In today’s society the issue of security has become a crucial one. This volume brings together contributions on the use of knowledge-based technology in security applications by the world’s leading researchers in the field.

The idea of soft computing emerged in the early 1990s from the fuzzy systems c- munity, and refers to an understanding that the uncertainty, imprecision and ig- rance present in a problem should be explicitly represented and possibly even - ploited rather than either eliminated or ignored in computations. For instance, Zadeh de?ned ‘Soft Computing’ as follows: Soft computing differs from conventional (hard) computing in that, unlike hard computing, it is tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth. In effect, the role model for soft computing is the human mind. Recently soft computing has, to some extent, become synonymous with a hybrid approach combining AI techniques including fuzzy systems, neural networks, and biologically inspired methods such as genetic algorithms. Here, however, we adopt a more straightforward de?nition consistent with the original concept. Hence, soft methods are understood as those uncertainty formalisms not part of mainstream s- tistics and probability theory which have typically been developed within the AI and decisionanalysiscommunity.Thesearemathematicallysounduncertaintymodelling methodologies which are complementary to conventional statistics and probability theory.

This volume, edited as a Festschrift in honor of Prof. Milan Zeleny, reflects and emulates his unmistakable legacy: the essential multidimensionality of human and social affairs. There are many levels of this multidimensionality presented in this volume: 1. Multidisciplinarity of contributed papers 2. Multinationality of their authors, extending even to the editors and the publisher and 3. Multicultural and multilevel exposition, ranging from empirical studies to philosophical foundations. Generally, these papers can be divided into three parts: Multiple Criteria Decision Making; Social and Human System Management; and Information, Knowledge and Wisdom Management. It is the recognition of multidimensionality in decision making, economics, optimization, systems, cybernetics and the pursuit of knowledge that bear the stamp of specific Zeleny’s contributions. His life-long dedication to multidimensionality has produced an ultimate multidimensional being, living in academic ‘multiverse’, functioning in a boundaryless world of all continents, cultures and countries. This book is as diverse and as multidimensional as the man and his work.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the International Workshop on Coordination, Organization, Institutions and Norms in Agent Systems, COIN 2009.

This book covers methods based on a combination of granular computing, rough sets, and knowledge discovery in data mining (KDD). The discussion of KDD foundations based on the rough set approach and granular computing feature illustrative applications.

This book is the ninth volume of the Transactions on Rough Sets series. The 26 papers in it introduce new advances in the foundations and applications of artificial intelligence, engineering, image processing, logic, mathematics, medicine, music, and science.

Volume XI of the Transactions on Rough Sets (TRS) provides evidence of f- ther growth in the rough set landscape, both in terms of its foundations and applications. This volume provides further evidence of the number of research streams that were either directly or indirectly initiated by the seminal work on rough 1 sets by Zdzis law Pawlak (1926-2006) . Evidence of the growth of various rough 2 set-based research streams can be found in the rough set database . Thisvolumecontainsarticlesintroducingadvancesinthefoundationsand- plicationsofroughsets.These advancesinclude: calculusofattribute-value pairs useful in mining numerical data, de?nability and coalescence of approximations, variable consistency generalization approach to bagging controlled by measures of consistency, classical and dominance-based rough sets in the search for genes, judgementaboutsatis?abilityunderincompleteinformation,irreducibledescr- tive sets of attributes for information systems useful in the design of concurrent data models, computational theory of perceptions (CTP) and its characteristics and the relation with fuzzy-granulation, methods and algorithms of the Net- TRS system, a recursive version of the apriori algorithm designed for parallel processing, and decision table reduction method based on fuzzy rough sets. Theeditorsandauthorsofthisvolumeextendtheirgratitudetothereviewers of articles in this volume, Alfred Hofmann, Ursula Barth, Christine Reiss and the LNCS sta? at Springer for their support in making this volume of the TRS possible.

The volume delivers a wealth of effective methods to deal with various types of uncertainty inherently existing in human-centric decision problems. It elaborates on comprehensive decision frameworks to handle different decision scenarios, which help use effectively the explicit and tacit knowledge and intuition, model perceptions and preferences in a more human-oriented style. The book presents original approaches and delivers new results on fundamentals and applications related to human-centered decision making approaches to business, economics and social systems. Individual chapters cover multi-criteria (multiattribute) decision making, decision making with prospect theory, decision making with incomplete probabilistic information, granular models of decision making and decision making realized with the use of non-additive measures. New emerging decision theories being presented as along with a wide spectrum of ongoing research make the book valuable to all interested in the field of advanced decision-making. The volume, self-contained in its nature, offers a systematic exposure to the concepts, design methodologies, and detailed algorithms. A prudent balance between the theoretical studies and applications makes the material suitable for researchers and graduate students in information, computer sciences, psychology, cognitive science, economics, system engineering, operation research and management science, risk management, public and social policy.

Explaining the complexity of social life remains the central challenge of the social sciences. This book offers a variety of theoretical-empirical explorations and applications inspired by an important neo-institutional approach to tackling this complexity - the rule systems theory. Its point of departure is the assumption that institutions and cultural formations possess causal powers and relative autonomy, constraining and enabling people's social actions and interactions. Structural and cultural properties of society are carried by, transmitted, and reformed by human agents whose interactions generate, reproduce, elaborate and transform structures. The contributors are highly accomplished economists, sociologists and political scientists who come from the US and several European countries. The book is meant as a Festschrift for Tom Burns, a central figure in the development of the rule systems theory.