The Boundary Element Method is a simple, efficient and cost effective computational technique which provides numerical solutions - for objects of any shap- for a wide range of scientific and engineering problems. In dealing with the development of the mathematics of the Boundary Element Method the aim has been at every stage, only to present new material when sufficient experience and practice of simpler material has been gained. Since the usual background of many readers will be of differential equations, the connection of differential equations with integral equations is explained in...

The theory of U-statistics goes back to the fundamental work of Hoeffding 1], in which he proved the central limit theorem. During last forty years the interest to this class of random variables has been permanently increasing, and thus, the new intensively developing branch of probability theory has been formed. The U-statistics are one of the universal objects of the modem probability theory of summation. On the one hand, they are more complicated "algebraically" than sums of independent random variables and vectors, and on the other hand, they contain essential elements of dependence...

The Adomian decomposition method enables the accurate and efficient analytic solution of nonlinear ordinary or partial differential equations without the need to resort to linearization or perturbation approaches. It unifies the treatment of linear and nonlinear, ordinary or partial differential equations, or systems of such equations, into a single basic method, which is applicable to both initial and boundary-value problems.
This volume deals with the application of this method to many problems of physics, including some frontier problems which have previously required much more...

Impact Assessment and Evaluation in Transportation Planning contains a refreshing approach to transportation planning by integrating impact analysis and evaluation methodology. It is original in that impact assessment and evaluation are brought together in a coherent framework. It is novel in the history of transportation science and particularly suitable as a pedagogical text, since methodologies are illustrated with various case studies and examples. It is particularly suitable for practitioners and students who want to become acquainted with conflict analysis and plan/project...

Questions concerning the notion of quality of life, its definition, and its ap plications for purposes of assessment and measurement in social and medical contexts, have been widely discussed in Scandinavia during the last ten years. To a great extent this discussion mirrors the international develop ment in the area. Several methods for the assessment and measurement of quality of life have been borrowed from the UK and the US and then further developed in northern Europe. But there has also been an internal develop ment. This holds in particular for the social arena, where Scandinavia has...

Part I of this book presents a theory of modal metaphysics in the possible-worlds tradition. Worlds' themselves are understood as structured sets of properties; this Ersatzist' view is defended against its most vigorous competitors, Meinongianism and David Lewis' theory of existent concrete worlds. Related issues of essentialism and linguistic reference are explored.
Part II takes up the question of lexical meaning in the context of possible-world semantics. There are skeptical analyses of analyticity and the notion of a logical constant; and an infinite polysemy' thesis is defended....

The encounter, in the late seventies, between the theory of triangular norms, issuing frorn stochastic geornetry, especially the works of Menger, Schweizer and Sklar, on the one band, and the theory of fuzzy sets due to Zadeh, 10n the other band has been very fruitful. Triangular norms have proved to be ready-rnade mathematical rnodels of fuzzy set intersections and have shed light on the algebraic foundations of fuzzy sets. One basic idea behind the study of triangular norms is to solve functional equations that stern frorn prescribed axioms describing algebraic properties such as...

Let us begin by quoting from the Preface to the author's Statistical Physics (Moscow, Nauka 1982; also published in English by Harwood in 1986): '''My God Yet another book on statistical physics There's no room on my bookshelves left ' Such emotionsare quite understandable. Beforejumping to conclusions, however, it would be worthwhile to read the Introduction and look through the table of contents. Then the reader will find that this book is totally different from the existing courses, fundamental and concise. ... We do not use the conventional division into statistical theories...

The articles in this collection were all selected from the first five volumes of the Journal of Dialectics of Nature published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences between 1979 and 1985. The Journal was established in 1979 as a comprehensive theoretical publication concerning the history, philosophy and sociology of the natural sciences. It began publication as a response to China's reform, particularly the policy of opening to the outside world. Chinese scholars began to undertake distinctive, original research in these fields. This collection provides a cross-section of...

Modulational Interactions in Plasmas is the first book to present all the basic considerations relevant to the topic. It adopts a simple and universal approach, based on new methods developed for the description of modulation interactions in arbitrary media. Emphasis is given to the role of modulational interactions in fundamental topics, such as laser acceleration, the generation of strong magnetic fields, r.f. plasma heating and current drive, physical phenomena in active geophysical and space experiments, interactions of r.f. radiation with the ionosphere, etc. The methods employed can...