Bücher veröffentlicht von World Scientific Publishing Company

Written by an international team of leading experts in neuroscience, this book presents an overview of some of the main schools of thought as well as current research trends in neuroscience. It focuses on neural top-down causation applied to hot topics like consciousness, emotions, the self and the will, action and behavior, neural networks, brains and society. A special feature of the book is pertinent presentations and lively discussions on the topic. The book provides the reader with invaluable information on what the latest research is in this field and will enable the reader to gain considerable amount of knowledge as well as hints for further enquiry. This is the first book on the topic of neuroscience and top-down causation, and is written at a level that will interest both academics and the general readers. The extensive and lively discussions included in the book offer the reader a clear idea of the research in this field, and what will emerge as the main trends.

This book is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduate students and other researchers who possess an introductory background in materials physics and/or chemistry, and an interest in the physical and chemical properties of novel materials, especially transition metal oxides. New materials often exhibit novel phenomena of great fundamental and technological importance. Contributing authors review the structural, physical and chemical properties of notable 4d- and 5d-transition metal oxides discovered over the last 10 years. These materials exhibit extraordinary physical properties that differ significantly from those of the heavily studied 3d-transition metal oxides, mainly due to the relatively strong influence of the spin-orbit interaction and orbital order in 4d- and 5d materials. The text includes overviews of relevant theoretical models, as well as methods to grow and characterize high-quality single crystals.

Business Games presents board and video business games which combine teamwork with individual decisions based on computer models. Business games support integration of learning experience for different levels of education and between different disciplines: economics, management, technological, environmental and social studies. The work is based on experience in adaptation, design and conducting of field, and board and video games played in college settings within standard schedules. Most of the games are played in Modeling and Simulation, Microeconomics, Logistics and Supply Chain Management courses. Game boards are 2- or 3-dimensional displays of subsystems, their components and phases of technological and business processes, which allow customization of games of the same type for different missions in schools, universities, and corporate training centers. The range of games applied to economics and management classes spreads from 2-person games for kid's "Aquarium" up to the REACTOR games for several teams of executives.

Many fundamental issues in classical condensed matter physics can be addressed experimentally using systems of individually visible mesoscopic particles playing the role of ¿proxy atoms¿. The interaction between such ¿atoms¿ is determined by the properties of the surrounding medium and/or by external tuning. The best-known examples of such experimental model systems are two different domains of soft matter ¿ complex plasmas and colloidal dispersions.The major goal of this book ¿ written by scientists representing both complex plasmas and colloidal dispersions ¿ is to bring the two fields together. In the first part of the book the basic properties of the two systems are summarized, demonstrating huge conceptual and methodological overlap of the fields and emphasizing numerous cross-connections between them and their essential complementarity. This ¿introductory part¿ should serve to help each community in understanding the other field better. Simultaneously, this provides the necessary basis for the second part focused on particle-resolved studies of diverse generic phenomena in liquids and solids ¿ all performed with complex plasmas and/or colloidal dispersions. The book is concluded with the discussion of critical open issues and fascinating perspectives of such interdisciplinary research.

Manual of Pediatric Neurology is an easy-to-read and easy-to-access text based on clinical scenarios. Emphasis is placed on signs and symptoms, diagnostic tests as needed, and practical advice on treatment for childhood neurologic disorders. The book comprises a collection of chapters that address frequently encountered pediatric scenarios in all clinical settings. These include the management of seizures in the emergency department, treatment of epilepsy in the outpatient setting, acute management of headaches and many more. The book also covers topics juxtaposed to neurology such as neonatal neurology, neurogenetics, and the management of stroke in children. Special attention is placed on commonly encountered neurological conditions such as Tourette' syndrome, neuromuscular illnesses, and CNS infections. Interpretation of frequently used tests such as EEG, CSF analysis, and nerve conduction testing is also covered. Finally, one chapter is devoted to the care of child neurology patients at the end of life, i.e. palliative care.

This is the story of the author's unique scientific journey with one of the most remarkable men of 20th century science. The journey begins in Sri Lanka, the author's native country, with his childhood acquaintance with Fred Hoyle's writings. The action then moves to Cambridge, where the famous Hoyle Wickramasinghe collaborations begin. A research programme which was started in 1962 on the carbonaceous nature of interstellar dust leads, over the next two decades, to developments that are continued in both Cambridge and Cardiff. These developments prompt Hoyle and the author to postulate the organic theory of cosmic dust (which is now generally accepted), and then to challenge one of the most cherished paradigms of contemporary science the theory that life originated on Earth in a warm primordial soup. Two new chapters plus revisions to the other chapters bring the book up to date and thus make it more relevant, just as recent findings mesh with many of the ideas that had their origin in the first edition. Ongoing research relating to life outside the Earth, the search for extrasolar planets as well as panspermia connect with this earlier work, so that tracing links become easier. A Journey with Fred Hoyle is an intriguing book that delineates the progress of a collaboration spanning 40 years, through a sequence of personal reflections, anecdotes and reminiscences.

Interest rate modeling and the pricing of related derivatives remain subjects of increasing importance in financial mathematics and risk management. This book provides an accessible introduction to these topics by a step-by-step presentation of concepts with a focus on explicit calculations. Each chapter is accompanied with exercises and their complete solutions, making the book suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate level students. This second edition retains the main features of the first edition while incorporating a complete revision of the text as well as additional exercises with their solutions, and a new introductory chapter on credit risk. The stochastic interest rate models considered range from standard short rate to forward rate models, with a treatment of the pricing of related derivatives such as caps and swaptions under forward measures. Some more advanced topics including the BGM model and an approach to its calibration are also covered.

This textbook covers the full range of topics and issues normally included in a course on economic growth and development. Both mainstream economic perspectives as well as the multi-paradigmatic, inter-disciplinary, and dynamic-evolutionary perspectives from heterodox economics are detailed. Economic development is viewed in terms of the long-run well-being of humanity, social stability, environmental sustainability, and just distribution of economic gains, not simply as the growth of GDP. Furthermore, this textbook explicitly recognizes the complexity of economic development by linking economic activity to our broader social and natural environments. The textbook's unique feature is its focus on the natural environment. Both the historical effects of economic development on the environment and the environmental constraints on future economic development are thoroughly discussed in two chapters on environmental issues and policies. In fact, because economic development is defined in terms of economic, social, and environmental sustainability, the natural environment is included in discussions throughout the book. The textbook is inter-disciplinary: knowledge from fields such as sociology, psychology, political science, economic history, and ecology is called on to enhance the economic analysis. A thorough historical account of the development of the principal paradigms of economic development is also included, and the important issues of institutional development and cultural change merit their own chapters. Two chapters on technological change holistically focus on production technologies as well as the dynamic performance of entire economic, social, and ecological systems. Also, the important relationship between economic development and globalization is presented in three chapters on international trade, international finance and investment, and immigration from both orthodox and heterodox perspectives.

Philip Anderson was educated at University High School in Urbana, Illinois, at Harvard (BS 1943, PhD 1949), and further educated at Bell Laboratories, where his career (1949-1984) coincided with the greatest period of that remarkable institution. Starting in 1967, he shared his time with Cambridge University (until 1975) and then with Princeton, where he continued full time as Joseph Henry Professor until 1997. As an emeritus he remains active in research, and at press time he was involved in several scientific controversies about high profile subjects, in which his point of view, though unpopular at the moment, is likely to prevail eventually. His colleagues have made him one of the two physicists most often cited in the scientific literature, for several decades. His work is characterized by mathematical simplicity combined with conceptual depth, and by profound respect for experimental findings. He has explored areas outside his main discipline, the quantum theory of condensed matter (for which he won the 1977 Nobel Prize), on several occasions: his paper on what is now called the "Anderson-Higgs mechanism" was a main source for Peter Higgs' elucidation of the boson; a crucial insight led to work on the dynamics of neutron stars (pulsars); and his concept of the spin glass led far afield, to developments in practical computer algorithms and in neural nets, and eventually to his involvement in the early years of the Santa Fe Institute and his co-leadership with Kenneth Arrow of two influential workshops on economics at that institution. His writing career started with a much-quoted article in Science titled "More is Different" in 1971; he was an occasional columnist for Physics Today in the 1980s and 1990s. He was more recently a reviewer of science- and science-related books for the Times (London) Higher Education Supplement as well as an occasional contributor to Science, Nature, and other journals.

3D Integration is being touted as the next semiconductor revolution. This book provides a comprehensive coverage on the design and modeling aspects of 3D integration, in particularly, focus on its electrical behavior. Looking from the perspective the Silicon Via (TSV) and Glass Via (TGV) technology, the book introduces 3DICs and Interposers as a technology, and presents its application in numerical modeling, signal integrity, power integrity and thermal integrity. The authors underscored the potential of this technology in design exchange formats and power distribution.

On the 40th anniversary of the Berezinskii Kosterlitz Thouless Theory (BKT), this informative volume looks back at some of the developments and achievements and varied physics applications which ensued from the beautiful BKT vortex-unbinding seminal idea. During the last four decades, BKT theory, which is undeniably one of the most important developments in condensed matter and theoretical physics of the second half of the twentieth century, has expanded widely. It has been used and extended from many different theoretical and experimental perspectives. New and unexpected features have been uncovered from the BKT theory. Since its inception, apart from applications in condensed matter physics, the theory has been actively applied in other branches of physics, such as high energy physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, statistical physics, nonlinear systems, etc. This makes the theory an indispensable topic for all who are involved in physics. An international team of experts, each of whom has left his mark on the developments of this remarkable theory and experimental applications, contribute both historical essays and more detailed current technical and experimental accounts to this volume. These articles highlight the new discoveries from the respective authors' perspectives. This unique volume celebrates the impact over four decades of the BKT theory on modern physics. In addition to the historical perspective provided by Kosterlitz and Thouless's overview, the volume provides a comprehensive description of experimental and theoretical applications and extensions of the BKT theory.

Written for students taking either the University of Cambridge A-level examinations or the International Baccalaureate examinations, this textbook covers essential topics under both stipulated chemistry syllabi. The chapters on analytical techniques are also very enlightening to students doing higher level biology courses where a good understanding of the theoretical background of common analytical techniques is required. The book is written in such a way as to guide the reader through the understanding and applications of essential chemical concepts by introducing a discourse feature the asking and answering of questions that stimulates coherent thinking and hence, elucidates ideas. Based on the Socratic Method, questions are implanted throughout the book to help facilitate the reader's development in forming logical conclusions of concepts. The book helps students to master fundamental chemical concepts in a simple way. Topics are explored through an explanatory and inquiry-based approach. They are interrelated and easy to understand, with succinct explanations/examples being included, especially in areas that students frequently find difficult. Topics address the whys and hows behind key concepts to be mastered, so that the concepts are made understandable and intuitive for students. The focus is on conceptual learning so as to equip students with knowledge for critical learning and problem solving. Existing A-level textbooks and guidebooks generally introduce concepts in a matter-of-fact manner. This book adds a unique pedagogical edge which few can rival. Through their many years of teaching experience, the authors have acquired an acute awareness of students' common misconceptions which are relayed through the questions and thus help to reinforce concepts learnt.

The rapidly expanding molecular biological techniques and approaches have significant impact on microbial biotechnology, hence the need for the addition of two new chapters in the third edition of this textbook "Chapter 3: Application of 'Omics' Technologies in Microbial Fermentation" and "Chapter 19: Bacterial Biofilm, Molecular Characterization and Impacts on Water Management." "Chapter 13: Transgenic Plants" has been completely revised while most of the other chapters have been thoroughly updated in this new edition. There already exist a number of excellent general textbooks on microbiology and biotechnology that deal with the basic principles of microbial biotechnology. To complement them, this book focuses on the various applications of microbial-biotechnological principles. A teaching-based format is adopted, whereby working problems, as well as answers to frequently asked questions, supplement the main text. The book also includes real life examples of how the application of microbial-biotechnological principles has achieved breakthroughs in both research and industrial production. Although written for polytechnic students and undergraduates, the book contains sufficient information to be used as a reference for postgraduate students and lecturers. It may also serve as a resource book for corporate planners, managers and applied research personnel.

This book provides a self-contained presentation of the physical and mathematical laws governing complex systems. Complex systems arising in natural, engineering, environmental, life and social sciences are approached from a unifying point of view using an array of methodologies such as microscopic and macroscopic level formulations, deterministic and probabilistic tools, modeling and simulation. The book can be used as a textbook by graduate students, researchers and teachers in science, as well as non-experts who wish to have an overview of one of the most open, markedly interdisciplinary and fast-growing branches of present-day science.

The focus of this book is to provide a nephrology reference manual for the developing pediatrician and pediatric nephrologist. Its objective is not only to inform but also to teach one that inspires thinking in the reader. The contents and level of teaching in the manual are intended for trainees at four different levels: medical student, intern, resident and fellow. This handbook provides what other nephrology textbooks cannot a useful and practical guidebook that is written to teach at a level that is appropriate for various stages of learning. Each chapter focuses on a specific topic, followed by several patient cases, and with an answer and discussion of each case.

Oncoplastic breast cancer surgery is one of the fastest growing domains in breast surgery. This approach is currently gaining ground as it results in the best cosmetic outcome. This book summarizes the basic principles and techniques using evidence-based data. The book is illustrated with real patient pictures and very comprehensive drawings, and can be used as a practical guide to surgeons who deal with diseases of the breast.

Frontiers in Entropy Across the Disciplines presents a panorama of entropy emphasizing mathematical theory, physical and scientific significance, computational methods, and applications in mathematics, physics, statistics, engineering, biomedical signals, and signal processing.In the last century classical concepts of entropy were introduced in the areas of thermodynamics, information theory, probability theory, statistics, dynamical systems, and ergodic theory. During the past 50 years, dozens of new concepts of entropy have been introduced and studied in many disciplines. This volume captures significant developments in this arena. It features expository, review, and research papers by distinguished mathematicians and scientists from many disciplines. The level of mathematics ranges from intermediate level to research level. Each chapter contains a comprehensive list of references. Topics include entropy and society, entropy and time, Souriau entropy on symplectic model of statistical physics, new definitions of entropy, geometric theory of heat and information, maximum entropy in Bayesian networks, maximum entropy methods, entropy analysis of biomedical signals (review and comparison of methods), spectral entropy and its application to video coding and speech coding, a comprehensive review of 50 years of entropy in dynamics, a comprehensive review on entropy, entropy-like quantities and applications, topological entropy of multimodal maps, entropy production in complex systems, entropy production and convergence to equilibrium, reversibility and irreversibility in entropy, nonequilibrium entropy, index of various entropy, entropy and the greatest blunder ever.

An understanding of the effects of electronic correlations in quantum systems is one of the most challenging problems in physics, partly due to the relevance in modern high technology. Yet there exist hardly any books on the subject which try to give a comprehensive overview on the field covering insulators, semiconductors, as well as metals. The present book tries to fill that gap. It intends to provide graduate students and researchers a comprehensive survey of electron correlations, weak and strong, in insulators, semiconductors and metals. This topic is a central one in condensed matter and beyond that in theoretical physics. The reader will have a better understanding of the great progress which has been made in the field over the past few decades.

Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is all about making choices in the presence of multiple-conflicting criteria. MCDM has become one of the most important and fastest growing subfields of Operations Research/Management Science. The last book on this topic was published about 50 years ago. This book aims to present an informal, nontechnical history of Multiple Criteria Decision Making, supplemented with many pictures. It covers the major developments in MCDM, from early history until now. It also covers fascinating discoveries by Nobel laureates and other prominent scholars. The book begins with the early history of MCDM, which covers the roots of MCDM through the 1960s. It proceeds to give a decade-by-decade account of major developments in the field starting from the 1970s until now. Written in a simple and accessible manner, this book will be of interest to students and professionals in the field of decision sciences.

There are a number of unanswered questions which indicate that the Standard Model, successful as it is, cannot be the entire story. One solution to answering these questions is that the Standard Model is an effective low-energy theory of structure hopefully nearby in its energy scale in much the same way that a model of strong interactions among nucleons mediated by pions is an effective theory for the strong interactions of quarks mediated by coloured gluons. This book reviews the Standard Model and then examines the current status of composite models. After developing criteria for judging such models the text discusses two of the major indicators of compositeness, triviality and naturalness. Using this framework as a background the various models are summarized and discussed. This monograph concludes with a chapter describing the constraints imposed on composite models by current measurements of decay rates, magnetic moment measurements, flavour changing processes etc. and describing other ways to look for signatures of compositeness.This monograph attempts to be thorough, covering all aspects of composite models, as found in the literature at the time of completion of the manuscript. As such it should be of interest to any experimental or theoretical physicist having an interest in the subject. The review of the Standard Model in the first chapter is written in such a way that anyone with a basic knowledge of Quantum Field Theory should be able to understand the entire text. As such it could also be used for supplementary reading in graduate courses.

It has been known for a long time that stars are similar to our Sun. But it was only in 1810 that they were shown to be made of an incandescent gas. The chemical composition of this gas began to be determined in 1860. In 1940, it was demonstrated that the energy radiated by the stars is of thermonuclear origin. How stars form from interstellar matter and how they evolve and die was understood only recently, with our knowledge still incomplete. It was also realized recently that close double stars present a wide variety of extraordinary phenomena, which are far from being completely explored. This book explains all these aspects, and also discusses how the evolution of stars determine that of galaxies. The most interesting observations are illustrated by spectacular images, while the theory is explained as simply as possible, without however avoiding some mathematical or physical developments when they are necessary for a good understanding of what happens in stars. Without being a textbook for specialists, this book can be profitably read by students or amateurs possessing some basic scientific knowledge, who would like to be initiated in-depth to the fascinating world of stars. The author, an emeritus astronomer of the Paris Observatory, worked in various domains of astronomy connected with the subject of this book: interstellar matter and evolution of stars and galaxies. He directed the Marseilles observatory from 1983 to 1988 and served for fifteen years as Chief Editor of the professional European journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. He has written many articles and books about physics and astronomy at different levels.

Confucianism is the guiding creed for a quarter of mankind, yet hardly anyone has explained it in plain terms until now. Written in a style both intelligible and enjoyable for the global audience, The Great Equal Society distils the core ideas of the major Confucian classics and shows how their timeless wisdom can be applied to the modern world. It also introduces pragmatic suggestions emanating from Confucius and his followers for ensuring good governance, building a humane economy and educating moral leaders. The book's core message of inner morality, first expounded by Confucius millennia ago, will resonate on both sides of the Pacific, and its sweeping survey of the hot topics today dysfunctional government, crony capitalism, and the erosion of ethics in both Wall Street and Main Street, among others will breathe new life to Confucian teachings while providing much-needed answers to our urgent social problems. The Great Equal Society is written by Young-oak Kim, a Korean thinker whom Wikipedia describes as "the nation's leading philosopher dealing with public issues and explaining Oriental philosophy to the public," and Jung-kyu Kim, a talented trilingual writer who has published works in English, Japanese and Korean.

This volume elaborates on both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of resilience. Reviewing the literature exploring the concept of resilience in engineering, it discusses resilience in terms of the various definitions used, the methodologies proposed to characterize resilience, and the metrics put forward to quantify the resilience of specific service infrastructure systems. The review also identifies the key factors that contribute to organizational resilience. The concept of resilience is compared to other system properties such as reliability, robustness, flexibility and agility, by taking into consideration what systems are prepared against (types of failure), the causes of failure in systems (uncertainty), and how systems react to overcome failure (level of adaptability). A review is also provided of several resilience-enabling schemes, which improve resilience by reducing vulnerability and increasing adaptive capacity. The book puts forward a new framework, the Networked Infrastructure Resilience Assessment (NIRA) framework, through which the resilience of systems can be measured by assessing the impact of disruptions on key performance measures. By applying the framework to various case studies, the book demonstrates the ability of the proposed framework to assess resilience across a wide variety of networked infrastructure systems. The case studies probe the resilience of the following critical infrastructure systems in the face of specific disruptive events: telecommunication, transportation, maritime transportation and organizational networks. This text is intended for all levels of academia - from undergraduate through to research level as well as professionals and decision-makers involved in the development, analysis and evaluation of infrastructure systems.

This book in its Second Edition is a useful, attractive introduction to basic counting techniques for upper secondary to undergraduate students, as well as teachers. Younger students and lay people who appreciate mathematics, not to mention avid puzzle solvers, will also find the book interesting. The various problems and applications here are good for building up proficiency in counting. They are also useful for honing basic skills and techniques in general problem solving. Many of the problems avoid routine and the diligent reader will often discover more than one way of solving a particular problem, which is indeed an important awareness in problem solving. The book thus helps to give students an early start to learning problem-solving heuristics and thinking skills. New chapters originally from a supplementary book have been added in this edition to substantially increase the coverage of counting techniques. The new chapters include the Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion, the Pigeonhole Principle, Recurrence Relations, the Stirling Numbers and the Catalan Numbers. A number of new problems have also been added to this edition.

This book is the essential companion to Counting (2nd Edition) (World Scientific, 2012), an introduction to combinatorics for secondary to undergraduate students. The book gives solutions to the exercises in Counting (2nd Edition). There is often more than one method to solve a particular problem and the authors have included alternative solutions whenever they are of interest. The rigorous and clear solutions will aid the reader in further understanding the concepts and applications in the book Counting (2nd Edition). Alternative solutions are often provided. An introductory section on problem solving as described by Georg Polya will be useful in helping the lay person understand how mathematicians think and solve problems.

This volume collects together summaries of work on a modern theory of black holes in terms of local notions, covering fields as diverse as classical and numerical general relativity, differential geometry, thermodynamics, quantum field theory, and quantum gravity. Existing textbooks define a black hole by an event horizon. However, its teleological nature means that it is epistemologically unsound, empirically unverifiable, even theoretically impractical and not directly related to local physics. The last decade or so has seen increasing evidence that more local notions are more useful and have understandable associated physics. There is heretofore no one volume which covers all the main aspects, hence the timeliness of this attempt. Each chapter is written by an expert or experts on a particular topic. It is intended for anyone interested in black holes, as a reference for the many applications and issues.

This marvelous book is aimed at strengthening the mathematical background and sharpening the mathematical tools of students without rigorous training before taking the quantum mechanics course. The abstract construction of quantum postulates in the framework of Hilbert space and Hermitian operators are realized by q-representation in the formulation to demonstrate the conventional approach to quantum theory. Symmetry property is emphasized and extensively explored in this book both in continuous transformations as well as in the discrete ones. The space-time structure is discussed in depth and Dirac equation is formulated by symmetry consideration of Lorentz group.