springer netherlands apr 1999 (36 résultats)

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -DNA delivery into cells is a rapidly developing area in gene therapy and biotechnology. Moreover, it is a powerful research tool to determine gene structure, regulation, and function. Viral methods of DNA delivery are well-characterized and efficient, but little is known about the toxicity and immunogenecity of viral vectors. As a result, non-viral, transfection methods of DNA delivery are of increasing interest. Synthetic DNA Delivery Systems is a comprehensive and current resource on DNA transfection. The use of histidine-rich peptides and polypeptides as DNA delivery systems and self-assembled delivery systems based on cationic lipids and polymers are discussed. Targeted delivery to organelles, tumor cells and dendritic cells comprise an important topic. 512 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Concentrations of pollutants in the atmosphere have increased dramatically over the last century and many of these changes are attributable to anthropogenic activities. The influence of acid rain has been well studied, but there has been no extensive exploration of other pollutants, such as toxic chemicals, heavy metals and radionuclides. Natural ecosystems, especially forests, tend to accumulate many of these pollutants which subsequently can affect ecosystem health. These contaminants may be very damaging to the environment in Eastern Europe, where the rapid disappearance of forest is the result not only of contamination but also of poor forest management practices. The current book is designed to reduce the uncertainty in our current knowledge of forest radioecology. The three topics it embraces are (a) Modelling, (b) Measurements and Data, and (c) Countermeasures and Risk Assessment. 448 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This interesting book deals with the theory of convex and starlike biholomorphic mappings in several complex variables. The underly ing theme is the extension to several complex variables of geometric aspects of the classical theory of univalent functions. Because the author's introduction provides an excellent overview of the content of the book, I will not duplicate the effort here. Rather, I will place the book into historical context. The theory of univalent functions long has been an important part of the study of holomorphic functions of one complex variable. The roots of the subject go back to the famous Riemann Mapping Theorem which asserts that a simply connected region n which is a proper subset of the complex plane C is biholomorphically equivalent to the open unit disk ~. That is, there is a univalent function (holo morphic bijection) I : ~ -+ n. In the early part of this century work began to focus on the class S of normalized (f (0) = 0 and I' (0) = 1) univalent functions defined on the unit disk. The restriction to uni valent functions defined on the unit disk is justified by the Riemann Mapping Theorem. The subject contains many beautiful results that were obtained by fundamental techniques developed by many mathe maticians, including Koebe, Bieberbach, Loewner, Goluzin, Grunsky, and Schiffer. The best-known aspect of univalent function theory is the so-called Bieberbach conjecture which was proved by de Branges in 1984. 228 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this book an attempt is made to single out those elements in the philosophical system of the Enneads that stand apart from the Platonist tradition. On the basis of an extensive analysis of fundamental texts the author shows that what Plotinus had in mind was a quite independent paradigm of metaphysical theology, with at its centre the human person. 124 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this fresh translation of five lectures delivered in 1907 at the University of Göttingen, Edmund Husserl lays out the philosophical problem of knowledge, indicates the requirements for its solution, and for the first time introduces the phenomenological method of reduction. For those interested in the genesis and development of Husserl's phenomenology, this text affords a unique glimpse into the epistemological motivation of his work, his concept of intentionality, and the formation of central phenomenological concepts that will later go by the names of `transcendental consciousness', the `noema', and the like. As a teaching text, The Idea of Phenomenology is ideal: it is brief, it is unencumbered by the technical terminology of Husserl's later work, it bears a clear connection to the problem of knowledge as formulated in the Cartesian tradition, and it is accompanied by a translator's introduction that clearly spells out the structure, argument, and movement of the text. 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -System-Level Synthesis deals with the concurrent design of electronic applications, including both hardware and software. The issue has become the bottleneck in the design of electronic systems, including both hardware and software, in several major industrial fields, including telecommunications, automotive and aerospace engineering. The major difficulty with the subject is that it demands contributions from several research fields, including system specification, system architecture, hardware design, and software design. Most existing book cover well only a few aspects of system-level synthesis. The present volume presents a comprehensive discussion of all the aspects of system-level synthesis. Each topic is covered by a contribution written by an international authority on the subject. 444 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The last decade has been one of dramatic progress in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). This hitherto largely academic discipline has found itself at the center of an information revolution ushered in by the Internet age, as demand for human-computer communication and informa tion access has exploded. Emerging applications in computer-assisted infor mation production and dissemination, automated understanding of news, understanding of spoken language, and processing of foreign languages have given impetus to research that resulted in a new generation of robust tools, systems, and commercial products. Well-positioned government research funding, particularly in the U. S. , has helped to advance the state-of-the art at an unprecedented pace, in no small measure thanks to the rigorous 1 evaluations. This volume focuses on the use of Natural Language Processing in In formation Retrieval (IR), an area of science and technology that deals with cataloging, categorization, classification, and search of large amounts of information, particularly in textual form. An outcome of an information retrieval process is usually a set of documents containing information on a given topic, and may consist of newspaper-like articles, memos, reports of any kind, entire books, as well as annotated image and sound files. Since we assume that the information is primarily encoded as text, IR is also a natural language processing problem: in order to decide if a document is relevant to a given information need, one needs to be able to understand its content. 412 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Since the initiative works for global analysis of linear differential equations by G.G. Stokes and B. Riemann in 1857, the Airy function and the Gauss hypergeometric function became the most important and the greatest practical special functions, which have a variety of applications to mathematical science, physics and engineering. The cffcctivity of these functions is essentially due to their 'behavior in the large' . For instance, the Airy function plays a basic role in the asymptotic analysis of many functions arising as solutions of differential equations in several problems of applied math ematics. In case of the employment of its behavior, one should always pay attention to the Stokes phenomenon. On the other hand, as is well-known, the Gauss hypergeometric function arises in all fields of mathematics, e.g., in number theory, in the theory of groups and in analysis itself. It is not too much to say that all power series are special or extended cases of the hypergeometric series. For the full use of its properties, one needs connection formulas or contiguous relations. 548 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine (BBWM) is a long-term, whole-watershed study examining the effects of experimentally elevated N and S deposition on a treated watershed, in comparison to the adjacent reference watershed. The study is in a northern New England, USA, forested ecosystem, and focuses on soil and stream hydrological and biogeochemical processes, and chemical responses of vegetation. Relative to the reference watershed, the treated ecosystem has migrated biogeochemically towards N saturation, and soil and stream acidification. Some of the responses to N amendments were not expected nor predicted by available models. 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Measuring Up revisits vital issues of equity and assessment through the research efforts and insights of many of the nation's most prominent educators and assessment experts. As its most urgent purpose, the publication aims to sensitize readers to the unfairness and inappropriate uses of testing instruments which under optimal circumstances have the potential to benefit all students. With America fervently espousing both national and state testing, the differential performance by race and social class raises the specter of tests as barriers to life milestones such as promotion, graduation, and college admissions. In response to such punitive testing, the papers included here explore a host of models and practices that are currently being piloted both in America and abroad as educators grapple with the effects the assessment is having on minority and disadvantaged students and school systems. In the process, outcomes of innovative portfolio and authentic assessments are weighed against important standards and principles of validity and consequences. As the various authors probe the gap between African-American and White test scores, they raise important questions of resources, family background and educational opportunity. Beyond their value of their recommendations to educators, their papers help to identify causes of pupil deficiencies in ways that can be addressed by policymakers. To reinforce the emphasis on equity, several authors present a definitive defense of affirmative action as a critical counter-measure to the lack of fairness in school quality, family and social supports, and educational resources. 292 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Climate change is one of the major environmental concern of many countries in the world. Negotiations to control potential climate changes have been taking place, from Rio to Kyoto, for the last five years. There is a widespread consciousness that the risk of incurring in relevant economic and environmental losses due to climate change is high. Scientific analyses have become more and more precise on the likely impacts of climate change. According to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, current trends in greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions may indeed cause the average global temperature to increase by 1-3. 5 °C over the next 100 years. As a result, sea levels are expected to rise by 15 to 95 em and climate zones to shift towards the poles by 150 to 550 km in mid latitudes. In order to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, the IPCC report concludes that a stabilization of atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide - one of the major GHGs - at 550 parts per million by volume (ppmv) is recommended. This would imply a reduction of global emissions of about 50 per cent with respect to current levels. In this context, countries are negotiating to achieve a world-wide agreement on GHGs emissions control in order to stabilize climate changes. Despite the agreement on targets achieved in Kyoto, many issues still remain unresolved. 242 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The Proceedings of the tenth Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on Tech niques and Concepts of High Energy Physics are dedicated to Jane and Bob Wilson. Jane joined Bob at St. Croix for the first session of this Institute, after Bob had stepped down as director of Fermilab, and was scheming to build a modest charm factory in the parking lot of Columbia University's Nevis Laboratory. Through the years, Bob has been a great friend of the School, and much of its success and flavor can be attributed to his guidance and support. The 1998 meeting was held once again at the Hotel on the Cay, and, as before, the work and the fun went on very enjoyably. We had a to tal of 76 participants from 23 countries, with the main financial support for the meeting provided by the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The ASI was co-sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy, by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), by the U.S. National Science Foundation, and by the University of Rochester. As in the case of the previous ASIs, the scientific program was designed for advanced graduate students and recent PhD recipients in experimental particle physics. The present volume of lectures should complement and update the material published (by Plenum) for the first nine ASIs and prove to be of value to a wider audience of physicists. 644 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A major flaw in semi-Riemannian geometry is a shortage of suitable types of maps between semi-Riemannian manifolds that will compare their geometric properties. Here, a class of such maps called semi-Riemannian maps is introduced. The main purpose of this book is to present results in semi-Riemannian geometry obtained by the existence of such a map between semi-Riemannian manifolds, as well as to encourage the reader to explore these maps. The first three chapters are devoted to the development of fundamental concepts and formulas in semi-Riemannian geometry which are used throughout the work. In Chapters 4 and 5 semi-Riemannian maps and such maps with respect to a semi-Riemannian foliation are studied. Chapter 6 studies the maps from a semi-Riemannian manifold to 1-dimensional semi- Euclidean space. In Chapter 7 some splitting theorems are obtained by using the existence of a semi-Riemannian map. Audience: This volume will be of interest to mathematicians and physicists whose work involves differential geometry, global analysis, or relativity and gravitation. 212 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book contains most, but regrettably not all, the papers that were presented at the Advanced Research Study Institute, ASI, held at the Fantasia Hotel, Kusadasi, Turkey, July 26 - August 8, 1998. A powerful incentive to the development of vortex physics in superconductors, that has began with Abrikosov Vortices in Shubnikov's Mixed State, was realized after the discovery of the high-Tc superconductivity. Indeed, a number of the most intriguing phenomena and states of the flux line lattice are observed in high-Tc superconducting materials due to their high anisotropy, intrinsically layered crys tal structure, extremely small coherence length and the possibility of coexistence of superconducting vortex states with high-energy thermal fluctuation. These pe culiarities are demonstrated as the 2D flux line lattice of point-vortices (pan cakes), Josephson vortices or strings in parallel and/or tilted magnetic fields, flux line lattice melting into vortex liquid and its freezing into vortex 'solid' (e. g. , crystal-or glass-like) state. It is well known, that the main reason for conditioning of the vortex ensemble state and behavior (except the extrinsic factors, such as applied magnetic field or temperature) is a set of intrinsic/extrinsic superconduct ing material properties caused by the crystal nature and symmetry, atoms ar rangement, anisotropy, as well as by the spectrum of crystal defects, their dimen sions, arrangement and density. 788 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The International Workshop on Coherent Control of Carrier Dynamics in Semiconductors was held May 19 to 22, 1998 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Its intent was to bring together an international and interdisciplinary group of scientists to discuss recent progress, pertinent problems, and open questions in the field of coherent control in atoms, molecules, and semiconductors, in particular. Twenty-seven scientists from the physical chemistry, quantum optics, semiconductor, electrical engineering, and laser communities accepted our invitation and made this event a meeting of exciting presentations and vivid discussions. This volume contains the proceedings of this workshop. Most speakers accepted our invitation to provide a manuscript either on specific aspects of their work or a brief review of their area of research. All manuscripts were reviewed. It is hoped that they provide not merely an overview of most of the issues covered during the workshop, but also represent an account of the current state of coherent control in general. Hence, it is hoped that they are also of interest to a large number of scientists active in one of the areas listed above. The organizers of this workshop would like to thank all the participants for making this meeting a complete success. We are particularly indebted to Dr. Larry R. Cooper at the U.S. Office of Naval Research and Dr. 244 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The first edition of this book (1958) described an analytical situation which had existed for a number of years for maintaining quality control on vulcanizates of natural rubber although the situation had recently been disturbed by the introduction of a range of synthetic rubbers which required identification and quantitative estimation. For the former purpose 'wet' chemistry, based on various imperfectly understood organic reactions, was pressed into service. Alongside this was the first introduction of instrumental analysis, using the infrared spectra of either the polymers or, more usually, their pyrolytic products to 'fingerprint' the material. The identification of a range of organic accelerators, antioxidants and their derivatives which had been intro duced during the 1920s and 30s was, in the first edition, dealt with by a combination of column chromatography and infrared spectroscopy or by paper chromatography. Quantitative procedures were, however, still classical in the tradition of gravimetric or volumetric assays with an initially weighed sample yielding, after chemical manipulation, a carefully precipitated, dried and weighed end product, or a solution of known composition whose weight or titre, as a percentage of the initial sample, quantified the function being determined. The second edition of this work (1968) consolidated the newer techni ques which had been introduced in the first without adding to them although, in other applications of analytical chemistry, instrumental analysis had already brought about a transformation in laboratory practice. 404 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Phenomenology, according to Husserl, is meant to be philosophy as rigorous science. It was Franz Brentano who inspired him to pursue the ideal of scientific philosophy. Though Husserl began his philosophical career as an orthodox disciple of Brentano, he eventually began to have doubts about this orientation. The Logische Unterschungen is the result of such doubts. Especially after the publication of that work, he became increasingly convinced that, in the interests of scientific philosophy, he had to go in a direction which diverged from Brentano and other members of this school (`Brentanists') who believed in the same ideal. An attempt is made here to ascertain Husserl's philosophical relation to Brentano and certain other Brentanists (Carl Stumpf, Benno Kerry, Kasimir Twardowski, Alexius Meinong, and Anton Marty). The crucial turning point in the development of these relations is to be found in the essay which Husserl wrote in 1894 (particularly in response to Twardowski) under the title `Intentional Objects' (which is translated as an appendix in this volume). This study will be of interest to historians of philosophy and phenomenology in particular, but also to anyone concerned with the ideal of scientific philosophy. 380 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This textbook deals with optimization of dynamic systems. The motivation for undertaking this task is as follows: There is an ever increasing need to produce more efficient, accurate, and lightweight mechanical and electromechanical de vices. Thus, the typical graduating B.S. and M.S. candidate is required to have some familiarity with techniques for improving the performance of dynamic systems. Unfortunately, existing texts dealing with system improvement via optimization remain inaccessible to many of these students and practicing en gineers. It is our goal to alleviate this difficulty by presenting to seniors and beginning graduate students practical efficient techniques for solving engineer ing system optimization problems. The text has been used in optimal control and dynamic system optimization courses at the University of Deleware, the University of Washington and Ohio University over the past four years. The text covers the following material in a straightforward detailed manner: - Static Optimization: The problem of optimizing a function that depends on static variables (i.e., parameters) is considered. Problems with equality and inequality constraints are addressed. - Numerical Methods: Static Optimization: Numerical algorithms for the solution of static optimization problems are presented here. The methods presented can accommodate both the unconstrained and constrained static optimization problems. - Calculus of Variation: The necessary and sufficient conditions for the ex tremum of functionals are presented. Both the fixed final time and free final time problems are considered. 244 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -System-Level Synthesis deals with the concurrent design of electronic applications, including both hardware and software. The issue has become the bottleneck in the design of electronic systems, including both hardware and software, in several major industrial fields, including telecommunications, automotive and aerospace engineering. The major difficulty with the subject is that it demands contributions from several research fields, including system specification, system architecture, hardware design, and software design. Most existing book cover well only a few aspects of system-level synthesis. The present volume presents a comprehensive discussion of all the aspects of system-level synthesis. Each topic is covered by a contribution written by an international authority on the subject. 452 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The notion of singular quadratic form appears in mathematical physics as a tool for the investigation of formal expressions corresponding to perturbations devoid of operator sense. Numerous physical models are based on the use of Hamiltonians containing perturba tion terms with singular properties. Typical examples of such expressions are Schrodin ger operators with O-potentials (-~ + AD) and Hamiltonians in quantum field theory with perturbations given in terms of operators of creation and annihilation (P( 324 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume presents a 'photograph' of the state of the art in Science Education Research in Europe as it has emerged from the first ESERA Conference held in Rome in September 1997. The Conference saw the participation of more than 280 researchers from European and some extra European countries distributed as follows U. K. 46 The Netherlands 10 Germany 35 Finland 9 Italy 28 Switzerland 6 Spain 26 Portugal 6 France 18 Israel 5 Sweden Argentina 15 3 Denmark 14 Australia 3 Greece 14 USA 3 Brasil 11 Others 18 Norway TOTAL 11 281 As it can be seen from the table, although the group from U. K. where research in science education has a well established tradition is the most consistent one, quite a large number of researchers has come from Germany and the Scandinavian countries, sign of the increasing attention these countries pay to scientific education at all levels. The presence of researchers from extraeuropean countries has allowed a comparison of experience over a wider basisthan the national one. The themes of research, identified a priori by the organizers as important, were: of the Art in Science Education Research (Biology, - The State Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science) - Science Teaching and Learning - Science, Science Teaching and Society - Teachers' Education and its Cultural Components The Scientific Committee of the Conference decided to publish a selection of the papers presented and we accepted the task of the editing. 334 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Polymeric materials are widely used during nearly all stages of the manufacturing process of electronics products and this book is intended to give an introductory overview of the chemistry, properties and uses of some of the more important classes of materials likely to be encountered in these applications. It is intended to serve primarily as an introduction to the use of polymers and plastics in the processing and manufacture of electronic and electrical components and assemblies. With no in-depth knowledge of polymers assumed, the book is ideal for engineers and researchers working in areas where electronics and polymer technology overlap. There are also numerous references for those wishing to delve deeper. The first edition of this book was published in 1985 and since then there has been an unbelievable change and growth in the electronics industry. Much of this has been made possible by the continued development of new and improved polymeric materials. In some areas the polymers used have changed markedly whereas in others there have been continued improvements to the same basic materials. Consequently, this second edition includes new chapters detailing the materials which have emerged more recently. Chapters covering the same topics as the original version have been extensively rewritten and updated, often with the assistance of current international experts. In the last few years much work has been carried out on the development and use of special polymers that have important properties in addition to those normally associated with conventional polymers. This edition therefore includes a chapter that introduces one particular group of materials exhibiting these special properties, the ferroelectric polymers. The book also includes new chapters on high temperature thermoplastics, or engineering plastics as they are sometimes known, and their use in so-called moulded interconnect devices, where the polymer is used to provide a much wider range of functions than has been possible using a more conventional approach. This new edition also has a wider international coverage with chapters by experts based in Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, England and the United States of America. 424 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -More than 200 major river basins are shared by two or more countries and, together, these basins account for about 60% of the earth's land area, constituting a significant portion of the world's fresh water resources. They are thus both a significant asset to the nations sharing them, as well as a potential source of conflict. This book presents a generic framework for the analysis of decision making on international river issues. It emphasises the strategic character of the interactions between the basin states and addresses learning and institutionalization processes, taking account of the influence of the context on the decision making process. The case of the river Scheldt covers negotiations on the Belgian-Dutch water conventions covering a number of international issues relating to the river basins of the Scheldt and the Meuse, such as construction projects aimed at improving the maritime access to the port of Antwerp, the maintenance of the navigation channel in the Western Scheldt, pollution of the waters in the two rivers, and the distribution of water from the Meuse. The final part of the book contains a typology of strategies for the solution of upstream-downstream problems in international river basins. Audience: All those interested in international water and environmental management, international negotiations and politics, and public policy. 380 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Environmental and chemical sensors in optical fiber sensor technology The nature of the environment in which we live and work, and the precarious state of many aspects of the natural environment, has been a major lesson for scientists over the last few decades. Public awareness of the issues involved is high, and often coupled with a scepticism of the ability of the scientist and engineer to provide an adequate, or even rapid solution to the preservation of the environment before further damage is done, and to achieve this with a mini mum of expenditure. Monitoring of the various aspects of the environment, whether it be external or internal to ourselves and involving chemical, physical or biomedical parameters is an essential process for the well-being of mankind and of the individual. Legis lative requirements set new standards for measurement and control all around us, which must be met by the most appropriate of the technologies available, commensurate with the costs involved. Optical fiber sensor technology has a major part to play in this process, both to complement existing technologies and to promote new solutions to difficult measurement issues. The developments in new sources and detectors covering wider ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, with higher sensitivity, allow the use of techniques that some time ago would have been considered inappropriate or lacking in sufficient sensitivity. 356 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A survey of current research on a wide range of carbide, nitride and boride materials, covering the general issues relevant to the development and characterisation of a variety of advanced materials. Topics include structure and electronic properties, modeling, processing, high-temperature chemistry, oxidation and corrosion, mechanical behaviour, manufacturing and applications. The volume complements more specialised books on specific materials as well as more general texts on ceramics or hard materials, presenting a survey of materials research as a key to technological development. After decades of research, the materials are being used in electronics, wear resistant, refractory and other applications, but numerous new applications are possible. Roughly equal numbers of papers cover theoretical and experimental research in the general field of materials science of refractory materials. Audience: Researchers and graduate students in materials science and engineering. 380 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The EUROMECH Colloquium 366, 'Porous Media - Theory and Experiments' was held at the Bildungszentrum fiir die Entsorgungs-und Wasserwirtschaft GmbH B E W, Essen, Germany, from 23 to 27 June 1997. The goal of EUROMECH 366 was the presentation of recent findings in the macroscopic porous media theory (mixture theory restricted by the volume fraction concept) concerning general concepts and special investigations in the theoretical as well as the experimental field. Herein, numerical results requiring new solution strategies were also to be included. Moreover, foundations of fundamental state ments in the macroscopic porous media theory (e.g. the effective stress principle for incompressible and compressible constituents by micromechanic investigations) were welcome. Emphasis was placed upon the need to bring together scientists from various branches where porous media theories playa dominant role, namely from theoretical mechanics, agriculture, biomechanics, chemical engineering, geophysics and soil mechanics as well as from petroleum energy and environmental engineering. More than 80 people from 12 different countries expressed their interest in the Colloquium, and finally, 58 took part in the meeting presenting 42 papers. Among the talks were seven principal lectures given by leading scientists in the a.m. fields invited by the organizers. As Chairman of EUROMECH 366, I would like to thank the co-chairmen and all of my co-workers from the Institute of Mechanics, FB 10, University of Essen, for their help in organizing the Colloquium, in particular, Dr.-Ing. W. Walther, Priv.-Doz. 348 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A survey of current research on a wide range of carbide, nitride and boride materials, covering the general issues relevant to the development and characterisation of a variety of advanced materials. Topics include structure and electronic properties, modeling, processing, high-temperature chemistry, oxidation and corrosion, mechanical behaviour, manufacturing and applications. The volume complements more specialised books on specific materials as well as more general texts on ceramics or hard materials, presenting a survey of materials research as a key to technological development. After decades of research, the materials are being used in electronics, wear resistant, refractory and other applications, but numerous new applications are possible. Roughly equal numbers of papers cover theoretical and experimental research in the general field of materials science of refractory materials. Audience: Researchers and graduate students in materials science and engineering. 380 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The question of the existence of other worlds and other living beings has been present in the human quest for knowledge since as far as Epicurus. For centuries this question belonged to the fields of philosophy and theology. The theoretical problem of the formation of the Solar System, and hence of other planetary systems, was tackled only during the 18th century, while the first observational attempts for a detection started less than one hundred years ago. Direct observation of an extra-solar planetary system is an extraordinarily difficult problem: extra-solar planets are at huge distances, are incredibly faint and are overwhelmed by the bright light of their own stars. With virtually no observational insight to test their models, theoreticians have remained for decades in a difficult position to make substantial progress. Yet, the field of stellar formation has provided since the 1980s both the the oretical and observational evidences for the formation of discs at the stage of star birth and for debris materials orbiting the very young stellar systems. It was tempting to consider that these left-overs might indeed later agglomerate into planetary systems more or less similar to ours. Then came observational evidences for planets outside the Solar System. 448 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Science and philosophy have both undergone radical transformations in recent times. Now they are poised for a pivotal alliance. Science has abandoned the mechanistic model of nature. Philosophy has broken through the tight, traditional circle of conceptualisation, intellectualistic preconceptions and cognitive presuppositions. The two now meet to focus on the palpitating, fluctuating stream of nature/life. Their traditional prejudices dispersed under the pressure of new evidence, philosophy/phenomenology of life and the sciences of life meet in the Archimedean point of the human creative condition (proper to the phenomenology of life) and the role of the human subject (central to the scientific view of reality). They necessitate each other: without the sciences of life, philosophy/phenomenology of life cannot penetrate the intricacies of nature/life; without recourse to philosophy to delineate, design, provide clues to the organisation of natural evidence, the sciences of life cannot devise new strategies for inquiry nor survey their field. The present collection throws open the barriers that separate nature and culture, works of physis and those of the spirit. Following the philosophical model of the ontopoieisis of life, focusing on its specifically human sphere - that of the human self-interpretation-in-existence - it encircles the vast, new horizons of the new alliance. 536 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Response to Marine Oil Pollution - Review and Assessment is the essential source book, now updated, for all involved in marine oil pollution consequences and response. It covers policy, planning and operations, and provides technical assessment of the true nature of the problem, of the means to maximise the performance of current techniques and equipment, and of the bases for future improvements. This book provides a fundamental understanding of the oil properties and processes which determine the persistence and impacts of oils in the marine environment. It establishes parameters against which to evaluate performance of all current techniques and equipment, and the environmental impacts of their use. It identifies design parameters, and makes proposals for the creation and development of more effective equipment and techniques. The book also shows how a fresh approach to cargo transfer, and the scaling of spillage response provision to oil releases on immediate impact, will be more effective overall, and will ensure that approved waste handling and disposal facilities are not overwhelmed. The recent Sea Empress incident is reviewed to illustrate the points made and conclusions reached, and to emphasise the need for thorough salvage planning for all future incidents. 420 pp. Englisch.