After three decades of intense research in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, the time was ripe to summarize basic knowledge on X-ray and gamma-ray spectroscopy for interested students and researchers ready to become involved in new high-energy missions. This volume exposes both the scientific basics and modern methods of high-energy spectroscopic astrophysics. The emphasis is on physical principles and observing methods rather than a discussion of particular classes of high-energy objects, but many examples and new results are included in the three chapters as well.

After three decades of intense research in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, the time was ripe to summarize basic knowledge on X-ray and gamma-ray spectroscopy for interested students and researchers ready to become involved in new high-energy missions. This volume exposes both the scientific basics and modern methods of high-energy spectroscopic astrophysics. The emphasis is on physical principles and observing methods rather than a discussion of particular classes of high-energy objects, but many examples and new results are included in the three chapters as well.

UV and X-ray spectroscopy of astrophysical and laboratory plasmas draws interest from many disciplines. Contributions from international specialists are collected together in this book from a timely recent conference. In astrophysics, the Hubble Space Telescope, Astro 1 and ROSAT observatories are now providing UV and X-ray spectra and images of cosmic sources in unprecedented detail, while the Yohkoh mission recently collected superb data on the solar corona. In the laboratory, the development of ion-trap facilities and novel laser experiments are providing vital new data on high temperature plasmas. Recent innovations in the technology of spectroscopic instrumentation are discussed. These papers constitute an excellent up-to-date review of developments in short-wave length spectroscopy and offer a solid introduction to its theoretical and experimental foundations.

Stephen M. Kahn is a psychologist who has studied, researched and interacted with various types of criminals for over thirty five years. In addition, he has taught for fifteen years in the criminal justice programs of several universities at the graduate and undergraduate level. While many deviants are of great interest to him, one of the most fascinating segments of this population is the anti social personality and particularly, the psychopath. This type of individual is the most enigmatic of all law breakers because of the ability to commit crimes in a totally random fashion. The unpredictability of this person's behavior has always made it difficult for authorities to effect an apprehension in a timely manner. Until the psychopath is arrested, there is really no stopping the crimes that continually occur. The book is a fictional account of such a person and details his development, rationales and actions as culled from the years of experience in working with this type of personality.

"A Passion for Crime" is a fictional composite of a career lawbreaker, his accomplices, and the many types of crimes they commit. The novel describes the development of criminal anti social behavior from early years to adulthood and reveals the thinking errors that provide justification for continually committing deviant acts. It also depicts his numerous contacts with the law and correctional systems and illustrates how lies and mockery are used to skirt responsibility. Reading the novel will provide a better understanding of the rationale utilized by these people as they commit the many crimes reported daily in the media.

Observations of distant supernovae have provided startling evidence that the expansion of the Universe may be accelerating, rather than decelerating. If this result is verified by future studies, it has profound implications for cosmology. The reliability of this finding and its implications for both the study of supernovae and cosmology are the subject of this exciting volume. Based on a conference at the University of Chicago, this timely volume, originally published in 2000, presents articles by leading experts on the theory of Type Ia supernovae, observational astronomy, and cosmology. It examines the observational data, the nature of the likely progenitor binary systems, the outburst mechanisms of Type Ia supernovae events, and the cosmological implications. This is a unique and wide-ranging review of one of the most dramatic and controversial results in astronomy in recent decades. It makes fascinating reading for all researchers and graduate students.