Advances in the Theory of Chemical and Physical Systems is a collection of 26 selected papers from the scientific presentations made at the 9th European Workshop on Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics (QSCP-IX) held at Les Houches, France, in September 2004. This volume encompasses a spectrum of developing topics in which scientists place special emphasis on theoretical methods in the study of chemical and physical properties of various systems: Quantum Chemical Methods (including CC and DFT for excited states) Relativistic and Heavy-Element Systems (including radiative and nuclear effects)Complexes and Clusters (including metal complexes and clusters) Complex Systems (including quasicrystals, nanotubes and proteins).

Scanning Probe Microscopy is a comprehensive source of information for researchers, teachers, and graduate students about the rapidly expanding field of scanning probe theory. Writing in a tutorial style, the authors explain from scratch the theory behind today’s simulation techniques and give examples of theoretical concepts through state-of-the-art simulations, including the means to compare these results with experimental data. The book provides the first comprehensive framework for electron transport theory with its various degrees of approximations, thus allowing extensive insight into the physics of scanning probes. Experimentalists will appreciate how the materials properties influence the instrument's operation, and theorists will understand how simulations can be directly compared to experimental data.

This volume is intended to coverthe presentstatus of the mathematicaltools used to deal with problems related to slow rare?ed ?ows. The meaning and usefulness of the subject, and the extent to which it is covered in the book, are discussed in some detail in the introduction. In short, I tried to present the basic concepts and the techniques used in probing mathematical questions and problems which arise when studying slow rare?ed ?ows in environmental sciences and micromachines. For the book to be up-to-date without being excessively large, it was necessary to omit some topics, which are treated elsewhere, as indicated in the introd- tion and, whenever the need arises, in the various chapters of this volume. Their omission does not alter the aim of the book, to provide an understanding of the essential mathematical tools required to deal with slow rare?ed ?ows and give the background for a study of the original literature. Although I have tried to give a rather complete bibliographical coverage,the choice of the topics and of the references certainly re?ects a personal bias and I apologize in advance for any omission. I wish to thank Lorenzo Valdettaro, Antonella Abb` a, Silva Lorenzani and Paolo Barbante for their help with pictures and especially Professor Ching Shen for his permission to reproduce his pictures on microchannel ?ows.

This is an outstanding collection of original essays. All of them concern the history and philosophy of mathematics and physics in the years from 1870 to 1930. More specifically, they are intellectual histories of the interactions between the three disciplines, philosophy, mathematics and physics, in that period. And as the essays bring out, what a period it was: of both ferment and synergy, heat and light! Most of the giants - especially Helmholtz, Hertz, Poincare, Hilbert, Einstein and Weyl - are here: engaging not just in physics and mathematics but also in philosophy, often together, or with figures like Schlick. The editors are to be congratulated on a major contribution to our understanding of one of the most complex but fertile periods in the history of all three disciplines.

Although the development of ideas about the motion and trajectory of comets has been investigated piecemeal, we lack a comprehensive and detailed survey of ph- ical theories of comets. The available works either illustrate relatively short periods in the history of physical cometology or portray a landscape view without adequate details. The present study is an attempt to review – with more details – the major physical theories of comets in the past two millennia, from Aristotle to Whipple. My research, however, did not begin with antiquity. The basic question from which this project originated was a simple inquiry about the cosmic identity of comets at the dawn of the astronomical revolution: how did natural philosophers and astronomers define the nature and place of a new category of celestial objects – comets – after Brahe’s estimation of cometary distances? It was from this turning point in the history of cometary theories that I expanded my studies in both the pre-modern and modern eras. A study starting merely from Brahe and ending with Newton, without covering classical and medieval thought about comets, would be incomplete and leave the fascinating achievements of post-Newtonian cometology unexplored.

Childhood, Youth and Emotions in Modern History is the first book to innovatively combine the history of childhood and youth with the history of emotions, combining multiple national, colonial, and global perspectives.

Jeremy Black has written a vigorous and fascinating narrative of a group of rather desolate offshore islands and their remarkable impact upon the rest of the world. From the earliest pre-history to the 1990s, this stirring account describes the astonishingly varied stages through which the British Isles have passed to achieve their present identity.

This new edition of White Coat Tales presents intriguing stories that give historical context to what we do in medicine today—the body’s “holy bone” and how it got its name, a surprising reason why gout seemed to be so prevalent several centuries ago, and the therapeutic misadventure that shortened the life of Eleanor Roosevelt. In addition to many new tales, this revised edition contains 128 illustrations, such as images of Baron von Münchhausen aloft with cannonballs and Vincent van Gogh’s portrait of his doctor showing a clue to the painter’s health. Read about legendary medical innovators, diseases that changed history, illnesses of famous persons, and some epic blunders of physicians and scientists. The author is Robert B. Taylor, MD, Emeritus Professor, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, and Professor, Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr. Taylor is the author and editor of more than 33 medical books.

This book shows how bubonic plague and smallpox helped end the Hittite Empire, the Bronze Age in the Near East and later the Carthaginian Empire. The book will examine all the possible infectious diseases present in ancient times and show that life was a daily struggle for survival either avoiding or fighting against these infectious disease epidemics. The book will argue that infectious disease epidemics are a critical link in the chain of causation for the demise of most civilizations in the ancient world and that ancient historians should no longer ignore them, as is currently the case.

The problem of approximating a given quantity is one of the oldest challenges faced by mathematicians. Its increasing importance in contemporary mathematics has created an entirely new area known as Approximation Theory. The modern theory was initially developed along two divergent schools of thought: the Eastern or Russian group, employing almost exclusively algebraic methods, was headed by Chebyshev together with his coterie at the Saint Petersburg Mathematical School, while the Western mathematicians, adopting a more analytical approach, included Weierstrass, Hilbert, Klein, and others.

This book describes the role of advanced neuroimaging techniques in characterizing the changes in tissue structure in patients with brain metastases. On a large number of newly recognized CT, MRI, and PET characteristics of brain metastases from different primary tumors are highlighted, thereby elucidating the potential differential diagnostic role of CT perfusion imaging, MR spectroscopy, MR diffusion-weighted imaging, MR susceptibility-weighted imaging, and PET with different radiopharmaceuticals.