Representing time has been considered a general problem for artificial intelligence research for many years. More recently, the question of representing time has become increasingly important in representing human decision making process through connectionist expert systems. Because most human behaviors unfold over time, any attempt to represent expert performance, without considering its temporal nature, can often lead to incorrect results. A temporal feedforward neural network model that can be applied to a number of neural network application areas, including connectionist expert systems, has been introduced. The neural network model has a multi-layer structure, i.e. the number of layers is not limited. Also, the model has the flexibility of defining output nodes in any layer. This is especially important for connectionist expert system applications. A temporal backpropagation algorithm which supports the model has been developed. The model along with the temporal backpropagation algorithm makes it extremely practical to define any artificial neural network application. Also, an approach that can be followed to decrease the memory space used by weight matrix has been introduced. The algorithm was tested using a medical connectionist expert system to show how best we describe not only the disease but also the entire course of the disease. …

The scope of the present dissertation is a deep lossy compression of still and moving grayscale pictures while maintaining their fidelity, with a specific goal of creating a working prototype of a software system for use in low bandwidth transmission of still satellite imagery and weather briefings with the best preservation of features considered important by the end user.

The goal of a parallel algorithm is to solve a single problem using multiple processors working together and to do so in an efficient manner. In this regard, there is a need to categorize strategies in order to solve broad classes of problems with similar structures and requirements. In this dissertation, two parallel algorithm design strategies are considered: linked list ranking and parentheses matching.