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The concept of improving the use of electromagnetic energy to achieve a variety of qualitative and quantitative spectroscopic measurements on solid and liquid materials has been proliferating at a rapid rate. The use of such technologies to measure chemical composition, appearance, for classification, and to achieve detailed understanding of material interactions has prompted a dramatic expansion in the use and development of spectroscopic techniques over a variety of academic and commercial fields.The Concise Handbook of Analytical Spectroscopy is integrated into 5 volumes, each covering the theory, instrumentation, sampling methods, experimental design, and data analysis techniques, as well as essential reference tables, figures, and spectra for each spectroscopic region. The detailed practical aspects of applying spectroscopic tools for many of the most exciting and current applications are covered. Featured applications include: medical, biomedical, optical, physics, common commercial analysis methods, spectroscopic quantitative and qualitative techniques, and advanced methods.This multi-volume handbook is designed specifically as a reference tool for students, commercial development and quality scientists, and researchers or technologists in a variety of measurement endeavours.Number of Illustrations and Tables: 393 b/w illus., 304 colour illus, 413 tables.Related Link(s)

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The Handbook of Environment and Waste Management, Volume 2, Land and Groundwater Pollution Control, is a comprehensive compilation of topics that are at the forefront of many of the technical advances and practices in solid waste management and groundwater pollution control. These include biosolids management, landfill for solid waste disposal, landfill liners, beneficial reuse of waste products, municipal solid waste recovery and recycling and groundwater remediation.Internationally recognized authorities in the field of environment and waste management contribute chapters in their areas of expertise. This handbook is an essential source of reference for professionals and researchers in the areas of solid waste management and groundwater pollution control, and as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in these fields.

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Professor Chen Ning Yang, an eminent contemporary physicist, was Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, from 1955 to 1966, and Albert Einstein Professor of Physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook until his retirement in 1999. He has been Distinguished Professor-at-Large at the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1986 and Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, since 1998.Since receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1948, Prof Yang has made great impacts in both abstract theory and phenomenological analysis in modern physics. In 1983, he published “Selected Papers (1945-1980), With Commentary”. It has been considered by Freeman Dyson as one of his favorite books. The present book is a sequel to that earlier volume. It is a collection of his personally selected papers (1971-2012) supplemented by his insightful commentaries. Its contents reflect Professor Yang's changing interests after he reached age sixty. It also includes commentaries written by him in 2011 when he is 89 years old.The papers and commentaries in this unique collection comprise a remarkable personal and professional chronicle, shedding light on both the intellectual development of a great physicist and on the nature of scientific inquiry.

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Health Assessment of Engineered Structures has become one of the most active research areas and has attracted multi-disciplinary interest. Since available financial recourses are very limited, extending the lifespan of existing bridges, buildings and other infrastructures has become a major challenge to the engineering profession world-wide. Some of its related areas are only in their development phase. As the study of structural health assessment matures, more new areas are being identified to complement the concept.This book covers some of the most recent developments (theoretical and experimental) and application potentials in structural health assessment. It is designed to present currently available information in an organised form to interested parties who are not experts in the subject.Each chapter is authored by the most active scholar(s) in the area. After discussing the general concept, various currently available methods of structural health assessment (such as the use of smart sensors) are presented. Health Assessment discusses the following: sensor types, platforms and data conditioning for practical applications; wireless collection of sensor data, sensor power needs and on-site energy harvesting; and long term monitoring of structures. Uncertainty in collected data is also extensively addressed. A chapter discussing future directions in structural health assessment is also included.

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In recent years, China has taken a number of effective measures to strengthen the supervision of food quality and safety, but food safety incidents still occur sometimes. The recurrence and intractability of such incidents suggest that, in addition to the imperfect supervision system, the greatest obstacle to China's food quality safety management is that China's “farm to fork” food supply chain has too many stages, the members on the supply chain have not form a stable strategic and cooperative relation, and on the other hand, during the transitional period, some practitioners lack social responsibility. Therefore, China's food quality safety management and the establishment of food quality and safety traceability system should follow the development trend of international food quality and safety supervision, and should combine with the establishment of China's agricultural industrialization and standardization, integrate China's existing but isolated effective measures, such as the establishment of bases for the implementation of the system of claiming certificates or invoices, for the performance of Management Regulations for Pig Slaughtering and Quarantine Inspection in Designated Places, and for the conduct of World Expo, as well as the establishment of market access system, take into consideration the demand, the dynamic mechanism, and the performance of important measures of food supply chain members for food quality and safety control, as well as the difficulties and the deep-seated reasons in the implementation process of such measures.To this end, this book chooses important agricultural products of vegetables, pork and aquatic products as the subjects investigated. From an “integrated” vertical perspective of the supply chain and according to the degree of industrialization of different products, focusing on the key links of quality and safety control of vegetables, pork and aquatic products, this book carries out empirical analysis of the construction of food quality and safety control system, such as HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) quality control system and food quality and safety traceability system, deeply analyzes and straightens out the dynamic mechanism and the performance of different business entities implementing the food quality and safety management system, as well as the bottleneck and deep-seated causes of promoting advanced experience of pilot areas and enterprises in China, and put forward ideas and suggestions of establishing long-term effective food quality and safety management system with regard to vegetables, pork, and aquatic products, which can provide scientific basis for the government to design food quality and safety management policies.

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Computational finance is an interdisciplinary field which joins financial mathematics, stochastics, numerics and scientific computing. Its task is to estimate as accurately and efficiently as possible the risks that financial instruments generate. This volume consists of a series of cutting-edge surveys of recent developments in the field written by leading international experts. These make the subject accessible to a wide readership in academia and financial businesses.The book consists of 13 chapters divided into 3 parts: foundations, algorithms and applications. Besides surveys of existing results, the book contains many new previously unpublished results.

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This is a highly interdisciplinary book straddling physics and complex systems such as living organisms. The presentation is from the perspective of physics, in a manner accessible to those interested in scientific knowledge integrated within its socio-cultural and philosophical backgrounds. Two key areas of human understanding, namely physics and conscious complex systems, are presented in simple language. An optional technical presentation is also given in parallel where it is needed.

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The modern history of Iraq is punctuated by a series of successive and radical ruptures (coups d'etat, changes of regime, military adventures and foreign invasions) whose chronological markers are relatively easy to identify. Although researchers cannot ignore these ruptures, they should also be encouraged to establish links between the moments when the breaks occur and the longue durée, in order to gain a better understanding of the period.Combining a variety of different disciplinary and methodological perspectives, this collection of essays seeks to establish some new markers which will open fresh perspectives on the history of Iraq in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and suggest a narrative that fits into new paradigms. The book covers the various different periods of the modern state (the British occupation and mandate, the monarchy, the first revolutions and the decades of Ba'thist rule) through the lens of significant groups in Iraq society, including artists, film-makers, political and opposition groups, members of ethnic and religious groups, and tribes.

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The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a competition for high school students. China has taken part in the IMO 21 times since 1985 and has won the top ranking for countries 14 times, with a multitude of golds for individual students. The six students China has sent every year were selected from 20 to 30 students among approximately 130 students who took part in the annual China Mathematical Competition during the winter months. This volume of comprises a collection of original problems with solutions that China used to train their Olympiad team in the years from 2009 to 2010. Mathematical Olympiad problems with solutions for the years 2002-2008 appear in an earlier volume, Mathematical Olympiad in China.

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The standard (Markovian) transport model based on the Boltzmann equation cannot describe some non-equilibrium processes called anomalous that take place in many disordered solids. Causes of anomality lie in non-uniformly scaled (fractal) spatial heterogeneities, in which particle trajectories take cluster form. Furthermore, particles can be located in some domains of small sizes (traps) for a long time. Estimations show that path length and waiting time distributions are often characterized by heavy tails of the power law type. This behavior allows the introduction of time and space derivatives of fractional orders. Distinction of path length distribution from exponential is interpreted as a consequence of media fractality, and analogous property of waiting time distribution as a presence of memory.In this book, a novel approach using equations with derivatives of fractional orders is applied to describe anomalous transport and relaxation in disordered semiconductors, dielectrics and quantum dot systems. A relationship between the self-similarity of transport, the Levy stable limiting distributions and the kinetic equations with fractional derivatives is established. It is shown that unlike the well-known Scher-Montroll and Arkhipov-Rudenko models, which are in a sense alternatives to the normal transport model, fractional differential equations provide a unified mathematical framework for describing normal and dispersive transport. The fractional differential formalism allows the equations of bipolar transport to be written down and transport in distributed dispersion systems to be described. The relationship between fractional transport equations and the generalized limit theorem reveals the probabilistic aspects of the phenomenon in which a dispersive to Gaussian transport transition occurs in a time-of-flight experiment as the applied voltage is decreased and/or the sample thickness increased. Recent experiments devoted to studies of transport in quantum dot arrays are discussed in the framework of dispersive transport models. The memory phenomena in systems under consideration are discussed in the analysis of fractional equations.It is shown that the approach based on the anomalous transport models and the fractional kinetic equations may be very useful in some problems that involve nano-sized systems. These are photon counting statistics of blinking single quantum dot fluorescence, relaxation of current in colloidal quantum dot arrays, and some others.

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This highly illustrated book describes the properties of liquid water and the relevance of these properties to life, in a way that makes the content accessible to anyone. It will raise the awareness of the reader on the vital importance of water to all life on earth. It is a book of science interwoven into the fabric of a story.There are very few books on water aimed at the general public. This volume will appeal to both adults and students with its superb delivery of scientific knowledge in highly accessible prose.

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The Erice International Seminars are multidisciplinary seminars attended by over 100 eminent participants from all fields of Science. Each year, a few scientific issues are selected and experts are invited to present contrasting views during the plenary multidisciplinary sessions of the Seminar, followed by general debates. These sessions offer a unique opportunity for specialists to enlarge their fields of vision by being confronted to the ideas and suggestions from high level scientists in complementary domains of science. Associated workshops allow the experts to further refine and process the ideas evoked during the seminar. This year's topics are focused on the World Energy Crisis and more specifically on the Essential Technologies for Moderating Climate Change and Improving Energy Security and for Energy & Limits of Development. We also concentrated on Managing the Challenges of Climate Change, Energy Security and Pollution in Asian Countries. On Global Monitoring of the Planet we have focused on the Climate Change issues and specifically on the Sensitivity of Climate to Additional CO2 as indicated by Water Cycle Feedback Issues, Climate Uncertainties Addressed by Satellites, and the Basic Mathematics Needed for All Models. In Information Security we focused on Cyber Conflict and Cyber Stability. For Pollution and Medicine we focused on the Revolution in the Environmental Health Sciences and the Emergence of Green Chemistry.

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This is a sequel to the author's book entitled “Entropy Demystified” (Published by World Scientific, 2007). The aim is essentially the same as that of the previous book by the author: to present Entropy and the Second Law as simple, meaningful and comprehensible concepts. In addition, this book presents a series of “experiments” which are designed to help the reader discover entropy and the Second Law. While doing the experiments, the reader will encounter three most fundamental probability distributions featuring in Physics: the Uniform, the Boltzmann and the Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions. In addition, the concepts of entropy and the Second Law will emerge naturally from these experiments without a tinge of mystery. These concepts are explained with the help of a few familiar ideas of probability and information theory.The main “value” of the book is to introduce entropy and the Second Law in simple language which renders it accessible to any reader who can read and is curious about the basic laws of nature. The book is addressed to anyone interested in science and in understanding natural phenomenon. It will afford the reader the opportunity to discover one of the most fundamental laws of physics — a law that has resisted complete understanding for over a century. The book is also designed to be enjoyable.There is no other book of its kind (except “Entropy Demystified” by the same author) that offers the reader a unique opportunity to discover one of the most profound laws — sometimes viewed as a mysterious — while comfortably playing with familiar games. There are no pre-requisites expected from the readers; all that the reader is expected to do is to follow the experiments or imagine doing the experiments and reach the inevitable conclusions.

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The book surveys mathematical relations between classical and quantum mechanics, gravity, time and thermodynamics from various points of view and many sources (with appropriate attribution). The emergence theme is developed with an emphasis on the meaning via mathematics. A background theme of Bohemian mechanics and connections to the quantum equivalence principle of Matone et al. is also developed in great detail. Some original work relating the quantum potential and Ricci flow is also included.

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This unique ground-breaking work, authored by renowned Harvard-based researchers G I Papakostas and M Fava, represents, by far, the most comprehensive compilation to date of medical studies and reports involving the use of antidepressants for the treatment of major depressive disorder, one of the most prevalent and devastating medical illnesses afflicting mankind today. Given the breadth of the scientific literature focusing on the use of antidepressants for major depressive disorder, this work represents an invaluable tool for clinicians as well as scientists in search of a reference manual to help guide them through the field. The book is organized into four parts; each part focusing on a separate theme that will facilitate the reader to precisely access particular information of interest, whether be it clinical or scientific in nature. Each part is then sub-divided into several thematic chapters, which are enriched with tables and figures citing results from the most influential studies in the field. Finally, clinical and research “pearls” are listed throughout the book in bullet-point fashion to help summarize the available knowledge-base in a user-friendly format.

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The book's objective is to present the capabilities of state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation and scanning probe microscopy techniques, together with general theory work, in elucidating the fundamental electronic and structural properties of semiconductor and metal surfaces, interfaces, nanostructures, layers and diverse biological systems.

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In this monograph, the author presents univariate and multivariate probabilistic inequalities with coverage on basic probabilistic entities like expectation, variance, moment generating function and covariance. These are built on the recent classical form of real analysis inequalities which are also discussed in full details. This treatise is the culmination and crystallization of the author's last two decades of research work in related discipline. Each of the chapters is self-contained and a few advanced courses can be taught out of this book. Extensive background and motivations for specific topics are given in each chapter. A very extensive list of references is also provided at the end.The topics covered in this unique book are wide-ranging and diverse. The opening chapters examine the probabilistic Ostrowski type inequalities, and various related ones, as well as the largely discusses about the Grothendieck type probabilistic inequalities. The book is also about inequalities in information theory and the Csiszar's f-Divergence between probability measures. A great section of the book is also devoted to the applications in various directions of Geometry Moment Theory. Also, the development of the Grüss type and Chebyshev-Grüss type inequalities for Stieltjes integrals and the applications in probability are explored in detail. The final chapters discuss the important real analysis methods with potential applications to stochastics. The book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students, and it is also seen as an invaluable reference book to be acquired by all science libraries as well as seminars that conduct discussions on related topics.

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This book focuses on reliability and radiation effects in compound semiconductors, which have evolved rapidly during the last 15 years. It starts with first principles, and shows how advances in device design and manufacturing have suppressed many of the older reliability mechanisms.It is the first book that comprehensively covers reliability and radiation effects in optoelectronic as well as microelectronic devices. It contrasts reliability mechanisms of compound semiconductors with those of silicon-based devices, and shows that the reliability of many compound semiconductors has improved to the level where they can be used for ten years or more with low failure rates.

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Superconductivity remains one of the most interesting research areas in physics and stood as a major scientific mystery for a large part of this century. This book, written for graduate students and researchers in the field of superconductivity, discusses important aspects of the experiment and theory surrounding superconductivity. New experimental investigations of magnetic and thermodynamic superconducting properties of mesoscopic samples are explored with the help of recent developments in nanotechnologies and measurement techniques, and the results are predicted based upon theoretical models in nanoscale superconducting systems. Topics of special interest include high-Tc superconductivity, two-gap superconductivity in magnesium diborades, room-temperature superconductivity, mechanism of superconductivity and mesoscopic superconductivity. Particular attention is given to understanding the symmetry and pairing in superconductors. The theory of the Josephson effect is presented and its application in quantum computing are analyzed.

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This two-volume, 1100 pages, 38 chapters book is a significantly expanded, revised and updated version of the monograph by the authors published in 2013 (Ben-Dor, G, Dubinsky, A, Elperin, T, 'High Speed Penetration Dynamics: Engineering Models and Methods,' Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Company). The contents increased by 60%, the number of titles in bibliography doubled and reached 1600; and the scope covers a range of new topics related to hypervelocity penetration, along with high-speed impact.Presented material is structured into two parts. The first part includes description and analysis of practically all known engineering models for calculating high-speed penetration of projectiles into concrete, metals, geological shields, adobe, and gelatine.The second part focuses on the use of approximate models for solving conventional and non-standard problems of penetration mechanics including prediction and optimization of protective properties of monolithic and multi-layered shields against high-speed projectiles and space debris; shape optimization of high-speed projectiles penetrating into various media; modelling of penetration and optimal control of penetrators equipped with jet thrusters; and investigation of the efficiency and optimization of segmented projectiles. The book includes comprehensive overviews on basic classes of problems in high-speed penetration mechanics.This is a indispensable reference guide for scientists, engineers, and students specializing in the field of high-speed and hypervelocity penetration mechanics.

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Drawing on the studies by the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore (NUS), this book titled Balanced, Sustainable and Competitiveness Enhancement Study for Vietnam: A Critical Evaluation with Development Potentials, which is a joint research collaboration between the National Research Project on Improving Vietnam's Competitiveness and ACI-LKYSPP-NUS, provides a detailed assessment of the Vietnamese economy. We contend that Vietnam is at a critical juncture in its development whereby a new wave of far-reaching reforms is required to address persistent structural weaknesses and unleash the country's economic potentials. In addition, Vietnam's new growth model must tackle widening regional disparities which puts Vietnam at risk of becoming one country with two economies where the southern region of Vietnam pulls too far ahead of its northern and central counterparts. Based on our analysis, we propose a comprehensive policy roadmap for Vietnam to achieve balanced and sustainable development for enhanced competitiveness. The successful completion of this reform agenda will set Vietnam firmly on a dynamic growth path which will allow the country to catch up with the more advanced ASEAN member states by 2040.

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Shandong is a thriving economic centre with a Gross Regional Domestic Product of RMB 6.3 trillion in 2015, the third-highest in China. It is also the third-largest province by land area in the country with the second-largest resident population of 98,470,000. With such impressive characteristics, Shandong's urbanisation rate had quickly expanded from 45 percent in 2005 to 57 percent in 2017. As such, in line with the growing affluence of the province, the people's ever-growing demand for urban development in areas such as infrastructure, public services, education and environmental protection has exceeded the provision of such facilities.In view of these developments, the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore (NUS) developed Shandong's first city-level index which assesses the levels of urban development and liveability for each city. The ranking and simulation analysis via the Urban Composite Development Index for 17 Shandong cities was constructed to provide an empirically robust framework to better understand the quality of urban development of Shandong cities in a comprehensive and rigorous manner, while at the same time highlight important policy implications for further growth and development. Further, this publication incorporates key elements which ensures that the construction of the index is unique, empirically sound and relevant to Shandong's development in the context of China.Overall, the analysis provided in this book relates to the broad dimensions of urban development of Shandong cities and can stand up to academic scrutiny as it is based on rigorous methodological foundations. In addition, the study will remain accessible and appealing to policymakers as it offers tailored policy recommendations based on the analysis that will enable them to take appropriate policy interventions in each city to improve their overall performance in urban development. This research will help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each city and empower policymakers to formulate more effective development strategies.

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The World Scientific Reference of Hybrid Materials is a set of 3 volumes, which covers the fascinating area of materials science at the intersection between purely polymeric, organic or inorganic materials. The rapidly developing research on hybrid materials is largely driven by the steadily increasing need of multifunctional materials in various branches of technology. However, much of the research is also driven by the curiosity of the researchers and the long lasting wish to merge the most beneficial properties of the various materials into one. The flexibility of polymers could, for example, be merged with the electronic conductivity of metals or the mechanical resistance of ceramics, which will be of great value for the industries.This reference covers the areas of synthesis of such hybrid materials, which take benefit from each of the consisting ingredients, and overviews some of the emerging applications based on the materials. Much of the current research is still in its infancy, but hybrid materials are already now considered to be the key enabler for important future developments, for example flexible electronics. With this perspective, this reference aims at giving the general public an overview over the topics of relevance in this field, but also attracting new researchers to this intriguing scientific area.

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Over the last three decades, wine economics has emerged as a growing field within agricultural economics, but also in other fields such as finance, trade, growth, environmental economics and industrial organization. Wine has a few characteristics that differentiate it from other agricultural commodities, rendering it an interesting topic for economists in general. Fine wine can regularly fetch bottle prices that exceed several thousand dollars. It can be stored a long time and may increase in value with age. Fine wine quality and prices are extraordinarily sensitive to fluctuations in the weather of the year in which the grapes were grown. And wine is an experience good, i.e., its quality cannot be ascertained before consumption. As a result, consumers often rely on 'expert opinion' regarding quality and maturation prospects.This handbook takes a broad approach and familiarizes the reader with the main research strands in wine economics.After a general introduction to wine economics by Karl Storchmann, Volume 1 focuses on the core areas of wine economics. The first papers shed light on the relevance of the vineyard's natural environment for wine quality and prices. 'Predicting the Quality and Prices of Bordeaux Wine' by Orley Ashenfelter is a classic paper and may be the first wine economics publication ever. Ashenfelter shows how weather influences the quality and the price of Bordeaux Grands Crus wine. Since the weather condition of the year when the grapes were grown is known, an econometric analysis may be constructed. It turns out this model outperforms expert opinion, i.e., critical vintage scores. At best, expert opinion reflects public information. The subsequent papers, by Ashenfelter and Storchmann, Gergaud and Ginsburgh, and Cross, Plantinga and Stavins, tackle the terroir question. That is, they examine the relevance of a vineyard's physical characteristics for wine quality and prices, but from various dimensions and with different results. Next, Alston et al. analyze a question of great concern in the California wine industry: the causes and consequences of the rising alcohol content in California wine. Is climate change the culprit?The next chapter presents three papers that apply hedonic price analyses to fine wine. Combris, Lecocq and Visser show that Bordeaux wine market prices are essentially determined by the wines' objective characteristics. Costanigro, McCluskey and Mittelhammer differentiate their hedonic analysis for various market segments. Ali and Nauges incorporate reputational variables into their pricing model and distinguish between short- and long-run price effects.The next section of this volume deals with one of the unique characteristics of wine — its long storage life, which makes it potentially an investment asset. Studying wine's increasing role as an alternative asset class, Sanning et al., Burton and Jacobsen, Masset and Weisskopf, Masset and Henderson, and Fogarty all examine the rate of return to holding wine as well as the related risks. Since these papers analyze different wines and different time periods there is no 'one message.' However, all point out that, while wine may diversify an investor's portfolio, wine's returns do not beat common stock in the long run.The last two chapters examine the role of wine experts. First, Ashenfelter and Quandt revisit the 1976 'Judgment of Paris' and show that aggregating the assessments of several judges should go beyond 'adding points.' Depending on the method employed, the results may vary, and some measure of statistical precision is essential for interpreting the reliability of the results. In two different papers, Cicchetti and Quandt respond to the necessity to provide statistical tools for the assessment of wine tastings.In a seminal paper, Hodgson reports a remarkable field experiment in which similar wines were placed before judges at a major competition. The results have the shocking implication that how medals are awarded at a major California wine fair is not far from being random. Ashton analyzes the performance of professional wine judges and finds little support for the idea that experienced wine judges should be regarded as experts.Do experts scores influence the price of wine? The answer to this question is less obvious then commonly thought since expert opinion oftentimes only repeats public information such as wine quality that results from the weather that produced the wine grapes. Hadj Ali, Lecocq, and Visser as well as Dubois and Nauges find that high critical scores exert only small effects on wine prices. However, Roberts and Reagans show that a high critical exposure reduces the price-quality dispersion of wineries.Lecocq and Visser analyze wine prices and find that 'characteristics that are directly revealed to the consumer upon inspection of the bottle and its label explain the major part of price differences.' Expert opinion and sensory variables appear to play only a minor role. In an experimental setting using two Vickrey auctions, Combris, Lange and Issanchou confirm the leading role of public information, i.e., the label remains a key determinant for champagne prices. In a provocative and widely discussed study drawing on blind tasting results of some 5,000 wines, Goldstein and collaborators find that most consumers prefer less expensive over expensive wine.Finally, Weil examines the value of expert wine descriptions and lets several hundred subjects match the wines and their descriptors. His results suggest that the ability to assign a certain description to the matching wine is more or less random.Volume 2 covers the topics reputation, regulation, auctions, and market organizational. Landon and Smith, Anderson and Schamel, and Schamel analyze the impact of current quality and reputation (i.e., past quality) on wine prices from different regions. Their results suggest that prices are more influenced by reputation than by current quality. Costanigro, McCluskey and Goemans develop a nested framework for jointly examining the effects of product, firm and collective reputation on market prices.The following four papers deal with regulatory issues in the US as well as in Europe. While Riekoff and Sykuta shed light on the politics and economics of the three-tier system of alcohol distribution and the prohibition of direct wine shipments in the US, Deconinck and Swinnen analyze the European planting rights system. The political economy of European wine regulation is then covered by Melonie and Swinnen, before Anderson and Jensen shed light on Europe's complex system of wine industry subsidies.The next chapter is devoted to wine auctions. In three different papers, Fevrier, Roos and Visser, Ashenfelter, and Ginsburgh analyze the effects of specific auction designs on the resulting hammer prices. The papers focus on multi-unit ascending auctions, absentee bidders, and declining price anomalies.The last chapter, supply and organization, is devoted to a wide range of issues. First, Heien illuminates the price formation process in the California winegrape industry. Then, Frick analyzes if and how the separation of ownership and control affects the performance of German wineries.Vink, Kleynhans and Willem Hoffmann introduce us to various models of wine barrel financing, particularly to the Vincorp model employed in South Africa. Galbreath analyzes the role of women in the wine industry. He finds that (1) women are underrepresented and (2) that the presence of a female CEO increases the likelihood of women in winemaker, viticulturist, and marketing roles in that firm. Gokcekus, Hewstone, and Cakal draw on crowdsourced wine evaluations, i.e., Wine Tracker data, and show that private wine assessments are largely influenced by peer scores lending support to the assumption of the presence of a strong herding effect.Mahenc refers to the classic model of information asymmetries and develops a theoretical model highlighting the role of informed buyers in markets that are susceptible to the lemons problem. Lastly, in their paper 'Love or Money?' Scott, Morton and Podolny analyze how the presence of hobby winemakers may distort market outcomes. Hobby winemakers produce higher quality wines, charge higher prices, and enjoy lower financial returns than professional for-profit winemakers. As a result, profit-oriented winemakers are discouraged from locating at the high-quality end of the market.

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Thermal and mechanical packaging — the enabling technologies for the physical implementation of electronic systems — are responsible for much of the progress in miniaturization, reliability, and functional density achieved by electronic, microelectronic, and nanoelectronic products during the past 50 years. The inherent inefficiency of electronic devices and their sensitivity to heat have placed thermal packaging on the critical path of nearly every product development effort in traditional, as well as emerging, electronic product categories. Successful thermal packaging is the key differentiator in electronic products, as diverse as supercomputers and cell phones, and continues to be of pivotal importance in the refinement of traditional products and in the development of products for new applications. The Encyclopedia of Thermal Packaging, compiled in four multi-volume sets (Set 1: Thermal Packaging Techniques, Set 2: Thermal Packaging Tools, Set 3: Thermal Packaging Applications, and Set 4: Thermal Packaging Configurations) provides a comprehensive, one-stop treatment of the techniques, tools, applications, and configurations of electronic thermal packaging. Each of the author-written volumes presents the accumulated wisdom and shared perspectives of a few luminaries in the thermal management of electronics. The four sets in the Encyclopedia of Thermal Packaging will provide the novice and student with a complete reference for a quick ascent on the thermal packaging "learning curve," the practitioner with a validated set of techniques and tools to face every challenge, and researchers with a clear definition of the state-of-the-art and emerging needs to guide their future efforts. This encyclopedia will, thus, be of great interest to packaging engineers, electronic product development engineers, and product managers, as well as to researchers in thermal management of electronic and photonic components and systems, and most beneficial to undergraduate and graduate students studying mechanical, electrical, and electronic engineering. Set 3: Thermal Packaging Applications The third set in the Encyclopedia includes two volumes in the planned focus on Thermal Packaging Applications and a single volume on the use of Phase Change Materials (PCM), a most important Thermal Management Technique, not previously addressed in the Encyclopedia. Set 3 opens with Heat Transfer in Avionic Equipment, authored by Dr Boris Abramzon, offering a comprehensive, in-depth treatment of compact heat exchangers and cold plates for avionics cooling, as well as discussion on recent developments in these heat transfer units that are widely used in the thermal control of military and civilian airborne electronics. Along with a detailed presentation of the relevant thermofluid physics and governing equations, and the supporting mathematical design and optimization techniques, the book offers a practical guide for thermal engineers designing avionics cooling equipment, based on the author's 20+ years of experience as a thermal analyst and a practical design engineer for Avionics and related systems. The Set continues with Thermal Management of RF Systems, which addresses sequentially the history, present practice, and future thermal management strategies for electronically-steered RF systems, in the context of the RF operational requirements, as well as device-, module-, and system-level electronic, thermal, and mechanical considerations. This unique text was written by 3 authors, Dr John D Albrecht, Mr David H Altman, Dr Joseph J Maurer, with extensive US Department of Defense and aerospace industry experience in the design, development, and fielding of RF systems. Their combined efforts have resulted in a text, which is well-grounded in the relevant past, present, and future RF systems and technologies. Thus, this volume will provide the designers of advanced radars and other electronic RF systems with the tools and the knowledge to address the thermal management challenges of today's technologies, as well as of advanced technologies, such as wide bandgap semiconductors, heterogeneously integrated devices, and 3D chipsets and stacks. The third volume in Set 3, Phase Change Materials for Thermal Management of Electronic Components, co-authored by Prof Gennady Ziskind and Dr Yoram Kozak, provides a detailed description of the numerical methods used in PCM analysis and a detailed explanation of the processes that accompany and characterize solid-liquid phase-change in popular basic and advanced geometries. These provide a foundation for an in-depth exploration of specific electronics thermal management applications of Phase Change Materials. This volume is anchored in the unique PCM knowledge and experience of the senior author and placed in the context of the extensive solid-liquid phase-change literature in such diverse fields as material science, mathematical modeling, experimental and numerical methods, and thermofluid science and engineering.

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Volume 1 covers statistical methods related to unit roots, trend breaks and their interplay. Testing for unit roots has been a topic of wide interest and the author was at the forefront of this research. The book covers important topics such as the Phillips-Perron unit root test and theoretical analyses about their properties, how this and other tests could be improved, and ingredients needed to achieve better tests and the proposal of a new class of tests. Also included are theoretical studies related to time series models with unit roots and the effect of span versus sampling interval on the power of the tests. Moreover, this book deals with the issue of trend breaks and their effect on unit root tests. This research agenda fostered by the author showed that trend breaks and unit roots can easily be confused. Hence, the need for new testing procedures, which are covered.Volume 2 is about statistical methods related to structural change in time series models. The approach adopted is off-line whereby one wants to test for structural change using a historical dataset and perform hypothesis testing. A distinctive feature is the allowance for multiple structural changes. The methods discussed have, and continue to be, applied in a variety of fields including economics, finance, life science, physics and climate change. The articles included address issues of estimation, testing and/or inference in a variety of models: short-memory regressors and errors, trends with integrated and/or stationary errors, autoregressions, cointegrated models, multivariate systems of equations, endogenous regressors, long-memory series, among others. Other issues covered include the problems of non-monotonic power and the pitfalls of adopting a local asymptotic framework. Empirical analyses are provided for the US real interest rate, the US GDP, the volatility of asset returns and climate change.

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This is an introductory book dealing with collective phenomena in many-body systems. A gas of bosons or fermions can show oscillations of various types of density. These are described by different combinations of field variables. Especially delicate is the competition of these variables. In superfluid 3He, for example, the atoms can be attracted to each other by molecular forces, whereas they are repelled from each other at short distance due to a hardcore repulsion. The attraction gives rise to Cooper pairs, and the repulsion is overcome by paramagnon oscillations. The combination is what finally led to the discovery of superfluidity in 3He. In general, the competition between various channels can most efficiently be studied by means of a classical version of the Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation.A gas of electrons is controlled by the interplay of plasma oscillations and pair formation. In a system of rod- or disc-like molecules, liquid crystals are observed with directional orientations that behave in unusual five-fold or seven-fold symmetry patterns. The existence of such a symmetry was postulated in 1975 by the author and K Maki. An aluminium material of this type was later manufactured by Dan Shechtman which won him the 2014 Nobel prize. The last chapter presents some solvable models, one of which was the first to illustrate the existence of broken supersymmetry in nuclei.

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This is a calculus-based textbook on general physics. It contains all the major subjects covered in an intermediate or advanced course on general physics. It also embraces the most recent developments in science and technology. With this book, students can have a better understanding of physics principles and a broad view on the applications of physics ideas. Through coherent and humorous elucidation of physics principles, this book makes learning general physics a fun and interesting activity.

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Donald Trump has called for a turnaround in the foreign policy of the United States (US). A key reason is that US foreign engagements have in recent decades proved of little benefit to the US middle and working classes.Trump's opponents have challenged him to prove that he can offer a better alternative to the foreign policy which has been pursued by the US since the Second World War.This volume shows that a sane US foreign policy that adjusts US postwar trajectory can be accomplished if leaders have the courage and integrity to do so. The principles and many details of an alternative policy based on democratic nationalism are described in this book. Democratic nationalism presumes that the US is a large family in which the needs of members of the family have a certain legitimate priority over those of people abroad.While Donald Trump has raised the level of discussion of these ideas in US public life, he does not have a monopoly on them. The shifts in the US foreign policy which are envisioned in this book can be made by any president and any political party. The shifts and the considerations which motivate them are deserving of careful attention by any US chief executive. This is not a Republican agenda, nor a Democratic one. We believe that it is a US agenda.

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The primary goal of this text book is to ensure that any physical science student, even one who has never heard of the subject, should be able to learn what ultrafast spectroscopy is, why optics related to the subject requires special attention, how to use the basic ideas of the subject in laboratory-based ultrafast spectroscopy experiments, how to interpret the experimental observations and so on. This book gives a more than adequate introduction to mathematical representation of an ultrafast pulse, chirp, time-band width product, nonlinear optical effects, dispersion effects, construction of ultrafast laser, ultrafast measurement techniques and different ultrafast processes of chemical interest.

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Based on a new perspective, this book explores the theory of internationalization of technological innovation in four aspects, namely strategy, organization, resource allocation and environment, and analyzes the development rules and key points of management in the internationalization of technological innovation for Chinese firms. On the basis of theoretical and empirical studies, this book proposes an evolutionary model of the internationalization of technological innovation. It is hoped that the proposed model will be of value to the advancement of the internationalization of technological innovation for the Chinese firms and will contribute to the enrichment and improvement of the theories in technological innovation.

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With the alarming increase in cancer diagnoses and genetic illnesses, traditional drug agents and their delivery media need to be re-evaluated to address a quickly evolving field. With newer smart materials for the controlled release of macromolecules, peptides, genetic material, etc. further complications arise, such as material performance, synthesis, functionalization and targeting, biological identity, and biocompatibility.The book provides a comprehensive overview of the recent developments on 'smart' targeting and drug delivery systems with a variety of carriers like nanoparticles, membranes, and hydrogels. It contains detailed descriptions on the recent trends in this field in the ongoing battle with catastrophic diseases like cancer. This field of research has been in its infancy and continues to face growth, and with it, further challenges and difficulties along the way toward maturity, which are accurately introduced in this book.

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Volume 1 of 'The Strategic Analysis of Financial Markets,' — Framework, is premised on the belief that markets can be understood only by dropping the assumptions of rationality and efficient markets in their extreme forms, and showing that markets still have an inherent order and inherent logic. But that order results primarily from the 'predictable irrationality' of investors, as well as from people's uncoordinated attempts to profit. The market patterns that result do not rely on rationality or efficiency.A framework is developed for understanding financial markets using a combination of psychology, statistics, game and gambling analysis, market history and the author's experience. It expresses analytically how professional investors and traders think about markets — as games in which other participants employ inferior, partially predictable strategies. Those strategies' interactions can be toxic and lead to booms, bubbles, busts and crashes, or can be less dramatic, leading to various patterns that are mistakenly called 'market inefficiencies' and 'stylized facts.'A logical case is constructed, starting from two foundations, the psychology of human decision making and the 'Fundamental Laws of Gambling.' Applying the Fundamental Laws to trading leads to the idea of 'gambling rationality' (grationality), replacing the efficient market's concept of 'rationality.' By classifying things that are likely to have semi-predictable price impacts (price 'distorters'), one can identify, explore through data analysis, and create winning trading ideas and systems. A structured way of doing all this is proposed: the six-step 'Strategic Analysis of Market Method.' Examples are given in this and Volume 2.Volume 2 of 'The Strategic Analysis of Financial Markets' — Trading System Analytics, continues the development of Volume 1 by introducing tools and techniques for developing trading systems and by illustrating them using real markets. The difference between these two Volumes and the rest of the literature is its rigor. It describes trading as a form of gambling that when properly executed, is quite logical, and is well known to professional gamblers and analytical traders.But even those elites might be surprised at the extent to which quantitative methods have been justified and applied, including a life cycle theory of trading systems. Apart from a few sections that develop background material, Volume 2 creates from scratch a trading system for Eurodollar futures using principles of the Strategic Analysis of Markets Method (SAMM), a principled, step-by-step approach to developing profitable trading systems. It has an entire Chapter on mechanical methods for testing and improvement of trading systems, which transcends the rather unstructured and unsatisfactory 'backtesting' literature. It presents a breakout trend following system developed using factor models. It also presents a specific pairs trading system, and discusses its life cycle from an early, highly profitable period to its eventual demise. Recent developments in momentum trading and suggestions on improvements are also discussed.

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Triggered by the US subprime mortgage crisis in 2007, the Financial Tsunami is the most serious global financial crisis since the Great Depression. This book studies financial stability in terms of its determining factors, causal mechanisms and institutional requirements. It aims at understanding how to construct a mechanism for maintaining long-term financial stability.The book focuses on economic analysis of the understanding what China can and should do to safeguard its economic and financial stability. In its assessment and discussion of financial stability in China, this book takes full account of China's specific conditions and constructs an index system for the country. It also reflects on the country's monetary policy, government functions and behavior, fluctuations in real estate prices, and financial security network design.The book contributes to better understanding of financial stability in transition economies. It proposes a systematic solution to financial instability in China and strategies for building a mechanism to maintain financial stability in the country.

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Communication networks and distributed system technologies are undergoing rapid advancements. The last few years have experienced a steep growth in research on different aspects in these areas. Even though these areas hold great promise for our future, there are several challenges that need to be addressed. This review volume discusses important issues in selected emerging and matured topics in communication networks and distributed systems. It will be a valuable reference for students, instructors, researchers, engineers and strategists in this field.

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This book provides a calculus-based perspective on classical mechanics and the theory of relativity. Unlike most conventional textbooks, the discussion on theory is pared down to a minimum in favor of detailed, guided solutions of problems illustrating salient points, subtleties and principles. By working through the 900 carefully selected problems, the serious learner will hence be stimulated, challenged and enlightened. Great emphasis is placed on the pedagogical value of solving problems in a number of ways, on the careful and detailed analysis of problems, on dimensional considerations, and on basic principles underlying every topic treated.The book is aimed at first-year undergraduate students in physics and engineering. Advanced Placement students in high schools will also find this book rewarding and challenging. Instructors too will be able to recharge their batteries and refresh their reservoir of problems for recitation classes, or delve into it for their own amusement and edification.

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Sensor networks have many interesting applications with great utility; however, their actually deployment and realization rely on continuous innovations and solutions to many challenging problems. Thus, sensor networks have recently attracted the attention of many researchers and practitioners. The compilation of the Handbook on Sensor Networks will meet the demand of the sensor network community for a comprehensive reference and summary of the current state of the area.The Handbook on Sensor Networks is a collection of approximately 40 chapters on sensor network theory and applications. The book spans a wide spectrum and includes topics in medium access control, routing, security and privacy, coverage and connectivity, modeling and simulations, multimedia, energy efficiency, localization and tracking, design and implementation, as well as sensor network applications.

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The aim of this book is to explain the unusual properties of both pure liquid water and simple aqueous solutions, in terms of the properties of single molecules and interactions among small numbers of water molecules. It is mostly the result of the author's own research spanning over 40 years in the field of aqueous solutions. An understanding of the properties of liquid water is a prelude to the understanding of the role of water in biological systems and for the evolvement of life.The book is targeted at anyone who is interested in the outstanding properties of water and its role in biological systems. It is addressed to both students and researchers in chemistry, physics and biology.

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This proceedings volume contains selected talks and poster presentations from the 9th International Conference on Path Integrals — New Trends and Perspectives, which took place at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, during the period September 23-28, 2007. Continuing the well-developed tradition of the conference series, the present status of both the different techniques of path integral calculations and their diverse applications to many fields of physics and chemistry is reviewed. This is reflected in the main topics in this volume, which range from more traditional fields such as general quantum physics and quantum or statistical field theory through technical aspects like Monte Carlo simulations to more modern applications in the realm of quantum gravity and astrophysics, condensed matter physics with topical subjects such as Bose-Einstein condensation or quantum wires, biophysics and econophysics. All articles are successfully tied together by the common method of path integration; as a result, special methodological advancements in one topic could be transferred to other topics.

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Explanation of the basic concepts and methods of statistics requires a reasonably good mathematical background, at least at a first-year-level knowledge of calculus. Most of the statistical software explain how to conduct data analysis, but do not explain when to apply and when not to apply it. Keeping this in view, we try to explain the basic concepts of probability and statistics for students with an understanding of a first course in calculus at the undergraduate level.Designed as a textbook for undergraduate and first-year graduate students in statistics, bio-statistics, social sciences and business administration programs as well as undergraduates in engineering sciences and computer science programs, it provides a clear exposition of the theory of probability along with applications in statistics. The book contains a large number of solved examples and chapter-end exercises designed to reinforce the probability theory and emphasize statistical applications.

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This handbook covers the vast field of business information systems, focusing particularly on developing information systems to capture and integrate information technology together with the people and their businesses.Part I of the book, “Health Care Information Systems”, focuses on providing global leadership for the optimal use of health care information technology (IT). It provides knowledge about the best use of information systems for the betterment of health care services. Part II, “Business Process Information Systems”, extends the previous theory in the area of process development by recognizing that improvements in intra-organizational business processes need to be complemented by corresponding improvements in inter-organizational processes. Part III deals with “Industrial Data and Management Systems” and captures the main challenges faced by the industry, such as the changes in the operations paradigm of manufacturing and service organizations. Finally, Part IV, “Evaluation of Business Information Systems”, discusses the empirical investigation into the adoption of systems development methodologies and the security pattern of the business systems along with the mathematical models.

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The debate between divine action, or faith, and natural selection, or science, is garnering tremendous interest. This book ventures well beyond the usual, contrasting American Protestant and atheistic points of view, and also includes the perspectives of Jews, Muslims, and Roman Catholics. It contains arguments from the various proponents of intelligent design, creationism, and Darwinism, and also covers the sensitive issue of how to incorporate evolution into the secondary school biology curriculum. Comprising contributions from prominent, award-winning authors, the book also contains dialogs following each chapter to provide extra stimulus to the readers and a full picture of this “hot” topic, which delves into the fundamentals of science and religion.

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The book provides a short introduction to the sol-gel process, principles in modification of the sols and technical details of the application on textiles, covering in particular the chemical content of the topic. New properties of textiles gained from nanosols are summarized and explained in a broad range, focusing on the mechanical and thermal stability, repellent properties, optical properties, antistatic coatings and bioactive coatings. An active discussion is held on the bioactive modifications, because this wide and interesting field offers a high potential for many new applications, e.g. in medicine. Besides basic research, this book will also provide examples on the transition of academic research to customer products.

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This book consists of the lectures for a two-semester course on quantum field theory, and as such is presented in a quite informal and personal manner. The course starts with relativistic one-particle systems, and develops the basics of quantum field theory with an analysis of the representations of the Poincaré group. Canonical quantization is carried out for scalar, fermion, Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories. Covariant quantization of gauge theories is also carried out with a detailed description of the BRST symmetry. The Higgs phenomenon and the standard model of electroweak interactions are also developed systematically. Regularization and (BPHZ) renormalization of field theories as well as gauge theories are discussed in detail, leading to a derivation of the renormalization group equation. In addition, two chapters — one on the Dirac quantization of constrained systems and another on discrete symmetries — are included for completeness, although these are not covered in the two-semester course.

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This book shows the advanced methods of numerical simulation of waves and fronts propagation in inhomogeneous solids and introduces related important ideas associated with the application of numerical methods for these problems. Great care has been taken throughout the book to seek a balance between the thermomechanical analysis and numerical techniques. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in continuum mechanics and engineering. Necessary prerequisites for this text are basic continuum mechanics and thermodynamics. Some elementary knowledge of numerical methods for partial differential equations is also preferable.

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In the last 20 years the disciplines of particle physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics and cosmology have grown together in an unprecedented way. A brilliant example is nuclear double beta decay, an extremely rare radioactive decay mode, which is one of the most exciting and important fields of research in particle physics at present and the flagship of non-accelerator particle physics.While already discussed in the 1930s, only in the 1980s was it understood that neutrinoless double beta decay can yield information on the Majorana mass of the neutrino, which has an impact on the structure of space-time. Today, double beta decay is indispensable for solving the problem of the neutrino mass spectrum and the structure of the neutrino mass matrix. The potential of double beta decay has also been extended such that it is now one of the most promising tools for probing beyond-the-standard-model particle physics, and gives access to energy scales beyond the potential of future accelerators.This book presents the breathtaking manner in which achievements in particle physics have been made from a nuclear physics process. Consisting of a 150-page highly factual overview of the field of double beta decay and a 1200-page collection of the most important original articles, the book outlines the development of double beta decay research — theoretical and experimental — from its humble beginnings until its most recent achievements, with its revolutionary consequences for the theory of particle physics. It further presents an outlook on the exciting future of the field.

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This book contains 22 peer-reviewed articles that cover a spectrum of contemporary subjects relevant to atmospheric sciences, with specific applications to the Asia-Pacific region. The majority of these papers consist of a review of a scientific sub-field in atmospheric sciences, while some contain original contributions. All of the accepted papers were subject to scientific reviews and revisions.The book is divided into 2 traditional fields in atmospheric sciences: atmospheric dynamics and meteorology; and atmospheric physics and chemistry. The authors of these papers are distinguished alumni of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the National Taiwan University, residing in the USA and Taiwan. This book is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences that occurred in 2004.Papers in atmospheric dynamics and meteorology cover the following subjects: El Niño/Southern Oscillation, air/sea interactions, convection in the tropics, meiyu frontal systems, tropical cyclones/typhoons, data assimilations, and mesoscale modeling. In atmospheric physics and chemistry, subjects range from aerosols/clouds interactions, heat budgets in the context of air/sea interactions, atmospheric radiative transfer, remote sensing of the oceans, Asian dust outbreaks and clouds, reviews of cloud microphysics and urban ozone formations, to a satellite GPS system for typhoon studies and weather predictions.

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