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Neuron Digest Volume 13 Number 25
Neuron Digest Thursday, 14 Apr 1994 Volume 13 : Issue 25
Today's Topics:
COMPMED 94 FINAL SCHEDULE
"Conference in Hyderabad, India"
Bulk Data Types For Architecture Independence - a One day Meeting in London
Workshops on Neural Networks in Information Retrieval in Amsterdam
Send submissions, questions, address maintenance, and requests for old
issues to "neuron-request@psych.upenn.edu". The ftp archives are
available from psych.upenn.edu (130.91.68.31) in pub/Neuron-Digest or by
sending a message to "archive-server@psych.upenn.edu".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: COMPMED 94 FINAL SCHEDULE
From: mwitten@chpc.utexas.edu
Date: Tue, 05 Apr 1994 14:44:40 +0600
FINAL PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT
FIRST WORLD CONGRESS ON COMPUTATIONAL MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH
24-28 April 1994
Hyatt on the Lake, Austin, Texas
The final program for the First World Congress On Computational
Medicine and Public Health has now been set. Over 200 speakers
will be presenting work in a variety of applications areas
related to medicine and public health. Registration is still
open for attendees. Registration details and/or a copy of the
schedule at a glance, schedule-in-detail may be requested by
sending an email request to
compmed94@chpc.utexas.edu
or by calling
512-471-2472
or by faxing
512-471-2445
There is no ftp form of the conference schedule due to the
size of the file. We will be happy to fax/send a copy to anyone
who requests it. The conference proceedings will appear as
a series of volumes published by World Scientific. If you are
interested in possibly submitting a paper for the proceedings,
please contact
mwitten@chpc.utexas.edu
or call
512-471-2457
The overwhelming response to this congress has already
justified having a second world congress in the future. The tentative
schedule is to have in in 3 years. If you are interested in
participating at the 2nd World Congress On Computational Medicine
and Public Health, please contact
Dr. Matthew Witten
Congress Chair
mwitten@chpc.utexas.edu
------------------------------
Subject: "Conference in Hyderabad, India"
From: VEMURI@icdc.llnl.gov
Date: 06 Apr 1994 13:21:26 -0800
SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT
CALL FOR PAPERS
IEEE/IAS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
HYDERABAD, INDIA
JANUARY 5-7, 1995
IEEE INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION AND CONTROL
COSPONSORED BY
IEEE INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS SOCIETY
IEEE HYDERABAD SECTION
IEEE INDIA COUNCIL
TOPICS COVERED:
Expert Systems and Fuzzy logic Controllers
Genetic Algorithms in industrial control
Neural Nets in Industrial Automation and control
Intelligent Sensors, transducers, and actuators
Programmable controllers and Industrial Controllers
Distributed Computer Control Systems
Flexible Automation Systems
Real-Time Communications Networks and Controls
Energy Conservation Tools and Technologies
.Other topics can be added.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: English
PAPER DEADLINES
15 June 94 Receipt of Extended Abstract from Authors
16 August 94 Notification of Acceptance
14 October 94 Receipt of camera-ready full paper from authors
Prospective authors are requested to forward an extended abstract of their
proposed paper to the Selection Committee. Abstracts should indicate the name,
company affiliation, address, telephone number, FAX number, E-mail address
of each other.
NOTE: I see no guidelines on the length of an extended abstract. I suggest
that we interpret this to mean about two pages. - Rao Vemuri
NOTE: Guidelines on the paper format and visual aids will be sent to you
along with the acceptance letter from the conference committee.
NOTE: Papers with a strong applications orientation, case studies,
implementations, and tutorial topics dealing with "hands-on" topics,
implementations, and standards are encouraged.
TUTORIALS
Many pre-conference and post-conference tutorials are being
planned. If you have a proposal for a tutorial, please submit
your proposals by
15 June 1994
to the Technical Program Chair (USA) or the Technical Program Chair(INDIA)
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
GENERAL CHAIR:
DR. E. BHAGIRADHA RAO (INDIA)
ENGINEERING STAFF COLLEGE OF INDIA
KHAIRATABAD, HYDERABAD- 500 004, INDIA
EMAIL: ebrao%engsci@uunet.in
Technical Program Co-Chair (INDIA)
Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar
Director, Center for Development of Advanced Computing
Poona University Campus
PUNE 411 007, INDIA
Email: bhatkar@parcom.ernet.in
Technical Program Co-Chair (USA)
Dr. M. Safiuddin
President, STS International
2451 Wehrle Building, Suite F
Williamsville, NY 14211, USA
Tel: (716) 688-2056
Fax: (716) 688-2056
or,
Technical Program Volunteer (USA)
Dr. V. Rao Vemuri
Professor, Dept. of Applied Science
University of California at Davis
Livermore, CA 94550
Tel: (510) 424-4051
Fax: (510) 422-8681
Email: vemuri@icdc.llnl.gov
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING, PRESENTING A PAPER, ORGANIZING
A SESSION OR CONDUCTING A TUTORIAL, PLEASE CONTACT ANY OF THE ABOVE
INDIVIDUALS.
PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION TO YOUR FRIENDS. WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE
A LARGE INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION. START WORKING ON YOUR ABSTRACT NOW.
HyDERABAD:
Hyderabad is about 700 km from Bombay or Madras and about 1600 km from
Delhi. Goa, a popular tourist attraction is about an hour away by air.
January weather in Hyderabad is very pleasant. It is cool with no rain.
Temperatures range from 27C (81F) to 14C (57F).
If you intend to travel in N. India, it will be cold.
REGISTRATION FEES AND HOTELS:
At this time, I do not have this information. Generally the registration fees
at Indian conferences are nominal (from the US standpoint). But I will send
this information to you as soon as I get it.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
V. J. Bhatkar, C-DAC, Puna, India, Conference Co-Chair
M. Safiuddin, STS International, New York, USA, Co-chair
B. D. O. Anderson, Canberra, Australia
K. Baheti, NSF, USA
A. van Cauwenberghe, Zwijnaarde, Belgium
P. Deshpande, Louisville, USA
U. M. Gupta, Saskatchewan, Canada
A. Hossain, W. Lafayette, USA
K. Iizuka, Japan
J. Jaaksoo, Tallinn, Estonia
B. V. Jayawant, Sussex, U. K.
C. R. Kasarbada, Hyderabad, India
H. Kwakernak, The Netherlands
J. K. Pal, New Delhi, India
S. Parthasarathy, France
D. Popovic, Bremen, Germany
C. Satish, Hyderabad, India
M. Sundararajan, Singapore
S. G. Tsafestas, Athens, Greece
V. I. Utkin, Moscow, Russia
M. Vidyasagar, Bangalore, India
N. Viswanathan, Bangalore, India
K. Warwick, Reading, U. K.
T. Yoshikawa, Japan
S. Yurkovich, Columbus, OH, USA
------------------------------
Subject: Bulk Data Types For Architecture Independence - a One day Meeting in London
From: Ashok Gupta <gupta@prl.philips.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 07 Apr 1994 14:45:31 +0000
The British Computer Society
Parallel Processing Specialist Group
(BCS PPSG)
------------------------------------------------------------
** Bulk Data Types for Architecture Independence **
____________________________________________________________
A One Day Open Meeting with Invited Papers
Friday May 20 1994, Institute of Education, London, UK
Invited Speakers:
David Skillicorn, Queen's University, Canada
Murray Cole, Edinburgh University
Grant Malcolm, PRG, Oxford University
Richard Miller, PRG, Oxford University
Stewart Reddaway, Cambridge Parallel Processing
A key factor in the growth of parallel computing is the availability of portable
software. An attractive approach to portability lies in the provision of
high-level programming constructs over bulk data, and their mapping to parallel
architectures under the guidance of an appropriate cost calculus.
Bulk operations have been in use since their introduction in APL, but have been
understood much better recently. Bird-Meertens theory describes the operations
of greatest interest for composed data types and provides a wealth of
mathematical laws which can be used to transform and map algorithms for
specific parallel architectures. Data types to which this approach has been
applied include arrays, relations, lists, and trees.
Speakers will describe this strategy for parallel software development, explain
the underlying mathematics (at an accessible level), and illustrate the
approach.
The PPSG, founded in 1986, exists to foster development of parallel
architectures, languages and applications and to disseminate information on
parallel processing. Membership is completely open; you do not have to be a
member of the British Computer Society. For further information about the group
contact either of the following:
Chair: Mr A Gupta Membership Secretary: Dr N Tucker
Philips Research Labs Paradis Consultants
Cross Oak Lane East Berriow
Redhill Berriow Bridge
Surrey North Hill
UK nr. Launceston
RH1 5HA Cornwall PL15 7NL, UK
gupta@prl.philips.co.uk paradis@cix.compulink.co.uk
***************************************************************
* Please share this information and display this announcement *
***************************************************************
The British Computer Society Parallel Processing Specialist Group
Booking Form/Invoice BCS VAT No. : 440-3490-76
Please reserve a place at the Conference on Bulk Data Types for Architecture
Independence, London, May 20 1994, for the individual(s) named below.
Name of delegate BCS membership no. Fee VAT Total
(if applicable)
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Cheques, in pounds sterling, should be made payable to "BCS Parallel Processing
Specialist Group". Unfortunately credit card bookings cannot be accepted.
The delegate fees (including lunch and refreshments), in pounds sterling, are :
Members of both PPSG & BCS: 55 + 9.62 VAT = 64.62
PPSG or BCS members: 70 + 12.25 VAT = 82.25
Non members: 90 + 15.75 VAT = 105.75
Full-time students: 25 + 4.37 VAT = 29.37
(Students should provide a letter of endorsement from their supervisor that also
clearly details their institution)
Contact Address: ___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Email address: ___________________________________________
Date: _________________
Day time telephone: _________________
Places are limited so please return this form as soon as possible to :
Mrs C. Cunningham
BCS PPSG
2 Mildenhall Close, Lower Earley,
Reading, RG6 3AT, UK
(Phone +44 (0) 734 665570)
......................................................................
Apologies for the multiple postings.
------------------------------
Subject: Workshops on Neural Networks in Information Retrieval in Amsterdam
From: "Johannes C. Scholtes" <100322.250@CompuServe.COM>
Date: 03 Apr 1994 15:26:03 -0400
Preliminary Program
Neural Networks and Information Retrieval in a Libraries Context
Amsterdam , The Netherlands
Friday June 24, 1994 and Friday September 16, 1994
M.S.C. Information Retrieval Technologies BV, based in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, is currently undertaking a study on Neural Networks and
Information Retrieval in a Libraries Context, in collaboration with the
Department of Computational Linguistics of the University of Amsterdam and
the Department of Information Technology and Information Science at
Amsterdam Polytechnic. This study is funded by the European Commission as a
complementary measure under the Libraries Programme
In this study the general application of artificial neural net (ANN)
technology to information retrieval (IR) problems is investigated in a
libraries context. Typical applications of this technology are advanced
interface design, current awareness, SDI, fuzzy search and concept
formation.
In order to discuss and disseminate the results obtained through this
study, two one-day workshops will be organized by M.S.C. Information
Retrieval Technologies BV, the first one after compilation of the State of
the Art Report and the second one after completion of the prototyping and
experimentation phase.
During both workshops, there will be much room for discussions on how to
commercialise such applications of ANN in a libraries context.
Both workshops are open to participants from other organizations,
commercial and academic, that are interested in various applications of
ANNs in existing libraries systems.
For who:
Interesting for all:
- Computer Companies
- Information Management and Supply Companies
- Government Agencies
- Libraries
- Universities and Polytechniques
That are Interested in:
- Neural Networks
- Information Retrieval
- Libraries Sciences
- Natural Language Processing
- Advanced Computer Science
- Data compression
For applications such as:
- Current Awareness
- Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI)
- Information Filtering
- Automatic Contents Based Information Distribution
- Categorization
- Advanced Interface Design
- Fuzzy Retrieval (Information recognized by Optical Character
Recognition
and Speech Recognition).
- Retrieval Generalization
- Thesaurus Generation
- Information Compression
- Juke box staging
General Information
Costs per participant for both days:
Commercial companies Dfl. 950,-
Universities and non-profit institutions (*) Dfl.
500,-
Students (*) Dfl. 150,-
(*) Letter of university or non-profit institution must be shown at
registration
These costs include:
Workshop Proceedings
State of the Art report on Neural Networks
in Information Retrieval as composed by
MSC
Achievements report on Neural Networks in
Information Retrieval as composed by MSC
Ongoing coffee & tea
Lunch
Diner
Future mailings on progress
Limited availability of travel grants for
students (please apply)
All other expenses such as traveling,
hotels, short stays, etc.
are
not included in the fee.
Payment
The following payment methods are accepted:
1. Credit Cards
2. Prepayment by bank
3. Personal cheques
More information:
M.S.C. Information Retrieval Technologies BV
Dr Johannes C. Scholtes
Dufaystraat 1
1075 GR AMSTERDAM
the Netherlands
Telephone: +31 20 679 4273
Fax: +31 20 6710 793
Internet: 100322.250@compuserve.com or
scholtes@msc.mhs.compuserve.com
Compuserve: MHS: SCHOLTES@MSC or
100322,250
Background & Introduction
Recent research of artificial neural networks (ANN) in the field of
pattern recognition and pattern classification applications has provided
successful alternatives of traditional techniques. Products applied for
optical character recognition (OCR), speech recognition, hand-written
character recognition and prediction of non-linear time series are good
examples of commercialization of these ANN techniques.
So far, the European Commission has funded more than 40 projects of
different sizes under the ESPRIT and other programmes which involve
research on or the application of ANN technology.
The task of Information Retrieval (IR), that is the matching of a large
number of documents against a query, can also been seen as a pattern
recognition or pattern classification task. Therefore, there have been
several approaches to the application of ANN in IR in order to increase the
quality of the retrieval process.
Despite the theoretical and practical evidence that ANN are good tools for
pattern recognition tasks, it is still an open question whether they are
appropriate tools within the specific domain of Bibliographic Information
Retrieval. Apart from some minor studies it seems no real attempt has been
made up until now to integrate an ANN as a main component of a
bibliographical information retrieval system or an on-line library
catalogue (OPAC). It is therefore not clear whether and how ANN techniques
can be combined with more "classical" methods, for instance rule-based or
statistical approaches. By the same token it is not clear either to what
extent existing OPACs could benefit from ANN technology.
Objectives
The objectives of this study are:
to ascertain the State-of-the-Art of the application of Artificial Neural
Net (ANN) technology to Information Retrieval (IR), with particular
emphasis on bibliographic information in a libraries context;
to assess the (potential) quality of ANN-based approaches to IR in this
particular domain of interest, in comparison with traditional practices.
Here "quality must be understood in terms of both (measurable) efficiency
and practical benefits;
to stimulate interest in the practical application of ANN technology to
bibliographic information retrieval in a libraries context.
Information Retrieval
It can be stated that Information Retrieval (IR) is the ultimate
combination between Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial
Intelligence (AI). On the one hand there is an enormous amount of NLP data
that needs to be processed and understood to return the proper information
to the user. On the other hand, one needs to understand what the user
intends with his or her query given the context of the other queries and
some kind of user model.
Most of these systems still use techniques that were developed over thirty
years ago and that implement nothing more than a global surface analysis of
the textual (layout) properties. No deep structure whatsoever is
incorporated in the decision to whether or not retrieve a text.
There is one large dilemma in IR research. The data collections are so
incredibly large, that any method other than a global surface analysis
would fail. However, such a global analysis could never implement a
contextually sensitive method to restrict the number of possible candidates
returned by the retrieval system.
Information retrieval can also be a very frustrating area of research.
Whenever one invents a new model, it is difficult to show that it works
better (qualitatively and quantitatively) than any previous model. The
addition of new dependencies often results in much too slow a system.
Systems such as Salton's SMART exist for over 30 years without having any
serious competition.
The field of information retrieval would be greatly indebted to a method
that could incorporate more context without slowing down. Since computers
are only capable of processing numbers within reasonable time limits, such
a method should be based on vectors of numbers rather than on symbol
manipulations. This is exactly where the challenge lies: on the one hand
keep up the speed, and on the other incorporate more context.
Artificial Neural Networks
The connectionist approach offers a massively parallel, highly distributed
and highly interconnected solution for the integration of various kinds of
knowledge, with preservation of generality. It might be that connectionism
or neural networks (despite all currently unsolved questions concerning
learning, stability, recursion, firing rules, network architecture, etc.),
will contribute to the research in natural-language processing and
information retrieval.
Distributed data representation may solve many of the unsolved problems in
IR by introducing a powerful and efficient knowledge integration and
generalization tool. However, distributed data representation and
self-organization trigger new problems that should be solved in an elegant
manner.
Current Problems in Information Retrieval
The main objectives of current IR research can be characterised as the
search for systems that exhibit adaptive behaviour, interactive behaviour
and transparency. More specifically, these models should implement
properties for:
Understanding incomplete queries or making incomplete matches,
Understanding vague user intentions,
Ability to generalise over queries as well as over query results,
Adapting to the needs of an evolving user (model),
Allowing dynamic relevance feed-back,
Aid for the user to browse intelligently through the data, and
Addition of (language) context sensitivity.
Different Approaches in Information Retrieval and Neural NetworksTwo main
directions of neural network related research information retrieval can be
observed.
First, there are relatively static databases that are investigated with a
dynamic query (free text search, also known as document retrieval systems).
Next, there are the more dynamic databases that need to be filtered with
respect to a relatively static query (the filtering problem also known as
current awareness systems and Selective Dissemination of Information, SDI).
In the first case the data can be preprocessed due to their static
character. In the second case, the amounts of data are so large that there
is no time whatsoever for a preprocessing phase. A direct context-sensitive
hit-and-go must be made.
Early neural models adapt well to the paradigms currently used in
information retrieval. Index terms can be replaced by processing units,
hyperlinks by connections between units, and network training resembles the
index normalisation process. However, these models do not adapt well to the
general notion of neural networks.
In addition, it is difficult to imagine what to teach a neural information
retrieval system if it is used as a supervised training algorithm. The
address space will almost always be too limited due to the large amounts of
data to be processed. A combination of structured (query, retrieved
document numbers) pairs does not seem plausible either, considering the
restricted amount of memory of (current) neural network technology.
Nevertheless, most of the neural IR models found in literature are based on
these principles.
Also problematic are the so-called clustering networks. Due to the large
amounts of data in free text databases, clustering is very expensive and is
therefore considered irrelevant in changing information retrieval
environments.
More interesting are the unsupervised, associative memory type of models,
that can be used to implement a specific pattern matching task. This type
of neural networks can be particularly useful in a filtering application.
Here, the memory demands of the neural network only need to fulfil the
query (or interest) size, and not the size of the entire data base. It is
in this area where neural networks are expected to be most useful and
relevant for information retrieval.
Especially topics such as fuzzy retrieval, current awareness, SDI, concept
formation and advanced interface design are in the scope of the project.
However, input from the workshops is very important for the final
determination of the direction of the research.
Program
Day 1: June 24, 1994
9.15-9.30 Welcome and Introduction
Dr Ir Johannes C. Scholtes, President of
MSC Information Retrieval Technologies
B.V.
9.30-11.00 Tutorial Neural Networks (Back Propagation
Kohonen Feature Maps) Dr
Ir Johan Henseler,
Forensic Laboratories, Head of
Section Computer Criminality
11.00-11.15 Break
11.15-12.30 Information Retrieval Application in Libraries
Dr E. Sieverts, Professor at Amsterdam
Polytechnique. Library Program
12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-15.00 Presentation Findings & State of the Art
Report
15.00-15.15 Break
15.15-16.00 Directions for (Commercial) Applications
Dr ir Johannes C. Scholtes
16.00-17.00 Panel Discussion
17.00-18.00 Reception
19.00-... Diner and evening program
Day 2: September 16, 1994
9.15-9.30 Welcome and Introduction
Dr Ir Johannes C. Scholtes. President of
MSC Information Retrieval Technologies B.V.
9.30-11.00 Achievements
Dr Ir Johannes C. Scholtes. President of
MSC Information Retrieval Technologies
B.V. & Dr E. Sieverts. Professor at Amsterdam
Polytechnique Library Program
11.00 - 12.30 Hands on demonstrations
12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-15.00 Problem Issues by Dr E. Sieverts.
Professor at Amsterdam
Polytechnique. Library
Program
15.00-15.15 Break
15.15-16.00 Commercial Implications by Dr Ir Johannes C. Scholtes.
President of MSC Information
Retrieval Technologies B.V.
16.00-17.00 Panel Discussion
17.00-18.00 Reception
19.00-... Diner and evening program
During the day, demo's of the prototypes will be available to the
participants of the workshop. Each demo will be guided by a specialist who
demonstrates the software
------------------------------
End of Neuron Digest [Volume 13 Issue 25]
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