This book provides state-of-the-art advances in several areas of importance in energy, combustion, power, propulsion, environment using fossil fuels and alternative fuels, and biofuels production and utilization. Availability of clean and sustainable energy is of greater importance now than ever before in all sectors of energy, power, mobility and propulsion. Written by internationally renowned experts, the latest fundamental and applied research innovations on cleaner energy production as well as utilization for a wide range of devices extending from micro scale energy conversion to hypersonic propulsion using hydrocarbon fuels are provided. The tailored technical tracks and contributions from the world renowned technical experts are portrayed in the respective field to highlight different but complementary views on fuels, combustion, power and propulsion and air toxins with special focus on current and future R&D needs and activities. The energy and environment sustainability require a multi-pronged approach involving development and utilization of new and renewable fuels, design of fuel-flexible combustion systems that can be easily operated with the new fuels, and develop novel and environmentally friendly technologies for improved utilization of all kinds of gas, liquid and solid fuels. This volume is a useful book for practicing engineers, research engineers and managers in industry and research labs, academic institutions, graduate students, and final year undergraduate students in Mechanical, Chemical, Aerospace, Energy and Environmental Engineering.

Making a clear distinction is made between nano- and micro-mechanical testing for physical reasons, this monograph describes the basics and applications of the supermicroscopies AFM and SNOM, and of the nanomechanical testing on rough and technical natural surfaces in the submicron range down to a lateral resolution of a few nm. New or improved instrumentation, new physical laws and unforeseen new applications in all branches of natural sciences (around physics, chemistry, mineralogy, materials science, biology and medicine) and nanotechnology are covered as well as the sources for pitfalls and errors. It outlines the handling of natural and technical samples in relation to those of flat standard samples and emphasizes new special features. Pitfalls and sources of errors are clearly demonstrated as well as their efficient remedy when going from molecularly flat to rough surfaces. The academic or industrial scientist learns how to apply the principles for tackling their scientific or manufacturing tasks that include roughness far away from standard samples.

This book explores the application of deep learning techniques within a particularly difficult computational type of computer vision (CV) problem super-resolution (SR). The authors present and discuss ways to apply computational intelligence (CI) methods to SR. The volume also explores the possibility of using different kinds of CV techniques to develop and enhance the tools/processes related to SR. The application areas covered include biomedical engineering, healthcare applications, medicine, histology, and material science. The book will be a valuable reference for anyone concerned with multiple multimodal images, especially professionals working in remote sensing, nanotechnology and immunology at research institutes, healthcare facilities, biotechnology institutions, agribusiness services, veterinary facilities, and universities.

Brings together the output of a forty-year collaborative research project that unpicked and put into practice the fine details of John Harrison's extraordinary pendulum clock system. Harrison predicted that his unique method of making pendulum clocks could provide as much as one-hundred-times the stability of those made by his contemporaries. However, his final publication, which promised to describe the system, was a chaotic jumble of information, much of which had nothing to do with clockwork. One contemporary reviewer of Harrison's book could only suggest that the end result was a product of Harrison's 'superannuated dotage.' The focus of this book centres on the making, adjusting, and testing of Clock B which was the subject of various trials at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The modern history of Clock B is accompanied by scientific analysis of the clock system, Clock B's performance, the methods of data-gathering alongside historical perspectives on Harrison's clockmaking, that of his contemporaries, and some evaluation of the possible influence of early 18th century scientific thought.

This book is a concise introductory guide to understanding the field of modern batteries, which is fast becoming an important area for applications in renewable energy storage, transportation, and consumer devices. By using simplified classroom-tested methods developed while teaching the subject to engineering students, the author explains in simple language an otherwise complex subject in terms that enable readers to gain a rapid understanding of battery basics and the fundamental scientific and engineering concepts and principles behind the technology. This powerful tutorial is a great resource for engineers from other disciplines, technicians, analysts, investors, and other busy professionals who need to quickly acquire a solid understanding of the fast emerging and disruptive battery landscape.

Now available in a new improved format, this second edition is completely revised and updated. "An Introductory Guide to Flow Measurement" is an indispensable guide for the busy practising engineer. It provides a ready source of information on flowmeters, their operation, installation, and relative advantages and disadvantages in different applications. This revised edition retains the succinct style of the original, with plenty of clear line diagrams and shading to highlight key points, it is comprehensive and easy to use. The material is based on the author's own lectures at Cranfield Institute of Technology, UK, but incorporates lessons learned through using the first edition as a teaching tool during the 13 years since its first publication. It aims to transmit as much information as possible, as efficiently as possible, in as short a time as possible. Essential reading for any engineer faced with a flow measurement problem this book will enable the reader to assess advice received from manufacturers and contribute to discussions with experts. Existing and new readers alike will welcome this updated version of the well established and highly regarded "Introductory Guide to Flow Measurement". Key areas considered include: Accuracy (flow behavior, and fluid parameters); Calibration techniques; Selection; Momentum flowmeters; Volumetric flowmeters; Mass flowmeters; Probes and tracers; and, Recent developments and future trends.

This book is a scholarly study of a virtually unknown aspect of the history of horology (timekeeping), compiled from Chinese and Japanese historical and literary records, some of which are translated and published here for the first time. Incense timekeepers played an important role in early Chinese social and technological history, in addition to their use for time measurement. They were used in temples for religious rites, in agricultural regions for regulating water for irrigation, in palaces and government offices, and in the studies of scholars. A fascinating compendium of knowledge about a neglected aspect of Oriental culture, this book will appeal not only to historians of China and Japan, but to the growing number of collectors and museum curators who are interested in incense clocks. It is illustrated with black and white halftones of a large number of the clocks, which are renowned for their beauty of design and quality of workmanship. The book also includes a catalogue of incense clocks which have appeared in auction houses and museums.

This book reports on the development of nanostructured metal-oxide-based electrode materials for use in water purification. The removal of organic pollutants and heavy metals from wastewater is a growing environmental and societal priority. This book thus focuses primarily on new techniques to modify the nanostructural properties of various solvent-electrolyte combinations to address these issues. Water treatment is becoming more and more challenging due to the ever increasing complexity of the pollutants present, requiring alternative and complementary approaches toward the removal of toxic chemicals, heavy metals and micro-organisms, to name a few. This contributed volume cuts across the fields of electrochemistry, water science, materials science, and nanotechnology, while presenting up-to-date experimental results on the properties and synthesis of metal-oxide electrode materials, as well as their application to areas such as biosensing and photochemical removal of organic wastewater pollutants. Featuring an introductory chapter on electrochemical cells, this book is well positioned to acquaint interdisciplinary researchers to the field, while providing topical coverage of the latest techniques and methodology. It is ideal for students and research professionals in water science, materials science, and chemical and civil engineering.

This book presents practical information on the clinical applications of short pulse laser systems and the techniques for optimizing these applications in a manner that will be relevant to a broad audience, including engineering and medical students as well as researchers, clinicians, and technicians. Short pulse laser systems are useful for both subsurface tissue imaging and laser induced thermal therapy (LITT), which hold great promise in cancer diagnostics and treatment. Such laser systems may be used alone or in combination with optically active nanoparticles specifically administered to the tissues of interest for enhanced contrast in imaging and precise heating during LITT. Mathematical and computational models of short pulse laser-tissue interactions that consider the transient radiative transport equation coupled with a bio-heat equation considering the initial transients of laser heating were developed to analyze the laser-tissue interaction during imaging and therapy. Experiments were first performed to characterize the tissue optical properties needed to optimize the dose for thermal therapy. Experiments were then performed on animal models to characterize the heat affected zone for LITT. The experimental measurements were also validated using the computational models.

This book represents the first detailed description, including both theoretical aspects and experimental methods, of the interaction of rare-earth ions with surface plasmon polariton from the point of view of collective plasmon-photon interactions via resonance modes (metal nanoparticles or nanostructure arrays) with quantum emitters (rare-earth ions). These interactions are of particular interest for applications to optical telecommunications, optical displays, and laser solid state technologies. Thus, our main goal is to give a more precise overview of the rapidly emerging field of nanophotonics by means of the study of the quantum properties of light interaction with matter at the nanoscale. In this way, collective plasmon-modes in a gain medium result from the interaction/coupling between a quantum emitter (created by rare-earth ions) with a metallic surface, inducing different effects such as the polarization of the metal electrons (so-called surface plasmon polariton - SPP), a field enhancement sustained by resonance coupling, or transfer of energy due to non-resonant coupling between the metallic nanostructure and the optically active surrounding medium. These effects counteract the absorption losses in the metal to enhance luminescence properties or even to control the polarization and phase of quantum emitters. The engineering of plasmons/SPP in gain media constitutes a new field in nanophotonics science with a tremendous technological potential in integrated optics/photonics at the nanoscale based on the control of quantum effects. This book will be an essential tool for scientists, engineers, and graduate and undergraduate students interested not only in a new frontier of fundamental physics, but also in the realization of nanophotonic devices for optical telecommunication.

The ambitious objectives of future road mobility, i.e. fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and zero accidents, imply a paradigm shift in the concept of the car regarding its architecture, materials, and propulsion technology, and require an intelligent integration into the systems of transportation and power. ICT, components and smart systems have been essential for a multitude of recent innovations, and are expected to be key enabling technologies for the changes ahead, both inside the vehicle and at its interfaces for the exchange of data and power with the outside world. It has been the objective of the International Forum on Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications (AMAA) for almost two decades to detect novel trends and to discuss technological implications and innovation potential from day one on. In 2012, the topic of the AMAA conference is "Smart Systems for Safe, Sustainable and Networked Vehicles". The conference papers selected for this book address current research, developments and innovations in the field of ICT, components and systems and other key enabling technologies leading to the automobile and road transport of the future. The book focuses on application fields such as electrification, power train and vehicle efficiency, safety and driver assistance, networked vehicles, as well as components and systems. Additional information is available at www.amaa.de

This book presents an investigation of gigaseal formation using micro/nanotechnology. The aims of the book are twofold. First, it explains the mechanisms of gigaseal formation using the latest discoveries. Second, it provides practical techniques for frequent formation of high resistance seals. The formation of a high-resistance electrical seal, also known as a gigaseal, between a cell membrane and a glass micropipette tip is essential in patch-clamp experiments. Even though four decades have passed since the introduction of the patch-clamping technique by Neher and Sakmann, gigaseal formation remains an obstacle in developing the high-throughput ion channel screening systems required by the pharmaceutical industry. Here the authors share their latest methods for achieving gigaseal formation and describe techniques that are highly desirable at both research and industrial levels. Nanotechnology has been found to be a powerful tool for studying and modifying glass micropipettes and in tackling the problem of gigaseal formation.

A General History of Horology describes instruments used for the finding and measurement of time from Antiquity to the 21st century. In geographical scope it ranges from East Asia to the Americas. The instruments described are set in their technical and social contexts, and there is also discussion of the literature, the historiography and the collecting of the subject. The book features the use of case studies to represent larger topics that cannot be completely covered in a single book. The international body of authors have endeavoured to offer a fully world-wide survey accessible to students, historians, collectors, and the general reader, based on a firm understanding of the technical basis of the subject. At the same time as the work offers a synthesis of current knowledge of the subject, it also incorporates the results of some fundamental, new and original research.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Nano-Networks, Nano-Net 2009, held in Lucerne, Switherland, in October 2009. The 36 invited and regular papers address the whole spectrum of Nano-Networks and spans topis like modeling, simulation, statdards, architectural aspects, novel information and graph theory aspects, device physics and interconnects, nanorobotics as well as nano-biological systems. The volume also contains the workshop on Nano-Bio-Sensing Paradigms as well as the workshop on Brain Inspired Interconnects and Circuits.

The book presents high-quality papers from the Eighth Asia International Symposium on Mechatronics (AISM 2021). It discusses the latest technological trends and advances in electromechanical coupling and environmental adaptability design of electronic equipment, sensing and measurement, mechatronics in manufacturing and automations, energy harvesting & storage, robotics, automation and control systems. It includes papers based on original theoretical, practical and experimental simulations, development, applications, measurements, and testing. The applications and solutions discussed in the book provide excellent reference material for future product development.

This book explores the recent advances in designing and synthesizing one- and two-dimensional metal chalcogenide nanostructures, along with their practical applications, helping readers understand what has happened, and what is currently happening in the field of nanotechnology. It also includes a comprehensive table showing 1D and 2D nanostructured metal chalcogenides, which presents the recent developments from a synthetic point of view. Further, it describes the wide applicability of anisotropic metal chalcogenides, such as in electronics, energy storage and conversion, and sensors. Lastly it discusses the current understanding of the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects associated with the forming mechanisms of anisotropic metal chalcogenide nanostructures. This book is a valuable reference resource for practitioners and researchers, enabling them to obtain a quick overview of anisotropic metal chalcogenide nanomaterials through synthetic approaches and related applications. Presenting representative applications of anisotropic metal chalcogenide nanomaterials that are important in the industrial sector, it is also of interest to academics and industry specialists.

This book discusses the ultrasonic synthesis, characterization and application of various nanoparticles, as well as the ultrasonic synthesis of metal and inorganic nanoparticles such as noble metals, transition metals, semiconductors, nanocomposites, alloys and catalysts. In addition, it describes the engineering of micro- and nanosystems using ultrasound-responsive biomolecules. In acoustic cavitation, unique phenomena based on bubbles dynamics, extreme high-temperature and pressure conditions, radical reactions, extreme heating and cooling rates, strong shockwaves, and microstreaming are generated, and under certain conditions, mist generation (atomization of a liquid) is effectively induced by ultrasonic irradiation. These unique phenomena can be used to produce various high-performance functional metal and inorganic nanoparticles. Nanoparticles and nanomaterials are key materials in advancing nanotechnology and as such ultrasound and sonochemical techniques for producing nanoparticles and nanomaterials have been actively studied for the last two decades. Although a few professional books related to "ultrasound" and "nanomaterials" have been published, these mainly target professional researchers. This book covers this topic in a way that appeals to graduate students, researchers and engineers.

Dieses Worterbuch erleichtert den Einstieg in die oft verwirrende Begriffswelt der Mikroelektronik und der Mikrorechnertechnik und der mit ihr verbundenen Datenverarbeitungstechnik und Informatik. Die 10.000 Begriffe sind aus der Praxis gegriffen und mit prazisen Erklarungen erganzt. Jeder vierte Begriff ist mit einer knapp formulierten Erklarung versehen. Ein unentbehrliches Nachschlagewerk fur alle, die mit Mikroelektronik und Mikrorechnertechnik konfrontiert werden."

The pendulum is a constant source of interest to scientists. Great and well-known inventors such as Galileo, Huygens, and Kelvin all devised mechanisms to maintain its even oscillations. The solutions to the essential problem of maintaining a pendulum in motion without disturbing its natural rhythm are as diverse as the characters who devised them.

By tracing the story of his own contributions to this subject, the author illuminates the human ingenuity employed in pursuit of an impossible goal of perfection, and highlights a fascinating corner of technology now overtaken by electronics.

energy production, environmental management, transportation, communication, computation, and education. As the twenty-first century unfolds, nanotechnology's impact on the health, wealth, and security of the world's people is expected to be at least as significant as the combined influences in this century of antibiotics, the integrated circuit, and human-made polymers. Dr. Neal Lane, Advisor to the President for Science and Technology and former National Science Foundation (NSF) director, stated at a Congressional hearing in April 1998, "If I were asked for an area of science and engineering that will most likely produce the breakthroughs of tomorrow, I would point to nanoscale science and engineering. " Recognizing this potential, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have issued a joint memorandum to Federal agency heads that identifies nanotechnology as a research priority area for Federal investment in fiscal year 2001. This report charts "Nanotechnology Research Directions," as developed by the Interagency W orking Group on Nano Science, Engineering, and Technology (IWGN) of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). The report incorporates the views of leading experts from government, academia, and the private sector. It reflects the consensus reached at an IWGN-sponsored workshop held on January 27-29, 1999, and detailed in contributions submitted thereafter by members of the V. S. science and engineering community. (See Appendix A for a list of contributors.

A wide variety of optical instruments exists in which the human eye forms an integral part of the system. This book provides a detailed description of the visual ergonomics of such instruments. The book begins with a section on image formation and basic optical components. The authors then discuss various optical instruments that can be adequately described using geometrical optics, and follow this with a section on diffraction and interference, and the instruments based on these effects. There are separate sections devoted to ophthalmic instruments and aberration theory, with a final section covering visual ergonomics in depth. Containing many problems and solutions, this book will be of great use to undergraduate and graduate students of optometry, optical design, optical engineering, and visual science, and to professionals working in these and related fields.

Mastering the complexity of innovative systems is a challenging aspect of design and product development. Only a systematic approach can help to embed an increasing degree of smartness in devices and machines, allowing them to adapt to variable conditions or harsh environments. At the same time, customer needs have to be identified before they can be translated into consistent technical requirements. The field of Systems Engineering provides a method, a process, suitable tools and languages to cope with the complexity of various systems such as motor vehicles, robots, railways systems, aircraft and spacecraft, smart manufacturing systems, microsystems, and bio-inspired devices. It makes it possible to trace the entire product lifecycle, by ensuring that requirements are matched to system functions, and functions are matched to components and subsystems, down to the level of assembled parts. This book discusses how Systems Engineering can be suitably deployed and how its benefits are currently being exploited by Product Lifecycle Management. It investigates the fundamentals of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) through a general introduction to this topic and provides two examples of real systems, helping readers understand how these tools are used. The first, which involves the mechatronics of industrial systems, serves to reinforce the main content of the book, while the second describes an industrial implementation of the MBSE tools in the context of developing the on-board systems of a commercial aircraft.

This historical overview of the various styles of American shelf and wall clocks covers the centuries and gives visual pleasure every step of the way. The original owners of these clocks were interested as much in how they looked as in how they told time, so they are quite attractive and are good examples of the cabinet maker's art. The collector can acquire the majority of these beautiful clocks at relatively fair and modest prices, which makes them popular. Gathered from auction houses, museums, and private collections, over 1250 clocks are illustrated here in this newly revised and expanded second edition. Approximately one-third of the photographs are in color, with the remainder in clear black and white. Each is accompanied by an informative caption that will be great help to the reader. A newly updated value guide will be of invaluable assistance to the collector. In illustrating the early growth of the clock making industry in the United States, Mr. Ball has captured an important part of our history.

This book focuses on the use of bio-inspired and biomimetic methods for the fabrication and activation of nanomaterials. This includes studies concerning the binding of the biomolecules to the surface of inorganic structures, structure/function relationships of the final materials and extensive discussions on the final applications of such biomimetic materials in unique applications including energy harvesting/storage, biomedical diagnostics and materials assembly.