First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Influenced by the blues as well as West African and African-American sounds, rhythm and blues, rap, and hip-hop have become popular and influential forms of music around the world. Featuring soulful lyrics, hard-driving beats, and infectious rhythms, these genres form a rich branch of America's musical culture. From artists such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin to LL Cool J and Dr. Dre, the performers who pioneered and perfected these musical forms have become household names. Rhythm and Blues, Rap, and Hip-Hop explores the characteristics and importance of each of these types of music and...

The series of Online World Conferences on Soft Computing (WSC) is organized by the World Federation of Soft Computing (WFSC) and has become an established annual event in the academic calendar and was already held for the 8th time in 2003. Starting as a small workshop held at Nagoya University, Japan in 1994 it has - tured to the premier online event on soft computing in industrial applications. It has been hosted by the universities of Granada, Spain, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Berlin, Cran?eld University, Helsinki University of Technology and Nagoya University. The goal of WFSC is to promote...

Soft computing embraces methodologies for the development of intelligent systems that have been successfully applied to a large number of real-word problems. This collection of keynote papers, presented at the 7th On-line World Conference on Soft Computing in Engineering Design and Manufacturing, provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in fuzzy, neural and evolutionary computing techniques and applications in engineering design and manufacturing.

Features:
- New and highly advanced research results at the forefront of soft computing in engineering design and...