Search results for ""World Scientific Publishing""

Note: The three volumes are not sequential but rather independent of each other and largely self-contained.Basic Matters is a first introduction to quantum mechanics that does not assume any prior knowledge of the subject. The emphasis is on the general structure as the necessary foundation of any understanding. Starting from the simplest quantum phenomenon, the Stern-Gerlach experiment with its choice between two discrete outcomes, and ending with one-dimensional continuous systems, the physical concepts and notions as well as the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics are developed in successive, manageable steps. The presentation is modern inasmuch as the natural language of the trade - Dirac's kets and bras and so on - is introduced early, and the temporal evolution is dealt with in a picture-free manner, with Schrödinger's and Heisenberg's equations of motion side by side and on equal footing.The reader of Simple Systems is not expected to be familiar with the material in Basic Matters, but should have the minimal knowledge of a standard brief introduction to quantum mechanics with its typical emphasis on one-dimensional position wave functions. The step to Dirac's more abstract and much more powerful formalism is taken immediately, followed by reviews of quantum kinematics and quantum dynamics. The important standard examples (force-free motion, constant force, harmonic oscillator, hydrogen-like atoms) are then treated in considerable detail, whereby a nonstandard perspective is offered wherever it is deemed feasible and useful. A final chapter is devoted to approximation methods, from the Hellmann-Feynman theorem to the WKB quantization rule.Perturbed Evolution has a closer link to Simple Systems than that volume has to Basic Matters, but any reader familiar with the subject matter of a solid introduction to quantum mechanics - such as Dirac's formalism of kets and bras, Schrödinger's and Heisenberg's equations of motion, and the standard examples that can be treated exactly, with harmonic oscillators and hydrogen-like atoms among them - can cope with the somewhat advanced material of this volume. The basics of kinematics and dynamics are reviewed at the outset, including discussions of Bohr's principle of complementarity and Schwinger's quantum action principle. The Born series, the Lippmann-Schwinger equation, and Fermi's golden rule are recurring themes in the treatment of the central subject matter - the evolution in the presence of perturbing interactions for which there are no exact solutions as one has them for the standard examples in Simple Systems. The scattering by a localized potential is regarded as a perturbed evolution of a particular kind and is dealt with accordingly. The unique features of the scattering of indistinguishable quantum objects illustrate the nonclassical properties of bosons and fermions and prepare the groundwork for a discussion of multi-electron atoms.

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After a consideration of basic quantum mechanics, this introduction aims at a side by side treatment of fundamental applications of the Schrödinger equation on the one hand and the applications of the path integral on the other. Different from traditional texts and using a systematic perturbation method, the solution of Schrödinger equations includes also those with anharmonic oscillator potentials, periodic potentials, screened Coulomb potentials and a typical singular potential, as well as the investigation of the large order behavior of the perturbation series. On the path integral side, after introduction of the basic ideas, the expansion around classical configurations in Euclidean time, such as instantons, is considered, and the method is applied in particular to anharmonic oscillator and periodic potentials. Numerous other aspects are treated on the way, thus providing the reader an instructive overview over diverse quantum mechanical phenomena, e.g. many other potentials, Green's functions, comparison with WKB, calculation of lifetimes and sojourn times, derivation of generating functions, the Coulomb problem in various coordinates, etc. All calculations are given in detail, so that the reader can follow every step.

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This unique book offers a timely and insightful look into China's present energy situation and the emerging challenges of balancing energy supply and demand over the forthcoming decades. It presents a holistic analysis of the growing pressures on the energy system as a result of the country's dynamic socio-economic progress.The volume considers current hot topics and will be useful as a reference for those aspiring to understand more about what is happening in China's energy sector today.

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The dynamics of complex systems can clarify the creation of structures in Nature. This creation is driven by the collective interaction of constitutive elements of the system. Such interactions are frequently nonlinear and are directly responsible for the lack of prediction in the evolution process. The self-organization accompanying these processes occurs all around us and is constantly being rediscovered, under the guise of a new jargon, in apparently unrelated disciplines.This volume offers unique perspectives on aspects of fractals and complexity and, through the examination of complementary techniques, provides a unifying thread in this multidisciplinary endeavor. Do nonlinear interactions play a role in the complexity management of socio-econo-political systems? Is it possible to extract the global properties of genetic regulatory networks without knowing the details of individual genes? What can one learn by transplanting the self-organization effects known in laser processes to the study of emotions? What can the change in the level of complexity tell us about the physiological state of the organism? The reader will enjoy finding the answers to these questions and many more in this book.

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This book is an introduction to quantum mechanics and mathematics that leads to the solution of the Schrodinger equation. It can be read and understood by undergraduates without sacrificing the mathematical details necessary for a complete solution giving the shapes of molecular orbitals seen in every chemistry text. Readers are introduced to many mathematical topics new to the undergraduate curriculum, such as basic representation theory, Schur's lemma, and the Legendre polynomials.

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This volume is the first attempt to systematically analyze issues and challenges confronting the Taiwan Strait after the March 2004 election. The volume focuses on internal politics on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and their impact on cross-Strait ties, and international responses. It also reflects different perspectives, namely, China, the United States, Singapore and Taiwan. Consolidating these perspectives, the volume suggests directions for continued research on a potentially volatile area where many view as the world's next “hot spot”.

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Have you ever wondered what a term in international economics means? This useful reference book offers a glossary of terms in both international trade and international finance, with emphasis on economic issues. It is intended for students getting their first exposure to international economics, although advanced students will also find it useful for some of the more obscure terms that they have forgotten or never encountered.Besides an extensive glossary of terms, there is a picture gallery of diagrams used to explain key concepts such as the Edgeworth Production Box and the Offer Curve Diagram in international economics. This section is followed by several lists of terms that occur a lot in international economics, grouped by subject to help users find terms that they cannot recall.Prior to the bibliography is a section on the origins of terms in international economics which records what the author has been able to learn about the origins of some of the terms used in international economics. This is a must-have portable glossary in international trade and international economics!

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Time and matter are the most fundamental concepts in physics and in any science-based description of the world around us. Quantum theory has, however, revealed many novel insights into these concepts in non-relativistic, relativistic and cosmological contexts. The implications of these novel perspectives have been realized and, in particular, probed experimentally only recently.In the papers in this proceedings, these issues are discussed in a truly interdisciplinary fashion from philosophical and historical perspectives. The leading contributors, including Nobel laureates T W Hänsch and G t' Hooft, address both experimental and theoretical issues.

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This book is the first monograph devoted exclusively to strange nonchaotic attractors (SNA), recently discovered objects with a special kind of dynamical behavior between order and chaos in dissipative nonlinear systems under quasiperiodic driving. A historical review of the discovery and study of SNA, mathematical and physically-motivated examples, and a review of known experimental studies of SNA are presented. The main focus is on the theoretical analysis of strange nonchaotic behavior by means of different tools of nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics (bifurcation analysis, Lyapunov exponents, correlations and spectra, renormalization group). The relations of the subject to other fields of physics such as quantum chaos and solid state physics are also discussed.

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Have you ever wondered what a term in international economics means? This useful reference book offers a glossary of terms in both international trade and international finance, with emphasis on economic issues. It is intended for students getting their first exposure to international economics, although advanced students will also find it useful for some of the more obscure terms that they have forgotten or never encountered.Besides an extensive glossary of terms, there is a picture gallery of diagrams used to explain key concepts such as the Edgeworth Production Box and the Offer Curve Diagram in international economics. This section is followed by several lists of terms that occur a lot in international economics, grouped by subject to help users find terms that they cannot recall.Prior to the bibliography is a section on the origins of terms in international economics which records what the author has been able to learn about the origins of some of the terms used in international economics. This is a must-have portable glossary in international trade and international economics!

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A valuable introduction for newcomers as well as an important reference and source of inspiration for established researchers, this book provides an up-to-date summary of central topics in the field of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and dynamical systems theory.Understanding macroscopic properties of matter starting from microscopic chaos in the equations of motion of single atoms or molecules is a key problem in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Of particular interest both for theory and applications are transport processes such as diffusion, reaction, conduction and viscosity.Recent advances towards a deterministic theory of nonequilibrium statistical physics are summarized: Both Hamiltonian dynamical systems under nonequilibrium boundary conditions and non-Hamiltonian modelings of nonequilibrium steady states by using thermal reservoirs are considered. The surprising new results include transport coefficients that are fractal functions of control parameters, fundamental relations between transport coefficients and chaos quantities, and an understanding of nonequilibrium entropy production in terms of fractal measures and attractors.The theory is particularly useful for the description of many-particle systems with properties in-between conventional thermodynamics and nonlinear science, as they are frequently encountered on nanoscales.

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With the poems written by winner of the Posner Poetry Award from the Council of Wisconsin Writers in 2005, this coffee-table book will delight and inform general readers curious about ideas of chaos, fractals, and nonlinear complex systems. Developed out of ten years of interdisciplinary seminars in chaos and complex systems at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it features multiple ways of knowing: Robin Chapman's poems of everyday experience of change in a complex world, associated metaphorically with Julien Clinton Sprott's full-color computer art generated from billions of versions of only three simple equations for strange attractors, Julia sets, and iterated function systems; his definitions of 39 key terms; a mathematical appendix; and even a multiple-choice quiz to test understanding. Accompanied by a CD-ROM of the poet reading 13 poems and 1,000 images of chaos art from which slide shows can be generated and 100 high-resolution posters created, the book has a foreword by Cliff Pickover, author of A Passion for Mathematics.

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As our modern information-age society grows in complexity both in terms of embedded systems and applications, the problems and challenges in reliability become ever more complex. Bringing together many of the leading experts in the field, this volume presents a broad picture of current research on system modeling and optimization in reliability and its applications.The book comprises twenty-three chapters organized into four parts: Reliability Modeling, Software Quality Engineering, Software Reliability, and Maintenance and Inspection Policies. These sections cover a wide range of important topics, including system reliability modeling, optimization, software reliability and quality, maintenance theory and inspection, reliability failure analysis, sampling plans and schemes, software development processes and improvement, stochastic process modeling, statistical distributions and analysis, fault-tolerant performance, software measurements and cost effectiveness, queueing theory and applications, system availability, reliability of repairable systems, testing sampling inspection, software capability maturity model, accelerated life modeling, statistical control, and HALT testing.

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Advances in experimental techniques are allowing researchers to investigate the extremes of the dynamics of particle interactions with electromagnetic fields. The theoretical tools at our disposal are classical and quantum mechanics and experience has shown that it is dangerous to dismiss one at the expense of the other. Each has merits that should be fully explored; the problem, however, is to bridge the gap between them so that the information they give is complementary rather than contradictory. In this book, that goal is achieved by formulating five postulates, and the level of their implementation distinguishes the two mechanics. That the dynamics of particles (charges) is not complete without unifying it with the dynamics of electromagnetic fields is given special emphasis.In the first of three parts in the book, Newton dynamics is formulated from the Liouville equation. In the third part, this forms the basis for implementing the uncertainty postulate to formulate quantum mechanics. The theories of relativity and electromagnetic interactions are derived from one of the five postulates in the second part, and the unification of the dynamics of particles and electromagnetic fields is formulated in the second and the third parts. Numerous examples from each section illustrate the theory.Employing functional analysis instead of the more abstract techniques of linear spaces, linear operators, group theory, etc., the book makes well suited to advanced undergraduate level courses in classical and quantum mechanics. The material is also intended for postgraduate courses, in atomic and molecular physics in particular, with examples covering modern trends in research.The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM featuring various illustrative examples.

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Thanks to Einstein's relativity theories, our notions of space and time underwent profound revisions about a 100 years ago. The resulting interplay between geometry and physics has dominated all of fundamental physics since then. This volume contains contributions from leading researchers, worldwide, who have thought deeply about the nature and consequences of this interplay. The articles take a long-range view of the subject and distill the most important advances in broad terms, making them easily accessible to non-specialists. The first part is devoted to a summary of how relativity theories were born (J Stachel). The second part discusses the most dramatic ramifications of general relativity, such as black holes (P Chrusciel and R Price), space-time singularities (H Nicolai and A Rendall), gravitational waves (P Laguna and P Saulson), the large scale structure of the cosmos (T Padmanabhan); experimental status of this theory (C Will) as well as its practical application to the GPS system (N Ashby). The last part looks beyond Einstein and provides glimpses into what is in store for us in the 21st century. Contributions here include summaries of radical changes in the notions of space and time that are emerging from quantum field theory in curved space-times (Ford), string theory (T Banks), loop quantum gravity (A Ashtekar), quantum cosmology (M Bojowald), discrete approaches (Dowker, Gambini and Pullin) and twistor theory (R Penrose).

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Researchers are faced with the problem of solving a variety of equations in the course of their work in engineering, economics, physics, and the computational sciences. This book focuses on a new and improved local-semilocal and monotone convergence analysis of efficient numerical methods for computing approximate solutions of such equations, under weaker hypotheses than in other works. This particular feature is the main strength of the book when compared with others already in the literature.The explanations and applications in the book are detailed enough to capture the interest of curious readers and complete enough to provide the necessary background material to go further into the subject.

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This book describes exciting new opportunities for utilizing robust graph representations of data with common machine learning algorithms. Graphs can model additional information which is often not present in commonly used data representations, such as vectors. Through the use of graph distance — a relatively new approach for determining graph similarity — the authors show how well-known algorithms, such as k-means clustering and k-nearest neighbors classification, can be easily extended to work with graphs instead of vectors. This allows for the utilization of additional information found in graph representations, while at the same time employing well-known, proven algorithms.To demonstrate and investigate these novel techniques, the authors have selected the domain of web content mining, which involves the clustering and classification of web documents based on their textual substance. Several methods of representing web document content by graphs are introduced; an interesting feature of these representations is that they allow for a polynomial time distance computation, something which is typically an NP-complete problem when using graphs. Experimental results are reported for both clustering and classification in three web document collections using a variety of graph representations, distance measures, and algorithm parameters.In addition, this book describes several other related topics, many of which provide excellent starting points for researchers and students interested in exploring this new area of machine learning further. These topics include creating graph-based multiple classifier ensembles through random node selection and visualization of graph-based data using multidimensional scaling.

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This comprehensive volume presents invited reviews and short notes with exciting new results obtained in fabrication study and application of nanostructures, which promise a new generation of electronic and optoelectronic devices. The rapid progress in nanoelectronics and optoelectronics, molecular electronics and spintronics, nanotechnology and quantum processing of information are covered.

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As diverse as they are interesting, the issues within the life sciences never fail to impress and stir controversy among the lay public. In a field that too often presents the general reader with challenging and confusing material, this book provides a breath of fresh air: a readable, standalone collection of essays that navigate the complex terrain of cells, cloning, and Mad Cows.The second edition of this popular book is thoroughly updated with the latest issues, information, and statistics in the same readable and vividly illustrated format. A new chapter on organ transplantation looks at advances in immunology and the discovery of immunosuppressive drugs, which have contributed significantly to the success rate of these surgeries. Another new section tackles the fascinating subject of heredity, considering its historical background and Mendel's discoveries, genetically determined diseases, and the importance of genetic counseling.Illustrating how art, philosophy and mythology juxtapose yet complement scientific thought and evolution, the inclusion of poems and quotes at the end of each chapter serve to make this book truly unique.

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The development of high energy accelerators began in 1911, when Rutherford discovered the atomic nuclei inside the atom. Since then, progress has been made in the following:(1) development of high voltage dc and rf accelerators,(2) achievement of high field magnets with excellent field quality,(3) discovery of transverse and longitudinal beam focusing principles,(4) invention of high power rf sources,(5) improvement of high vacuum technology,(6) attainment of high brightness (polarized/unpolarized) electron/ion sources,(7) advancement of beam dynamics and beam manipulation schemes, such as beam injection, accumulation, slow and fast extraction, beam damping and beam cooling, instability feedback, etc.The impacts of the accelerator development are evidenced by the many ground-breaking discoveries in particle and nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, biomedical physics, medicine, biology, and industrial processing.This book is intended to be used as a graduate or senior undergraduate textbook in accelerator physics and science. It can be used as preparatory course material for graduate accelerator physics students doing thesis research. The text covers historical accelerator development, transverse betatron motion, synchrotron motion, an introduction to linear accelerators, and synchrotron radiation phenomena in low emittance electron storage rings, introduction to special topics such as the free electron laser and the beam-beam interaction. Attention is paid to derivation of the action-angle variables of the phase space, because the transformation is important for understanding advanced topics such as the collective instability and nonlinear beam dynamics. Each section is followed by exercises, which are designed to reinforce the concept discussed and to solve a realistic accelerator design problem.

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Reservoir simulation, or modeling, is one of the most powerful techniques currently available to the reservoir engineer. The author, Prof Leonard F Koederitz, (Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri-Rolla) is a highly notable author and teacher, with many teaching awards. This book has been developed over his twenty years in teaching to undergraduate petroleum engineering students, with the knowledge that they would in all likelihood be model-users, not developers.Most other books on reservoir simulation deal with simulation theory and development. For this book, however, the author has performed model studies and debugged user problems; while many of these problems were actual model errors (especially early on), a fair number of the discrepancies resulted from a lack of understanding of the simulator capabilities, or inappropriate data manipulation. The book reflects changes in both simulation concepts and philosophy over the years, by staying with “tried and true” simulation practices as well as exploring new methods which could be useful in applied modeling.

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Software systems surround us. Software is a critical component in everything from the family car through electrical power systems to military equipment. As software plays an ever-increasing role in our lives and livelihoods, the quality of that software becomes more and more critical. However, our ability to deliver high-quality software has not kept up with those increasing demands. The economic fallout is enormous; the US economy alone is losing over US$50 billion per year due to software failures. This book presents new research into using advanced artificial intelligence techniques to guide software quality improvements. The techniques of chaos theory and data mining are brought to bear to provide new insights into the software development process. Written for researchers and practitioners in software engineering and computational intelligence, this book is a unique and important bridge between these two fields.

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Scientific computing is a collection of tools, techniques and theories required to develop and solve mathematical models in science and engineering on a computer. This timely book provides the various skills and techniques needed in scientific computing. The topics range in difficulty from elementary to advanced, and all the latest fields in scientific computing are covered such as matrices, numerical analysis, neural networks, genetic algorithms, etc.Presented in the format of problems and detailed solutions, important concepts and techniques are introduced and developed. Many problems include software simulations. Algorithms have detailed implementations in C++ or Java. This book will prove to be invaluable not only to students and research workers in the fields of scientific computing, but also to teachers of this subject who will find this text useful as a supplement.The topics discussed in this book are part of the e-learning and distance learning courses conducted by the International School of Scientific Computing, South Africa.

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Vast progress in the area of computational chemistry has been achieved in the last decade. Theoretical methods such as quantum mechanics, molecular dynamics and statistical mechanics have been successfully used to characterize chemical systems and to design new materials, drugs and chemicals. The reviews presented in this volume discuss the current advances in computational methodologies and their applications. The areas covered include materials science, nanotechnology, inorganic and biological systems. The major thrust of the book is to bring timely overviews of new findings and methods applied in the rapidly changing field of computational chemistry.

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Machine learning deals with the issue of how to build computer programs that improve their performance at some tasks through experience. Machine learning algorithms have proven to be of great practical value in a variety of application domains. Not surprisingly, the field of software engineering turns out to be a fertile ground where many software development and maintenance tasks could be formulated as learning problems and approached in terms of learning algorithms. This book deals with the subject of machine learning applications in software engineering. It provides an overview of machine learning, summarizes the state-of-the-practice in this niche area, gives a classification of the existing work, and offers some application guidelines. Also included in the book is a collection of previously published papers in this research area.

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The success of any implant or medical device depends very much on the biomaterial used. Synthetic materials (such as metals, polymers and composites) have made significant contributions to many established medical devices. The aim of this book is to provide a basic understanding on the engineering and processing aspects of biomaterials used in medical applications. Of paramount importance is the tripartite relationship between material properties, processing methods and design. As the target audiences cover a wide interdisciplinary field, each chapter is written with a detailed background so that audience of another discipline will be able to understand. For the more knowledgeable reader, a detailed list of references is included.

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This introductory book for undergraduate students poses a question: What is bioengineering all about? After offering a reference frame and defining the objectives (chapter 1), “physiology” (chapter 2) is presented as a source material followed by “signals” (chapter 3) and “signal pick up” (chapter 4). Chapter 5 deals with the biological amplifier. Reading the signal and the need for mathematical models are the subject matter, respectively, of chapters 6 and 7; they only provide guidance. The last chapter tries to look ahead. Sometimes, the subject is treated in relative depth; at times, the visit is more superficial. Formation rather than information is favored. Historical shots supply background material and spicy insights. Style is light, sprinkled with a little humor. There are exercises which allow students to learn independently.

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In this volume, an abstract theory of 'forms' is developed, thus providing a conceptually satisfying framework for the classification of forms of Fermat equations. The classical results on diagonal forms are extended to the broader class of all forms of Fermat varieties.The main topic is the study of forms of the Fermat equation over an arbitrary field K. Using Galois descent, all such forms are classified; particularly, a complete and explicit classification of all cubic binary equations is given. If K is a finite field containing the d-th roots of unity, the Galois representation on l-adic cohomology (and so in particular the zeta function) of the hypersurface associated with an arbitrary form of the Fermat equation of degree d is computed.

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Solid state ionics is concerned with the science and technology of ions in motion in the solid state. Ions in motion may also involve electrons, depending on the materials and surroundings. These days, solid state ionics is finding an increasing variety of applications. The knowledge of solid state ionics is also extensively mobilized to protect, predict or elongate the lifetime of structural materials in harsh service conditions and to improve the performance reliability of devices. Furthermore, solid state ionics is now being combined with the emerging nanotechnology to produce new knowledge and applications. This book covers the following topics: fuel cells and membranes; batteries; sensors and electrochromics; fundamentals of ionic transport and defect chemistry; cation/anion/mixed ionic electronic conductors.

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This book deals with locomotion control of biologically inspired robots realized through an analog circuital paradigm as cellular nonlinear networks. It presents a general methodology for the control of bio-inspired robots and several case studies, as well as describes a new approach to motion control and the related circuit architecture.Bio-inspired Emergent Control of Locomotion Systems provides researchers with a guide to the fundamentals of the topics. Moreover, neuro-biologists and physiologists can use the book as a starting point to design artificial structures for testing their biological hypotheses on the animal model.

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In the domain of science concerned with systems structure and behavior, the issue of the relationship between the micro and the macro level is of key importance. This book concentrates on the interplay between these levels and has a special focus on the level “in between” — the meso level.An investigation of those links is made through a number of cases from different domains of science, including physics, chemistry, ecology, social science, economics and technology. What is evident is that there are facets regarding meso-level issues that are similar between cases, but also that the domains differ in various ways. This is particularly exemplified by the differences in perspectives from which the natural and social sciences deal with scaling issues. The various examples provided in this book mirror its overriding theme: systems complexity.

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This book is a revised and updated version of the most comprehensive text on nuclear and subnuclear physics, first published in 1995. It maintains the original goal of providing a clear, logical, in-depth, and unifying treatment of modern nuclear theory, ranging from the nonrelativistic many-body problem to the standard model of the strong, electromagnetic, and weak interactions. In addition, new chapters on the theoretical and experimental advances made in nuclear and subnuclear physics in the past decade have been incorporated.Four key topics are emphasized: basic nuclear structure, the relativistic nuclear many-body problem, strong-coupling QCD, and electroweak interactions with nuclei. New chapters have been added on the many-particle shell model, effective field theory, density functional theory, heavy-ion reactions and quark-gluon plasma, neutrinos, and electron scattering.This book is designed to provide graduate students with a basic understanding of modern nuclear and hadronic physics needed to explore the frontiers of the field. Researchers will benefit from the updates on developments and the bibliography.

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On 1 January 2004, the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) came into force. The USSFTA was the result of a two-year negotiation process which started towards the end of the Clinton Administration and concluded under the Bush Administration. How did the negotiation process straddle the two administrations? What is the rationale for the FTA? What were the unique features of the negotiating process? Was negotiating with the US different from negotiating with other countries? How will the FTA benefit the two countries? What is the impact on ASEAN, APEC and the WTO?This book captures some of the personal insights thrown up in the negotiations and offers highlights and analysis of the USSFTA. Contributors to the volume include the Chief Negotiators of the two delegations, the US and Singapore Ambassadors, key negotiators and close observers of the process. Selected key documents pertaining to the USSFTA process have also been included. This book is a comprehensive reader on the story behind the negotiations of the USSFTA.

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Quantum computation and information is a new, rapidly developing interdisciplinary field. Therefore, it is not easy to understand its fundamental concepts and central results without facing numerous technical details. This book provides the reader a useful and not-too-heavy guide. It offers a simple and self-contained introduction; no previous knowledge of quantum mechanics or classical computation is required.Volume I may be used as a textbook for a one-semester introductory course in quantum information and computation, both for upper-level undergraduate students and for graduate students. It contains a large number of solved exercises, which are an essential complement to the text, as they will help the student to become familiar with the subject. The book may also be useful as general education for readers who want to know the fundamental principles of quantum information and computation and who have the basic background acquired from their undergraduate course in physics, mathematics, or computer science.

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As part of the boom in biotechnology, particularly in tissue engineering, primary human cell culture has become a major pillar in academic research and the biopharmaceutical industry. Obtaining a viable culture from a tissue sample and maintaining it for experimental, diagnostic or therapeutic purposes can be quite a challenge. Based on laboratory protocols and practical experience from many years of primary cell culture, this manual presents the basic steps necessary for culturing primary human cells.Written by students for students, the manual serves well as a practical guide to primary human cell culture. The authors have left much space for notes and the design of the manual is such that it can be continuously upgraded and extended. The content of this manual is by no means exhaustive. Protocols for specific cell types, out of over 200 different cell types in the human body, were selected from major tissue groupings in the body. They should serve as a foundation for individual researchers to experiment, explore, and establish niche protocols for their specific needs. Inspired by the practical clinical checklists available to residents and trainees in medicine, the authors have chosen a compact physical format that can fit into the pocket of a lab coat.

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This book provides a variety of methods required for the analysis and solution of equations which arise in the modeling of phenomena from the natural and engineering sciences. It can be used productively by both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as others who need to learn and understand these techniques. A detailed discussion is also presented for several topics that are usually not included in standard textbooks at this level: qualitative methods for differential equations, dimensionalization and scaling, elements of asymptotics, difference equations, and various perturbation methods. Each chapter contains a large number of worked examples and provides references to the appropriate literature.

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This book describes recently developed mathematical models, methodologies, and case studies in diverse areas, including stock market analysis, portfolio optimization, classification techniques in economics, supply chain optimization, development of e-commerce applications, etc. It will be of interest to both theoreticians and practitioners working in economics and finance.

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This book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th Course of the International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics. It focuses on major areas of astrophysics, their relation to cosmic ray physics, and our current understanding of the energetic processes in the Galaxy and the Universe that govern the acceleration and form the features of the cosmic rays that we detect at Earth.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in:• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)• CC Proceedings — Engineering & Physical Sciences

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This book presents pioneering work on an interregional input-output table of the Chinese economy and its applications to the analysis of interregional and interindustrial relations in China. It is the fruit of the authors' joint efforts of more than five years to establish a solid basis for the analysis of interregional relations in China, in the hope of laying the foundation for further studies of regional development in that country.The book endeavors to make a contribution to the regional typology of the Chinese economy. The Chinese provinces are classified into seven large regions. The interregional input-output table is constructed accordingly.Chapter I describes the methodology for producing this interregional input-output (IRIO) table. Chapter II presents the (IRIO) table after a brief explanation of the Chinese statistical data needed for the compilation of the table. Chapter III explains the basis of seven large regions adopted for the IRIO table. Chapter IV deals with the interdependence of regions and the effects of the changes in some parameters of one region on the activities in other regions. Chapter V, the last chapter, applies the IRIO table to policy analysis.

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This important book reviews extensively the preparative chemistry of various nanostructured materials, as well as structural-property correlations for these new materials. Materials of current interest, such as nanocrystals, nanowires, nanotubes, porous materials, and composites, are comprehensively covered.

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In the 20th century, many mathematicians in Russia made great contributions to the field of mathematics. This invaluable book, which presents the main achievements of Russian mathematicians in that century, is the first most comprehensive book on Russian mathematicians. It has been produced as a gesture of respect and appreciation for those mathematicians and it will serve as a good reference and an inspiration for future mathematicians. It presents differences in mathematical styles and focuses on Soviet mathematicians who often discussed “what to do” rather than “how to do it”. Thus, the book will be valued beyond historical documentation.The editor, Professor Yakov Sinai, a distinguished Russian mathematician, has taken pains to select leading Russian mathematicians — such as Lyapunov, Luzin, Egorov, Kolmogorov, Pontryagin, Vinogradov, Sobolev, Petrovski and Krein — and their most important works. One can, for example, find works of Lyapunov, which parallel those of Poincaré; and works of Luzin, whose analysis plays a very important role in the history of Russian mathematics; Kolmogorov has established the foundations of probability based on analysis. The editor has tried to provide some parity and, at the same time, included papers that are of interest even today.The original works of the great mathematicians will prove to be enjoyable to readers and useful to the many researchers who are preserving the interest in how mathematics was done in the former Soviet Union.

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Health psychology is an offer of help, an effort to understand how biological, behavioral, and social factors influence health and illness. As one of the fast-growing sub-specialties, it has now outstripped other divisions of psychology in terms of excitement in the public eye. And yet a new occupation was built on somewhat unrealistic, idealized assumptions. The title of this book was therefore chosen to emphasize the fact that an extensive critique of those assumptions is essential. This book proposes arbitrary boundaries for a discourse on health psychology. The array of subjects is based on two major themes: the foundation of health psychology and the range of disorders where psychological knowledge might benefit the sick; and the question of whether or not health psychology has a systematic and pragmatic structure so as to qualify as a profession.

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Human reliability and error have become a very important issue in health care, owing to the vast number of associated deaths each year. For example, according to the findings of the Institute of Medicine in 1999, around 100000 Americans die each year because of human error. This makes human error in health care the eighth leading cause of deaths in the US. Moreover, the total annual national cost of the medical errors is estimated at between $17 billion and $37.6 billion.There are very few books on this subject, and none of them covers it at a significant depth. The need for a book presenting the basics of human reliability, human factors and comprehensive information on error in medical systems is essential. This book meets that need.

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This textbook, pitched at the advanced-undergraduate to beginning-graduate level, focuses on mathematical topics of relevance in contemporary physics that are not usually covered in texts at the same level. Its main purpose is to help students appreciate and take advantage of the modern trend of very productive symbiosis between physics and mathematics. Three major areas are covered: (1) linear operators; (2) group representations and Lie algebra representations; (3) topology and differential geometry.The following are noteworthy features of this book: the style of exposition is a fusion of those common in the standard physics and mathematics literatures; the level of exposition varies from quite elementary to moderately advanced, so that the book is of interest to a wide audience; despite the diversity of the topics covered, there is a strong degree of thematic unity; much care is devoted to detailed cross-referencing so that, from any part of the book, the reader can trace easily where specific concepts or techniques are introduced.

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Colorectal surgery is a very ancient art that has, over the last few decades, found a sound basis in science. Amongst its famous ancient practitioners was Hippocrates himself. Colorectal-surgical departments have been springing up worldwide and many of the surgical colleges and academies are beginning to see the importance of this branch of medicine. After rising from humble beginnings, the specialty of colorectal surgery is now a much-sought-after career amongst young doctors all over the world.Topics in Colorectal Surgery is an invaluable book from one of the leading colorectal centres in the world. It represents some of the most important lectures given over the last eight years at the Annual Singapore General Hospital Colorectal Week. This event has become an internationally acclaimed gathering and the book contains updated lecture notes from the last seven conferences. These lecture notes, together with the book chapters, contain material not often found in other books and will be a valuable source of reference for clinicians dealing with the problems discussed in the text.

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This book presents an in-depth discussion on molecular electronics in an easy-to-understand manner, aiming at chemists, computer scientists, surface scientists, physicists, and applied mathematicians. Lighter overviews are provided for the science-minded layperson and the high tech entrepreneur in this nanoscale science. The author has included a detailed synthetic chemistry treasure chest, protocols of self-assembling routes for bottom-up fabrication atop silicon platforms, representative current-voltage and memory readouts from molecular devices, and overviews of present architectural and mathematical approaches to programming molecular computing machines. The investment and commercial insertion landscape is painted along with a “Who's Who” in the molecular electronics business space. Advice and forewarnings are provided in a practical yet witty manner for the aspiring academic corporate founder and the business CEO wannabe seeking to establish a high tech company while wading through the idiosyncratic morass of university personalities and university-owned intellectual property.

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Tomorrow's robots, which includes the humanoid robot, can perform task like tutoring children, working as tour guides, driving humans to and from work, do the family shopping etc. Tomorrow's robots will enhance lives in ways we never dreamed possible. No time to attend the decisive meeting on Asian strategy? Let your robot go for you and make the decisions. Not feeling well enough to go to the clinic? Let Dr Robot come to you, make a diagnosis, and get you the necessary medicine for treatment. No time to coach the soccer team this week? Let the robot do it for you.Tomorrow's robots will be the most exciting and revolutionary things to happen to the world since the invention of the automobile. It will change the way we work, play, think, and live. Because of this, nowadays robotics is one of the most dynamic fields of scientific research. These days, robotics is offered in almost every university in the world. Most mechanical engineering departments offer a similar course at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. And increasingly, many computer and electrical engineering departments are also offering it.This book will guide you, the curious beginner, from yesterday to tomorrow. The book will cover practical knowledge in understanding, developing, and using robots as versatile equipment to automate a variety of industrial processes or tasks. But, the book will also discuss the possibilities we can look forward to when we are capable of creating a vision-guided, learning machine.

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This concise and clear text is intended for a senior undergraduate and graduate level, one-semester course on digital signal processing. Emphasis on the use of the discrete Fourier transform (the heart of practical digital signal processing) and comprehensive coverage of the design of commonly used digital filters are the key features of the book. The large number of visual aids such as figures, flow graphs, and tables makes the mathematical topic easy to learn. The numerous examples and the set of Matlab programs (a supplement to the book) for the design of optimal equiripple FIR digital filters help greatly in understanding the theory and algorithms.∗ Solution Manual to the questions (as a separate volume) is available to instructors or lecturers.Errata(s)Prefaces, Page vii“ftp://ftp.wspc.com/pub/software/5147”The above links should be replaced with“www.worldscientific.com/doi/suppl/10.1142/5147/suppl_file/5147_software_free.zip”

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