A pattern is a word that consists of variables and terminal symbols. The pattern language that is generated by a pattern A is the set of all terminal words that can be obtained from A by uniform replacement of variables with terminal words. For example, the pattern A = xaxa (where x is a variable, and a is a terminal symbol) generates the set of all squares that end on a. Due to their simple definition, pattern languages have various connections to a wide range of other areas in computer science and mathematics. On the other hand, many of the canonical questions are surprisingly difficult for pattern languages. The present thesis discusses various aspects of the inclusion problem of pattern languages. It can be divided in two parts. The first one examines the decidability of the inclusion problem under various restrictions, and the related question of minimizability of regular expressions with repetition operators. The second part deals with descriptive patterns, the smallest generalizations of arbitrary languages through pattern languages ("smallest" with respect to the inclusion relation). Main topics are the existence and the discoverability of descriptive patterns.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Conference, DLT 2009, held in Stuttgart, Germany from June 30 until July 3, 2009. The 35 papers presented together with 4 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 70 submissions. The papers presented address topics on formal languages, automata theory, computability, complexity, logic, petri nets and related areas.

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 11th annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS '94), held in Caen, France, February 24-26, 1994. Besides three prominent invited papers, the proceedings contains 60 accepted contributions chosen by the international program committee during a highly competitive reviewing process from a total of 234 submissions for 38 countries. The volume competently represents most areas of theoretical computer science with a certain emphasis on (parallel) algorithms and complexity.

Formal Languages and Applications provides a comprehensive study-aid and self-tutorial for graduates students and researchers. The main results and techniques are presented in an readily accessible manner and accompanied by many references and directions for further research. This carefully edited monograph is intended to be the gateway to formal language theory and its applications, so it is very useful as a review and reference source of information in formal language theory.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Fundamentalsof Computation Theory (FCT 93) held in Szeged, Hungary, in August 1993. The conference was devoted to a broad range of topics including: - Semanticsand logical concepts in the theory of computing and formal specification - Automata and formal languages - Computational geometry, algorithmic aspects of algebra and algebraic geometry, cryptography - Complexity (sequential, parallel, distributed computing, structure, lower bounds, complexity of analytical problems, general concepts) - Algorithms (efficient, probabilistic, parallel, sequential, distributed) - Counting and combinatorics in connection with mathematical computer science The volume contains the texts of 8 invitedlectures and 32 short communications selected by the international program committee from a large number of submitted papers.