Joan Cabestany - Böcker

Late-20th-century advances in IC technologies have brought further challenges into the physical design of integrated systems. The emphasis on system performance in present-day applications requires timing and power constraints to be considered at each stage of physical design. The size of ICs is decreasing continually, and the density of power dissipated in the circuits is growing. This text presents a variety of topics in the area of microelectronics design and microsystems, written by contributors in the fields of technology, modelling, analogue and digital filters design, signal processing, neural network design, thermal design, design methodologies, electromagnetic compatibility, sensors and actuators, advanced testing methods and reliability, power devices and Smart-Power modules. The book is divided into five parts: analogue circuit design; power devices; thermal aspects; microsystems and neural networks; design methodologies; and advanced trends in microelectronics education.

Very fast advances in IC technologies have brought new challenges into the physical design of integrated systems. The emphasis on system performance, in lately developed applications, requires timing and power constraints to be considered at each stage of physical design. The size of ICs is decreasing continuously, and the density of power dissipated in the circuits is growing rapidly. The first challenge is the Information Technology where new materials, devices, telecommunication and multimedia facilities are developed. The second one is the Biomedical Science and Biotechnology. The utilisation of bloodless surgery is possible now because of wide micro-sensors and micro-actuators application. Nowadays, the modern micro systems can be implanted directly into the human body and the medicine can be applied right in the proper time and place in the patient body. The low-power devices are being developed particularly for medical and space applications. This has created for designers in all scientific domains new possibilities which must be handed down to the future generations of designers. In this spirit, we organised the Fourth International Workshop "MIXED DESIGN OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS" in order to provide an international forum for discussion and the exchange of information on education, teaching experiences, training and technology transfer in the area of microelectronics and microsystems.

This biennial meeting focuses on the foundations, theory, models and applications of systems inspired by nature (neural networks, fuzzy logic and evolutionary systems).

Neural computation arises from the capacity of nervoustissue to process information and accumulate knowledge in anintelligent manner. Conventional computational machines haveencountered enormous difficulties in duplicatingsuchfunctionalities. This has given rise to the development ofArtificial Neural Networks where computation is distributedover a great number of local processing elements with a highdegree of connectivityand in which external programming isreplaced with supervised and unsupervised learning. The papers presented in this volume are carefully reviewedversions of the talks delivered at the InternationalWorkshop on Artificial Neural Networks (IWANN '93) organizedby the Universities of Catalonia and the Spanish OpenUniversity at Madrid and held at Barcelona, Spain, in June1993. The 111 papers are organized in seven sections:biological perspectives, mathematical models, learning,self-organizing networks, neural software, hardwareimplementation, and applications (in five subsections:signal processing and pattern recognition, communications,artificial vision, control and robotics, and otherapplications).

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN'97, held in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, in June 1997.The volume presents 142 revised full papers selected from an overwhelming wealth of submissions. The volume is divided into sections on biological foundations of neural computation, formal tools and computational models of neurons and neural nets architectures, plasticity phenomena, complex systems dynamics, cognitive science and AI, neural nets simulation, emulation and implementation, methodology for data analysis, task selection and net design, neural networks for perception, and neural networks for communications, control and robotics.

We present in this volume the collection of finally accepted papers for the ninth e- tion of the IWANN conference (“International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks”). This biennial meeting focuses on the foundations, theory, models and applications of systems inspired by nature (neural networks, fuzzy logic and evo- tionary systems). Since the first edition of IWANN in Granada (LNCS 540, 1991), the computational intelligence community and the domain itself have matured and evolved. Under the computational intelligent banner we find a very heterogeneous scenario with a main interest and objective: to better understand nature and natural entities for the correct elaboration of theories, models and new algorithms. For scientifics, engineers and professionals working in the area, this is a very good way to get real, solid and c- petitive applications. More and more, these new computational techniques are used in applications that try to bring a new situation of well-being to the user. The conjunction of a more and more miniaturized hardware together with the growing computational intelligence embodied in this hardware leads us towards fully integrated embedded systems-on- chip and opens the door for truly ubiquitous electronics.

This volume presents the set of final accepted papers for the tenth edition of the IWANN conference “International Work-Conference on Artificial neural Networks” held in Salamanca (Spain) during June 10–12, 2009. IWANN is a biennial conference focusing on the foundations, theory, models and applications of systems inspired by nature (mainly, neural networks, evolutionary and soft-computing systems). Since the first edition in Granada (LNCS 540, 1991), the conference has evolved and matured. The list of topics in the successive Call for - pers has also evolved, resulting in the following list for the present edition: 1. Mathematical and theoretical methods in computational intelligence. C- plex and social systems. Evolutionary and genetic algorithms. Fuzzy logic. Mathematics for neural networks. RBF structures. Self-organizing networks and methods. Support vector machines. 2. Neurocomputational formulations. Single-neuron modelling. Perceptual m- elling. System-level neural modelling. Spiking neurons. Models of biological learning. 3. Learning and adaptation. Adaptive systems. Imitation learning. Reconfig- able systems. Supervised, non-supervised, reinforcement and statistical al- rithms. 4. Emulation of cognitive functions. Decision making. Multi-agent systems. S- sor mesh. Natural language. Pattern recognition. Perceptual and motor functions (visual, auditory, tactile, virtual reality, etc.). Robotics. Planning motor control. 5. Bio-inspired systems and neuro-engineering. Embedded intelligent systems. Evolvable computing. Evolving hardware. Microelectronics for neural, fuzzy and bio-inspired systems. Neural prostheses. Retinomorphic systems. Bra- computer interfaces (BCI). Nanosystems. Nanocognitive systems.

This two-volume set LNCS 6691 and 6692 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN 2011, held in Torremolinos-Málaga, Spain, in June 2011. The 154 revised papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 202 submissions for presentation in two volumes. The second volume includes 76 papers organized in topical sections on video and image processing; hybrid artificial neural networks: models, algorithms and data; advances in machine learning for bioinformatics and computational biomedicine; biometric systems for human-machine interaction; data mining in biomedicine; bio-inspired combinatorial optimization; applying evolutionary computation and nature-inspired algorithms to formal methods; recent advances on fuzzy logic and soft computing applications; new advances in theory and applications of ICA-based algorithms; biological and bio-inspired dynamical systems; and interactive and cognitive environments. The last section contains 9 papers from the International Workshop on Intelligent Systems for Context-Based Information Fusion, ISCIF 2011, held at IWANN 2011.

This two-volume set LNCS 6691 and 6692 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN 2011, held in Torremolinos-Málaga, Spain, in June 2011. The 154 revised papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 202 submissions for presentation in two volumes. The first volume includes 69 papers organized in topical sections on mathematical and theoretical methods in computational intelligence; learning and adaptation; bio-inspired systems and neuro-engineering; hybrid intelligent systems; applications of computational intelligence; new applications of brain-computer interfaces; optimization algorithms in graphic processing units; computing languages with bio-inspired devices and multi-agent systems; computational intelligence in multimedia processing; and biologically plausible spiking neural processing.

This two-volume set LNCS 7902 and 7903 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN 2013, held in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain, in June 2013. The 116 revised papers were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions for presentation in two volumes. The papers explore sections on mathematical and theoretical methods in computational intelligence, neurocomputational formulations, learning and adaptation emulation of cognitive functions, bio-inspired systems and neuro-engineering, advanced topics in computational intelligence and applications

This two-volume set LNCS 7902 and 7903 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN 2013, held in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain, in June 2013.

A new information and communication technology (ICT) has been deployed in the battle against Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that is both progressive and disabling with significant impact on quality of life. This book explains the experience following from the achieved results in the REMPARK project on Parkinson’s disease management up to the launch of a new medical product to the European market, STAT-ON™.The new medical device, STAT-ON™ is a real Holter for the motor symptoms associated to PD. It provides objective information about the severity and distribution of PD motor symptoms and their fluctuations in daily life, allowing for an unbiased and correct monitoring of the patient. This real-time remote monitoring solution gives additional information to neurologists, opening up new possibilities for more effective treatment, more accurate control in clinical trials, and for early detection of motor complications.The number of PD patients is continuously rising, adding complexity, especially in the management at the level of public health. It is an incurable disease, with a symptomatic treatment that tries to alleviate the associated symptoms through a correct adjustment of the medication. For this reason, it is also very important to be aware of changes in the manifestation of the symptoms, which may indicate the need for an adjustment or even a change in the therapy strategy.The intensive complementary use of STAT-ON™ by neurologists, health professionals and researchers, will increase the independence and quality of life of patients, improving their disease management, and contributing to a deeper understanding of the nature of the disease.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC)] 4.0 license.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that manifests with motor and non-motor symptoms. PD treatment is symptomatic and tries to alleviate the associated symptoms through an adjustment of the medication. As the disease is evolving and this evolution is patient specific, it could be very difficult to properly manage the disease.The current available technology (electronics, communication, computing, etc.), correctly combined with wearables, can be of great use for obtaining and processing useful information for both clinicians and patients allowing them to become actively involved in their condition.Parkinson's Disease Management through ICT: The REMPARK Approach presents the work done, main results and conclusions of the REMPARK project (2011 – 2015) funded by the European Union under contract FP7-ICT-2011-7-287677. REMPARK system was proposed and developed as a real Personal Health Device for the Remote and Autonomous Management of Parkinson’s Disease, composed of different levels of interaction with the patient, clinician and carers, and integrating a set of interconnected sub-systems: sensor, auditory cueing, Smartphone and server. The sensor subsystem, using embedded algorithmics, is able to detect the motor symptoms associated with PD in real time. This information, sent through the Smartphone to the REMPARK server, is used for an efficient management of the disease.