Fuzzy Logic Is Not Fuzzy: World-renowned Computer Scientist Lotfi A. Zadeh

In 1965 Lotfi A. Zadeh published "Fuzzy Sets", his pioneering and controversial paper, that now reaches almost 100,000 citations. All Zadeh’s papers were cited over 185,000 times. Starting from the ideas presented in that paper, Zadeh founded later the Fuzzy Logic theory, that proved to have useful applications, from consumer to industrial intelligent products. We are presenting general aspects of Zadeh’s contributions to the development of Soft Computing(SC) and Artificial Intelligence(AI), and also his important and early influence in the world and in Romania. Several early contributions in fuzzy sets theory were published by Romanian scientists, such as: Grigore C. Moisil (1968), Constantin V. Negoita & Dan A. Ralescu (1974), Dan Butnariu (1978). In this review we refer the papers published in "From Natural Language to Soft Computing: New Paradigms in Artificial Intelligence" (2008, Eds.: L.A. Zadeh, D. Tufis, F.G. Filip, I. Dzitac), and also from the two special issues (SI) of the International Journal of Computers Communications & Control (IJCCC, founded in 2006 by I. Dzitac, F.G. Filip & M.J. Manolescu; L.A. Zadeh joined in 2008 to editorial board). In these two SI, dedicated to the 90th birthday of Lotfi A. Zadeh (2011), and to the 50th anniversary of "Fuzzy Sets" (2015), were published some papers authored by scientists from Algeria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Hungary, Greece, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Pakistan, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Taiwan, UK and USA

Information sharing and its integrative role: An empirical study of the malt barley value chain in Ethiopia

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to describe the volume and quality of information and communication channel use at various stages of the malt barley value chain in Ethiopia and to investigate how metrics of these variables influence the extent of integration of the chain. Design/methodology/approach - The study is based on survey data collected from 320 farmers and 100 traders and interview responses captured from76 respondents. Descriptive statistics and ordered logistic regression were used for data analysis. Findings - The descriptive statistics show a lower volume and poor quality of information is being shared at farmer-trader interface and that value chain integration is weak at all studied interfaces. Results of ordered logistic regression show that information volume and quality positively influence value chain integration, whereas a positive relationship between channel use and value chain integration was found only at farm level interfaces. Evidences found suggested that inconsistent information systems, lack of information sharing plans, low level of members’ awareness about the value of information, and lack of trust to share information were factors that inhibited information sharing in the malt barley value chain. Originality/Value - The study offers pioneering evidence of the relative role of information volume and quality and channel use as factors that influence the extent of integration of the value chain

Community Design of a Light-Rail Transit Oriented Development Using Casewise Visual Evaluation (CAVE)

The Transit Authority of River City (TARC) is in the preliminary engineering phases of developing a light-rail transit system running from downtown Louisville, Kentucky to the city’s southern suburbs, a distance of approximately 15 miles. In collaboration with the research team, TARC wished to test an innovative methodology for improving community participation in the design of a light rail transit-oriented development for the Smoketown/Shelby Park area. The Smoketown/Shelby Park neighborhood is a low-income area located to the south of the University of Louisville Medical Center. A suitable site for the station has been identified by TARC and its design partners, but no development has taken place yet. TARC has been conducting extensive outreach in this neighborhood over a span of several years and as a result the community is aware of the nature of the transit project, its purposes and benefits and has participated in the shaping of the route. Given this context the primary purpose of the research was to assist community participants identify preferred design criteria for their local transit oriented area, defined as this particular transit station and a two-block radius around it. This paper sets forth the principles of a novel visual assessment methodology termed Casewise Visual Evaluation (CAVE), describes its application to this problem and summarizes the results

Graduate Education in Geographically - Integrated History: A Personal Account

This article discusses graduate education in geographically-integrated history as developed by the History Department of Idaho State University for its M.A. in Historical Resources Management. This Master's program is based the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and related information technologies. In addition to discussing the rationale and design of the program, the article illustrates what is involved in graduate education of this type through a description of the author's introductory graduate course "Geographic Information Systems in Historical Studies.

The Language of the cybersouls

Debates about technology are mostly staged in a grand setting: presented as the sinister toolkit of authoritarian organisations, or as the progressive fabric of the future. Yet everyone is involved in technology as part of every microscopic action in every humdrum life. How do theories about technology cope with this political spectrum? One option is to treat technology as we treat language and specifically use Wittgenstein’s language games as an analogy. So that technology, like language, becomes inseparable from us and an intimate part of us, and this merging of technology and the human transforms us all into cyborgs