The 1990 CIME course on Mathematical Modelling of Industrial Processes set out to illustrate some advances in questions of industrial mathematics, i.e.of the applications of mathematics (with all its "academic" rigour) to real-life problems. The papers describe the genesis of the models and illustrate their relevant mathematical characteristics. Among the themesdealt with are: thermally controlled crystal growth, thermal behaviour of a high-pressure gas-discharge lamp, the sessile-drop problem, etching processes, the batch-coil- annealing process, inverse problems in classical dynamics, image representation and dynamical systems, scintillation in rear projections screens, identification of semiconductor properties, pattern recognition with neural networks. CONTENTS: H.K. Kuiken: Mathematical Modelling of Industrial Processes.- B. Forte: Inverse Problems in Mathematics for Industry.- S. Busenberg: Case Studies in Industrial Mathematics.

The past forty years have been the stage for the maturation of mathematical biolo as a scientific field. The foundations laid by the pioneers of the field during the first half of this century have been combined with advances in ap plied mathematics and the computational sciences to create a vibrant area of scientific research with established research journals, professional societies, deep subspecialty areas, and graduate education programs. Mathematical biology is by its very nature cross-disciplinary, and research papers appear in mathemat ics, biology and other scientific journals, as well as in the specialty journals devoted to mathematical and theoretical biology. Multiple author papers are common, and so are collaborations between individuals who have academic bases in different traditional departments. Those who seek to keep abreast of current trends and problems need to interact with research workers from a much broader spectrum of fields than is common in the traditional mono-culture disciplines. Consequently, it is beneficial to have occasions which bring together significant numbers of workers in this field in a forum that encourages the exchange of ideas and which leads to a timely publication of the work that is presented. Such an occasion occurred during January 13 to 16, 1990 when almost two hun dred research workers participated in an international conference on Differential Equations and Applications to Biology and Population Dynamics which was held in Claremont."

The meeting explored current directions of research in delay differential equations and related dynamical systems and celebrated the contributions of Kenneth Cooke to this field on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The volume contains three survey papers reviewing three areas of current research and seventeen research contributions. The research articles deal with qualitative properties of solutions of delay differential equations and with bifurcation problems for such equations and other dynamical systems. A companion volume in the biomathematics series (LN in Biomathematics, Vol. 22) contains contributions on recent trends in population and mathematical biology.

Infectious diseases are transmitted through various different mechanisms including person to person interactions, by insect vectors and via vertical transmission from a parent to an unborn offspring. The population dynamics of such disease transmission can be very complicated and the development of rational strategies for controlling and preventing the spread of these diseases requires careful modeling and analysis. The book describes current methods for formulating models and analyzing the dynamics of the propagation of diseases which include vertical transmission as one of the mechanisms for their spread. Generic models that describe broad classes of diseases as well as models that are tailored to the dynamics of a specific infection are formulated and analyzed. The effects of incubation periods, maturation delays, and age-structure, interactions between disease transmission and demographic changes, population crowding, spatial spread, chaotic dynamic behavior, seasonal periodicities and discrete time interval events are studied within the context of specific disease transmission models. No previous background in disease transmission modeling and analysis is assumedand the required biological concepts and mathematical methods are gradually introduced within the context of specific disease transmission models. Graphs are widely used to illustrate and explain the modeling assumptions and results. REMARKS: NOTE: the authors have supplied variants on the promotion text that are more suitable for promotionin different fields (by virtue of different emphasis in the content). They are not enclosed, but in the mathematics editorial.