Intelligent systems are required to enhance the capacities being made available to us by the internet and other computer based technologies. The theory necessary to help providing solutions to difficult problems in the construction of intelligent systems are discussed. In particular, attention is paid to situations in which the available information and data may be imprecise, uncertain, incomplete or of a linguistic nature. Various methodologies to manage such information are discussed. Among these are the probabilistic, possibilistic, fuzzy, logical, evidential and network-based frameworks.
One purpose of the book is not to consider these methodologies separately, but rather to consider how they can be used cooperatively to better represent the multiplicity of modes of information. Topics in the book include representation of imperfect knowledge, fundamental issues in uncertainty, reasoning, information retrieval, learning and mining, as well as various applications.