One common characteristics of a complex system is its ability to withstand major disturbances and the capacity to rebuild itself. Understanding how such systems demonstrate resilience by absorbing or recovering from major external perturbations requires both quantitative foundations and a multidisciplinary view on the topic.
This book demonstrates how new methods can be used to identify the actions favouring the recovery from perturbations. Examples discussed include bacterial biofilms resisting detachment, grassland savannahs recovering from fire, the dynamics of language competition and Internet social networking sites overcoming vandalism.
The reader is taken through an introduction to the idea of resilience and viability and shown the mathematical basis of the techniques used to analyse systems. The idea of individual or agent-based modelling of complex systems is introduced and related to analytically tractable approximations of such models. A set of case studies illustrates the use of the techniques in real applications, and the final section describes how one can use new and elaborate software tools for carrying out the necessary calculations.
The book is intended for a general scientific audience of readers from the natural and social sciences, yet requires some mathematics to gain a full understanding of the more theoretical chapters.
It is an essential point of reference for those interested in the practical application of the concepts of resilience and viability

Written for researchers and advanced students the book exhibits a combination of various methods and tools required to describe the complexity of the chemical and physical behaviour of fluid surfaces. The common denominator for all the contributions presented here is the simultaneous use of concepts from surface chemistry and physics and from hydrodynamics where external force fields can be introduced. Theoretical and experimental work is equally represented. Most of the basic problems in the area of nonequilibrium multiphase systems have not yet received extensive treatment. This volume should be a reference for physicists, physico-chemists, and chemical engineers and will serve as a jumping-off point for new directions and new points of view.

The book contains the notes of the lectures presented by outstanding experts at the 7th EADN School on plasma astrophysics. It is an up-to-date review of a number of basic topics in the physics of cosmic plasmas. The subject is treated both from a theoretical point of view and from that of the observational and diagnostic tools that provide us with the physically relevant data. The reader will have at hands a comprehensive and rather complete presentation of the subject, thanks also to the parallel development of the theoretical and experimental aspects. The book addresses graduate students and researchers in different areas who want to have a rapid and up-to-date introduction to this subject.

This book contains thoroughly written reviews of modern developments in low-dimensional modelling of statistical mechanics and quantum systems. It addresses students as well as researchers. The main items can be grouped into integrable (quantum) spin systems, which lead in the continuum limit to (conformal invariant) quantum field theory models and their algebraic structures, ranging from the Yang-Baxter equation and quantum groups to noncommutative geometry.

The review articles in this book treat the overall nonlinear and complex behavior of nature from the viewpoint of such diverse research fields as fluid mechanics, condensed matter physics, biophysics, biochemistry, biology, and applied mathematics. Attention is focussed on a broad and comprehensive overview of recent developments and perspectives. Particular attention is given to the so-far unsolved problem of how to capture the mutual interplay between the microscopic and macroscopic dynamics that extend over various length and time scales. The book addresses researchers as well as graduate students.

Modern astronomy has been characterized by an enormous growth in data acquisition - from new technologies in telescopes, detectors, and computation. One can now compile catalogs of tens or hundreds of millions of stars or galaxies and databases from satellite-based observations are reaching terabit proportions. This wealth of data gives rise to statistical challenges not previously encountered in astronomy. This book is the result of a workshop held at Pennsylvania State University in August 1991 that brought together leading astronomers and statisticians to consider statistical challenges encountered in modern astronomical research. The chapters have all been thoroughly revised in the light of the discussions at the conference, and some of the lively discussion is recorded here as well.

In this book, the authors deal with basic concepts and models, with methodologies for studying the existence and stability of motions, understanding the mechanisms of formation of patterns and waves, their propagation and interactions in active lattice systems, and about how much cooperation or competition between order and chaos is crucial for synergetic behavior and evolution.

Dynamics of Topological Magnetic Solitons gives a theoretical and experimental review of the dynamics of high-speed domain walls and Bloch lines. After the introduction of magnetic solitons, experimental methods for the observation of the dynamics of domain walls are presented. Further chapters discuss main features of the stimulated motion of domain walls, their magnetoelastic interaction, stability and relaxation. Finally, the dynamics of domain walls in weak ferromagnets with more than one dimension is treated. The last chapter presents the dynamics of Bloch lines and their clusters. More than 230 references guide the reader to the literature. Physicists will gain new insights in interesting applications of soliton theory in condensed matter physics. Engineers will find new information on magnetooptical effects for further applications.

Critical phenomena is one of the most exciting areas of modern physics. This 2007 book provides a thorough but economic introduction into the principles and techniques of the theory of critical phenomena and the renormalization group, from the perspective of modern condensed matter physics. Assuming basic knowledge of quantum and statistical mechanics, the book discusses phase transitions in magnets, superfluids, superconductors, and gauge field theories. Particular attention is given to topics such as gauge field fluctuations in superconductors, the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, duality transformations, and quantum phase transitions - all of which are at the forefront of physics research. This book contains numerous problems of varying degrees of difficulty, with solutions. These problems provide readers with a wealth of material to test their understanding of the subject. It is ideal for graduate students and more experienced researchers in the fields of condensed matter physics, statistical physics, and many-body physics.

Computational Architectures Integrating Neural and Symbolic Processes: A Perspective on the State of the Art focuses on a currently emerging body of research. With the reemergence of neural networks in the 1980s with their emphasis on overcoming some of the limitations of symbolic AI, there is clearly a need to support some form of high-level symbolic processing in connectionist networks. As argued by many researchers, on both the symbolic AI and connectionist sides, many cognitive tasks, e.g. language understanding and common sense reasoning, seem to require high-level symbolic capabilities. How these capabilities are realized in connectionist networks is a difficult question and it constitutes the focus of this book. Computational Architectures Integrating Neural and Symbolic Processes addresses the underlying architectural aspects of the integration of neural and symbolic processes. In order to provide a basis for a deeper understanding of existing divergent approaches and provide insight for further developments in this field, this book presents: (1) an examination of specific architectures (grouped together according to their approaches), their strengths and weaknesses, why they work, and what they predict, and (2) a critique/comparison of these approaches. Computational Architectures Integrating Neural and Symbolic Processes is of interest to researchers, graduate students, and interested laymen, in areas such as cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computer science, cognitive psychology, and neurocomputing, in keeping up-to-date with the newest research trends. It is a comprehensive, in-depth introduction to this new emerging field.

Stochastic Resonance: Theory and Applications deals with the theory of noise-added systems and in particular with Stochastic Resonance, a quite novel theory that was introduced in the 1980s to provide better understanding of some natural phenomena (e.g. ice age recurrence). Following the very first works, a number of different applications to both natural and human-produced phenomena were proposed. The book aims to improve the understanding of noise-based techniques and to focus on practical applications of this class of phenomena (an aspect that has been very poorly investigated up to now). Based on this objective, the book is roughly divided into two parts. The first part deals with the essential theory of noise-added systems and in particular a new approach to noise-added techniques that allows a number of strategies proposed in previous years to be unified. The proposed approach also allows real-time control of the noise characteristics, assuring optimal system performance. In the second part a large number of applications are described in detail in the field of electric and electronic devices, with the aim of allowing readers to build their own experimental set. The book comes with a diskette of educational software that the authors developed. Stochastic Resonance: Theory and Applications is an invaluable reference for students, researchers and engineering professionals working in the fields of electric and electronic measurements, electronics and signal theory.

Neural Network Parallel Computing is the first book available to the professional market on neural network computing for optimization problems. This introductory book is not only for the novice reader, but for experts in a variety of areas including parallel computing, neural network computing, computer science, communications, graph theory, computer aided design for VLSI circuits, molecular biology, management science, and operations research. The goal of the book is to facilitate an understanding as to the uses of neural network models in real-world applications. Neural Network Parallel Computing presents a major breakthrough in science and a variety of engineering fields. The computational power of neural network computing is demonstrated by solving numerous problems such as N-queen, crossbar switch scheduling, four-coloring and k-colorability, graph planarization and channel routing, RNA secondary structure prediction, knight's tour, spare allocation, sorting and searching, and tiling. Neural Network Parallel Computing is an excellent reference for researchers in all areas covered by the book. Furthermore, the text may be used in a senior or graduate level course on the topic.

Mathematicians often face the question to which extent mathematical models describe processes of the real world. These models are derived from experimental data, hence they describe real phenomena only approximately. Thus a mathematical approach must begin with choosing properties which are not very sensitive to small changes in the model, and so may be viewed as properties of the real process. In particular, this concerns real processes which can be described by means of ordinary differential equations. By this reason different notions of stability played an important role in the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations commonly known nowdays as the theory of dynamical systems. Since physical processes are usually affected by an enormous number of small external fluctuations whose resulting action would be natural to consider as random, the stability of dynamical systems with respect to random perturbations comes into the picture. There are differences between the study of stability properties of single trajectories, i. e. , the Lyapunov stability, and the global stability of dynamical systems. The stochastic Lyapunov stability was dealt with in Hasminskii [Has]. In this book we are concerned mainly with questions of global stability in the presence of noise which can be described as recovering parameters of dynamical systems from the study of their random perturbations. The parameters which is possible to obtain in this way can be considered as stable under random perturbations, and so having physical sense. -1- Our set up is the following.

This book can be looked upon in more ways than one. On the one hand, it describes strikingly interesting and lucid hydrodynamic experiments done in the style of the "good old days" when the physicist needed little more than a piece of string and some sealing wax. On the other hand, it demonstrates how a profound physical analogy can help to get a synoptic view on a broad range of nonlinear phenomena involving self-organization of vortical structures in planetary atmo spheres and oceans, in galaxies and in plasmas. In particular, this approach has elucidated the nature and the mechanism of such grand phenomena as the Great of galaxies. A number of our Red Spot vortex on Jupiter and the spiral arms predictions concerning the dynamics of spiral galaxies are now being confirmed by astronomical observations stimulated by our experiments. This book is based on the material most of which was accumulated during 1981-88 in close cooperation with our colleagues, experimenters from the Plasma Physics Department of the Kurchatov Atomic Energy Institute (S. V. Antipov, A. S. Trubnikov, AYu. Rylov, AV. Khutoretsky) and astrophysics theoreticians from the Astronomical Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences (AM. Frid man) and from the Volgograd State University (AG. Morozov). To all of them we wish to express our gratitude. Whenever we speak of "our experiments," the participation of the entire team is implied."

Thework described in this has somewhat erratically, over monograph grown, of than a more interest inthe was firstaroused period thirty My subject years. thebeautiful and inBroucke.'sthesis also by see computations drawings (1963; Broucke where familiesof orbits in the restricted three 1968), periodic body for the Earth Moon ratio = were mass problem investigated (/.I 0.012155). These that natural for the existence ofthe a explanation drawingssuggested observed familiesand for the found the of orbits could be shapes perhaps by to the limit ] 0. a recourse y As first it a to as as step, appeared catalog completely possible necessary the orbits obtained in this limit. orbits of the first generaiing Generating hadbeen studied andother authors. Poincar6 specZes by (1892) Surprisingly, the two other had been Orbits ofthe however, species apparently neglected. second orbits with or consecutive a species, collisions, present comparatively the ofthe simple problem, only two body problem; no using equations yet had been done.An ofthe systematic ever constituent arcs study inventory was inH6non presented (1968). Also little work had been done on farmlies of orbits of the third very to Hill's A numerical species, was corresponding problem. investigation pub lished inR6non (1969).

Over the last few years it has become apparent that fluid turbulence shares many common features with plasma turbulence, such as coherent structures and self-organization phenomena, passive scalar transport and anomalous diffusion. This book gathers very high level, current papers on these subjects. It is intended for scientists and researchers, lecturers and graduate students because of the review style of the papers.

Universality is one of the fascinating features of condensed matter physies: it is the property whereby systems of radieally different composition and structure ex- hibit similar behavior. In the mid-1960s the word entered usage to express the fact that the equations of state of several substances could be mapped onto one another near the critical point: critieal universality. Renormalization group theory in the early 1970s provided both an explanation and a sharper definition of universality. Systems with similar behavior - universality classes - correspond to the same fixed point of a renormalization group transformation. A number of brilliant con- tributions showed how the same concepts could be applied to non-thermodynamie systems, such as the statisties of self-avoiding walks or of connected clusters on a lattice. A few years later it was realized that chaotie dynamieal systems mayaiso exhibit some degree of universality, the paradigmatic example being the period doubling cascade in the iterated maps of the unit interval into itself.

Over recent years, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, towards the performance modelling, evaluation and prediction of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. This book describes recent advances in ATM networks reflecting the state-of-the-art technology and research achievements worldwide. In addition, it provides a fundamental source of reference in the ATM field. Research topics discussed in detail include: * Traffic Modelling and Characterisation; * Routing; * Switch and Multiplexer Models; * Call Admission Control (CAC); * Congestion Control; * Resource Allocation; * Quality of Service (QoS); * Tools and Techniques. This volume contains recently extended refereed papers of the 5th International Workshop on Performance Modelling and Evaluation of ATM Networks, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Ilkley, UK in July 1997.Performance Analysis of ATM Networks continues the tradition established by the first three IFIP volumes on the subject, and it is ideal for personnel in computer/communication industries as well as academic and research staff in computer science and electrical engineering.

Computational neuroscience is best defined by its focus on understanding the nervous systems as a computational device rather than by a particular experimental technique. Accordinlgy, while the majority of the papers in this book describe analysis and modeling efforts, other papers describe the results of new biological experiments explicitly placed in the context of computational issues. The distribution of subjects in Computation and Neural Systems reflects the current state of the field. In addition to the scientific results presented here, numerous papers also describe the ongoing technical developments that are critical for the continued growth of computational neuroscience. Computation and Neural Systems includes papers presented at the First Annual Computation and Neural Systems meeting held in San Francisco, CA, July 26--29, 1992.

Statistical mechanics attempts to explain the behaviour of macroscopic physical systems in terms of the mechanical properties of their constituents. Although it is one of the fundamental theories of physics, it has received little attention from philosophers of science. Nevertheless, it raises philosophical questions of fundamental importance on the nature of time, chance and reduction. Most philosophical issues in this domain relate to the question of the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics. This book addresses issues inherent in this reduction: the time-asymmetry of thermodynamics and its absence in statistical mechanics; the role and essential nature of chance and probability in this reduction when thermodynamics is non-probabilistic; and how, if at all, the reduction is possible. Compiling contributions on current research by experts in the field, this is an invaluable survey of the philosophy of statistical mechanics for academic researchers and graduate students interested in the foundations of physics.

Thermodynamic methods of analysis have in recent years found ever-growing extensions in diverse regions of modern tech nology. The object of the present book is to apply these methods to the description of materials of varying physical properties. I hope the book will illustrate the wide variety and usefulness of thermodynamics which was well described by Albert Einstein: "A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended is its area of applicability. Therefore the deep impression which classical thermodynamics made upon me." The work of the American thermodynamic school is well known in the Soviet Union, and thus it is a great pleasure to offer this book to American readers. V. V. Sychev v Preface At the present time, when a number of new areas of tech nology are rapidly evolving, it is difficult to present a modern course in technical thermodynamics without developing such sub jects as the thermodynamics of insulators, magnets, and super conductors, or without treating the features of thermodynamic systems located in a gravitational field and in conditions of weight lessness, etc. In fact the limited coverage of technical thermody namics in the usual textbooks and school equipment as a rule prevents the authors from giving any detailed discussion of these important problems. I therefore resolved to treat these problems in a separate text. I discussed the concept of this book with my teachers V. A."

"MEMS Linear and Nonlinear Statics and Dynamics" presents the necessary analytical and computational tools for MEMS designers to model and simulate most known MEMS devices, structures, and phenomena. This book also provides an in-depth analysis and treatment of the most common static and dynamic phenomena in MEMS that are encountered by engineers. Coverage alsoincludes nonlinear modeling approaches to modeling various MEMS phenomena of a nonlinear nature, such as those due to electrostatic forces, squeeze-film damping, and large deflection of structures. The book also: Includes examples of numerous MEMS devices and structures that require static or dynamic modelingProvides code for programs in Matlab, Mathematica, and ANSYS for simulating the behavior of MEMS structuresProvides real world problems related to the dynamics of MEMS such as dynamics of electrostatically actuated devices, stiction and adhesion of microbeams due to electrostatic and capillary forces

"MEMS Linear and Nonlinear Statics and Dynamics "is an ideal volume for researchers and engineers working in MEMS design and fabrication.

Et mai . ..., si j'avait su comment en revenir. One service mathematics has rendered the human race. It has put common sense back je n'y serais point aIIe.' Jules Verne where it belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canister labelled 'discarded non- The series is divergent: therefore we may be sense' . able to do something with it. Eric T. Bell O. Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered com puter science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'etre of this series."

Humans engage in a seemingly endless variety of different behaviors, of which some are found across species, while others are conceived of as typically human. Most generally, behavior comes about through the interplay of various constraints - informational, mechanical, neural, metabolic, and so on - operating at multiple scales in space and time. Over the years, consensus has grown in the research community that, rather than investigating behavior only from bottom up, it may be also well understood in terms of concepts and laws on the phenomenological level. Such top down approach is rooted in theories of synergetics and self-organization using tools from nonlinear dynamics. The present compendium brings together scientists from all over the world that have contributed to the development of their respective fields departing from this background. It provides an introduction to deterministic as well as stochastic dynamical systems and contains applications to motor control and coordination, visual perception and illusion, as well as auditory perception in the context of speech and music.

The first part is devoted to colloidal particles and stochastic dynamics, mainly concerned with recent authoritative results in the study of interactions between colloidal particles and transport properties in colloids and ferrocolloids. Recent advances in non-equilibrium statistical physics, such as stochastic resonance, Brownian motors, ratchets and noise-induced transport are also reported. The second part deals with biological systems and polymers. Here, standard simulation methodology to treat diffusional dynamics of multi-protein systems and proton transport in macromolecules is presented. Results of nervous system, spectroscopy of biological membrane models, and Monte Carlo simulations of polymers chains are also discussed. The third part is concerned with granular materials and quantum systems, in particular an effective-medium theory for a random system is reported. Additionally, a comprehensive treatment of spin and charge order in the vortex lattice of the cuprates, both theoretical and experimental, is included. Thermodynamics analogies between Bose-Einstein condensation and black-body radiation are also presented.The last part of the book contains recent developments of certain topics of liquid crystals and molecular fluids, including nonequilibrium thermal light scattering from nematic liquid crystals, relaxation in the kinetic Ising model on the periodic in homogeneous chain, models for thermotropic liquid-crystals, thermodynamic properties of fluids with discrete potentials as well as of fluids determined from the speed of sound effective potentials, and second viral coefficient for polar fluids.