Vsevolod Alekseevich Solonnikov is known as one of the outstanding mathema- ciansfromtheSt.PetersburgMathematicalSchool.Hisremarkableresultsonexact estimates of solutions to boundary and initial-boundary value problems for linear elliptic, parabolic, and Stokes systems, his methods and contributions to the - vestigation of free boundary problems, in particular in ?uid mechanics, are well known to specialists all over the world. The International Conference on "Trends in Partial Di?erential Equations of th ' Mathematical Physics" was held on the occasion of his 70 birthday in Obidos (Portugal), from June 7 to 10, 2003. It was an organization of the "Centro de Matem' atica e Aplica, c" oes Fundamentais da Universidade Lisboa", in collaboration with the "Centro de Matem' atica da Universidade de Coimbra", the "Centro de Matem' atica Aplicada do IST/Universidade T' ecnica de Lisboa", the "Centro de Matem' atica da Universidade da Beira Interior",from Portugal,and with the L- oratory of Mathematical Physics of the St.Petersburg Department of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics from Russia. The conference consisted of thirty eight invited and contributed lectures and ' gathered,inthecharminganduniquemedievaltownofObidos,aboutsixtypart- ipants from ?fteen countries, namely USA, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, Korea, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Australia and Argentina.Severalcolleaguesgaveusahelpinghandintheorganizationofthec- ference. We are thankful to all of them, and in particular to Stanislav Antontsev, Anvarbek Meirmanov and Ad' elia Sequeira, that integrated also the Organizing Committee. A special acknowledgement is due to Elena Frolova that helped us in compiling the short and necessarily incomplete bio-bibliographical notes below.

This book takes a unique approach to information retrieval by laying down the foundations for a modern algebra of information retrieval based on lattice theory. All major retrieval methods developed so far are described in detail a" Boolean, Vector Space and probabilistic methods, but also Web retrieval algorithms like PageRank, HITS, and SALSA a" and the author shows that they all can be treated elegantly in a unified formal way, using lattice theory as the one basic concept. Further, he also demonstrates that the lattice-based approach to information retrieval allows us to formulate new retrieval methods.

SAndor Dominicha (TM)s presentation is characterized by an engineering-like approach, describing all methods and technologies with as much mathematics as needed for clarity and exactness. His readers in both computer science and mathematics will learn how one single concept can be used to understand the most important retrieval methods, to propose new ones, and also to gain new insights into retrieval modeling in general. Thus, his book is appropriate for researchers and graduate students, who will additionally benefit from the many exercises at the end of each chapter.

Knighting in sequence biology Edward N. Trifonov Genome classification, construction of phylogenetic trees, became today a major approach in studying evolutionary relatedness of various species in their vast - versity. Although the modern genome clustering delivers the trees which are very similar to those generated by classical means, and basic terminology is the same, the phenotypic traits and habitats are not anymore the playground for the classi- cation. The sequence space is the playground now. The phenotypic traits are - placed by sequence characteristics, "words", in particular. Matter-of-factually, the phenotype and genotype merged, to confusion of both classical and modern p- logeneticists. Accordingly, a completely new vocabulary of stringology, information theory and applied mathematics took over. And a new brand of scientists emerged - those who do know the math and, simultaneously, (do?) know biology. The book is written by the authors of this new brand. There is no way to test their literacy in biology, as no biologist by training would even try to enter into the elite circle of those who masters their almost occult language. But the army of - formaticians, formal linguists, mathematicians humbly (or aggressively) longing to join modern biology, got an excellent introduction to the field of genome cl- tering, written by the team of their kin.

This book represents an extended and substantially revised version of my earlierbook, Optimal Control in Problems ofMathematical Physics, originally published in Russian in 1975. About 60% of the text has been completely revised and major additions have been included which have produced a practically new text. My aim was to modernize the presentation but also to preserve the original results, some of which are little known to a Western reader. The idea of composites, which is the core of the modern theory of optimization, was initiated in the early seventies. The reader will find here its implementation in the problem of optimal conductivity distribution in an MHD-generatorchannel flow.Sincethen it has emergedinto an extensive theory which is undergoing a continuous development. The book does not pretend to be a textbook, neither does it offer a systematic presentation of the theory. Rather, it reflects a concept which I consider as fundamental in the modern approach to optimization of dis tributed systems. Bibliographical notes, though extensive, do not pretend to be exhaustive as well. My thanks are due to ProfessorJean-Louis Armand and ProfessorWolf Stadler whose friendly assistance in translating and polishing the text was so valuable. I am indebted to Mrs. Kathleen Durand and Mrs. Colleen Lewis for the hard job of typing large portions of the manuscript."

Differential-geometric methods are gaining increasing importance in the understanding of a wide range of fundamental natural phenomena. Very often, the starting point for such studies is a variational problem formulated for a convenient Lagrangian. From a formal point of view, a Lagrangian is a smooth real function defined on the total space of the tangent bundle to a manifold satisfying some regularity conditions. The main purpose of this book is to present: (a) an extensive discussion of the geometry of the total space of a vector bundle; (b) a detailed exposition of Lagrange geometry; and (c) a description of the most important applications. New methods are described for construction geometrical models for applications. The various chapters consider topics such as fibre and vector bundles, the Einstein equations, generalized Einstein--Yang--Mills equations, the geometry of the total space of a tangent bundle, Finsler and Lagrange spaces, relativistic geometrical optics, and the geometry of time-dependent Lagrangians. Prerequisites for using the book are a good foundation in general manifold theory and a general background in geometrical models in physics. For mathematical physicists and applied mathematicians interested in the theory and applications of differential-geometric methods.

The area of adaptive systems, which encompasses recursive identification, adaptive control, filtering, and signal processing, has been one of the most active areas of the past decade. Since adaptive controllers are fundamentally nonlinear controllers which are applied to nominally linear, possibly stochastic and time-varying systems, their theoretical analysis is usually very difficult. Nevertheless, over the past decade much fundamental progress has been made on some key questions concerning their stability, convergence, performance, and robustness. Moreover, adaptive controllers have been successfully employed in numerous practical applications, and have even entered the marketplace.

For the past 25 years the theory of pseudodifferential operators has played an important role in many exciting and deep investigations into linear PDE. Over the past decade, this tool has also begun to yield interesting results in nonlinear PDE. This book is devoted to a summary and reconsideration of some used of pseudodifferential operator techniques in nonlinear PDE. The book should be of interest to graduate students, instructors, and researchers interested in partial differential equations, nonlinear analysis in classical mathematical physics and differential geometry, and in harmonic analysis.

This book contains contributions from a workshop on topology and geometry of polymers, held at the IMA in June 1996, which brought together topologists, combinatorialists, theoretical physicists and polymer scientists, with a common interest in polymer topology. Polymers can be highly self-entangled even in dilute solution. In the melt the inter- and intra-chain entanglements can dominate the rheological properties of these phenomena. Although the possibility of knotting in ring polymers has been recognized for more than thirty years it is only recently that the powerful methods of algebraic topology have been used in treating models of polymers. This book contains a series of chapters which review the current state of the field and give an up to date account of what is known and perhaps more importantly, what is still unknown. The field abounds with open problems. The book is of interest to workers in polymer statistical mechanics but will also be useful as an introduction to topological methods for polymer scientists, and will introduce mathematicians to an area of science where topological approaches are making a substantial contribution.

Intelligent Distributed Computing - IDC Symposium Series was started as an initiative of research groups from: (i) Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland and(ii)SoftwareEngineeringDepartmentoftheUniversity ofCraiova, Craiova, Romania.IDCaimsatbringingtogetherresearchersandpractitionersinvolved in all aspects of intelligent and distributed computing to allow cross-fertilization and search for synergies of ideas and to enable advancement of research in these exciting sub- elds of computer science. Intelligent Distributed Computing 2008 - IDC 2008 wasthe secondeventin thisseries. IDC2008was hostedbyDipartimentodiIngegneria Informatica e delle Telecomunicazioni, Universita di Catania, Italia during September 18-19, 2008. This book represents the peer-reviewed proceedings of the IDC 2008. We received 58submissionsfrom24countries.Each submissionwas carefullyreviewedby at least 3 membersofthe ProgramCommittee.Acceptanceandpublicationwere judgedbased on the relevanceto the symposiumthemes, clarity of presentation, originalityand accuracy of results and proposed solutions. Finally 20 regular papers and 12 short papers were selected for presentationand were includedin this volume, resultingin acceptancerates of 34.48 % for regular papers and 55.17 % for regular and short papers. The book contains also 3 invited papers authored by well-known researchers in the eld. The 35 contributions in this book address many topics related to intelligent d- tributedcomputing, systemsandapplications, including: adaptivityandlearning;agents and multi-agent systems; argumentation; auctions; case-based reasoning; collaborative systems; data structures; distributed algorithms; formal modeling and veri cation; - netic and immune algorithms; grid computing; information extraction, annotation and integration; network and security protocols; mobile and ubiquitous computing; onto- gies and metadata; P2P computing; planning; recommender systems; rules; semantic Web; services and processes; trust and social computing;virtual organizations;wireless networks; XML technolog

The outcome of a close collaboration between mathematicians and mathematical physicists, these Lecture Notes present the foundations of A. Connes noncommutative geometry, as well as its applications in particular to the field of theoretical particle physics. The coherent and systematic approach makes this book useful for experienced researchers and postgraduate students alike.

"Examining reliability, availability, and risk analysis and reviewing in probability and statistics essential to understanding reliability methods, this outstanding volume describes day-to-day techniques used by practicing engineers -- discussing important reliability aspects of both components and complex systems. "

This monograph provides a definitive overview of recent advances in the stability and oscillation of autonomous delay differential equations. Topics include linear and nonlinear delay and integrodifferential equations, which have potential applications to both biological and physical dynamic processes. Chapter 1 deals with an analysis of the dynamical characteristics of the delay logistic equation, and a number of techniques and results relating to stability, oscillation and comparison of scalar delay and integrodifferential equations are presented. Chapter 2 provides a tutorial-style introduction to the study of delay-induced Hopf bifurcation to periodicity and the related computations for the analysis of the stability of bifurcating periodic solutions. Chapter 3 is devoted to local analyses of nonlinear model systems and discusses many methods applicable to linear equations and their perturbations. Chapter 4 considers global convergence to equilibrium states of nonlinear systems, and includes oscillations of nonlinear systems about their equilibria. Qualitative analyses of both competitive and cooperative systems with time delays feature in both Chapters 3 and 4. Finally, Chapter 5 deals with recent developments in models of neutral differential equations and their applications to population dynamics. Each chapter concludes with a number of exercises and the overall exposition recommends this volume as a good supplementary text for graduate courses. For mathematicians whose work involves functional differential equations, and whose interest extends beyond the boundaries of linear stability analysis.

A guide to the theory and application of methods of projections.

With the rise of powerful personal computers, methods of vector space projections have moved rapidly from the realm of theory into widespread use. This book reflects the growing interest in the application of these methods to problem solving in science and engineering. It brings together material previously scattered in disparate papers, book chapters, and articles, and offers a systematic treatment of vector space projections.

Written by two leading authorities in the field, this self-contained volume provides a tutorial on projection methods and how to apply them in science and engineering. It details effective problem-solving strategies, and explores key applications in communication and signal processing, neural networks and pattern recognition, and optics and image processing. This book:

• Reviews the fundamentals of vector space theory
• Covers principles and applications of vector space projections in general, and projections onto convex sets in particular
• Provides real-world examples solvable on PCs and modest workstations
• Features more than 100 illustrations
• Includes end-of-chapter exercises and references.

This extremely useful reference for practicing engineers, scientists, and educators can also be used for graduate-level study in science, mathematics, and engineering. Portions of the book have been used as material in short courses on applications of vector space projections.

In this book new mathematical and statistical techniques that permit more sophisticated analysis are refined and applied to questions of current concern in order to understand the forces that are driving the recent dramatic changes in family patterns. The areas examined include the impact of the evolving Second Demographic Transition, where complex patterns of gender dynamics and social change are re-orienting family life. New analyses of marriage, cohabitation, union dynamics, and union dissolution provide a fresh look at the changing family life cycle, emerging patterns of partner choice, and the impact of union dissolution on the life course. The demography of kinship is explored, and the importance of parity progression to the generation of the kinship web is highlighted. The methodology of population projections by family status is examined, and new results presented that demonstrate how recognizing family status advances long term policy objectives, especially with regard to children and the elderly. This book applies up-to-date methods to examine the demography of the family, and will be of value to sociologists, demographers, and all those who are interested in the family.

This book presents fundamental concepts and seminal results to the study of vortex filaments in equilibrium. It also presents new discoveries in quasi-2D vortex structures with applications to geophysical fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics in plasmas. It fills a gap in the vortex statistics literature by simplifying the mathematical introduction to this complex topic, covering numerical methods, and exploring a wide range of applications with numerous examples. The authors have produced an introduction that is clear and easy to read, leading the reader step-by-step into this topical area. Alongside the theoretical concepts and mathematical formulations, interesting applications are discussed. This combination makes the text useful for students and researchers in mathematics and physics.

Genetic algorithms provide a powerful range of methods for solving complex engineering search and optimization algorithms. Their power can also lead to difficulty for new researchers and students who wish to apply such evolution-based methods. "Applied Evolutionary Algorithms in Java" offers a practical, hands-on guide to applying such algorithms to engineering and scientific problems. The concepts are illustrated through clear examples, ranging from simple to more complex problems domains; all based on real-world industrial problems. Examples are taken from image processing, fuzzy-logic control systems, mobile robots, and telecommunication network optimization problems. The Java-based toolkit provides an easy-to-use and essential visual interface, with integrated graphing and analysis tools. Topics and features: *inclusion of a complete Java toolkit for exploring evolutionary algorithms *strong use of visualization techniques, to increase understanding *coverage of all major evolutionary algorithms in common usage *broad range of industrially based example applications *includes examples and an appendix based on fuzzy logic This book is intended for students, researchers, and professionals interested in using evolutionary algorithms in their work. No mathematics beyond basic algebra and Cartesian graphs methods are required, as the aim is to encourage applying the Java toolkit to develop the power of these techniques.

Computational modeling is emerging as a powerful new approach to study and manipulate biological systems. Multiple methods have been developed to model, visualize, and rationally alter systems at various length scales, starting from molecular modeling and design at atomic resolution to cellular pathways modeling and analysis. Higher time and length scale processes, such as molecular evolution, have also greatly benefited from new breeds of computational approaches. This book provides an overview of the established computational methods used for modeling biologically and medically relevant systems.

This book includes a numerical investigation of shear localization in granular materials within micro-polar hypoplasticity, which was carried out during my long research stay at the Institute of Soil and Rock Mechanics at Karlsruhe University from 1985 to 1996. I dedicate my book to Prof. Gerd Gudehus from Germany, the former head of the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics at Karlsruhe University and the supervisor of my scientific research during my stay in Karlsruhe, who encouraged me to deal with shear localization in granular bodies within micro-polar hypoplasticity. I greatly - preciate his profound knowledge, kind help constructive discussions, and collegial attitude to his co-workers. I am thankful to the both series editors: Prof. Wei Wu from Universitat fur Bodenkultur in Austria and Prof. Ronaldo Borja from Stanford University in USA for their helpful suggestions with respect to the contents and structure of the book. I am also grateful to Dr. Thomas Ditzinger and Mrs. Heather King from the Springer Publishing Company and SPS data processing team for their help in editing this book. Gdansk, Jacek Tejchman June 2008 Contents 1 Introduction......................................................................... 1 2 Literature Overview on Experiments........................................... 11 3 Theoretical Model.................................................................. 47 3.1 Hypoplastic Constitutive Model............................................. 47 3.2 Calibration of Hypoplastic Material Parameters........................... 60 3.3 Micro-polar Continuum........................................................ 67 3.4 Micro-polar Hypoplastic Constitutive Model.............................. 72 3.5 Finite Element Implementation................................................ 75 4 Finite Element Calculations: Preliminary Results............................

This book offers a compact introduction to modern linear control design. The simplified overview presented of linear time-domain methodology paves the road for the study of more advanced non-linear techniques. Only rudimentary knowledge of linear systems theory is assumed - no use of Laplace transforms or frequency design tools is required. Emphasis is placed on assumptions and logical implications, rather than abstract completeness; on interpretation and physical meaning, rather than theoretical formalism; on results and solutions, rather than derivation or solvability. The topics covered include transient performance and stabilization via state or output feedback; disturbance attenuation and robust control; regional eigenvalue assignment and constraints on input or output variables; asymptotic regulation and disturbance rejection. Lyapunov theory and Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI) are discussed as key design methods. All methods are demonstrated with MATLAB to promote practical use and comprehension.

The theory of stochastic processes provides a huge arsenal of methods suitable for analyzing the influence of noise on a wide range of systems. Noise-induced, noise-supported or noise-enhanced effects sometimes offer an explanation for as yet open problems (information transmission in the nervous system and information processing in the brain, processes at the cell level, enzymatic reactions, etc.), or pave the way to novel technological applications. Noise can play a prominent role in structure formation in physics, chemistry and biology, e.g. current filaments in semiconductors, catalytic reactions on surfaces, complex dynamics of the heart, brain, or of ecosystems. The book reviews those aspects of applied stochastics addressing researchers as well as students.

A cutting-edge survey of formal methods directed specifically at dealing with the deep mathematical problems engendered by the study of developing systems, in particular dealing with developing phase spaces, changing components, structures and functionalities, and the problem of emergence. Several papers deal with the modelling of particular experimental situations in population biology, economics and plant and muscle developments in addition to purely theoretical approaches. Novel approaches include differential inclusions and viability theory, growth tensors, archetypal dynamics, ensembles with variable structures, and complex system models. The papers represent the work of theoreticians and experimental biologists, psychologists and economists. The areas covered embrace complex systems, the development of artificial life, mathematics, computer science, biology and psychology.

Grometstein explains modern physics with enthusiasm, wit and insight. As he presents the usual milestones in the history of modern physics, his central focus is the historical debate regarding the nature of light: is it a particle or is it a wave? This book will be read by generations of students in physical science who seek a well written discussion of these important issues. Grometstein includes material which is quite recent, thus making the present volume particularly useful.

Renewable energy sources such as wind power have attracted much attention because they are environmentally friendly, do not produce carbon dioxide and other emitants, and can enhance a nation's energy security. For example, recently more significant amounts of wind power are being integrated into conventional power grids. Therefore, it is necessary to address various important and challenging issues related to wind power systems, which are significantly different from the traditional generation systems. This book is a resource for engineers, practitioners, and decision-makers interested in studying or using the power of computational intelligence based algorithms in handling various important problems in wind power systems at the levels of power generation, transmission, and distribution. Researchers have been developing biologically-inspired algorithms in a wide variety of complex large-scale engineering domains. Distinguished from the traditional analytical methods, the new methods usually accomplish the task through their computationally efficient mechanisms. Computational intelligence methods such as evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy systems have attracted much attention in electric power systems. Meanwhile, modern electric power systems are becoming more and more complex in order to meet the growing electricity market. In particular, the grid complexity is continuously enhanced by the integration of intermittent wind power as well as the current restructuring efforts in electricity industry. Quite often, the traditional analytical methods become less efficient or even unable to handle this increased complexity. As a result, it is natural to apply computational intelligence as a powerful tool to deal with various important and pressing problems in the current wind power systems. This book presents the state-of-the-art development in the field of computational intelligence applied to wind power systems by reviewing the most up-to-date work and representative practical problems collecting contributions from leading experts in electrical engineering, system engineering, and other disciplines.