Local and global spatial coupling mechanisms form the basis of transport processes that are of fundamental importance for the occurrence and the dynamic evolution of patterns on a mesoscopic and macroscopic scale. The present volume deals with these concepts and investigates applications in the fields of biophysics and chemistry.

Some newly discovered effects lose their glamor after a short period of euphoria. Others, however, retain their fascination for a long time and, even as they mature, display unexpected features. The Mossbauer effect belongs to the second category. Rudolf Mossbauer's discovery of recoilless gamma-ray emission in 1957 immediately caused a flurry of attention, and confirming work appeared almost at once. Since then the flow of publications has steadily increased. Most studies follow predict abl e paths; the essential aspects of these "conventional" experiments have been described in the first volume of the present work (Mossbauer Spectroscopy, Topics in Applied Physics, Vol. 5). These straightforward investigations have not, however, exhausted the field, boredom has not set in, and unexpected applications continue to appear. In the present volume, Uli Gonser has collected contributions that display the "exotic" side of the Mossbauer effect. They range from a masterly de scription of the red-shift experiment to a clear exposition of a powerful solution to the old and painful phase problem in crystallography. Each of the contributions exhibits a different side of recoilless gamma-ray emission. Together they show that the field is very much alive and continues to delight us with elegant solutions to old problems, unanticipated glimpses at new phenomena, clever uses of new technical possibilities, and ingenious applications to fields far away from physics. I believe that novel features of the Mossbauer effect will continue to appear and that new applications will still be found."

For the first time this subject, including many systems of interest in Condensed Matter Physics, is treated in an unified way. Complexity emerges as one of the main ingredients dictating the collective behaviour of many systems. Glassy systems constitute one of the most interesting fields of Condensed Matter Physics for which also a considerable amount of experimental data and industial applications have been collected during the last twenty years. Systems exhibiting glassy behaviour are for example: real glasses, spin glasses, vortex flasses in superconductors, protein folding, etc. In this book the reader can see how the present theoretical understanding of these subjects is based on similar techniques and approaches hopefully allowing to develop a unifying structure that underlies the physical mechanism.

T. Wichtmann, T. Triantafyllidis: Behaviour of granular soils under environmentally induced cyclic loads. - D. Muir Wood: Constitutive modelling. - C. di Prisco: Creep versus transient loading effects in geotechnical problems. - M. Pastor et al.: Mathematical models for transient, dynamic and cyclic problems in geotechnical engineering. - M. Pastor: Discretization techniques for transient, dynamics and cyclic problems in geotechnical engineering: first order hyperbolic partial diffential equations. - M. Pastor et l.: Discretization techniques for transient, dynamic and cyclic problems in geotechnical engineering: second order equation. - C. di Prisco: Cyclic mechanical response of rigid bodies interacting with sand strata. - D. Muir Wood: Macroelement modelling. - M. F. Randolph: Offshore design approaches and model tests for sub-failure cyclic loading of foundations. - M.F. Randolph: Cyclic interface shearing in sand and cemented solis and application to axial response of piles. - M. F. Randolph: Evaluation of the remoulded shear strength of offshore clays and application to pipline-soil and riser-soil interaction.

The book gives a comprehensive description of the mechanical response of soils (granular and cohesive materials) under cyclic loading. It provides the geotechnical engineer with the theoretical and analytical tools necessary for the evaluation of settlements developng with time under cyclic, einvironmentally idncued loads (such as wave motion, wind actions, water table level variation) and their consequences for the serviceability and durability of structures such as the shallow or deep foundations used in offshore engineering, caisson beakwaters, ballast and airport pavements and also to interpret monitoring data, obtained from both natural and artificial slopes and earth embankments, for the purposes of risk assessment and mitigation.

1. B. Keszler, J.P. Kennedy, Akron, OH, USA Synthesis of High Molecular Weight Poly (Beta-Pinene) 2. Y. Chujo, T. Saegusa, Kyoto, Japan OrganicPolymer Hybrids with Silica Gel by Means of the Sol-Gel Method 3. A. Halperin, Mainz, FRG, M. Tirrell, T.P. Lodge, Minnea- polis, MN, USA Tethered Chains in Polymer Microstructures 4. T.Q. Nguyen, H.-H. Kausch, Lausanne, CH Mechanochemical Degradation in Transient Elongational Flow 5. P. Corradini, G. Guerra, Naples, Italy Polymorphism in Polymers 6. K.A. Armitstead, G. Goldbeck-Wood, A. Keller, Bristol, UK Review of Polymer Crystallization Theories 7. M. Fischer, Fribourg, CH Properties and Failure of Polymers with Tailored Distances between Crosslinks 8. M. Stamm, Mainz, FRG Polymer Interfaces on a Molecular Scale: Comparison of Techniques and Some Examples

During confined flow of bulk solids in silos some characteristic phenomena can be created, such as: sudden and significant increase of wall stresses, different flow patterns, formation and propagation of wall and interior shear zones, fluctuation of pressures and, strong autogenous dynamic effects. These phenomena have not been described or explained in detail yet. The main intention of the experimental and theoretical research presented in this book is to explain the above mentioned phenomena in granular bulk solids and to describe them with numerical FE models verified by experimental results.

In his thesis, Matthias Junk takes an innovative approach to assess the local structure and dynamics of biological and synthetic amphiphilic macromolecules capable of transporting small molecules. Replacing the latter with stable radicals, he uses state-of-the-art electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to describe the highly relevant transport function from the viewpoint of the guest molecules. Such, he demonstrates that the functional structure of human serum albumin in solution significantly differs from its crystal structure - a consequence of the protein's adaptability to host various endogenous compounds and drug molecules. Further, he shows that the thermal collapse of thermoresponsive hydrogels and dendronized polymers leads to static and dynamic heterogeneities on the nanoscale. These heterogeneities bear consequences for the material's hosting properties and enable unforeseen complex catalytic functionalities.

This book explores the interplay of bubble dynamics and shock waves, covering shock wave emission by laser generated bubbles, pulsating bubbles near boundaries, interaction of shock waves with bubble clouds, applications in shock wave lithotripsy, and more.

The science of mathematical modelling and numerical simulation is generally accepted as the third mode of scienti?c discovery (with the other two modes being experiment and analysis), making this ?eld an integral component of c- ting edge scienti?c and industrial research in most domains. This is especially so in advanced biomaterials such as polymeric hydrogels responsive to biostimuli for a wide range of potential BioMEMS applications, where multiphysics and mul- phase are common requirements. These environmental stimuli-responsive hydrogels are often known as smart hydrogels. In the published studies on the smart or stimu- responsive hydrogels, the literature search clearly indicates that the vast majority are experimental based. In particular, although there are a few published books on the smart hydrogels, none is involved in the modelling of smart hydrogels. For the few published journal papers that conducted mathematical modelling and numerical simulation, results were far from satisfactory, and showed signi?cant d- crepancies when compared with existing experimental data. This has resulted in ad hoc studies of these hydrogel materials mainly conducted by trial and error. This is a very time-consuming and inef?cient process, and certain aspects of fun- mental knowledge are often missed or overlooked, resulting in off-tangent research directions.

The characteristics of electrical contacts have long attracted the attention of researchers since these contacts are used in every electrical and electronic device. Earlier studies generally considered electrical contacts of large dimensions, having regions of current concentration with diameters substantially larger than the characteristic dimensions of the material: the interatomic distance, the mean free path for electrons, the coherence length in the superconducting state, etc. [110]. The development of microelectronics presented to scientists and engineers the task of studying the characteristics of electrical contacts with ultra-small dimensions. Characteristics of point contacts such as mechanical stability under continuous current loads, the magnitudes of electrical fluctuations, inherent sensitivity in radio devices and nonlinear characteristics in connection with electromagnetic radiation can not be understood and altered in the required way without knowledge of the physical processes occurring in contacts. Until recently it was thought that the electrical conductivity of contacts with direct conductance (without tunneling or semiconducting barriers) obeyed Ohm's law. Nonlinearities of the current-voltage characteristics were explained by joule heating of the metal in the region of the contact. However, studies of the current-voltage characteristics of metallic point contacts at low (liquid helium) temperatures [142] showed that heating effects were negligible in many cases and the nonlinear characteristics under these conditions were observed to take the form of the energy dependent probability of inelastic electron scattering, induced by various mechanisms.

1 D. Schwahn: Critical to Mean Field Crossover in Polymer Blends.- 2 K.F. Freed, J. Dudowicz: Influence of Monomer Molecular Structure on the Miscibility of Polymer Blends.- 3 N. Clarke: Effect of Shear Flow on Polymer Blends.-

The concepts of the Jahn-Teller effect and vibronic coupling are being applied to more and more systems in both chemistry and physics. Aspects of structural chemistry such as the distortion of the nuclear framework to a lower-symmetry conformation have received an increasing attention, as well as the dynamics on the coupled potential energy surfaces.
The Jahn-Teller intersections are now recognized as prototype cases of conical intersections where the nuclear motion is known to be inherently nonadiabatic in nature and interchanges freely between the different potential energy surfaces. In the condensed phase especially, the significance of the Jahn-Teller effect has been increasingly appreciated, following the discovery of superconductivity in the fullerides and of very large ("colossal") magnetoresistance in the manganite perovskites. Indeed, these materials are particularly challenging since the Jahn-Teller interaction competes with electronic correlation effects.
"Vibronic Interactions and the Jahn-Teller Effect: Theory and Applications" provides an in-depth discussion of the Jahn-Teller effect and vibronic interactions as reflected by the contributions presented at the XX International Conference on the Jahn-Teller effect, Fribourg, Switzerland, 2010. The following topics have been treated in a clear and concise way:
Complex topologies of Jahn-Teller effect and conical intersections
Multi-state vibronic interactions on strongly coupled potential energy surfaces
Interplay of vibronic and spin-orbit coupling
Strain in Jahn-Teller systems and cooperative Jahn-Teller effect
Orbital ordering and its relation to ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity and molecular magnets
The Jahn-Teller effect in icosahedral systems
The Jahn-Teller effect and high temperature superconductivity
This book is of interest to a wide audience including academic and industrial theoretical and experimental physicists, chemists, spectroscopists, and crystallographers.
"

Atomic transport in solids is a field of growing importance in solid state physics and chemistry, and one which, moreover, has important implications in several areas of materials science. This growth is due first to an increase in the understanding of the fund amentals of transport processes in solids. Of equal importance, however, have been the improvements in the last decade in the experi mental techniques available for the investigation of transport phenomena. The advances in technique have stimulated studies of a wider range of materials; and expansion of the field has been strong ly encouraged by the increasing range of applied areas where transport processes play an essential role. For example, mass transport phenomena play a critical role in the technology of fabrication of components in the electronics industry. Transport processes are involved both during the fabrication and operation of devices and with the growing trend to miniaturisation there are increasing demands on accurate control of diffusion processes. The present book (which is based on a NATO sponsored Advanced Study Institute held in 1981 at Lannion, France) aims to present a general survey of the subject, highlighting those areas where work has been especially active in recent years.

The understanding of hydrogen/lithium insertion phenomena is of great importance for the development of the next generation of functional electrochemical devices such as rechargeable batteries, electrochromic devices, and fuel cells. This volume introduces a variety of viable electrochemical methods to identify reaction mechanisms and evaluate relevant kinetic properties of insertion electrodes. The authors also outline various ways to analyze anomalous behaviour of hydrogen/lithium transport through insertion electrodes.

This book is a collection of papers dedicated to Professor Dr. Krzysztof Wilman 'ski onthe occasionof his 70thbirthday. The bookcontains25 cont- butions of his friends and colleagues. He met the invited authors at di?erent stagesofhisscienti?ccareerofalmost50yearssothatthecontributionscover a wide range of ?elds stemming from continuum mechanics. This happened at numerous universities and research institutes where he both taught and did his excellent research work, e. g. * the University of Lod ' ' z, Poland, where he studied Civil Engineering and did his diploma work onElastic-plastic thermal stresses in a thin ring and where he graduated with his PhD-work in the ?eld of Continuous Models of Discrete Systems, * theInstituteofFundamentalTechnologicalResearchofthePolishAcademy of Sciences in Warsaw, where he got his habilitation in the ?eld Non- cal Continuum Mechanics and where he was the head of the Research Group Continuum Thermodynamics. He collaborated with W. Fiszdon, L. Turski, Cz. Wozniak, H. Zorski and others on the topics axiomatic and kinetic foundations of continuumthermodynamics, theory of mixtures, phase transformations in solids, * theJohnsHopkinsUniversityinBaltimore,US,wherehe workedtogether, e. g. with C. Truesdell, J. Ericksen and W. Williams, on axiomatic and kinetic foundations of continuum thermodynamics, * the College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Iraq, where he was a Visiting Professor and taught many courses, * theUniversityofPaderbornandtheTechnicalUniversityBerlin,Germany, wherehe had an Alexander von Humboldt Stipend andcontractsasa V- iting Professor (works on a model of crystallizing polymers, on a nonlocal thermodynamicmodelofplasmasandelectrolytesandonmartensiticphase transformations), * the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Studies), G- many,whereheworkedtogetherwithe. g. I.

This volume contains studies on the molecular organisation on interfaces and nanoparticles. The contributions were presented during the 40. General Meeting (Hauptversammlung) of the Kolloid-Gesellschaft in Potsdam in September 2001 and are related to the subject "Colloids and Life Science." Therefore, a diversity of papers were collected covering a large field: synthesis of polymer colloids, biominerals and nanoparticles, investigations on monolayers, lyotropic mesophases, polymeric surfactants, micellar transitions, supramolecular compounds for modifying polymers, solid particles for emulsion stabilisers, and adsorbents for odour control.

This volume includes 20 contributions of the 12th meeting on Analytical Ultracentrifugation from March 1-2, 2001 in Duisburg, Germany. Various fields of ultracentrifugation are covered concerning research problems in biochemistry, biophysical chemistry and macromolecular chemistry as well as interacting systems. New investigations concerning the sedimentation theory are presented. The phase transition of gels is dealt with, as is the sedimentation-diffusion equilibrium of gels. One section contains the hydrodynamics of biopolymers.

This volume includes 19 contributions to the 13th International Symposium on Analytical Ultracentrifugation which took place at the university of Osnabruck on March 6th and 7th, 2003. The contributions from leading scientists cover a broad spectrum of topics concerning: Technical Methods, Data Analysis, Innovations; Polymers, Colloids, Supramolecular Systems; Biological and Interaction Systems; Hydrodynamics and Modelling.

Due to the increasing significance of Analytical Ultracentrifugation for both scientific and technical applications, this book will be an essential source of information with respect to recent developments and results related to this important analytical method."

Concepts of nonlinear physics are applied to an increasing number of research disciplines. With this volume, the editors offer a selection of articles on nonlinear topics in progress, ranging from physics and chemistry to biology and some applications of social science. The book covers quantum optics, electron crystallization, cellular or flow patterns in fluids and in granular media, biological systems, and the control of brain structures via neuronal excitation. Chemical patterns are looked at both in bulk solutions and on surfaces in heterogeneous systems. From regular structures, the authors turn to the more complex behavior in biology and physics, such as hydrodynamical turbulence, low-dimensional dynamics in solid-state physics, and gravity.

This is the first book on mathematical simulation on glass technology, and covers all production steps of special glass manufacturing. The enclosed CD-ROM shows 27 simulations of different aspects, such as surprising details of the pressing and casting process.

This volume contains a peer reviewed selection of the papers presented at the highly successful fifteenth meeting of the European Colloid and Interface Society which was held in Coimbra, Portugal in September 2001 and highlights some of the important advances in this area. The topics covered include Self Assembly in Mixed Systems, Surface Modification, Biological and Biomimetic Systems, Theory and Modelling, New Techniques and Developments, Food and Pharmaceuticals, Dynamics at Interfaces and Mesoscopic and Mesoporous Systems. The volume is of interest to both academic and industrial scientists working with colloidal and interfacial systems in chemistry, physics and biology.

This book provides tools well suited for the quantitative investigation of semiconductor electron microscopy. These tools allow for the accurate determination of the composition of ternary semiconductor nanostructures with a spatial resolution at near atomic scales. The book focuses on new methods including strain state analysis as well as evaluation of the composition via the lattice fringe analysis (CELFA) technique. The basics of these procedures as well as their advantages, drawbacks and sources of error are all discussed. The techniques are applied to quantum wells and dots in order to give insight into kinetic growth effects such as segregation and migration. In the first part of the book the fundamentals of transmission electron microscopy are provided. These are needed for an understanding of the digital image analysis techniques described in the second part of the book. There the reader will find information on different methods of
composition determination. The third part of the book focuses on applications such as composition determination in InGaAs Stranski--Krastanov quantum dots. Finally it is shown how an improvement in the precision of the composition evaluation can be obtained by combining CELFA with electron holography. This is demonstrated for an AlAs/GaAs superlattice.