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 a selection of papers from WIRN Vietri-99, the 11th Italian Workshop on Neural Nets. This annual event, sponsored, amongst others, by the IEEE Neural Networks Council and the INNS/SIG Italy, brings together the best of research from all over the world. The papers cover a range of topics within neural networks, including pattern recognition, signal and image processing, mathematical models, neuro-fuzzy models and economics applications.

This volume contains the proceedings of the 12th Italian Workshop on Neural Nets WIRN VIETRI-Ol, jointly organized by the International Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies "Eduardo R. Caianiello" (IIASS), the Societa Italiana Reti Neuroniche (SIREN), the IEEE NNC Italian RIG and the Italian SIG of the INNS. Following the tradition of previous years, we invited three foreign scientists to the workshop, Dr. G. Indiveri and Professors A. Roy and R. Sun, who respectively presented the lectures "Computation in Neuromorphic Analog VLSI Systems", "On Connectionism and Rule Extraction", "Beyond Simple Rule Extraction: Acquiring Planning Knowledge from Neural Networks" (the last two papers being part of the special session mentioned below). In addition, a review talk was presented, dealing with a very up-to-date topic: "NeuroJuzzy Approximator based on Mamdani's Model". A large part of the book contains original contributions approved by referees as oral or poster presentations, which have been assembled for reading convenience into three sections: Architectures and Algorithms, Image and Signal Processing, and Applications. The last part of the books contains the papers of the special Session "From Synapses to Rules". Our thanks go to Prof. B. Apolloni, who organized this section. Furthermore, two sections are dedicated to the memory of two great scientists who were friends in life, Professors Mark Aizerman and Eduardo R. Caianiello. The editors would like to thank the invited speakers, the review lecturers and all the contributors whose highly qualified papers helped with the success of the workshop.

The textbook aims to present general relativity and modern cosmology in a friendly form suitable for advanced undergraduates. The text begins with a self-contained introduction to the theory of manifolds and then develops the tools needed to understand curved spaces and curved spacetimes. Special relativity can then be understood in a geometrical context, bypassing some of the difficulties students have when encountering relativistic effects (e.g. time dilation and length contraction) for the first time. The theory of curvature and its effects leads to the Einstein field equations and its classic tests in the precession of Mercury and the deflection of starlight.The second part of the book covers modern cosmology, starting with the evolution equations for the expansion of the universe. The microwave background, evidence for dark matter, and the clustering of galaxies are examined in detail.

This volume contains selected papers from WIRN VIETRI-96, the 8th Italian Workshop on Neural Nets, held Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy, from 23-25 May 1996. The papers cover a variety of topics related to neural networks, including pattern recognition, signal processing, theoretical models, applications in science and industry, virtual reality, fuzzy systems, and software algorithms. By providing the reader with a comprehensive overview of recent research work in this area, the volume makes an invaluable contribution to the Perspectives in Neural Computing Series. Neural Nets - WIRN VIETRI-96 will provide invaluable reading material for anyone who needs to keep up to date with the latest developments in neural networks and related areas. It will be of particular interest to academic and industrial researchers, and postgraduate and graduate students.

This volume contains the proceedings of the seventh Italian Workshop on Neural Nets WIRN VIETRI '95, organized by the International Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies 'E R Caianiello' (IIASS) and Società Italiana Reti Neuroniche (SIREN).The spectrum of contributors and participants covers the activity of Italian research in the field. The papers of the two invited speakers, M J Jordan ('Sigmoid Belief Networks') and E Oja ('Principal and Independent Component Analysis'), and the two reviews ('Fast Learning Algorithms for Feedforward NN' and 'ANN Ensembles: a Bayesian Standpoint') complete the highly qualified contents of the volume.

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.