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This volume contains one invited lecture which was presented by the 1994 Fields Medal- ist Professor E. Zelmanov and twelve other papers which were presented at the Third International Conference on Algebra and Their Related Topics at Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Republic of China, during the period June 26-July 1, 200l. All papers in this volume have been refereed by an international referee board and we would like to express our deepest thanks to all the referees who were so helpful and punctual in submitting their reports. Thanks are also due to the Promotion and Research Center of National Science Council of Republic of China and the Chang Jung Christian University for their generous financial support of this conference. The spirit of this conference is a continuation of the last two International Tainan- Moscow Algebra Workshop on Algebras and Their Related Topics which were held in the mid-90's of the last century. The purpose of this very conference was to give a clear picture of the recent development and research in the fields of different kinds of algebras both in Taiwan and in the rest ofthe world, especially say, Russia"e; Europe, North America and South America. Thus, we were hoping to enhance the possibility of future cooperation in research work among the algebraists ofthe five continents. Here we would like to point out that this algebra gathering will constantly be held in the future in the southern part of Taiwan.

Production from tropical agricultural systems will need to increase to satisfy the rising food demand of an increasing population coupled with changes in consumption patterns. At the same time, the agricultural sector is a significant source of greenhouse gases (GHG) in many developing countries, which can be attributed mainly to land-use change and methane emissions from rice and livestock. But how can we reconcile less GHG emissions from tropical agricultural systems while increasing productivity?Due to the interactive nature of these issues, this book is compiled of articles on natural resource management, as well as the socio-economic aspects of GHG mitigation. The scope of mitigation options in tropical agriculture is discussed for three different activities: (a) agroforestry; (b) rice-based production systems; (c) pasture/animal husbandry.Agronomic solutions alone will not be sufficient, as the institutional and economic frameworks within which farmers operate dictate whether a recommended agronomic management practice is acceptable. The prevention of deforestation, and the re-forestation of degraded land, could become key elements to national climate protection programs of some developing countries. Alternative management practices in rice-based and pasture systems may offer win-win options to reduce emissions and improve resource-use efficiencies.

These proceedings comprise a large part of the papers presented at the In- ternational Conference Factorization, Singular Operators and related problems, which was held from January 28 to February 1, 2002, at the University of th Madeira, Funchal, Portugal, to mark Professor Georgii Litvinchuk's 70 birth- day. Experts in a variety of fields came to this conference to pay tribute to the great achievements of Professor Georgii Litvinchuk in the development of vari- ous areas of operator theory. The main themes of the conference were focussed around the theory of singular type operators and factorization problems, but other topics such as potential theory and fractional calculus, to name but a couple, were also presented. The goal of the conference was to bring together mathematicians from var- ious fields within operator theory and function theory in order to highlight recent advances in problems many of which were originally studied by Profes- sor Litvinchuk and his scientific school. A second aim was to stimulate in- ternational collaboration even further and promote the interaction of different approaches in current research in these areas. The Proceedings will be of great interest to researchers in Operator The- ory, Real and Complex Analysis, Functional and Harmonic Analysis, Potential Theory, Fractional Calculus and other areas, as well as to graduate students looking for the latest results.

In the last decade several international conferences on Finsler, Lagrange and Hamilton geometries were organized in Braov, Romania (1994), Seattle, USA (1995), Edmonton, Canada (1998), besides the Seminars that periodically are held in Japan and Romania. All these meetings produced important progress in the field and brought forth the appearance of some reference volumes. Along this line, a new International Conference on Finsler and Lagrange Geometry took place August 26-31,2001 at the "e;Al.I.Cuza"e; University in Iai, Romania. This Conference was organized in the framework of a Memorandum of Un- derstanding (1994-2004) between the "e;Al.I.Cuza"e; University in Iai, Romania and the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. It was especially dedicated to Prof. Dr. Peter Louis Antonelli, the liaison officer in the Memorandum, an untired promoter of Finsler, Lagrange and Hamilton geometries, very close to the Romanian School of Geometry led by Prof. Dr. Radu Miron. The dedica- tion wished to mark also the 60th birthday of Prof. Dr. Peter Louis Antonelli. With this occasion a Diploma was given to Professor Dr. Peter Louis Antonelli conferring the title of Honorary Professor granted to him by the Senate of the oldest Romanian University (140 years), the "e;Al.I.Cuza"e; University, Iai, Roma- nia. There were almost fifty participants from Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Romania, USA. There were scheduled 45 minutes lectures as well as short communications.

The interaction between environmental change and human activities is com- plex, requiring the concepts and tools of a number of disciplines for its effective analysis. Land-use and land-cover change has only recently become a topic susceptible to scientific research, as these concepts and tools have been devel- oped and made available. Rooted in a broad community concemed with global change, systematic research has begun into land-use systems at different scales and interactions, and their links with global cyc1es of water, nitrogen and carbon are being explored. Partly based on research initiated by the Dutch National Research Programme on Global Air PolIution and Climate Change (NRP), this book touches upon various land-use and land-cover issues in relation to global environmental change. In addition to the biogeochemical cyc1es, land as a car- rier for functions of economic activities, food and fibre production and energy production via biomass are discussed. Crucial in studying land use is human behaviour and man-environment interaction at different scales. Land-use and land-cover change is an important contrlbutor of greenhouse- gasses as these activities directly interfere with the carbon, nitrogen and water cyc1es. These cyc1es are connected through numerous feedback loops. The interface of land-use and c1imate is essentially determined by the interaction of man and the environment. Man uses land primarily to produce food; a relatively small area is needed for urban development.

It is evident, that for a number of ecological and technical problems in rivers and lakes a better knowledge of sediment transport and sedimentation is needed together with the ability to predict and simulate sediment behaviour. On the other hand, a stagnation of research in these topics could be observed in the last decades. At the Symposium an attempt was made to present new results in mathematics and natural sciences relevant for the sediment problem. New strategies were discussed to tackle the complexity of the problem. Basic theoretical research and laboratory experiments alone are incomplete without a feedback from field observations and measurements. For that reason well-known researchers from both basic and engineering sciences were invited. Turbulence, non-local phenomena, stability, interaction, feedback systems, self-organization, two-phase flow and chaotic processes, numerical simulations as well as measurement techniques and field results were the keywords of the Symposium. This proceedings are a good source for those interested in the state of the art.

This volume mainly reports on new and recent advancements on different aspects of Pseudomonas syringae, a plant pathogenic bacterial species that include a high number of pathogens of important crops, which is an interesting model organism in plant pathology. In addition some related fluorescent Pseudomonas spp., responsible of new and emerging diseases, as well as some pathogens previously included in the above genus and now classified in the genera Ralstonia, Acidovorax are also considered. The tremendous recent advancements on: the ecology and epidemiology and, in particular, the adaptation of P. syringae to stresses and adverse environmental conditions; the function and regulation of genes involved in the production of phytotoxins and on their mechanism of action in the interaction with the host cells; the structure, function and regulation of type three secretion system (TTSS) and the transport of the effectors proteins in the host cells; the possibility to control diseases through the induction of the systemic acquired resistance (SAR); the development of molecular techniques for the highly specific and sensible identification and detection of pathogens; the determination of the causal agents of new and emerging diseases as well the classification of the different pathovars of P. syringae; are reported in 76 chapters cured by leading scientist in the respective fields.