Search results for ""imperial college press""

Advances in Earth Science outlines the latest developments and new research directions currently being made world-wide in the earth sciences. It contains invited and refereed articles by leading younger researchers on their cutting-edge research, but aimed at a general scientific audience.This exciting volume explains how powerful methodologies such as satellite remote sensing and supercomputing simulations are now profoundly changing research in the earth sciences; how the earth system is increasingly being viewed in a holistic way, linking the atmosphere, ocean and solid earth; and how the societal impact of the research in the earth sciences has never been more important.Published by Imperial College Press in collaboration with the Royal Society of London, the book features many articles originating from invited papers published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Eleven of the distinguished contributors hold prestigious Royal Society Research Fellowships.

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This unique advanced textbook provides a clear and comprehensive description of the field of gene delivery, gene therapy and genetic pharmacology, with descriptions of the main gene transfer vectors and a set of selected therapeutic applications, along with safety considerations.The use of gene transfer is exponentially growing in the scientific and medical communities for day-to-day cell biology experiments and swift development of revolutionary gene therapy strategies. In this advanced textbook, more than 25 leading scientists, world-renowned in their respective fields, come together to provide a clear and comprehensive description of gene delivery, gene therapy and genetic pharmacology.This educational introduction to the main gene transfer vectors and selected therapeutic applications provides the background material needed to further explore the subject as well as relevant research literature. It will thus be invaluable to Master, PhD or MD students, post-doctoral scientists or medical doctors, as well as any scientist wishing to deliver a gene or synthetic nucleotide, or develop a gene therapy strategy. Furthermore, the textbook's simple and synthetic content will be of value to any reader interested in the biological and medical revolution derived from the elucidation of the human genome.

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Latest Edition: Fundamentals of Orthognathic Surgery and Non Surgical Facial Aesthetics (3rd Edition)This is a unique and comprehensive, but concise illustrated operative manual for surgical and orthodontic consultants and trainees as well as for theatre and ward staff. It also describes in detail the current state of computerised cephalometry and contains up-to-date sections on imaging and surgical planning. Some important sections include: Secondary management of clefts (including the role of distraction osteogenesis); rhinoplasty surgery; temporomandibular joint ankylosis; nutrition; the important psychopathological aspects of orthognathic surgery, where the borderland between aesthetics and cosmesis can destabilise the patient and create unexpected problems for the clinician; and there is a unique section on the multistage planning process, which provides an increased understanding of the accuracy of record transfer and the challenges of rigid internal fixation.

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This introductory text deals with how electric currents behave at the nanometer scale. The book ties together several aspects of recent research on current flow at the nanoscale, including its relevance in defects, grain boundaries, tunneling, and atomic contacts; its effects through nanostructures, particularly for transistor miniaturization; and the techniques used to probe currents and voltages at the nanoscale, focusing on scanning probe microscopy and transport measurements. It covers topics such as quantum transport, mesoscopic physics, and molecular electronics, among others.Unlike other books on this subject that are almost entirely theoretical, the introductory nature of this book strikes a balance between theory and experiment. Moreover, given the introductory nature of the book, it will not become obsolete quickly and chapters can be added at later stages as new developments inevitably arise. Based largely on MEng and MPhil courses that have been originated and taught by the author, as well as on his own research, the book is written primarily for postgraduate students, but contains elements that undergraduates can also understand and apply. The wide coverage of topics allows for a broad readership base, and serves as a good starting point for those who wish to do work on nanoscale transport.

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This book is for any physicist interested in new vistas in the domain of non-crystalline condensed matter, aperiodic and quasi-crystalline networks and especially glass physics and chemistry. Students with an elementary background in thermodynamics and statistical physics will find the book accessible. The physics of glasses is extensively covered, focusing on their thermal and mechanical properties, as well as various models leading to the formation of the glassy states of matter from overcooled liquids. The models of agglomeration and growth are also applied to describe the formation of quasicrystals, fullerenes and, in biology, to describe virus assembly pathways.

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This book provides physical intuition and key entries to the ever-growing body of literature on turbulent reacting flows. It is of a tutorial nature and includes some historical perspective of the theories developed over the past 30 years. A selection of basic and advanced materials is used to build the necessary background and emphasize some of the main concepts that the student or newcomer to the field of turbulent reacting flows should know, thus facilitating further study of specialized research papers and research monographs. A range of exercises is also provided in order to consolidate the student's understanding.

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Modeling is now a major tool for important environmental strategies. This book allows the non-specialist reader to understand and criticize current models of the shallow sea and coastal environments. Sufficient background on mathematics and statistics is covered, but readers disinclined to spend time on this may use the book as a reference guide in modeling. Topics include the numerical schemes used, modeling the sea bed, modeling shallow sea dynamics and, unusually for this type of book, modeling ecosystems and animals.

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This book provides an introduction for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students to the field of astrophysical fluid dynamics. Although sometimes ignored, fluid dynamical processes play a central role in virtually all areas of astrophysics.No previous knowledge of fluid dynamics is assumed. After establishing the basic equations of fluid dynamics and the physics relevant to an astrophysical application, a variety of topics in the field are addressed. There is also a chapter introducing the reader to numerical methods. Appendices list useful physical constants and astronomical quantities, and provide handy reference material on Cartesian tensors, vector calculus in polar coordinates, self-adjoint eigenvalue problems and JWKB theory.

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Efficient computer programs have made it possible to elucidate and analyze large-scale genomic sequences. Fundamental tasks, such as the assembly of numerous whole-genome shotgun fragments, the alignment of complementary DNA sequences with a long genome, and the design of gene-specific primers or oligomers, require efficient algorithms and state-of-the-art implementation techniques. This textbook emphasizes basic software implementation techniques for processing large-scale genome sequences and provides executable sample programs.

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The idea that “measuring quality is the key to developing high-quality software systems” is gaining relevance. Moreover, it is widely recognised that the key to obtaining better software systems is to measure the quality characteristics of early artefacts, produced at the conceptual modelling phase. Therefore, improving the quality of conceptual models is a major step towards the improvement of software system development.Since the 1970s, software engineers had been proposing high quantities of metrics for software products, processes and resources but had not been paying any special attention to conceptual modelling. By the mid-1990s, however, the need for metrics for conceptual modelling had emerged. This book provides an overview of the most relevant existing proposals of metrics for conceptual models, covering conceptual models for both products and processes.

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This invaluable book provides an introduction to space science. It brings together the various space science disciplines in one volume, and will benefit a wide audience, particularly students starting their graduate studies. The text presents a unique outlook, which will encourage students to think in broad terms across the whole range of space science, from the Earth's climate system to cosmology. There are also chapters describing basic techniques necessary to progress in space science research.

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IC-SEC 2002 serves as a forum for engineers and scientists who are involved in the use of high performance computers, advanced numerical strategies, computational methods and simulation in various scientific and engineering disciplines. The conference creates a platform for presenting and discussing the latest trends and findings about the state of the art in their particular field(s) of interest. IC-SEC also provides a forum for the interdisciplinary blending of computational efforts in various diversified areas of science, such as biology, chemistry, physics and materials science, as well as all branches of engineering. The proceedings cover a broad range of topics and an application area which involves modelling and simulation work using high performance computers.

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The use of CeO2-based materials in catalysis has attracted considerable attention in recent years, particularly in applications like environmental catalysis, where ceria has shown great potential. This book critically reviews the most recent advances in the field, with the focus on both fundamental and applied issues. The first few chapters cover structural and chemical properties of ceria and related materials, i.e. phase stability, reduction behaviour, synthesis, interaction with probe molecules (CO, O2, NO), and metal-support interaction — all presented from the viewpoint of catalytic applications. The use of computational techniques and ceria surfaces and films for model catalytic studies are also reviewed. The second part of the book provides a critical evaluation of the role of ceria in the most important catalytic processes: three-way catalysis, catalytic wet oxidation and fluid catalytic cracking. Other topics include oxidation-combustion catalysts, electrocatalysis and the use of cerium catalysts/additives in diesel soot abatement technology.

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Click here for an updated 2nd Edition.Enjoy Writing Your Science Thesis or Dissertation! is a complete guide to good dissertation and thesis writing. It is written in an accessible style with cartoons and real-life anecdotes to liven up the text. It outlines the rules and conventions of scientific writing — particularly for dissertations and theses — and gives the reader practical advice about planning, writing, editing, presenting, and submitting a successful dissertation or thesis. Enjoy Writing Your Science Thesis or Dissertation! can be used as either a guide from day one of the degree course or as a quick reference life-jacket when deadlines are looming.

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Every day, headlines emphasise the impact that technology has on the manipulation of life. We all want to live longer, healthier, happier lives. To live at all costs and maintain life at all costs has become a popular aim. This book examines those costs; it probes the consequences of putting one's faith in science. It explores the belief that with science comes certainty. The use and misuse of implants, transplants, cloning, genetic manipulation, health care resources, birth and death control are debated in terms of the complex scientific, economic and ethical issues involved.

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Every day, headlines emphasise the impact that technology has on the manipulation of life. We all want to live longer, healthier, happier lives. To live at all costs and maintain life at all costs has become a popular aim. This book examines those costs; it probes the consequences of putting one's faith in science. It explores the belief that with science comes certainty. The use and misuse of implants, transplants, cloning, genetic manipulation, health care resources, birth and death control are debated in terms of the complex scientific, economic and ethical issues involved.

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Face recognition is a task that the human vision system seems to perform almost effortlessly, yet the goal of building computer-based systems with comparable capabilities has proven to be difficult. The task implicitly requires the ability to locate and track faces through often complex and dynamic scenes. Recognition is difficult because of variations in factors such as lighting conditions, viewpoint, body movement and facial expression. Although evidence from psychophysical and neurobiological experiments provides intriguing insights into how we might code and recognise faces, its bearings on computational and engineering solutions are far from clear. The study of face recognition has had an almost unique impact on computer vision and machine learning research at large. It raises many challenging issues and provides a good vehicle for examining some difficult problems in vision and learning. Many of the issues raised are relevant to object recognition in general.This book describes the latest models and algorithms that are capable of performing face recognition in a dynamic setting. The key question is how to design computer vision and machine learning algorithms that can operate robustly and quickly under poorly controlled and changing conditions. Consideration of face recognition as a problem in dynamic vision is perhaps both novel and important. The algorithms described have numerous potential applications in areas such as visual surveillance, verification, access control, video-conferencing, multimedia and visually mediated interaction.The book will be of special interest to researchers and academics involved in machine vision, visual recognition and machine learning. It should also be of interest to industrial research scientists and managers keen to exploit this emerging technology and develop automated face and human recognition systems. It is also useful to postgraduate students studying computer science, electronic engineering, information or systems engineering, and cognitive psychology.

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Efforts to reform healthcare systems around the globe are proliferating rapidly. No country is immune from the two fundamental pressures that are driving change: cost and access. Every system is experimenting with measures designed to contain costs while simultaneously trying to determine how best to resolve the question of who should be eligible for what services under what conditions.In the midst of these experiments, serious concerns about quality are being raised. Are efforts to contain costs leading to practices which have a detrimental impact on quality? What, in fact, is “quality” in the world of healthcare? How should it be measured? And how can it be improved? These questions are on the cutting edge of debates about the management of healthcare in the future.This book examines these questions in detail by combining chapters outlining the basic issues with others describing state-of-the-art efforts to measure and manage quality more effectively. The result is an up-to-date compendium of issues and experiences presented by leading researchers and practitioners which should be of interest to healthcare managers and policy makers as well as to students and researchers in the field.

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Spheromaks are easily formed, self-organized magnetized plasma configurations that have intrigued plasma physicists for over two decades. Sometimes called magnetic vortices, magnetic smoke rings, or plasmoids, spheromaks first attracted attention as a possible controlled thermonuclear plasma confinement scheme, but are now known to have many other applications.This book begins with a review of the basic concepts of magnetohydrodynamics and toroidal magnetic configurations, then provides a detailed exposition of the 3D topological concepts underlying spheromak physics, namely magnetic helicity, Taylor relaxation, force-free equilibria, and tilt stability. It then examines spheromak formation techniques, driven and isolated configurations, dynamo concepts, practical experimental issues, diagnostics, and a number of applications. The book concludes by showing how spheromak ideas are closely related to the physics of solar prominences and interplanetary magnetic clouds.

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This volume provides a general picture of the current trends in the area of automatic control, with particular emphasis on practical problems in the mechanical field. For this reason, besides theoretical contributions, it presents selected lectures on recent developments interesting from an industrial point of view, such as automotive, robotics, motion control, and electrical drives.

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Interviews conducted with Eric Scerri at the Chemical Heritage Foundation on the Periodic Table Part 1Interviews conducted with Eric Scerri at the Chemical Heritage Foundation on the Periodic Table Part 2This book contains key articles by Eric Scerri, the leading authority on the history and philosophy of the periodic table of the elements and the author of a best-selling book on the subject. The articles explore a range of topics such as the historical evolution of the periodic system as well as its philosophical status and its relationship to modern quantum physics. This volume contains some in-depth research papers from journals in history and philosophy of science, as well as quantum chemistry. Other articles are from more accessible magazines like American Scientist. The author has also provided an extensive new introduction in order to integrate this work covering a period of two decades. This must-have publication is completely unique as there is nothing of this form currently available on the market.

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This book is a presentation of a qualitative theory of chemical bonding stressing the physical processes which occur on bond formation. It differs from most (if not all) other books in that it does not seek to “rationalize” the phenomena of bonding by a series of mnemonic rules. A principal feature is a unified and consistent treatment across all types of bonding in organic, physical and inorganic chemistry.

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This unique book explores the definition, sources and role of randomness. A joyful discussion with many non-mathematical and mathematical examples leads to the identification of three sources of randomness: randomness due to irreversibility which inhibits us from extracting whatever rules may underlie a process, randomness due to our inability to have infinite power (chaos), and randomness due to many interacting systems. Here, all sources are found to have something in common: infinity. The discussion then moves to the physical system (our universe). Through the quantum mechanical character of small scales, the second law of thermodynamics and chaos, randomness is shown to be an intrinsic property of nature — this is consistent with the three sources of randomness identified above. Finally, an explanation is given as to why rules and randomness cannot exist by themselves, but instead have to coexist. Many examples are presented, ranging from pure mathematical to natural and social processes, that clearly demonstrate how the combination of rules and randomness produces the world we live in.

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Latest Edition: Fundamentals of Tribology (3rd Edition)There are many occasions when quick solutions to problems in tribology are needed. For example, an understanding of the lubrication mechanism in a racing car engine has led to an improvement in performance. Why does a woman's face cream make her look younger for a time? Tribologists are frequently summoned in legal cases as expert witnesses after people have slipped in public places. Improvements to the human artificial hip joint are also partly a result of extensive tribology research.In order to solve such problems, tribology should be regarded as an important undergraduate course. This book covers tribology in such a way as to provide simple approximate solutions to frequent practical problems. Unlike previous books, which catered for earlier generations of undergraduates, today's students generally have sophisticated computer systems available in their colleges. Therefore, many of the worked and set examples in the book are made easier by using readily available software such as Math CAD. Readers will thus gain practice in using it, and will benefit in general by understanding the mathematical principles involved in the solutions. This book is particularly useful to engineering undergraduates and practicing engineers needing a quick solution to tribological problems.

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This book sets out the unique and paradoxical position biomedical science finds itself in, in the early 21st (superscript st) century. Science has never been stronger in shaping the world we live in; progress in medical science during most of the last century has helped to transform health care and prolong our lives; almost daily advances in biological science promise hope for the future and yet medical science has been in serious decline for the past three decades.Biomedical Science in the 21st (superscript st) Century: Sunset or New Dawn? sets out the recent decline in the context of medical science's stunning past successes. Professor Sheridan discusses the failure to translate new discoveries in biological science into medical advances; the dramatic decline in research productivity in the pharmaceutical industry in the context of falling numbers of clinical scientists; the disruption of medical science during prolonged and repeated reforms of health care delivery; changing social and political attitudes towards health care and science; the loss of trust in big pharmaceutical companies and recent revelations of fraud in science. The book deals with the creative nature of original science, how it is driven by curiosity and self-motivation and how these can be stifled by pettifogging managerialism.The book presents a vision of what medical science can deliver during the coming half century and what is needed to overcome the present challenges. It questions the assumptions that big is best in the organisation of science and suggests a new model for drug development based on a restoration of trust and a more constructive relationship between regulators and industry.

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This book presents a concise and rigorous treatment of stochastic calculus. It also gives its main applications in finance, biology and engineering. In finance, the stochastic calculus is applied to pricing options by no arbitrage. In biology, it is applied to populations' models, and in engineering it is applied to filter signal from noise. Not everything is proved, but enough proofs are given to make it a mathematically rigorous exposition.This book aims to present the theory of stochastic calculus and its applications to an audience which possesses only a basic knowledge of calculus and probability. It may be used as a textbook by graduate and advanced undergraduate students in stochastic processes, financial mathematics and engineering. It is also suitable for researchers to gain working knowledge of the subject. It contains many solved examples and exercises making it suitable for self study.In the book many of the concepts are introduced through worked-out examples, eventually leading to a complete, rigorous statement of the general result, and either a complete proof, a partial proof or a reference. Using such structure, the text will provide a mathematically literate reader with rapid introduction to the subject and its advanced applications. The book covers models in mathematical finance, biology and engineering. For mathematicians, this book can be used as a first text on stochastic calculus or as a companion to more rigorous texts by a way of examples and exercises.

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This elegant book provides a student-friendly introduction to the subject of physical chemistry. It is by the author of the very successful Basic Chemical Thermodynamics and is written in the same well-received popular style. It is concise and more compact than standard textbooks on the subject and emphasises the two important topics underpinning the subject: quantum mechanics and the second law of thermodynamics. Both topics are challenging to students because they focus on uncertainty and probability. The book explains these fundamental concepts clearly and shows how they offer the key to understanding a wide range of chemical phenomena including atomic and molecular spectra, the structure and properties of solids, liquids and gases, chemical equilibrium and the rates of chemical reactions.This revised edition has enabled improvements and corrections to be made.

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The principle of local activity explains the emergence of complex patterns in a homogeneous medium. At first defined in the theory of nonlinear electronic circuits in a mathematically rigorous way, it can be generalized and proven at least for the class of nonlinear reaction-diffusion systems in physics, chemistry, biology, and brain research. Recently, it was realized by memristors for nanoelectronic device applications. In general, the emergence of complex patterns and structures is explained by symmetry breaking in homogeneous media, which is caused by local activity. This book argues that the principle of local activity is really fundamental in science, and can even be identified in quantum cosmology as symmetry breaking of local gauge symmetries generating the complexity of matter and forces in our universe. Applications are considered in economic, financial, and social systems with the emergence of equilibrium states, symmetry breaking at critical points of phase transitions and risky acting at the edge of chaos.

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Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Siemens have defined the dark side of the corporate world in the 21st century. This timely book is designed to address the diverse requirements of directors and heightened investor awareness, with an intelligent and comprehensive presentation of the structure and practice of boardroom management.The second edition takes account of recent developments like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, codes of conduct promulgated by non-government organizations and institutional investors, debates over the audit committee's roles and responsibilities, and new cases illustrating the problems facing directors as they negotiate the twin challenges of global competition and social responsibility. It walks readers through the legal and philosophical theories of corporate governance, translates these into practical implications for boardroom practices, and guides managers and directors on how to build their own frameworks for considering ethical and strategic issues that routinely appear in the boardroom. The practical approach is complemented by numerous illustrations and cases at the end of each chapter for discussion and self-appraisal.

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Platelets in Cardiovascular Disease provides an in-depth and current coverage of relevant platelet biology and antiplatelet therapy that is in clinical use today and potentially for the future. The book provides a succinct overview of the critical role of platelets in cardiovascular medicine.Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide, and recent research has found that the platelet is central to the genesis of heart attacks and stroke as well as many of the complications of angioplasty and bypass surgery. An explosion of knowledge of the biology of platelets has established their important role in the formation of blood clots and, perhaps more intriguingly, their role as inflammatory cells. This growth in information has been paralleled by the development of several drugs that can interfere with platelet action and thereby improve patient outcomes. Indeed, several antiplatelet drugs already in development may ultimately lead to marked advances in both the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease.Drawing upon a panel of international experts, Platelets in Cardiovascular Disease delivers a concise yet thorough review of the major developments in antiplatelet therapy. Practicing clinicians as well as those involved in the development of new antithrombotic therapies will find the book interesting and useful.

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This volume introduces readers to the world of disordered systems and to some of the remarkable probabilistic techniques developed in the field. The author explores in depth a class of directed polymer models to which much attention has been devoted in the last 25 years, in particular in the fields of physical and biological sciences. The models treated have been widely used in studying, for example, the phenomena of polymer pinning on a defect line, the behavior of copolymers in proximity to an interface between selective solvents and the DNA denaturation transition. In spite of the apparent heterogeneity of this list, in mathematical terms, a unified vision emerges. One is in fact dealing with the natural statistical mechanics systems built on classical renewal sequences by introducing one-body potentials.This volume is also a self-contained mathematical account of the state of the art for this class of statistical mechanics models.

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This book discusses the methods used in helio- and asteroseismology for the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. It is the first comprehensive discussion of helioseismic and asteroseismic methodology, collecting techniques from over 300 research papers spread out over decades, with a critical discussion and inter-comparison. It enables the reader to follow the path of inference from the collection of the data at the telescope through to the understanding gained in terms of the modeling of solar and stellar physics and stellar evolution.By focusing on how results are obtained, rather than on the results themselves, this book provides the essential background needed to understand this field, which is rapidly advancing due to the availability of modern observing facilities both on the ground and in space. The material is accessible for advanced undergraduates and post-graduates, and provides an essential resource for researchers in the field.

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This is the first major history of Imperial College London. The book tells the story of a new type of institution that came into being in 1907 with the federation of three older colleges. Imperial College was founded by the state for advanced university-level training in science and technology, and for the promotion of research in support of industry throughout the British Empire. True to its name the college built a wide number of Imperial links and was an outward looking institution from the start. Today, in the post-colonial world, it retains its outward-looking stance, both in its many international research connections, and with staff and students from around the world. Connections to industry and the state remain important. The College is one of Britain's premier research and teaching institutions, including now medicine alongside science and engineering. This book is an in-depth study of Imperial College; it covers both governance and academic activity within the larger context of political, economic and socio-cultural life in twentieth-century Britain.

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This engaging book provides a state-of-the-art introduction to the rapidly evolving field of mechanical circulatory support therapy in the care of patients with advanced heart failure. It is aimed at healthcare teams around the world who are involved in patient care, research, and teaching of advanced heart failure; healthcare professionals in training; and interested lay persons.In particular, this book• serves as a comprehensive resource and practice guide on all aspects of mechanical circulatory support therapy, starting with an overview on heart failure management and then continuing with the referral and evaluation, the care before and after mechanical circulatory support implantation, the analysis of outcomes and complications, as well as a description of research and societal perspectives in the field of mechanical circulatory support therapy;• is founded on the expertise of Columbia University Medical Center (New York City), which has one of the most renowned heart failure, mechanical circulatory support, and heart transplantation programs in the world;• takes a multidisciplinary integrated healthcare team approach, including the perspectives of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, nurses, coordinators, social workers, psychologists, physical therapists, financial experts, and bioethicists; and• provides in a unique way the complementary viewpoints from the expert healthcare team's as well as the patient's and family's perspectives, with patient vignettes interspersed throughout the entire text.

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Space-time array communications have gained a great deal of interest in recent years. Its superior performance in practical multipath propagation environments has established it as a core aspect in next generation mobile networks, as well as several portable wireless communication systems. In fact the employment of the sensor array component has already been provided for in the current UMTS standard, and there is presently a major thrust to make space-time processing an important part of 3G/4G networks. This book hence attempts to bridge the knowledge gap, looking at the integration of two emerging technologies from an array manifold perspective — space-time array processing and spread spectrum multiple access communications. It covers a range of novel multiuser channel estimation and reception techniques, which is designed to provide mitigations of the various associated channel impairments in accordance to its environmental context. For convenience of the readers, the book is written in a self-contained modular format with its mathematical frameworks and tools readily extendable to other research domains.

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In recent years, the way open source software is developed has taken hold as a valid alternative to commercial proprietary methods, as have the products themselves, e.g., the Linux operating system, Apache web-server software, and Mozilla Firefox browser. But what is open source software? How is the open source community organized? What makes this new model successful? What effects has it had and might it have on the future of the IT industry, companies and government policies? These and many other questions are answered in this book.The first chapter gives a brief history of the open source community and the second chapter takes a close look at the relationship between intellectual property rights and software, both open source and proprietary. The next three chapters consider the who, the open source community, the how, software development both within and outside the community, and the what, open source projects and product quality. Chapters 6 and 7 focus on the different users of open source software: companies and governments respectively. These are followed by two chapters that interpret the phenomenon, first from an organizational point of view in Chapter 8 and then using the theory of complex adaptive systems in Chapter 9. The last chapter explores the current and potential applications of the concept underlying open source software in other fields.

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Covering both the theoretical and practical aspects of fault-tolerant mobile systems, and fault tolerance and analysis, this book tackles the current issues of reliability-based optimization of computer networks, fault-tolerant mobile systems, and fault tolerance and reliability of high speed and hierarchical networks.The book is divided into six parts to facilitate coverage of the material by course instructors and computer systems professionals. The sequence of chapters in each part ensures the gradual coverage of issues from the basics to the most recent developments. A useful set of references, including electronic sources, is listed at the end of each chapter.

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This volume is concerned with functional nanomaterials: materials containing specific, predictable nanostructure whose chemical composition or interfacial structure enable them to perform a specific job — destroy, sequester or detect some material that constitutes an environmental threat. Nanomaterials have a number of features that make them ideally suited for this job: high surface area, high reactivity, easy dispersability, and rapid diffusion. The purpose of this book is to showcase how these features can be tailored to address some of the environmental remediation and sensing/detection problems faced today. The leading researchers contributing to this volume paint a picture of diverse synthetic strategies, structures, materials and methods. The book is organized into sections on nanoparticle-based remediation strategies, nanostructured inorganic materials (such as layered materials like the apatites), nanostructured organic/inorganic hybrid materials, and the use of nanomaterials to enhance the performance of sensors. The chemistries captured by the contributors form a rich and colorful tapestry.

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This book summarizes the main results achieved in a four-year European Project on nonlinear and adaptive control. The project involves leading researchers from top-notch institutions: Imperial College London (Prof A Astolfi), Lund University (Prof A Rantzer), Supelec Paris (Prof R Ortega), University of Technology of Compiegne (Prof R Lozano), Grenoble Polytechnic (Prof C Canudas de Wit), University of Twente (Prof A van der Schaft), Politecnico of Milan (Prof S Bittanti), and Polytechnic University of Valencia (Prof P Albertos).The book also provides an introduction to theoretical advances in nonlinear and adaptive control and an overview of novel applications of advanced control theory, particularly topics on the control of partially known systems, under-actuated systems, and bioreactors.

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A concise, clear writing style and a detailed and rich coverage of topics are the reasons that students found the first edition of the book so engaging and useful.Riding on this wave, all chapters within the second edition of this popular book have been thoroughly updated and expanded, especially the human and animal materials. A wider range of animals is covered, including dogs and cats as well as farm animals. The use of cord blood for therapy, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and animal cloning are also explored and dealt with.

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Because vertebrate circulations do not work when shrunk to insect sizes, insects may help us design our smallest machines. Within small bodies, bees separate diffusing substances in an open cavity assisted by locomotion and the beat of the heart. The open arthropod circulation, however, is most efficient when shrunk until its large three-dimensional volume of blood turns into a two-dimensional film of fluid covering only the internal surfaces. This transformation increases the chances to near-certainty that molecules can diffuse from one point to another without getting lost.The Incredible Shrinking Bee expresses mathematics in words so that most readers can compare today's microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices with a honeybee's circulation, introducing ideas of biominiaturization to workers interested in developing compact energy and chemical systems. When it comes to shrinking systems, bees have the edge on human ingenuity. A farrago of ideas and disciplines, The Incredible Shrinking Bee provides a springboard for discussion and research for computer scientists, entomologists, systems biologists, physiologists, mathematicians, engineers and anyone wanting to learn how bees move things around in their bodies to do what we are trying to do smaller and better.

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Reviewing the fundamental instrumental techniques and current observational results, this book unveils the mysteries of the physical processes in the central parsec of our Milky Way: the super-massive black hole embedded in a central stellar cluster as well as the gas and dust in the circumnuclear region.The observations described cover the entire electromagnetic spectrum from decimeter radio-waves to high energy X-ray and γ-rays, and a comprehensive summary of up-to-date astrophysical interpretations is given.The emphasis is put on observational techniques, image processing aspects, and a detailed presentation of the most cutting-edge work carried out in the near-infrared wavelength regime. These recent results include both the first orbits of stars around the central black hole and the multiwavelength variability of the central source.

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This book presents a concise treatment of stochastic calculus and its applications. It gives a simple but rigorous treatment of the subject including a range of advanced topics, it is useful for practitioners who use advanced theoretical results. It covers advanced applications, such as models in mathematical finance, biology and engineering.Self-contained and unified in presentation, the book contains many solved examples and exercises. It may be used as a textbook by advanced undergraduates and graduate students in stochastic calculus and financial mathematics. It is also suitable for practitioners who wish to gain an understanding or working knowledge of the subject. For mathematicians, this book could be a first text on stochastic calculus; it is good companion to more advanced texts by a way of examples and exercises. For people from other fields, it provides a way to gain a working knowledge of stochastic calculus. It shows all readers the applications of stochastic calculus methods and takes readers to the technical level required in research and sophisticated modelling.This second edition contains a new chapter on bonds, interest rates and their options. New materials include more worked out examples in all chapters, best estimators, more results on change of time, change of measure, random measures, new results on exotic options, FX options, stochastic and implied volatility, models of the age-dependent branching process and the stochastic Lotka-Volterra model in biology, non-linear filtering in engineering and five new figures.Instructors can obtain slides of the text from the author.

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In recent years, MEMS have revolutionized the semiconductor industry, with sensors being a particularly buoyant sector. Smart MEMS and Sensor Systems presents readers with the means to understand, evaluate, appreciate and participate in the development of the field, from a unique systems perspective.The combination of MEMS and integrated intelligence has been put forward as a disruptive technology. The full potential of this technology is only evident when it is used to construct very large pervasive sensing systems. The book explores the many different technologies needed to build such systems and integrates knowledge from three different domains: MEMS technology, sensor system electronics and pervasive computing science.Throughout the book a top-down design perspective is taken, be it for the development of a single smart sensor or that of adaptive ad-hoc networks of millions of sensors.For experts in any of the domains named above the book provides the context for their MEMS based design work and an understanding of the role the other domains play. For the generalist (either in engineering or computing) or the technology manager the underpinning knowledge is provided, which can inform specialist decision making.

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This indispensable book is a compilation of invited talks delivered at the symposium, “Current Topics in Physics” held in Mexico City in June 2003, to celebrate the 75th birthday of Professor Sir Roger Elliott. The contributions have been prepared by research associates, former students, post-doctoral fellows and colleagues of Professor Elliott, many of them leading scientists — as Sir Roger himself — in important research institutes around the world. The book gives a very timely and comprehensive overview of various key areas of modern condensed matter and statistical physics. 19 original contributions are included, grouped in three main areas: disorder and dynamical systems, structures and glasses, electrical and magnetic properties.The contributions are by many of the foremost researchers in the field of condensed matter and statistical physics. In particular, contributions by such prominent scientists as M E Fisher, A A Maradudin, M F Thorpe, M Balkanski, T Fujiwara, and of course Sir Roger Elliott himself make this book a rewarding read.

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This book counteracts the current fashion for theories of “chaos” and unpredictability by describing a theory that underpins the surprising accuracy of current deterministic weather forecasts, and it suggests that further improvements are possible. The book does this by making a unique link between an exciting new branch of mathematics called “optimal transportation” and existing classical theories of the large-scale atmosphere and ocean circulation. It is then possible to solve a set of simple equations proposed many years ago by Hoskins which are asymptotically valid on large scales, and use them to derive quantitative predictions about many large-scale atmospheric and oceanic phenomena. A particular feature is that the simple equations used have highly predictable solutions, thus suggesting that the limits of deterministic predictability of the weather may not yet have been reached. It is also possible to make rigorous statements about the large-scale behaviour of the atmosphere and ocean by proving results using these simple equations and applying them to the real system allowing for the errors in the approximation. There are a number of other titles in this field, but they do not treat this large-scale regime.

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Where do stars come from and how do they form? These are profound questions which link the nature of our Universe to the roots of mankind. Yet, until a recent revolution in understanding, the proposed answers have been raw speculation. Now, accompanying penetrating observations, a new picture has come into prominence.This book presents the latest astounding observations and scientific ideas covering star formation, star birth and early development. It encompasses all aspects, from the dramatic stories of individual objects, to the collective influence of entire stellar systems.The very first stars to come into existence and the nurturing of planets are discussed to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview. Presenting background information with only the essential mathematics, this book will appeal to scientists wishing to expand their horizons, students seeking solid foundations, and general readers with enquiring minds.

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Is Science Neurotic? sets out to show that science suffers from a damaging but rarely noticed methodological disease — “rationalistic neurosis.” Assumptions concerning metaphysics, human value and politics, implicit in the aims of science, are repressed, and the malaise has spread to affect the whole academic enterprise, with the potential for extraordinarily damaging long-term consequences.The book begins with a discussion of the aims and methods of natural science, and moves on to discuss social science, philosophy, education, psychoanalytic theory and academic inquiry as a whole. It makes an original and compelling contribution to the current debate between those for and those against science, arguing that science would be of greater human value if it were more rigorous — we suffer not from too much scientific rationality, but too little. The author discusses the need for a revolution in the aims of science and academic inquiry in general and, in a lively and accessible style, spells out a thesis with profound importance for the long-term future of humanity.

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