An international workshop on Elementary Excitations and Fluctuations in Magnetic Systems was held in Turin for five days beginning 25 May, 1987. The workshop followed much the same format as the one with the same title held in San Miniato in 1984 (proceedings: Springer Series in-Solid-State Sciences, Vol. 54), that most participants contributed talks and provided papers for the proceedings. While many of the participants had attended the first workshop, 15 of the 40 invited review papers were presented by scientists who had not. The majority of the talks reported theoretical work concerned with the introduction of new techniques. However, experimental work was also well represented, not least because many of the reported theoretical studies were motivated by experimental findings, and a highlight of the workshop was an extremely stimulating session devoted to recent neutron scattering measure- ments, on various systems, that exploited polarization analysis. The fine venue of the workshop, Villa Gualino, with its excellent facili- ties and spacious accommodation, helped to produce a delightful relaxed and friendly atmosphere. For the use of Villa Gualino and significant financial support we are indebted to our host organization, the Institute for Scien- tific Interchange (lSI). Additional financial support came from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Centro Interuniversitario di Struttura della Material del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione (CISM-MPI) and Gruppo Nazionale di Struttura della Materia (GNSM-CNR).

It is universally recognized that the end of the current and the beginning of the next century will be characterized by a radical change in the existing trends in the economic development of all countries and a transition to new principles of economic management on the basis of a resource and energy conservation policy. Thus there is an urgent necessity to study methods, technical aids and economic consequences of this change, and particularly, to determine the possible amounts of energy resources which could be conserved (energy "reserves") in different spheres of the national economy. An increased interest towards energy conservation in industry, one of the largest energy consumers, is quite natural and is manifested by the large num ber of publications on this topic. But the majority of publications are devoted to the solution of narrowly defined problems, determination of energy reserves in specific processes and plants, efficiency estimation of individual energy conserva tion measures, etc. However, it is necessary to develop a general methodological approach to the solution of such problems and create a scientific and methodical base for realizing an energy conservation policy. Such an effort is made in this book, which is concerned with methods for studying energy use efficiency in technological processes and estimation of the theoretical and actual energy reserves in a given process, technology, or industrial sector on the basis of their complete energy balances."

The methods of statistical physics have become increasingly important in recent years for the treatment of a variety of diverse physical problems. Of principal interest is the microscopic description of the dynamics of dissipative systems. Although a unified theoretical description has at present not yet been achieved, we have assumed the task of writing a textbook which summarizes those of the most important methods which are self-contained and complete in themselves. We cannot, of course, claim to have treated the field exhaustively. A microscopic description of physical phenomena must necessarily be based upon quantum theory, and we have therefore carried out the treatment of dynamic processes strictly within a quantum-theoretical framework. For this reason alone it was necessary to omit a number of extremely important theories which have up to now been formulated only in terms of classical statistics. The goal of this book is, on the one hand, to give an introduction to the general principles of the quantum statistics of dynamical processes, and, on the other, to provide readers who are interested in the treatment of particular phenomena with methods for solving specific problems. The theory is for the most part formulated within the calculational frame work of Liouville space, which, together with projector formalism, has become an expedient mathematical tool in statistical physics."

Physicists, when modelling physical systems with a large number of degrees of freedom, and statisticians, when performing data analysis, have developed their own concepts and methods for making the `best' inference. But are these methods equivalent, or not? What is the state of the art in making inferences? The physicists want answers. More: neural computation demands a clearer understanding of how neural systems make inferences; the theory of chaotic nonlinear systems as applied to time series analysis could profit from the experience already booked by the statisticians; and finally, there is a long-standing conjecture that some of the puzzles of quantum mechanics are due to our incomplete understanding of how we make inferences. Matter enough to stimulate the writing of such a book as the present one. But other considerations also arise, such as the maximum entropy method and Bayesian inference, information theory and the minimum description length. Finally, it is pointed out that an understanding of human inference may require input from psychologists. This lively debate, which is of acute current interest, is well summarized in the present work.

Owing to efforts and legislative action - initiated above all by the government of the United States - to use cleaner fuels and thus make a contribution towards a better environment, public attention is back again on using methanol in carbu rettor and diesel engines. Most prominent among the raw materials from which methanol can be produced is coal, whose deposits and resources are many times larger than those of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons. This book deals with the production of methanol from coal. It describes both the individual steps that are required for this process and the essential ancillary units and offsites associated with the process itself . . It is not meant to inform the reader about the intricate details of the processes, which can much better be taken from the specialized literature that deals exclusively and in detail with them or from the well-known standard engineering books. Rather, this book is to give the reader an impression how manifold a field this is, how many process variations and combinations the designer of such plants has to consider in order to arrive at an optimum design in each particular case. Apart from the production of chemical-grade methanol, the book deals briefly also with fuel methanol production, i. e. with the production of alcohol mixes. One of the many possible routes from coal to methanol is illustrated by a process flow diagram, and a material and energy balance is compiled for this typical example."

Gas-phase photoacoustics are treated comprehensively for the first time in this book. Review articles by leading scientists in the respective research areas introduce their fields, review present knowledge and conclude with the latest developments and future prospects. Topics covered include the theory of photoacoustics in the frequency and time domains, acoustic resonator models, a great variety of experimental setups and techniques, studies of spectrocopy and fundamental kinetic processes such as energy transfer and chemical reactions, and applications such as air and exhaust monitoring and trace gas detection in biology and agriculture. The book will interest newcomers to photoacoustics, since it gives an overview of the important directions of current research and detailed descriptions of experimental methods. It will also be a valuable source of information for those already involved in photoacoustic research due to its clear presentation of theory and experimental results. All relevant literature references in this rapidly expanding field of laser applications are included.

The Boundary Element Method (BEM) has become established as an effective tool for the solutions of problems in engineering science. The salient features of the BEM have been well documented in the open literature and therefore will not be elaborated here. The BEM research has progressed rapidly, especially in the past decade and continues to evolve worldwide. This Symposium was organized to provide an international forum for presentation of current research in BEM for linear and nonlinear problems in solid and fluid mechanics and related areas. To this end, papers on the following topics were included: rotary wing aerodynamics, unsteady aerodynamics, design and optimization, elasticity, elasto dynamics and elastoplasticity, fracture mechanics, acoustics, diffusion and wave motion, thermal analysis, mathematical aspects and boundary/finite element coupled methods. A special session was devoted to parallel/vector supercomputing with emphasis on mas sive parallelism. This Symposium was sponsored by United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), NASA Langley Research Center, and the International Association of Boundary Ele ment Methods (lAB EM) . We thank the UTRC management for their permission to host this Symposium. In particular, we thank Dr. Arthur S. Kesten and Mr. Robert E. Olson for their encouragement and support. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Dr. E. Carson Yates, Jr. of NASA Langley, Prof. Luigi Morino, Dr. Thomas A."

The fourth Nishinomiya-Yukawa Memorial Symposium, devoted to the topic of dynamics and patterns in complex fluids, was held on October 26 and 27, 1989, in Nishinomiya City, Japan, where ten invited speakers gave their lectures. A one-day meeting, comprising short talks and poster sessions, was then held on the same topic on October 28 at the Research Institute for Fundamental Physics, Kyoto University. The present volume contains the 10 invited papers and 38 contributed papers presented at these two meetings. The symposium was sponsored by Nishinomiya City, where Prof. Hideki Yukawa once lived and where he wrote the celebrated paper describing the work that was later honored by a Nobel prize. The topic of the fourth symposium was chosen from one of the most vigorously evolving and highly interdisciplinary fields in condensed matter physics. The field of complex fluids is very diverse and still in its infancy and, as a result, the definition of a complex fluid varies greatly from one researcher to the next. One of the objectives of the symposium was to clarify its definition by explicitly posing a number of potentially rich problems waiting to be explored. Indeed, experimentalists are disclosing a variety of intriguing dynamical phenomena in complex systems such as polymers, liquid crystals, gels, colloids, and surfactant systems. We, the organizers, hope that the symposium will contribute to the increasing importance of the field in the coming years.

An international workshop on Elementary Excitations and Fluctuations in Magnetic Systems was held in San Miniato, Italy, for five days beginning 28 May, 1984. The workshop comprised eight working sessions that contai- ned a total of 43 invited talks, and 58 scientists were in attendance from 14 countries. Our aim was to review some topics of current interest in the statistical physics of magnetic materials and models, with an emphasis on theoretical studies and confrontations between these and experimental and computer simulation data. book contains summary papers written by the invited speakers, and This the material will be of immediate interest to graduate students and resear- chers engaged in studies of magnetic properties. There is, perhaps, no ef- fective way to record and convey the benefit of the numerous discussions between the participants that are a significant integral feature of a work- shop. The magnificent .venue of the workshop, I Cappuccini, was made availa- ble to us by the.Cassa di Risparmio San Miniato. Financial support for the workshop was received from Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Universita degli Studi di Firenze and the Gruppo Nazionale Struttura,della Materia. Our administrative load and the burden of preparing the proceedings for publication was made light by the talents of Carla Pardini (CNR, Florence), and Caroline Monypenny and Jane Warren (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory). Fina 11y, we wish to thank all the participants for their attendance and individual contributions to the success of the workshop.

This volume is the proceedings of the Hiroshima Symposium on Elementary Excitations in Quantum Fluids, which was held on August 17 and 18, 1987, in Hiroshima, Japan, and was attended by thirty-two scientists from seven countries. Quantum fluids have been the subject of intense study as a consequence of their superfluid properties at very low temperatures. Elementary excitations in them are an important concept about which many important discoveries have been made in recent years. This symposium was arranged by a group of physicists from Hiroshima University to provide an opportunity to discuss these recent developments. It was conceived as a satellite conference of the 18th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics (LT 18), which was held in Kyoto, August 20-26, 1987. Emphasis was placed on the dynamic structures and correlations of ele mentary excitations, which resulted in invited speakers being selected from this field. However, enthusiastic contributors reported notable new results on various other aspects of the elementary excitations, which made the sympo sium lively and successful. It is our great satisfaction to present this volume, which includes papers of good quality and originality. We thank all the parti cipants for their cooperation throughout this symposium, and for preparing their manuscripts within a reasonable time."

Professor Sluzalec is a well-known and respected authority in the field of Computational Mechanics, and his personal experience forms the basis of the book. Introduction to Nonlinear Thermomechanics provides both an elementary and advanced exposition of nonlinear thermomechanics. The scope includes theoretical aspects and their rational application in thermal problems, thermo-elastoplasticity, finite strain thermoplasticity and coupled thermoplasticity. The use of numerical techniques for the solution of problems and implementation of basic theory is included. Engineers, technicians, researchers, and advanced students will find the book an extremely useful compendium of solutions to problems. The scope is such that it would also be an effective teaching aid.

In the tradition of its predecessors, this volume comprises a selection of the best papers presented at the Ninth International Symposium on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics, held in Lisbon in July 2000.
The papers reflect the state-of-the-art in laser applications of laser techniques in fluid mechanics describing novel ideas for instrumentation, instrumentation developments, results of measurements of wall-bounded flows, free flows and flames and flow and combustion in engines. The papers demonstrate the continuing interest in the development of an understanding of new methodologies and implementation in terms of new instrumentation.

Cellular automata are fully discrete dynamical systems with dynamical variables defined at the nodes of a lattice and taking values in a finite set. Application of a local transition rule at each lattice site generates the dynamics. The interpretation of systems with a large number of degrees of freedom in terms of lattice gases has received considerable attention recently due to the many applications of this approach, e.g. for simulating fluid flows under nearly realistic conditions, for modeling complex microscopic natural phenomena such as diffusion-reaction or catalysis, and for analysis of pattern-forming systems. The discussion in this book covers aspects of cellular automata theory related to general problems of information theory and statistical physics, lattice gas theory, direct applications, problems arising in the modeling of microscopic physical processes, complex macroscopic behavior (mostly in connection with turbulence), and the design of special-purpose computers.

Rhythms are a basic phenomenon in all physiological systems. They cover an enormous range of frequencies with periods from the order of milliseconds up to some years. They are described by many disciplines and are investigated usually in the context of the physiology of the respective function or organ. The importance given to the research on rhythmicity is quite different in different systems. In some cases where the functional significance is obvious rhythms are at the center of interest, as in the case of respiration or locomotion. In other fields they are considered more or less as interesting epiphenomena or at best as indicators without essential functional significance, as in the case of cardiovascular or EEG rhythms. Recently the study of physiological rhythms has attracted growing interest in several fields, especially with respect to rhythm research in humans and its rapidly spreading applications in basic behavioral research, and as a diagnostic tool in clinical medicine. This development was favored by two methodological and conceptual ad vances: on the one hand, the availability of non-invasive methods of continu ous recording of physiological parameters and their computer-assisted evaluation, and on the other, the rapid development of theoretical analyses, for example, the understanding of dynamic systems, the generation of coordinated macroscopic pro cesses in systems comprising many single elements, and the mathematical tools for treating nonlinear oscillators and their mutual coupling.

A special survey of the extensive field of Constitutive Laws is given in 11 lectures, divided into three parts: Thermodynamics of Materials, Stochastic Processes and Material Behaviour, Constitutive Relations for Simple Fluids and Microphysics of Solids. The collection of lectures comprehends a novel survey of thermodynamical constitutive theories, and contributions to material theories with after-effects including experiments, stochastic constitutive laws, molecular dynamics for simulating material properties, electrodynamical constitutive properties, and thermodynamic and microphysical modelling of polymers. The selected lectures emphasize the microstructural aspect of constitutive laws, and this collection presents a new facet of constitutive laws.

This volume contains the lectures presented at the mini-symposium on "Micromechanics" held in conjunction with the CSME Mechanical Engineer ing Forum 1990 between the 3rd and 8th June, 1990 at the University of Toronto, Canada. The expressed purpose of this symposium was to discuss some recent developments in the Micromechanics of Materials and how ad vances in this field now relate to the solution of practical engineer ing problems. Due to the time limit set for this section of the Engineer ing Forum as well as the restriction on the number of papers to be pre sented, it was not possible to cover a much wider range of topics. How ever, an attempt was made to include the most important advances asso ciated with the progress made in micromechanics in its application to material science and engineering over the past decade. Thus, the topics are concerned with: the fundamental aspects of the thermodynamics of structured solids (part I), - the micromechanical behaviour of alloys (part II), - the modelling of the material behaviour on the basis of continuum theory (part III), and finally the important new approach to the characterization of various mate rials and their responses to external agencies by the use of proba bilistic micromechanics (part IV). We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Prof. F. P. J. Rimrott, and the President of the CSME, Prof. T. S."

Our aim in this book is to present and enlarge upon those aspects of parallel computing that are needed by practitioners of computational science. Today al most all classical sciences, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, employ numerical methods to help gain insight into nature. In addition to the traditional numerical methods, such as matrix inversions and the like, a whole new field of computational techniques has come to assume central importance, namely the numerical simulation methods. These methods are much less fully developed than those which are usually taught in a standard numerical math ematics course. However, they form a whole new set of tools for research in the physical sciences and are applicable to a very wide range of problems. At the same time there have been not only enormous strides forward in the speed and capability of computers but also dramatic new developments in computer architecture, and particularly in parallel computers. These improvements offer exciting prospects for computer studies of physical systems, and it is the new techniques and methods connected with such computer simulations that we seek to present in this book, particularly in the light of the possibilities opened up by parallel computers. It is clearly not possible at this early stage to write a definitive book on simulation methods and parallel computing."

Technical progress has for a very long time been directly dependent on progress in metallurgy, which is itself connected with improvements in the technology of alloys. Metals are most frequently used in the form of alloys for several reasons: the quantity of pure metal in its native state in the earth's crust is very limited; pure metals must be extracted from ores which are themselves impure. Finally, the methods of treatment used lead more easily to alloys than to pure metals. The most typical case is that of iron, where a pure ore may be found, but which is the starting point for cast iron or steel, alloys of iron and carbon. In addition, the properties of alloys are in general superior to those of pure metals and modem metallurgy consists of controlling these properties so as to make them conform to the requirements of the design office. Whilst the engineer was formerly compelled to adapt his designs and constructions to the materials available, such as wood, stone, bronze, iron, cast iron and ordinary steels, he can now expect, due to metallurgical research, the creation of special alloys meeting specific requirements. These requirements must of course be reasonable, but VIII INTRODUCTION must be sufficiently imperative for them to become the motive for progress.

The subject of laminar-turbulent transition is of considerable practical importance and has a wide range of engineering applications. For this reason, the International Union of Applied Mechanics decided to sponsor a third Symposium on "Laminar-Turbulent Transition," which would be organised by the ONERA Toulouse Research Center and held at "Ecole Nationale Superieure de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace" in 1989. It was supposed that like the two previous IUTAM Symposia (Stuttgart 1979 and Novosibirsk 1984) the symposium would be devoted to experimental of laminar-turbulent transition In fluids, i.e. the and theoretical studies physical problem of transition and mathematical modelling in shear flows. The contributed papers were selected by the Scientific Committee from extended abstracts. The larger number of highly qualified papers submitted for presentation led us to include in the program poster sessions, which could be held during morning, lunch and afternoon breaks, and to take the decision that the symposium should last five days (from Monday 11 to Friday 15 September). An excursion on Wednesday offering a well deserved rest and the occasion of new personal exchanges between the participants seems to have been appreciated by all. The symposium consisted of 8 invited lectures and 62 contributed pa pers presented either on oral or poster sessions."

Many novel cooperative phenomena found in a variety of systems studied by scientists can be treated using the uniting principles of synergetics. Examples are frustrated and random systems, polymers, spin glasses, neural networks, chemical and biological systems, and fluids. In this book attention is focused on two main problems. First, how local, topological constraints (frustrations) can cause macroscopic cooperative behavior: related ideas initially developed for spin glasses are shown to play key roles also for optimization and the modeling of neural networks. Second, the dynamical constraints that arise from the nonlinear dynamics of the systems: the discussion covers turbulence in fluids, pattern formation, and conventional 1/f noise. The volume will be of interest to anyone wishing to understand the current development of work on complex systems, which is presently one of the most challenging subjects in statistical and condensed matter physics.

Lectures on Non-linear Plasma Kinetics is an introduction to modern non-linear plasma physics showing how many of the techniques of modern non-linear physics find applications in plasma physics and how, in turn, the results of this research find applications in astrophysics. Emphasis is given to explaining the physics of nonlinear processes and the radical change of cross-sections by collective effects. The author discusses new nonlinear phenomena involving the excitation of coherent nonlinear structures and the dynamics of their random motions in relation to new self-organization processes. He also gives a detailed description of applications of the general theory to various research fields, including the interaction of powerful radiation with matter, controlled thermonuclear research, etc.

The Sixth International Symposium on Gas Flow and Chemical Lasers (GCL) was held in Jerusalem, Israel, on September 8-12, 1986. The charm and beauty of Jerusalem and the unique blending of ancient and modern made this Symposium an enjoyable experience for the 165 participants and the accompanying persons. Yet, it seems that the invited and contributed papers presented at the Symposium were equally attractive so that most of the participants attended most sessions, resisting the temptations outside the session hall. Indeed, many speakers presented up-to-date results that were obtained, or cleared, just a few days before the Symposium. This volume is a compi lation of 19 invited and 61 contributed papers and of a panel discussion on the prospects for short wavelength chemical lasers held at the closing session of the Symposium. This discussion is presented as recorded in order to re tain the flavour of spontaneous presentation at the risk - or advantage - of presenting some venturous ideas, and the danger of misquoting. In editing the book, a deductive approach has been attempted. The book starts with some fundamental issues, namely fluid dynamics and optics, and then deals with the design, diagnostics, propagation and applications of various gas laser systems, covering the wavelength spectrum from XUV to infrared. Then follow recent developments of general interest to the laser community and the book concludes with an eye to the future, i.e., with a section on short wavelength chemical lasers."

The 3rd edition is thoroughly revised, applications are substantially enriched, it includes a new account of the early history of the subject (from 1800 to 1957) and a new chapter recounting the recent solution of open problems of long standing in classical aerodynamics. The bibliography comprises now over fifteen hundred titles.

From the reviews:

"The author is known as one of the leading experts in the field. His masterly written book is, surely, the most complete exposition in the subject of conservations laws." --Zentralblatt MATH

A IUTAM symposium on "Measuring Techniques in Gas-Liquid Two Phase Flows" was held on July 5-8, 1983 in Nancy, France. This topic in cluded instrumentation for steam-water and liquid-vapor flows but strictly excluded measuring techniques for gas or liquid flows with solid particles. The top priority in the paper selection was given to presentations of new methods which had been substantiated by theoretical modeling, calibration tests and comparison tests with other techniques. Examples of experimental resul ts obtained with the proposed instrumentation had to be displayed. However the interpretation of these results in terms of two-phase flow or heat transfer modeling did not fall wi thin the scope of the meeting. Thirty four papers were presented during the Symposium and 79 participants coming from Canada, European countries, Japan and the United States attended the sessions. They represented not only Universities but also state agencies and private companies. After the meeting each paper was peer-reviewed by at least three referees. The Editors of this Procee dings Volume are pleased to extend their deep gratitude to the following reviewers: J.L. Achard, R.J. Adrian, B. Azzopardi, J.A. Boure, G. Costigan, M. Courtaud, A.E. Dukler, F. Durst, J.R. Fincke, G. Gouesbet, P. Griffith, T.J. Hanratty, A. Hawighorst, T.R. Heidrick, G. Hetsroni, Y.Y. Hsu, M."