Despite the major developments in the therapeutic armamentarium for the treatment of infection, the morbidity and mortality of this complication remains very high in patients with compromised defences. Cancer and its treatment represents a major predisposing condition to a variety of infections. These adverse events are still with us, in spite of much progress in the therapy of infectious disease, since cancer therapy is becoming more aggressive, yet further lowering the host's capacity to cope with infections. Moreover, the pathogens adapt effectively to drugs, and at a pace that might...

The trends and progress attained in computational kinematics over a broad class of problems are grouped into six parts describing the main themes: kinematics algorithms, discussing kinematics problems in light of their solution algorithms; kinematics of mechanisms, studying problems related to specific mechanisms; singularities; workspace, discussing the determination of the workspace of given mechanisms; parallel manipulators; and motion and grasp planning, touching on computational geometry. The volume contains a representative sample of the most modern techniques available for kinetics...

In open heart surgery, protection of the myocardium against injury by ischemia-reperfusion is an issue of utmost clinical interest. The knowledge on the causal mechanisms of myocardial injury in ischemia-reperfusion has greatly progressed in recent years, both to clinical and experimental research. This book provides a critical and comprehensive overview on the current discussion of myocardial protection in cardiac experimental research and surgery. Leading groups from Europe, the U.S. and Japan have contributed reviews of their special fields. On the basic science side, major topics...

This is a presentation of the progress and current problems in the early universe, cosmic microwave background radiation, large scale structure formation, and the interplay between them. The emphasis is on the mutual impact of fundamental physics and cosmology, both at theoretical and experimental (observational) levels within a deep, well-focused and well-defined programme.

BACKGROUND: DEPARTMENTS, SPECIALIZATION, AND PROFESSIONALIZATION IN AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION For over half of its history, U.S. higher education turned out mostly cler gymen and lawyers. Looking back on that period, we might be tempted to think that this meant specialized training for the ministry or the practice of law. That, however, was not the case. What a college education in the U.S. prepared young men (almost exclusively) for, from the founding of Harvard College in 1636 through the founding of hundreds of denominational colleges in the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century, was...

The theory of difference equations is now enjoying a period of Renaissance. Witness the large number of papers in which problems, having at first sight no common features, are reduced to the investigation of subsequent iterations of the maps f. IR. m IR. m, m > 0, or (which is, in fact, the same) to difference equations The world of difference equations, which has been almost hidden up to now, begins to open in all its richness. Those experts, who usually use differential equations and, in fact, believe in their universality, are now discovering a completely new approach which re sembles the...

In the past decade, a number of different research communities within the computational sciences have studied learning in networks, starting from a number of different points of view. There has been substantial progress in these different communities and surprising convergence has developed between the formalisms. The awareness of this convergence and the growing interest of researchers in understanding the essential unity of the subject underlies the current volume.
Two research communities which have used graphical or network formalisms to particular advantage are the belief...

ClDo _ IIIIIIIoaIIIics bu _ die 'EI JDDi, sij'_ . . . . -. . . _. je _ . . . . . lIbupalaJllllllllll __ D'y_poa: wbae it beIoap. . . . die . . ." . ., . . _ DOD to dlecluly __ __ . 1110 _ is dioapaI; -. . e _ may be EricT. BeD IbIetodo--'_iL O. 1feaoriIide Mathematics is a tool for dloogIrt. A bighly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and noolineari ties abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of IIIIIIhcmatiI: s serve as tools for odIcr parts and for ocher sci eoccs. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds suc: h stalements as: 'One ser vice...