The papers from these proceedings address experimental and analytical methods for the characterization and analysis of modern composite and adhesive systems. They have been produced to provide understanding that can be used to design safe, reliable engineering components.

The molecular mechanisms which determine whether the cells of a multicellular organism will live or commit suicide have become a popular field of research in biology during the last decade. Cell death research in the plant field has also been expanding rapidly in the past 5 years. This special volume of Plant Molecular Biology seeks to bring together examples of a diverse array of experimental approaches in a single volume. From the differentiation of tracheary elements in vascular plants to the more specialized cell death model of the aleurone in cereals, this volume will bring the reader up-to-date with the characterization of different plant model systems that are currently being studied. This endeavor should complement general overviews of plant cell death mechanisms that have been published elsewhere by providing more detailed information on various aspects of this field to interested graduate students and more senior biologists alike.

This volume is a collection of papers which were presented at the 2001 International Conference on Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP 2001) held at Ise Shima, Mie, on November 14-16, 2001. This symposium is second conference followed the previous successful first International RTP conference held at Hokkaido in 1997. The RTP 2001 covered the latest developments in RTP and other short-time processing continuously aiming to point out the future direction in the Silicon ULSI devices and II-VI, III-V compound semiconductor devices.
This book covers the following areas: advanced MOS gate stack, integration technologies, advancd channel engineering including shallow junction, SiGe, hetero-structure, novel metallization, inter-connect, silicidation, low-k materials, thin dielectrics including gate dielectrics and high-k materials, thin film deposition including SiGe, SOI and SiC, process and device modelling, Laser-assisted crystallization and TFT device fabrication technologies, temperature monitoring and slip-free technologies.