Rudolf Albrecht - Böcker

When the first United Nations/European Space Agency Workshop for Basic Space Science was planned to be held in Bangalore, India (1991) on the invitation of ISRO, few of those involved could expect that a unique forum was going to be created for scientific dialogue between scientists from developing and industrialized nations. As the format of the first workshop was on purpose left free with time for presentations, working sessions, and plenary discussions, the workshop was left to find its own dynamics. After a decade of UN/ESA Workshops, this book brings together the historical activities, the plans which have been developed over the past decade in the different nations, and the results which have materialized during this time in different developing nations. It aims to achieve for development agencies to be assisted in ways to find more effective tools for the application of development aid. The last section of the book contains a guide for teachers to introduce astrophysics into university physics courses. This will be of use to teachers in many nations. Everything described in this book is the result of a truly collective effort from all involved in all UN/ESA workshops.The mutual support from the participants has helped significantly to implement some of the accomplishments described in the book. Rather than organizing this book in a subject driven way, it is essentially organized according to the common economic regions of the world, as defined by the United Nations (Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Asia). This allows better recognition of the importance of a regional (and at times) global approach to basic space science for the developing nation's world wide. It highlights very specific scientific investigations which have been completed successfully in the various developing nations. The book supplements the published ten volumes of workshop proceedings containing scientific papers presented in the workshops from 1991 to 2002. Information on the workshops is also available at http://www seas.columbia.edu/~ah297/un-esa/index.html http://www oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/bss/index.html http://www oosa.unvienna.org/SAP/centres/centres.html

The papers in this volume present theoretical aspects and applications of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms. Also included are papers on fuzzy logic, soft computing, and artificial intelligence.Fundamental issues are addressed, such as the nonlinear approximation capabilities of neural networks and formal methods of data representation with topological properties. New elements in genetic algorithms are presented, for example, crossover methods and gene representation.Papers on applications of neural networks show how successful these methods are in a wide range of fields like meteorological and atmospheric pollution forecasts, furnace control, and system identification. Genetic algorithms are used to solve optimization problems related to shipping and computer vision. Fuzzy-logic-based techniques are applied to sociodynamic models and hybrid neuro-fuzzy models.

There is hardly a science that is without the notion of "system". We have systems in mathematics, formal systems in logic, systems in physics, electrical and mechanical engineering, architectural-, operating-, infonnation-, programming systems in computer science, management-and PJoduction systems in industrial applications, economical-, ecological-, biological systems, and many more. In many of these disciplines formal tools for system specification, construction, verification, have been developed as well as mathematical concepts for system modeling and system simulation. Thus it is quite natural to expect that systems theory as an interdisciplinary and well established science offering general concepts and methods for a wide variety of applications is a subject in its own right in academic education. However, as can be seen from the literature and from the curricula of university studies -at least in Central Europe-, it is subordinated and either seen as part of mathematics with the risk that mathematicians, who may not be familiar with applications, define it in their own way, or it is treated separately within each application field focusing on only those aspects which are thought to be needed in the particular application. This often results in uneconomical re-inventing and re-naming of concepts and methods within one field, while the same concepts and methods are already well introduced and practiced in other fields. The fundamentals on general systems theory were developed several decades ago. We note the pioneering work of M. A. Arbib, R. E. Kalman, G. 1. Klir, M. D.

This book presents a collection of revised refereed papers selected from the contributions to the Fifth International Workshop on Computer Aided Systems Theory, EUROCAST '95, held in Innsbruck, Austria in May 1995.The 42 full papers contained have been contributed by CAST theoreticians, tool-makers, designers, and appliers and reflect the full spectrum of activities in the area. The papers are organized in sections on systems theory, design environments, complex systems design, and specific applications.