Modern manufacturing industry is focusing its interests on the potential offered by the laser, in combination with other new technologies such as optical fibres, automation, computing and flexible manufacturing systems, to give new and powerful methods for non-destructive testing, in-process quality assurance, laser material processing and process control, and laser robotics.
The greatest opportunities for the laser are in those areas where flexibility, automation, CAD/CAM integration, precision, cost reduction, and time to market are important factors. The examples covered here are...

During the investigation of large systems described by evolution equations, we encounter many problems. Of special interest is the problem of "high dimensionality" or, more precisely, the problem of the complexity of the phase space. The notion of the "comple xity of the. phase space" includes not only the high dimensionality of, say, a system of linear equations which appear in the mathematical model of the system (in the case when the phase space of the model is finite but very large), as this is usually understood, but also the structure of the phase space itself, which can be a finite,...

The main aim of this monograph is to provide an overview of calcium regulation in cardiac muscle cells, particularly with respect to excitation-contraction coupling and the control of cardiac contractile force. It is my hope that this book will be useful to students of the cardiovascular system and muscle at all different levels and in different disciplines (such as physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology and pathophysiology). I also hope that it will find use for those studying developmental, comparative and disease processes as well as more integrative phenomenon. I kept several goals in...

Books do not come about by accident. This is especially the case when a volume grows out of a conference for which the participants wrote the original contributions in different languages. This volume descends from a conference held at the Zentrumjiir interdiszipliniire Forschung, University of Bielefeld, Germany, October 4 through 6, 1990, under the title "Technische Eingriffe in die menschliche Reproduktion: Per spektiven eines moralischen Konsenses." Many with great generosity helped to ensure that the conference was a success and that the papers presented grew into a book. We want in...

Incidence and mortality of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD) vary considerably among races, populations and ethnic groups. Some individuals with low levels of risk factors succumb early to disease while many others with a high risk profile do not. CHD clusters in families and is manyfold increased in first degree relatives of persons with an early onset of the disease. Such studies provide compelling evidence of the high degree of heritability of CHD and its risk factors.
This book consolidates the available evidence for the roles of genetics in atherosclerosis, its...

As the life expectancy of patients with arterial hypertension increases, hypertension in the elderly is becoming a relevant medical and social problem. Indeed, epidemiological trials have shown that the cardiovascular risk in elderly hypertensives is significantly higher than in normotensive subjects of comparable age. However, many characteristics of hypertension in the elderly, such as the haemodynamic pattern, do differ greatly from those of younger hypertensives and therefore the results obtained in younger patients cannot be extrapolated to older hypertensives.
In this book,...

Coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States and other industrialized nations. Acute myocardial infarction accounts for a majority of these deaths, approaching 750,000 yearly.
Thrombolytic therapy has revolutionized the treatment of myocardial infarction, saving lives to a greater extent than any treatment developed to date. The identification of patients best suited for thrombolytic therapy has been a challenging task, as has the ideal adjuvant strategy. Further, the noninvasic diagnosis of treatment successes and failures, as well as...

Pediatric cardiology is celebrating in the 1990s the 50th anniversary of the beginnings of the age of therapy.
This informal history' describes how the discipline grew from the era of pathologic anatomy to the dawn of therapy, the beginnings of closed heart surgery between 1939 and 1945. That dawn ushered in a remarkable half century of change and growth, leading from clinicophysiologic correlations through the start of open heart surgery in the 1950s. The text celebrates some of the achievements of this vivid and heroic age, and describes how, in the mid 1970s, new surgical and medical...

The present volume in a series of books produced from European Business Eth- ics Network (EBEN) conferences in Europe, is a compilation of plenary speeches and papers presented at the 1993 EBEN conference in Oslo, Norway. The theme of this year's conference was "The Use of Consultancy: Ethical Demands and Require- ments" and there was a special focus on Eastern Europe. Of over 40 papers present- ed at the conference from 165 participants representing 23 countries, we present here 20 selected by the editors as providing an overview of the latest thinking from both academicians and...

For a naturalist and limnologist, the Pantanal has the extreme fascination of an "ultima Thule" ofundisturbed and little known wilderness. The scientific world at large is almost unaware of its richness. In an age when scientific research is overstretched because of lack of funds and the hands are full of urgentconservationtasks, it is the amateurtourist who unveils the beauty and the interestof this largest wetland ofthe world. I had the privilege of an outsider, well enough familiarized with Brazil, its language and scientific life, but independent enough of the daily chores of a local...