Flexible Query Answering Systems

This is an edited collection of contributed chapters. It focuses on developing computer systems capable of transforming a query into an answer with useful information. The emphasis is on problems associated with high-level intelligent answering systems. The coverage is multidisciplinary with chapters by authors from information science, logic, fuzzy systems, databases, artificial intelligence and knowledge representation. Each contribution represents a theory involving flexibility in query-answering, and each addresses specific answering problems. Coverage includes topics such as fuzzy sets in flexible querying, non-standard database interactions and metareasoning and agents. Contributions for this volume were written by leading researchers from their respective subject areas, including Patrick Bosc, Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier, Amihai Motro, Henri Prade and Ron Yager, among others.