Many inhomogeneous systems involve domains of well-de?ned phases se- rated by a distinct interface. If they are driven out of equilibrium one phase will grow at the cost of the other. Examples are phase separation by sp- odal decomposition or nucleation and subsequent growth of the nucleus in the nourishing phase 139]. Another example which has often been discussed as a paradigmatic problem is that of dendritic solidi?cation 29, 64, 79, 199]. The phenomenological description of these phenomena involves the de?- tion of a precisely located interfacial surface on which boundary conditions are...

. . . Eat not up your property among yourselves unjustly except it be a trade amongst you, by mutual consent . . . and help you one another in righteousness and piety. . . (Al-Hadid 4:29; Al-Ma'idah 5:2) There cannot be any doubt that the current ?nancial crisis, which began in the US, has gone global. This realization has fuelled the ?re of debate over globalization. Today's globalization is no longer the globalization that Theodore Levitt, a former professor at the Harvard Business School, described in 1983 in his world famous article ''The Globalization of Markets. '' Although, in old...