Transactions of the Prague Conferences on Information Theory – serie

The 11th Prague Conference on Information Theory, Statistical Decision Functions and Random Processes was held at Prague, Czechoslovakia, in August 26-31, 1990, continuing the tradition of (roughly) four-yearly conferences which began in 1957. These proceedings, which appear here as two volumes, contain 14 invited papers and more than 60 of the contributed papers presented at the conference. The authors include many leading specialists in areas such as statistics, probability theory, artificial intelligence, information theory and related subjects which involve the modelling of uncertainty of observed data. These volumes should be of interest to those working in the areas of statistics, artificial intelligence, game theory, computer science, informaiton theory and expert systems.

There are not many biological disciplines, which have experienced such fast development as have human and veterinary mycology in recent years. In the initial stages organisms, whoEe influence on man has not b~en determined, have been investigated on a purely academic basis and with particular reference to their taxonomic position. As recently as the thirties, the pathogenic agents of dermatophytoses were known collectively under such names as "Micro­ sporum" and "Trichophyton". Such designation occurred in most medical and veterinary literature irrespective of the fact that fungi are organisms of a highly complicated and most variable morphological structure, an intricate development and a distribution over a diversity of environments, infecting hosts of the animal kingdom. The greater the credit, therefore, that can be attributed to the pioneers of mycological research, the founders of modern mycology such as R. Sabouraud, M. Langeron, R. Vanbreuseghem, Ch. W. Emmons, who elucidated the importance of mycology in human and veterinary medicine. To one of them, Professor R. V anbreuseghem, this book has been dedicated. In spite of these tremendous efforts, many aspects of the biology and ecology of fungi have still remained obscure in view of the complicated develop­ ment throughout the various phases, the variability of species and the large numbers of purely saprophytic species occurring in nature. At the present, mycoparasitic infection in man and animals is of utmost importance.

The Ninth Prague Conference on Information Theory, Statistical Decision Functions, and Random Processes was organized by the Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences from June 28 to July 2, 1982. Similarly as the preceding Prague Conferences, during their twenty six years histo­ ry, it provided a space for the presentation and discussion of recent scientific results, as well as for personal contacts of many scien­ tists both from abroad and from Czechoslovakia. Nearly 150 special­ ists from 17 countries participated in the Conference and they read more than 100 papers (including 18 invited ones), 88 of which have been published in the present two volumes of the Transactions of the Conference. Namely invited papers, having been read by outstanding specialists, have brought invaluable offer for participants to create themselves an orientation in the modern trends of the above mention­ ed scientific branches. Allow us to use this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all who have contributed to the success of the Conference, espe­ cially to those who prepared and presented papers. Our gratitude is also due to Academician Jaroslav Kozesnik, the scientific editor of the Transactions, and to the editorial board for reviewing all papers and fulfilling many printing manage­ ment duties. We would like to appreciate a great work of all colleagues from the Institute of Information Theory and Automation, who participated in the preparation and in the organization of the Conference.

During the past Prague Conferences, the Organizing Committee had to face with a great regret permanent and even increasing delays in publishing the Transactions. The delays seemed to be out of any our reach as long as the traditional manuscript delivery rules and traditional printing technique were supposed to be employed. This is why we decided, starting with this Conference, for a new method of papers collection and printing. We want to thank all participants of our conference, in particular those who contributed to the volu- mes A and B, for understanding this our step. Our thanks are due to Academician Jaroslav Koieinik, the scien- tific editor of these volumes, and to the editorial board for re- viewing all papers and fulfiling many printing management duties. We also thank Academia Publishing House for printing the whole volume in time. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE of the EIGHTH PRAGUE CONFERENCE on INFORMATION THEORY, STATISTICAL DECISION FUNCTIONS, RANDOM PROCESSES PROBLEMES LIES A LA DETERMINATION DES SPECTRES DE PUISSANCE EN THEORIE DES FONCTIONS ALEATOIRES A. Blanc-Lapierre Gif-sur-Yvette (France) ~ La dll!termination exp~rimentale du spectre de pui,ssance, au sens physique, d'une grandeur fluctuante pose des probl~mes' d'analyse spectrale et d'ergodisme.Ces deux types de probl~mes sont examin~s conjointement pour une grandeur repr~sent~e par une fonction al~atoire X(t,~), pas n~cessairement stationnaire, mais pr~sentant des caract~res de permanence suffisants pour que la puissance moyenne puisse @tre difinie.

Ladies a n d g e n t 1 e m e n , I have the pleasure to welcome you here in Prague in the name of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and to open the Fifth Inter­ national Colloquium on Soil Zoology. We are very glad that Czecho­ slovakia was chosen for this important meeting. It is clear to all of us that the soil plays and will play a de­ cisive part in providing food for the explosive increase of human pop­ ulation. For this reason we watch with great anxiety the negative influence of human activities on the environment accompanied also by the other destructive intervention into the soil ecosystem, its devas­ tation by inefficient management, application of herbicides and pesti­ cides pollution by the waste products of industry and human settlements. The basis for solving these accumulating and now sometimes latent prob­ lems is among others a good knowledge of the role of soil organisms in the cycles of materials and in the energy flow. Soil zoology as a part of soil biology is still at the beginning of this trend The lack of in­ formation about life in soil is obvious when compared with the results of a related biological science dealing with the water ecosystem.

The Conference was organized by the Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences from July 7 - 11, 1986, in Prague. The round number of the conference was only one of the jubilees connected with its organization. Namely, thirty years of the Prague Conferences (the first one was organized in autumn 1956 in Liblice near Prague), and two anniversaries of Professor Anton1n Spacek, the inspirator and first organizer of the Prague Conferences - 75 years of his birth and 25 years of his untimely death. (More about Professor Spacek can be found in the Transactions of the Sixth Prague Conferen­ ce) • The Tenth Prague Conference kept the traditional style and orien­ tation typical for the previous Prague Conferences. Almost two hund­ red of participants from 23 countries (Algerie, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic, Great Britain, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Ja­ pan, Netherlands, Poland, Roumania, Soviet Union, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, Vietnam and West Berlin) took part in its sessions and discussions. There were 14 invited lectures and . 92 short contri­ butions included in four parallel sections of the Conference program­ me: further, 12 contributions were presented as posters. The invited lectures and submitted contributions covered the three traditional subjects of the Prague Conferences introduced in their title, as well as lots of further applications of the probability theory and mathe­ matical statistics. Most of the presented lectures and contributions are published in the present Conference Transactions.

The Prague Conferences on Information Theory, Statistical Decision Functions, and Random Processes have been organized every three years since 1956. During the eighteen years of their existence the Prague Conferences developed from a platform for presenting results obtained by a small group of researchers into a probabilistic congress, this being documented by the increasing number of participants as well as of presented papers. The importance of the Seventh Prague Conference has been emphasized by the fact that this Conference was held jointly with the eighth European Meeting of Statisticians. This joint meeting was held from August 18 to 23, 1974 at the Technical University of Prague. The Conference was organized by the Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and was sponsored by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, by the Committee for the European Region of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and by the International As­ sociation for Statistics in Physical Sciences. More than 300 specialists from 25 countries participated in the Conference. In 57 sessions 164 papers (including 17 invited papers) were read, 128 of which are published in the present two volumes of the Transactions of the Conference. Volume A includes papers related mainly to probability theory and stochastic processes, whereas the papers of Volume B concern mainly statistics and information theory.