Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer Netherlands

The search for examples of proton radioactivity has resulted in the discovery of a large number of proton emitters in the region 50 < Z < 84 [1]. Many of these proton emitters and their daughters are also a-emitters, and in some cases the a-decay chain from the daughter terminates on a nuclide closer to stability whose mass excess is known. This opens up the possibility of using a-and proton-decay Q-values to determine the mass excesses of a large group of nuclei connected by particle decay. The Q-values are derived from the measured kinetic energies of the emitted protons or a-particles. Where the decay chains are not connected to nuclei with known mass excesses, proton separation energies can be measured in some cases and derived in others. For the a-decay ofthe parent nucleus (Z, A) to the daughter (Z - 2, A - 4), the energy and momentum relations used to convert between Q-value, mass (M) and mass excess (ME) are: M(4He)E"e;, (1) M(Z - 2, A - 4)Erecoil, (2) Q"e;, E"e;, + Erecoi\, ME(Z, A) Q"e;, + ME(Z - 2, A - 4) + ME(4He). (3) In practice, one uses M(4He) ~ 4 and M(Z - 2, A - 4) (A - 4), so that Equation (3) becomes ME(Z, A) = E"e;, (_A_) + ME(Z - 2, A - 4) + ME(4He). (4) A -4 Similarly, for protons, we have ME(Z, A) = Ep(_A_) +ME(Z - 1, A-I) +ME(lH).

A star in a binary may interact with its companion and this complicates significantly its structure and evolution. During several decades in the past many astronomers hoped that the number of binaries is small. This is sometimes reflected in theoretical studies dealing with large populations of stars where it is ASSUMED (without any justification) that binaries do not alter the results. The number of confirmed binaries increases as observations improve and we there­ fore thought that the time was right to organize a meeting where the main topic would be the effect of binaries on stellar population studies. The SOC proposed a program with extended general overviews and highlights of non-evolved and evolved binaries, with low mass, intermediate mass and massive components, the link with supernova explosions, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts, the effect of binaries on the chemical evo­ lution of galaxies. Specialists in the different research fields were invited and have given very interesting and highly educational talks. As can be noticed by reading the proceedings, the authors have put a lot of effort in preparing their contribution.

Relationships abound in the library and information science (LIS) world. Those relationships may be social in nature, as, for instance, when we deal with human relationships among library personnel or relationships (i. e. , "e;public relations"e;) between an information center and its clientele. The relationships may be educational, as, for example, when we examine the relationship between the curriculum of an accredited school and the needs of the work force it is preparing students to join. Or the relationships may be economic, as when we investigate the relationship between the cost of journals and the frequency with which they are cited. Many of the relationships of concern to us reflect phenomena entirely internal to the field: the relationship between manuscript collections, archives, and special collections; the relationship between end user search behavior and the effectiveness of searches; the relationship between access to and use of information resources; the relationship between recall and precision; the relationship between various bibliometric laws; etc. The list of such relationships could go on and on. The relationships addressed in this volume are restricted to those involved in the organization of recorded knowledge, which tend to have a conceptual or semantic basis, although statistical means are sometimes used in their discovery.

The human body contains many specialized tissues that are capable of fulfilling an incredible variety of functions necessary for our survival. This volume in the Human Cell Culture Series focuses on mesenchymal tissues and cells. The in vitro study of mesenchymal cells is perhaps the oldest form of human cell culture, beginning with the culturing of fibroblasts. Fibroblasts have long been generically described in the literature, arising from many tissue types upon in vitro cell culture. However, recent studies, many enabled by new molecular biology techniques, have shown considerable diversity in fibroblast type and function, as described within this volume. Mesenchymal tissue types that are described within include bone, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, muscle, adipose tissue, and skin (dermis). The proper function of these tissues is predominantly dependent upon the proper proliferation, differentiation, and function of the mesenchymal cells which make up the tissue. Recent advancements in primary human mesenchymal cell culture have led to remarkable progress in the study of these tissues. Landmark experiments have now demonstrated a stem cell basis for many of these tissues, and, furthermore, significant plasticity and inter-conversion of stem cells between these tissues, resulting in a great deal of contemporary excitement and controversy. Newly-developed mesenchymal cell culture techniques have even lead to novel clinical practices for the treatment of disease.

In the last years, it was observed an increasing interest of computer scientists in the structure of biological molecules and the way how they can be manipulated in vitro in order to define theoretical models of computation based on genetic engineering tools. Along the same lines, a parallel interest is growing regarding the process of evolution of living organisms. Much of the current data for genomes are expressed in the form of maps which are now becoming available and permit the study of the evolution of organisms at the scale of genome for the first time. On the other hand, there is an active trend nowadays throughout the field of computational biology toward abstracted, hierarchical views of biological sequences, which is very much in the spirit of computational linguistics. In the last decades, results and methods in the field of formal language theory that might be applied to the description of biological sequences were pointed out.