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.

Neural Networks are a new, interdisciplinary tool for information processing. Neurocomputing being successfully introduced to structural problems which are difficult or even impossible to be analysed by standard computers (hard computing). The book is devoted to foundations and applications of NNs in the structural mechanics and design of structures.

This book contains the proceedings of the conference ANNIMAB-l, held 13-16 May 2000 in Goteborg, Sweden. The conference was organized by the Society for Artificial Neural Networks in Medicine and Biology (ANNIMAB-S), which was established to promote research within a new and genuinely cross-disciplinary field. Forty-two contributions were accepted for presentation; in addition to these, S invited papers are also included. Research within medicine and biology has often been characterised by application of statistical methods for evaluating domain specific data. The growing interest in Artificial Neural Networks has not only introduced new methods for data analysis, but also opened up for development of new models of biological and ecological systems. The ANNIMAB-l conference is focusing on some of the many uses of artificial neural networks with relevance for medicine and biology, specifically: * Medical applications of artificial neural networks: for better diagnoses and outcome predictions from clinical and laboratory data, in the processing of ECG and EEG signals, in medical image analysis, etc. More than half of the contributions address such clinically oriented issues. * Uses of ANNs in biology outside clinical medicine: for example, in models of ecology and evolution, for data analysis in molecular biology, and (of course) in models of animal and human nervous systems and their capabilities. * Theoretical aspects: recent developments in learning algorithms, ANNs in relation to expert systems and to traditional statistical procedures, hybrid systems and integrative approaches.

This volume provides an overview of important work carried out by Professor Walter Freeman of the University of Berkeley, California, USA. Collecting together his published works over the last 35 years, it charts his groundbreaking research into perception and other cognitive operations in animals and humans and looks at how this can be applied to computer hardware to provide the foundations for novel - and greatly improved - machine intelligence. It provides a step-by-step description of the concepts and data needed by electrical engineers, computer scientists and cognitivists to understand and emulate pattern recognition in biological systems at a level of competence which has not yet been matched by any form of Artificial Intelligence. It offers a unique blend of theory and experiment and, historically, it also demonstrates the impact of computers on the design, execution, and interpretation of experiments in neurophysiology over the past five decades.

Control of Flexible-link Manipulators Using Neural Networks addresses the difficulties that arise in controlling the end-point of a manipulator that has a significant amount of structural flexibility in its links. The non-minimum phase characteristic, coupling effects, nonlinearities, parameter variations and unmodeled dynamics in such a manipulator all contribute to these difficulties. Control strategies that ignore these uncertainties and nonlinearities generally fail to provide satisfactory closed-loop performance. This monograph develops and experimentally evaluates several intelligent (neural network based) control techniques to address the problem of controlling the end-point of flexible-link manipulators in the presence of all the aforementioned difficulties. To highlight the main issues, a very flexible-link manipulator whose hub exhibits a considerable amount of friction is considered for the experimental work. Four different neural network schemes are proposed and implemented on the experimental test-bed. The neural networks are trained and employed as online controllers.

Neural networks have had considerable success in a variety of disciplines including engineering, control, and financial modelling. However a major weakness is the lack of established procedures for testing mis-specified models and the statistical significance of the various parameters which have been estimated. This is particularly important in the majority of financial applications where the data generating processes are dominantly stochastic and only partially deterministic. Based on the latest, most significant developments in estimation theory, model selection and the theory of mis-specified models, this volume develops neural networks into an advanced financial econometrics tool for non-parametric modelling. It provides the theoretical framework required, and displays the efficient use of neural networks for modelling complex financial phenomena. Unlike most other books in this area, this one treats neural networks as statistical devices for non-linear, non-parametric regression analysis.

The Self-Organizing Map (SOM), with its variants, is the most popular artificial neural network algorithm in the unsupervised learning category. Many fields of science have adopted the SOM as a standard analytical tool: in statistics,signal processing, control theory, financial analyses, experimental physics, chemistry and medicine. A new area is organization of very large document collections. The SOM is also one of the most realistic models of the biological brain functions.This new edition includes a survey of over 2000 contemporary studies to cover the newest results; the case examples were provided with detailed formulae, illustrations and tables; a new chapter on software tools for SOM was written, other chapters were extended or reorganized.

Fuzzy sets were introduced by Zadeh (1965) as a means of representing and manipulating data that was not precise, but rather fuzzy. Fuzzy logic pro vides an inference morphology that enables approximate human reasoning capabilities to be applied to knowledge-based systems. The theory of fuzzy logic provides a mathematical strength to capture the uncertainties associ ated with human cognitive processes, such as thinking and reasoning. The conventional approaches to knowledge representation lack the means for rep resentating the meaning of fuzzy concepts. As a consequence, the approaches based on first order logic and classical probablity theory do not provide an appropriate conceptual framework for dealing with the representation of com monsense knowledge, since such knowledge is by its nature both lexically imprecise and noncategorical. The developement of fuzzy logic was motivated in large measure by the need for a conceptual framework which can address the issue of uncertainty and lexical imprecision. Some of the essential characteristics of fuzzy logic relate to the following [242]. * In fuzzy logic, exact reasoning is viewed as a limiting case of ap proximate reasoning. * In fuzzy logic, everything is a matter of degree. * In fuzzy logic, knowledge is interpreted a collection of elastic or, equivalently, fuzzy constraint on a collection of variables. * Inference is viewed as a process of propagation of elastic con straints. * Any logical system can be fuzzified. There are two main characteristics of fuzzy systems that give them better performance fur specific applications.

This volume, written by leading researchers, presents methods of combining neural nets to improve their performance. The techniques include ensemble-based approaches, where a variety of methods are used to create a set of different nets trained on the same task, and modular approaches, where a task is decomposed into simpler problems. The techniques are also accompanied by an evaluation of their relative effectiveness and their application to a variety of problems.

This volume presents the theory and applications of self-organising neural network models which perform the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) transformation and Blind Source Separation (BSS). It is largely self-contained, covering the fundamental concepts of information theory, higher order statistics and information geometry. Neural models for instantaneous and temporal BSS and their adaptation algorithms are presented and studied in detail. There is also in-depth coverage of the following application areas; noise reduction, speech enhancement in noisy environments, image enhancement, feature extraction for classification, data analysis and visualisation, data mining and biomedical data analysis. Self-Organising Neural Networks will be of interest to postgraduate students and researchers in Connectionist AI, Signal Processing and Neural Networks, research and development workers, and technology development engineers and research engineers.

This is the third in a series of conferences devoted primarily to the theory and applications of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms. The first such event was held in Innsbruck, Austria, in April 1993, the second in Ales, France, in April 1995. We are pleased to host the 1997 event in the mediaeval city of Norwich, England, and to carryon the fine tradition set by its predecessors of providing a relaxed and stimulating environment for both established and emerging researchers working in these and other, related fields. This series of conferences is unique in recognising the relation between the two main themes of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms, each having its origin in a natural process fundamental to life on earth, and each now well established as a paradigm fundamental to continuing technological development through the solution of complex, industrial, commercial and financial problems. This is well illustrated in this volume by the numerous applications of both paradigms to new and challenging problems. The third key theme of the series, therefore, is the integration of both technologies, either through the use of the genetic algorithm to construct the most effective network architecture for the problem in hand, or, more recently, the use of neural networks as approximate fitness functions for a genetic algorithm searching for good solutions in an 'incomplete' solution space, i.e. one for which the fitness is not easily established for every possible solution instance.

Speech Processing, Recognition and Artificial Neural Networks contains papers from leading researchers and selected students, discussing the experiments, theories and perspectives of acoustic phonetics as well as the latest techniques in the field of spe ech science and technology. Topics covered in this book include; Fundamentals of Speech Analysis and Perceptron; Speech Processing; Stochastic Models for Speech; Auditory and Neural Network Models for Speech; Task-Oriented Applications of Automatic Speech Recognition and Synthesis.

This volume presents a neural network architecture for the prediction of conditional probability densities - which is vital when carrying out universal approximation on variables which are either strongly skewed or multimodal. Two alternative approaches are discussed: the GM network, in which all parameters are adapted in the training scheme, and the GM-RVFL model which draws on the random functional link net approach. Points of particular interest are: - it examines the modification to standard approaches needed for conditional probability prediction; - it provides the first real-world test results for recent theoretical findings about the relationship between generalisation performance of committees and the over-flexibility of their members; This volume will be of interest to all researchers, practitioners and postgraduate / advanced undergraduate students working on applications of neural networks - especially those related to finance and pattern recognition.

This is the first book that attempts to bring together what is known about the fundamental mechanisms that underlie the development of the cortex in mammals. Ranging from the emergence of the forebrain from the neural plate to the functioning adult form, the authors draw on evidence from several species to provide a detailed description of processes at each stage. Where appropriate, evidence is extrapolated from non-mammalian species to generate hypotheses about mammalian development. In contrast to other texts of developmental biology, Mechanisms of Cortical Development integrates information on regulatory processes at the levels of molecules, cells and metworks. The authors draw together an extensive literature on cellular development and structural morphology, biochemical and genetic events and hypotheses that have been subject to mathematical modelling. Important metholdogies, such as transgenics and formal modelling, are explained for the non-specialist. Major future challenges are clearly identified. This is a unique contribution to the literature, combining the fundamentals of experimental developmental neurobiology with accessible neural modelling. It will be essential reading for neuroscientists in general as well as those with a particular interest in development.

This volume will contain papers from the 5th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, University of Birmingham, UK, 8-10 September 1998. The theme of the workshop is Connectionist Models in Cognitive Neuroscience, a topic which covers many important issues ranging from modelling physiological structure, to cognitive function and its disorders in neuropsychological and psychiatric cases. The workshop is intended to bring together researchers from such diverse disciplines as artificial intelligence, applied mathematics, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, philosophy and psychology, to discuss their work on the connectionist modelling of psychology. The papers will provide a state of the art summary of ongoing research in this exciting and fast-moving field. As such this volume will provide a valuable contribution to the Perspectives in Neural Computing series.

In this monograph, new structures of neural networks in multidimensional domains are introduced. These architectures are a generalization of the Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP) in Complex, Vectorial and Hypercomplex algebra. The approximation capabilities of these networks and their learning algorithms are discussed in a multidimensional context. The work includes the theoretical basis to address the properties of such structures and the advantages introduced in system modelling, function approximation and control. Some applications, referring to attractive themes in system engineering and a MATLAB software tool, are also reported. The appropriate background for this text is a knowledge of neural networks fundamentals. The manuscript is intended as a research report, but a great effort has been performed to make the subject comprehensible to graduate students in computer engineering, control engineering, computer sciences and related disciplines.

This book constitutes, together with its compagnion LNCS 1606, the refereed proceedings of the International Work-Conference on Artificial and Neural Networks, IWANN'99, held in Alicante, Spain in June 1999.
The 91 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. This volume is devoted to applications of biologically inspired artificial neural networks in various engineering disciplines. The papers are organized in parts on artificial neural nets simulation and implementation, image processing, and engineering applications.

From the contents: Neural networks - theory and applications: NNs (= neural networks) classifier on continuous data domains- quantum associative memory - a new class of neuron-like discrete filters to image processing - modular NNs for improving generalisation properties - presynaptic inhibition modelling for image processing application - NN recognition system for a curvature primal sketch - NN based nonlinear temporal-spatial noise rejection system - relaxation rate for improving Hopfield network - Oja's NN and influence of the learning gain on its dynamics Genetic algorithms - theory and applications: transposition: a biological-inspired mechanism to use with GAs (= genetic algorithms) - GA for decision tree induction - optimising decision classifications using GAs - scheduling tasks with intertask communication onto multiprocessors by GAs - design of robust networks with GA - effect of degenerate coding on GAs - multiple traffic signal control using a GA - evolving musical harmonisation - niched-penalty approach for constraint handling in GAs - GA with dynamic population size - GA with dynamic niche clustering for multimodal function optimisation Soft computing and uncertainty: self-adaptation of evolutionary constructed decision trees by information spreading - evolutionary programming of near optimal NNs

This book constitutes, together with its compagnion LNCS 1607, the refereed proceedings of the International Work-Conference on Artificial and Natural Neural Networks, IWANN'99, held in Alicante, Spain in June 1999.
The 89 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. This volume is devoted to foundational issues of neural computation and tools for neural modeling. The papers are organized in parts on neural modeling: biophysical and structural models; plasticity phenomena: maturing, learning, and memory; and artificial intelligence and cognitive neuroscience.

This book comprises the articles of the 6th Econometric Workshop in Karlsruhe, Germany. In the first part approaches from traditional econometrics and innovative methods from machine learning such as neural nets are applied to financial issues. Neural Networks are successfully applied to different areas such as debtor analysis, forecasting and corporate finance. In the second part various aspects from Value-at-Risk are discussed. The proceedings describe the legal framework, review the basics and discuss new approaches such as shortfall measures and credit risk.

The 1997 Les Houches workshop on "Dynamical Network in Physics and Biology" was the third in a series of meetings "At the Frontier between Physics and Biology." Our objective with these workshops is to create a truly interdisciplinary forum for researchers working on outstanding problems in biology, but using different approaches (physical, chemical or biological). Generally speaking, the biologists are trained in the particular and motivated by the specifics, while, in contrast, the physicists deal with generic and "universal" models. All agree about the necessity of developing "robust" models. The specific aim of the workshop was to bridge the gap between physics and biology in the particular field of interconnected dynamical networks. The proper functioning of a living organism of any complexity requires the coordinated activity of a great number of "units." Units, or, in physical terms, degrees of freedom that couple to one another, typically form networks. The physical or biological properties of interconnected networks may drastically differ from those of the individual units: the whole is not simply an assembly of its parts, as can be demonstrated by the following examples. Above a certain (critical) concentration the metallic islands, randomly distributed in an insulating matrix, form an interconnected network. At this point the macroscopic conductivity of the system becomes finite and the amorphous metal is capable of carrying current. The value of the macroscopic conductivity typically is very different from the conductivity of the individual metallic islands.

Providing an in-depth treatment of neural network models, this volume explains and proves the main results in a clear and accessible way. It presents the essential principles of nonlinear dynamics as derived from neurobiology, and investigates the stability, convergence behaviour and capacity of networks. Also included are sections on stochastic networks and simulated annealing, presented using Markov processes rather than statistical physics, and a chapter on backpropagation. Each chapter ends with a suggested project designed to help the reader develop an integrated knowledge of the theory, placing it within a practical application domain. Neural Network Models: Theory and Projects concentrates on the essential parameters and results that will enable the reader to design hardware or software implementations of neural networks and to assess critically existing commercial products.

About This Book This book is about training methods - in particular, fast second-order training methods - for multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs). MLPs (also known as feed-forward neural networks) are the most widely-used class of neural network. Over the past decade MLPs have achieved increasing popularity among scientists, engineers and other professionals as tools for tackling a wide variety of information processing tasks. In common with all neural networks, MLPsare trained (rather than programmed) to carryout the chosen information processing function. Unfortunately, the (traditional' method for trainingMLPs- the well-knownbackpropagation method - is notoriously slow and unreliable when applied to many prac tical tasks. The development of fast and reliable training algorithms for MLPsis one of the most important areas ofresearch within the entire field of neural computing. The main purpose of this book is to bring to a wider audience a range of alternative methods for training MLPs, methods which have proved orders of magnitude faster than backpropagation when applied to many training tasks. The book also addresses the well-known (local minima' problem, and explains ways in which fast training methods can be com bined with strategies for avoiding (or escaping from) local minima. All the methods described in this book have a strong theoretical foundation, drawing on such diverse mathematical fields as classical optimisation theory, homotopic theory and stochastic approximation theory.

This volume collects together refereed versions of twenty-five papers presented at the 4th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, held at University College London in April 1997. The "NCPW" workshop series is now well established as a lively forum which brings together researchers from such diverse disciplines as artificial intelligence, mathematics, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, philosophy and psychology to discuss their work on connectionist modelling in psychology. The general theme of this fourth workshop in the series was "Connectionist Repre sentations," a topic which not only attracted participants from all these fields, but from allover the world as well. From the point of view of the conference organisers focusing on representational issues had the advantage that it immediately involved researchers from all branches of neural computation. Being so central both to psychology and to connectionist modelling, it is one area about which everyone in the field has their own strong views, and the diversity and quality of the presentations and, just as importantly, the discussion which followed them, certainly attested to this."

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Evolutionary Programming, EP 97, held in Indianapolis, IN, USA, in April 1997.
The 36 revised full papers presented were carefully selected for inclusion in the proceedings. The papers are organized in sections on evolutionary methods for modeling and training, alternative frameworks for the computational study of evolutionary social systems, genetic programming: issues and applications, issues in evolutionary optimization, enhanced evolutionary operators, theory and analysis of evolutionary computations, issues in adaptability: theory and practice, and evolution and NP-hard problems.