decision making under uncertainty is one of the attributes of human intelligence. When uncertainty is understood as the impossi bility to predict occurrences of events, the context is familiar to statisticians. As such, efforts to use probability theory as an essential tool for building intelligent systems have been pursued (Pearl [203], Neapolitan [182)). The methodology seems alright if the uncertain knowledge in a given problem can be modeled as probability measures.

Fundamentals of Fuzzy Sets covers the basic elements of fuzzy set theory. Its four-part organization provides easy referencing of recent as well as older results in the field. The first part discusses the historical emergence of fuzzy sets, and delves into fuzzy set connectives, and the representation and measurement of membership functions. The second part covers fuzzy relations, including orderings, similarity, and relational equations. The third part, devoted to uncertainty modelling, introduces possibility theory, contrasting and relating it with probabilities, and reviews information measures of specificity and fuzziness. The last part concerns fuzzy sets on the real line - computation with fuzzy intervals, metric topology of fuzzy numbers, and the calculus of fuzzy-valued functions. Each chapter is written by one or more recognized specialists and offers a tutorial introduction to the topics, together with an extensive bibliography.

Contents:Introduction:Basic Concepts of Fuzzy SetsFuzzy RelationsFuzzy Models for Image Processing and Pattern RecognitionMembership Functions:IntroductionHeuristic SelectionsClustering ApproachesTuning of Membership FunctionsConcluding RemarksOptimal Image Thresholding:IntroductionThreshold Selection Based on Statistical Decision TheoryNon-fuzzy Thresholding AlgorithmsFuzzy Thresholding AlgorithmUnified Formulation of Three Thresholding AlgorithmsMultilevel ThresholdingApplicationsConcluding RemarksFuzzy Clustering:IntroductionC-Means AlgorithmFuzzy C-Means AlgorithmComparison between Hard and Fuzzy Clustering AlgorithmsCluster ValidityApplicationsConcluding RemarksLine Pattern Matching:IntroductionSimilarity Measures between Line SegmentsBasic Matching AlgorithmDealing with Noisy PatternsDealing with Rotated PatternsApplicationsConcluding RemarksFuzzy Rule-based Systems:IntroductionLearning from ExamplesDecision Tree ApproachFuzzy Aggregation Network ApproachMinimization of Fuzzy RulesDefuzzification and OptimizationApplicationsConcluding RemarksCombined Classifiers:IntroductionVoting SchemesMaximum Posteriori ProbabilityMultilayer Perceptron ApproachFuzzy Measures and Fuzzy IntegralsApplicationsConcluding Remarks Readership: Engineers and computer scientists. keywords:

Deal with information and uncertainty properly and efficientlyusing tools emerging from generalized information theory Uncertainty and Information: Foundations of Generalized InformationTheory contains comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of resultsthat have emerged from a research program begun by the author inthe early 1990s under the name "generalized information theory"(GIT). This ongoing research program aims to develop a formalmathematical treatment of the interrelated concepts of uncertaintyand information in all their varieties. In GIT, as in classicalinformation theory, uncertainty (predictive, retrodictive,diagnostic, prescriptive, and the like) is viewed as amanifestation of information deficiency, while information isviewed as anything capable of reducing the uncertainty. A broadconceptual framework for GIT is obtained by expanding theformalized language of classical set theory to include moreexpressive formalized languages based on fuzzy sets of varioustypes, and by expanding classical theory of additive measures toinclude more expressive non-additive measures of varioustypes. This landmark book examines each of several theories for dealingwith particular types of uncertainty at the following fourlevels: * Mathematical formalization of the conceived type ofuncertainty * Calculus for manipulating this particular type ofuncertainty * Justifiable ways of measuring the amount of uncertainty in anysituation formalizable in the theory * Methodological aspects of the theory With extensive use of examples and illustrations to clarify complexmaterial and demonstrate practical applications, generoushistorical and bibliographical notes, end-of-chapter exercises totest readers' newfound knowledge, glossaries, and an Instructor'sManual, this is an excellent graduate-level textbook, as well as anoutstanding reference for researchers and practitioners who dealwith the various problems involving uncertainty and information. AnInstructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all theproblems in the book is available from the Wiley editorialdepartment.

Information is precious. It reduces our uncertainty in making decisions. Knowledge about the outcome of an uncertain event gives the possessor an advantage. It changes the course of lives, nations, and history itself. Information is the food of Maxwell's demon. His power comes from know ing which particles are hot and which particles are cold. His existence was paradoxical to classical physics and only the realization that information too was a source of power led to his taming. Information has recently become a commodity, traded and sold like or ange juice or hog bellies. Colleges give degrees in information science and information management. Technology of the computer age has provided access to information in overwhelming quantity. Information has become something worth studying in its own right. The purpose of this volume is to introduce key developments and results in the area of generalized information theory, a theory that deals with uncertainty-based information within mathematical frameworks that are broader than classical set theory and probability theory. The volume is organized as follows.

These three volumes (CCIS 442, 443, 444) constitute the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems, IPMU 2014, held in Montpellier, France, July 15-19, 2014. The 180 revised full papers presented together with five invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on uncertainty and imprecision on the web of data; decision support and uncertainty management in agri-environment; fuzzy implications; clustering; fuzzy measures and integrals; non-classical logics; data analysis; real-world applications; aggregation; probabilistic networks; recommendation systems and social networks; fuzzy systems; fuzzy logic in boolean framework; management of uncertainty in social networks; from different to same, from imitation to analogy; soft computing and sensory analysis; database systems; fuzzy set theory; measurement and sensory information; aggregation; formal methods for vagueness and uncertainty in a many-valued realm; graduality; preferences; uncertainty management in machine learning; philosophy and history of soft computing; soft computing and sensory analysis; similarity analysis; fuzzy logic, formal concept analysis and rough set; intelligent databases and information systems; theory of evidence; aggregation functions; big data - the role of fuzzy methods; imprecise probabilities: from foundations to applications; multinomial logistic regression on Markov chains for crop rotation modelling; intelligent measurement and control for nonlinear systems.

Non-Classical Logics and their Applications to Fuzzy Subsets is the first major work devoted to a careful study of various relations between non-classical logics and fuzzy sets. This volume is indispensable for all those who are interested in a deeper understanding of the mathematical foundations of fuzzy set theory, particularly in intuitionistic logic, Lukasiewicz logic, monoidal logic, fuzzy logic and topos-like categories. The tutorial nature of the longer chapters, the comprehensive bibliography and index make it suitable as a valuable and important reference for graduate students as well as research workers in the field of non-classical logics. The book is arranged in three parts: Part A presents the most recent developments in the theory of Heyting algebras, MV-algebras, quantales and GL-monoids. Part B gives a coherent and current account of topos-like categories for fuzzy set theory based on Heyting algebra valued sets, quantal sets of M-valued sets. Part C addresses general aspects of non-classical logics including epistemological problems as well as recursive properties of fuzzy logic.

This two volume set (CCIS 610 and 611) constitute the proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Information processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems, IPMU 2016, held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in June 2016. The 127 revised full papers presented together with four invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on fuzzy measures and integrals; uncertainty quantification with imprecise probability; textual data processing; belief functions theory and its applications; graphical models; fuzzy implications functions; applications in medicine and bioinformatics; real-world applications; soft computing for image processing; clustering; fuzzy logic, formal concept analysis and rough sets; graded and many-valued modal logics; imperfect databases; multiple criteria decision methods; argumentation and belief revision; databases and information systems; conceptual aspects of data aggregation and complex data fusion; fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic; decision support; comparison measures; machine learning; social data processing; temporal data processing; aggregation.

The volume "Modern Information Processing: From Theory to Applications," edited by Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier, Giulianella Coletti and Ronald Yager, is a collection of carefully selected papers drawn from the program of IPMU'04, which was held in Perugia, Italy. The book represents the cultural policy of IPMU conference which is not focused on narrow range of methodologies, but on the contrary welcomes all the theories for the management of uncertainty and aggregation of information in intelligent systems, providing a medium for the exchange of ideas between theoreticians and practitioners in these and related areas.The book is composed by 7 sections: UNCERTAINTYPREFERENCESCLASSIFICATION AND DATA MININGAGGREGATION AND MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKINGKNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION•The book contributes to enhancement of our ability to deal effectively with uncertainty in all of its manifestations. •The book can help to build brigs among theories and methods methods for the management of uncertainty. •The book addresses issues which have a position of centrality in our information-centric world. •The book presents interesting results devoted to representing knowledge: the goal is to capture the subtlety of human knowledge (richness) and to allow computer manipulation (formalization). •The book contributes to the goal: an efficient use of the information for a good decision strategy.APPLIED DOMAINS· The book contributes to enhancement of our ability to deal effectively with uncertainty in all of its manifestations.· The book can help to build brigs among theories and methods methods for the management of uncertainty.· The book addresses issues which have a position of centrality in our information-centric world.· The book presents interesting results devoted to representing knowledge: the goal is to capture the subtlety of human knowledge (richness) and to allow computer manipulation (formalization).· The book contributes to the goal: an efficient use of the information for a good decision strategy.

Answer set programming (ASP) is a declarative language tailored towards solving combinatorial optimization problems. It has been successfully applied to e.g. planning problems, configuration and verification of software, diagnosis and database repairs. However, ASP is not directly suitable for modeling problems with continuous domains. Such problems occur naturally in diverse fields such as the design of gas and electricity networks, computer vision and investment portfolios. To overcome this problem we study FASP, a combination of ASP with fuzzy logic -- a class of manyvalued logics that can handle continuity. We specifically focus on the following issues: 1. An important question when modeling continuous optimization problems is how we should handle overconstrained problems, i.e. problems that have no solutions. In many cases we can opt to accept an imperfect solution, i.e. a solution that does not satisfy all the stated rules (constraints). However, this leads to the question: what imperfect solutions should we choose? We investigate this question and improve upon the state-of-the-art by proposing an approach based on aggregation functions. 2. Users of a programming language often want a rich language that is easy to model in. However, implementers and theoreticians prefer a small language that is easy to implement and reason about. We create a bridge between these two desires by proposing a small core language for FASP and by showing that this language is capable of expressing many of its common extensions such as constraints, monotonically decreasing functions, aggregators, S-implicators and classical negation. 3. A well-known technique for solving ASP consists of translating a program P to a propositional theory whose models exactly correspond to the answer sets of P. We show how this technique can be generalized to FASP, paving the way to implement efficient fuzzy answer set solvers that can take advantage of existing fuzzy reasoners.