This monograph contains the results of our joint research over the last ten years on the logic of the fixed point operation. The intended au dience consists of graduate students and research scientists interested in mathematical treatments of semantics. We assume the reader has a good mathematical background, although we provide some prelimi nary facts in Chapter 1. Written both for graduate students and research scientists in theoret ical computer science and mathematics, the book provides a detailed investigation of the properties of the fixed point or iteration operation. Iteration plays a fundamental role in the theory of computation: for example, in the theory of automata, in formal language theory, in the study of formal power series, in the semantics of flowchart algorithms and programming languages, and in circular data type definitions. It is shown that in all structures that have been used as semantical models, the equational properties of the fixed point operation are cap tured by the axioms describing iteration theories. These structures include ordered algebras, partial functions, relations, finitary and in finitary regular languages, trees, synchronization trees, 2-categories, and others.

Iteration theory has its roots in the operation of substituting functions into itself. This has led to questions like that of the behaviour of functions by repeating this substitution and when the number of iterations tends to infinity. The terms 'orbit' and 'chaos' appropriately describe this behaviour. Dynamical systems and the theory of functional equations play important roles in this field.

This book contains original reviews by well-known workers in the field of mathematical linguistics and formal language theory, written in honour of Professor Solomon Marcus on the occasion of his 70th birthday.Some of the papers deal with contextual grammars, a class of generative devices introduced by Marcus, motivated by descriptive linguistics. Others are devoted to grammar systems, a very modern branch of formal language theory. Automata theory and the algebraic approach to computer science are other well-represented areas. While the contributions are mathematically oriented, practical issues such as cryptography, grammatical inference and natural language processing are also discussed.

The theory and applications of Iteration Methods is a very fast-developing field of numerical analysis and computer methods. The second edition is completely updated and continues to present the state-of-the-art contemporary theory of iteration methods with practical applications, exercises, case studies, and examples of where and how they can be used. The Theory and Applications of Iteration Methods, Second Edition includes newly developed iteration methods taking advantage of the most recent technology (computers, robots, machines). It extends the applicability of well-established methods by increasing the convergence domain and offers sharper error tolerance. New proofs and ideas for handling convergence are introduced along with a new variety of story problems picked from diverse disciplines. This new edition is for researchers, practitioners, and students in engineering, economics, and computational sciences.

This anthology of the very latest research on truth features the work of recognized luminaries in the field, put together following a rigorous refereeing process. Along with an introduction outlining the central issues in the field, it provides a unique and unrivaled view of contemporary work on the nature of truth, with papers selected from key conferences in 2011 such as Truth Be Told (Amsterdam), Truth at Work (Paris), Paradoxes of Truth and Denotation (Barcelona) and Axiomatic Theories of Truth (Oxford). Studying the nature of the concept of ‘truth’ has always been a core role of philosophy, but recent years have been a boom time in the topic. With a wealth of recent conferences examining the subject from various angles, this collection of essays recognizes the pressing need for a volume that brings scholars up to date on the arguments. Offering academics and graduate students alike a much-needed repository of today’s cutting-edge work in this vital topic of philosophy, the volume is required reading for anyone needing to keep abreast of developments, and is certain to act as a catalyst for further innovation and research.

The purpose of this book is to present an up to date account of fuzzy ideals of a semiring. The book concentrates on theoretical aspects and consists of eleven chapters including three invited chapters. Among the invited chapters, two are devoted to applications of Semirings to automata theory, and one deals with some generalizations of Semirings. This volume may serve as a useful hand book for graduate students and researchers in the areas of Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science.

Principles of Semantic Networks: Explorations in the Representation of Knowledge provides information pertinent to the theory and applications of semantic networks. This book deals with issues in knowledge representation, which discusses theoretical topics independent of particular implementations. Organized into three parts encompassing 19 chapters, this book begins with an overview of semantic network structure for representing knowledge as a pattern of interconnected nodes and arcs. This text then analyzes the concepts of subsumption and taxonomy and synthesizes a framework that integrates many previous approaches and goes beyond them to provide an account of abstract and partially defines concepts. Other chapters consider formal analyses, which treat the methods of reasoning with semantic networks and their computational complexity. This book discusses as well encoding linguistic knowledge. The final chapter deals with a formal approach to knowledge representation that builds on ideas originating outside the artificial intelligence literature in research on foundations for programming languages. This book is a valuable resource for mathematicians.