NOLTA2004, November 29 - December 3, 2004, ACROS Fukuoka, Fukuoka Japan

Greetings

It is indeed a great pleasure for NOLTA2004 international symposium to be taken place in Fukuoka. I wish to begin this message by giving my warmest greetings to all our "Nonlinearists", who are, I should say, people having a special and deep interest in NOnLinear Theory and its Applications. I also give my sincere thanks to all the volunteers for their dedications to NOLTA international symposiums since its beginning in 1990.

Of course, one of the objectives of NOLTA is presenting, sharing, and discussing what you have done in these years, such as new research developments and innovations in your specialty. But another objective is to communicate and exchange information with each other over a cup of coffee at a break and having nice dishes at a banquet. After closing sessions, you can have more chances to talk at well-known drinking places, "Yatai" in the city center.

I hope all the participants and all the guests to enjoy a pleasant stay here in Fukuoka with wonderful and cultural experience.

Kohshi Okumura
NOLTA Steering Committee Chair

It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to NOLTA2004, the 2004 International Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and its Applications. This is the 14th symposium sponsored by the Research Society of Nonlinear Theory and its Applications, IEICE. Since its foundation, NOLTA symposium has been held in Japan and in many other countries, and this is the 3rd time NOLTA is being held in Kyushu island.

I am pleased to announce that we have two plenary talks by Prof. Philip Holmes and Prof. Suguru Arimoto as well as 12 special sessions and 26 regular sessions. Let me mention here that we requested authors, for the first time in the series of NOLTA symposia, to submit full papers in order to realize a fair and rigorous review procedure. This is a small but important step for NOLTA symposium to maintain its scientific quality.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all the authors, special session organizers and plenary speakers for their valuable contributions. My special thanks to all the technical program committee members and the reviewers for their professional works. I would also like to express my gratitude to all the organizing committee members for their dedication and effort without which the symposium would not have been possible. Finally we greatly appreciate Support Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology Research, Foundation for their financial support.

Conference venue is at the very heart of metropolitan city of Fukuoka. We hope you have fruitful discussion at the symposium and enjoy your stay in downtown Fukuoka.

Tohru Kohda
NOLTA2004 General Chair

On behalf of the Technical Program Committee of the 2004 International Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and its Applications, NOLTA2004, it is a real pleasure and privilege for me to welcome you to NOLTA2004.

As you know, NOLTA2003 was canceled by SARS. We worried about the success of the next symposium, after one year blank. In spite of our anxiety, we received 203 submitted papers, including regular and special sessions. All the papers were handled electrically and evaluated through our Technical Program Committee members. The evaluation was dependable to keep the quality of NOLTA'04. Finally 191 papers are accepted and 183 are included in the technical program. In the program, 26 regular sessions and 12 special sessions are listed. Further, we invited two speakers for the plenary talk, Professor Suguru Arimoto of Ritsumeikan University, Japan, and Professor Philip Holmes of Princeton University, USA. I appreciate for their cordial cooperation.

Finally, I would like to appreciate all the authors, the reviewers, the chairpersons, the organizers of special sessions, and the members of Technical Program Committee for their excellent contributions. I hope that NOLTA'04 will be one of the most valuable opportunities for all the participants to present their papers and discuss with each other in nonlinear field.

We hope you take advantage of attending the symposium and enjoy all the sight it affords.

Takashi Hikihara
NOLTA2004 Technical Program Chair