The two volume set LNCS 4131 and LNCS 4132 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, ICANN 2006, held in Athens, Greece, in September 2006.

The 208 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 475 submissions. The 103 papers of the first volume are organized in topical sections on feature selection and dimension reduction for regression, learning algorithms, advances in neural network learning methods, ensemble learning, learning random neural networks and stochastic agents, hybrid architectures, self organization, connectionist cognitive science, cognitive machines, neural dynamics and complex systems, computational neuroscience, neural control, reinforcement learning and robotics applications, robotics, control, planning, as well as bio-inspired neural network on-chip implementation and applications. The second volume contains 105 contributions related to neural networks, semantic web technologies and multimedia analysis, bridging the semantic gap in multimedia machine learning approaches, signal and time series processing, data analysis, pattern recognition, visual attention algorithms and architectures for perceptional understanding and video coding, vision and image processing, computational finance and economics, neural computing in energy engineering, applications to biomedicine and bioinformatics, applications to security and market analysis, as well as real world applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN 2007, held in San Sebastian, Spain in June 2007.

The 145 revised full papers presented together with 3 invited lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from over 260 submissions. The papers are organized in thematic sections on theoretical concepts and neurocomputational formulations, inmproving models and learning procedures, self-organizing networks, kernel methods, evolutionary and genetic algorithms, evolutionary learning, fuzzy systems, neuroengineering and hardware implementations, data analysis, signal processing, speech processing, images processing, time series and prediction, robotics and planning motor control, power system applications, internet and web applications, biomedical applications, neural networks and other machine learning methods in cancer research, assistive technologies and e-health, as well as other applications.

This two volume set LNCS 4668 and LNCS 4669 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, ICANN 2007, held in Porto, Portugal, in September 2007.

The 197 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 376 submissions. The second volume contains 99 contributions related to computational neuroscience, neurocognitive studies, applications in biomedicine and bioinformatics, pattern recognition, data clustering, self-organization, text mining and internet applications, signal and times series processing, vision and image processing, robotics, control, real world applications, independent component analysis, graphs, emotion and attention: empirical findings and neural models, as well as understanding and creating cognitive systems.

This volume is the first part of the two-volume proceedings of the International C- ference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN 2005), held on September 11-15, 2005 in Warsaw, Poland, with several accompanying workshops held on September 15, 2005 at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toru , Poland. The ICANN conference is an annual meeting organized by the European Neural Network Society in cooperation with the International Neural Network Society, the Japanese Neural Network Society, and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. It is the premier European event covering all topics concerned with neural networks and related areas. The ICANN series of conferences was initiated in 1991 and soon became the major European gathering for experts in those fields. In 2005 the ICANN conference was organized by the Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, and the Nicolaus Copernicus Univ- sity, Toru , Poland. From over 600 papers submitted to the regular sessions and some 10 special c- ference sessions, the International Program Committee selected - after a thorough peer-review process - about 270 papers for publication. The large number of papers accepted is certainly a proof of the vitality and attractiveness of the field of artificial neural networks, but it also shows a strong interest in the ICANN conferences.

This volume is the first part of the two-volume proceedings of the International C- ference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN 2005), held on September 11-15, 2005 in Warsaw, Poland, with several accompanying workshops held on September 15, 2005 at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toru , Poland. The ICANN conference is an annual meeting organized by the European Neural Network Society in cooperation with the International Neural Network Society, the Japanese Neural Network Society, and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. It is the premier European event covering all topics concerned with neural networks and related areas. The ICANN series of conferences was initiated in 1991 and soon became the major European gathering for experts in those fields. In 2005 the ICANN conference was organized by the Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, and the Nicolaus Copernicus Univ- sity, Toru , Poland. From over 600 papers submitted to the regular sessions and some 10 special c- ference sessions, the International Program Committee selected - after a thorough peer-review process - about 270 papers for publication. The large number of papers accepted is certainly a proof of the vitality and attractiveness of the field of artificial neural networks, but it also shows a strong interest in the ICANN conferences.

Focuses on the definition, engineering, and delivery of AI solutions as opposed to AI itself Reader will still gain a strong understanding of AI, but through the perspective of delivering real solutions Explores the core AI issues that impact the success of an overall solution including i. realities of dealing with data, ii. impact of AI accuracy on the ability of the solution to meet business objectives, iii. challenges in managing the quality of machine learning models Includes real world examples of enterprise scale solutions Provides a series of (optional) technical deep dives and thought experiments.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed postproceedings of the 16th Italian Workshop on Neural Nets, WIRN 2005, as well as the satellite International Workshop on Natural and Artificial Immune Systems, NAIS 2005, held in Vietri sul Mare, Italy in June 2005. The 41 revised papers presented together with a lecture by the winner of the Premio Caianiello award were carefully reviewed and improved during two rounds of selection and refereeing.

This important work describes recent theoretical advances in the study of artificial neural networks. It explores probabilistic models of supervised learning problems, and addresses the key statistical and computational questions. Chapters survey research on pattern classification with binary-output networks, including a discussion of the relevance of the Vapnik Chervonenkis dimension, and of estimates of the dimension for several neural network models. In addition, Anthony and Bartlett develop a model of classification by real-output networks, and demonstrate the usefulness of classification with a "large margin." The authors explain the role of scale-sensitive versions of the Vapnik Chervonenkis dimension in large margin classification, and in real prediction. Key chapters also discuss the computational complexity of neural network learning, describing a variety of hardness results, and outlining two efficient, constructive learning algorithms. The book is self-contained and accessible to researchers and graduate students in computer science, engineering, and mathematics.

On-line learning is one of the most commonly used techniques for training neural networks. Though it has been used successfully in many real-world applications, most training methods are based on heuristic observations. The lack of theoretical support damages the credibility as well as the efficiency of neural networks training, making it hard to choose reliable or optimal methods. This book presents a coherent picture of the state of the art in the theoretical analysis of on-line learning. An introduction relates the subject to other developments in neural networks and explains the overall picture. Surveys by leading experts in the field combine new and established material and enable nonexperts to learn more about the techniques and methods used. This book, the first in the area, provides a comprehensive view of the subject and will be welcomed by mathematicians, scientists and engineers, both in industry and academia.

- the author is in the BIMA Hall of Fame and is Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at Ernst & Young - the book explains the current state of AI and how it is governed, as well as detailing five potential futures involving AI and providing a clear Roadmap to manage the future of AI - easy and fun to read

This volume provides students, researchers and application developers with the knowledge and tools to get the most out of using neural networks and related data modelling techniques to solve pattern recognition problems. Each chapter covers a group of related pattern recognition techniques and includes a range of examples to show how these techniques can be applied to solve practical problems. Features of particular interest include:- A NETLAB toolbox which is freely available via the Internet at http://www.ncrg.aston.ac.uk/netlab- Worked examples, demonstration programs and over 100 graded exercises- Cutting edge research made accessible for the first time in a highly usable form- Comprehensive coverage of visualisation methods, Bayesian techniques for neural networks and Gaussian ProcessesAlthough primarily a textbook for teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in pattern recognition and neural networks, this book will also be of interest to practitioners and researchers who can use the toolbox to develop application solutions and new models."...provides a unique collection of many of the most important pattern recognition algorithms. With its use of compact and easily modified MATLAB scripts, the book is ideally suited to both teaching and research."Christopher Bishop, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK"...a welcome addition to the literature on neural networks and how to train and use them to solve many of the statistical problems that occur in data analysis and data mining" Jack Cowan, Mathematics Department, University of Chicago, US"If you have a pattern recognition problem, you should consider NETLAB; if you use NETLAB you must have this book." Keith Worden, University of Sheffield, UK

The proceedings of the 14th Italian Workshop on Neural Nets WIRN VIETRI 2003 are collected in this volume. The workshop, held in Vietri sul Mare (SA) June 4-7, 2003 was jointly organized by the International Institute for Advanced Scienti?c Studies "Eduardo R. Caianiello" (IIASS) and the Societ' a Italiana Reti Neuroniche(SIREN). Thevolumecoversup-to-datetopicsonneuralnetsand- lated ?elds. It contains invited review papers and selected original contributions presented in either oral or poster sessions by both Italian and non-Italian - searchers. The contributions have been assembled, for reading convenience, into four sections: Models, Architectures and Algorithms, Image and Signal Proce- ing, and Applications, plus two special sessions. The latter gives a fresh persp- tive in the ?elds of "Bioinformatics and Statistics" and "Formats Knowledge: Words, Images, Narratives", sharing the technical languages of the involved d- ciplines. The editors would like to thank the invited speakers and all the c- tributors whose highly quali?ed papers contributed towards the success of the workshop. Finally, special thanks go to the referees for their accurate work. June 2003 Bruno Apolloni Maria Marinaro Roberto Tagliaferri Organizing Scienti?c Committee B. Apolloni (Univ. Milano), A. Bertoni (Univ. Milano), N. A. Borghese (Univ. Milano),D. D. Caviglia(Univ. Genova),P. Campadelli(Univ. Milano),A. Chella (Univ. Palermo),A. Colla(ELSAGGenova),A. Esposito(I. I. A. S. S. ),F. M. Fr- tale Mascioli (Univ. Roma), C. Furlanello (ITC-IRST Trento), S. Giove (Univ. Venezia), M. Gori (Univ. Siena), M. Marinaro (Univ. Salerno), F. Masulli (Univ. Pisa), C. Morabito (Univ. Reggio Calabria), P. Morasso (Univ. Genova), G.

The two-volume set LNCS 2686 and LNCS 2687 constitute the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Work-Conference on Artificial and Natural Neural Networks, IWANN 2003, held in Maó, Menorca, Spain in June 2003. The 197 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book and address the following topics: mathematical and computational methods in neural modelling, neurophysiological data analysis and modelling, structural and functional models of neurons, learning and other plasticity phenomena, complex systems dynamics, cognitive processes and artificial intelligence, methodologies for net design, bio-inspired systems and engineering, and applications in a broad variety of fields.

The papers in this volume present theoretical aspects and applications of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms. Also included are papers on fuzzy logic, soft computing, and artificial intelligence. Fundamental issues are addressed such as the nonlinear approximation capabilities of neural networks and formal methods of data representation with topological properties. New elements in genetic algorithms are presented, for example, crossover methods and gene representation. Papers on applications of neural networks show how successful these methods are in a wide range of fields like meteorological and atmospheric pollution forecasts, furnace control, and system identification. Genetic algorithms are used to solve optimization problems related to shipping and computer vision. Fuzzy-logic-based techniques are applied to sociodynamic models and hybrid neuro-fuzzy models.

The technology of neural networks has attracted much attention in recent years. Their ability to learn nonlinear relationships is widely appreciated and is utilized in many different types of applications; modelling of dynamic systems, signal processing, and control system design being some of the most common. The theory of neural computing has matured considerably over the last decade and many problems of neural network design, training and evaluation have been resolved. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the most popular class of neural network, the multilayer perceptron, and shows how it can be used for system identification and control. It aims to provide the reader with a sufficient theoretical background to understand the characteristics of different methods, to be aware of the pit-falls and to make proper decisions in all situations. The subjects treated include: System identification: multilayer perceptrons; how to conduct informative experiments; model structure selection; training methods; model validation; pruning algorithms. Control: direct inverse, internal model, feedforward, optimal and predictive control; feedback linearization and instantaneous-linearization-based controllers. Case studies: prediction of sunspot activity; modelling of a hydraulic actuator; control of a pneumatic servomechanism; water-level control in a conical tank. The book is very application-oriented and gives detailed and pragmatic recommendations that guide the user through the plethora of methods suggested in the literature. Furthermore, it attempts to introduce sound working procedures that can lead to efficient neural network solutions. This will make the book invaluable to the practitioner and as a textbook in courses with a significant hands-on component.

th This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 6 Conference on Neural Networks and Soft Computing, ICNNSC'2002, held in Zakopane, Poland in June 11-15, 2002. The Conference was organized by the Polish Neural Network Society in co- operation with the Department of Computer Engineering at the Technical Univer- sity of Cz~stochowa. The previous conferences took place in Kule (1994), Szczyrk (1996), Kule (1997) and Zakopane (1999, 2000) and attracted a large number of papers and internationally recognized speakers like Prof. Robert Marks, Prof. Jacek Zurada, Prof. Ryszard Tadeusiewicz, Prof. Shiro Usui, Prof. Daniel Amit, Prof. Wlodzislaw Duch, Prof. Erkki Oja, Prof. Syozo Yasui, Prof. Enrique Ruspini, Prof. Witold Pedrycz, Prof. Janusz Kacprzyk and Prof. Lotfi A. Zadeh. It was pointed out by Prof. Lotfi A. Zadeh that "Soft Computing (SC) is a coalition of methodologies which are oriented toward the conception and design of informa- tion/intelligent systems. The principal members of the coalition are: fuzzy logic (FL), neurocomputing (NC), evolutionary computing (EC), probabilistic comput- ing (PC), chaotic computing (CC), and machine learning (ML). The constituent methodologies of SC are, for the most part, complementary and synergistic rather than competitive". This volume presents most techniques and methodologies mentioned by Prof.

Biology undergraduates, medical students and life-science graduate students often have limited mathematical skills. Similarly, physics, math and engineering students have little patience for the detailed facts that make up much of biological knowledge. Teaching computational neuroscience as an integrated discipline requires that both groups be brought forward onto common ground. This book does this by making ancillary material available in an appendix and providing basic explanations without becoming bogged down in unnecessary details. The book will be suitable for undergraduates and beginning graduate students taking a computational neuroscience course and also to anyone with an interest in the uses of the computer in modeling the nervous system.

The two-volume set LNCS 2686 and LNCS 2687 constitute the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Work-Conference on Artificial and Natural Neural Networks, IWANN 2003, held in Maó, Menorca, Spain in June 2003. The 197 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book and address the following topics: mathematical and computational methods in neural modelling, neurophysiological data analysis and modelling, structural and functional models of neurons, learning and other plasticity phenomena, complex systems dynamics, cognitive processes and artificial intelligence, methodologies for net design, bio-inspired systems and engineering, and applications in a broad variety of fields.  

Artificial Intelligence is concerned with producing devices that help or replace human beings in their daily activities. Neural-symbolic learning systems play a central role in this task by combining, and trying to benefit from, the advantages of both the neural and symbolic paradigms of artificial intelligence. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of neural-symbolic learning systems, and an invaluable overview of the latest research issues in this area. It is divided into three sections, covering the main topics of neural-symbolic integration - theoretical advances in knowledge representation and learning, knowledge extraction from trained neural networks, and inconsistency handling in neural-symbolic systems. Each section provides a balance of theory and practice, giving the results of applications using real-world problems in areas such as DNA sequence analysis, power systems fault diagnosis, and software requirements specifications. Neural-Symbolic Learning Systems will be invaluable reading for researchers and graduate students in Engineering, Computing Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Neurocomputing. It will also be of interest to Intelligent Systems practitioners and anyone interested in applications of hybrid artificial intelligence systems.

Turing's connectionism provides a detailed and in-depth analysis of Turing's almost forgotten ideas on connectionist machines. In a little known paper entitled "Intelligent Machinery", Turing already investigated connectionist models as early as 1948. Unfortunately, his work was dismissed by his employer as a "schoolboy essay" and went unpublished until 1968, 14 years after his death.In this book, Christof Teuscher analyzes all aspects of Turing's "unorganized machines". Turing himself also proposed a sort of genetic algorithm to train the networks. This idea has been resumed by the author and genetic algorithms are used to build and train Turing's unorganized machines. Teuscher's work starts from Turing's initial ideas, but importantly goes beyond them. Many new kinds of machines and new aspects are considered, e.g., hardware implementation, analysis of the complex dynamics of the networks, hypercomputation, and learning algorithms.

This volume looks at financial prediction from a broad range of perspectives. It covers: - the economic arguments - the practicalities of the markets - how predictions are used - how predictions are made - how predictions are turned into something usable (asset locations) It combines a discussion of standard theory with state-of-the-art material on a wide range of information processing techniques as applied to cutting-edge financial problems. All the techniques are demonstrated with real examples using actual market data, and show that it is possible to extract information from very noisy, sparse data sets. Aimed primarily at researchers in financial prediction, time series analysis and information processing, this book will also be of interest to quantitative fund managers and other professionals involved in financial prediction.

It is generally understood that the present approachs to computing do not have the performance, flexibility, and reliability of biological information processing systems. Although there is a comprehensive body of knowledge regarding how information processing occurs in the brain and central nervous system this has had little impact on mainstream computing so far. This book presents a broad spectrum of current research into biologically inspired computational systems and thus contributes towards developing new computational approaches based on neuroscience. The 39 revised full papers by leading researchers were carefully selected and reviewed for inclusion in this anthology. Besides an introductory overview by the volume editors, the book offers topical parts on modular organization and robustness, timing and synchronization, and learning and memory storage.

This book constitutes, together with its companion LNCS 2084, the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Work-Conference on Artificial and Natural Neural Networks, IWANN 2001, held in Granada, Spain in June 2001. The 200 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. The papers are organized in sections on foundations of connectionism, biophysical models of neurons, structural and functional models of neurons, learning and other plasticity phenomena, complex systems dynamics, artificial intelligence and cognitive processes, methodology for nets design, nets simulation and implementation, bio-inspired systems and engineering, and other applications in a variety of fields.

The papers in this volume present theoretical insights and reports on successful applications of articifical neural networks and genetic algorithms. A dual affinity with biology is shown as several papers deal with cognition, neurocontrol, and biologically inspired brain models and others describe successful applications of computational methods to biology and environmental science. Theoretical contributions cover a variety of topics including nonlinear approximation by feedforward networks, representation of spiking perceptrons by classical ones, recursive networks and associative memories, learning and generalization, population attractors, and proposal and analysis of new genetic operators or measures. These theoretical studies are augmented by a wide selection of application-oriented papers on topics ranging from signal processing, control, pattern recognition and times series prediction to routing tasks. To keep track of the rapid development of the field of computational intelligence, the scope of the conference has been extended to hybrid methods and tools for which neural networks and evolutionary algorithms are combined with methods of soft computing, fuzzy logic, probabilistic computing, and symbolic artificial intelligence, to computer-intensive methods in control and data processing, and to data mining in meteorology and air pollution.

Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is a fast developing area of intense research interest. Following on from Self-Organising Neural Networks: Independent Component Analysis and Blind Signal Separation, this book reviews the significant developments of the past year.It covers topics such as the use of hidden Markov methods, the independence assumption, and topographic ICA, and includes tutorial chapters on Bayesian and variational approaches. It also provides the latest approaches to ICA problems, including an investigation into certain "hard problems" for the very first time.Comprising contributions from the most respected and innovative researchers in the field, this volume will be of interest to students and researchers in computer science and electrical engineering; research and development personnel in disciplines such as statistical modelling and data analysis; bio-informatic workers; and physicists and chemists requiring novel data analysis methods.