Investigations of archaeological intrasite spatial patterns have generally taken one of two directions: studies that introduced and explored methods for the analysis of archaeological spatial patterns or those that described and analyzed the for­ mation of spatial patterns in actuaiistic-ethnographic, experimental, or natu­ ral-contexts. The archaeological studies were largely quantitative in nature, concerned with the recognition and definition of patterns; the actualistic efforts were often oriented more toward interpretation, dealing with how patterns formed and what they meant. Our research group on archaeological spatial analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been working for several years on both quantitative and interpretive problems. Both lines of investigation are closely related and are important complements. In order to demonstrate the convergence of archaeological and actualistic studies for the understanding of intrasite spatial patterns, we organized a sympo­ sium at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archaeology in Toronto, Canada, in May 1987. The symposium, titled "The Interpretation of Stone Age Archaeological Spatial Patterns," was organized into two sessions. The six papers presented in the morning session, five of which comprise Part I of this volume, focused on ethnoarchaeological and experimental research. Michael Schiffer was the discussant for this half of the symposium. Our intention for the ethnoarchaeological contributions to the symposium and volume was the delin­ eation of some of the significant accomplishments achieved thus far by actualistic studies regarding the formation of spatial patterns.

The science associated with the development of artificial sen­ sory systems is occupied primarily with determining how information about the world can be extracted from sensory data. For example, computational vision is, for the most part, concerned with the de­ velopment of algorithms for distilling information about the world and recognition of various objects in the environ­ (e. g. localization ment) from visual images (e. g. photographs or video frames). There are often a multitude of ways in which a specific piece of informa­ tion about the world can be obtained from sensory data. A subarea of research into sensory systems has arisen which is concerned with methods for combining these various information sources. This field is known as data fusion, or sensor fusion. The literature on data fusion is extensive, indicating the intense interest in this topic, but is quite chaotic. There are no accepted approaches, save for a few special cases, and many of the best methods are ad hoc. This book represents our attempt at providing a mathematical foundation upon which data fusion algorithms can be constructed and analyzed. The methodology that we present in this text is mo­ tivated by a strong belief in the importance of constraints in sensory information processing systems. In our view, data fusion is best un­ derstood as the embedding of multiple constraints on the solution to a sensory information processing problem into the solution pro­cess.

We first discussed the possibility of organizing a symposium on helminth communities in June, 1986. At that time, we were engaged in writing a joint paper on potential structuring mechanisms in helminth communities; we disagreed on a number of issues. We felt the reason for such debate was because the discipline was in a great state of flux, with many new concepts and approaches being introduced with increasing frequency. After consider­ able discussion about the need, scope and the inevitable limitations of such a symposium, we decided that the time was ripe to bring other ecologists, engaged in similar research, face-to-face. There were many individuals from whom to choose; we selected those who were actively publishing on helminth communities or those who had expertise in areas which we felt were particularly appropriate. We compiled a list of potential participants, contacted them and received unanimous support to organize such a symposium. Our intent was to cover several broad areas, fully recognizing that breadth negates depth (at least with a publisher's limitation on the number of pages). We felt it important to consider patterns amongst different kinds of hosts because this is where we had disagreed among ourselves.

This book contains the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Data Analysis and Processing held in Cefalu' (Palermo, ITALY) on September 23-25 1987. The aim of this Conference, now at its fourth edition, was to give a general view of the actual research in the area of methods and systems for achieving artificial vision as well as to have an up-dated information of the current activity in Europe. A number of invited speakers presented overviews of statistical classification problems and methods, non conventional archi­ tectures, mathematical morphology, robotic vision, analysis of range images in vision systems, pattern matching algorithms and astronomical data processing. Finally a survey of the discussion on the contribution of AI to Image Analysis is given. The papers presented at the Conference have been subdivided in four sections: knowledge based approaches, basic pattern recognition tools, multi features system based solutions, image analysis-applications. We must thank the IBM-Italia and the Digital Equipment Corpo­ ration for sponsoring this Conference. We feel that the days spent at Cefalu' were an important step toward the mutual exchange of scientific information within the image processing community. v. Cantoni Pavia University V. Di Gesu' Palermo University S. Levialdi Rome University v CONTENTS INVITED LECTURES . • • • • . • • • 3 Morphological Optics.

This book contains papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Real-time Object and Environment Measurement and Classification" held in Hotel Villa del Mare, Maratea, Italy, August 31 - September 3, 1987. This workshop was organized under the NATO Special Programme on Sensory Systems for Robotic Control. Professor Eric Backer, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands and Professor Erdal Panayirci, Technical University of Istanbul, Turkey were the members of the organizing committee for this workshop. There were four major themes of this workshop: Real-time Requirements, Feature Measurement, Object Representation and Recognition, and Architecture for Measurement and Classification. A total of twenty-five technical presentations were made. These talks covered a wide spectrum of topics including hardware implementation of specific vision algorithms, a complete vision system for object tracking and inspection, using three cameras (trinocular stereo) for feature measurement, neural network for object recognition, integration of CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and vision systems, and the use of pyramid architectures for solving varioos computer vision problems.

Hypothesis testing is not a straightforward matter in the fossil record and here, too interactions with biology can be extremely profitable. Quite simply, predictions regarding long-term consequences of processes observed in liv­ ing organisms can be tested directly using paleontological data if those liv­ ing organisms have an adequate fossil record, thus avoiding the pitfalls of extrapolative approaches. We hope to see a burgeoning of this interactive effort in the coming years. Framing and testing of hypotheses in paleon­ tological subjects inevitably raises the problem of inferring process from pattern, and the consideration and elimination of a broad range of rival hy­ is an essential procedure here. In a historical science such as potheses paleontology, the problem often arises that the events that are of most in­ terest are unique in the history of life. For example, replication of the metazoan radiation at the beginning of the Cambrian is not feasible. How­ ever, decomposition of such problems into component hypotheses may at least in part alleviate this difficulty. For example, hypotheses built upon the role of species packing might be tested by comparing evolutionary dy­ namics (both morphological and taxonomic) during another global diversi­ fication, such as the biotic rebound from the end-Permian extinction, which removed perhaps 95% of the marine species (see Valentine, this volume). The subject of extinction, and mass extinction in particular, has become important in both paleobiology and biology.

While the ability of animals to learn rhythms is an unquestionable fact, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are still no more than conjectures. This monograph explores the requirements of such mechanisms, reviews those previously proposed and postulates a new one based on a direct electric coding of stimulation frequencies. Experi­ mental support for the option taken is provided both at the single neuron and neural network levels. More specifically, the material presented divides naturally into four parts: a description of the experimental and theoretical framework where this work becomes meaningful (Chapter 2), a detailed specifica­ tion of the pacemaker neuron model proposed together with its valida­ tion through simulation (Chapter 3), an analytic study of the behavior of this model when submitted to rhythmic stimulation (Chapter 4) and a description of the neural network model proposed for learning, together with an analysis of the simulation results obtained when varying seve­ ral factors related to the connectivity, the intraneuronal parameters, the initial state and the stimulation conditions (Chapter 5). This work was initiated at the Computer and Information Science Depart­ ment of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and completed at the Institut de c Lber n e t Lca of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona. Computers at the latter place have adopted Catalan as their mother tongue and thus some computer-made figures in this monograph, specially those in Chapter 5, appear labeled in that tongue.

This volume addresses the question of time from the perspective of the time of nature. Its aim is to provide some insights about the nature of time on the basis of the different uses of the concept of time in natural sciences. Presenting a dialogue between philosophy and science, it features a collection of papers that investigate the representation, modeling and understanding of time as they appear in physics, biology, geology and paleontology. It asks questions such as: whether or not the notions of time in the various sciences are reducible to the same physical time, what status should be given to timescale differences, or what are the specific epistemic issues raised by past facts in natural sciences.

3 of the experience of the last few generations. The group of happily unexperienced events includes large bolide impacts with the Earth. The evidence for the occurrence of such impacts at intervals of some tens of millions of years is quite convincing, and Lyell stands admonished by Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. " The role of bolide impacts on the history of life during other portions of the Phanerozoic Eon is less clear (see Raup and Fischer, both this volume), and catastrophic changes unrelated to extraterrestrial processes may have been important (see Holser, this volume). Changes in the later Precambrian biota are still difficult to interpret, in part because the preservation of soft-bodied animals from this period of Earth history is so unusual (see Seilacher, this volume). During the past billion years or so, bolide impacts have exerted a significant effect on the Earth's surface and its inhabitants, but not on its interior. The 3800 Ma rocks at Isua in West Greenland are the oldest terrestrial rocks that are currently available for inspection (see Dymek, this volume). They contain abundant evidence for the operation of chemical and physical processes that are similar to those of the present day. This situation could not have prevailed during the entire 700 Ma preceding the formation of the Isua rocks.

Un romanzo imponente, nel suo spaccare a metà la storia dell'Europa del secondo Novecento per inserirvi dei personaggi che tutto sembrano fuorché inventati. Entriamo nella vicenda nel 1940, quando la Germania, quasi al culmine della sua espansione, raggiunge Parigi. Lì vive la famiglia Malot che, nonostante le spaventose difficoltà, mantiene attiva una scuola di ballo. Nicole Malot e Franz Kessel sono divisi dall'appartenenza ai due schieramenti politici opposti, ma lentamente si scoprono vicini e innamorati. Nel turbinìo degli eventi anche la figura di Joseph Steiner, ricchissimo ebreo, che sta cercando di salvare i suoi sette figli, deportati verso i campi di sterminio, offrendo in cambio della loro vita sette preziosi diamanti.