Number 25 of this acclaimed series breaks new ground with articles on charge transfer across liquid-liquid interfaces, electrochemical techniques to study hydrogen ingress in metals, and electrical breakdown of liquids. Also included are articles on the measurement of corrosion and ellipsometry, bringing these older subjects up to date.

Liquid metal technology has been the subject of an impetuous development in the recent decades, mainly due to the application of liquid met als in nuclear techniques. The technological development has been supported by studies of the basic physical-chemical properties of liquid metals: One major concern is the material behaviour in contact with the liquid metals, corrosion and the possible deterioration of metallic and ceramic materials which are in use as constructional or functional materials in such systems. Since the corrosion is in many cases not only a simple dissolution process, the chemical background of such processes had to be studied. Such studies included the determination of solubilities of metals and non-metals in liquid metals, the measurement of thermodynamic data of dissolved materials and of chemical equilibria. Several formerly unknown chemical compounds are formed in liquid metal~ lnd are only stable in this environment. The research and deve\opment devoted to the fission reactor techniques were more or less completed in several countries, further work is in progress in some countries in which the interest in fast breeder reactors arose recently. Even the worldwide program on fusion reactor technology is related to liquid metals, and severallaboratories are now contributing to this new technology.

Computer Simulation in Chemical Physics contains the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held at CORISA, Alghero, Sardinia, in September 1992. In the five years that have elapsed since the field was last summarized there have been a number of remarkable advances which have significantly expanded the scope of the methods. Good examples are the Car--Parrinello method, which allows the study of materials with itinerant electrons; the Gibbs technique for the direct simulation of liquid--vapor phase equilibria; the transfer of scaling concepts from simulations of spin models to more complex systems; and the development of the configurational--biased Monte-Carlo methods for studying dense polymers. The field has also been stimulated by an enormous increase in available computing power and the provision of new software. All these exciting developments, an more, are discussed in an accessible way here, making the book indispensable reading for graduate students and research scientists in both academic and industrial settings.

From its early days in the 1950s, the electron microanalyzer has offered two principal ways of obtaining x-ray spectra: wavelength dispersive spectrometry (WDS), which utilizes crystal diffraction, and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), in which the x-ray quantum energy is measured directly. In general, WDS offers much better peak separation for complex line spectra, whereas EDS gives a higher collection efficiency and is easier and cheaper to use. Both techniques have undergone major transformations since those early days, from the simple focusing spectrometerand gas proportional counter of the 1950s to the advanced semiconductor detectors and programmable spectrometersoftoday. Becauseofthesedevelopments, thecapabilities and relative merits of EDS and WDS techniques have been a recurring feature of microprobeconferences for nearly40 years, and this volume bringstogetherthepapers presented at the Chuck Fiori Memorial Symposium, held at the Microbeam Analysis Society Meeting of 1993. Several themes are apparent in this rich and authoritative collection of papers, which have both a historical and an up-to-the-minute dimension. Light element analysis has long been a goal of microprobe analysts since Ray Dolby first detected K radiation with a gas proportional counter in 1960. WDS techniques (using carbon lead stearate films) were not used for this purpose until four years later. Now synthetic multilayers provide the best dispersive elements for quantitative light element analy sis-still used in conjunction with a gas counter.

The Handbook of Modern Ferromagnetic Materials is an up-to-the-minute compendium of all ferromagnetic materials, metallic and ceramic, intended for electrical and electronic applications. Coverage of the newest and most economically important materials (soft ferrites, the rare-earth magnet alloys, amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys) is extensive. The distinctive feature of this book is its correlation of basic material properties (metallurgical and ceramic) with their magnetic characteristics and eventually to the choice in an application. Unique to this work is information on the many magnetic components into which these materials can be formed and the pertinent design data. Another useful feature is the criteria (quality, stability and economic) for selection of a particular material. Included are the mechanical, thermal and physical properties of these materials. The author not only presents the latest information from suppliers and magnetism conferences but includes a section on new materials (e.g. colossal magnetostriction materials) being developed but not yet available.The format is arranged according to frequency of operation, which turns out to be almost concurrent with the application. Thus, direct current applications are considered first, then low frequency line power, followed by applications at increasing frequencies up to microwave uses. This anthology of ferromagnetic materials is an essential reference work for electrical and electronic designers and materials scientists. It may also serve as a text for a magnetic materials course and as a materials guide for purchasing agents and technical executives.

In 1992 Acoustic Microscopy was published by Oxford University Press, in the series of Monographs on the Physics and Chemistry of Materials. Reviews appeared in the Journal of Microscopy [169 (1), 91] and in Contemporary Physics [33 (4), 296]. At the time of going to press, it seemed that the field of acoustic microscopy had settled down from the wonderful developments in resolution that had been seen in the late seventies and the early eighties and from the no less exciting developments in quantitative elastic measurements that had followed. One reviewer wrote, "The time is ripe for such a book, now that the expansion of the subject has perceptively slowed after it was detonated by Lemons and Quate. " [A. Howie, Proc. RMS 27 (4), 280]. In many ways, this remains true. The basic design for both imaging and quantitative instruments is well-established; the upper frequency for routine imaging is the 2 GHz established by the Ernst Leitz scanning acoustic microscope (ELSAM) in 1984. For the most accurate V(z) measurements, the 225-MHz line-focus-beam lens, developed at Tohoku Univer sity a little before then, remains standard. The principles of the contrast theory have been confirmed by abundant experience; in particular the role of surface acoustic waves, such as Rayleigh waves, dominates the contrast in most high resolution studies of many materials.

Taking a critical approach toward novel colloid systems and phenomena, this series provides both the historical development and a digest of recent advances. The current volume focuses on solutions containing surfactants and polymers, with special emphasis on micelle formation and microemulsions.

A multi-authored, edited work. This volume forms a comprehensive treatise on the development, manufacture, testing and applications of a broad range of ceramic, glass ceramic and carbon matrix composite materials developed in the former Soviet Union. For each of these three classes of composite materials, background theory and extensive property data are also given.

Extensive studies of high-Tc cuprate superconductors have stimualted investigations into various transition-metal oxides. Mott transitions in particular provide fascinating problems and new concepts in condensed matter physics. This book is a collection of overviews by well-known, active researchers in this field. It deals with the latest developments, with particular emphasis on the theoretical, spectroscopic, and transport aspects.

Polymers continue to play an ever increasing role in the modern world. In fact it is quite inconceivable to most people that we could ever have existed of the increased volume and variety of materials without them. As a result currently available, and the diversity of their application, characterisation has become an essential requirement of industrial and academic laboratories in volved with polymeric materials. On the one hand requirements may come from polymer specialists involved in the design and synthesis of new materials who require a detailed understanding of the relationship between the precise molecular architecture and the properties of the polymer in order to improve its capabilities and range of applications. On the other hand, many analysts who are not polymer specialists are faced with the problems of analysing and testing a wide range of polymeric materials for quality control or material specification purposes. We hope this book will be a useful reference for all scientists and techno or industrial laboratories, logists involved with polymers, whether in academic and irrespective of their scientific discipline. We have attempted to include in one volume all of the most important techniques. Obviously it is not possible to do this in any great depth but we have encouraged the use of specific examples to illustrate the range of possibilities. In addition numerous references are given to more detailed texts on specific subjects, to direct the reader where appropriate. The book is divided into II chapters."

Assessing the quality of textiles using textile microscopy remains one of the important instruments for permanent process improvement in the fiber, textile and apparel industries. The degree of international interlinking in the textile producing and finishing industries and their markets demands dearly defined and reproducible methods of detecting damage or defects at all process stages. This book -Quality Assessment of Textiles -Damage Detection by Microsco- py - has in the meantime established itself so well as "the Mahall" in research institute laboratories investigating defects, in universities and colleges, in the training of textile chemists and technologists, and in the industry and the retail trade, that it has become necessary to bring out a new edition. This edition has been revised and supplemented by Mr. Mahall and his succes- sor Ms. Irmhild Goebel and her staff. Cognis, as the successor organization continuing the textile business of the for- mer Textile Technology department of Henkel, is pleased to make this new edi- tion available to specialists, to students and to any other interested readers. June 2002 Dr. U. Kloubert (Cognis Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG) Prof E. Finnimore (Fachhochschule Hof, Germany) Foreword to the First Edition Quality is the decisive criterion by which textile industry is measured in the international competition. Today this is particularly true.

The workshop on "Optical Properties of Low Dimensional Silicon sL Structures" was held in Meylan, France on March, I yd, 1993. The workshop took place inside the facilities of France Telecom- CNET. Around 45 leading scientists working on this rapidly moving field were in attendance. Principal support was provided by the Advanced Research Workshop Program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). French Delegation a l'Armement and CNET gave also a small financial grant, the organisational part being undertaken by the SEE and CNET. There is currently intense research activity worldwide devoted to the optical properties of low dimensional silicon structures. This follow the recent discovery of efficient visible photoluminescence (PL) from highly porous silicon. This workshop was intended to bring together all the leading European scientists and laboratories in order to reveal the state of the art and to open new research fields on this subject. A large number of invited talks took place (12) together with regular contribution (20). The speakers were asked to leave nearly 1/3 of the time to the discussion with the audience, and that promoted both formal and informal discussions between the participants.

The problem of developing metal matrix (MCM) and metal-polymer (MPCM) composite materials is one of the most important in present day materials technology, for its solution is pivotal to the development of a number of leading technologies. The development of new fibrous and lamellar composite materials with improved physico-chemical, electrical, thermal and other properties is a springboard for qualitative scientific and technological advances not only in aerospace and shipbuilding technologies, but also in mechanical, power, electronic, electrical, radio engineering, transport, construction and other industries. The volume reviews the results of research programmes ac complished in recent years by Soviet scientists in the development of composite materials based on aluminium and magnesium matrices, polymatrix composites (composite materials) with metal and polymeric matrices reinforced with boron and carbon fibres, steel wire, fibre glass and other fillers. The volume also reviews present-day physico-chemical fundamen tals and basic principles for developing and optimizing metal matrix composites, and describes the most expedient and efficient methods of MCM and MPCM manufacturing. Special attention is devoted to the issue of manufacturing MCM structural members, and their machin ing and plastic working, as well as to coupling techniques."

In Physical and Technical Problems of SOI Structures and Devices, specialists in silicon-on-insulator technology from both East and West meet for the first time, giving the reader the chance to become acquainted with work from the former Soviet Union, hitherto only available in Russian and barely available to western scientists. Keynote lectures and state-of-the-art presentations give a wide-ranging panorama of the challenges posed by SOI materials and devices, material fabrication techniques, characterisation, device and circuit issues.

Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) is now playing an increasing role in our modern global economy; in security sensitive industries, for instance. The complexity of the inspection task and either large or limited lot runs now require more operator-assisted or fully- automated signal processing. This book deals with both fields of expertise: NDE and signal processing. On the signal processing side, in the particular context of NDE applications, the following topics are discussed: sensor fusion, signal knowledge representation, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, computer vision, integration of numeric and non-numeric informations, parallel decomposition, noise processing and calibration of sensor devices as well as reliability of detection. Some hardware considerations are introduced as well, to discuss platforms on which processing is done. On the NDE side, applications include advances in holographic interferometry, microwave resonance or shearography and also on more traditional NDE techniques such as ultrasonics, infrared techniques, X-ray, computed tomography, Eddy currents. Inverse problems are also discussed. This book is required reading for those who already have some experience in one or both fields (signal processing and/or NDE).

Larry L. Hench June Wilson OBJECTIVE Millions of people presently enjoy an improved quality of life due to prostheses which repair, augment or replace parts of their skeletal system: bones, joints, teeth, etc. However, all replacement parts have a finite probability of survival. The goal of this book is to compare the survivability data for various skeletal prosthesis systems. All data derive from previously published clinical studies. Where possible statistical comparisons are made and the reasons for failure are discussed. THE NEED FOR SKELETAL PROSTHESES We are an aging population with more than 100 million people in the U. S. and Europe over the age of 50 years. An unfortunate consequence of aging is a progressive deterioration of the quality of skeletal tissues. From the age of 30 years there is a decrease in bone mass for both men and women (Fig. 1. 1). However, for women it is much greater and between 40 and 60 years of age the rate of deterioration of long bones and vertebrae of women is especially severe due to hormonal changes. By the age of 70 most women will have lost from 35 to 60% of their bone mass. The loss of volume of cancellous or trabecular bone leads to a large decrease in mechanical compressive strength (Fig. 1. 2). The clinical consequence is an increasing incidence of vertebral collapse. Cortical bone decreases in tensile strength with age (Fig. 1.

This volume chronicles the proceedings of the Third Symposium on Metallized Plastics: Fundamental and Applied Aspects held under the auspices of the Dielectric Science and Technology Division of the Electrochemical Society in Phoenix, Arizona, October 13-18, 1991. This series of symposia to address the subject of metallized plastics was initiated in 1988 and the premier symposium was held in Chicago, October 10-12, 1988, followed by the second event in Montreal, Canada, May 7-10, 1990. The rroceedings of these two symposia have been properly documented ,2. The third symposium was a huge success like the previous two events, and all this is testimonial to the brisk interest and high tempo of R&D activity in the fie14 of metallized plastics. This further bolsters our earlier thinking that there was a conspicuous need to hold symposia on this topic on a regular basis and the fourth is planned for May 16-21, 1993 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The study of metallized plastics constitutes an important human endeavor l and as pointed out earlier there are myriad applications of metallized plastics ranging from very commonplace to exotic. Also a survey of the recent literature will reveal that both the fundamental and applied aspects of metallized plastics are being pursued with great vigor.

Conventional optical science and technology have been restricted by the diffraction limit from reducing the sizes of optical and photoruc devices to nanometric dimensions. Thus, the size of optical integrated circuits has been incompatible with that of their counterpart, integrated electronic circuits, which have much smaller dimensions. This book provides potential ideas and methods to overcome this difficulty. Near-field optics has developed very rapidly from around the middle 1980s after preliminary trials in the microwave frequency region, as proposed as early as 1928. At the early stages of this development, most technical efforts were devoted to realizing super-high-resolution optical microscopy beyond the diffraction limit. However, the possibility of exploiting the optical near-field, phenomenon of quasistatic electromagnetic interaction at subwavelength distances between nanometric particles has opened new ways to nanometric optical science and technology, and many applications to nanometric fabrication and manipulation have been proposed and implemented. Building on this historical background, this book describes recent progress in near-field optical science and technology, mainly using research of the author's groups. The title of this book, Near-Field Nano-Optics-From Basic Principles to Nano-Fabrication and Nano-Photonics, implies capabilities of the optical near field not only for imaging/microscopy, but also for fabrication/manipulation/proc essing on a nanometric scale.

Catalysis and catalyst is a key technology to solve the problems in energy and environment issues to sustain our human society. We believe that comprehensive understanding of the catalysis and catalyst provides us a chance to develop a new catalyst and contributes greatly to our society. However, the ?eld of heterogeneous catalyst is dif?cultto study andstill stays behindmoredeveloped?elds ofchemistry such as organic and physical chemistries. This is a dilemma to the chemists who study the catalysis and catalyst. While we can accomplish the progress in the - dustrial application, the scienti?c understandingis not complete yet. A gap between the useful application and incomplete scienti?c understanding, however, becomes smaller and smaller in recent years. Because zeolites are ?ne crystals, and the structure is clearly known, the study on the catalysis using the zeolites is easier than those encountered in other catalysts such as metals and metal oxides. Very fortunately, zeolites provide us the strong acidity with the ?ne distribution which enables various useful catalytic reactions. When some metals and cations are loaded in close to the acid sites, these loadede- ments show extraordinarycharacters, and many catalytic reactions proceed thereon.

This book represents a collection of papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (NATO/ARW) on "Science and Technology of Rapid Solidification and Processing", held at Hotel Thayer, West Point Military Academy, New York, N. Y. , during June 21-24, 1994. The workshop was attended by over forty scientists representing several NATO member countries as well as representatives from Japan, China (PRC), Taiwan and India. The purpose of this NATO/ARW conference was to review the major advances made in most recent years in both the theoretical and experimental areas of rapid solidification technology and processing. In accordance with the NATO/ARW format, the agenda for the conference was so arranged to offer in depth presentation of the latest developments in the subject area as well as to encourage follow-up discussions by the participants. There was seven sessions each opened with a lecture by an invited guest speaker. Sessions 1-4, covered two days of the conference and focused mainly on Processing Technologies of Rapid Solidification and Thermodynamic Properties (Practical Applications). Sessions 4-6 concentrated on Thermodynamics of Metastable Alloys, Relaxation, Diffusion, Magnetic and Electric Properties (Fundamentals). Session 6 was devoted to the Structural Characterization of Supercooled Melts, Ultra Fine Polycrystalline Materials (New Innovations and Techniques). There were two equally important aspects of this NATO/ARW conference which must be mentioned. Firstly, this is the first NATO/ARW conference on Science and Technology of Rapid Solidification and Processing held in the United States.

This volume entitled "Protective Coatings and Thin Films : Synthesis, Characterization and Applications" contains the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) held in Alvor, Portugal from May 30 to June 5, 1996. This NATO-ARW was an expert meeting on the surface protection and modification of solid materials subjected to interactions with the environment. The meeting attracted 10 key speakers, 40 contributing speakers and 3 observers from various countries. The existing knowledge and current status of the science and technology related to protective coatings and thin films were assessed through a series of oral presentations, key notes (titles underlined in the volume content) and contributed papers distributed over various sessions dealing with: (a) plasma-assisted physical and chemical vapor deposition processes to enhance wear and corrosion protection of materials, (b) low friction coatings operating in hostile environment (vacuum, space, extreme temperatures, . . . ), (c) polymer films for protection against mechanical damage and chemical attack, (d) characterization of the structure of films and correlations with mechanical properties, (e) wear and corrosion resistant thermal spray coatings, (f) functional gradient ceramic/metallic coatings produced by high energy laser beam and energetic deposition processes for high temperature applications, (g) protective coatings for optical systems, and (h) ion beam assisted deposition of coatings for protection of materials against aqueous corrosion.

The first NATO Advanced Study Institute on Olefin Metathesis and Polymerization Catalysts was held on September 10-22, 1989 in Akcay, Turkey. Based on the fundamental research of RRSchrock, RGrubbs and K.B.Wagener in the field of ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) and alkyne polymerization, these areas gained growing interest within the last years. Therefore the second NATO-ASI held on metathesis reactions was on Ring Opening Metathesis Po lymerization of Olefins and Polymerization of Alkynes on September 3-16, 1995 in Akcay, Turkey. The course joined inorganic, organic and polymer chemists to exchange their knowledge in this field. This volume contains the main and short lectures held in Akcay. To include ADMET reactions better into the title of this volume we changed it into: Metathesis Polymerization of Olefins and Alkyne Polymerization. This volume is addressed to research scientists, but also to those who start to work in the area of olefin metathesis and alkyne polymerization. The topics of the course were: mechanism of ROMP reactions/ new catalysts for ROMP/ new products by ROMP/ new catalysts for ADMET/ new products by ADMETI degradation of polymer by metathesis reactions/ alkyne polymerization and metathesis/ industrial application of metathesis reactions. The Advanced Study Institute was generously sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO and the editor gratefully acknowledges this sponsorship. We also thank the Members of the Local Organizing Committee for their engagement on a successful NATO-AS ."

In this monograph the theory and methods of solving inverse Stefan problems for quasilinear parabolic equations in regions with free boundaries are developed. The study of this new class of ill-posed problems is motivated by the needs of the mod eling and control of nonlinear processes with phase transitions in thermophysics and mechanics of continuous media. Inverse Stefan problems are important for the perfection of technologies both in high temperature processes (e.g., metallurgy, the aircraft industry, astronautics and power engineering) and in hydrology, exploitation of oil-gas fields, etc. The proposed book will complete a gap in these subjects in the preceding re searches of ill-posed problems. It contains the new theoretical and applied studies of a wide class of inverse Stefan problems. The statements of such problems on the determination of boundary functions and coefficients of the equation are considered for different types of additional information about their solution. The variational method of obtaining stable approximate solutions is proposed and established. It is implemented by an efficient computational scheme of descriptive regularization. This algorithm utilizes a priori knowledge of the qualitative structure of the sought solution and ensures a substantial saving in computational costs. It is tested on model and applied problems in nonlinear thermophysics. In particular, the results of calculations for important applications in continuous casting of ingots and in the melting of a plate with the help of laser technology are presented."

An assessment of the recent achievements and relative strengths of two developing techniques for characterising surfaces at the nanometer scale: (i) local probe methods, including scanning tunnelling microscopy and its derivatives; and (ii) nanoscale photoemission and absorption spectroscopy for chemical analysis. The keynote lectures were delivered by some of the world's best scientists in the field and some of the topics covered include: (1) The possible application of STM in atomically resolved chemical analysis. (2) The principles of scanning force/friction and scanning near-field optical microscopes. (3) The scanning photoemission electron microscopes built at ELETTRA and SRRC, with a description of synchrotron radiation microscopy. (4) Recent progress in the development of spatially-resolved photoelectron microscopy, especially the use of zone plate photon optics. (5) The present status of non-scanning photoemission microscopy with slow electrons. (6) the BESSY 2 project for a non-scanning photoelectron microscope with electron optics. (7) Spatially-resolved in situ reaction studies of chemical waves and oscillatory phenomena with the UV photoemission microscope.

This volume contains papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on Photons and Local Probes. The workshop had two predecessors. The first was the NATO ARW on Near Field Optics, held in October 1992 at Arc et Senans and was organized by Daniel Courjon and Dieter Pohl. The other predecessor was a workshop on Photons and Scanning Probe Microscopies held at the University of Konstanz in July 1992. The workshop on Photons and Local Probes was held at the Loechnerhaus on the Reichenau Island at the Lake of Constance, from September 11 to 17, 1994. The Reichenau Island was an important place in Europe in the middle age. Even the tomb of one of the carolingian emperors, Charles the Fat, is located there. At this workshop more than 60 scientists from Europe and the United States met to communicate their latest results in the field of local probes in combination with optical techniques. In eight sessions 31 talks as well as 9 posters were presented. Among those 31 publications were submitted for publication in the NATO proceedings. They were accepted after a strict, but constructive refereeing process.