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From: emkluwer@world.std.com (Eric A Maki)
Subject: New Book Announcement
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Now Available at a Special Discount...
  
COOPERATIVE HETEROGENEOUS SYSTEMS
 
by David G. Schwartz, Bar-Ilan University, Israel 
  
COOPERATIVE HETEROGENEOUS SYSTEMS provides an in-depth 
introduction to the issues and techniques surrounding the integration 
and control of diverse and independent software components. 
Organizations increasingly rely upon diverse computer systems to 
perform a variety of knowledge-based tasks. This presents technical 
issues of interoperability and integration, as well as philosophical 
issues of how cooperation and interaction between computational 
entities is to be realized. Cooperating systems are systems that work 
together towards a common end. The concepts of cooperation must be 
realized in technically sound system architectures, having a uniform 
meta-layer between knowledge sources and the rest of the system. The 
layer consists of a family of interpreters, one for each knowledge 
source, and meta-knowledge. A system architecture to integrate and 
control diverse knowledge sources is presented. The architecture is 
based on the meta-level properties of the logic programming language 
Prolog. An implementation of the architecture is described, a 
Framework for Logic Programming Systems with Distributed Execution 
(FLiPSiDE).  

Knowledge-based systems play an important role in any up-to-date 
arsenal of decision support tools. The tremendous growth of computer 
communications infrastructure has made distributed computing a viable 
option, and often a necessity in geographically distributed 
organizations. It has become clear that to take knowledge-based 
systems to their next useful level, it is necessary to get independent 
knowledge-based systems to work together, much as we put together 
ad hoc work groups in our organizations to tackle complex 
problems.  
 
The book is for scientists and software engineers who have experience 
in knowledge-based systems and/or logic programming and seek a 
hands-on introduction to cooperating systems. Researchers 
investigating autonomous agents, distributed computation, and 
cooperating systems will find fresh ideas and new perspectives on 
well-established approaches to control, organization, and cooperation. 
  
Contents:
List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. Part I: 
Foundations. 1. Introduction. 2. Blackboard Systems. 3. 
Cooperation in Organizations. 4. Meta4: Knowledge, 
Architecture, Programs and Control. Part II: Creations. 5. 
FLiPSiDE: a Framework for Logic Programming Systems with Distributed 
Execution.  6. A Meta-Layer for Knowledge Sources. 7. 
Knowledge Source Integration. 8. Control of Knowledge Sources. 
9. BlackLog: FliPSiDE as a Process-Oriented Prolog.  Part 
III: Evaluations. 10. A CDPS Analysis of FLiPSiDE. 11. 
Related Work. 12. Conclusions. References. Index.  
 
1995      224 pp.      Hardbound      ISBN: 0-7923-9535-2 
The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science 299

Special Internet Discount Offer --  For a limited time, this book will 
be available at a 25% discount.   Orders must be placed using this order 
form, which may be e-mailed, faxed, or snail-mailed back to Kluwer.
Orders must be prepaid to receive the discount.  Not valid with any other 
discount or offer.

=============================================================================
                            ORDER FORM    
   
Author: David G. Schwartz 
Title: Cooperating Heterogeneous Systems 
( ) Hardbound / ISBN: 0-7923-9535-2 
	Special Internet Discount Price $69.00
	This special price is valid until May 15, 1995, and may not be 
	combined with any other discount or offer.  
	After May 15, the full list price of $92.00 will apply.

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