Search results for ""scientific publishing""

The international transfer of technology is one of the most important features of the global economy. However, the literature on it is sparse. This book encapsulates the author's contributions to this field over the last three decades and provides insights into the manner, mechanisms, and cost of technology transfer across national boundaries and the implications for (the theory of) the international firm.

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Optics has been a subject of fascinating investigation in the last three centuries by a large number of eminent scientists. With the advent of modern technologies (Personal Computers, Internet and specialized software like MATLAB), new methods and tools for the solution of problems encountered in Optics are now available. Written with the student of Physics and Engineering in mind, this textbook shows how to solve the typical examination questions. In addition the author has included the solutions of many real and difficult problems encountered by the practicing Physicists and Engineers. The book is liberally and beautifully illustrated with diagrams from the MATHLAB software.Readers can refer to MATLAB scripts using a complementary virtual booklet (www.optics-as.com) that will also include corrections, to unavoidable errors present in this book, supplementary problems, and readers' suggestions.

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Cross-border banking, while having the potential for a more efficient financial sector, also creates potential challenges for bank supervisors and regulators. It requires cooperation by regulatory authorities across jurisdictions and a clear delineation of authority and responsibility. That delineation is typically not present and regulatory authorities often have significantly different incentives to respond when cross-border-active banks encounter difficulties. Most of these issues have only begun to be seriously evaluated.This volume, one of the first attempts to address these issues, brings together experts and regulators from different countries. The wide range of topics discussed include: the current landscape of cross-border bank activity, the resulting competitive implications, emerging challenges for prudential regulation, safety net concerns, failure resolution issues, and the potential future evolution of international banking.This book has been selected for coverage in:• Index to Social Sciences & Humanities Proceedings® (ISSHP® / ISI Proceedings)• Index to Social Sciences & Humanities Proceedings (ISSHP CDROM version/ISI Proceedings)

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This book introduces the fundamental mechanism of photonic glasses — the linear and nonlinear optical effects in glass under intense light irradiation: phot-induced absorption, refraction, polarization, frequency, coherence and monochromaticity changes. Emphasis is placed on new developments in the structure, spectroscopy and physics of new glassy materials for photonics applications, such as optical communication, optical data storage, new lasers and new photonic components and devices. The book presents the research results of the authors in new glasses for photonics over the last decade.

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In the second edition of this bestselling textbook, new materials have been added, including a new chapter on real time polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) and a chapter on fungal solid state cultivation. There already exist a number of excellent general textbooks on microbiology and biotechnology that deal with the basic principles of microbial biotechnology. To complement them, this book focuses on the various applications of microbial-biotechnological principles. A teaching-based format is adopted, whereby working problems, as well as answers to frequently asked questions, supplement the main text. The book also includes real life examples of how the application of microbial-biotechnological principles has achieved breakthroughs in both research and industrial production.Although written for polytechnic students and undergraduates, the book contains sufficient information to be used as a reference for postgraduate students and lecturers. It may also serve as a resource book for corporate planners, managers and applied research personnel.

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Aimed at scientists and engineers, this book is an exciting intellectual journey through the mathematical worlds of Euclid, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, and Schrodinger-Dirac.While similar books present the required mathematics in a piecemeal manner with tangential references to the relevant physics and engineering, this textbook serves the interdisciplinary needs of engineers, scientists and applied mathematicians by unifying the mathematics and physics into a single systematic body of knowledge but preserving the rigorous logical development of the mathematics.The authors take an unconventional approach by integrating the mathematics with its motivating physical phenomena and, conversely, by showing how the mathematical models predict new physical phenomena.

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This book provides a fundamentally new approach to pattern recognition in which objects are characterized by relations to other objects instead of by using features or models. This 'dissimilarity representation' bridges the gap between the traditionally opposing approaches of statistical and structural pattern recognition.Physical phenomena, objects and events in the world are related in various and often complex ways. Such relations are usually modeled in the form of graphs or diagrams. While this is useful for communication between experts, such representation is difficult to combine and integrate by machine learning procedures. However, if the relations are captured by sets of dissimilarities, general data analysis procedures may be applied for analysis.With their detailed description of an unprecedented approach absent from traditional textbooks, the authors have crafted an essential book for every researcher and systems designer studying or developing pattern recognition systems.

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This is the first book that takes a detailed look at the importance of phase in the design of speech processing systems. Phase, in comparison with amplitude, is often ignored for speech recognition applications. Thus, this book highlights some of the important ways in which the phase of speech signals can be utilized for sound localization, enhancement, and recognition.This book also discusses the state-of-the-art research in phase-based speech processing, starting from the basics of signal processing and recording, to single microphone speech recognition, the recognition of speech and the processing of speech by humans, as well as the importance of phase in human speech recognition and multi-microphone phase-based speech processing.

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Supersymmetry or SUSY, one of the most beautiful recent ideas of physics, predicts sparticles existing as superpartners of particles. This book gives a theoretical and phenomenological account of sparticles. Starting from a basic level, it provides a comprehensive, pedagogical and user-friendly treatment of the subject of four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetry as well as its observational aspects in high energy physics and cosmology. Part One of the book introduces the requisite formal theory, preceded by a discussion of the naturalness problem. Part Two describes the supersymmetrization of the Standard Model of particle interactions as well as the origin of soft supersymmetry breaking and how it can be mediated from higher energies. Search strategies for sparticles, supersymmetric Higgs bosons, nonminimal scenarios and cosmological implications are some of the other topics covered. Novel features of the book include a dictionary between two-component and four-component spinor notation, a step-by-step derivation of the nonrenormalization theorem, an extended discussion of supersymmetric renormalization group evolution, detailed analyses of minimal and nonminimal models with gravity (including anomaly) mediated and gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking as well as elaborate self-contained presentations of collider signals of sparticles plus supersymmetric Higgs bosons and of supersymmetric cosmology. Appendices list all Feynman rules for the vertices of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.

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In recent years, the banking industry has faced significant challenges due to deregulation, globalization, financial innovation, and intensified global competition. In response to these challenges, banks have adopted strategies to grow and expand their activities, with mergers and acquisitions (M&As) being one of the most popular over the last decade. This unique book thus discusses the use of quantitative classification methods for the prediction of bank acquisitions. With an overview of the M&A trends in the EU banking industry and a survey of the motives for M&As, the authors compare various statistical and computational methodologies used to analyze and predict bank acquisitions. The material constitutes a useful basis for researchers and practitioners in banking management to develop and analyze investment decisions related to M&As.

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Learning environment research has undergone considerable growth in the past thirty years and has now reached a stage of notable diversity and internationalization. Earlier studies often used questionnaires to assess learning environments, but today both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used. Many contemporary studies are a productive combination of these two approaches.This volume brings together prominent educators and researchers from around the world to share their contemporary research on educational learning environments. The chapters provide information on recent trends and developments and effective applications of different methods to improve teaching and learning. The book will be a critical and specialized source that describes recent advances in learning environment studies across all continents. The contributors come from Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey, Taiwan, Thailand, and the USA.

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This edition of the private and scientific correspondence of Sir Rudolf Peierls gives a unique insight into the life and work of one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the 20th century. Rudolf Peierls' scientific work contributed to the early developments in quantum mechanics, and he is well known and much appreciated for his contributions to various disciplines, including solid state physics, nuclear physics, and particle physics. As an enthusiastic and devoted teacher, he passed on his knowledge and understanding and inspired the work of collaborators and students alike. As an effective administrator he was responsible, almost single-handedly, for the establishment of an outstanding successful centre of theoretical physics in Birmingham, and later contributed much to theoretical physics in Oxford.A meticulous collector of correspondence, Sir Rudolf left a fascinating collection of letters, in some cases spanning more than seven decades. This collection includes correspondence with his parents, his wife, the Russian-born physicist Genia Kannegieser, life-long friends such as Hans Bethe, and many great physicists, including Wolfgang Pauli, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Lev Landau, and George Placzek, to name but a few.This first volume, which covers the years 1922 to 1945, contains much of the early family correspondence, letters exchanged between Rudolf and Genia Peierls before and after their marriage in 1931, correspondence relating to early developments in quantum physics, and interesting material relating to the development of nuclear weapons. The extensive apparatus provides an invaluable background which allows the reader to put the presented documents into their multi-faceted social, political and scientific context.

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It is widely acknowledged that natural language processing, as an indispensable means for information technology, requires the strong support of world knowledge as well as linguistic knowledge. This book is a theoretical exploration into the extra-linguistic knowledge needed for natural language processing and a panoramic description of HowNet as a case study. Readers will appreciate the uniqueness of the discussion on the definitions of the top-level classes HowNet specifies, such as things, parts, attributes, time, space, events and attribute-values, and the relations among them, and also the depth of the authors' philosophy behind HowNet.The book presents the attraction of HowNet's computability of meanings and describes how a software of the computation of meaning can collect so many relevant words and expressions and give a similiarity value between any two words or expressions.

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The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive introduction to cryptography without using complex mathematical constructions. The themes are conveyed in a form that only requires a basic knowledge of mathematics, but the methods are described in sufficient detail to enable their computer implementation.The book describes the main techniques and facilities of contemporary cryptography, proving key results along the way. The contents of the first five chapters can be used for one-semester course.

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Difference Makers: Stories of Those Who Dared is a different sort of book. It features many big names from corporate titans to ministers to social entrepreneurs. But it is not just a compilation of feel-good success stories and minting millions. It is a celebration of the human spirit, of daring, drive and doggedness to make a difference. The endeavours within will make you tear, chortle, sigh, reflect and renew your faith that all things are possible. It is guaranteed to make a difference to your life.

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This groundbreaking work features two essays written by the renowned mathematician Ilan Vardi. The first essay presents a thorough analysis of contrived problems suggested to “undesirable” applicants to the Department of Mathematics of Moscow University. His second essay gives an in-depth discussion of solutions to the Year 2000 International Mathematical Olympiad, with emphasis on the comparison of the olympiad problems to those given at the Moscow University entrance examinations.The second part of the book provides a historical background of a unique phenomenon in mathematics, which flourished in the 1970s-80s in the USSR. Specially designed math problems were used not to test students' ingenuity and creativity but, rather, as “killer problems,” to deny access to higher education to “undesirable” applicants. The focus of this part is the 1980 essay, “Intellectual Genocide”, written by B Kanevsky and V Senderov. It is being published for the first time. Also featured is a little-known page of the Soviet history, a rare example of the oppressed organizing to defend their dignity. This is the story of the so-called Jewish People's University, the inception of which is associated with Kanevsky, Senderov and Bella Subbotovskaya.

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The World of Hedge Funds is a compendium of distinguished papers focusing on the cutting-edge analysis of hedge funds. This area is arguably the fastest growing source of funds in the investment management arena. It represents an exciting opportunity for the investor and manager in terms of the range of return and risk available. A source of rigorous analysis is therefore both sought after as well as needed. This book aims to fill this gap by presenting an eclectic collection of papers contributed by influential academics and practitioners covering the characteristics and problems of hedge funds.

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From the unique perspective of partial differential equations (PDE), this self-contained book presents a systematic, advanced introduction to the Black-Scholes-Merton's option pricing theory.A unified approach is used to model various types of option pricing as PDE problems, to derive pricing formulas as their solutions, and to design efficient algorithms from the numerical calculation of PDEs. In particular, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of American option pricing is treated based on free boundary problems, and the implied volatility as an inverse problem is solved in the optimal control framework of parabolic equations.

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This is the very first comprehensive monograph in a burgeoning, new research area — the theory of cooperative game with incomplete information with emphasis on the solution concept of Bayesian incentive compatible strong equilibrium that encompasses the concept of the Bayesian incentive compatible core. Built upon the concepts and techniques in the classical static cooperative game theory and in the non-cooperative Bayesian game theory, the theory constructs and analyzes in part the powerful n-person game-theoretical model characterized by coordinated strategy-choice with individualistic incentives, the influence of outsiders' strategy choice upon the feasibility and implications of coalitional attainability, and incomplete information. The book presents the basic results of this theory. It also presents the research results to date on the simple, but central economic model of Bayesian pure exchange economy, and also on an alternative approach, anonymous coalition formation.The theory presented here points to an important future research direction in economics. In particular, it has the potential to provide game-theoretical foundations of organizational analysis in which organizations (coalitions) as corporations institute a non-market resource allocation mechanism while using the market resource allocation mechanism at the same time.The book provides appraisals of the various concepts, setups and results established to date as well as many discussions on philosophical issues on different approaches in the area, thereby clarifying the applicability and limitations of the current theory. It also contains numerous examples illustrating various concepts and points of discussions.Cooperative Extensions of the Bayesian Game is an essential reference in strategic cooperative game theory, and serves as an informative textbook for PhD courses in advanced economic theory, mathematical economics, game theory, and industrial organization.

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In the history of physics and science, quantum mechanics has served as the foundation of modern science. This book discusses the properties of microscopic particles in nonlinear systems, principles of the nonlinear quantum mechanical theory, and its applications in condensed matter, polymers and biological systems.The book is essentially composed of three parts. The first part presents a review of linear quantum mechanics, as well as theoretical and experimental fundamentals that establish the nonlinear quantum mechanical theory. The theory itself and its essential features are covered in the second part. In the final part, extensive applications of this theory in physics, biology and polymer are introduced. The whole volume forms a complete system of nonlinear quantum mechanics.The book is intended for researchers, graduate students as well as upper-level undergraduates.

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All managers face a business environment where international and macroeconomic phenomena matter. Understanding the genesis of financial and currency crises, stock market booms and busts, and social and labor unrest is a crucial aspect in making informed managerial decisions. Adverse macroeconomic phenomena can have a catastrophic impact on firm performance — witness the strong companies destroyed by the Mexican tequila crisis. Yet, at the same time, such episodes also create business opportunities — and not just for the hedge funds and speculators that profit from them. Managers that have and use a coherent framework for analyzing these phenomena will enjoy a competitive advantage.This book presents a series of case studies taught in the Harvard Business School course “Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy.” The course addresses the opportunities created by the emergence of a global economy and proposes strategies for managing the risks that globalization entails.

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A crowd-mind emerges when formation of a crowd causes fusion of individual minds into one collective mind. Members of the crowd lose their individuality. The deindividuation leads to derationalization: emotional, impulsive and irrational behavior, self-catalytic activities, memory impairment, perceptual distortion, hyper-responsiveness, and distortion of traditional forms and structures. This book presents unique results of computational studies on cognitive and affective space-time processes in large-scale collectives of abstract agents being far from mental equilibrium. Computational experiments demonstrate that the irrational and nonsensical behavior of individual entities of crowd-mind results in complex, rich and non-trivial spatio-temporal dynamics of the agent collectives. Mathematical methods employ theory and techniques of cellular-automata and lattice swarms, applied algebra, theory of finite automata and Markov chains, and elementary differential equations.

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This book gives a comprehensive account of the development and present status of the field of soft (i.e. non-perturbative) phenomena encountered in the production of (multi-) hadronic final states by the collision of various types of particles at high energies. Phenomenological models used to describe the data are in general inspired by Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) and the book repeatedly crosses the border — if at all existent — between soft (non-perturbative) and hard (perturbative) QCD.

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This invaluable book provides a pointed introduction to the fascinating subject of bottom-up nanotechnology with emphasis on the molecular-based study of condensed matter in small systems. Nanotechnology has its roots in the landmark lecture delivered by the famous Nobel Laureate physicist, Richard Feynman, on 29 December 1959 entitled “There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” By the mid-1980s, it had gained real momentum with the invention of scanning probe microscopes. Today, nanotechnology promises to have a revolutionary impact on the way things are designed and manufactured in the future.Principles of Nanotechnology is self-contained and unified in presentation. It may be used as a textbook by graduate students and even ambitious undergraduates in engineering, and the biological and physical sciences who already have some familiarity with quantum and statistical mechanics. It is also suitable for experts in related fields who require an overview of the fundamental topics in nanotechnology. The explanations in the book are detailed enough to capture the interest of the curious reader, and complete enough to provide the necessary background material needed to go further into the subject and explore the research literature. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology, a comprehensive glossary is included detailing abbreviations, chemical formulae, concepts, definitions, equations and theories.

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This volume presents a comprehensive collection of Wang Yuan's original important papers which are not available elsewhere, since the majority of the papers were published in China.Covering both pure number theory and applied mathematics, this book is important for understanding Wang Yuan's academic career and also the development of Chinese mathematics in recent years, since Wang Yuan's work has a wide-ranging influence in China.Wang Yuan is a professor and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his honorable Doctorship from Hong Kong Baptist University. He has published 70 papers and ten books.

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This textbook consists of three parts: basic concepts of statistics, advanced statistical methods, and design and analysis for medical research. Each chapter begins with challenging medical problems and related statistical methods and theories; to make the statistical ideas more easily understood, there is a section of “computer experiments” in each chapter where some basic statistical phenomena and related concepts are revealed. The statistical software SAS is used to carry out related statistical calculations.The aim of this book is to make medical students and researchers grasp easily the most useful tools of statistics for their medical research. It is done through various applications to a great number of medical problems, interesting demonstration of well-designed computer experiments and detailed explanation of statistical thinking.

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With contributions from an international team of leading researchers, the book pulls together updated research results in the area of HIV/AIDS modeling to provide readers with the latest information in the field. Topics covered include: AIDS epidemic models; vaccine models; models for HIV/cell dynamics and interactions; cellular kinetics; viral dynamics with antiviral treatments; modeling of drug resistance and quasispecies.Extensive deterministic models, statistical models, stochastic models and state space models on treating AIDS patients with anti-retroviral drugs are provided, as well as an in-depth discussion of these models. The book also contains updated reviews on mathematical models for assessing effects of AIDS vaccines, statistical methods for analyzing clinical trial data on AIDS vaccines, and overviews of models and statistical methods for assessing drug resistance of HIV to anti-retroviral drugs. Some important statistical methods specific to the intervention and prevention of HIV epidemic are also discussed.This will be a useful reference source for graduate students and researchers in biomathematics and biostatistics, as well as for HIV/AIDS epidemiologists and clinical investigators learning quantitative methods to study AIDS epidemics and HIV infection.

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This highly readable book uncovers the mysteries of the physics of elementary particles for a broad audience. From the familiar notions of atoms and molecules to the complex ideas of the grand unification of all the basic forces, this book allows the interested lay public to appreciate the fascinating building blocks of matter that make up our universe.Beginning with a description of the quantum nature of atoms and particles, readers are introduced to the elementary constituents of atomic nuclei: quarks. The book goes on to consider all of the important ideas in particle physics: quantum electrodynamics and quantum chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions, the gauge theories of the weak and electromagnetic interactions, as well as the problem of mass generation. To conclude the book, the ideas of grand unification are described, and finally, some applications to astrophysics are discussed.Your guide to this exciting world is an author who, together with the originator of the idea of quarks, Murray Gell-Mann, has played an important role in the development of the theory of quantum chromodynamics and the concept of grand unification.

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This volume presents a comprehensive introduction to modern cosmology from an astrophysical viewpoint. Key features of the book are: breadth of topics covered, from quantum cosmology to recent observational advances; up-to-the-minute inclusion of many recent results, e.g. from the WMAP satellite; the level of the work, suited to both students and professionals in the field.

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This book explores the interaction between Europe and East Asia between the 16th and the 18th centuries in the field of mathematical sciences, bringing to the fore the role of Portugal as an agent of transmission of European science to East Asia. It is an important contribution to understanding this fundamental period of scientific history, beginning with the arrival of Vasco da Gama in India in 1498 and ending with the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Portugal in 1759. The former event opened a new era in relations between Europe and Asia, in particular regarding the circulation of scientific knowledge, leading to major social and intellectual changes in both continents. The Society of Jesus controlled education in Portugal and in the Empire. It was central to the network of knowledge transmission until the Society was expelled from Portugal in 1759.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in:• Index to Social Sciences & Humanities Proceedings® (ISSHP® / ISI Proceedings)• Index to Social Sciences & Humanities Proceedings (ISSHP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)

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Lecture notes from a Summer School on Quantum Probability held at the University of Grenoble are collected in these two volumes of the QP-PQ series. The articles have been refereed and extensively revised for publication. It is hoped that both current and future students of quantum probability will be engaged, informed and inspired by the contents of these two volumes. An extensive bibliography containing the references from all the lectures is included in Volume 12.

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“It was a brilliant idea to signal the 50th birthday of Yang-Mills theory by gathering together a wide range of articles by leading experts on many aspects of the subject. The result is a most handsome tribute of both historical and current interest, and a substantial addition to the existing literature …This unusual and elegant festschrift is a treat for theorists.”CERN CourierOn the 50th anniversary of Yang-Mills theory, this invaluable volume looks back at the developments and achievements in elementary particle physics that ensued from that beautiful idea.During the last five decades, Yang-Mills theory, which is undeniably the most important cornerstone of theoretical physics, has expanded widely. It has been investigated from many perspectives, and many new and unexpected features have been uncovered from this theory. In recent decades, apart from high energy physics, the theory has been actively applied in other branches of physics, such as statistical physics, condensed matter physics, nonlinear systems, etc. This makes the theory an indispensable topic for all who are involved in physics.An international team of experts, each of whom has left his mark on the developments of this remarkable theory, contribute essays or more detailed technical accounts to this volume. These articles highlight the new discoveries from the respective authors' perspectives. The distinguished contributors are: S Adler, F A Bais, C Becchi, M Creutz, A De Rújula, B S DeWitt, F Englert, L D Faddeev, P Hasenfratz, R Jackiw, A Polyakov, V N Popov, R Stora, P van Baal, P van Nieuwenhuizen, S Weinberg, F Wilczek, E Witten, C N Yang. Included in each article are introductory and explanatory remarks by the editor, G 't Hooft, who is himself a major player in the development of Yang-Mills theory.

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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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This volume introduces particle image velocimetry (PIV), a technique for water wave measurement in the laboratory and in the open ocean. It discusses the turbulent dissipation, Reynolds stresses and vortical structures in boundary layers of the sea bed, as well as ships, ship wakes, propulsion hydrodynamics, cavitation and free surface waves. Upwelling behind crests of micro-breaking ocean surface waves (important for the exchange of greenhouse gases between air and water) and large amplitude internal solitons in the ocean are measured. The book includes velocities and accelerations in breaking ocean waves, run-up, interaction between strong waves and breakwaters, as well as a concise description of the state-of-the-art PIV technique.This book has its origins in a meeting on PIV and water waves which was held in Cambridge in 2002. The main body of the book consists of six overview or in-depth articles by invited authors who are specialists in their respective fields, as well as practitioners of PIV. A complete set of abstracts from the meeting is enclosed. The book is well suited for scientists who want to acquaint themselves with current experimental hydrodynamics, as well as for researchers and graduate students who are already working in the field or plan to do so.

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This is the story of the author's unique scientific journey with one of the most remarkable men of 20th century science. The journey begins in Sri Lanka, the author's native country, with his childhood acquaintance with Fred Hoyle's writings. The action then moves to Cambridge, where the famous Hoyle-Wickramasinghe collaborations begin. A research programme which was started in 1962 on the carbonaceous nature of interstellar dust leads, over the next two decades, to developments that are continued in both Cambridge and Cardiff. These developments prompt Hoyle and the author to postulate the organic theory of cosmic dust (which is now generally accepted), and then to challenge one of the most cherished paradigms of contemporary science — the theory that life originated on Earth in a warm primordial soup.A Journey with Fred Hoyle is an intriguing book that traces the progress of a collaboration spanning 40 years, through a sequence of personal reflections, anecdotes and reminiscences. Ideas that were thought heretical 25 years ago are now quietly slipping into the domain of orthodox science.

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This book provides the first-ever systematic introduction to the theory of Riemannian submersions, which was initiated by Barrett O'Neill and Alfred Gray less than four decades ago. The authors focus their attention on classification theorems when the total space and the fibres have nice geometric properties. Particular emphasis is placed on the interrelation with almost Hermitian, almost contact and quaternionic geometry. Examples clarifying and motivating the theory are included in every chapter. Recent results on semi-Riemannian submersions are also explained. Finally, the authors point out the close connection of the subject with some areas of physics.

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The space we see around us is the end product of a long series of processes: physical, physiological, and cognitive. It is a highly structured perceptual entity. In contrast to the fact that most studies of visual perception are concerned with local phenomena in this visual space, the main purpose of this book is to discuss the global structure of visual space. The physical space which surrounds us is of Euclidean structure, but its perceived image is not necessarily structured in that way. Problems such as why the sky appears as a vault and why the horizon is located at eye level are discussed in the book.

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This book presents, for the first time, a systematic formulation of the geometric theory of noncommutative PDE's which is suitable enough to be used for a mathematical description of quantum dynamics and quantum field theory. A geometric theory of supersymmetric quantum PDE's is also considered, in order to describe quantum supergravity. Covariant and canonical quantizations of (super) PDE's are shown to be founded on the geometric theory of PDE's and to produce quantum (super) PDE's by means of functors from the category of commutative (super) PDE's to the category of quantum (super) PDE's. Global properties of solutions to (super) (commutative) PDE's are obtained by means of their integral bordism groups.

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Methuselah Flies presents a trailblazing project on the biology of aging. It describes research on the first organisms to have their lifespan increased, and their aging slowed, by hereditary manipulation. These organisms are fruit flies from the species Drosophila melanogaster, the great workhorse of genetics. Michael Rose and his colleagues have been able to double the lifespan of these insects, and improved their health in numerous respects as well. The study of these flies with postponed aging is one of the best means we have of understanding, and ultimately achieving, the postponement of aging in humans. As such, the carefully presented detail of this book will be of value to research devoted to the understanding and control of aging.Methuselah Flies:• is a tightly edited distillation of twenty years of work by many scientists• contains the original publications regarding the longer-lived fruit flies• offers commentaries on each of the topics covered — new, short essays that put the individual research papers in a wider context• gives full access to the original data • captures the scientific significance of postponed aging for a wide academic audience

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During the last twenty years, a large number of books on nonlinear chaotic dynamics in deterministic dynamical systems have appeared. These academic tomes are intended for graduate students and require a deep knowledge of comprehensive, advanced mathematics. There is a need for a book that is accessible to general readers, a book that makes it possible to get a good deal of knowledge about complex chaotic phenomena in nonlinear oscillators without deep mathematical study.Chaos, Bifurcations and Fractals Around Us: A Brief Introduction fills that gap. It is a very short monograph that, owing to geometric interpretation complete with computer color graphics, makes it easy to understand even very complex advanced concepts of chaotic dynamics. This invaluable publication is also addressed to lecturers in engineering departments who want to include selected nonlinear problems in full time courses on general mechanics, vibrations or physics so as to encourage their students to conduct further study.

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This book presents Stephen Shmanske's innovative research combining two of his passions, golf and economics. He develops two themes — the use of economics to explore institutional aspects of the business side of golf and the use of golf statistics to shed light on several vexing issues in economics. These two themes are addressed in two settings — the economics of golf course management and the economics of professional golf. Examples from golf course management are covered in separate chapters on golf cart usage, golf course maintenance, and the problem of slow play. Examples from professional golf include the causal relationships from practice to skill to earnings, the tournament compensation model, and the measurement of gender discrimination.

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This book describes and analyzes the demographic changes that took place in Taiwan between 1945 and 1995. It uses an interdisciplinary methodology so that different approaches to demographic change can be compared and contrasted. It attempts to evaluate Taiwan's experience so that lessons for the Third World can be extracted. The content and presentation of the material are deliberately designed to replicate the 1954 work of Barclay, Demographic Change and Colonial Development in Taiwan. As such the book seeks to provide the reasons that economic development without demographic change took place under the Japanese while development with demographic change took place under the Chinese. The volume is richly illustrated with some 82 original maps and graphs.

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Biological processes involving large macromolecular assemblies are thought to be a dynamic consequence of cooperativity and metastability. The folding of a peptide chain creates local environments from which “activity” can emerge. In the same way, the assembly of large molecular complexes creates dynamic features that would only be feasible in a large construct. The biological implications of such adaptation are explored as it applies to the static quasisymmetry situations, as well as to the dynamics of structural transitions. The current wealth of solved high-resolution complex structures makes this an appropriate time to summarize the state of the art in structural dynamics of living architectures. With contributions by leading scientists in the fields of virology, bacterial flagellum, cytoskeleton, ribosome and giant enzymes, this important book presents cutting-edge knowledge in the various fields of structural proteomics of very large molecular assemblies, with the focus on their mechanisms of action.

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The theme of this book on human and machine perception is communication, interaction, and integration. For each basic topic there are invited lectures, corresponding to approaches in nature and machines, and a panel discussion. The lectures present the state of the art, outlining open questions and stressing synergies among the disciplines related to perception. The panel discussions are forums for open debate. The wide spectrum of topics allows comparison and synergy and can stimulate new approaches.

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On 12 March 2003, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a global alert on the outbreak of a new form of pneumonia-like disease with symptoms that are similar to those of the common flu. This illness, officially known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is potentially fatal and highly contagious, and has spread quickly to many parts of the world in a matter of a few weeks. Aided by globalisation and the ease of air travel today, the disease has now been reported in many countries, such as China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, the US and some parts of Europe, with a large number of infections and a significant number of deaths.In this book, the global SARS outbreak is traced and described, with a focus on the regions where the most infections have been identified. An overview of the whole saga is presented: how the disease spreads; how governments react; how societies and people cope and how health experts work fervently to identify the virus and search for a cure.In addition, the book contains guidelines on what a person or organisation can do to reduce the risk of contracting the deadly illness. It includes precautionary measures disseminated by various health authorities and preventive herbal concoctions recommended by Chinese physicians, presented in an easy-to-read manner. Furthermore, insights of experts are provided.This book aims to give critical information on SARS. It is a must for people who want to find out more about the disease and how to reduce the risk of contracting it.

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Technical problems often lead to differential equations with piecewise-smooth right-hand sides. Problems in mechanical engineering, for instance, violate the requirements of smoothness if they involve collisions, finite clearances, or stick-slip phenomena. Systems of this type can display a large variety of complicated bifurcation scenarios that still lack a detailed description.This book presents some of the fascinating new phenomena that one can observe in piecewise-smooth dynamical systems. The practical significance of these phenomena is demonstrated through a series of well-documented and realistic applications to switching power converters, relay systems, and different types of pulse-width modulated control systems. Other examples are derived from mechanical engineering, digital electronics, and economic business-cycle theory.The topics considered in the book include abrupt transitions associated with modified period-doubling, saddle-node and Hopf bifurcations, the interplay between classical bifurcations and border-collision bifurcations, truncated bifurcation scenarios, period-tripling and -quadrupling bifurcations, multiple-choice bifurcations, new types of direct transitions to chaos, and torus destruction in nonsmooth systems.In spite of its orientation towards engineering problems, the book addresses theoretical and numerical problems in sufficient detail to be of interest to nonlinear scientists in general.

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One of the aims of this book is to explain in a basic manner the seemingly difficult issues of mathematical structure using some specific examples as a guide. In each of the cases considered, a comprehensible physical problem is approached, to which the corresponding mathematical scheme is applied, its usefulness being duly demonstrated. The authors try to fill the gap that always exists between the physics of quantum field theories and the mathematical methods best suited for its formulation, which are increasingly demanding on the mathematical ability of the physicist.

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This book is a tribute to the life and work of J Q Chen. The contributions of Chen to nuclear and molecular physics are discussed vis-à-vis present developments in these fields. Among other subjects, the present status of microscopic theories of the interacting boson model in nuclear physics and the theory of symmetry adaptation of molecular vibrations in molecular physics are reviewed. The latter theory is particularly useful for large molecular species such as fullerenes, where icosahedral symmetry plays a fundamental role.

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