"Sustainability" is often used in a qualitative sense. However, there is at present a great need to quantitatively measure (and monitor) its many qualitative aspects in real systems. Real systems are regarded as sustainable if they can maintain their current, desirable productivity and character without creating unfavorable condi tions elsewhere or in the future 1-4]. Sustainability therefore incorporates both concern for the future of the current system (temporal sustainability) and concern about the degree to which some areas and cultures of the planet are improved at the expense of other...

Scientists and engineers in optics are increasingly confronted with problems that are of a random nature and that require a working knowledge of probability and statistics for their solution. This book develops these subjects within the context of optics, using a problem-solving approach. All methods are explicitly derived and can be traced back to three simple axioms given at the outset. This third edition contains many new applications to optical and physical phenomena, including a method of exactly estimating probability laws.

"Sustainability" is often used in a qualitative sense. However, there is at present a great need to quantitatively measure (and monitor) its many qualitative aspects in real systems. Real systems are regarded as sustainable if they can maintain their current, desirable productivity and character without creating unfavorable condi tions elsewhere or in the future 1-4]. Sustainability therefore incorporates both concern for the future of the current system (temporal sustainability) and concern about the degree to which some areas and cultures of the planet are improved at the expense of other...