The appearance of this English edition of my book, ?rst published in Russian in mid-2006, is related to the help and support of two prominent scientists: Professor Michael Brown (Rhodes University Grahamstown, South Africa) and Dr. Judit Simon (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary). The story is as follows. In the winter of 2006, in the process of exchange of views by email with Michael on some problems of decomposition kinetics, I asked him about the possibility of publishing my book in English. He s- gestedthatIshouldcontactJudit, theSeriesEditorof"HotTopicsinThermal...