This thesis presents a simple method for the concurrent manipulation of linearly ordered data structures on hypercubes. The method is based on the existence of a pruned binomial search tree rooted at any arbitrary node of the binary hypercube. The tree spans any arbitrary sequence of n consecutive nodes containing the root, using a fan-out of at most [log₂ 𝑛] and a depth of [log₂ 𝑛] +1. Search trees spanning non-overlapping processor lists are formed using only local information, and can be used concurrently without contention problems. Thus, they can be used for performing broadcast and merge operations simultaneously on sets with non-uniform sizes. Extensions to generalized and faulty hypercubes and applications to image processing algorithms and for m-way search are discussed.

This research establishes the feasibility and potential utility of a software mechanism which employs artificial intelligence techniques to enhance the capabilities of standard discrete event simulators. As background, current methods of integrating artificial intelligence with simulation and relevant research are briefly reviewed.

In this dissertation, we investigate how commonsense reasoning can be formalized by using extended logic programs. In this investigation, we first use extended logic programs to formalize inheritance hierarchies with exceptions by adopting McCarthy's simple abnormality formalism to express uncertain knowledge. In our representation, not only credulous reasoning can be performed but also the ambiguity-blocking inheritance and the ambiguity-propagating inheritance in skeptical reasoning are simulated. In response to the anomalous extension problem, we explore and discover that the intuition underlying commonsense reasoning is a kind of forward reasoning. The unidirectional nature of this reasoning is applied by many reformulations of the Yale shooting problem to exclude the undesired conclusion. We then identify defeasible conclusions in our representation based on the syntax of extended logic programs. A similar idea is also applied to other formalizations of commonsense reasoning to achieve such a purpose.