INDI SUMMER OF SHARING 2012: UPDATE & CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

THE INTERNATIONAL NEUROIMAGING DATA-SHARING INITIATIVE (INDI) SUMMER OF SHARING 2012: UPDATE & CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

 

The INDI team is pleased to provide an update on the Summer of Sharing.  Intended to draw attention to emerging open science initiatives in the imaging community, and to encourage increased involvement in the sharing of data and analytic resources, the INDI Summer of Sharing has a growing number of data pledges and openly available analytic tools you should know about. To learn more, check out:  http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/summerofsharing2012.html

 

Keep in mind, the summer is not over yet – you still have time…So, GET INVOLVED! Do you have…

-       a resource that you’d like to advertise? Let us know and we'll list it.

-       A published dataset that you’d like to share with your colleagues around the world? We'd be happy to help – whether it be sharing it for you through the FCP/INDI or letting others know where you are releasing it from.

-       An open science event that you want everyone to hear about? We'll pass the word along.

 

Contact us at INDI_SummerOfSharing@childmind.org to make a pledge or learn more about how to get involved.

International Summer School and Workshop on Brain Dynamics

  

  

International Summer School and Workshop on Brain Dynamics

Turunc, Marmaris, Turkey

July 23-28, 2012

International Summer School and Workshop on Brain dynamics aims to highlight state of the art topics in the study of functional and behavioral dynamics as well as complexities of the brain by bringing together experts from a variety of interdisciplinary fields involving neuroscience, neurotechnology, engineering, medicine, computer science, mathematics and physics. This summer school and workshop aims to reach senior and junior researchers, scientists, engineers, clinicians, mathematicians, physicists, biologists and students and to inform them about the recent advances in brain dynamics research by bringing them together with experts in the field.

The summer school and workshop will cover the following themes:

• cognitive neuroscience,  neuroimaging and neuroanatomy 
• information processing and neuromodeling,
• neural dysfunction and mental health,
• neurorehabilitation and neurolearning

Deadline for Registration is June 22, 2012

More information on the lecturers, registration and deadlines for the International Summer School and Workshop on Brain Dynamics  can be reached at http://itap-tthv.org/braindynamics2012.

We are looking forward to see you at this exciting and educational event.

Sincerely,

Meltem Izzetoglu, PhD

Chair, Program Committee

ITAP,  Summer School and Workshop on Brain Dynamics

Drexel University

Sch. of Biomedical Engineering

Philadelphia, PA 19104

Tel:( 215) 895-1988

Fax: (215) 895-4983

Email: meltem@coe.drexel.edu

3rd Biennial Conference on Resting State Brain Connectivity

  

Third Biennial Conference on Resting State Brain Connectivity 

 5 – 7 September, 2012 

Maritim Hotel in Magdeburg, Germany. 

 

 http://www.restingstate.com/

The Biennial Resting State Meeting series were initiated in Magdeburg 2008. After the great success of our last biennial meeting in Milwaukee 2010, it is a great pleasure to anounce the return of the 3rd Resting State Conference to europe and to the birthplace of this unique conference.

This meeting series is intended to bring together key researchers working on the physiological background or analysis of resting state data in a familial and highly interactive setting. 

During our 3day schedule we will focus on physical, physiological, statistical and psychological implications of rs-fMRI and try to use the forum to define future directions of research.

Growing with the field and it's diversity, we invite researchers working on all related aspects of this fascinating phenomenon to share insights from their disciplines, including clinical applications.

Purdue University - Faculty Opening in Integrated Imaging

Purdue University College of Engineering and College of Science  

Faculty Opening in Integrated Imaging

Purdue University’s College of Engineering and College of Science have identified imaging as a major thrust for cross-disciplinary research and education and are accepting applications for tenured and tenure track faculty (Assistant and Associate Professor) in this area. Imaging research has become the key to progress in fields such as medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, earth and atmospheric science; and the resulting technologies are addressing major human needs in healthcare, medicine, security, manufacturing, and communication. Purdue University has embarked on a new “integrated-imaging” initiative to exploit the synergy between science and engineering, algorithms and devices, sensors and applications. This initiative will build on strengths and leverage the imaging capabilities of both Purdue Colleges and Purdue’s Discovery and Research Parks.

Candidates must hold a Ph.D. degree in Engineering, Science or a related field.  They should have a distinguished academic record, exceptional potential for world-class research, and a commitment to teach in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Specific research fields of interest in the integrated-imaging cluster include, but are not limited to electron and light microscopy, whole body imaging, image processing, inverse methods, multimodal imaging, hyperspectral imaging, and sensor systems. The successful candidate will teach undergraduate and graduate courses in topics related to integrated imaging, conduct research in their field of expertise, publish and present research findings, participate in professional activities, and advise graduate student research.  The primary faculty appointment will be in a school of the College of Engineering or a department of the College of Science, and will depend on the candidate’s qualifications.

Submit your application online at: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/AboutUs/Employment/Applications. The application should include a cover letter, a complete and detailed vitae, and statements of research and teaching interests. Also, please include names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses for three or more references. For questions regarding the application process, please contact Marion Ragland (ragland@purdue.edu). Screening of applications will begin May 3, 2012 and will continue until the position is filled. A background check will be required for employment in this position.

INDI SUMMER OF SHARING 2012

   

 

THE INTERNATIONAL NEUROIMAGING DATA-SHARING INITIATIVE (INDI) SUMMER OF SHARING 2012

 http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/

 

Open science initiatives are transforming the neuroimaging community.  Researchers who once struggled to obtain 20-30 datasets now have unrestricted access to thousands of scans, including data obtained from developing, aging and clinical populations.  Equally important, the sharing of data analysis scripts and code is becoming increasingly common, thereby enhancing the dissemination of knowledge and capabilities among laboratories – as well as facilitating replication efforts. Although exciting, we are only at the beginning. The success of open science initiatives remains dependent upon continued community participation.

 

Against this background, the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI) is pleased to announce the launch of its 2012 Summer of Sharing – an effort dedicated to the sustenance and acceleration of data and analytic resource sharing among imaging community members.  In order to accomplish its goal the INDI Summer of Sharing initiative is requesting pledges for the contribution of:

 

1) DATA: Resting state fMRI and/or diffusion data employed in published studies, along with any available meta-data you’d like to share (See INDI Retro for previously shared datasets; examples include Kelly C. et al., 2011 Bio Psych, Keller C. et al., 2011 PNAS, and Power J. et al., 2012 Neuroimage).

2) ANALYTIC RESOURCES:  Python, Matlab, BASH, C/C++ - we’re not choosy! INDI is actively promoting the sharing of analytic scripts and codes employed in published and/or ongoing studies through NITRC and GitHub – if you post them, we’ll help to make sure you’re recognized for it.

3) OPEN SCIENCE EVENTS: Just provide us the information and we’ll help to get the word out!

4) MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES: Atlases, parcellation schemes, reference resources, etc. – everyone can benefit from them.

 

We are actively asking investigators around the world to get involved in the sharing process. Already, the following resources are scheduled for sharing this summer:

1) The Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE): a global, multisite consortium of laboratories dedicated to the study of autism that will release an aggregate dataset that is expected to consist of nearly 500 individuals with autism, and their matched typically developing controls.

2) The Enhanced NKI Rockland Sample: a recently launched large-scale, R-fMRI and DTI cross-sectional, community ascertained sample of individuals between 6 and 85 years of age, accompanied by a deep phenotypic protocol that broadly samples psychiatrically relevant behavioral domains.

3) Brainhack: a Neuro-Bureau resource (http://brainhack.org/) that points to collaborative projects in the field; the resource will be complemented by the Brainhack 2012 Unconference – a workshop that will blend the “unconference” and “hackathon” concepts to create a unique collaborative experience for participants interested in advancing analytic techniques and resources for functional and structural imaging.

4) The Configurable Pipeline for the Analysis of Connectomes (C-PAC): Building on the success of the release of the 1000 Functional Connectomes Project analysis scripts, the INDI team will be releasing a plug-and-play Nipype-based pipeline package that is easily configurable to accomplish a broad array of resting-state fMRI analyses.

5) DPARSF and REST: With the new releases of MATLAB-based user-friendly pipelines of Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI (DPARSF 2.2) and Resting-State fMRI Data Analysis Toolkit (REST 1.8) (www.restfmri.net), users can acquire resting-state fMRI measures efficiently (by parallel computing) and conveniently (by GUI or command line).

6) Power et al. 2011 (Neuron): The authors are now sharing the summary community assignments from their work on fcMRI networks (http://sumsdb.wustl.edu/sums/directory.do?id=8293343&dir_name=power_Neuron11), and will release a suite of scripts through NITRC this summer, so that others can replicate these analyses and carry out related work. Additionally, later this summer, the dataset used for this work will be released through INDI.

7) The Child Mind Institute (CMI) Librarian Initiative: Comprehensive hand-vetted and sorted reference libraries for various literatures, including Resting State fMRI and Diffusion Tensor Imaging are now available via Mendeley, with monthly updates scheduled (http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/cmi-librarian/).

 

It is our hope that this list is just the beginning. We will follow with updates throughout the summer months. The success of open science depends on all of us – so get involved, and Share That Brain!

 

Contact us at INDI_SummerOfSharing@childmind.org to make a pledge or learn more about how to get involved.

 

The International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI) is now sponsored by the Child Mind Institute (http://childmind.org).

Third International Workshop on Polarized Carbon-13 and its Application in Metabolic Imaging

    
   
We are pleased to inform you that the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine will be hosting the Third International Workshop on Polarized Carbon-13 and its Application in Metabolic Imaging. The workshop is scheduled from July 25 through July 27, 2012 and will be held in the BRB II/III auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania.  

This is a three day workshop and sessions are aimed at providing faculty members, post-docs, fellows, and graduate students the opportunity to learn more about state-of-the-art metabolic and molecular imaging techniques and how they can be used to obtain real-time information for fundamental studies of metabolism and extended application to disease management.

Please share this information with your faculty, colleagues and trainees.  

For information on how to register and send abstracts, please look at:     

http://www.med.upenn.edu/fmig/workshop2012.html

Rahim R. Rizi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Radiology

NEURO-BUREAU BRAIN-ART COMPETITION 201

http://www.neurobureau.org/BrainArt/

Submission Deadline: 11:59PM CDT, Friday, June 1st, 2012

Award Notification: June 11th during the OHBM Annual Meeting, Beijing.

In order to recognize the beauty and creativity of artistic renderings

emerging from the neuroimaging community, we are launching the second

annual Brain-Art Competition.

Countless hours are devoted to the creation of informative

visualizations for communicating neuroscientific findings. The

Brain-Art Competition aims to recognize this often unappreciated

aspect of the publication process, and highlight the artistic

creativity of our community.

We are inviting researchers to submit their favorite unpublished works

for entry. Both team and single-person entries are welcomed. The

competition will have four award categories:

1)  Best Representation of the Human Connectome

2)  Best Educational Brain Illustration

3)  Best Abstract Brain Illustration

4)  Best Humorous Brain Illustration

5)  Best Video Illustration of the Brain

Sponsored by: Child Mind Institute (http://www.childmind.org/)

ICML '12 Workshop on Statistics, Machine Learning and Neuroscience

ICML '12 Workshop on Statistics, Machine Learning and Neuroscience. 
Date: July 1, 2012
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
https://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/stamlins
 
Neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have revolutionised the field of neuroscience by providing non-invasive measurements of the brain activity. From the outset, classical statistical approaches were used for neuroimage analysis, using known models,  offering good interpretability and the possibility to examine strength of hypotheses. Recently, however, analysis emphasis has changed towards data-driven (aka machine learning/multi-variate pattern analysis) approaches. By making minimal model assumptions, the learning algorithms are generally tuned for optimal prediction performance, automation and speed. 

A debate has ensued between the two respective strands of researchers about the relative benefits and downsides of each approach. The critique of data-driven methods, voiced by practitioners of classical statistics, include lack of interpretability/meaningfulness, non-existent power calculation for experimental design, and inability to deal with the "small N-large p" constraint.  Conversely, users of data-driven methods point to the inappropriateness of the model choice for biological data, the arbitrariness of significance levels, and the post-hoc corrections for multiple hypothesis tests.

The propose of this workshop is to bring together both approaches. The aim is to debate the strengths/weaknesses of classical statistical vs machine learning methods, and establish the parameters that would bring together hypothesis and data-driven approaches. While this workshop is to be driven by the practical needs of neuroscience research, more fundamental research into methods is also envisaged. Simultaneously, we expect that the need for improved methods will spark substantial contributions towards Predictive Medicine, Translational Medicine and Interpretational Models of Disease. For this purpose we have invited well-known experts and researchers in neuroscience methodology and application, notably Will Penny, Tom Nicholson, Zoe Kourtzi, and Eugene Duff. 

We seek full papers and extended abstracts discussing or developing new methods designed to link hypothesis generalisation, experimental design and hypothesis validation. Example topics include
   - Interpretable neuroimage modelling/model validation,
   - Experimental design and power analysis (also for machine learning),
   - Variable selection / dimensionality reduction / sparsity,
   - Scalability/efficient/parallel (Bayesian) inference,
   - Model reproducibility and testing of  computational  theories, 
   - Combined modelling of cellular neurophysiology, genetics, and behaviour,
   - Model selection in Bayesian and Classical methods,
   - Issues and experiences in implementing models for massive data-sets,
   - New models for Independent Component Analysis,
   - Classifiers and Brain Decoding.

Workshop Schedule
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To achieve a 4-way interdisciplinary workshop, four invited speakers have agreed to give talks representing respectively, classical statistical methodologies, machine learning methodologies, applications of classical statistical tools and applications of machine learning tools. The preliminary workshop's schedule is as follows:

-  Zoe Kourtzi  (invited speaker): application of data-driven methods
-  Eugene Duff (invited speaker): application of hypothesis-driven methods
-  Discussion
-  Will Penny (invited speaker): data-driven methodology
-  Tom Nicholson (invited speaker): hypothesis-driven methodology
-  Discussion
-  Lunch
-  Spotlight presentations 
-  Poster session
-  Discussion & roundup 


Submission Details
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We seek submission of extended abstracts at most 4 pages long and following the ICML paper format. All accepted submissions will be presented in form of poster presentations.
 
 
Important Dates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Extended abstract submission deadline: 13th May, 2012. 
Acceptance notification: 21th May, 2012. 

Workshop date: July 1, 2012.


Workshop Organisation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Workshop Organisers:

Iead Rezek, University of Oxford, UK 
Evangelos Roussos, University of Oxford, UK
Christian Beckmann,  MIRA Institute at the University of Twente,  Netherlands.


Program Committee

Will Penny, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, UK
Tom Nichols, University of Warwick
Zoe Kourtzi, University of Birmingham
Eugene Duff, University of Oxford

Contact:
~~~~~~~
iead@rezek.info, eroussos7@yahoo.co.uk

NMR in Biology at the IUBMB - FEBS Congress, Sevilla, Spain

Dear colleague,

I call your attention on the 22nd IUBMB - 37th FEBS Congress that will be held in Sevilla (Spain) from September 4th - 9th, 2012

http://www.iubmb-febs-2012.org/IUBMBFEBS2012

As part of the activities of BioNMR (http://www.bio-nmr.net) a satellite event will be organized on September 7th 2012 in the same venue of the main 22nd IUBMB - 37th FEBS Congress, well integrated in the conference program:

NMR in Biology - http://www.bio-nmr.net/index.php/events/events/38

This is an opportunity for BioNMR to meet the European Biological community and for biologists to appreciate the progress of NMR technologies towards the understanding of biological problems. I take the liberty to remind you that the deadline for early registration to the FEBS/IUBMB meeting is April 30th and that for abstract submission is May 31st 2012.

Registration to the BioNMR workshop 'NMR in Biology' is free of charge but you should confirm your participation by clicking on the appropriate field when registering to the main 22nd IUBMB - 37th FEBS Congress.

For more information you can refer to the web site or contact nmr_at_febs@bio-nmr.net.

Best regards,

Ivano Bertini

_____________________________________________________

Bio-NMR Satellite Meeting - NMR in Biology
Satellite of the 22nd IUBMB - 37th FEBS Congress

September 7th 2012, from 13.00 to 19.30 Seville, Spain

Synopsis
This satellite meeting is intended to present the opportunities provided  by NMR today to the broad biological community and the enabling role of the European Bio-NMR research infrastructures (www.bio-nmr.net) providing access to state of the art NMR instrumentation and expertise.

Tentative Program

13:00 - 14:00

Welcome by
Israel Pecht (FEBS - Secretary General), Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Miguel A. De la Rosa (Chair of the Organizing Committee), University of Seville & CSIC, Spain

Opening and Introduction by Ivano Bertini, CERM, Florence, Italy (Bio-NMR Project Coordinator)

14:00 - 14:30 Snacks
14:30 - 15:15 Beat Meier (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
15:15 - 16:00 Guido Pintacuda (ENS Lyon, France)
16:00 - 16:45 Sheena Radford (University of Leeds, UK)
16:45 - 17:15 Break
17:15 - 18:00 Guy Lippens (Universite des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 1, France)
18:00 - 18:45 Sonia Longhi (CNRS et Universites d'Aix-Marseille I et II, Marseille, France)
18:45 - 19:30 Peter Tompa (VIB, Brussels, Belgium)

Closing Remarks


Location
The workshop will be held at the Seville Conference and Exhibition Centre (FIBES) where the 22nd IUBMB - 37th FEBS Congress will take place.

Lunch snack
A lunch snack will be organized in order to stimulate informal discussions among registered participants to the Bio-NMR workshop. If you are interested in participating, please click the appropriate field when registering to the main 22nd IUBMB - 37th FEBS Congress.

Registration form
There is no registration fee for attending the NMR in Biology meeting, but you have to be registered to the main 22nd IUBMB - 37th FEBS Congress. Please click the appropriate box in the official registration form to the 22nd IUBMB - 37th FEBS Congress.

For further information, please contact: nmr_at_febs@bio-nmr.net

Organizing Committee
Prof. Miquel Pons (IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain)
Prof. Wiktor Kozminski (Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland)
Prof. Isabella Caterina Felli (CERM, Florence University, Florence, Italy)

Scientific Secretariat
Dr. Francesca Morelli (CERM, Florence University, Florence, Italy)

The 2012 International Workshop on Brain, Cognition and Learning (IWBCL2012)

Please see below the announcement of the pre-OHBM workshop on Brain,
Cognition and Learning, to be held on June 8-9, Beijing, China

The 2012 International Workshop on Brain, Cognition and Learning (IWBCL2012)

June 8-9, 2012, Beijing, China

http://iwbcl.bnu.edu.cn

 We are pleased to announce that the 2012 International Workshop on
Brain, Cognition and Learning (IWBCL) will be held on June 8-9, 2012
at the China National Conventional Center (CNCC) in Beijing, as a
satellite conference of 2012 Organization of Human Brain Mapping
(OHBM) Annual Conference. This workshop is co-organized by the
National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning,
Beijing Normal University and the Society of Brain Sciences and
Education Research, a division of the Chinese Society of Education
(CSE).

 This year the IWBCL will focus on language learning. The theme for
this workshop is set as “Towards an integrated perspective of language
learning”, to reflect the trend that the cognitive neuroscience of
language has increasingly become an interdisciplinary endeavor.

 Confirmed Speakers.

§   Yanchao Bi, Beijing Normal University

§   James Booth, Northwestern University

§   Urs Maurer, University of Zurich

§   Marcus Meinzer,  Charite Universitasmedizin

§   Russell A. Poldrack, University of Texas at Austin

§   Bradley L. Schlaggar, Washington University School of Medicine

§   Mark Seidenberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison

§   Hua Shu, Beijing Normal University

§   Michael Ullman, Georgetown University

§   Richard J. Wise, Imperial College London

§   Gui Xue, Beijing Normal University

§   Jason D. Zevin, Weill Medical College of Cornell University



Participants are encouraged to fill the online registration form by
May 1, 2012 to secure a seat. For more information, please visit our
website http://iwcbl.bnu.edu.cn . We look forward to seeing you in
Beijing this June!

2012 Brainhack, Sept 1-4, Leipzig Germany

  

The Neuro Bureau is proud to announce the 2012 Brainhack, to be held from September 1-4 at the Max Plank Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.

Brainhack is a unique workshop with the goals of fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and open neuroscience. The structure builds from the concepts of an unconference and a hackathon: The term “unconference” refers to the fact that most of the content will be dynamically created by the participants -- a hackathon is an event where participants collaborate intensively on science-related projects.

Participants from all disciplines related to neuroimaging are welcome. Ideal participants span in range from graduate students to professors across any disciplines willing to contribute (e.g., mathematics, computer science, engineering, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, neurology, medicine, art, etc...). The primary requirement is a desire to work in close collaborations with researchers outside of your specialization in order to address neuroscience questions that are beyond the expertise of a single discipline.

Brainhack will last 3.5 days, with the first night being dedicated to registration, a brief introduction of participants, and a poster session / cocktail hour. Each of the next two days will begin with an “Ignite Session” in which distinguished neuroscience researchers will give 10 minute talks that will address wide questions in neuroscience that would benefit from open, interdisciplinary collaborations. The “Ignite Session” will be followed by a dynamic set of talks organized by attendees. This session will be scheduled on-site, and aims to reflect participants' interests as they evolve over the course of the workshop. Each afternoon and evening will then include a brainhack session, in which participants will be encouraged to work together in small groups on relevant neuroscience projects. The workshop will culminate on the last day, when participants will have the opportunity to present a brief overview of their project.

We aim for Brainhack to be a highly dynamic event. As such, participants are encouraged to come prepared to discuss their research interests and work in ways that they may be able to contribute to the unconference portion of the workshop. In addition, there will be an opportunity for participants to present posters on Saturday night. If you are interested in doing so, please indicate this on the registration form so that we can be sure to have poster space allocated.

In order to maximize the productivity of the hackathon portion of Brainhack, we encourage participants to come with potential (or established) collaborators and projects in mind, as well as the data and tools required for the project. Participants are encouraged to advertise projects, or shop for a team of collaborators at thebrainhack.org web site prior to the conference. We will have preprocessed copies of the ADHD200 competition dataset, as well as other datasets publicly released through the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (structural, resting state fMRI, and DTI) available onsite. Participants will be encouraged to make results from their Brainhack experience openly available on a resource such as NITRC or github.

To maximize collaborative opportunities between participants all meals will be provided onsite (cost included in registration).

Important Dates

Registration Deadline: 30 July 2012
Payment Deadline: 7 August 2012
Final Program: 30 August 2012

Program

Click here to view the current schedule.

While the schedule provides the basic structure, the content will be primary determined by the participants onsite.

Confirmed Attendees

F. Xavier Castellanos, Helen Mayberg, Michael P. Milham, Tal Yarkoni, Arno Villringer...

Organizing Committee

Brainhack.org and the Brainhack workshop are initiates of The Neuro Bureau.

• Pierre Bellec (Centre de recherche de l’institut de gériatrie de Montréal, Université de Montréal, Canada)
• Cameron Craddock (Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, USA)
• Daniel Margulies (Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, DE)
• Donald McLaren (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA).
• Maarten Mennes (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, The Netherlands)

2nd Provence Summer Workshop: Molecules & Networks

   

 

Dear friends and colleagues

It is my pleasure to announce details for the 2^nd Provence Summer Workshop (Sat 1^st September – Tues 4^th September 2012), with this year’s theme ‘Molecules & Networks’.

Following on from the great success of our first Workshop, we will once again meet at the beautiful Domaine des Escaunes set in the heart of Provence, France.

We are also delighted to highlight the involvement of our two international guest speakers – Professor Ed Bullmore from Cambridge University (UK) and Professor Mirjana Maletic-Savatic from Baylor Medical College (USA).

This year’s Workshop is certain to be over-subscribed, so register now and take advantage of our early-bird rates. Even better, get involved by presenting your work – submit an abstract for consideration by our scientific committee.

Abstract deadline and Early Bird Registration deadline is 1^st May 2012.

Please visit http://rng.org.au/2nd_provance_workshop.html for more information or to register.

I look forward to seeing you in Provence this summer! And feel free to pass this message on to anyone who may be interested.

Regards

Michael Valenzuela

HHMI Investigator National Competition

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) seeks to appoint up to 30 new biomedical researchers through a national open competition. The initiative represents an investment of approximately $200 million in basic biomedical research by the Institute.

This HHMI investigator competition is open to scientists at more than 200 eligible institutions who study significant biological problems in all of the biomedical disciplines, as well as in adjacent fields such as biophysics, chemical biology, biomedical engineering, and computational biology. Plant scientists, experimental evolutionary biologists, and patient-oriented researchers are welcome to apply. Those selected in this competition will receive a five-year appointment to HHMI, which is renewable pending favorable scientific review.

http://www.hhmi.org/news/HHMI20120315.html

32th MaxEnt 2012

 

the 32th Workshop on Bayesian Inference and
Maximum Entropy methods in science and engineering
at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasmaphysics in Garching/Munich (15.July-20.July 2012)
welcomes the submission of abstracts for oral and poster presentations.

Abstracts (limited to one page) of proposed contributions
should be submitted following the guidelines provided on the
website

http://www.ipp.mpg.de/maxent2012

by ***  May, 01, 2012. ***

Especially encouraged are
papers whose content is novel, either conceptually or as innovative application of Bayesian Inference.
Abstracts are designated for either platform or poster sessions; awards are presented to the best poster.
Notification of the decision of the program committee will be
by May 15, 2012.

The workshop includes tutorials, state-of-the-art lectures, poster presentations and contributed papers. Selected papers will be edited and published in a book.
Topics addressed include

     * Bayesian graphical models
     * Experimental design
     * ICA/Blind source separation
     * Image reconstruction
     * Machine Learning
     * Markov chain Monte Carlo Methods
     * Neural nets
     * Quantum mechanics
     * Philosophy of science
     * Real world applications in various fields of science (e.g.
       astrophysics, plasma physics, material science, metrology,
       meteorology, biology, robotics,...)

On behalf of the organizing committee
Udo von Toussaint

Neural interactions and affect: basic & clinical perspectives Conference

Neural interactions and affect: basic & clinical perspectives
Conference at the University of Reading, United Kingdom
16-17th April, 2012

The last decade has seen an unprecedented expansion in research on the
neural basis of human emotions and affective disorders. Distinct brain
regions have been linked to reward, motivation, threat and aversion,
largely through neuroimaging studies building on knowledge gained from
studies of other animals. Changes in the functioning of these regions
have been linked to a number of mood and affective disorders.
Recently, scientists have become interested in how the dynamic
interactions between multiple neural systems give rise to our
emotions, and motivate and modulate our behaviours and decisions. Such
time-dependent processes occur on scales ranging from milliseconds in
the case of neuronal interactions, through seconds in learning,
conditioning and habituation, through to years in the case of the
lifetime development and decline.

This symposium brings together basic and clinical scientists from a
variety of fields who approach the topic from different perspectives.
The objective is to provide a richly interactive environment for
scientific interchange between biological, medical, psychological and
physical scientists interested in new perspectives and techniques to
push forward research in the field.

Over the two days, a mix of keynote lectures, workshops and poster
sessions will encourage interaction between senior and junior
researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds. A large amount of
time dedicated to discussion will be a feature of all the symposium
sessions.

Confirmed Invited Speakers
Sonia Bishop, UC Berkeley/ University of Oxford
Gilles Pourtois, Ghent University, Belgium
Rudi de Raedt, Ghent University, Belgium
Henrik Walter, Medical University Charité, Berlin, Germany
Martin Walter, Medical University Magdeburg, Germany
Paul Whalen, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA

News of further speakers will be forthcoming.

Registration
Registration is free for research staff and postgraduate students of
non-profit/academic research institutions
To register, please send an email with the subject line "April Neural
Interactions Conference" to CINN@reading.ac.uk with the following
information:

Name
Affiliation
Position (PhD, Postdoc, Ass. Prof. etc)
Topic of Research

In addition, there will be a poster session and a limited number of
places for spoken presentations. If you wish to present either a
poster or a talk, please include a title, authors, preference for
poster or talk, and 250 word abstract. Those who request a talk who
can't be accommodated will be allocated to a poster session.

Travel and accommodation will need to be arranged by attendees.
Reading is well served by train (25 minutes from central London, 35
minutes from Oxford) and is a 35 minute bus ride from Heathrow
Airport. Reading has a variety of hotel accommodation available - more
information will be circulated in the coming days. The University
campus is a short taxi ride from the centre of town. Regular buses
also serve the university, or for those who enjoy some exercise, it is
a pleasant 40 minute walk.

This conference is made possible with the support of the EPSRC, BBSRC & CINN.

11th Brain Connectivity Workshop (BCW’2012)

  

The 11th Brain Connectivity Workshop (BCW’2012) will be held on June 6-8, 2012, in Chengdu, China. It will be hosted by LIAMA Center for Computational Medicine at CASIA (Institute of Automation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences) and the School of Life Science and Technology ( the '111' project on NeuroInformation) at the University of Electronic Technology and Science of China. It will be held just before the Organization of Human Brain Mapping Meeting in Beijing, June 10-14, 2012. The BCW’2012 will consist of a two day main workshop, featuring talks by leading international experts and a one day educational course designed to bring participants up to speed in cutting edge issues of Brain Connectivity. The main topics of this year will be as follows:

Structural Connectivity: From Micro to Macro
Foundations of Brain Connectivity Methods
Brainnetome Meets Genome
Clinical Applications of Brain Connectivity

BCW has been going for 10 years now (http://www.brain-connectivity-workshop.org/), and is the major forum to discuss the broad and complex issues relating to brain connectivity. A unique character of the workshop is the format that emphasizes discussion over extensive presentations. Following the tradition of this workshop series, each of the invited speakers in the main workshop is requested to limit their presentation to 15 minutes and then lead a 30 minutes discussion focused on that topic. This format has been successful since the meeting's inception, and has always resulted in extensive and invigorating debate. Moreover, this year, each session chair of the main workshop will be asked to deliver a 15 minutes presentation to outline the scope and main challenges that they see of relevance to that session.

As an essential part of BCW’2012, the one day educational course will also occur: Eight leading experts in this field will deliver introductory lectures in different fields of Brain Connectivity. In fact, in previous years most of the registrants of the main workshop also attend and contribute to questions in the educational course.

We look forward to seeing you at BCW’2012!

OrganizersTianzi Jiang (Chair) Pedro Valdes-Sosa Michael Breakspear Dezhong Yao

Contact UsLIAMA Center for Computational Medicine Institute of Automation The Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 Email: brainnetome@nlpr.ia.ac.cn Phone: +86-10-6262 9189

Symposium for Neuroimaging Advances in Paediatrics (SNAP)

Title:        Symposium for Neuroimaging Advances in Paediatrics (SNAP)
Date:       Friday 4th May 
Venue:     Ella Latham Theatre,  Royal Children’s Hospital, Flemington
Rd, Parkville

Registrations open Monday 20th February  www.trybooking.com/20955 
Numbers strictly limited.
For more information contact 2012snap@gmail.com 

You are invited to take this rare opportunity to learn from
internationally renowned speakers and to network with others in the
field. This one-day symposium will equip you with 10 Things you should
know about... atlas construction, voxel based morphometry, fMRI and
resting state data analysis, diffusion weighted imaging, perfusion
imaging, and more! The symposium will also cover applications of
paediatric neuroimaging, including 10 things neuroimaging has told us
about... neurodevelopment, premature birth and childhood head injury.

Guest speakers include:  
-        Marko Wilke (Children’s Hospital, University of Tübingen) 
-        Gareth Barker (Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London)
-        Mark Jenkinson (FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford)
-        Clare Kelly (New York University)
-        Derek Jones (Cardiff University)
-        Fernando Calamante (Brain Research Institute)
-        Rhoshel Lenroot (University of New South Wales)
-        Vicki Anderson (Murdoch Childrens Research Institute)

HIVE Workshop Berlin 2012 on Brain Stimulation

 

Hyper-Interaction Viability Experiments Workshop

http://hive-eu.org/hive2012/home

Could computers someday interact directly with the human brain? This is the motto of the HIVE project. The goal of the workshop is to present research toward developing a new generation of powerful and controllable non-invasive brain stimulation technologies.

We hereby invite contributions to this second public HIVE workshop,  to be held in Berlin on April 27-28th, 2012. Submission deadline for Abstracts is 11th March.

Contributions must be of a high scientific level, and typically would describe, attempt to understand, or engineer brain stimulation phenomena as well as clinical applications. Submission page instructions are here: http://hive-eu.org/node/317

Researchers with new results working in any the following research areas are encouraged to submit abstracts:

-Biophysical models of current flow in the brain
-Neuron-current interaction models
-Inverse modeling of neural activity
-Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) for communication
-tDCS, tACS, TMS experimental results
-Neurofeedback and neuromodulation
-Real-time EEG monitoring
-EEG-fMRI relationships
-Brain stimulation for therapy (sleep, improved consciousness)
-New technologies (hardware, software, algorithms) for hyper-interaction or CBI

Submitted papers will be rated by the scientific committee on quality and relevance to the goals of HIVE. The best papers will be awarded with an oral presentation, and the remaining papers may be presented as posters and will be discussed during breaks or at the end of the day. We look forward to an exciting conference with most stimulating discussions.  Best abstracts and presentations will be selected for publication in a Special Issue of the journal "Physiological Measurement": http://iopscience.iop.org/0967-3334/

2nd International Workshop on Pattern Recognition in NeuroImaging (PRNI 2012)

CALL FOR PAPERS

2nd International Workshop on Pattern Recognition in NeuroImaging (PRNI 2012)


Multivariate and predictive analysis of neuroimaging data has gained ground
very rapidly in the community over the past few years, leading to impressive
results in cognitive, affective, and clinical neurosciences. Innovations in
machine learning, such as mixed-norm regularisation, multiple kernel learning,
and online learning have been incorporated swiftly, and novel methods are 
emerging which are specifically tuned to the constraints of neuroimaging data,
prompting advances in areas such as structured sparsity or covariate
modelling. Pattern recognition and machine learning conferences now typically
feature a neuroimaging workshop, while neuroscience and brain imaging
meetings dedicate sessions and track to "brain decoding" and multivariate
predictive methods. Thus, a rich two-way flow has been established between
disciplines.

After Istanbul (Workshop on Brain Decoding 2010) and Seoul
(PRNI 2011), it is the intention of the 2nd International Workshop on Pattern Recognition in NeuroImaging to continue facilitating exchange of ideas between scientific communities, with a particular interest in the link between mass-univariate, post-hoc modelling and multivariate predictive models.

** Topics of interest
PRNI welcomes original papers on multivariate predictive models of
neuroimaging data, using e.g. fMRI, sMRI, EEG, MEG, ECoG modalities,
including but not limited to the following topics:

* Learning from neuroimaging data
Online, incremental, and adaptive learning
Modality combinations
Optimisation and regularisation
Graph-based techniques and graphical models

* Interpretability of models and results
High-dimensional data visualisation
Multivariate and multiple hypothesis testing
Links between brain structure and function
Summarisation / presentation of inference results

* Applications
Disease diagnosis and prognosis
Real-time fMRI
Resting-state modelling
Cognitive neurosciences


** Submission Guidelines and Proceedings
Authors should prepare full papers with a maximum length of 4 pages (double-column, IEEE style, PDF) for review. Proceedings will be published by IEEE Computer Science Society in electronic format. They will be permanently available on the IEEExplore and IEEE CS Digital Library online repositories, and indexed in IET INSPEC, EI Compendex (Elsevier), Thomson ISI, and others. Participants will receive a CDROM. The workshop website has all the details:

http://www.mlnl.cs.ucl.ac.uk/prni2012/

** Important Dates
Paper submission deadline: 1st of April, 2012
Acceptance notification: 7th of May, 2012
Workshop: July 2-4, 2012

Advanced Scientific Programming in Python

 
a Summer School by the G-Node and the Institute of Experimental and

Applied Physics, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Scientists spend more and more time writing, maintaining, and
debugging software. While techniques for doing this efficiently have
evolved, only few scientists actually use them. As a result, instead
of doing their research, they spend far too much time writing
deficient code and reinventing the wheel. In this course we will
present a selection of advanced programming techniques,
incorporating theoretical lectures and practical exercises tailored
to the needs of a programming scientist. New skills will be tested
in a real programming project: we will team up to develop an
entertaining scientific computer game.

We use the Python programming language for the entire course. Python
works as a simple programming language for beginners, but more
importantly, it also works great in scientific simulations and data
analysis. We show how clean language design, ease of extensibility,
and the great wealth of open source libraries for scientific
computing and data visualization are driving Python to become a
standard tool for the programming scientist.

This school is targeted at Master or PhD students and Post-docs from
all areas of science. Competence in Python or in another language
such as Java, C/C++, MATLAB, or Mathematica is absolutely required.
Basic knowledge of Python is assumed. Participants without any prior
experience with Python should work through the proposed introductory
materials before the course. 

Date and Location
=================
September 2—7, 2012. Kiel, Germany.

Preliminary Program
===================
Day 0 (Sun Sept 2) — Best Programming Practices
  - Best Practices, Development Methodologies and the Zen of Python
  - Version control with git
  - Object-oriented programming & design patterns
Day 1 (Mon Sept 3) — Software Carpentry
  - Test-driven development, unit testing & quality assurance
  - Debugging, profiling and benchmarking techniques
  - Best practices in data visualization
  - Programming in teams
Day 2 (Tue Sept 4) — Scientific Tools for Python
  - Advanced NumPy
  - The Quest for Speed (intro): Interfacing to C with Cython
  - Advanced Python I: idioms, useful built-in data structures, 
    generators
Day 3 (Wed Sept 5) — The Quest for Speed
  - Writing parallel applications in Python
  - Programming project
Day 4 (Thu Sept 6) — Efficient Memory Management
  - When parallelization does not help:
    the starving CPUs problem
  - Advanced Python II: decorators and context managers
  - Programming project
Day 5 (Fri Sept 7) — Practical Software Development
  - Programming project
  - The Pelita Tournament

Every evening we will have the tutors' consultation hour: Tutors
will answer your questions and give suggestions for your own
projects.

Applications
============
You can apply on-line at http://python.g-node.org

Applications must be submitted before 23:59 UTC, May 1, 2012.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by June 1, 2012.

No fee is charged but participants should take care of travel,
living, and accommodation expenses.  Candidates will be selected on
the basis of their profile. Places are limited: acceptance rate last
time was around 20%.  Prerequisites: You are supposed to know the
basics of Python to participate in the lectures. You are encouraged
to go through the introductory material available on the website.

Faculty
=======
  - Francesc Alted, Continuum Analytics Inc., USA
  - Pietro Berkes, Enthought Inc., UK
  - Valentin Haenel,  Blue Brain Project, École Polytechnique
    Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  - Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek, Faculty of Physics, University of
    Warsaw, Poland
  - Eilif Muller, Blue Brain Project, École Polytechnique Fédérale
    de Lausanne, Switzerland
  - Emanuele Olivetti, NeuroInformatics Laboratory, Fondazione Bruno
    Kessler and University of Trento, Italy
  - Rike-Benjamin Schuppner,  Technologit GbR, Germany
  - Bartosz Teleńczuk, Unité de Neurosciences Information et
    Complexité, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
  - Stéfan van der Walt, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute,
    University of California Berkeley, USA
  - Bastian Venthur, Berlin Institute of Technology and Bernstein
    Focus Neurotechnology, Germany
  - Niko Wilbert, TNG Technology Consulting GmbH, Germany
  - Tiziano Zito, Institute for Theoretical Biology,
    Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

Organized by Christian T. Steigies and Christian Drews of the
Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics,
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , and by Zbigniew
Jędrzejewski-Szmek and Tiziano Zito for the German Neuroinformatics
Node of the INCF. 

Website:  http://python.g-node.org
Contact:  python-info@g-node.org