Containing 4 plenary papers and 38 technical papers, this volume contributes to the literature on the important subject of man-machine systems. The many topics discussed include human performance skills, knowledge engineering and expert systems, training procedures, human performance and mental load models, and human-machine interfaces.

A special year like 1999 invites one to draw a balance of what has been achieved in the roughly 30 years of research and development in knowledge based systems (still abbreviated as XPS following the older term “expert systems”) and to take a look at th what the future may hold. For the 5 German conference on knowledge-based systems we therefore asked current and former speakers of the four working groups (FG’s) in the subdivision of knowledge-based systems (FA 1.5) of the German association of Informatics (GI) to present a survey of and future prospects for their respective fields: knowledge engineering, diagnosis, configuration, and case-based reasoning. An additional 14 technical papers deal with current topics in knowledge-based systems with an equal emphasis on methods and applications. They are selected from more than 50 papers accepted in the 4 parallel workshops of XPS-99: a) Knowledge Management, Organizational Memory and Reuse, b) various fields of applications, c) the traditional PuK Workshop (planning and configuration), and d) the GWCBR (German workshop on case-based reasoning). The other papers presented at these workshops are not included in this volume but are available as internal reports of Würzburg university together with the exhibition guide that emphasizing tool support for building knowledge based systems.

Knowledge-based systems are increasingly found in a wide variety of settings and this handbook has been written to meet a specific need in their widening use. While there have been many successful applications of knowledge-based systems, some applications have failed because they never received the corrective feedback that evaluation provides for keeping development focused on the users' needs in their actual working environment. This handbook provides a conceptual framework and compendium of methods for performing evaluations of knowledge-based systems during their development. Its focus is on the users' and subject matter experts' evaluation of the usefulness of the system, and not on the developers' testing of the adequacy of the programming code. The handbook permits evaluators to systematically answer the following kinds of questions: Does the knowledge-based system meet the users' task requirements? Is the system easy to use? Is the knowledge base logically consistent? Does it meet the required level of expertise? Does the system improve performance? The authors have produced a handbook that will serve two audiences: a tool that can be used to create knowledge-based systems (practitioners, developers, and evaluators) and a framework that will stimulate more research in the area (academic researchers and students). To accomplish this, the handbook is built around a conceptual framework that integrates the different types of evaluations into the system of development process. The kinds of questions that can be answered, and the methods available for answering them, will change throughout the system development life cycle. And throughout this process, one needs to know what can be done, and what can't. It is this dichotomy that addresses needs in both the practitioner and academic research audiences.

If one were forced to use a single key word to describe the decade of the 1980's, a very prominent one would be "technology. " Leading the forefront of tech nology advancement were breakthroughs in electronics. Devices that were uncommon or unknown in 1980 became commonplace, and almost indispens able, by 1989. This trend has continued into the 1990's and it does not seem to be abating in any way. Microwave ovens, video recorders, telephone answer ing machines, compact disc players, computers, and a host of smaller or less sophisticated devices now appear in most households. The development of small and inexpensive computers, i. e. , personal computers, has placed computing resources within reach of many more people. In addition, many traditional, and largely mechanical devices, have been enhanced by electronics. For example, specialized microprocessors are combined with arrays of electronic sensors to control and monitor sophisticated engineering components in most new auto mobiles. In this and many other ways, we are touched by the new electronics in almost every aspect of our daily lives. Initially, personal computers were little more than toys. They contained only a small fraction of the computing power of their immediate ancestors, the mini computers and mainframe computers. However, rapid improvements in integ rated circuit design and chip manufacture produced regular reductions in size and cost of computer components. During the same time, processor speed and sophistication increased.

Non-Destructive Testing, Volume 4 contains the proceedings of the Fourth European Conference held in London on September 13-17, 1987. Contributors explore a variety of topics related to non-destructive testing (NDT), including ultrasonic techniques, ultrasonic systems, electromagnetic techniques, condition monitoring of plant and structures, and magnetic particle and penetrant techniques. This text is comprised of 98 chapters; the first of which describes an ultrasonic technique for the assessment of the fat content of live beef animals for breeding purposes. Attention then turns to measurements of the longitudinal ultrasonic wave attenuation in spheroidal graphite iron test pieces subjected to fatigue loads. The chapters that follow focus on ultrasonic imaging; dry coupling probes; an expert system for ultrasonic examination of fuel rods; engineering and medical applications of diagnostic ultrasound; and signal processing of 3D maps of eddy currents. The reader is also methodically introduced to automation of eddy current testing; the use of artificial intelligence in vibration-based health monitoring; automated inspection of magnetic particles; and the theory and practice of acoustic emission. This text concludes with a chapter that reviews the NDT research program of the National NDT Center of Harwell Laboratory in the UK. This book will be of interest to materials scientists, materials engineers, and metallurgists.