This symposium focused on new superconductors, electronics, magnet technology, energy and new applications. Recent discoveries in HTc, with transition temperatures over 90 K, have spawned a search for practical new applications. These applications extend from current uses such as that of the medical MRI to future applications, represented by research on new high-temperature materials. They span from microcircuit applications to the proposed SMES and fusion reactor applications.

The book contains the contributions presented at the NATO ARW on Ferrimagnetic Nano-crystalline and Thin Film Magnetooptical and Microwave Materials (short title: Nano-crystalline and Thin Film Magnetic Oxides) which took place in Sozopol, Bulgaria, Sept. 27 - Oct. 3, 1998. The program of the ARW was consistent with three main areas in the magnetic oxides for microwave and magnetooptical applications : thin films and nano-crystalline ferroxides; magnetic behaviour and applications of oxides with perovskite structures; and nano-sized materials and modeling. The development of planar devices for high-density magnetic and magneto- optical recording and microwave integral technologies has led to a substantial growth of the scientific interest in nano-crystallline and thin film magnetic oxides, such as ferrites, manganates and cuprates. The Workshop organizers embarked on the ambitious task to attract the scientists' attention to key problems related to the nano-crystalline state of magnetic oxides and their magnetic, electrical, and optical behaviour. The knowldege of interactions between charge carriers, with phonons, the spin and dipole magnetic moments and the role of the microstructure and magnetic anisotropy is much theoretically studied for magnetic oxides. The workshop program touched not only upon the theoretical aspects, but on the technology and experiments as well. A review of nano-particle technology and future trends was presented. The possibilities of investigating and modeling the domain structure of the magnetic oxide films were demonstrated and discussed. Microwave and magnetooptical applications of ferroxides were also explored, including a discussion on new types of components with nano-size structure.

This volume comprises the expert contributions from the invited speakers at the 17th International Conference on Thin Films (ICTF 2017), held at CSIR-NPL, New Delhi, India. Thin film research has become increasingly important over the last few decades owing to the applications in latest technologies and devices. The book focuses on current advances in thin film deposition processes and characterization including thin film measurements. The chapters cover different types of thin films like metal, dielectric, organic and inorganic, and their diverse applications across transistors, resistors, capacitors, memory elements for computers, optical filters and mirrors, sensors, solar cells, LED's, transparent conducting coatings for liquid crystal display, printed circuit board, and automobile headlamp covers. This book can be a useful reference for students, researchers as well as industry professionals by providing an up-to-date knowledge on thin films and coatings.

"Smart Hydrogel Functional Materials" comprehensively and systematically describes our current understanding of smart or intelligent hydrogel functional materials with environmental stimuli-responsive functions. The contents range from hydrogels (including hydrogel-functionalized membranes) to microgels (including hydrogel-functionalized microcapsules) with various response properties, such as thermo-response, pH-response, pH-/thermo-dual-response, glucose-response, ethanol-response, ion-recognition, molecular-recognition, and so on. Most of the contents in this book represent the fresh achievements of the authors' group on smart hydrogel functional materials. While all chapters can be read as stand-alone papers, together they clearly describe the design concepts, fabrication strategies and methods, microstructures and performances of smart hydrogel functional materials. Vivid schematics and illustrations throughout the book enhance the accessibility of the theory and technologies involved.

This is an ideal reference book for a broad general readership including chemists, materials researchers, chemical engineers, pharmaceutical scientists and biomedical researchers, who are interested in designing and fabricating smart hydrogel functional materials for various application purposes.

Dr. Liang-Yin Chu is a professor at the School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, China. He is a Distinguished Young Scholar of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and a Distinguished Professor of the "Chang Jiang Scholars Program" of the Ministry of Education of China.

This volume differs somewhat from the previous volumes in the series in that there is a strong emphasis on the physical aspects and not so much on the chemical aspects of intermetallic compounds. Two of the chapters are concerned with relatively new experimental methods of studying rare earth metallic phases - high energy neutron spectroscopy and light scattering. In these chapters the authors explain the new kinds of information one obtains from these techniques and how this complements the knowledge previously gleaned from the more common measurements - such as NMR, heat capacities, magnetic susceptibility, transport and elastic properties. One of the remaining three chapters deals with NMR studies of rare earth intermetallics and the final two chapters are concerned, not so much with a particular experimental technique, but with physical phenomena that occur in these compounds: the electron-phonon interaction and heavy fermion behavior.

In this book, the author theoretically studies two aspects of topological states. First, novel states arising from hybridizing surface states of topological insulators are theoretically introduced. As a remarkable example, the author shows the existence of gapless interface states at the interface between two different topological insulators, which belong to the same topological phase. While such interface states are usually gapped due to hybridization, the author proves that the interface states are in fact gapless when the two topological insulators have opposite chiralities. This is the first time that gapless topological novel interface states protected by mirror symmetry have been proposed. Second, the author studies the Weyl semimetal phase in thin topological insulators subjected to a magnetic field. This Weyl semimetal phase possesses edge states showing abnormal dispersion, which is not observed without mirror symmetry. The author explains that the edge states gain a finite velocity by a particular form of inversion symmetry breaking, which makes it possible to observe the phenomenon by means of electric conductivity.

This book presents recent advances in the field of nanoscale characterization of ferroelectric materials using scanning probe microscopy (SPM). It addresses various imaging mechanisms of ferroelectric domains in SPM, quantitative analysis of the piezoresponse signals as well as basic physics of ferroelectrics at the nanoscale level, such as nanoscale switching, scaling effects, and transport behavior. This state-of-the-art review of theory and experiments on nanoscale polarization phenomena will be a useful reference for advanced readers as well for newcomers and graduate students interested in the SPM techniques. The non-specialists will obtain valuable information about different approaches to electrical characterization by SPM, while researchers in the ferroelectric field will be provided with details of SPM-based measurements of ferroelectrics.

Present developments in materials science, mechanics and engineering, as well as the demands of modern technology, result in a new and growing interest in plasticity and in bordering domains of the mechanical behavior of materials. This growing interest is attested to by the success of both The International Journal of Plasticity, which after its inception rapidly became the leading journal for plasticity research, and the series ofInternational Symposia on Plasticity and Its Current Applications, which is now the premier international forum for plasticity research dissemination. The First International Symposium on Plasticity and Its Current Applications was conceived and organized by Professor Akhtar S. Khan, and was held at the University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma, USA) from July 30 to August 3, 1984. It was attended by over one hundred scientists from fifteen countries. "Plasticity '89: the Second International Symposium on Plasticity and Its Current Applications" was held at Mie University (Tsu, Japan) from July 31 to August 4, 1989; this symposium was co-chaired by Professors Khan and Tokuda. The main emphasis of this meeting was on dynamic plasticity and micromechanics, although it included other aspects of plasticity as well. It was attended by over two hundred researchers from twenty-three nations.

This timely volume presents a range of critical topics on the use of composite materials in civil engineering; industrial, commercial, and residential structures; and historic buildings. Structural strengthening techniques based on composite materials, including, but not limited to, fiber-reinforced polymers, fiber-reinforced glasses, steel-reinforced polymers, and steel-reinforced glasses represent a practice employed internationally and have become an important component in the restoration of buildings impacted by natural hazards and other destructive forces. "New Composite Materials: Selection, Design, and Application" stands as a highly relevant and diverse effort, distinct from other technical publications dealing with building issues. The book focuses extensively on characterization of techniques employed for structural restoration and examines in detail an assortment of materials such as concrete, wood, masonry, and steel.

This volume focuses on latest research in therapeutic devices for cardiovascular, i.e. vascular and valvular and cardiac diseases. In the area of vascular therapies, aspects covered relate to latest research in small-diameter tissue-regenerative vascular grafts, one of the greatest persisting challenges in cardiovascular therapies, stent grafts and endovascular stents for percutaneous arterial interventions. Contributions on valvular therapies focus on tissue engineered and tissue regenerative prosthetic heart valves and valvular prostheses for trans-apical implantation including the challenges posed on the prosthesis design. The section on cardiac diseases aims at covering therapeutic advances for myocardial infarction and prevention of heart failure and on in vivo biomechanics of implantable cardiac pacemaker devices. A further section complements these three areas by presenting constitutive modelling of soft biological tissues of the cardiovascular system, an area imperative for advanced numerical and computational modelling in the development and optimisation of cardiovascular devices and therapies.

Mechanics plays a central role in determining form and function in biology. This holds at the cellular, molecular and tissue scales. At the cellular scale, mechanics in?uences cell adhesion, cytoskeletal dynamics and the traction that the cell can generate on a given substrate. All of these in turn - fect the cellular functions of migration, mitosis, phagocytosis, endocytosis and stem cell differentiation among others. Indeed, if cells do not develop the appropriate stresses, they are unviable and die. These aspects of cell mechanics are frequently used by mainstream biologists, as traditional mechanicians may be surprised to learn. There is a growing view that many functions of the cell are mechanical in nature even though chemical signals play crucial roles in the processes. Free energy barriers control transitions between different conformations of vir- ally every macromolecule including DNA, RNA, the adhesion protein integrin, the motor protein myosin, and the proteins vinculin and talin that link the cytoskeleton to focal adhesions. The strain energy can be a signi?cant component of the total free energy barrier. For binding to take place, the macromolecules need to be in conf- mational states that expose chemical groups without steric hinderance. The kinetics of chemical reactions are therefore strongly in?uenced by the conformational strain energy.

This research monograph discusses the close correlation between the magnetic and structural properties of thin films in the context of numerous examples of epitaxial metal films, while emphasis is laid on the stabilization of novel structures compared to the bulk material. Further options, possibilities, and limits for applications are given. Techniques for the characterization of thin films are addressed as well.

Catering for the ceramists who need an insight into the elementary principles of electricity, magnetism and ionic structures this book concerns solid state physics beginning with atomic structure and leading up to the principles underlying conductive, semiconductive, dielectric and ferroelectric behaviour. Subsequently there is a description of the methods of fabrication and conductive ceramics from heating rods to gas sensors and superconductors, as well as dielectrics from high tension insulators to chip capacitators, piezoelectrics from spark generators to sonar, pyroelectrics, and electro-optics. conductive ceramics, dielectrics, piezoelectrics and magnetic oxides.

Comprehensive technical treatment of the field of structural adhesive bonding.

As the first major reference on glass fractography, contributors to this volume offer a comprehensive account of the fracture of glass as well as various fracture surface topography. Contributors discuss optical fibers, glass containers, and flatglass fractography. In addition, papers explore fracture origins; the growth of the original flaws of defects; and macroscopic fracture patterns from which fracture patterns evolve. This volume is complete with photographs and schematics.

This book summarizes the author's findings on the functional principle of flotation reagents, gathered over the past few decades. The fundamentals of and approaches common to surface chemistry are applied to study the reagents' structure and performance, as well as their interaction with minerals. In particular, the book establishes the theoretical criteria for collector performance. It also includes the quantum chemistry parameters, steric configuration, HOMO and LUMO surface of various reagents. The book offers a valuable resource for all university graduate students, researchers and R&D engineers in minerals processing and extractive metallurgy who wish to explore innovative reagents and technologies that lead to more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable solutions.

This book brings together an emerging consensus on our understanding of the complex functional materials including ferroics, perovskites, multiferroics, CMR and high-temperature superconductors. The common theme is the existence of many competing ground states and frustration as a collusion of spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in the presence of disorder and (both dipolar and elastic) long-range forces. An important consequence of the complex unit cell and the competing interactions is that the emergent materials properties are very sensitive to external fields thus rendering these materials with highly desirable, technologically important applications enabled by cross-response.

This volume represents a continuation of the Polymer Science and Technology series edited by Dr. D. M. Brewis and Professor D. Briggs. The theme of the series is the production of a number of stand alone volumes on various areas of polymer science and technology. Each volume contains short articles by a variety of expert contributors outlining a particular topic and these articles are extensively cross referenced. References to related topics included in the volume are indicated by bold text in the articles, the bold text being the title of the relevant article. At the end of each article there is a list of bibliographic references where interested readers can obtain further detailed information on the subject of the article. This volume was produced at the invitation of Derek Brewis who asked me to edit a text which concentrated on the mechanical properties of polymers. There are already many excellent books on the mechanical properties of polymers, and a somewhat lesser number of volumes dealing with methods of carrying out mechanical tests on polymers. Some of these books are listed in Appendix 1. In this volume I have attempted to cover basic mechanical properties and test methods as well as the theory of polymer mechanical deformation and hope that the reader will find the approach useful.

In the fall of 1998, Prof. Sergey Firstov invited me to the Frantcevych Institute for Problems of Materials Science (IPMS) in Kyiv, Ukraine to discuss possible collaborations in the area of advanced metals research. During this visit, a strong mutual interest was evident in a broad range of structural metals technologies, and a quick friendship was established. Countless subsequent emails and a reciprocal visit to the U. S Air Force Research Laboratory by Prof. Firstov and a team of scientists from IPMS ensued to discuss and detail a broad collaboration in the area of structural metals. Two years after the initial visit, a major investment by the U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) was established to pursue the technologies defined by these interactions. The annual reviews of the AFOSR Ukrainian Metals Initiative were held in late May, a most beautiful time in Kyiv when the lilacs are in bright display and the air is scented with the smell of falling blossoms from the chestnut trees that line the major streets and many parks. The sunny days and mild evenings provide a welcome break from winter, and on weekend evenings festive crowds spill onto the Khreshchatyk, Kyiv's downtown boulevard, to listen to street musicians, watch jugglers and comedians, or simply to celebrate with friends. The annual reviews featured long days of intensive discussion of technical progress, followed in the evenings by the warm hospitality of the Ukrainian hosts.

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

After an introductory chapter, the processing, microstructure, and properties of various ceramic materials, reinforcements, and their composites are described. A separate chapter is devoted to processing of ceramic reinforcements, with a special emphasis on fibers. Processing of ceramic matrix composites is the next chapter, which includes novel techniques such as sol-gel processing and ceramics from polymeric precursors. The next four chapters cover the subjects of interface region in ceramic composites, mechanical and physical properties, and the role of thermal stresses and the important subject of toughness enhancement. Laminated composites made of ceramics are described in a separate chapter. Finally, a chapter is devoted to various applications of ceramic matrix composites. Throughout the text, the underlying relationships between the components of the triad: processing, microstructure, and properties are brought out. An exhaustive list of references and suggested reading is provided.

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.