ESANN'2000 - special session - NN Applications in Medicine

[villmann@informatik.uni-leipzig.de]

Dear colleages,

I want to announce and to invite to submit contributions to the 
special session 

 "Neural Networks Applications in Medicine" 

organized by Thomas Villmann (Ujniversity Leipzig, Germany) and 
to be held on the 


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|                                                  |
|                    ESANN'2000                    |
|                                                  |
|              8th European Symposium              |
|           on Artificial Neural Networks          |
|                                                  |
|      Bruges (Belgium) - April 26-27-28, 2000     |
|                                                  |
|         Announcement and call for papers         |
|                                                  |
|            Deadline: 10 December 1999            |
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PROPOSAL
-------------------


Artificial neural networks can be taken as a special kind of learning 
and self-adapting data processing systems. The abilities to handle 
noisy and high-dimensional data, nonlinear 
problems, large data sets etc. using neural techniques have lead to 
an innumerous number of applications. A important area of 
applications is the medical research and data analysis. Thereby, 
we have to distinguish at least two main directions: the first one is 
the description of neural processes in brains by neural network 
models. The other one is the field of data analysis and related 
topics. The announced special session should be lightening the 
second item. The applications of neural networks for data 
processing in medicine open a wide cover of possible tasks. This 
leads to further developments also in the theory of neural networks. 
The applications include several techniques ranging from image 
processing, (non-linear) principle component analysis and 
dimension reduction, processing of noisy and/or incomplete data, 
time serie prediction, feature extraction and classification problems 
to the processing of non-metric data, i.e. categorial or ordinal data. 
The recent proposed approach of Blind Source Separation using 
neural networks also gives a possibility to solve the in medicine 
often occuring problem of data decorrelation. Neural network 
approaches as robust tools play in increasing role in real world 
application in medicine. In the proposed special session we want 
give examples of applications of neural networks in medicine which 
have lead to new developments in the neural network development. 
Thereby we focus on applications combining original ideas and new 
aspcets in neural network approaches with a real world task.

Authors are invited to submit contributions which can be in any 
area of medical research and applications as there are for example 
the following (but not restricted)

1.) image processing (NMR-spectroscopy, radiology, ...)
2.) time series prediction (EEG analysis, cardiology, sleep 
     detection, ...)
3.) pattern classification
4.) clustering, fuzzy clustering
5.) Blind Source Separation and Decorralation
6.) dimension and noise reduction
7.) evaluation of non-metric data (categorial/ ordinal data)

It should be emphasized that, in agreement with the scope of the 
ESANN, a strong theoretical background and new aspects of 
neural networks development are required for an acceptation of 
contributions.




Prospective authors are invited to submit

- six original copies of their manuscript (including at least two 
originals or very good copies without glued material, which will be used 
for the proceedings)
- one signed copy of the author submission form before December 10, 1999.
Authors are invited to join a floppy disk or CD with their contribution 
in (generic) PostScript or PDF format. Sorry, electronic or fax submissions
are not accepted.

Working language of the conference (including proceedings) is English.
The instructions to authors, together with the author submission form,
are available on the ESANN Web server:
       http://www.dice.ucl.ac.be/esann 

A printed version of these documents is also available through the
conference secretariat (please use email if possible).  Authors are
invited to follow the instructions to authors.  A LaTeX style file is
also available on the Web.

Authors must indicate their choice for oral or poster presentation on
the author submission form.  They must also sign a written agreement
that they will register to the conference and present the paper in
case of acceptation of their submission.  Authors of accepted papers
will have to register before February 28, 2000.  They will benefit
from the advance registration fee.

Submissions must be sent to:
       Michel Verleysen
       UCL - DICE
       3, place du Levant
       B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
       Belgium
       esann at dice.ucl.ac.be

All submissions will be acknowledged by fax or email before December
23, 1999.

Deadlines
---------
Submission of papers        December 10, 1999
Notification of acceptance  January 31, 2000
Symposium                   April 26-27-28, 2000

Registration fees
-----------------
              registration before         registration after
              March 17, 2000              March 17, 2000
Universities  BEF 16000                   BEF 17000
Industries    BEF 20000                   BEF 21000

The registration fee include the attendance to all sessions, the
lunches during the three days of the conference, the coffee breaks
twice a day, the conference dinner, and the proceedings.


__________________________________________________________

Dr. Thomas Villmann
University Leipzig - Clinic for Psychotherapy
Karl-Tauchnitz-Str. 25
04109 Leipzig
Germany 
Phone: +49 (0)341 9718868   Fax : +49 (0)341 2131257
email: villmann at informatik.uni-Leipzig.de
__________________________________________________________