Modern approaches to the study of symplectic 4-manifolds and algebraic surfaces combine a wide range of techniques and sources of inspiration. Gauge theory, symplectic geometry, pseudoholomorphic curves, singularity theory, moduli spaces, braid groups, monodromy, in addition to classical topology and algebraic geometry, combine to make this one of the most vibrant and active areas of research in mathematics. It is our hope that the five lectures of the present volume given at the C.I.M.E. Summer School held in Cetraro, Italy, September 2-10, 2003 will be useful to people working in related areas of mathematics and will become standard references on these topics.

The volume is a coherent exposition of an active field of current research focusing on the introduction of new methods for the study of moduli spaces of complex structures on algebraic surfaces, and for the investigation of symplectic topology in dimension 4 and higher.

There has been fundamental progress in complex differential geometry in the last two decades. For one, The uniformization theory of canonical K hler metrics has been established in higher dimensions, and many applications have been found, including the use of Calabi-Yau spaces in superstring theory. This monograph gives an introduction to the theory of canonical K hler metrics on complex manifolds. It also presents some advanced topics not easily found elsewhere.

Presenting some impressive recent achievements in differential geometry and topology, this volume focuses on results obtained using techniques based on Ricci flow. These ideas are at the core of the study of differentiable manifolds. Several very important open problems and conjectures come from this area and the techniques described herein are used to face and solve some of them. The book's four chapters are based on lectures given by leading researchers in the field of geometric analysis and low-dimensional geometry/topology, respectively offering an introduction to: the differentiable sphere theorem (G. Besson), the geometrization of 3-manifolds (M. Boileau), the singularities of 3-dimensional Ricci flows (C. Sinestrari), and Kahler-Ricci flow (G. Tian). The lectures will be particularly valuable to young researchers interested in differential manifolds.

This book gives a complete proof of the geometrization conjecture, which describes all compact 3-manifolds in terms of geometric pieces, i.e., 3-manifolds with locally homogeneous metrics of finite volume. The method is to understand the limits as time goes to infinity of Ricci flow with surgery. The first half of the book is devoted to showing that these limits divide naturally along incompressible tori into pieces on which the metric is converging smoothly to hyperbolic metrics and pieces that are locally more and more volume collapsed. The second half of the book is devoted to showing that the latter pieces are themselves geometric. This is established by showing that the Gromov-Hausdorff limits of sequences of more and more locally volume collapsed 3-manifolds are Alexandrov spaces of dimension at most 2 and then classifying these Alexandrov spaces. In the course of proving the geometrization conjecture, the authors provide an overview of the main results about Ricci flows with surgery on 3-dimensional manifolds, introducing the reader to this difficult material. The book also includes an elementary introduction to Gromov-Hausdorff limits and to the basics of the theory of Alexandrov spaces. In addition, a complete picture of the local structure of Alexandrov surfaces is developed. All of these important topics are of independent interest.

In 1993, M Kontsevich proposed a conceptual framework for explaining the phenomenon of mirror symmetry. Mirror symmetry had been discovered by physicists in string theory as a duality between families of three-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds. Kontsevich's proposal uses Fukaya's construction of the A -category of Lagrangian submanifolds on the symplectic side and the derived category of coherent sheaves on the complex side. The theory of mirror symmetry was further enhanced by physicists in the language of D-branes and also by Strominger-Yau-Zaslow in the geometric set-up of (special) Lagrangian torus fibrations. It rapidly expanded its scope across from geometry, topology, algebra to physics.In this volume, leading experts in the field explore recent developments in relation to homological mirror symmetry, Floer theory, D-branes and Gromov-Witten invariants. Kontsevich-Soibelman describe their solution to the mirror conjecture on the abelian variety based on the deformation theory of A -categories, and Ohta describes recent work on the Lagrangian intersection Floer theory by Fukaya-Oh-Ohta-Ono which takes an important step towards a rigorous construction of the A -category. There follow a number of contributions on the homological mirror symmetry, D-branes and the Gromov-Witten invariants, e.g. Getzler shows how the Toda conjecture follows from recent work of Givental, Okounkov and Pandharipande. This volume provides a timely presentation of the important developments of recent years in this rapidly growing field.

This pioneering work presents for the first time a comprehensive study of the role of Shanghai in the economic development of China. Shanghai experienced stagnation and setbacks in comparison with other big cities and provinces in South China with the open door policy of 1979 and other economic reforms. In terms of export volume, use of foreign capital and overall economic growth, Shanghai remained behind Guangdong and Jiangsu. The fundamental question of why Shanghai maintained a lead position in the national economy and how it was neglected in the Special Economic Zones established in early 1980 is examined herein. In addition, the benefits of trade reform, comparative advantage, and foreign direct investment in Shanghai's recent expansion is discussed.