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These transactions publish research in computer-based methods of computational collective intelligence (CCI) and their applications in a wide range of fields such as the semantic Web, social networks, and multi-agent systems. TCCI strives to cover new methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of CCI understood as the form of intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals (artificial and/or natural). The application of multiple computational intelligence technologies, such as fuzzy systems, evolutionary computation, neural systems, consensus theory, etc., aims to support human and other collective intelligence and to create new forms of CCI in natural and/or artificial systems. This twentieth issue contains 11 carefully selected and revised contributions.
Fungi are found in virtually every environment, and comprise a significant portion of the normal microflora of healthy individuals. Some species of fungi are aeroallergen sources capable of inducing sensitization and causing exacerbation of asthma and respiratory allergy. Others are transmissible between hosts and may cause no symptoms in healthy individuals. However, immune suppressed individuals may develop invasive disease marked by tissue invasion with a potential for widespread dissemination. Existing therapies for patients consist of antifungal drugs, yet these require prolonged administration with the possibility of adverse side effects, and may be rendered ineffective by the emergenc...
Habitability of the Universe before Earth: Astrobiology: Exploring Life on Earth and Beyond (series) examines the times and places—before life existed on Earth—that might have provided suitable environments for life to occur, addressing the question: Is life on Earth de novo, or derived from previous life? The universe changed considerably during the vast epoch between the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago and the first evidence of life on Earth 4.3 billion years ago, providing significant time and space to contemplate where, when and under what circumstances life might have arisen. No other book covers this cosmic time period from the point of view of its potential for life. The series co...
The evolution of a discipline at the intersection of physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Quantum chemistry—a discipline that is not quite physics, not quite chemistry, and not quite applied mathematics—emerged as a field of study in the 1920s. It was referred to by such terms as mathematical chemistry, subatomic theoretical chemistry, molecular quantum mechanics, and chemical physics until the community agreed on the designation of quantum chemistry. In Neither Physics Nor Chemistry, Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simões examine the evolution of quantum chemistry into an autonomous discipline, tracing its development from the publication of early papers in the 1920s to the dramatic changes br...
In 1969, the Swedish parliament endorsed a policy of direct assistance to the liberation movements in Southern Africa. Sweden thus became the first Western country to enter into a relationship with organizations that elsewhere in the West were shunned as "Communist" or "terrorist." This book-the first in a two-volume study on Sweden & the regional struggles for majority rule & national independence-traces the background to the relationship. Presenting the actors & factors behind the support to MPLA of Angola, FRELIMO of Mozambique, SWAPO of Namibia, ZANU & ZAPU of Zimbabwe, & ANC of South Africa, it addresses the question why Sweden established close relations with the very movements that eventually would assume state power in their respective countries. The second volume (later this year) will discuss how the support was expressed, covering the period from 1970 until the democratic elections in South Africa in 1994.
The ceque system of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire, was perhaps the most complex indigenous ritual system in the pre-Columbian Americas. From a center known as the Coricancha (Golden Enclosure) or the Temple of the Sun, a system of 328 huacas (shrines) arranged along 42 ceques (lines) radiated out toward the mountains surrounding the city. This elaborate network, maintained by ayllus (kin groups) that made offerings to the shrines in their area, organized the city both temporally and spiritually. From 1990 to 1995, Brian Bauer directed a major project to document the ceque system of Cusco. In this book, he synthesizes extensive archaeological survey work with archival research into the Inca social groups of the Cusco region, their land holdings, and the positions of the shrines to offer a comprehensive, empirical description of the ceque system. Moving well beyond previous interpretations, Bauer constructs a convincing model of the system's physical form and its relation to the social, political, and territorial organization of Cusco.