The thesis represents the development of an entirely new experimental platform for generating and studying converging radiative shock waves. It was discovered that the application of large magnetic pressures to gas-filled cylindrical metallic tubes could sequentially produce three shocks within the gas. A comprehensive set of instrumentation was devised to explore this system in detail and an exceptionally thorough experimental and theoretical study was carried out in order to understand the source of the shock waves and their dynamics. The research is directed towards some of the most interesting topics in high energy density physics (HEDP) today, namely the interaction of HED material with radiation and magnetic fields, with broad applications to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and laboratory plasma astrophysics. The work has already generated significant international interest in these two distinct research areas and the results could have significant importance for magnetic ICF concepts being explored at Sandia National Laboratories in the US and for our understanding of the very strong shock waves that are ubiquitous in astrophysics.

This first volume in the treatise on the Physics of Lakes deals with the formulation of the mathematical and physical background. A large number of lakes on Earth are described, presenting their morphology as well as the causes of their response to the driving environment. Because the physics of lakes cannot be described without the language used in mathematics, these subjects are introduced first by using the simplest approach and with utmost care, assuming only a limited college knowledge of classical Newtonian physics, and continues with increasing complexity and elegance, starting with the fundamental equations of Lake Hydrodynamics in the form of 'primitive equations' and leading to a detailed treatment of angular momentum and vorticity. Following the presentation of these fundamentals turbulence modeling is introduced with Reynolds, Favre and other non-ergodic filters. The derivation of averaged field equations is presented with different closure schemes, including the k- model for a Boussinesq fluid and early anisotropic closure schemes. This is followed by expositions of surface gravity waves without rotation and an analysis of the role played by the distribution of mass within water bodies on the Earth, leading to a study of internal waves. The vertical structure of wind-induced currents in homogeneous and stratified waters and the Ekman theory and some of its extensions close this first volume of Physics of Lakes. The last chapter collects formulas for the phenomenological coefficients of water.

This book takes the reader for a short journey over the structures of matter showing that their main properties can be obtained even at a quantitative level with a minimum background knowledge including, besides first year calculus and physics, the extensive use of dimensional analysis and the three cornerstones of science, namely the atomic idea, the wave-particle duality and the minimization of energy as the condition for equilibrium. Dimensional analysis employing the universal physical constants and combined with "a little imagination and thinking", to quote Feynman, allow an amazing short-cut derivation of several quantitative results concerning the structures of matter. In the current 2nd edition, new material and more explanations with more detailed derivations were added to make the book more student-friendly. Many multiple-choice questions with the correct answers at the end of the book, solved and unsolved problems make the book also suitable as a textbook. This book is of interest to students of physics, engineering and other science and to researchers in physics, material science, chemistry and engineering who may find stimulating the alternative derivation of several real world results which sometimes seem to pop out the magician's hat.

DNA replication is arguably the most crucial process at work in living cells. It is the mechanism by which organisms pass their genetic information from one generation to the next and life on Earth would be unthinkable without it. Despite the discovery of DNA structure in the 1950s, the mechanism of its replication remains rather elusive. This work makes important contributions to this line of research. In particular, it addresses two key questions in the area of DNA replication: which evolutionary forces drive the positioning of replication origins in the chromosome and how is the spatial organization of replication factories achieved inside the nucleus of a cell?. A cross-disciplinary approach uniting physics and biology is at the heart of this research. Along with experimental support, statistical physics theory produces optimal origin positions and provides a model for replication fork assembly in yeast. Advances made here can potentially further our understanding of disease mechanisms such as the abnormal replication in cancer.

This edited volume describes many aspects of current research on solar flares, emphasizing recent progress in understanding their X-ray and gamma-ray emissions. Several of the chapters deal comprehensively with the problems of particle acceleration, conversion of particle energy into various forms of radiation, and the inference of physical processes from observations. Other chapters deal with the full breadth and richness of flare observations, including microflares and nanoflares.
This volume is aimed at graduate students and researchers in solar physics and space science.
Previously published in Space Science Reviews journal, Vol. 159/1-4, 2011.

In early April 1911 Albert Einstein arrived in Prague to become full professor of theoretical physics at the German part of Charles University. It was there, for the first time, that he concentrated primarily on the problem of gravitation. Before he left Prague in July 1912 he had submitted the paper Relativitat und Gravitation: Erwiderung auf eine Bemerkung von M. Abraham in which he remarkably anticipated what a future theory of gravity should look like.

At the occasion of the Einstein-in-Prague centenary an international meeting was organized under a title inspired by Einstein's last paper from the Prague period: "Relativity and Gravitation, 100 Years after Einstein in Prague." The main topics of the conference included: classical relativity, numerical relativity, relativistic astrophysics and cosmology, quantum gravity, experimental aspects of gravitation and conceptual and historical issues.

The conference attracted over 200 scientists from 31 countries, among them a number of leading experts in the field of general relativity and its applications. This volume includes abstracts of the plenary talks and full texts of contributed talks and articles based on the posters presented at the conference. These describe primarily original results of the authors. Full texts of the plenary talks are included in the volume "General Relativity, Cosmology and Astrophysics--Perspectives 100 Years after Einstein in Prague," eds. J. Bi ak and T. Ledvinka, published also by Springer Verlag."

"Potential Theory in Applied Geophysics" introduces the principles of gravitational, magnetic, electrostatic, direct current electrical and electromagnetic fields, with detailed solutions of Laplace and electromagnetic wave equations by the method of separation of variables. Behaviour of the scalar and vector potential and the nature of the solutions of these boundary value problems are shown along with the use of complex variables and conformal transformation, Green's theorem, Green's functions and its use in integral equation. Finite element and finite difference methods for two-dimensional potential problems are discussed in considerable detail. The analytical continuation of the potential field and inverse theory, used for the interpretation of potential field data, are also demonstrated.

Here, the authors present modern mathematical methods to solve problems of differential-operator inclusions and evolution variation inequalities which may occur in fields such as geophysics, aerohydrodynamics, or fluid dynamics. For the first time, they describe the detailed generalization of various approaches to the analysis of fundamentally nonlinear models and provide a toolbox of mathematical equations. These new mathematical methods can be applied to a broad spectrum of problems. Examples of these are phase changes, diffusion of electromagnetic, acoustic, vibro-, hydro- and seismoacoustic waves, or quantum mechanical effects. This is the second of two volumes dealing with the subject.

The goal of the project presented in this book is to detect neutrinos created by resonant interactions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays on the CMB photon field filling the Universe. In this pioneering first analysis, the author puts forward much of the analysis framework, including calibrations of the electronic hardware and antenna geometry, as well as the development of algorithms for event reconstruction and data reduction. While only two of the 37 stations planned for the Askaryan Radio Array were used in this assessment of 10 months of data, the analysis was able to exclude neutrino fluxes above 10 PeV with a limit not far from the best current limit set by the IceCube detector, a result which establishes the radio detection technique as the path forward to achieving the massive volumes needed to detect these ultrahigh energy neutrinos.

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it. BenjaminDisraeli Cryobiologyisatruemultidisciplinaryscienceinvolvingconceptsfrombiology, medicine, and physics. Its ?eld comprises the study of any biologicalobject or system (e. g. , proteins, cells, tissues, organs, or organisms) under the temp- atures below the normal (ranging from hypothermic conditions to cryogenic temperatures): cold-adaptation of organisms; cryoconservation of biological objects; conservation of organs under hypothermic conditions; lyophilization; cryosurgery. Origins of cryobiology could be traced down to ancient Eg- tians; probably the ?rst scienti?c account of this science is the monograph by Sir Robert Boyle "New Experiments and Observations Touching Cold" (London, 1683). Twentieth century witnessed a rapid development of cryo- ologyrelatedtotheprogressofthecryogenicequipment(closedsystemsbased on liquid nitrogen, Joule-Tohomson cooling with mixed gases, etc. ), devel- ments of monitoring techniques, extension of the list of diseases that have been successfully treated by cryomedicine, and consolidation of research by foundation (simultaneously in 1964) of two major scienti?c societies in this ? eld - The Society for Cryobiology and The Society for Low Temperature Biology. There are a lot of good books on cryobiologythat can be divided into two groups: (1) the ones that treat the whole ?eld of cryobiology - these ones are somewhatout-of-dateand(2)thebooksonspeci?capplicationsofcryobiology such as cryosurgery or cryoconservation.

Proceedings from the 2012 Fourth International Meeting on Gravitation and Cosmology, focusing on accelerated cosmic expansion

This volume provides both an update and a review of the state of alternative theories of gravity in connection with the accelerated expansion of the universe issue. Different theoretical proposals exist to explain the acceleration in the cosmic expansion, generating the dark energy issue and opening the possibility to theories of gravity alternative to general relativity. Related issues such as the dark matter problem are also surveyed in order to give the readers profound insight on the subject from different points of view. Comprised of short talks and plenary lectures given by leading experts in the field, some of them with brilliant and historic contributions, the book allows the reader to find readable and referenced surveys in topics like f(R) theories, the dark matter and dark energy issues, Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) scenarios, f(T) theories, scalar-tensor theories derived from non-Riemannian geometries, emergent universes, the cosmological constant and other topics of current interest for younger and senior physicists and graduate students.

These proceedings are from the Fourth International Meeting on Gravitation and Cosmology, held in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, from 20 - 25 May, 2012, was sponsored by ICTP- Trieste, Italy and COECyTJAL-Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico. This event is a series of scientific meetings started in 2004 in Cuba, focusing on current and selected topics in the fields of gravitation and cosmology."

This book brings together contributions from groundwater researchers and scientists on underground water resources in Egypt's deserts. The aquifers' quantity and quality are evaluated in many regions of the Egyptian deserts using established methods that can be effectively employed to investigate the potential for sustainable development in Egypt and similarly arid countries. The water resources in Egypt's deserts are subject to deterioration, mainly by land salinization and water deficiency. This book presents the best management practices, water quantity and quality, and optimal and sustainable usage of available groundwater. The book offers a unique guide for all readers interested in groundwater, modeling, and assessment for sustainable development in Egypt and countries with similar weather and water conditions.

To understand the global warming mechanism, global mapping of primary production was carried out under the GCMAPS program. The program was concerned with marine and terrestrial environmental changes, which affect carbon cycle on the regional and global scales. On the regional scale, warm phase of ENSO (El Nino / Southern Oscillation) has been shown to affect economic activities in many countries. The keyword for understanding mechanism of global warming is primary productivity . The earth observation satellites (EOS) like the ADEOS of Japan, and the SeaWiFS, Sea Star and Terra of the U.S.A. provided much required data for modeling and verification of primary production estimates on both land and ocean.
The knowledge gained during the GCMAPS program has been documented in this book. Interpretation of the data suggests that global warming, which causes temperature and sea level rise, and changes in climate and ecosystems, is likely to have the largest influence on mankind. The first half of this book discuss changes in marine environments. Physical and chemical oceanographic properties of the equatorial Pacific and Indian Oceans are presented. Changes in partial pressure of carbon dioxide, flux and composition of settling particles and biological communities in the surface ocean have also been discussed. In addition to this, over hundred years of environmental records based upon coral skeletons are presented. Estimations of primary production and its utilization in validating satellite imagery data were conducted in the western North Pacific. Primary productivity estimates based upon the validated satellite imagery are presented on the global scale. Climate change modeling of primary production in global oceans is also presented.
The latter half of this book deals with changes in terrestrial environments. Primary productivity estimates for different types of ecosystems (e.g., forest, grassland) are presented together with soil carbon dynamics. Also, biomass and productivity estimation and environmental monitoring based upon remote sensing techniques are presented with a model analysis of the relationship between climate perturbations and carbon budget anomalies in global terrestrial ecosystems. This book elucidates integrated aspects of the global carbon cycle involving marine and terrestrial environments.
* Discusses a current understanding of the biogeochemical processes on land and ocean
* Provides global mapping of primary production based on satellite imagery data and modeling
* Presents the latest interpretations of relationships between carbon cycle and climatic change"

This book presents a systematic attempt to generalize several fundamental physical laws related to subsurface fluid flow that are important for a number of contemporary applications in the areas of hydrogeology, reservoir engineering and rock mechanics. It also covers the history of discovering these physical laws, their respective scope of validity, and their generalizations or extensions. The physical laws discussed include Darcy's law, Darcy-Buckingham law and Hooke's law. Darcy's law is the fundamental law for subsurface fluid flow. For low-permeability media, it is not always adequate because of the strong fluid-solid interaction. Though the Darcy-Buckingham law is often used for modeling subsurface multiphase flow, it is only valid under the local equilibrium condition. This condition does not hold in many cases, especially when fingering flow occurs. It is well known that subsurface fluid flow is coupled with mechanical deformation of subsurface media; in some applications, this coupling can play a dominant role. The continuum-scale elastic deformation of natural rock, however, does not always follow the traditional form of Hooke's law. The book also presents applications of the proposed generalizations of the physical laws to several important engineering projects.

This exhaustive work sheds new light on unsolved questions in gamma-ray astrophysics. It presents not only a complete introduction to the non-thermal Universe, but also a description of the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov technique and the MAGIC telescopes. The Fermi-LAT satellite and the HAWC Observatory are also described, as results from both are included. The physics section of the book is divided into microquasars and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), and includes extended overviews of both. In turn, the book discusses constraints on particle acceleration and gamma-ray production in microquasar jets, based on the analyses of MAGIC data on Cygnus X-1, Cygnus X-3 and V404 Cygni. Moreover, it presents the discovery of high-energy gamma-ray emissions from Cygnus X-1, using Fermi-LAT data. The book includes the first joint work between MAGIC, Fermi-LAT and HAWC, and discusses the hypothetical PWN nature of the targets in depth. It reports on a PWN population study that discusses, for the first time, the importance of the surrounding medium for gamma-ray production, and in closing presents technical work on the first Large-Size-Telescope (LST; CTA Collaboration), along with a complete description of the camera.

In recent years, the increased availability and fidelity of broadband seismic instruments have effectively narrowed the gap between exploration and global seismic applications. Global seismologists are now able to take advantage of high-resolution, often exploration-based, tools to examine rock properties tens to hundreds of kilometers below surface. This book reviews the key assumptions, algorithms and prospects of several important array-based methods in today s global and regional seismic surveys. A short list of topics includes data migration, PP and SS precursors, Radon transform, mantle triplication, P-to-S and S-to-P converted waves, shear-wave splitting, high-resolution seismic tomography, and ambient-noise interferometry. Each approach is presented in a cookbook fashion for easy comparison, implementation and critique by the general readership."

Fluorescent proteins are intimately connected to research in the life sciences. Tagging of gene products with fluorescent proteins has revolutionized all areas of biosciences, ranging from fundamental biochemistry to clinical oncology, to environmental research. The discovery of the Green Fluorescent Protein, its first, seminal application and the ingenious development of a broad palette of fluorescence proteins of other colours, was consequently recognised with the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2008.

"Fluorescent Proteins I" is devoted to the basic photophysical and photochemical aspects of fluorescent protein technology. Experienced experts highlight colour tuning, the exploration of switching phenomena and respective methods for their investigation. The book provides a thorough understanding of primary molecular processes allowing the design of fluorescent proteins for specific applications.

The years 2012/2013 mark the 50th anniversary of the theoretical prediction that Brown Dwarfs, i.e. degenerate objects which are just not massive enough to sustain stable hydrogen fusion, exist. Some 20 years after their discovery, how Brown Dwarfs form is still one of the main open questions in the theory of star formation. In this volume, the pioneers of Brown Dwarf research review the history of the theoretical prediction and the subsequent discovery of Brown Dwarfs. After an introduction, written by Viki Joergens, reviewing Shiv Kumar's theoretical prediction of the existence of brown dwarfs, Takenori Nakano reviews his and Hayashi's calculation of the Hydrogen Burning Minimum Mass. Both predictions happened in the early 1960s. Jill Tarter then writes on the introduction of the term 'Brown Dwarf', before Ben Oppenheimer, Rafael Rebolo and Gibor Basri describe their first discovery of Brown Dwarfs in the 1990s. Lastly, Michael Cushing and Isabelle Baraffe describe the development of the field to the current state of the art. While the book is mainly aimed at the Brown Dwarf research community, the description of the pioneering period in a scientific field will attract general readers interested in astronomy as well.

Several of the very foundations of the cosmological standard model the baryon asymmetry of the universe, dark matter, and the origin of the hot big bang itself still call for an explanation from the perspective of fundamental physics. This workadvocates one intriguing possibility for a consistent cosmology that fills in the theoretical gaps while being fully in accordance with the observational data. At very high energies, the universe might have been in a false vacuum state that preserved B-L, the difference between the baryon number B and the lepton number L as a local symmetry. In this state, the universe experienced a stage of hybrid inflation that only ended when the false vacuum became unstable and decayed, in the course of a waterfall transition, into a phase with spontaneously broken B-L symmetry. This B-L Phase Transition was accompanied by tachyonic preheating that transferred almost the entire energy of the false vacuum into a gas of B-L Higgs bosons, which in turn decayed into heavy Majorana neutrinos. Eventually, these neutrinos decayed into massless radiation, thereby producing the entropy of the hot big bang, generating the baryon asymmetry of the universe via the leptogenesis mechanism and setting the stage for the production of dark matter. Next to a variety of conceptual novelties and phenomenological predictions, the main achievement of the thesis is hence the fascinating notion that the leading role in the first act of our universe might have actually been played by neutrinos.
"

The space between the stars contains a large diversity of objects in which physical processes occur that are fundamental to the structure and evolution of galaxies. This book offers the reader a basic knowledge of these processes and presents simple numeric estimates of the main quantities relevant to the interstellar medium. The main objects that constitute the interstellar space are described, but the emphasis of the book lies in the physical processes occurring in these objects, which may also occur in other astrophysical environments. The book is directed tor graduate as well as advanced undergraduate students of physics and astrophysics.

It is now well established that all living systems emit a weak but permanent photon flux in the visible and ultraviolet range. This biophoton emission is correlated with many, if not all, biological and physiological functions. There are indications of a hitherto-overlooked information channel within the living system. Biophotons may trigger chemical reactivity in cells, growth control, differentiation and intercellular communication, i.e. biological rhythms. The basic experimental and theoretical framework as well as the technical problems and the wide field of applications in the biotechnical, biomedical engineering, engineering, medicine, pharmacology, environmental science and basic science fields are presented in this book. To promote the dialog and mutual penetration between biophoton research and photon technology is one of the important goals for the International Conference on Biophotons & Biophotonics 2003, and is developed and presented in Biophotonics: Optical Science and Engineering in the 21st Century.

Disulfide-containing proteins belong to a unique class of proteins for studying the mechanism of protein folding. Their folding mechanism can be analyzed by three distinct techniques: (1) The conventional denaturation-renaturation method (disulfide intact); (2) The disulfide oxidation method (oxidative folding); and (3) The emerging disulfide scrambling method. Each technique provides specific information as to how an unfolded disulfide protein refolds to form the native structure. This book is intended to highlight the knowledge of several important proteins (BPTI, RNase A, beta-Lactalbumin and Lysozyme etc.) that have been characterized in depth by these methodologies. The book will also devote sections to comparing these methodologies and chaperones (PDI and Dsb machineries) that facilitate folding of disulfide proteins. Folding of Disulfide Proteins aims to cover the knowledge of protein folding accumulated from studies of disulfide-containing proteins, including methodologies, folding pathways, and folding mechanism of numerous extensively characterized disulfide proteins. This book will be of interest to those interested in problems related to protein folding, and anyone who is interested in understanding the mechanism of protein misfolding and protein misfolding-related diseases. Folding of Disulfide Proteins aims to cover the knowledge of protein folding accumulated from studies of disulfide-containing proteins, including methodologies, folding pathways, and folding mechanism of numerous extensively characterized disulfide proteins. This book will be of interest to those interested in problems related to protein folding, and anyone who is interested in understanding the mechanism of protein misfolding and protein misfolding-related diseases.

This volume provides a comprehensive selection of recent studies addressing insect hearing and acoustic communication. The variety of signalling behaviours and hearing organs makes insects highly suitable animals for exploring and analysing signal generation and hearing in the context of neural processing, ecology, evolution and genetics. Across a variety of hearing species like moths, crickets, bush-crickets, grasshoppers, cicadas and flies, the leading researchers in the field cover recent scientific progress and address key points in current research, such as:

. How can we approach the evolution of hearing in insects and what is the developmental and neural origin of the auditory organs?

. How are hearing and sound production embedded in the natural lifestyle of the animals, allowing intraspecific communication but also predator avoidance and even predation?

. What are the functional properties of hearing organs and how are they achieved at the molecular, biophysical and neural levels?

. What are the neural mechanisms of central auditory processing and signal generation?

The book is intended for students and researchers both inside and outside of the fascinating field of bioacoustics and aims to foster understanding of hearing and acoustic communication in insects."

Working in mathematical oncology is a slow and difficult process, requiring the acquisition of a special mindset that goes well beyond the usual applications of mathematics and physics. "Mathematical Oncology 2013" presents the most significant recent results in the field of mathematical oncology, highlighting the work of world-class research teams. This innovative volume emphasizes the way different researchers see and approach problems, not just technical results. It covers many of the most important topics related to the mathematical modeling of tumors, including: Free boundaries. Tumors are growing entities, as such their spatial mean field description involves free boundary problems.Constitutive equations. Tumors should be described as nontrivial porous media.Stochastic dynamics. At the end of anti-cancer therapy, a small number of cells remain, whose dynamics is thus inherently stochastic.Noise-induced state transitions. The growth parameters of macroscopic tumors are non-constant, as are the parameters of anti-tumor therapies. This may induce phenomena that are mathematically equivalent to phase transitions.Stochastic and fractal geometry. Tumor vascular growth is self-similar.

The intended audience consists of graduate students and researchers in the fields biomathematics, computational and theoretical biology, biophysics and bioengineering, where the phenomenon tumor is acquiring the same relevance as in modern molecular biology."