This collection of essays was commissioned for the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of accountants in Scotland, the country in which accountants were first chartered. It attempts to trace the origin and growth of the profession relating to accounts, auditing, and bookkeeping. Topics include ancient systems of accounting; early Italian accountants; accounting in Scotland, England, Ireland, Europe, the British colonies, and the United States; and the future of the profession. Edited by Richard Brown, contributors include John S. Mackay, Edward Boyd, J. Row Fogo, Joseph Patrick, and Alexander Sloan.

In 1991 this author published a monograph l] based on his experience teaching microwave hybrid materials and processing technology at the annual ISHM (now the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society, IMAPS) symposia. Since that time, the course has been presented at that venue and on-site at a number of industrial and government organizations. The course has been continually revised to reflect the many evolutionary changes in materials and processes. Microwave technology has existed for almost 175 years. It was only after the invention of the klystron, just before World War II, that microwave design and manufacture moved from a few visionaries to the growth the industry sees today. Over the last decade alone there have been exploding applications for all types of high frequency electronics in the miltary, automotive, wireless, computer, telecommunications and medical industries. These have placed demands, unimaginable a decade ago, on designs, materials, processes and equipment to meet the ever expanding requirements for increasingly reliable, smaller, faster and lower cost circuits.

As in the days following Skylab, solar physics came to the end of an era when the So lar Maximum Mission re-entered the earth's atmosphere in December 1989. The 1980s had been a pioneering decade not only in space- and ground-based studies of the solar atmosphere (Solar Maximum Mission, Hinotori, VLA, Big Bear, Nanc;ay, etc.) but also in solar-terrestrial relations (ISEE, AMPTE), and solar interior neutrino and helioseismol ogy studies. The pace of development in related areas of theory (nuclear, atomic, MHD, beam-plasma) has been equally impressive. All of these raised tantalizing further questions about the structure and dynamics of the Sun as the prototypical and best observed star. This Advanced Study Institute was timed at a pivotal point between that decade and the realisation of Yohkoh, Ulysses, SOHO, GRANAT, Coronas, and new ground-based optical facilities such as LEST and GONG, so as to teach and inspire the up and coming young solar researchers of the 1990s. The topics, lecturers, and students were all chosen with this goal in mind, and the result seems to have been highly successful by all reports."

This volume is product of the third online consciousness conference, held at http: //consciousnessonline.com in February and March 2011. Chapters range over epistemological issues in the science and philosophy of perception, what neuroscience can do to help us solve philosophical issues in the philosophy of mind, what the true nature of black and white vision, pain, auditory, olfactory, or multi-modal experiences are, to higher-order theories of consciousness, synesthesia, among others. Each chapter includes a target article, commentaries, and in most cases, a final response from the author. Though wide-ranging all of the papers aim to understand consciousness both from the inside, as we experience it, and from the outside as we encounter it in our science.

The Online Consciousness Conference, founded and organized by Richard Brown, is dedicated to the rigorous study of consciousness and mind. The goal is to bring philosophers, scientists, and interested lay persons together in an online venue to promote high-level discussion and exchanging of views, ideas and data related to the scientific and philosophical study of consciousness.

Originally published in 1973 Knowledge, Education and Cultural Change surveys the present state of the field of the sociology of education. The book addresses the claim that much of the research in the sociology of education should be extended to issues of wider theoretical significance, the book provides theoretically informed analysis of situations or processes, developing new theoretical perspectives and concepts. The papers also reflect the appropriate theoretical framework for the sociology of education. Underpinning this framework, it looks at the importance of social stratification, arguing that too much work in the sociology of education is carried out using oversimplified models.

This book provides an excellent introduction to the sociology of industry. It comprises of three sections, which in turn address: the relation between industry and other sub-systems or institutions in society; the internal structure of industry and the roles people play within that structure; the social actions of individuals and groups within an organisational structure. It is an excellent resource for students of sociology who have an interest in its application to the 'world of work'.

The image of King Arthur's Round Table is well-known, both as Thomas Malory's portrayal of a fellowship of knights dedicated to the highest ideals of chivalry, and as the great wooden table at Winchester castle. Now a dramatic archaeological find at Windsor castle sheds new light on the idea of a round table as a gathering: the 'House of the Round Table' which Edward III ordered to be constructed at the conclusion of his Windsor festival of 1344. The discovery of the foundation trench of a great building two hundred feet in diameter in the Upper Ward of Windsor castle, allows the reconstruction of that building's appearance and raises the question of its purpose. Chronicles, building materials inventories from the royal accounts, medieval romances, and earlier descriptions of round table festivals all confirm the archaeological evidence: at a time when secular orders of knighthood were almost unknown, Edward declared his intention to found an Order of the Round Table with three hundred knights. This grand building, and the Arthurian entertainments he planned for it, would bind his nobles to his cause at a crucial point in his progress to claiming the throne of France. His ambitious scheme, however, was overtaken by events. Victory at CrA(c)cy in 1346 confirmed Edward's reputation, and the order which he founded in 1348 was the much more exclusive Order of the Garter, rewarding those commanders who had helped him to win the CrA(c)cy campaign. His reputation was assured, the omens for his reign were auspicious; he had the loyalty of his knights and magnates. The Round Table building was abandoned, and eventually pulled down in the 1360s. Thus a major plank in the strategic thinking of oneof England's greatest kings almost became a footnote in history. Time Team discovered ... there (are) indeed foundations of a massive round building in Windsor Castle's upper ward. A splendidly produced volume, which gives full credit both to the history and to the archaeology: analysis of the chivalric background, archaeological analysis, discussion of the probable form of the building (and) the early history of Windsor Castle as well as the types of stone used by Edward III's masons. The book is attractively illustrated, and its appendices provide a full text in Latin, with translation, of the building accounts, as well as translations of many of the relevant chronicle extracts. MICHAEL PRESTWICH, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT