The quantitative and qualitative study of the physical world makes use of many mathematical models governed by a great diversity of ordinary, partial differential, integral, and integro-differential equations. An essential step in such investigations is the solution of these types of equations, which sometimes can be performed analytically, while at other times only numerically. This edited, self-contained volume presents a series of state-of-the-art analytic and numerical methods of solution constructed for important problems arising in science and engineering, all based on the powerful operation of (exact or approximate) integration.

The book, consisting of twenty seven selected chapters presented by well-known specialists in the field, is an outgrowth of the Eighth International Conference on Integral Methods in Science and Engineering, held August 2a "4, 2004, in Orlando, FL. Contributors cover a wide variety of topics, from the theoretical development of boundary integral methods to the application of integration-based analytic and numerical techniques that include integral equations, finite and boundary elements, conservation laws, hybrid approaches, and other procedures.

The volume may be used as a reference guide and a practical resource. It is suitable for researchers and practitioners in applied mathematics, physics, and mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as graduate students in these disciplines.

In 1954, a wide-eyed youngster named Gareld Rollins arrived on the campus of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas as a freshman, slated to work as a student manager for the football team. The head coach, who had just arrived at A&M the previous February, was Paul 'Bear' Bryant, who was already in the process of becoming a sports legend. Bryant had brought with him Charles 'Smokey' Harper as head athletic trainer, who not only taped ankles and administered first aid to injured players but was also Bryant's most trusted advisor on the topic of his players' ability, potential, and, above all, their grit. In Return to Junction: Smokey and the Bear and Other Aggie Football Stories, Rollins tells the behind-the-scenes stories of the Bryant era in Texas A&M football, a time that began amid 'the goat-head stickers and dust' of a practice field in Junction, Texas, and ended with the shocking news that Bryant intended to 'go home to Mama,' taking the head coaching job at the University of Alabama. In fact, as Rollins relates, he had the job - as both a trusted athletic trainer and the student editor of the Texas A&M campus newspaper, the Battalion - of secretly helping Coach Bryant draft the news release that would officially announce his departure from A&M. Featuring interviews and recollections from many of those who lived that time along with him, Rollins gives readers a firsthand view of what has come to be seen as a golden time in Texas A&M football.