1. International Journal of Knowledge and Systems Sciences (IJKSS) Published by International Society for Knowledge and Systems Sciences http://www.jaist.ac.jp/iskss/

2. The ISKSS is a non-profit, technical professional association. The full name is the International Society for Knowledge and Systems Sciences. It was formally established in the year of 2003 at the International Symposium on Knowledge and Systems Science (KSS’2003, November 29-30, 2003, Guangzhou, China). Now, our members spread over ten countries and areas. The overall purpose of ISKSS is to promote development of knowledge science and systems science, as well as collaboration between both of two sciences. It further seeks to encourage research and facilitate communication between and among scientists and professionals from various disciplines and professions at local, regional, national, and international levels.

3. As we all know, we are moving into a new era of knowledge economy. In the past decade, the significance of developing knowledge has grown to a level where it is coming to dominate other socio-economic factors. The recent development challenges many of institutions to understand the nature of knowledge and its role in applications, to effectively utilize the knowledge for improving the cooperate competitive advantage and national comprehensive power, as well as establishing development of knowledge sciences. The significant feature of development of knowledge sciences is the interdisciplinary program on an international scale. We need to promote the exchange and interaction of knowledge across disciplines and borders to explore the new territories and new frontiers. In the present stage, attempts to strictly define the knowledge science may be too ambitious, but a very tolerant, broad-based and open minded approach to the discipline can be taken. Knowledge sciences and systems sciences can be used for one another as methodology and tool and benefit each other. Around these disciplines, we initiated and established ISKSS. President: Yoshiteru Nakamori, Professor, Dean, School of Knowledge Science Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

4. Board of Directors for ISKSS President Y. Nakamori (Japan) Vice-presidents J.F. Gu (China) M. Jackson (UK) K. Kijima (Japan) A.P. Wierzbicki (Poland) Z.T. Wang (China) C.J. Zhao (China) General secretary T. Yoshida (Japan) Executive council members J. Chen (China) Y.Z. Dang (China) M. Makowski (Austria) G. Midgley (New Zealand) Y. Terano (Japan) S.Y. Wang (China)

5. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Zhongtuo Wang Dalian University of Technology, China Yanzhong Dang Institute of Systems Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, China Tel: 86-411-84707659 Fax: 86-411-84707425 Email: yzhdang@dlut.edu.cn Jiangning Wu Research Center of Knowledge Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, China Tel: 86-411-84707425 Fax: 86-411-84707425 Email: jnwu@dlut.edu.cn MANAGING EDITORS

6. C.M. Brugha (Ireland) J. Chen (China) J.F. Gu (China) T.B. Ho (Japan) L. Hordijk (Austria) M. Jackson (UK) K. Kijima (Japan) K.K. Lai (Hong Kong, China) W.B. Lee (Hong Kong, China) R.Q. Lu (China) M. Makowski (Austria) G. Midgley (New Zealand) Y. Nakamori (Japan) I. Nonaka (Japan) M. Ryoke (Japan) Y. Sawaragi (Japan) Y. Shi (China) E. Shimemura (Japan) T. Terano (Japan) S.Y. Wang (China) A.P. Wierzbicki (Poland) T. Yoshida (Japan) W.Y. Yue (Japan) M.J. Zhang (Australia) C.J. Zhao (China) Z.C. Zhu (UK) EDITORIAL BOARD

7. EDITORIAL OFFICE Institute of Systems Engineering Dalian University of Technology Dalian, Liaoning Province, 116024, China

8.  2004 JAIST Press. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, JAIST Press, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Ishikawa Japan. COPYRIGHT