Approach your problems from the right It isn't that they can't see the solution. It end and begin with the answers. Then, is that they can't see the problem. one day, perhaps you will fmd the final question. G. K. Chesterton, The Scandal of Father Brown 'The Point of a Pin'. 'The Hermit Clad in Crane Feathers' in R. Van Gulik's The Chinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the 'tree' of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of sophistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non-trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geo metry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical progmmming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to fIltering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces."

Series of scalars, vectors, or functions are among the fundamental objects of mathematical analysis. When the arrangement of the terms is fixed, investigating a series amounts to investigating the sequence of its partial sums. In this case the theory of series is a part of the theory of sequences, which deals with their convergence, asymptotic behavior, etc. The specific character of the theory of series manifests itself when one considers rearrangements (permutations) of the terms of a series, which brings combinatorial considerations into the problems studied. The phenomenon that a numerical series can change its sum when the order of its terms is changed is one of the most impressive facts encountered in a university analysis course. The present book is devoted precisely to this aspect of the theory of series whose terms are elements of Banach (as well as other topological linear) spaces. The exposition focuses on two complementary problems. The first is to char acterize those series in a given space that remain convergent (and have the same sum) for any rearrangement of their terms; such series are usually called uncon ditionally convergent. The second problem is, when a series converges only for certain rearrangements of its terms (in other words, converges conditionally), to describe its sum range, i.e., the set of sums of all its convergent rearrangements."

General topology is the domain ofmathematics devoted to the investigation of the concepts of continuity and passage to a limit at their natural level of generality. The most basic concepts of general topology, that of a topological space and a continuous map, were introduced by Hausdorffin 1914. Oneofthecentralproblemsoftopologyisthedeterminationandinvestigation of topological invariants; that is, properties ofspaces which are preserved under homeomorphisms. Topological invariants need not be numbers. Connectedness, compactness, andmetrizability, forexample, arenon-numericaltopologicalinvariants.Dimen sional invariants, on the otherhand, areexamplesofnumericalinvariants which take integervalues on specific topological spaces. Part II ofthis book is devoted to them. Topological invariants which take values in the cardinal numbers play an especially important role, providing the raw material for many useful coin" putations. Weight, density, character, and Suslin number are invariants ofthis type. Certain classes of topological spaces are defined in terms of topological in variants. Particularly important examples include the metrizable spaces, spaces with a countable base, compact spaces, Tikhonov spaces, Polish spaces, Cech complete spaces and the symmetrizable spaces."

This present volume is the Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Near rings and Nearfields held in Hamburg at the Universitiit der Bundeswehr Hamburg, from July 30 to August 06, 1995. This Conference was attended by 70 mathematicians and many accompanying persons who represented 22 different countries from all five continents. Thus it was the largest conference devoted entirely to nearrings and nearfields. The first of these conferences took place in 1968 at the Mathematische For schungsinstitut Oberwolfach, Germany. This was also the site of the conferences in 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1989. The other eight conferences held before the Hamburg Conference took place in eight different countries. For details about this and, more over, for a general historical overview of the development of the subject, we refer to the article "On the beginnings and development of near-ring theory" by G. Betsch [3]. During the last forty years the theory of nearrings and related algebraic struc tures like nearfields, nearmodules, nearalgebras and seminearrings has developed into an extensive branch of algebra with its own features. In its position between group theory and ring theory, this relatively young branch of algebra has not only a close relationship to these two more well-known areas of algebra, but it also has, just as these two theories, very intensive connections to many further branches of mathematics.

Algebraic Geometry and its Applications will be of interest not only to mathematicians but also to computer scientists working on visualization and related topics. The book is based on 32 invited papers presented at a conference in honor of Shreeram Abhyankar's 60th birthday, which was held in June 1990 at Purdue University and attended by many renowned mathematicians (field medalists), computer scientists and engineers. The keynote paper is by G. Birkhoff; other contributors include such leading names in algebraic geometry as R. Hartshorne, J. Heintz, J.I. Igusa, D. Lazard, D. Mumford, and J.-P. Serre.

Intended for a wide range of readers, this book covers the main ideas of convex analysis and approximation theory. The author discusses the sources of these two trends in mathematical analysis, develops the main concepts and results, and mentions some beautiful theorems. The relationship of convex analysis to optimization problems, to the calculus of variations, to optimal control and to geometry is considered, and the evolution of the ideas underlying approximation theory, from its origins to the present day, is discussed. The book is addressed both to students who want to acquaint themselves with these trends and to lecturers in mathematical analysis, optimization and numerical methods, as well as to researchers in these fields who would like to tackle the topic as a whole and seek inspiration for its further development.

Wir unterhielten uns einmal dariiber, daB man sich in einer fremden Sprache nur unfrei ausdriicken kann und im Zweifelsfall lieber das sagt, was man richtig und einwandfrei zu sagen hofft, als das, was man eigentlich sagen will. Molnar nickte bestatigend: "Es ist sehr traurig," resiimierte er. "Ich habe oft mitten im Satz meine Weltanschauung andem miissen . . . " Friedrich Torberg, Die Tante Jolesch The last two decades have witnessed great progress in the theory of translation planes. Being interested in, and having worked a little on this subject, I felt the need to clarify for myself what had been happening in this area of mathematics. Thus I lectured about it for several semesters and, at the same time, I wrote what is now this book. It is my very personal view of the story, which means that I selected mainly those topics I had touched upon in my own investigations. Thus finite translation planes are the main the of the book. Infinite translation planes, however, are not completely disregarded. As all theory aims at the mastering of the examples, these play a central role in this book. I believe that this fact will be welcomed by many people. However, it is not a beginner's book of geometry. It presupposes consider able knowledge of projective planes and algebra, especially group theory. The books by Gorenstein, Hughes and Piper, Huppert, Passman, and Pickert mentioned in the bibliography will help to fill any gaps the reader may have."

The two-volume set LNCS 6468-6469 contains the carefully selected and reviewed papers presented at the eight workshops that were held in conjunction with the 10th Asian Conference on Computer Vision, in Queenstown, New Zealand, in November 2010.From a total of 167 submissions to all workshops, 89 papers were selected for publication. The contributions are grouped together according to the main workshops topics, which were: computational photography and aesthetics; computer vision in vehicle technology: from Earth to Mars; electronic cultural heritage; subspace based methods; video event categorization, tagging and retrieval; visual surveillance; application of computer vision for mixed and augmented reality.

Transformation Geometry: An Introduction to Symmetry offers a modern approach to Euclidean Geometry. This study of the automorphism groups of the plane and space gives the classical concrete examples that serve as a meaningful preparation for the standard undergraduate course in abstract algebra. The detailed development of the isometries of the plane is based on only the most elementary geometry and is appropriate for graduate courses for secondary teachers.

Supersymmetry was created by the physicists in the 1970's to give a unified treatment of fermions and bosons, the basic constituents of matter. Since then its mathematical structure has been recognized as that of a new development in geometry, and mathematicians have busied themselves with exploring this aspect. This volume collects recent advances in this field, both from a physical and a mathematical point of view, with an accent on a rigorous treatment of the various questions raised.

Intercropping is a method of sustaining or improving soil structure by growing two or more crops on the same field. It is a technique of wide application and of growing importance for both commercial and subsistence farmers. This textbook provides a comprehensive survey of the design and analysis of intercropping experiments. Its main themes are that techniques such as relative indices make it possible to cover a wide variety of conditions, and that statistical models for density-yield relations enable recommendations to be made to growers of crops. As a result, graduate students and researchers in statistics, biometry, and agriculture whose study involves intercropping will find this an invaluable text and reference.

The present essay stems from a history of polyhedra from 1750 to 1866 written several years ago (as part of a more general work, not published). So many contradictory statements regarding a Descartes manuscript and Euler, by various mathematicians and historians of mathematics, were encountered that it was decided to write a separate study of the relevant part of the Descartes manuscript on polyhedra. The contemplated short paper grew in size, as only a detailed treatment could be of any value. After it was completed it became evident that the entire manuscript should be treated and the work grew some more. The result presented here is, I hope, a complete, accurate, and fair treatment of the entire manuscript. While some views and conclusions are expressed, this is only done with the facts before the reader, who may draw his or her own conclusions. I would like to express my appreciation to Professors H. S. M. Coxeter, Branko Griinbaum, Morris Kline, and Dr. Heinz-Jiirgen Hess for reading the manuscript and for their encouragement and suggestions. I am especially indebted to Dr. Hess, of the Leibniz-Archiv, for his assistance in connection with the manuscript. I have been greatly helped in preparing the translation ofthe manuscript by the collaboration of a Latin scholar, Mr. Alfredo DeBarbieri. The aid of librarians is indispensable, and I am indebted to a number of them, in this country and abroad, for locating material and supplying copies.

Reflection groups and their invariant theory provide the main themes of this book and the first two parts focus on these topics. The first 13 chapters deal with reflection groups (Coxeter groups and Weyl groups) in Euclidean Space while the next thirteen chapters study the invariant theory of pseudo-reflection groups. The third part of the book studies conjugacy classes of the elements in reflection and pseudo-reflection groups. The book has evolved from various graduate courses given by the author over the past 10 years. It is intended to be a graduate text, accessible to students with a basic background in algebra.

One service mathematics has rendered the 'Et moi, ..., si j'avait su comment en revenir, human race. It has put common sense back je n'y serais point alle.' where it belongs, on the topmost shelf next Jules Verne to the dusty canister labelled 'discarded non sense'. The series is divergent; therefore we may be Eric 1'. Bell able to do something with it. O. Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered com puter science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'etre of this series."

It is very tempting but a little bit dangerous to compare the style of two great mathematicians or of their schools. I think that it would be better to compare papers from both schools dedicated to one area, geometry and to leave conclusions to a reader of this volume. The collaboration of these two schools is not new. One of the best mathematics journals Functional Analysis and its Applications had I.M. Gelfand as its chief editor and V.I. Arnold as vice-chief editor. Appearances in one issue of the journal presenting remarkable papers from seminars of Arnold and Gelfand always left a strong impact on all of mathematics. We hope that this volume will have a similar impact. Papers from Arnold's seminar are devoted to three important directions developed by his school: Symplectic Geometry (F. Lalonde and D. McDuff), Theory of Singularities and its applications (F. Aicardi, I. Bogaevski, M. Kazarian), Geometry of Curves and Manifolds (S. Anisov, V. Chekanov, L. Guieu, E. Mourre and V. Ovsienko, S. Gusein-Zade and S. Natanzon). A little bit outside of these areas is a very interesting paper by M. Karoubi Produit cyclique d'espaces et operations de Steenrod.

Along with many small improvements, this revised edition contains van Yzeren's new proof of Pascal's theorem ( 1.7) and, in Chapter 2, an improved treatment of order and sense. The Sylvester-Gallai theorem, instead of being introduced as a curiosity, is now used as an essential step in the theory of harmonic separation ( 3.34). This makes the logi cal development self-contained: the footnotes involving the References (pp. 214-216) are for comparison with earlier treatments, and to give credit where it is due, not to fill gaps in the argument. H.S.M.C. November 1992 v Preface to the Second Edition Why should one study the real plane? To this question, put by those who advocate the complex plane, or geometry over a general field, I would reply that the real plane is an easy first step. Most of the prop erties are closely analogous, and the real field has the advantage of intuitive accessibility. Moreover, real geometry is exactly what is needed for the projective approach to non. Euclidean geometry. Instead of introducing the affine and Euclidean metrics as in Chapters 8 and 9, we could just as well take the locus of 'points at infinity' to be a conic, or replace the absolute involution by an absolute polarity."

The seventh book of Pappus's Collection, his commentary on the Domain (or Treasury) of Analysis, figures prominently in the history of both ancient and modern mathematics: as our chief source of information concerning several lost works of the Greek geometers Euclid and Apollonius, and as a book that inspired later mathematicians, among them Viete, Newton, and Chasles, to original discoveries in their pursuit of the lost science of antiquity. This presentation of it is concerned solely with recovering what can be learned from Pappus about Greek mathematics. The main part of it comprises a new edition of Book 7; a literal translation; and a commentary on textual, historical, and mathematical aspects of the book. It proved to be convenient to divide the commentary into two parts, the notes to the text and translation, and essays about the lost works that Pappus discusses. The first function of an edition of this kind is, not to expose new discoveries, but to present a reliable text and organize the accumulated knowledge about it for the reader's convenience. Nevertheless there are novelties here. The text is based on a fresh transcription of Vat. gr. 218, the archetype of all extant manuscripts, and in it I have adopted numerous readings, on manuscript authority or by emendation, that differ from those of the old edition of Hultsch. Moreover, many difficult parts of the work have received little or no commentary hitherto.

This monograph extends this approach to the more general investigation of X-lattices, and these "tree lattices" are the main object of study. The authors present a coherent survey of the results on uniform tree lattices, and a (previously unpublished) development of the theory of non-uniform tree lattices, including some fundamental and recently proved existence theorems. Tree Lattices should be a helpful resource to researchers in the field, and may also be used for a graduate course on geometric methods in group theory.

The two-volume set LNCS 6468-6469 contains the carefully selected and reviewed papers presented at the eight workshops that were held in conjunction with the 10th Asian Conference on Computer Vision, in Queenstown, New Zealand, in November 2010.From a total of 167 submissions to all workshops, 89 papers were selected for publication. The contributions are grouped together according to the main workshops topics, which were: computational photography and aesthetics; computer vision in vehicle technology: from Earth to Mars; electronic cultural heritage; subspace based methods; video event categorization, tagging and retrieval; visual surveillance; application of computer vision for mixed and augmented reality.

In July 1996, a conference was organized by the editors of this volume at the Mathematische Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach to honour Egbert Brieskorn on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Most of the mathematicians invited to the conference have been influenced in one way or another by Brieskorn's work in singularity theory. It was the first time that so many people from the Russian school could be present at a conference in singularity theory outside Russia. This volume contains papers on singularity theory and its applications, written by participants of the conference. In many cases, they are extended versions of the talks presented there. The diversity of subjects of the contributions reflects singularity theory's relevance to topology, analysis and geometry, combining ideas and techniques from all of these fields, as well as demonstrating the breadth of Brieskorn's own interests. This volume contains papers on singularity theory and its applications, written by participants of the conference. In many cases, they are extended versions of the talks presented there. The diversity of subjects of the contributions reflects singularity theory's relevance to topology, analysis and geometry, combining ideas and techniques from all of these fields, as well as demonstrates the breadth of Brieskorn's own interests.

A flexagon is a motion structure that has the appearance of a ring of hinged polygons. It can be flexed to display different pairs of faces, usually in cyclic order. Flexagons can be appreciated as toys or puzzles, as a recreational mathematics topic, and as the subject of serious mathematical study. Workable paper models of flexagons are easy to make and entertaining to manipulate. The mathematics of flexagons is complex, and how a flexagon works is not immediately obvious on examination of a paper model. Recent geometric analysis, included in the book, has improved theoretical understanding of flexagons, especially relationships between different types.

This profusely illustrated book is arranged in a logical order appropriate for a textbook on the geometry of flexagons. It is written so that it can be enjoyed at both the recreational mathematics level, and at the serious mathematics level. The only prerequisite is some knowledge of elementary geometry, including properties of polygons. A feature of the book is a compendium of over 100 nets for making paper models of some of the more interesting flexagons, chosen to complement the text. These are accurately drawn and reproduced at half full size. Many of the nets have not previously been published. Instructions for assembling and manipulating the flexagons are included.

These notes, based on lectures delivered in Saint Flour, provide an easy introduction to the authors' 2007 Springer monograph "Random Fields and Geometry." While not as exhaustive as the full monograph, they are also less exhausting, while still covering the basic material, typically at a more intuitive and less technical level. They also cover some more recent material relating to random algebraic topology and statistical applications. The notes include an introduction to the general theory of Gaussian random fields, treating classical topics such as continuity and boundedness. This is followed by a quick review of geometry, both integral and Riemannian, with an emphasis on tube formulae, to provide the reader with the material needed to understand and use the Gaussian kinematic formula, the main result of the notes. This is followed by chapters on topological inference and random algebraic topology, both of which provide applications of the main results.

The study of geometric discrepancy, which provides a framework for quantifying the quality of a distribution of a finite set of points, has experienced significant growth in recent decades. This book provides a self-contained course in number theory, Fourier analysis and geometric discrepancy theory, and the relations between them, at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. It starts as a traditional course in elementary number theory, and introduces the reader to subsequent material on uniform distribution of infinite sequences, and discrepancy of finite sequences. Both modern and classical aspects of the theory are discussed, such as Weyl's criterion, Benford's law, the Koksma Hlawka inequality, lattice point problems, and irregularities of distribution for convex bodies. Fourier analysis also features prominently, for which the theory is developed in parallel, including topics such as convergence of Fourier series, one-sided trigonometric approximation, the Poisson summation formula, exponential sums, decay of Fourier transforms, and Bessel functions."

Reprint from GAFA, Vol. 5 (1995), No. 2. Enlarged by a short biography of Mikhail Gromov and a list of publications. In the last decades of the XX century tremendous progress has been achieved in geometry. The discovery of deep interrelations between geometry and other fields including algebra, analysis and topology has pushed it into the mainstream of modern mathematics. This Special Issue of Geometric And Functional Analysis (GAFA) in honour of Mikhail Gromov contains 14 papers which give a wide panorama of recent fundamental developments in modern geometry and its related subjects. CONTRIBUTORS: J. Bourgain, J. Cheeger, J. Cogdell, A. Connes, Y. Eliashberg, H. Hofer, F. Lalonde, W. Luo, G. Margulis, D. McDuff, H. Moscovici, G. Mostow, S. Novikov, G. Perelman, I. Piatetski-Shapiro, G. Pisier, X. Rong, Z. Rudnick, D. Salamon, P. Sarnak, R. Schoen, M. Shubin, K. Wysocki, and E. Zehnder. The book is a collection of important results and an enduring source of new ideas for researchers and students in a broad spectrum of directions related to all aspects of Geometry and its applications to Functional Analysis, PDE, Analytic Number Theory and Physics.