This book provides the most complete academic treatment on the application of polytropes ever published. It is primarily intended for students and scientists working in Astrophysics and related fields. It provides a full overview of past and present research results and is an indispensible guide for everybody wanting to apply polytropes.

This book demonstrates the applications of synchrotron radiation in certain aspects of cell microbiology, specifically non-destructive elemental analyses, chemical-state analyses and imaging (distribution) of the elements within a cell. The basics for understanding and applications of synchrotron radiation are also described to make the contents easier to be understood for a wide group of researchers in medical and biological sciences who might not be familiar with the physics of synchrotron radiation. The two main techniques that are discussed in this book are the x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and the x-ray fine structure analysis (XAFS). Application of these techniques in investigations of several important scientific fields, such as neurodegeneration and other diseases related to cell malfunctioning, are demonstrated in this book.

Four billion low-income consumers, a majority of the world s population, constitute the base of the economic pyramid (BOP). New empirical measures of their aggregate purchasing power and behavior as consumers suggest significant opportunities for market-based approaches to better meet their needs, increase their productivity and incomes, and empower their entry into the formal economy. This volume, based on unique access to the household income and consumption surveys of developing and transition countries, offers a new and compelling perspective on low-income communities worldwide. Drawing on income data from 110 countries and standardized expenditure data from 36 countries across the globe, The Next 4 Billion is an important first look at the market opportunity represented by four billion individuals who make up the BOP. The analysis for the first time provides a quantitative assessment and characterization of BOP markets, at several levels of analysis.

Number Theory: Tradition and Modernization is a collection of survey and research papers on various topics in number theory. Though the topics and descriptive details appear varied, they are unified by two underlying principles: first, making everything readable as a book, and second, making a smooth transition from traditional approaches to modern ones by providing a rich array of examples.

"This is altogether a far-reaching book with penetrating analysis and elegant and forceful reasoning." -- Amartya Sen, Master, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK, and Lamont University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics.

Eight topics about the unit cubes are introduced within this textbook: cross sections, projections, inscribed simplices, triangulations, 0/1 polytopes, Minkowski's conjecture, Furtwangler's conjecture, and Keller's conjecture. In particular Chuanming Zong demonstrates how deep analysis like log concave measure and the Brascamp-Lieb inequality can deal with the cross section problem, how Hyperbolic Geometry helps with the triangulation problem, how group rings can deal with Minkowski's conjecture and Furtwangler's conjecture, and how Graph Theory handles Keller's conjecture.

This book provides an introduction to discrete dynamical systems - a framework of analysis that is commonly used in the fields of biology, demography, ecology, economics, engineering, finance, and physics. The book characterizes the fundamental factors that govern the quantitative and qualitative trajectories of a variety of deterministic, discrete dynamical systems, providing solution methods for systems that can be solved analytically and methods of qualitative analysis for those systems that do not permit or necessitate an explicit solution.

The study of variational problems in materials science has a long history, and it has contributed a lot in shaping our understanding on how materials work and perform. There is, however, a recent renewed interest in this subject as a consequence of the fruitful interaction between mathematical analysis and the modelling of new, technologically advanced materials. On one hand, a sizable group of analysts has found in materials science a valuable source of inspiration for new variational theories and interesting problems. On the other hand, workers in the fields of theoretical, applied, and computational mechanics are increasingly using innovative variational techniques. The workshop intended to review some of the recent advances stemming from the successful interaction between the two communities, and to identify promising areas for further cooperation.

Many applications of acoustic signal processing, such as teleconferencing and surveillance systems, require an estimate of several parameters present in the observed acoustic wavefield. The most important parameters are the number as well as the location of active acoustic sources. This book deals with the problem of detecting and localizing multiple simultaneously active wideband acoustic sources by applying the notion of wavefield decomposition using circular and spherical microphone arrays. The decomposed wavefield representation is used to serve as a basis for so-called modal array signal processing algorithms, which have the significant advantage over classical array signal processing algorithms that they inherently support multiple wideband acoustic sources. A rigorous derivation of modal array signal processing algorithms for unambiguous source detection and localization as well as performance evaluations by means of measurements using an actual real-time capable implementation are discussed.

"This monograph is dedicated to the theory of singularities, a subject with a central role in modern mathematics. … This very well written book has a unified point of view based on the theory of analytic spaces, which allows a coherent presentation of both of its main themes: the theory of singularities and deformations of singularities. … The book includes many examples and exercises … . This monograph can serve as a source for several special courses in singularity theory and local analytic geometry."

Over the past decade, many major advances have been made in the field of graph colouring via the probabilistic method. This monograph provides an accessible and unified treatment of these results, using tools such as the Lovasz Local Lemma and Talagrand's concentration inequality.The topics covered include: Kahn's proofs that the Goldberg-Seymour and List Colouring Conjectures hold asymptotically; a proof that for some absolute constant C, every graph of maximum degree Delta has a Delta+C total colouring; Johansson's proof that a triangle free graph has a O(Delta over log Delta) colouring; algorithmic variants of the Local Lemma which permit the efficient construction of many optimal and near-optimal colourings.

Back in its tenth edition, Dominick Salvatore’s International Economics presents a comprehensive, up-to-date, and clear exposition of the theory and principles of international economics that are essential for understanding, evaluating, and suggesting solutions to the important international economic problems and issues facing the United States and the world in this age of globalization. Neither overly complex nor too simplistic, it helps students see the immediate relevance and importance of the material and contains an unparalleled number of real-world applications and examples.

Nonlinear optical techniques are now recognized as the most efficient means available to generate laser radiation at wavelengths that are presently inaccessible via conventional sources. This technology uses nonlinear optical crystals for the frequency conversion of laser light. The book contains the most complete and up to date reference material on properties of nonlinear optical crystals, describes their applications, both traditional and specific, and provides the main mathematical formulas necessary for the calculation of the frequency conversion process. It is a vital source of information for scientists and engineers dealing with modern applications of nonlinear optical crystals in quantum electronics, optoelectronics and laser physics.

One of the aims of this book was to focus the attention of specialists to the diversity of the effects of the ionising radiation on biological and physical systems. Special emphasis has been placed on the exquisite complexities/differences introduced by high ionisation density versus low ionisation density irradiation in both biological and physical systems (Scholz Chapter 1, Horowitz Chapter 2, Olko Chapter 3). As well we wanted to point out the need for novel experimental and theoretical approaches required to advance the important fields of micro and nanodosimetry.

'Forget your bank balance, now we're all going to be talking about our ecological debt.' -- Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop