From its early beginnings in the fifties and sixties, the field of neural networks has been steadily developing to become one of the most interdisciplinary areas of research within computer science. This volume contains selected papers from WIRN Vietri-98, the 10th Italian Workshop on Neural Nets, 21-23 May 1998, Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy. This annual event, sponsored amongst others by the IEEE Neural Network Council and the INNS/SIG Italy, brings together the best of research from all over the world. The papers cover a range of key topics within neural networks, including pattern recognition, signal processing, hybrid systems, mathematical models, hardware and software design, and fuzzy techniques. It also includes two review talks on a Morpho-Functional Model to Describe Variability Found at Hippocampal Synapses and Neural Networks and Speech Processing. By providing the reader with a comprehensive overview of recent research in this area, the volume makes a valuable contribution to the Perspectives in Neural Computing Series.

Inhalt

In Memory of Marco Protasi.- Computational Suspiciousness of Learning in Artificial Neural Nets.- Theoretical Approaches to On-Line Learning in Smooth Multilayer Networks.- A Morpho-Functional Model to Describe the Large Quantal Amplitude Variability at Hippocampal Synapses.- Combining Neural Networks and Hidden Markov Models for Speech Recognition.- Cellular Neural Networks - an Approach to Circuit Design and Information Processing.- Correlation Collapse under Persistent Input Derangement in the Nervous System - fitting pRAM Models for Thalamo-Cortical Circuits.- A New Incremental Strategy for Function Approximation by Radial Basis Function Neural Networks.- Soft-Competitive versus EM Learning in Cortical Map Modeling.- Spatio-Temporal Cortical Activity Patterns in Cognitive Tasks using fMRI.- Support Vector Machine for Nonparametric Binary Hypothesis Testing.- Learning the Amplitude of Activation Functions in Layered Networks.- The BRAIN Learning Algorithm.- Training Data Selection for Optimal Generalization with Noise Variance Reduction in Neural Networks.- Astronomical Object Recognition by Means of Neural Networks.- Learning to Balance a Pole on a Movable Cart Through RL - what can be Gained using Adaptive NN?- Mean-Field Neural Networks for Antenna Array Diagnostics.- Initial Letter Spotting as a Complementary Feature for Lexical Filtering of Cursive Words.- Visual Person Localizaton with Dynamic Neural Fields - Towards a Gesture Recognition System.- Phoneme Classification using a Rasta-PLP Pre-processing Algorithm and a Time Delay Neural Network - Performance Studies.- A Neural System for Remote Sensing Multispectral Image Classification.- Invariance of WNNs Performance for Pattern Recognition Testing Translated Image Input Spaces.- The CALMA Project.- Computer Assisted Library for MAmmography.- Exploitation of Fuzzy Information for Tokamak Plasma Shape Recognition.- New Results in Image Compression Trough M.A.I.A. Neural Networks.- The Effect of Public Sector on the Financial Sector - An NN Approach in a View of Complexity.- A Hybrid Framework for Indoor Robot Navigation.- Training Feedforward Neural Networks - Convergence and Robustness Analysis.- Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem using the Kohonen Network Incorporating Explicit Statistics.- Boosting Learning Algorithms for the Colorimetric Characterization of Color Printers.- Hand-written Character Recognition with Analog Feature Extraction Module.- A High Performances and High Versatility Reconfigurable System for Fast Prototyping of Digital Neural Network Based on FPGA.- A L-based Energy Function for SE Prediction.- Robust Processing of Visual Evoked Potentials.- Convergence Properties of the Circular Cascade Correlation Algorithm.- Neural Learning and Weight Flow o n Stiefel Manifold.- From Behaviour to VHDL - a CAD Environment for SPNNs.- Incremental Min-Max Network - Part 2 - Continuous and Discrete Spaces.- An Adaptable Boolean Neural Net Obtained by Connecting Seven Node Assemblies.- A Comparative Evaluation of Constructive Sequential Methods.- A Unified Approach to Sequential Constructive Methods.- SOMLib - a Distributed Digital Library System Based on Self-Organising Maps.- Incremental Min-Max Network - Part 1 - Continuous Spaces.- Tangent Models - Comparing the TD-Neuron Constructive Algorithm versus SVD Based Algorith.- A Neural Multi-Agent Architecture for an Autonomous Mobile Robot Control.