A BRIEF OVERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Abstract

This article is designed to acquaint professionals working in the field of substance use intervention with a range of artificial intelligence nonlinear, powerful tools, artificial neural networks, concepts, and paradigms. The family of ANNs, when appropriately selected and used, permits the maximization of what can be derived from available data as well as our studying and understanding the many people, processes, and phenomena which comprise substance use and its intervention. The latter represent complex, dynamic, multidimensional phenomena which are unpredictable and uncontrollable in the traditional “cause and effect” sense. As such they are likely to be nonlinear in their very essence. Using linear-based paradigms for planned intervention with nonlinear phenomena brooks the all-too-common possibility of using inappropriate intervention paradigms and/or drawing misleading conclusions about what is and/or has happened.

• Artificial neural networks

Notes

SOFTWARE

NeuralWorks Professional; NeuralWare Inc.: Pittsburgh, PA, 1995.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Massimo Buscema

Massimo Buscema is a computer scientist expert in artificial neural networks and adaptive systems. He is the founder and Director of the Semeion Research Center of Sciences of Communication, Rome, Italy and was formerly Professor of Science of Communication, University of Charleston, Charleston, West Virginia, USA, and Professor of Computer Science and Linguistics at the State University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Substance Use & Misuse, a faculty member of the Middle Eastern Summer Institute on Drug Use, and co-creator and co-director of The Mediterranean Institute. He is consultant of Scuola Tributaria Vanoni (Ministry of Finance), Ufficio Italiano Cambi (Bank of Italy), ENEA (Public Oil Company), Sopin Group (Computer Science Corporation), and many Italian Regions. He has published many books and articles including, Prevention and Dissuasion, EGA, Turin, 1986; Expert Systems and Complex Systems, Semeion, Rome, 1987; The Brain within the Brain, Semeion, Rome, 1989; The Sonda Project: Prevention from self and heterodestructive behaviours, Semeion, Rome, 1992; Gesturing Test: A Model of Qualitative Ergonomics ATA, Bologna, 1992; The MQ Model: Neural Networks and Interpersonal Perception, Armando, Rome, 1993; Squashing Theory: A Neural Networks Model for Prediction of Complex Systems, Armando, Rome, 1994; Self-Reflexive Networks: Theory, Topology, Application, Quality & Quantity, 29, Kluver Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Holland; Idee da Buttare, Edizioni Sonda, Turin, 1994; Artificial Neural Networks and Finance, Armando, Rome, 1997; A General Presentation of Artificial Neural Networks, in Substance Use & Misuse, 32(1), Marcel Dekker, New York, 1997; The Sonda Project: Prevention, Prediction and Psychological Disorder, in Substance Use & Misuse, 32(9), Marcel Dekker, New York, 1997; Artificial Neural Networks and Complex Social Systems, Special Issue of Substance Use & Misuse, The International Journal of the Addictions, (ed.), 33(1-2-3), Marcel Dekker, New York, 1998; Reti Neurali Artificiali e Sistemi Sociali Complessi, Vol. 1 e Vol. 2, Franco Angeli, Collana Semeion Milano 1999.