Special issue on intelligent knowledge processing and decision making techniques

Started in 1997, the International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems (KES) series of conference provides excellent opportunities for the presentation of new, interesting research findings and results in the general areas of knowledge-based and intelligent systems, leading to knowledge transfer and the generation of new ideas and techniques in engineering and information technology. KES2008 is the 12th KES conference organized by the University of Zagreb and its Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in association with KES International (http://www.kesinternational.org/). The KES2008 conference took place in Zagreb, the capital of the Republic of Croatia, from 3–5 September, 2008. The KES 2008 conference featured keynote lectures by distinguished researchers in their fields, invited sessions organized and chaired by respected experts in specialized areas, as well as general sessions managed by track chairs. After a careful review process, a total of 316 high-quality papers have been accepted for poster and oral presentation. Three volumes of the conference proceedings have been compiled and published as Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence by Springer. This special issue contains four carefully selected papers from the KES2008 conference. The papers address theoretical advances as well as practical applications of intelligent knowledge processing and decision