* Provides new insights into materials science
* Indicates the value of biology in materials science
* Demonstrates how new interdisciplinary studies are influencing the fields of materials science and chemistry
* Surveys this new field and shows what progress has been made as well as indicating the potential of these applications
* Leading scientists review biomimetic approaches to the synthesis and processing of nanoparticles, thin patterned films, ceramics, and organic-inorganic composites
* Focuses on molecule synthesis, templating, organized construction and microstructural processing of biomimetic materials
related titles are:
- Meyers: Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
- Silver: Biocompatibility Vol.1: Polymers

Research and Qualitative Interviews brings into focus the decisions that the interviewer faces by taking a data-led approach in order to open up choices and decisions in the process of planning for, managing, analysing and representing interviews. The chapters concentrate on the real-time, moment-by-moment nature of interview management and interaction. A key feature of the book is the inclusion of reflexive vignettes that foreground the voices and experience of qualitative researchers (both novices and more expert practitioners). The vignettes demonstrate the importance of reflecting on and learning from interactional experience. In addition, the book provides an overview of different types of interviews, commenting on the orientation and make-up of each type. Overall, this book encourages reflective thinking about the use of research interviews. It distinguishes between reflection, reflective practice and reflexivity. All the chapters focus on recurring choices, dilemmas and puzzles; offering advice in opening out and engaging with these aspects of the research interview.

State-of-the-art technology and cutting-edge applications in image processing

Intelligent Image Processing examines the fundamentals of personal imaging and wearable computing with a concentration on the EyeTap technology invented by the author. EyeTap technology comprises eyeglasses or contact lenses that cause the eye itself to function, in effect, as if it were both a camera and a display. Modern embodiments of this invention use a laser system having no moving parts to provide infinite depth of focus from the inside of the eye, out to infinity. The invention eliminates the distinction between cyberspace and the real world, allowing a shared visual experience and shared visual memory among multiple users.

There are a wide range of commercial applications for this technology, including telephones that allow users to see each other’s points of view, and systems that improve the sight of the visually impaired. These systems have been proven for electronic news gathering in hostile environments such as fires, floods, riots, and documenting human rights violations–all giving rise to a new genre of first-person cinematography. The invention blurs the boundary between seeing and recording, and the boundary between computing and thinking. It will radically change the way pictures are taken, memories are shared, and news is documented.

The author approaches the fundamental ideas of wearable computing and personal imaging by providing an historical overview of the subject that takes the reader from his original wearable photographic computer inventions of the 1970s, through to the modern EyeTap system. This fascinating technology promises to change the way we live and the way we communicate, and Intelligent Image Processing provides a detailed, technical, and stimulating guide for those who wish to learn about or contribute to this promising future.

This textbook provides a comprehensive review of gynecological imaging in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Experts from the disciplines of pediatric radiology, gynecology, surgery, and endocrinology have come together to produce a textbook that, while written primarily from the perspective of the radiologist, will be of interest to all professionals involved in the management of these patients. The normal development of the female reproductive tract is described in detail through embryological development, normal childhood appearances, and puberty. Congenital abnormalities are addressed in chapters reviewing structural abnormalities of the reproductive tract and disorders of sex development. A symptoms- based approach is followed in chapters devoted to the assessment of the patient with gynecological pain and disorders of menstruation. Disorders of the breast and the imaging of patients with gynecological neoplasia are considered in dedicated chapters. The specialty of pediatric gynecology is evolving rapidly, drawing on the skills and expertise of professionals from a wide range of specialties. This textbook should prove valuable to all who are involved in this new field of medicine.

Seeks to explain the origin and development of religion in social, economic and political life.

Research and Qualitative Interviews brings into focus the decisions that the interviewer faces by taking a data-led approach in order to open up choices and decisions in the process of planning for, managing, analysing and representing interviews. The chapters concentrate on the real-time, moment-by-moment nature of interview management and interaction. A key feature of the book is the inclusion of reflexive vignettes that foreground the voices and experience of qualitative researchers (both novices and more expert practitioners). The vignettes demonstrate the importance of reflecting on and learning from interactional experience. In addition, the book provides an overview of different types of interviews, commenting on the orientation and make-up of each type. Overall, this book encourages reflective thinking about the use of research interviews. It distinguishes between reflection, reflective practice and reflexivity. All the chapters focus on recurring choices, dilemmas and puzzles; offering advice in opening out and engaging with these aspects of the research interview.

Effects Based: Not Just For Operations Anymore The United States Air Force is in a transformational phase. Leaders are searching for new and innovative ways to look at old problems. One problem that has plagued the USAF is the measurement of operations and maintenance performance in fighter units. Traditionally, the performance has been gauged by a myriad of statistics and metrics. While statistics are often necessary to assess performance against a set of measures of merit, the current methods in place are outdated and really tell very little about actual performance. The military, and especially the USAF, has embraced the Effect Based concept in terms of warfare. This method of viewing warfare places the burden of assessment on the net effects of actions rather than measuring the actions themselves. This sea change occurred in the wake of the Vietnam War when airmen came to the realization that airpower was used ineffectively based in part to the emphasis on metrics such as sortie counts, body counts, and tonnage dropped on the enemy. The focus on the metrics was often the cause for ineffective use of fighter assets when target destruction took a back seat to the number of sorties flown and munitions expended. The Vietnam generation resolved to do it better. As a result of the debacle in Vietnam, strategic thinkers began to view airpower in terms of effects desired rather than arbitrary statistics. The result of this thinking produced the irrefutable success in the conduct of the air campaign during Operation DESERT STORM. While the inherent concept of Effects Based Operations (EBO) is not new to warfare, DESERT STORM provided a culminating point after which EBO became entrenched in military lexicon. All actions taken during a conflict began to be viewed as subordinate acts conducted in order to attain a desired effect.

"Micro-Politics "was first published in 1994. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Patricia S. Mann explains our current period as a time of social transformation resulting from an "unmooring" of women, men, and children from the nuclear family, gender relations having replaced economic relations as the primary site of social tension and change in our lives. The feminist movement has evolved, according to Mann, into a popularly based postfeminist struggle to reconstruct relationships between women and men within everyday contexts of work, family, education, and politics. Mann formulates a "postmodern" theory of political agency, utilizing it to explain political events such as the Hill-Thomas Senate hearings and their social aftermath. While liberal and progressive theories have explained political agency in terms of individual or group forms of identity, Mann suggests another alternative. Individuals such as Anita Hill are drawn into socially meaningful struggles in the context of their daily lives-as we all are potentially participating in micro-political forms of activism in a variety of institutional contexts. These dynamic micropolitical situations involve intersecting dimensions of race, class, and sexuality, as well as gender. Within specific conflicts, individuals rearticulate their notions of desire and responsibility, and their expectations for recognition and reward; according to Mann political agency resides in these choices. Addressing some of the most important controversies in political philosophy, Mann weaves together strands of the "participatory politics" of the 1960s and the multicultural politics of the 1990s. In doing so, she offers a new basis for understanding social change.