This volume intends to provide a comprehensive overview on the mecha nisms of muscle contraction and non-muscle cell motility at the molecu lar and cellular level, not only for investigators in these fields but also for general readers interested in these topics. A most attractive feature of various living organisms in the animal and plant kingdoms is their ability to move. In spite of a great diversity in the structure and function of various motile systems, it has frequently been assumed since the nineteenth century that all kinds of "motility" are essentially the same. Based on this assumption, some investigators in the nineteenth century thought that the mechanisms of motility could better be studied on primitive non-muscle motile systems such as amoeboid movement, rath er than on highly specialized muscle cells. Contrary to their expectation, however, the basic mechanisms of motility have been revealed solely by investigations on vertebrate skeletal muscles, since a monumental discovery of Szent-Gyorgyi and his coworkers in the early 1940s that muscle contraction results from the interaction between two different contractile proteins, actin and myosin, coupled with ATP hydrolysis."

Two main areas of offshore activity are addressed in this book: Site investigation on assessment; and Applications and foundation engineering. The 37 contributions from a wide ranging group of international experts, are resulting from the Offshore Site Investigation and Foundation Behaviour Conference, London, U.K., September 1992. Adequate determination of site conditions can only be achieved by the integrated approach of using geological, geophysical and geotechnical data. Developments in data acquisition techniques are illustrated through case histories in the section on Geotechnical Sampling and Testing. In the section on Advanced Interpretation Techniques and Integrated Interpretations the state of the art of these topics is also illustrated by case histories. A review of foundation behaviour is presented in the section on Gravity Foundations, Foundation Performance Monitoring, Piling Research and Design Criteria. These topics are illustrated in the light of field experience and recent research, in particular that involving full-scale tests and monitoring. This book provides many illustrative figures and much pertinent information to exploration and marine geophysicists, petroleum and offshore engineers and for researchers working these fields.