Search results for ""Imperial College Press""

The Tao of Innovation is the first book to blend Eastern philosophy with tried-and-true innovation strategies. It presents a holistic, intuitive and practical approach to developing game-changing innovation.Having over 30 years of real-world global corporate, entrepreneurial, and consulting experience, and more than 10 years of teaching innovation and entrepreneurship to thousands of students in the East and West, the authors have distilled the most influential thinking on innovation into a holistic set of nine key innovation questions that every innovator must answer throughout the innovation cycle. These provocations apply to any business or organization and illuminate fundamental principles and practices of successful innovation. The Tao of Innovation's use of nature's fundamental elements and the yin-yang's balance of opposing forces as metaphors, provide simple ways to navigate the complexities of business and innovation. They blend art, science, and Eastern and Western philosophies of what it takes to be an innovator.This book is written for individuals who have a passion for initiating change but struggle to find a process or methodology that helps them translate their dream into practical action steps that will get them through implementation. It aims to help organizations of all types proactively stay ahead in a rapidly changing world and change the world for the better.In short, this book is a fresh East-meets-West approach to innovation, helping readers develop a strategy to implement real change and ultimately achieve their innovation dream.

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This widely acclaimed text, now in its sixth edition and translated into many languages, continues to present a clear, simple and concise introduction to chemical thermodynamics. An examination of equilibrium in the everyday world of mechanical objects provides a starting point for an accessible account of the factors that determine equilibrium in chemical systems. This straightforward approach leads students to a thorough understanding of the basic principles of thermodynamics, which are then applied to a wide range of physical chemical systems. The book also discusses the problems of non-ideal solutions and the concept of activity, and provides an introduction to the molecular basis of thermodynamics. Over six editions, the views of teachers of the subject and their students have been incorporated. Reference to the phase rule has been included in this edition and the notation has been revised to conform to current IUPAC recommendations. Students taking courses in thermodynamics will continue to find this popular book an excellent introductory text.

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This textbook covers the very wide spectrum of all aspects of railway engineering for all engineering disciplines, in a 'broad brush' way giving a good overall knowledge of what is involved in planning, designing, constructing and maintaining a railway. It covers all types of railway systems including light rail and metro as well as main line. The first edition has proved very popular both with students new to railways and with practicing engineers who need to work in this newly expanding area.In the second edition, the illustrations have been improved and brought up to date, particularly with the introduction of 30 colour pages which include many newly taken photographs. The text has been reviewed for present day accuracy and, where necessary, has been modified or expanded to include reference to recent trends or developments. New topics include automatic train control, level crossings, dot matrix indicators, measures for the mobility impaired, reinforced earth structures, air conditioning, etc. Recent railway experience, both technical and political, has also been reflected in the commentary.

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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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This is the first book to address public health issues in traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM). It presents state-of-the-art reviews of TCAM research in a range of priority public health areas such as malaria and HIV and in such common ailments as skin conditions and orthopedic injury in developing countries. Contributions analyze policy trends in areas such as financing of TCAM and education and training in this field as well as selected case studies of model TCAM projects. Important chapters on research methodology, ethical and safety issues, and intellectual property rights pertaining to traditional medicine are also presented.Public financing for TCAM is a test of the commitment of governments, and the book includes an analysis from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Atlas data of the worldwide trends in this area. With safety concerns foremost in the minds of both policy makers and the public, the book offers a global overview of policy and legislative trends in this field as well as an important set of guidelines for pharmacovigilance and TCAM products.

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The scope of this book is two-fold: the first part gives a fully detailed and pedagogical presentation of the Hawking effect and its physical implications, and the second discusses the backreaction problem, especially in connection with exactly solvable semiclassical models that describe analytically the black hole evaporation process.The book aims to establish a link between the general relativistic viewpoint on black hole evaporation and the new CFT-type approaches to the subject. The detailed discussion on backreaction effects is also extremely valuable.

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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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A nonneutral plasma is a many-body collection of charged particles in which there is not overall charge neutrality. The diverse areas of application of nonneutral plasmas include: precision atomic clocks, trapping of antimatter plasmas and antihydrogen production, quantum computers, nonlinear vortex dynamics and fundamental transport processes in trapped nonneutral plasmas, strongly-coupled one-component plasmas and Coulomb crystals, coherent radiation generation in free electron devices, such as free electron lasers, magnetrons and cyclotron masers, and intense charged particle beam propagation in periodic focusing accelerators and transport systems, to mention a few examples. Physics of Nonneutral Plasmas is a graduate-level text — complete with 138 assigned problems and the results from several classic experiments — which covers a broad range of topics related to the fundamental properties of collective processes and nonlinear dynamics of one-component and multispecies charged particle systems in which there is not overall charge neutrality. The subject matter is treated systematically from first principles, using a unified theoretical approach, and the emphasis is on the development of basic concepts that illustrate the underlying physical processes in circumstances where intense self fields play a major role in determining the evolution of the system. The theoretical analysis includes the full influence of dc space charge effects on detailed equilibrium, stability and transport properties. The statistical models used to describe the properties of nonneutral plasmas are based on the nonlinear Vlasov-Maxwell equations, the macroscopic fluid-Maxwell equations, or the Klimontovich-Maxwell equations, as appropriate, and extensive use is made of theoretical techniques developed in the description of multispecies electrically-neutral plasmas, as well as established techniques in classical mechanics, electrodynamics and statistical physics.Physics of Nonneutral Plasmas emphasizes basic physics principles, and the thorough presentation style is intended to have a lasting appeal to graduate students and researchers alike. Because of the advanced theoretical techniques developed for describing one-component charged particle systems, this book serves as a useful companion volume to Physics of Intense Charged Particle Beams in High Energy Accelerators by Ronald C Davidson and Hong Qin.

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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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This important book deals with the modeling and design of higher-order single-stage delta-sigma modulators. It provides an overview of the architectures, the quantizer models, the design techniques and the implementation issues encountered in the study of the delta-sigma modulators. A number of applications are discussed, with emphasis on use in the design of analog-to-digital converters and in frequency synthesis. The book is education- rather than research-oriented, containing numerical examples and unsolved problems. It is aimed at introducing the final-year undergraduate, the graduate student or the electronic engineer to this field.

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This book provides the reader with an explanation of the origin and establishment of quantum mechanics, with the mathematics in a digestible form, together with a descriptive survey of later developments up to the present day. The mathematical treatment closely follows the original treatment, but in modern terms, using uniform symbolism as much as possible and with simplifications (e.g. the use of one dimension instead of three) to avoid unnecessarily complicated-looking mathematics.Containing an extensive bibliography and useful appendices as well as references to original works, reviews, and biographies, the reader is well-equipped to delve further into the subject. In addition to its importance for those studying physics, it is also valuable for those studying the history of science.

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Two recent major trends in today's complex and competitive high technology global society have underscored the importance for a textbook on strategic technology management. The first is the desire of major global corporations and high technology firms to hire graduates who are able to understand engineering and science, and make sound strategic business decisions. The second is the increasing interest among engineering and science students to take courses in business management.This invaluable book attempts to bridge business and scientific management practices so as to foster better understanding between the two entities. The second edition is updated with interesting case studies on biomedical and renewable technologies.

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This book treats the Stark effect of a hydrogenic atom or ion in a homogeneous electric field. It begins with a thorough review of previous work in this field since 1926. After the Schrödinger equation has been separated with respect to time dependence, centre of mass motion and internal motion, followed by a discussion of its eigenfunctions, the exact development in time of the probability amplitude for a decaying state is obtained by means of a formula analogous to the Fock-Krylov theorem. From this formula one obtains by means of the phase-integral approximation generated from a particular base function non-relativistic formulas for profiles, energies and half-widths of the Stark levels. These formulas are then transformed into formulas expressed in terms of complete elliptic integrals. The formulas thus obtained are used for the calculation of energies and half-widths of 198 different Stark states, which are compared with the corresponding results obtained by other authors with the use of other methods. An analysis of this material indicates that the energy values obtained by the phase-integral method are at least as accurate as those obtained by other methods in more than half of the 198 cases. The book presents one of the most comprehensive asymptotic treatments of the Stark effect in atomic hydrogen that have been published.

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This book has been developed over many years from several popular courses taught to students at both Birmingham and London universities. It provides an important step in introducing principles and concepts within the field of toxicology. The underlying mechanisms of toxicity are highlighted through examples taken from gases, minerals, plants, fungi, bacteria, marine creatures, industrial chemicals and pharmacological agents.In this second edition, the text has been completely revised and expanded with the addition of six new chapters — carbon monoxide, hydrofluoric acid, lead, mushroom, toxins, paracetamol, paraquat and diquat. Each chapter is self-sufficient, enabling readers to dip into chapters of interest at random without any lack of understanding. The book is informative, with numerous clinical details, and will appeal to those who wish to delve into this fascinating subject.

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This unique book provides a unified and systematic account of internal, external and unsteady slow viscous flows, including the latest advances of the last decade, some of which are due to the author. The book shows how the method of eigenfunctions, in conjunction with least squares, can be used to solve problems of low Reynolds number flows, including three-dimensional internal and unsteady flows, which until recently were considered intractable. Although the methods used are quantitative, much stress is laid on understanding the qualitative nature of these intriguing flows. A secondary purpose of the book is to explain how the complex eigenfunction method can be used to solve problems in science and engineering.Although primarily aimed at graduate students, academics and research engineers in the areas of fluid mechanics and applied mathematics, care has been taken, through the use of numerous diagrams and much discussion, to explain to the non-specialist the qualitative features of these complex flows.

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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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Although textbooks on the physics of condensed matter consider non-covalent interactions in detail, their application for analysis of protein properties is often poorly presented or omitted. On the other hand, books on biochemistry, molecular modeling or molecular simulation introduce these interactions in the context of the corresponding topic, which sometimes results in superficial explanations of their nature. This book succeeds in uniting comprehensive considerations of non-covalent interactions with the specificity of their application in protein sciences.The ideal aid for students of physics or chemistry, with interests in biology and biophysics, the book can also be useful for students of biology, biochemistry, or biomedicine who want to extend their knowledge of how protein properties are described at the molecular level.

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This book adopts a “show and tell” approach to guiding readers in the area of industrial wastewater treatment and the facilities associated with such treatment. It assumes the reader is familiar with wastewater treatment theory but may be unfamiliar with the reasons why certain unit processes or equipment are included in practice, how these work, and why they fail therein. Industrial wastewaters are extremely varied and this complicates their treatment and discussion. Numerous tables showing industrial wastewater characteristics and photographs of facilities are provided so that the reader can better appreciate industrial wastewater treatment and its “culture” in Asia, and gain a degree of familiarity with the subject unachievable if only text descriptions were used. The book aims to provide a link between theory and practice. It does not only cover typical textbook material but also includes much information that would usually be accessible only to persons who have handled wastewaters and treatment facilities personally. The numerous examples provided have been drawn from the author's own field experience over two decades in Asia.

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This textbook provides the first systematic presentation of the theory of stochastic differential equations with Markovian switching. It presents the basic principles at an introductory level but emphasizes current advanced level research trends. The material takes into account all the features of Ito equations, Markovian switching, interval systems and time-lag. The theory developed is applicable in different and complicated situations in many branches of science and industry.

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This unique book describes the science and technology of silicon carbide (SiC) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), from the creation of SiC material to the formation of final system, through various expert contributions by several leading key figures in the field. The book contains high-quality up-to-date scientific information concerning SiC MEMS for harsh environments summarized concisely for students, academics, engineers and researchers in the field of SiC MEMS.This is the only book that addresses in a comprehensive manner the main advantages of SiC as a MEMS material for applications in high temperature and harsh environments, as well as approaches to the relevant technologies, with a view progressing towards the final product.

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The Human Genome Project has spawned a Renaissance of research faced with the daunting expectation of personalized medicine for individuals with sickle cell disease in the Genome Era. This book offers a comprehensive and timeless account of emerging concepts in clinical and basic science research, and community concerns of health disparity to educate professionals, students and the general public about meeting this challenging expectation. Contributions from physicians, research scientists, scientific administrators and community workers make Renaissance of Sickle Cell Disease Research in the Genome Era unique among the catalogue of books on this genetic disorder.Part 1 offers detailed review of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's leadership role in funding sickle cell research, as well as developing progressive research initiatives and the predicted impact of the Human Genome Project. Part 2 gives an account of several clinical research perspectives based on the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease. These include recommendations for newborn screening, pain management, stroke, transfusion therapy and pediatric and adult healthcare. Part 3 offers novel insights into basic science research progress and the impact of the Human Genome Project on the direction of hemoglobinopathy research, including hemoglobin switching, bone marrow transplantation and gene therapy. Part 4 engages the reader in a culture-based discussion of the stigma attached to sickle cell disease in the African American community and the apprehensions about genetic research in this community. It concludes with a global perspective on sickle cell disease from African, European and American experiences. For readers seeking a definitive account of sickle cell disease appropriate for students, researchers and community workers, this collaborative effort is an ideal textbook.

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In this highly accessible book, leading scientists from around the world give a general overview of research advances in their subject areas within the field of Astronomy. They describe some of their own cutting-edge research and give their visions of the future. Re-written in a popular and well-illustrated style, the articles are mainly derived from scholarly and authoritative papers published in special issues of the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, the world's longest running scientific journal. Carefully selected by the journal's editor, topics include the Big Bang creation of the universe, the formation and evolution of the stars and galaxies, cold dark matter, explosive sun-spot events, and humankind's exploration of the solar system. The book conveys the excitement and enthusiasm of the authors for their work at the frontiers of astronomy. All are definitive reviews for people with a general interest in the future directions of science.

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The CCN Proteins are thought to play key roles in the biology of normal cell, tissue, organ, and body, and altered expression of CCN proteins is associated with several pathologies, including fibrosis and cancer. Because of its importance, the CCN field is expanding at a fast pace. Research articles in this field have recently increased logarithmically, and a book that is up-to-date, comprehensive, authoritative and affords insights into the biological roles of CCN proteins, is timely.CCN Protein: A New Family of Cell Growth and Differentiation Regulators presents the most recent progress in the field of CCN proteins, a new family of secretory signaling molecules that are involved in several fundamental biological progress. These proteins share a unique multimodular organization and present a partial identity with four families of regulatory proteins controling growth and development. The book covers the roles of CCN proteins in the control of cell proliferation and differentiation during normal development, wound repair, chondrogenesis and bone development, angiogenesis, tissue regeneration, fibrosis, renal diseases and cancer development.

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This book discusses issues associated with the quantum mechanical formulation of dissipative systems. It begins with an introductory review of phenomenological damping forces, and the construction of the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian for the damped motion. It is shown, in addition to these methods, that classical dissipative forces can also be derived from solvable many-body problems. A detailed discussion of these derived forces and their dependence on dynamical variables is also presented. The second part of this book investigates the use of classical formulation in the quantization of dynamical systems under the influence of dissipative forces. The results show that, while a satisfactory solution to the problem cannot be found, different formulations represent different approximations to the complete solution of two interacting systems. The third and final part of the book focuses on the problem of dissipation in interacting quantum mechanical systems, as well as the connection of some of these models to their classical counterparts. A number of important applications, such as the theory of heavy-ion scattering and the motion of a radiating electron, are also discussed.

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Cosmology is an unusual science with an unusual history. This book examines the formative years of modern cosmology from the perspective of its interaction with religious thought. As the first study of its kind, it reveals how closely associated the development of cosmology has been with considerations of a philosophical and religious nature. From nineteenth-century thermodynamics to the pioneering cosmological works of Georges Lemaître and Arthur E Milne, religion has shaped parts of modern cosmological theory. By taking the religious component seriously, a new and richer history of cosmology emerges.

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