The purpose of this four volume series is to make available for college teachers and students samples of important and realistic applications of mathematics which can be covered in undergraduate programs. The goal is to provide illustrations of how modem mathematics is actually employed to solve relevant contemporary problems. Although these independent chapters were prepared primarily for teachers in the general mathematical sciences, they should prove valuable to students, teachers, and research scientists in many of the fields of application as well. Prerequisites for each chapter and suggestions for the teacher are provided. Several of these chapters have been tested in a variety of classroom settings, and all have undergone extensive peer review and revision. Illustrations and exercises are included in most chapters. Some units can be covered in one class, whereas others provide sufficient material for a few weeks of class time. Volume 1 contains 23 chapters and deals with differential equations and, in the last four chapters, problems leading to partial differential equations. Applications are taken from medicine, biology, traffic systems and several other fields. The 14 chapters in Volume 2 are devoted mostly to problems arising in political science, but they also address questions appearing in sociology and ecology. Topics covered include voting systems, weighted voting, proportional representation, coalitional values, and committees. The 14 chapters in Volume 3 emphasize discrete mathematical methods such as those which arise in graph theory, combinatorics, and networks.

The method of normal forms is usually attributed to Poincare although some of the basic ideas of the method can be found in earlier works of Jacobi, Briot and Bouquet. In this book, A.D.Bruno gives an account of the work of these mathematicians and further developments as well as the results of his own extensive investigations on the subject. The book begins with a thorough presentation of the analytical techniques necessary for the implementation of the theory as well as an extensive description of the geometry of the Newton polygon. It then proceeds to discuss the normal form of systems of ordinary differential equations giving many specific applications of the theory. An underlying theme of the book is the unifying nature of the method of normal forms regarding techniques for the study of the local properties of ordinary differential equations. In the second part of the book it is shown, for a special class of equations, how the method of normal forms yields classical results of Lyapunov concerning families of periodic orbits in the neighborhood of equilibrium points of Hamiltonian systems as well as the more modern results concerning families of quasiperiodic orbits obtained by Kolmogorov, Arnold and Moser. The book is intended for mathematicians, theoretical mechanicians, and physicists. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.