Over the last forty years there has been a growing interest to extend probability theory and statistics and to allow for more flexible modelling of imprecision, uncertainty, vagueness and ignorance. The fact that in many real-life situations data uncertainty is not only present in the form of randomness (stochastic uncertainty) but also in the form of imprecision/fuzziness is but one point underlining the need for a widening of statistical tools. Most such extensions originate in a "softening" of classical methods, allowing, in particular, to work with imprecise or vague data, considering imprecise or generalized probabilities and fuzzy events, etc. About ten years ago the idea of establishing a recurrent forum for discussing new trends in the before-mentioned context was born and resulted in the first International Conference on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics (SMPS) that was held in Warsaw in 2002. In the following years the conference took place in Oviedo (2004), in Bristol (2006) and in Toulouse (2008). In the current edition the conference returns to Oviedo. This edited volume is a collection of papers presented at the SMPS 2010 conference held in Mieres and Oviedo. It gives a comprehensive overview of current research into the fusion of soft methods with probability and statistics.
Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing Editor-in-Chief: J. Kacprzyk
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Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing Editor-in-Chief Prof. Janusz Kacprzyk Systems Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences ul. Newelska 6 01-447 Warsaw Poland E-mail:
[email protected] Further volumes of this series can be found on our homepage: springer.com Vol. 63. Á. Herrero, P. Gastaldo, R. Zunino, E. Corchado (Eds.) Computational Intelligence in Security for Information Systems, 2009 ISBN 978-3-642-04090-0 Vol. 64. E. Tkacz, A. Kapczynski (Eds.) Internet – Technical Development and Applications, 2009 ISBN 978-3-642-05018-3 Vol. 65. E. Kacki, ˛ M. Rudnicki, J. Stempczy´nska (Eds.) Computers in Medical Activity, 2009 ISBN 978-3-642-04461-8 Vol. 66. G.Q. Huang, K.L. Mak, P.G. Maropoulos (Eds.) Proceedings of the 6th CIRP-Sponsored International Conference on Digital Enterprise Technology, 2009 ISBN 978-3-642-10429-9 Vol. 67. V. Snášel, P.S. Szczepaniak, A. Abraham, J. Kacprzyk (Eds.) Advances in Intelligent Web Mastering - 2, 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-10686-6 Vol. 68. V.-N. Huynh, Y. Nakamori, J. Lawry, M. Inuiguchi (Eds.) Integrated Uncertainty Management and Applications, 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-11959-0 Vol. 69. E. Pi˛etka and J. Kawa (Eds.) Information Technologies in Biomedicine, 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-13104-2 Vol. 70. Y. Demazeau, F. Dignum, J.M. Corchado, J. Bajo Pérez (Eds.) Advances in Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems, 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-12383-2
Vol. 71. Y. Demazeau, F. Dignum, J.M. Corchado, J. Bajo, R. Corchuelo, E. Corchado, F. Fernández-Riverola, V.J. Julián, P. Pawlewski, A. Campbell (Eds.) Trends in Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems, 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-12432-7 Vol. 72. J.C. Augusto, J.M. Corchado, P. Novais, C. Analide (Eds.) Ambient Intelligence and Future Trends, 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-13267-4 Vol. 73. J.M. Corchado, P. Novais, C. Analide, J. Sedano (Eds.) Soft Computing Models in Industrial and Environmental Applications, 5th International Workshop (SOCO 2010), 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-13160-8 Vol. 74. M.P. Rocha, F.F. Riverola, H. Shatkay, J.M. Corchado (Eds.) Advances in Bioinformatics, 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-13213-1 Vol. 75. X.Z. Gao, A. Gaspar-Cunha, M. Köppen, G. Schaefer, and J. Wang (Eds.) Soft Computing in Industrial Applications, 2010 ISBN 978-3-642-11281-2 Vol. 76. T. Bastiaens, U. Baumöl, and B.J. Krämer (Eds.) On Collectiv