This book has been written for those who study or professionally deal with solid state physics. It contains modern concepts about the physics of electrons in solids. It is written using a minimum of mathematics. The emphasis is laid on various physical models aimed at stimulating creative thinking. The book helps the reader choose the most efficient scheme of an experiment or the optimal algorithm of a calculation. Boltzmann and hopping types of conductivity are compared. The qualitative theory of weak localization is presented and its links with the true localization and metal-insulator transitions. Processes that determine the structure of impurity bands are revealed. The concepts introduced in this book are applied to descriptions of granular metals and quasicrystals, as well as the integer quantum Hall effect, emphasizing their universality.

This book will make an excellent graduate level textbook and a valuable reference book for advanced undergraduate courses in polymer science. Industrial practitioners seeking to teach themselves about emulsion polymerization should find it strikes a good balance between depth and breadth. [I]ts comparative conciseness (coupled with extensive references) makes it an excellent source for learning the key principles of emulsion polymerization. The book is clearly written without any assumption that readers are versed in emulsion polymerization, and it is apparent that the scope and level of detail have been carefully thought out to concentrate on key areas of interest for people learning about the field. The various chapters, written by different authors, have been well-coordinated to avoid unnecessary repetition....

In this work, the stochastic version of the variational principle is established, important for stochastic symplectic integration, and for structure-preserving algorithms of stochastic dynamical systems. Based on it, the stochastic variational integrators in formulation of stochastic Lagrangian functions are proposed, and some applications to symplectic integrations are given. Three types of generating functions in the cases of one and two noises are discussed for constructing new schemes.

For the past two decades, much effort has been made to understand the complex interactions between lymphocytes and antigen-presenting cells that result in immune responses. Immunologists have identified an extraordinary diversity of cytokines as players in these interactions, some the products of cellular activation which themselves activate surrounding cells. Meanwhile, another community of investigators, interested in how genes turn on, were using lymphocytes as easily cultivated cells with which to study transcriptional regulation from a molecular perspective. Connections between these areas of study, with their quite different technical vocabularies and experimental approaches, were limited. The 64th Annual Cold Spring Harbor Symposium was therefore a particularly imaginative meeting, intended to provoke a dialogue on the nature of the membrane signals and intracytoplasmic events that provoke the generation of immunity. It did....

The study of animal development has deep historical roots in codifying the field of evolutionary biology. In the 1940s, evolutionary theory became engulfed by microevolutionary genetic analysis and development became focused on mechanisms, forsaking the evolutionary implications of ontogeny. Recently, ontogeny has resurfaced as a significant component of evolutionary change, population, and community dynamics. Ontogeny, Functional Ecology and Evolution of Bats is a unique reference work by bat biologists who emphasize the importance of understanding ontogeny in the analysis of evolution and ecology. In addition, the developmental underpinnings of specialized morphology...

This volume involves Buddhism and Deep Ecology (the latter can be considered the spiritual dimensions of the environmental movement) on a holistic, consciousness, and value basis. It presents some basic ideas, experiences, and examples on how Buddhism and Deep Ecology relate to each other and to protecting natural forests and the environment, including public participation aspects. Much of these interrelationships are based on the essential teachings of Buddha as they relate to Deep Ecology and visa versa, especially Oneness, ecocentric, and spiritual orientations. Combined and integrated, these two areas present a unique, spiritual bridge of understanding, cross fertilization, and consciousness for ideas, values, and approaches which encompass compassion, loving-kindness, and care for all living beings for a wide spectrum of readers, both Buddhist and non-Buddhists with interests in ecological and environmental affairs.

Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra offers a fresh philosophical account of properties. How is it that two different things (such as two red roses) can share the same property (redness)? According to resemblance nominalism, things have their properties in virtue of resembling other things. This unfashionable view is championed with clarity and rigor.

To date, no one volume in the Innovations in GIS series has been given over to solely highlighting the use of up-to-date GIS-based techniques in a range of socio-economic applications. This monograph redresses this gap. The book begins with a short introductory chapter on the fundamental principles of GIS, followed by an examination of recent innovative research in the areas of crime applications, planning, urban and rural policy, and finally the use of GIS to examine various aspects of socio-economic policy.
Socio-Economic Applications of Geographic Information Science is the ninth book in the series, based on contributions at the 2001 GIS Research
UK conference, which continues to include innovative papers that are at the cutting edge of GIS research in the UK and beyond, and maintains a valued position in the conference calendar.

For monetary policymakers worldwide, developing a practical understanding of how monetary policy transmits to the economy is a day-to-day challenge. The data such policymakers have is imperfect, the maps they use are continually redrawn. With such uncertainty, understanding this complicated issue is rarely straightforward.
This book, a collaboration between some of the finest minds working on monetary theory in the world, helps to provide a foundation for understanding monetary policy in all its complex glory. Using models, case studies and new empirical evidence, the contributors to this book help readers on many levels develop their technical expertise.

Economics can be pretty boring. Drier than Death Valley, the discipline is obsessed with mathematics and compounds this by arrogantly assuming its techniques can be brought to bear on the other social sciences.
It wasn't going to be long, therefore, before students started complaining. The vast majority have voted with their feet and signed up for business and management degrees, but in the past two years there has grown an important new movement that has decided to tackle those who think they run economics head-on. This is the Post-autistic Economics Network...

This volume gathers together key new contributions on the subject of the relationship, both empirical and theoretical, between economic oscillations, growth and structural change. Employing a sophisticated level of mathematical modelling, the collection contains articles from, amongst others, William Baumol, Katsuhito Iwai and William Brock.

How old is the universe? What do the atoms in our bodies, our very existence, tell us about the history of the universe? How heavy is the vacuum? How do galaxies form? Michael Rowan-Robinson answers these questions and encapsulates all that modern astronomy has discovered about the universe around nine numbers. His motto is Montaigne's "What do I know?" And the reader emerges with a genuine feel for what we do really know about the universe and also what we do not.
Only one of the nine numbers is known with real precision, while four of them are not known at all. Complicated ideas like the origin of the elements, the General Theory of Relativity, quantum theory, and the standard model of particle physics, ideas that constitute modern cosmology, are explained in a simple way...

A goldmine of theoretical insights and practical suggestions, "Achieving Excellence in Medical Education" explores the essential question facing medical educators and learners today: What is our vision of educational excellence, and what can we do to enhance our performance? Among the topics explored within this engaging, informative, and thought-provoking text are: Education’s position as a priority of medical schools, seminal educational insights...

Statistical methods have become increasingly important and now form integral part of research in the health sciences. Many sophisticated methodologies have been developed for specific applications and problems. This self-contained volume, an outgrowth of an "International Conference on Statistical Methods in Health Sciences," covers a wide range of topics pertaining to new statistical methods and novel applications in the health sciences.
The chapters, written by leading experts in their respective fields, are thematically divided into the following areas:
* Prognostic studies and general epidemiology
* Pharmacovigilance
* Quality of life
* Survival analysis
* Clustering
* Safety and efficacy assessment
* Clinical design
* Models for the environment
* Genomic analysis
* Animal health
This comprehensive volume will be highly useful an of great interest to the health science community as well as practitioners, researchers, and graduate students in applied probability, statistics, and biostatistics.

THIS book gives a connected account of the author's researches on the algebraic side of the theory of differential equations and forms a welcome addition to the literature of the subject, for this aspect of the theory has received little attention hitherto. About four-fifths of the space is devoted to ordinary and the remainder to partial algebraic differential equations, the treatment broadly speaking following the lines laid down by Kronecker and his successors in the theory of algebraic elimination and the general theory of algebraic manifolds, transcendental equations being excluded from consideration.