Paul Krause - Böcker

This text identifies the central role of managing uncertainty in AI and expert systems and provides a comprehensive introduction to different aspects of uncertainty and the rationales, descriptions (through worked examples), advantages and limitations of the major approaches that have been taken. The book introduces and describes the main ways in which uncertainty can occur and the importance of managing uncertainty for the production of intelligent behaviour in AI and its associated technologies of knowledge-based systems. It also describes the rationale, advantages and limitations of the major representational approaches (both quantitative and symbolic) that have been employed in AI systems and provides a worked illustration of each method. Finally, the book summarizes the significant themes that have emerged from applications and the research literature and identifies current and future directions. Concentrating wholly on this specific area of Artificial Intelligence, the work is aimed primarily at researchers and practitioners involved in the design and implementation of expert systems, other knowledge-based systems and cognitive science.It should also be of value to students of computer science, cognitive science, psychology and engineering with an interest in AI or decision support systems. While a technical book, technical details are presented in appendices, allowing the text to be read continuously by nontechnical readers.

Named one of the fifty best books of 1992 by Publishers Weekly More than a century has passed since the infamous lockout at the Homestead Works of the Carnegie Steel Company. The dramatic and violent events of July 6, 1892, are among the mst familiar in the history of American labor. And yet, few historians have adequately addressed the issues and the culture that shaped that day. For many Americans, Homestead remains simply the story of a bloody clash between management and labor. In The Battle for Homestead, Paul Krause calls upon the methods and insights of labor history, intellectual history, anthropology, and the history of technology to situate the events of the lockout and their significance in the broad context of America’s Guilded Age. Utilizing extensive archival material, much of it heretofore unknown, he reconstructs the social, intellectual, and political climate of the burgeoning post-Civil War steel industry. The Battle for Homestead brings to life many of the individuals -both in and outside Homestead- who played a role in the events leading to July 1892. From the inventor of the modern Bessemer steel mill to the most obscure immigrant workers, from Christopher L. Magee, the “boss” of Pittsburgh machine politics, to Thomas A. Armstrong, the tireless editor of the National Labor Tribune, from the “Laird of Skibo” himself (Andrew Carnegie) to the labor leader and mayor of Homestead, “Old Beeswax” (Thomas W. Taylor), Krause shows how all these lives became intertwined, often in surprising and unpredictable ways, as the drama of the lockout unfolded. As the nineteenth century was drawing to a close, the Homestead Lockout dramatized the all-important question: Can the land of industry and technological innovation continue to be “the land of the free”? Can material progress, with its inevitable social and economic inequities, be made compatible with the American commitment to democracy for all? Twentieth-century history has demonstrated all too clearly the intesity of this dilemma. In addressing some of the thorniest issues of the last century, The Battle for Homestead demonstrates the enduring legacy and relevance of Homestead over a century later.

The classics used to be the seminal texts of Western civilization and education. From Homer down through the Greek poets and philosophers, including the Roman poets and early Christian writers, the classics were indispensable in shaping the hearts, minds, and souls of Westerners toward the Good, True, and Beautiful. Today, however, the classics are under attack as nothing but a relic of racism, misogyny, and sexism that have no place in the modern world. Far from irrelevant, the classics are deeply pertinent to the struggles of modern society and the human soul. In this collection of essays, Paul Krause offers a guided tour through the classics and highlights the wisdom, truth, and beauty that these great works embody. Recovering the hermeneutic of love, rather than promoting the politicization of literature, is needed in restoring the great works of Western literature to their important place in Western culture. From Homer and Aeschylus to Herodotus and Plato, from Virgil and Catullus to Ovid and Saint Augustine, Finding Arcadia reveals the wisdom that our ancestors gained from the books rightfully called the classics.

This book brings to readers thirteen chapters with contributions to the benefits of using IoT and Cloud Computing to agro-ecosystems from a multi-disciplinary perspective. IoT and Cloud systems have prompted the development of a Cloud digital ecosystem referred to as Cloud-to-thing continuum computing. The key success of IoT computing and the Cloud digital ecosystem is that IoT can be integrated seamlessly with the physical environment and therefore has the potential to leverage innovative services in agro-ecosystems. Areas such as ecological monitoring, agriculture, and biodiversity constitute a large area of potential application of IoT and Cloud technologies. In contrast to traditional agriculture systems that have employed aggressive policies to increase productivity, new agro-ecosystems aim to increase productivity but also achieve efficiency and competitiveness in modern sustainable agriculture and contribute, more broadly, to the green economy and sustainable food-chain industry.Fundamental research as well as concrete applications from various real-life scenarios, such as smart farming, precision agriculture, green agriculture, sustainable livestock and sow farming, climate threat, and societal and environmental impacts, is presented. Research issues and challenges are also discussed towards envisioning efficient and scalable solutions to agro-ecosystems based on IoT and Cloud technologies. Our fundamental belief is that we can collectively trigger a new revolution that will transition agriculture into an equable system that not only feeds the world, but also contributes to mitigating the climate change and biodiversity crises that our historical actions have triggered.

The representation of uncertainty is a central issue in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is being addressed in many different ways. Each approach has its proponents, and each has had its detractors. However, there is now an in­ creasing move towards the belief that an eclectic approach is required to represent and reason under the many facets of uncertainty. We believe that the time is ripe for a wide ranging, yet accessible, survey of the main for­ malisms. In this book, we offer a broad perspective on uncertainty and approach­ es to managing uncertainty. Rather than provide a daunting mass of techni­ cal detail, we have focused on the foundations and intuitions behind the various schools. The aim has been to present in one volume an overview of the major issues and decisions to be made in representing uncertain knowl­ edge. We identify the central role of managing uncertainty to AI and Expert Systems, and provide a comprehensive introduction to the different aspects of uncertainty. We then describe the rationales, advantages and limitations of the major approaches that have been taken, using illustrative examples. The book ends with a review of the lessons learned and current research di­ rections in the field. The intended readership will include researchers and practitioners in­ volved in the design and implementation of Decision Support Systems, Ex­ pert Systems, other Knowledge-Based Systems and in Cognitive Science.