Knowledge Management

Reasoning about knowledge—particularly the knowledge of agents who reason about the world and each other's knowledge—was once the exclusive province of philosophers and puzzle solvers. More recently, this type of reasoning has been shown to play a key role in a surprising number of contexts, from understanding conversations to the analysis of distributed computer algorithms. Reasoning About Knowledge is the first book to provide a general discussion of approaches to reasoning about knowledge and its applications to distributed systems, artificial intelligence, and game theory. It brings eight years of work by the authors into a cohesive framework for understanding and analyzing reasoning about knowledge that is intuitive, mathematically well founded, useful in practice, and widely applicable. The book is almost completely self-contained and should be accessible to readers in a variety of disciplines, including computer science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, and game theory. Each chapter includes exercises and bibliographic notes.

Reasoning about knowledge—particularly the knowledge of agents who reason about the world and each other's knowledge—was once the exclusive province of philosophers and puzzle solvers. More recently, this type of reasoning has been shown to play a key role in a surprising number of contexts, from understanding conversations to the analysis of distributed computer algorithms.Reasoning About Knowledge is the first book to provide a general discussion of approaches to reasoning about knowledge and its applications to distributed systems, artificial intelligence,and game theory. It brings eight years of work by the authors into a cohesive framework for understanding and analyzing reasoning about knowledge that is intuitive, mathematically well founded, useful in practice, and widely applicable. The book is almost completely self-contained and should be accessible to readers in a variety of disciplines, including computer science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, and game theory. Each chapter includes exercises and bibliographic notes.

Solid-state laser technology continues to develop at a rapid pace, and the laser itself has already become a ubiquitous tool in research and in industrial, medical, and military applications. Solid-State Lasers: A Graduate Text is the first graduate-level text exclusively devoted to this important class of lasers. This adaptation of Koechner's classic monograph Solid-State Laser Engineering offers a detailed discussion of the theory, operating characteristics, and design features of solid-state lasers. Topics covered include laser materials, oscillators, amplifiers, optical resonators, optical pump systems, thermo-optic effects, Q-switching, mode-locking, and frequency conversion. Numerous exercises with hints for solutions, new text, and updated material have been added to make this text accessible to both graduate students and practicing scientists or engineers entering the field of solid-state lasers. "Solid-State Lasers: A Graduate Text is the first graduate-level text exclusively devoted to this important class of lasers. This adaptation of Koechner's classic monograph Solid-State Laser Engineering offers a detailed discussion of the theory, operating characteristics, and design features of solid-state lasers. Topics covered include laser materials, oscillators, amplifiers, optical resonators, optical pump systems, thermo-optic effects, Q-switching, mode-locking, and frequency conversion. Numerous exercises with hints for solutions, new text, and updated material have been added to make this text accessible to both graduate students and practicing scientists or engineers entering the field of solid-state lasers."--Jacket Solid-state lasers have seen a fast and steady development and are the ubiquitous tool both for research and industrial applications. The author's monograph Solid-State Lasers has become the most-used reference book in this area. The present graduate text on solid-state lasers takes advantage of this rich source by focusing on the needs at the graduate level and those who need an introduction. Numerous exercises with hints for solution, new text and updated material where needed make this text very accessible. Koechner's Well-known ‘bible’ On Solid-state Laser Engineering Is Now Available In An Accessible Format At The Graduate Level. Numerous Exercises With Hints For Solution, New Text And Updated Material Where Needed Make This Text Very Accessible. Epistemology, the study of knowledge, has a long and honorable tradition in philosophy, starting with the early Greek philosophers.