In the quest to understand and model the healthy or sick human body, re searchers and medical doctors are utilizing more and more quantitative tools and techniques. This trend is pushing the envelope of a new field we call Biomedical Computing, as an exciting frontier among signal processing, pattern recognition, optimization, nonlinear dynamics, computer science and biology, chemistry and medicine. A conference on Biocomputing was held during February 25-27, 2001 at the University of Florida. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Applied Optimization, the Computational Neuroengineering Center, the Biomedical En gineering Program (through a Whitaker Foundation grant), the Brain Institute, the School of Engineering, and the University of Florida Research & Graduate Programs. The conference provided a forum for researchers to discuss and present new directions in Biocomputing. The well-attended three days event was highlighted by the presence of top researchers in the field who presented their work in Biocomputing. This volume contains a selective collection of ref ereed papers based on talks presented at this conference. You will find seminal contributions in genomics, global optimization, computational neuroscience, FMRI, brain dynamics, epileptic seizure prediction and cancer diagnostics. We would like to take the opportunity to thank the sponsors, the authors of the papers, the anonymous referees, and Kluwer Academic Publishers for making the conference successful and the publication of this volume possible. Panos M. Pardalos and Jose C."

In the quest to understand and model the healthy or sick human body, re searchers and medical doctors are utilizing more and more quantitative tools and techniques. This trend is pushing the envelope of a new field we call Biomedical Computing, as an exciting frontier among signal processing, pattern recognition, optimization, nonlinear dynamics, computer science and biology, chemistry and medicine. A conference on Biocomputing was held during February 25-27, 2001 at the University of Florida. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Applied Optimization, the Computational Neuroengineering Center, the Biomedical En gineering Program (through a Whitaker Foundation grant), the Brain Institute, the School of Engineering, and the University of Florida Research & Graduate Programs. The conference provided a forum for researchers to discuss and present new directions in Biocomputing. The well-attended three days event was highlighted by the presence of top researchers in the field who presented their work in Biocomputing. This volume contains a selective collection of ref ereed papers based on talks presented at this conference. You will find seminal contributions in genomics, global optimization, computational neuroscience, FMRI, brain dynamics, epileptic seizure prediction and cancer diagnostics. We would like to take the opportunity to thank the sponsors, the authors of the papers, the anonymous referees, and Kluwer Academic Publishers for making the conference successful and the publication of this volume possible. Panos M. Pardalos and Jose C."

th These proceedings contain refereed papers presented at the 7 WSOM held at the Casa Monica Hotel, St. Augustine, Florida, June 8-10, 2009. We designed the wo- shop to serve as a regular forum for researchers in academia and industry who are interested in the exciting field of self-organizing maps (SOM). The program includes excellent examples of the use of SOM in many areas of social sciences, economics, computational biology, engineering, time series analysis, data visualization and c- puter science as well a vibrant set of theoretical papers that keep pushing the envelope of the original SOM. Our deep appreciation is extended to Teuvo Kohonen and Ping Li for the plenary talks and Amaury Lendasse for the organization of the special sessions. Our sincere thanks go to the members of the Technical Committee and other reviewers for their excellent and timely reviews, and above all to the authors whose contributions made this workshop possible. Special thanks go to Julie Veal for her dedication and hard work in coordinating the many details necessary to put together the program and local arrangements. Jose C. Principe Risto Miikkulainen

Develop New Insight into the Behavior of Adaptive Systems This one-of-a-kind interactive book and CD-ROM will help you develop a better understanding of the behavior of adaptive systems. Developed as part of a project aimed at innovating the teaching of adaptive systems in science and engineering, it unifies the concepts of neural networks and adaptive filters into a common framework. It begins by explaining the fundamentals of adaptive linear regression and builds on these concepts to explore pattern classification, function approximation, feature extraction, and time-series modeling/prediction. The text is integrated with the industry standard neural network/adaptive system simulator NeuroSolutions. This allows the authors to demonstrate and reinforce key concepts using over 200 interactive examples. Each of these examples is 'live,' allowing the user to change parameters and experiment first-hand with real-world adaptive systems. This creates a powerful environment for learning through both visualization and experimentation. Key Features of the Text
* The text and CD combine to become an interactive learning tool.
* Emphasis is on understanding the behavior of adaptive systems rather than mathematical derivations.
* Each key concept is followed by an interactive example.
* Over 200 fully functional simulations of adaptive systems are included.
* The text and CD offer a unified view of neural networks, adaptive filters, pattern recognition, and support vector machines.
* Hyperlinks allow instant access to keyword definitions, bibliographic references, equations, and advanced discussions of concepts.
The CD-ROM Contains:
* A complete, electronic version of the text in hypertext format
* NeuroSolutions, an industry standard, icon-based neural network/adaptive system simulator
* A tutorial on how to use NeuroSolutions
* Additional data files to use with the simulator
"An innovative approach to describing neurocomputing and adaptive learning systems from a perspective which unifies classical linear adaptive systems approaches with the modern advances in neural networks. It is rich in examples and practical insight." -James Zeidler, University of California, San Diego