The interface between a living cell and the surrounding world plays a critical role in numerous complex biological processes. Sperm/egg fusion, virus/cell fusion, exocytosis, endocytosis, and ion permeation are a few examples of processes involving membranes. In recent years, powerful tools such as X-ray crystal lography, electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and infra-red and Raman spectroscopy have been developed to characterize the structure and dy namics of biomembranes. Despite this progress, many of the factors responsible for the function of biomembranes are still not well understood. The membrane is a very complicated supramolecular liquid-crystalline structure that is largely composed of lipids, forming a bilayer, to which proteins and other biomolecules are anchored. Often, the lipid bilayer environment is pictured as a hydropho bic structureless slab providing a thermodynamic driving force to partition the amino acids of a membrane protein according to their solubility. However, much of the molecular complexity of the phospholipid bilayer environment is ignored in such a simplified view. It is likely that the atomic details of the polar head group region and the transition from the bulk water to the hydrophobic core of the membrane are important. An understanding of the factors responsible for the function of biomembranes thus requires a better characterization at the molec ular level of how proteins interact with lipid molecules, of how lipids affect protein structure and of how lipid molecules might regulate protein function.

The European Colloquium on Ceramics in Advanced Energy Technology dealt with structural, mechanical, thermo-physical, chemical and electrical/electronics aspects of ceramics, as candidates materials in advanced energy conversion systems. The technical programme included the presentation of 22 invited papers. The Colloquium was concluded by a panel discussion which was preceeded by a presentation on the Ceramic Fabrication. For convenience, papers and discussions are arranged in the same way as they were presented at the Colloquium, followed by the conclusions drawn by the panel members. The editors wish to express their gratitude to the authors for the preparation and the presentation of their papers and to the Colloquium participants for providing their discussion contributions. They also acknowledge the valuable contributions to the planning and realisation of the Colloquium made by the representatives of the various sponsoring and co-sponsoring organisations. The excellent guidance of the Colloquium discussion periods exercised by the session chairmen is highly appreciated as well as the efforts of the panel members to prepare the conclusions from the Colloquium sessions. The contributions of all others which assured a successful Colloquium from which these proceedings evolved are gratefully appreciated. In a Post-Colloquium Workshop a number of experts discussed results obtained from the Colloquium and identified areas warranting future R&D efforts. The conclusions drawn from the Workshop are annexed to these proceedings. The Editors. ix Welcome and opening P.J. van Westen, C.E.C., D.G. XII, J.R.C., Petten Establishment.

Advances in industrial technologies and improved performance of constructional materials are interdependent and have become of increasing concern in recent years. This Conference aimed to - provoke discussion of the limits towards which high temperature alloys properties can, ultimately, be developed, identify the resulting R&D requirements and design developments. Following a key-note paper concerning the relation of current capabilities to requirements for gas turbines the conference was structured into 3 sessions which examined: * the theoretical?ldpracticallimits for HT Alloys, * the potential for development in alloys and processing, * engineering considerations. Finally, feeling perhaps the approaching "wind of change"??1s Conference on remaining alloy potential was wound up with a paper entit1ed "The potential?ld problems ofEngineering Ceramics". The different sessions each included a number of invited papers followed by a series of posters and were concluded by a presentation of a "synthesis" by a sess10n rapporteur and general discussion. This structure is retained in the proceedings, including the discussion points in those cases where?le authors have provided written answers to questions raised.

Structure-based (SBDD) and ligand-based (LBDD) drug design are extremely important and active areas of research in both the academic and commercial realms. This book provides a complete snapshot of the field of computer-aided drug design and associated experimental approaches. Topics covered include X-ray crystallography, NMR, fragment-based drug design, free energy methods, docking and scoring, linear-scaling quantum calculations, QSAR, pharmacophore methods, computational ADME-Tox, and drug discovery case studies. A variety of authors from academic and commercial institutions all over the world have contributed to this book, which is illustrated with more than 200 images. This is the only book to cover the subject of structure and ligand-based drug design, and it provides the most up-to-date information on a wide range of topics for the practising computational chemist, medicinal chemist, or structural biologist. Professor Kenneth Merz has been selected as the recipient of the 2010 ACS Award for Computers in Chemical & Pharmaceutical Research that recognizes the advances he has made in the use of quantum mechanics to solve biological and drug discovery problems.

Kenneth Branagh is the most important contemporary figure in the production of filmed Shakespeare. His five feature-length Shakespeare films, Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Love's Labour's Lost (2000) and As You Like It (2007) both created and represented the explosion of filmed Shakespeare adaptations that began in the 1990s. This book demonstrates Branagh's appeal to classical film genres in order to meta-narrate for a popular audience the unfamiliar terrain of the Shakespearean original; it examines the debts Branagh owes, stylistically and structurally, to classically-defined generic modes. The generic appeal in Branagh's films is one that grows progressively, becoming incrementally more critical to his Shakespearean adaptations as Branagh's career progresses. Thus, his debut film, Henry V, is the least classically generic of all his films, relying primarily on intertextual and generic references to more contemporary styles, like the action genre and the Vietnam War film. Much Ado About Nothing represents a transitional moment in Branagh's generic development; while the film closely accords to the norms of the screwball comedy, this generic correspondence derives primarily from the Shakespearean text. With Hamlet, Branagh begins to experiment with genre as a conceptual conceit: although the film owes much to classical domestic melodrama, particularly in Hamlet's relationships with Gertrude and Ophelia, Branagh frames his domestic story with devices drawn from the classical Hollywood historical epic. Branagh's spectacular failure Love's Labour's Lost demonstrates a unique subordination of the logic and authority of the Shakespearean source text to the demands of the classical musical form. Finally, Branagh's most recent film, As You Like It, reveals a new approach towards working with filmed Shakespeare, while simultaneously "re-working" the generic structures and practices that characterize his earlier, more successful films.