The present monograph is intended to provide a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the optimization of elliptic systems. This area of mathematical research, which has many important applications in science and technology. has experienced an impressive development during the past two decades. There are already many good textbooks dealing with various aspects of optimal design problems. In this regard, we refer to the works of Pironneau 1984], Haslinger and Neittaanmaki 1988], 1996], Sokolowski and Zolksio 1992], Litvinov 2000], Allaire 2001], Mohammadi and Pironneau 2001],...

Hysteresis is an exciting and mathematically challenging phenomenon that oc- curs in rather different situations: jt, can be a byproduct offundamental physical mechanisms (such as phase transitions) or the consequence of a degradation or imperfection (like the play in a mechanical system), or it is built deliberately into a system in order to monitor its behaviour, as in the case of the heat control via thermostats. The delicate interplay between memory effects and the occurrence of hys- teresis loops has the effect that hysteresis is a genuinely nonlinear phenomenon which is usually...