This book provides an overview of recent research highlights in the main areas of application of magnetic reconnection (MR), including planetary, solar and magnetospheric physics and astrophysics. It describes how research on magnetic reconnection, especially concerning the Earth's magnetosphere, has grown extensively due to dedicated observations from major satellite missions such as Cluster, Double Star and Themis. The accumulated observations from these missions are being supplemented by many theoretical and modelling efforts, for which large scale computer facilities are successfully being used, and the theoretical advances are also covered in detail. Opening with an introductory discussion of some fundamental issues related to magnetic reconnection, subsequent chapters address topics including collisionless magnetic reconnection, MHD structures in 3D reconnection, energy conversion processes, fast reconnection mediated by plasmoids, rapid reconnection and magnetic field topology. Further chapters consider specific areas of application such as magnetospheric dayside and tail reconnection, comparative reconnection in planetary systems and reconnection in astrophysical systems. The book offers insight into discussions about fundamental concepts and key aspects of MR, access to the full set of applications of MR as presently known in space physics and in astrophysics, and an introduction to a new related area of study dealing with the annihilation of quantum magnetic fluxes and its implications in the study on neutron star activity. The book is aimed primarily at students entering the field, but will also serve as a useful reference text for established scientists and senior researchers.

Geometrical Physics in Minkowski Spacetime is an overview and description of the geometry in spacetime, and aids in the creation and development of intuition in four-dimensional Minkowski space. The deepest understanding of relativity and spacetime is in terms of the geometrical absolutes, and this is what the book seeks to develop. The most interesting topics requiring special relativity are covered, including:SpacetimeVectors in SpacetimeElectromagnetismAsymptotic Momentum ConservationCovectors and Dyadics in SpacetimeEnergy Tensor Although the book is not meant for the complete beginner in special relativity, the mathematical prerequisites for the early chapters of the book are very few - linear algebra and elementary geometry (done using vectors and a scalar product). For the later chapters, multivariable calculus and ordinary differential equations are often needed.

This book focuses on important interfacial phenomena, such as interfacial potential and interfacial multi-functionality, responsible for determining the fate of nanoparticles inside the biological milieu. Additionally, this book explores the role of surface defects in photocatalytic nanoparticles in defining the nanoparticle interaction to biological membrane and cytotoxic propensity.The authors describe the interfacial assembly of peptide/protein on conformational/functional dynamics of the peptide/protein, which may be adopted as an approach to moderate the protein misfolding diseases.

An up-to-date account on the advancement in science and technology and the most recent developments on materials used for solar energy devices is presented with detailed description in the following areas: selective coating for heating and cooling; photovoltaic conversion and comparison among single crystalline silicon, concentrating cells and amorphous silicon and advance tendum coating for selective spectrum which can be used for greenhouse, homes and in energy conservation.

An up-to-date account on the advancement in science and technology and the most recent developments on materials used for solar energy devices is presented with detailed description in the following areas: selective coating for heating and cooling; photovoltaic conversion and comparison among single crystalline silicon, concentrating cells and amorphous silicon and advance tendum coating for selective spectrum which can be used for greenhouse, homes and in energy conservation.

This book demonstrates the usefulness of tools from statistical mechanics for biology. It includes the new tendencies in topics like membranes, vesicles, microtubules, molecular motors, DNA, protein folding, phase transitions in biological systems, evolution, population dynamics, neural systems and biological oscillators, with special emphasis on the importance of statistical mechanics in their development. The book addresses researchers and graduate students.

This book introduces the basic theoretical concepts required for the analysis of the optical response of semiconductor systems in the coherent regime. It is the most instructive textbook on the theory and optical effects of semiconductors. The entire presentation is based on a one-dimensional tight-binding model. Starting with discrete-level systems, increasing complexity is added gradually to the model by including band-structure and many-particle interaction. Various linear and nonlinear optical spectra and temporal phenomena are studied. The analysis of many-body effects in nonlinear optical phenomena covers a major part of the book.

Infrared astronomy has undergone an enormous revolution during the last decade. Despite the great technical difficulties of building detectors in a cryogenic environment, the scientific advances in infrared astronomy have been astounding. In the near future many more advances can be expected from still newer developments in telescope and detector designs. High quality detector arrays and passively cooled telescopes are very promising techniques for achieving considerably larger apertures. This volume contains the refereed papers from the workshop on 'Next Generation Infrared Observatory', dealing with all new aspects of future infrared telescopes.

This book describes the basic mechanisms, theory, simulations and technological aspects of Laser processing techniques. It covers the principles of laser quenching, welding, cutting, alloying, selective sintering, ablation, etc. The main attention is paid to the quantitative description. The diversity and complexity of technological and physical processes is discussed using a unitary approach. The book aims on understanding the cause-and-effect relations in physical processes in Laser technologies. It will help researchers and engineers to improve the existing and develop new Laser machining techniques. The book addresses readers with a certain background in general physics and mathematical analysis: graduate students, researchers and engineers practicing laser applications.

There comes a time in the affairs of every organization when we have to sit down and take stock of where we are and where we want to go. When the International Heat Flow Committee (as it was first called), IHFC, was formed in 1963 at the San Francisco International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics with Francis Birch as its first Chairman, the principal purpose was to stimulate work in the basic aspects of geothermics, particularly the measurement of terrestrial heat-flow density (HFD) in what were then the 'geothermally underdeveloped' areas of the world. In this, the IHFC was remarkably successful. By the beginning of the second decade of our existence, interest in the economic aspects of geothermics was increasing at a rapid pace and the IHFC served as a conduit for all aspects of geothermics and, moreover, became the group responsi ble for collecting data on all types of HFD measurements. In all the tasks that are undertaken, the IHFC relies on the enthusiasm of its members and colleagues who devote much of their time to the important but unglamorous and personally unrewarding tasks that were asked of them, and we arc fortunate that our parent institutions are usually quite tolerant of the time spent by their employees on IHFC work."

Interesting and often unexpected achievements of the mechanics of space flight throw a new light onto several classical problems. The book 's emphasis is on analysis carried out on the level of graphs and drawings, and sometimes numbers, revealing the beauty of the research process leading to the results.

The Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy organizes each year in the late winter or early spring an advanced course. The format of the school is always iden tical: three leading lecturers are invited to cover the subject in nine or ten lectures each and to deliver a written version of their lecture notes. Lectures are held in the morning and late afternoon, thus leaving ample time for discussion and skiing. These arrangements prove very convivial and lead to an excellent atmosphere in which to learn exciting new subjects and establish contacts with colleagues. A wide variety of people attend the school, including many young students, mostly from Europe, and some experienced researchers. The 20th Advanced Course of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy took place in Les Diablerets from 1 to 6 April 1990. It was devoted to observational and theoretical aspects of active galactic nuclei. The previous advanced courses of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy have regularly taken place in Saas-Fee, a small resort in the Swiss Alps, hence the name "Saas-Fee" used to de scribe the courses and lecture notes. In the last three years, however, the course was organized in Leysin and in Les Diablerets, both also situated in the Swiss Alps."

The IUTAM Symposium on Flow in Collapsible Tubes and Past Other Highly Compliant Boundaries was held on 26-30 March, 2001, at the University of Warwick. As this was the first scientific meeting of its kind we considered it important to mark the occasion by producing a book. Accordingly, at the end of the Symposium the Scientific Committee met to discuss the most appropriate format for the book. We wished to avoid the format of the conventional conference book consisting of a large number of short articles of varying quality. It was agreed that instead we should produce a limited number of rigorously refereed and edited articles by selected participants who would aim to sum up the state of the art in their particular research area. The outcome is the present book. Peter W. Ca rpenter, Warwick Timothy J. Pedley, Cambridge May, 2002. VB SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Co-Chair: P.W. Carpenter, Engineering, Warwiek, UK Co-Chair: TJ. Pedley, DAMTP, Cambridge, UK V.V. Babenko, Hydromechanics, Kiev, Ukraine R. Bannasch, Bionik & Evolutionstechnik, TU Berlin, Germany C.D. Bertram, Biomedical Engineering, New South Wales, Australia M. Gad-el-Hak, Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering, Notre Dame, USA J.B. Grotberg, Biomedical Engineering, Michigan, USA. R.D. Kamm, Mechanical Engineering, MIT, USA Y. Matsuzaki, Aerospace Engineering, N agoya, Japan P.K. Sen, Applied Mechanics, IIT Delhi, India L. van Wijngaarden, Twente, Netherlands K-S. Yeo, Mechanical Engineering, NU Singapore.

Rotation is ubiquitous at each step of stellar evolution, from star formation to the final stages, and it affects the course of evolution, the timescales and nucleosynthesis. Stellar rotation is also an essential prerequisite for the occurrence of Gamma-Ray Bursts.

In this book the author thoroughly examines the basic mechanical and thermal effects of rotation, their influence on mass loss by stellar winds, the effects of differential rotation and its associated instabilities, the relation with magnetic fields and the evolution of the internal and surface rotation. Further, he discusses the numerous observational signatures of rotational effects obtained from spectroscopy and interferometric observations, as well as from chemical abundance determinations, helioseismology and asteroseismology, etc.

On an introductory level, this book presents in a didactical way the basic concepts of stellar structure and evolution in "track 1" chapters. The other more specialized chapters form an advanced course on the graduate level and will further serve as a valuable reference work for professional astrophysicists.

It is well-established that the magnetic fabric of rocks reflects the petrofabrics determined by other means but the magnetic method is very much faster and is many times more sensitive in areas of low strain. This method therefore provides a rapid, cheap and precise way of evaluating the strain evolution and strength of all rock types.

This book describes in detail the current, state-of-the-art numerical treatment and simulation of multiphase flows in porous media. The porous media considered range from ordinary to fractured and deformable media, the models treated from single-phase compressible flow to multiphase multicomponent flow with mass interchange, while the computational algorithms encompass everything from classical iterative solvers to modern multigrid and domain decomposition approaches. Addressing many problems originating from the applied geosciences, the book focuses on their common mathematical and computational aspects. It will serve as an excellent research reference for all geoscientists, mathematicians, physicists, and engineers who work in the mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of multiphase flows in porous media.

A "brain defibrillator" may be closer than we think. An epileptic seizure involves a paroxysmal change in the activity of millions of neurons. Feedback control of seizures would require an implantable device that could predict seizure occurrence and then deliver a stimulus to abort it. To examine the feasibility of building such a device, this text brings together experts in epilepsy, bio-engineering, and dynamical systems theory. Topics include the development of epileptic systems, seizure prediction, neural synchronization, wave phenomena in excitable media, and the control of complex neural dynamics using brief electrical stimuli.

consequences of broken symmetry -here parity-is studied. In this model, turbulence is dominated by a hierarchy of helical (corkscrew) structures. The authors stress the unique features of such pseudo-scalar cascades as well as the extreme nature of the resulting (intermittent) fluctuations. Intermittent turbulent cascades was also the theme of a paper by us in which we show that universality classes exist for continuous cascades (in which an infinite number of cascade steps occur over a finite range of scales). This result is the multiplicative analogue of the familiar central limit theorem for the addition of random variables. Finally, an interesting paper by Pasmanter investigates the scaling associated with anomolous diffusion in a chaotic tidal basin model involving a small number of degrees of freedom. Although the statistical literature is replete with techniques for dealing with those random processes characterized by both exponentially decaying (non-scaling) autocorrelations and exponentially decaying probability distributions, there is a real paucity of literature appropriate for geophysical fields exhibiting either scaling over wide ranges (e. g. algebraic autocorrelations) or extreme fluctuations (e. g. algebraic probabilities, divergence of high order statistical moments). In fact, about the only relevant technique that is regularly used -fourier analysis (energy spectra) -permits only an estimate of a single (power law) exponent. If the fields were mono-fractal (characterized by a single fractal dimension) this would be sufficient, however their generally multifractal character calls for the development of new techniques.

SYNER-G, a multidisciplinary effort funded by the European Union, allowed the development of an innovative methodological framework for the assessment of physical as well as socio-economic seismic vulnerability and risk at urban and regional level. The results of SYNER-G are presented in two books both published by Springer, the present and a second one, entitled SYNER-G: Typology Definition and Fragility Functions for Physical Elements at Seismic Risk: Buildings, Lifelines, Transportation Networks and Critical Facilities (*), which provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art of the fragility curves, an alternative way to express physical vulnerability of elements at risk.

In this second volume of SYNER-G, the focus has been on presenting a unified holistic methodology for assessing vulnerability at systems level considering interactions between elements at risk (physical and non-physical) and between different systems. The proposed methodology and tool encompasses in an integrated fashion all aspects in the chain, from hazard to the vulnerability assessment of components and systems and to the socio-economic impacts of an earthquake, accounting for most relevant uncertainties within an efficient quantitative simulation scheme. It systematically integrates the most advanced fragility functions to assess the vulnerability of physical assets for buildings, utility systems, transportation networks and complex infrastructures such as harbours and hospitals. The increasing impact due to interactionsbetween different components and systems is treated in a comprehensive way, providing specifications for each network and infrastructure. The proposed socio-economic model integrates social vulnerability into the physical systems modelling approaches providing to decision makers with a dynamic platform to capture post disaster emergency issues like shelter demand and health impact decisions.Application examples at city and regional scale have provided the necessary validation of the methodology and are also included in the book.

The present volume, with its companion volume on fragility functions, represent a significant step forward in the seismic vulnerability and risk assessment of complex interacting urban and regional systems and infrastructures. These volumes are not only of interest to scientists and engineers but also to the insurance industry, decision makers and practitioners in the sector of civil protection and seismic risk management.

(*) Pitilakis K, Crowley E, Kaynia A (eds) (2014) SYNER-G: Typology definition and fragility functions for physical elements at seismic risk, Series: Geotechnical, Geological and Earthquake Engineering 27, ISBN 978-94-007-7872-6, Springer Science+Business Media, Dordrecht.

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Boundary layer meteorology is the study of the physical processes that take place in the layer of air that is most influenced by the earth's underlying surface. This text gives an uncomplicated view of the structure of the boundary layer, the instruments available for measuring its mean and turbulent properties, how best to make the measurements, and ways to process and analyse the data. The main applications of the book are in atmospheric modelling, wind engineering, air pollution, and agricultural meteorology. The authors have pioneered research on atmospheric turbulence and flow, and are noted for their contributions to the study of the boundary layer. This important work will interest atmospheric scientists, meteorologists, and students and faculty in these fields.

This book gives an historical perspective of Plate Tectonics. Furthermore, it discusses the foundations of rigid plate tectonics and the limitations of this approach. This classic approach can explain the data to a level of 95 % precision. Some anomalies subsit which must be explained by a more general model. The authors refer to these anomalies: for example discrepancies between spatial geodetical data and rigid kinematics in oceans or rheology significance of fractal dimensions in seismicity and faulting, etc. In this unique book the reader has access to data as well as to interpretations from a broad spectrum of disciplines. Great emphasis is placed on the limitations of the rigid plate tectonics theory of the earth.

At the opening of the "Third Meeting on Celestial Mechanics - CELMEC III", strong sensations hit our minds. The conference (18-22 June 2001) was being held in Villa Mondragone, a beautiful complex of buildings and gardens located within the township of Monte Porzio Catone, on the hills surrounding Rome. A former papal residence, the building has been recently restored by the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" to host academic activities and events. The conference room is called "Salone degli Svizzeri": here, Gregory XIII, on February 24, 1582, gave its sanction to the reform of the Julian calendar and declared officially in use the calendar still adopted nowadays. The magnificent high walls and tall ceiling strongly resounded, giving to our voice a peculiar Vatican sound, which took us by surprise. May be - we thought - a distant echo of the very words of Gregory XIII proclaiming the modem calendar was still haunting the room. Around us, in the audience, many countries were represented, thus indicating that the idea of putting together the three "souls" of modem Celestial Mechanics - perturbation theories, solar and stellar system studies, spaceflight dynamic- had been successful. CELMEC III is in fact the latest of a series of meetings (the first two editions took place in 1993 and 1997 in L' Aquila, Italy) whose aim is to establish a common ground among people working in Celestial Mechanics, yet belonging to different institutions such as universities, astronomical observatories, research institutes, space agencies and industries.

The idea for another conference on the theme of Infrared Astronomy with Arrays actually goes back to March 1987. At a party held in my home at the end of the Hilo conference, excitement was running high and everyone present was in favor of another meeting. I recall suggesting to Al Fowler that the next meeting could be in Tucson. Despite Al's reply to the effect that Hawaii was a much nicer location, a meeting was held in Tucson three years later. That meeting focussed more on the astrophysics which had been accomplished with the detectors, rather than on techniques and methods. However, it was already apparent in February of 1990 that a new generation of larger m arrays would soon supersede the 64x64 class of devices and so, having just moved from the UK Infrared Telescope unit in Hawaii to join with Eric Becklin in his move to UCLA, it seemed to me that another Hilo-style conference was appropriate, and Eric agreed.

This symposium was devoted to a new celestial mechanics whose aim has become the study of such objects' as the planetary system, planetary rings, the asteroidal belt, meteor swarms, satellite systems, comet families, the zodiacal cloud, the preplanetary nebula, etc. When the three-body problem is considered instead of individual orbits we are, now, looking for the topology of extended regions of its phase space. This Symposium was one step in the effort to close the ties between two scientific families: the observationally-oriented scientists and the theoretically-oriented scientists.

This is a comprehensive book, easily accessible to those who have a fairly good knowledge of special relativity and electromagnetic theory. It is ideal for introducing students to the study of gravitation and relativity following a modern presentation.