A. Audience. This treatise (consisting of the present VoU and of VoUI, to be published) is primarily intended to be a textbook for a core course in mathematics at the advanced undergraduate or the beginning graduate level. The treatise should also be useful as a textbook for selected stu dents in honors programs at the sophomore and junior level. Finally, it should be of use to theoretically inclined scientists and engineers who wish to gain a better understanding of those parts of mathemat ics that are most likely to help them gain insight into the conceptual foundations of the scientific...

Most real-life problems involve making decisions to optimally achieve a number of criteria while satisfying some hard or soft constraints. In this book several methods for solving such problems are presented by the leading experts in the area. The book also contains a number of very interesting application papers which demonstrate theoretical modelling, analysing and solution of real-life problems.

Large collections of data and information necessitate adequate methods for their analysis. The book presents such methods, proposes and discusses recent approaches and implementations and describes a series of practical applications.

It is in the area of Systems Diagnosis. Supervision and Control that Knowledge-Based Techniques have had their most significant impact in recent years. In this volume. Spyros Tzafestas has ably put together the current state of the art of the application of Artificial Intelligence concepts to problems of Systems Diagnosis. All the authors in this edited work are distinguished internationally. recognized experts on various aspects of Artificial Intelligence and its applications. and the coverage of the field that they provide is both readable and authoritative. The sixteen chapters break down...

This book provides an overview of the underlying physics and technology of modern waveguide optoelectronics. By presenting these two aspects together in a coherent manner, readers will gain an appreciation of the fundamental physical limits to device performance as well as a critical understanding of the state of the art.

Corrosion behaviour is one of the most poorly understood characteristics of ceramics. A balanced mixture of scientists from material science, metallurgy, physics, chemistry and mineralogy sum up the state of the art of measurement and modelling and reveal future research directions. The book reviews the theory of corrosion of ceramics, including the diffusion of gases and the predictions of thermodynamics; it discusses critically the kinetic models and representation tools for layer growths and material destruction. Corrosion of nitrides, carbides and oxides by simple and complex gases...

Italian researchers involved in different aspects of the foundations and history of quantum mechanics are brought together in an interdisciplinary debate in this text. The book presents an overview of the state of Italian work in the field and of the open problems that still exist in the foundations of the theory. Physicists, logicians, mathematicians and epistemologists whose research concerns the historical analysis of quantum mechanics may find this text to be useful reading.

The analogy between the chemistry of molecular transition metal clusters and the processes of chemisorption and catalysis at metal surfaces (the Cluster Surface analogy) has for a number of years provided an interplay between experimental and theoretical inorganic and physical chemists. This collaborative approach has borne fruit in the use of well-defined modes of metal-ligand bonding in discrete molecular clusters, models for metal-ligand binding on surfaces. Some of the key topics discussed in this book are: mechanisms of the fluxional behaviour in clusters in the liquid phase and the...

Low-dimensional semiconductor quantum structures are a major, high-technological development that has a considerable industrial potential. The field is developing extremely rapidly and the present book represents a timely guide to the latest developments in device technology, fundamental properties, and some remarkable applications. The content is largely tutorial, and the book could be used as a textbook.
The book deals with the physics, fabrication, characteristics and performance of devices based on low-dimensional semiconductor structures. It opens with fabrication procedures. The...