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.

This work was begun quite some time ago at the University of Oxford during the tenure of an Overseas Scholarship of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and was completed at Banga lore when the author was being supported by a maintenance allowance from the CSIR Pool for unemployed scientists. It is hoped that significant developments taking place as late as the beginning of 1965 have been incorporated. The initial impetus and inspiration for the work came from Dr. K. Mendelssohn. To him and to Drs. R. W. Hill and N. E. Phillips, who went through the whole of the text, the author is obliged in more ways than one. For permission to use figures and other materials, grateful thanks are tendered to the concerned workers and institutions. The author is not so sanguine as to imagine that all technical and literary flaws have been weeded out. If others come across them, they may be charitably brought to the author's notice as proof that physics has become too vast to be comprehended by a single onlooker. E. S. RAJA GoPAL Department of Physics Indian Institute of Science Bangalore 12, India November 1965 v Contents Introduction ................................................................. .

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).

The five contributions describe some key mathematical concepts involved in the study of complex systems and non-perturbative problems. The selection of topics is intended to cross-fertilize the various fields where complex systems theory has made an impact. The book presents specific and detailed results meant for a wide audience of researchers and students. It begins with those contributions which help to set up a general theoretical framework and ends with selected applications to the particular areas of biophysics, statistical physics, astrophysics and cosmology. It also includes an extensive bibliography. This pedagogically written text can be used as an introduction to the fundamental ideas behind complex systems theory.

This critical overview describes fluid flow driven by the thermocapillary effect in models of crystal growth. Simple models are the floating-zone technique and the open-boat technique. Basic equations, boundary layer scaling, stability analysis, pattern formation and additional buoyancy are discussed. Particular emphasis is given to the understanding of the physics of flow. This reference book gives a state-of-the-art report and reviews the literature available.

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.

This monograph treats, for the first time, major aspects of gas dynamics of nozzles from a general point of view. Its outstanding feature is the pre- sentation of the modern theory of gas flows and modern analytical and nu- merical methods, together with numerous examples of practical applications. At the same time, quite diverse physico-chemical processes, such as disso- ciation and recombination, relaxation of vibrational degrees of freedom, two-phase flows wi th phase trans formati ons and e 1 ectromagneti c i nf1 uences, are considered. The material is presented in such a way as to help the reader to use numer- ous methods and approaches, not only for the study of gas flows in nozzles, but also for the investigation of a wide variety of problems of physical gas dynamics in different areas of application. The number of applications which may benefit from the use of the methods and results presented in this book is constantly growing. Theoretical, numerical and analytical methods of physical gas dynamics of internal flows may be, and are nowadays, ap- plied to solving the problem of preventing pollution of the air basin with toxic substances. These methods make it possible to describe the formation and transformation of toxic components in the vapour generators of thermal power plants, internal combustion engines and various metallurgical instal- lations. The methods of physical gas dynamics may be used in meteorology and powder metallurgy to create ultradispersed media and predict their proper- ties.

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.

Stochastic Energetics by now commonly designates the emerging field that bridges the gap between stochastic dynamical processes and thermodynamics. Triggered by the vast improvements in spatio-temporal resolution in nanotechnology, stochastic energetics develops a framework for quantifying individual realizations of a stochastic process on the mesoscopic scale of thermal fluctuations. This is needed to answer such novel questions as: Can one cool a drop of water by agitating an immersed nano-particle? How does heat flow if a Brownian particle pulls a polymer chain? Can one measure the free-energy of a system through a single realization of the associated stochastic process? This book will take the reader gradually from the basics to the applications: Part I provides the necessary background from stochastic dynamics (Langevin, master equation), Part II introduces how stochastic energetics describes such basic notions as heat and work on the mesoscopic scale, Part III details several applications, such as control and detection processes, as well as free-energy transducers. It aims in particular at researchers and graduate students working in the fields of nanoscience and technology.

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."

Many laboratory and astrophysical plasmas show deviations from local ther modynamic equilibrium (LTE). This monograph develops non-LTE plasma spectroscopy as a kinetic theory of particles and photons, considering the radiation field as a photon gas whose distribution function (the radiation in tensity) obeys a kinetic equation (the radiative transfer equation), just as the distribution functions of particles obey kinetic equations. Such a unified ap proach provides clear insight into the physics of non-LTE plasmas. Chapter 1 treats the principle of detailed balance, of central importance for understanding the non-LTE effects in plasmas. Chapters 2, 3 deal with kinetic equations of particles and photons, respectively, followed by a chapter on the fluid description of gases with radiative interactions. Chapter 5 is devoted to the H theorem, and closes the more general first part of the book. The last two chapters deal with more specific topics. After briefly discuss ing optically thin plasmas, Chap. 6 treats non-LTE line transfer by two-level atoms, the line profile coefficients of three-level atoms, and non-Maxwellian electron distribution functions. Chapter 7 discusses topics where momentum exchange between matter and radiation is crucial: the approach to thermal equilibrium through interaction with blackbody radiation, radiative forces, and Compton scattering. A number of appendices have been added to make the book self-contained and to treat more special questions. In particular, Appendix B contains an in troductory discussion of atomic line profile coefficients."

"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.

Arturo Carsetti According to molecular Biology, true invariance (life) can exist only within the framework of ongoing autonomous morphogenesis and vice versa. With respect to this secret dialectics, life and cognition appear as indissolubly interlinked. In this sense, for instance, the inner articulation of conceptual spaces appears to be linked to an inner functional development based on a continuous activity of selection and "anchorage" realised on semantic grounds. It is the work of "invention" and g- eration (in invariance), linked with the "rooting" of meaning, which determines the evolution, the leaps and punctuated equilibria, the conditions related to the unfo- ing of new modalities of invariance, an invariance which is never simple repetition and which springs on each occasion through deep-level processes of renewal and recovery. The selection perpetrated by meaning reveals its autonomy aboveall in its underpinning, in an objective way, the ongoing choice of these new modalities. As such it is not, then, concerned only with the game of "possibles," offering itself as a simple channel for pure chance, but with providing a channel for the articulation of the " le" in the humus of a semantic (and embodied) net in order to prepare the necessary conditionsfor a continuousrenewal and recoveryof original creativity. In effect, it is this autonomy in inventing new possible modules of incompressibility whichdeterminestheactualemergenceofnew(andtrue)creativity, whichalsotakes place through the "narration" of the effected construction.

also in: THE KLUWER INTERNATIONAL SERIES ON ASIAN STUDIES IN COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE, Volume 2

This volume contains the proceedings of the symposium held on Friday 6 July 1990 at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI), France, in honor of Professor Henri Cabannes on the occasion of his retirement. There were about one hundred participants from nine countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the USA. Many of his past students or his colleagues were among the participants. The twenty-six papers in this volume are written versions submitted by the authors and cover almost all the fields in which Professor Cabannes has actively worked for more than forty-five years. The papers are presented in four chapters: classical kinetic theory and fluid dynamics, discrete kinetic theory, applied fluid mechanics, and continuum mechanics. The editors would like to take this opportunity to thank the generous spon sors of the symposium: the University Pierre et Marie Curie, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (especially Academician R. Dautray and Dr. N. Camarcat) and Direction des Recherches et Etudes Techniques (especially Professor P. Lallemand). Many thanks are also due to all the participants for making the symposium a success. Finally, we thank Professor W. Beiglbock and his team at Springer-Verlag for producing this volume.

Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems: Theory and Applications discusses theories that have proven useful in applying neural networks and fuzzy systems to real world problems. The book includes performance comparison of neural networks and fuzzy systems using data gathered from real systems. Topics covered include the Hopfield network for combinatorial optimization problems, multilayered neural networks for pattern classification and function approximation, fuzzy systems that have the same functions as multilayered networks, and composite systems that have been successfully applied to real world problems. The author also includes representative neural network models such as the Kohonen network and radial basis function network. New fuzzy systems with learning capabilities are also covered. The advantages and disadvantages of neural networks and fuzzy systems are examined. The performance of these two systems in license plate recognition, a water purification plant, blood cell classification, and other real world problems is compared.