In the last 100 years, there have been three major influenza pandemics: the Spanish Flu in 1918, the Asian Flu in 1957, and the Hong Kong Flu in 1968. These pandemics claimed the lives of approximately 50 million, 2 million, and 1 million people respectively. Added to this is the annual death toll from influenza of 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide, with a further 3 to 4 million people suffering severe illness. These statistics make influenza an extremely important pathogen. In 1997, the alarming emergence of a new, highly pathogenic subtype, H5N1, which has a 50% mortality rate, provided a major impetus for renewed influenza research. However, the battle against influenza is difficult. Recently another subtype, H1N1, has emerged. This subtype causes a relatively mild infection in humans, however it is highly transmittable between people and a new influenza pandemic has been declared by the World Health Organization. If this virus were to acquire some of the lethal capabilities of H5N1, then the ensuing pandemic could be devastating. In this timely book, internationally renowned scientists critically review the current research and the most important discoveries in this highly topical field. Subjects covered include the NS1 protein of influenza A virus, the structure of influenza NS1, influenza B hemagglutinin, influenza A nucleoprotein, influenza A hemagglutinin glycoproteins, the M2 channel, virulence genes of the 1918 H1N1 influenza, influenza virus polymerase, gene diagnostic microarrays, and computer-assisted vaccine design. Highly informative and well referenced, Influenza: Molecular Virology is essential reading for all influenza specialists and is recommended reading for all virologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, public health scientists, and research scientists in pharmaceutical companies.

This volume developed from a Workshop on Natural Locomotion in Fluids and on Surfaces: Swimming, Flying, and Sliding which was held at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) at the University of Minnesota, from June 1-5, 2010. The subject matter ranged widely from observational data to theoretical mechanics, and reflected the broad scope of the workshop. In both the prepared presentations and in the informal discussions, the workshop engaged exchanges across disciplines and invited a lively interaction between modelers and observers. The articles in this volume were invited and fully refereed. They provide a representative if necessarily incomplete account of the field of natural locomotion during a period of rapid growth and expansion. The papers presented at the workshop, and the contributions to the present volume, can be roughly divided into those pertaining to swimming on the scale of marine organisms, swimming of microorganisms at low Reynolds numbers, animal flight, and sliding and other related examples of locomotion.

This is the 2nd edition of the original "Nanostructures and Nanomaterials" written by Guozhong Cao and published by Imperial College Press in 2004. This important book focuses not only on the synthesis and fabrication of nanostructures and nanomaterials, but also includes properties and applications of nanostructures and nanomaterials, particularly inorganic nanomaterials. It provides balanced and comprehensive coverage of the fundamentals and processing techniques with regard to synthesis, characterization, properties, and applications of nanostructures and nanomaterials. Both chemical processing and lithographic techniques are presented in a systematic and coherent manner for the synthesis and fabrication of 0-D, 1-D, and 2-D nanostructures, as well as special nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and ordered mesoporous oxides. The book will serve as a general introduction to nanomaterials and nanotechnology for teaching and self-study purposes.

This is the 2nd edition of the original "Nanostructures and Nanomaterials" written by Guozhong Cao and published by Imperial College Press in 2004. This important book focuses not only on the synthesis and fabrication of nanostructures and nanomaterials, but also includes properties and applications of nanostructures and nanomaterials, particularly inorganic nanomaterials. It provides balanced and comprehensive coverage of the fundamentals and processing techniques with regard to synthesis, characterization, properties, and applications of nanostructures and nanomaterials. Both chemical processing and lithographic techniques are presented in a systematic and coherent manner for the synthesis and fabrication of 0-D, 1-D, and 2-D nanostructures, as well as special nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and ordered mesoporous oxides. The book will serve as a general introduction to nanomaterials and nanotechnology for teaching and self-study purposes.

Understanding the characteristics of material contact and lubrication at tribological interfaces is of great importance to engineering researchers and machine designers. Traditionally, contact and lubrication are separately studied due to technical difficulties, although they often coexist in reality and they are actually on the same physical ground. Fast research advancements in recent years have enabled the development and application of unified models and numerical approaches to simulate contact and lubrication, merging their studies into the domain of Interfacial Mechanics. This book provides updated information based on recent research progresses in related areas, which includes new concepts, theories, methods, and results for contact and lubrication problems involving elastic or inelastic materials, homogeneous or inhomogeneous contacting bodies, using stochastic or deterministic models for dealing with rough surfaces. It also contains unified models and numerical methods for mixed lubrication studies, analyses of interfacial frictional and thermal behaviors, as well as theories for studying the effects of multiple fields on interfacial characteristics. The book intends to reflect the recent trends of research by focusing on numerical simulation and problem solving techniques for practical interfaces of engineered surfaces and materials. This book is written primarily for graduate and senior undergraduate students, engineers, and researchers in the fields of tribology, lubrication, surface engineering, materials science and engineering, and mechanical engineering.

This volume developed from a Workshop on Natural Locomotion in Fluids and on Surfaces: Swimming, Flying, and Sliding which was held at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) at the University of Minnesota, from June 1-5, 2010. The subject matter ranged widely from observational data to theoretical mechanics, and reflected the broad scope of the workshop. In both the prepared presentations and in the informal discussions, the workshop engaged exchanges across disciplines and invited a lively interaction between modelers and observers. The articles in this volume were invited and fully refereed. They provide a representative if necessarily incomplete account of the field of natural locomotion during a period of rapid growth and expansion. The papers presented at the workshop, and the contributions to the present volume, can be roughly divided into those pertaining to swimming on the scale of marine organisms, swimming of microorganisms at low Reynolds numbers, animal flight, and sliding and other related examples of locomotion.

This two-volume set LNCS 13069-13070 constitutes selected papers presented at the First CAAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, held in Hangzhou, China, in June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was partially held online. The 105 papers were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 307 qualified submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on applications of AI; computer vision; data mining; explainability, understandability, and verifiability of AI; machine learning; natural language processing; robotics; and other AI related topics.

This two-volume set LNCS 13069-13070 constitutes selected papers presented at the First CAAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, held in Hangzhou, China, in June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was partially held online. The 105 papers were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 307 qualified submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on applications of AI; computer vision; data mining; explainability, understandability, and verifiability of AI; machine learning; natural language processing; robotics; and other AI related topics.