Pattern Formation by Dynamic Systems and Pattern Recognition

I. Introduction.- Pattern Formation and Pattern Recognition - An Attempt at a Synthesis.- II. Temporal Patterns: Laser Oscillations and Other Quantum-Optical Effects.- Atomic Cooperation in Quantum Optics: Superfluorescence and Optical Bistability.- Experimental Aspects of Transition Phenomena in Quantum Optics.- Laser with Saturable Absorber. Fluctuations and Stability.- III. Pattern Formation in Fluids.- Patterns of Convection in Plane Layers and in Spherical Shells.- Laserlike Approach to the Dynamics of the Rayleigh-Benard and the Soret-Driven Instabilities.- Phase Locking in the Oscillations Leading to Turbulence.- IV. Turbulence and Chaos.- A Simplified Theory of Intermittent Fully-Developed Turbulence.- Chaos and Its Description.- V. Pattern Recognition and Pattern Formation in Biology.- Figure-Ground Discrimination by the Visual System of the Fly.- A Theory of Drug Induced Visual Hallucination Patterns.- Physiological Mechanisms for the Perception of Random Dot Moire Patterns.- Similarities Between Pattern Formation and Pattern Recognition (Interpretation) During Biological Development.- Electrical Effects in Nonlinear Physico-Chemical Systems: Field Chemical Wave Interaction and Bio-Self Electrophoresis.- Patterns in the Immune System.- The Oscillatory Basis of Cell Energy Metabolism.- VI. Pattern Recognition and Associations.- Recent Advances in Syntactic Pattern Recognition.- Abduction of Semantic Patterns.- Representation and Processing of Associations Using Vector Space Operations.- VII. Pattern Formation in Ecology, Sociology and History.- Non-Uniform Stable Solutions to Reaction-Diffusion Equations: Applications to Ecological Pattern Formation.- Socioeconomic Inequalities: Adaptation and Application of a Theory of Biological Pattern Formation.- Systems and Changes of Systems in History.- VIII. General Approaches.- Bifurcation and Nonlinear Focusing.- Thermodynamics of Nonequilibrium Processes.- Growth of Fluctuations in Thermodynamically Unstable Systems.- Evolution of Systems. Time Scaling and Scaling Factors.- Index of Contributors.