Research has shown that harassed decision makers, in decision support technologies for real-time and uncertain decision problems, often ignore crucial information, use inefficient strategies, and generate fewer alternatives. Examples of such problems are medical emergencies, traffic flow and military applications. Researchers are limited by a narrow understanding of the most effectual methods to support decision-making in real-time and stressful situations. Intelligent software agents offer one approach to operationalizing a decision making support system in these circumstances by providing an environment that can adapt to speed and change. Agent technology has been used to aid and automate complex problem-solving such as brokering in electronic commerce and financial services. An agent is a software package that carries out tasks for others autonomously, whether the others are human users, business processes, workflows or applications.

Intelligent Decision Support Systems have the potential to transform human decision making by combining research in artificial intelligence, information technology, and systems engineering. The field of intelligent decision making is expanding rapidly due, in part, to advances in artificial intelligence and network-centric environments that can deliver the technology. Communication and coordination between dispersed systems can deliver just-in-time information, real-time processing, collaborative environments, and globally up-to-date information to a human decision maker. At the same time, artificial intelligence techniques have demonstrated that they have matured sufficiently to provide computational assistance to humans in practical applications. This book includes contributions from leading researchers in the field beginning with the foundations of human decision making and the complexity of the human cognitive system. Researchers contrast human and artificial intelligence, survey computational intelligence, present pragmatic systems, and discuss future trends. This book will be an invaluable resource to anyone interested in the current state of knowledge and key research gaps in the rapidly developing field of intelligent decision support.

This book will be bought by researchers and graduates students in Artificial Intelligence and management as well as practising managers and consultants interested in the application of IT and information systems in real business environment.

Multi-agent Systems (MAS) are one of the most exciting research areas in Artificial Intelligence meanwhile Environmental Studies is a research area of strategic interest. Both areas can provide society with solutions for many real applications, in order to use and protect the environment. Human activities imply intervention into nature, but properly managed, these interventions can not be only ecologically sound but also favourable to the sustainable development of civilisation. The encounter between these fields is a new challenge for many researchers of both communities. This book presents a comprehensive reference of state-of-the-art efforts. Specifically, it presents current and future ways in which adaptive information technologies, techniques, protocols and architectures, such as software agent technologies and multi-agent systems, can be used to support the development of real-world agent-based systems in the area of e-Environment.

Knowledge processing and decision making in agent-based systems constitute the key components of intelligent machines. The contributions included in the book are: Innovations in Knowledge Processing and Decision Making in Agent-Based Systems Towards Real-World HTN Planning Agents Mobile Agent-Based System for Distributed Software Maintenance Software Agents in New Generation Networks: Towards the Automation of Telecom Processes Multi-agent Systems and Paraconsistent Knowledge An Agent-based Negotiation Platform for Collaborative Decision-Making in Construction Supply Chain An Event-Driven Algorithm for Agents at the Web A Generic Mobile Agent Framework Toward Ambient Intelligence Developing Actionable Trading Strategies Agent Uncertainty Model and Quantum Mechanics Representation Agent Transportation Layer Adaptation System Software Agents to Enable Service Composition through Negotiation Advanced Technology Towards Developing Decentralized Autonomous Flexible Manufacturing Systems

This book consists of various contributions in conjunction with the keywords OC reasoningOCO and OC intelligent systemsOCO, which widely covers theoretical to practical aspects of intelligent systems. Therefore, it is suitable for researchers or graduate students who want to study intelligent systems generally."

"This book provides a comprehensive overview of theory and practice in simulation systems focusing on major breakthroughs within the technological arena, with particular concentration on the accelerating principles, concepts and applications"--Provided by publisher.

The ontology translation problem (aka ontology interoperability problem) appears when we decide to reuse an ontology (or part of an ontology) with a tool or language that is different from those ones in which the ontology is available. If we force each ontology-based system developer, individually, to commit to the task of translating and incorporating to their systems the ontologies that they need, they will require a lot of effort and time to achieve their objective. This book presents two contributions to the current state of the art on ontology translation among languages and/or tools. The first contribution is a proposal for a new model for building and maintaining ontology translation systems. The second contribution characterises existing ontology translation approaches from the perspectives of semantic and pragmatic preservation, that is, consequence and intended meaning preservation respectively.

The focus of the book is on completed implementations of agent-based software systems. Here, agent technology is considered broadly, starting from development of agent platforms, all the way through systems actually implemented. The covered topics also include lessons learned during implementation of agent platforms and the reflection on the process of development and application of agent-based systems. The book includes 10 chapters where interested reader can find discussion of important issues encountered during development of well-known agent platforms such as JADE and Jadex as well as some interesting experiences in developing a new platform that combines software agent and Web Services. Furthermore, the book shows readers several valuable examples of applications based on multi-agent systems including simulations, agents in autonomous negotiations and agents in public administration modelling. We believe that the book will prove useful to the researchers, professors and the practitioners in all disciplines including science and technology.