The field of organic electronics promises exciting new technologies based on inexpensive and mechanically flexible electronic devices, and is now seeing the beginning of commercial success. On the sidelines of this increasingly well-established field are several emerging technologies with innovative mechanisms and functions that utilize the mixed ionic/electronic conducting character of conjugated organic materials. Iontronics: Ionic Carriers in Organic Electronic Materials and Devices explores the potential of these materials, which can endow electronic devices with unique functionalities. Fundamental science and applications With contributions from a community of experts, the book focuses on the use of ionic functions to define the principle of operation in polymer devices. It begins by reviewing the scientific understanding and important scientific discoveries in the electrochemistry of conjugated polymers. It examines the known effects of ion incorporation, including the theory and modulation of electrochemistry in polymer films, and it explores the coupling of electronic and ionic transport in polymer films. The authors also describe applications that use this technology, including polymer electrochromic devices, artificial muscles, light-emitting electrochemical cells, and biosensors, and they discuss the fundamental technological hurdles in these areas. The changes in materials properties and device characteristics due to ionic conductivity and electrochemical doping in electrically conductive organic materials, as well as the importance of these processes in a number of different and exciting technologies, point to a large untapped potential in the development of new applications and novel device architecture. This volume captures the state of the science in this burgeoning field.

In social relationships-whether between mates, parents and offspring, or friends-we find much of life's meaning. But in these relationships, so critical to our well-being, might we also detect the workings, even directives, of biology? This book, a rare melding of human and animal research and theoretical and empirical science, ventures into the most interesting realms of behavioral biology to examine the intimate role of endocrinology in social relationships. The importance of hormones to reproductive behavior-from breeding cycles to male sexual display-is well known. What this book considers is the increasing evidence that hormones are just as important to social behavior. Peter Ellison and Peter Gray include the latest findings-both practical and theoretical-on the hormonal component of both casual interactions and fundamental bonds. The contributors, senior scholars and rising scientists whose work is shaping the field, go beyond the proximate mechanics of neuroendocrine physiology to integrate behavioral endocrinology with areas such as reproductive ecology and life history theory. Ranging broadly across taxa, from birds and rodents to primates, the volume pays particular attention to human endocrinology and social relationships, a focus largely missing from most works of behavioral endocrinology.

Scientists from different disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, pediatrics, neurobiology, endocrinology, and molecular biology, explore the concepts of attachment and bonding from varying scientific perspectives. Attachment and bonding are evolved processes; the mechanisms that permit the development of selective social bonds are assumed to be very ancient, based on neural circuitry rooted deep in mammalian evolution, but the nature and timing of these processes and their ultimate and proximate causes are only beginning to be understood. In this Dahlem Workshop Report, scientists from different disciplines-including anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral biology-come together to explore the concepts of attachment and bonding from diverse perspectives. In their studies they seek to understand the causes or the consequences of attachment and bonding in general and their different qualities in individual development in particular. They address such questions as biobehavioral processes in attachment and bonding; early social attachment and its influences on later patterns of behavior; bonding later in life; and adaptive and maladaptive (or pathological) outcomes. The studies confirm that social bonds have consequences for virtually all aspects of behavior and may be protective in the face of both physical and emotional challenges.

Fast Break Sports is a comprehensive study of the joint history of sports and the media from the early instances of athletic competition to today's multi-billion dollar industry replete with million-dollar players, marketing, advertising, and merchandising deals. Beginning with historical analyses of sports' beginning and early depictions, the book explains the ways in which athletics have always held an important role in various societies throughout the course of human existence. It discusses how sports was, and is, used to represent the most noble and powerful characteristics of human behavior and interaction. In addition, the book addresses topics and issues such as racial barriers in professional sports, the role of amateur athletics, agents, endorsements, advertising, and sports films. Fast Break Sports presents the idea that sports and media are inseparable and interdependent, and that they will continue to be connected as long as athletic competition exists and can be recorded. It is an ideal tool for educating students on the history of sports and its corresponding media coverage. Fast Break Sports can be used in courses on the business of sports, sports history, and sports advertising and media.