This volume deals with advanced topics in matrix theory using the notions and tools from algebra, analysis, geometry and numerical analysis. It consists of seven chapters that are loosely connected and interdependent. The choice of the topics is very personal and reflects the subjects that the author was actively working on in the last 40 years. Many results appear for the first time in the volume. Readers will encounter various properties of matrices with entries in integral domains, canonical forms for similarity, and notions of analytic, pointwise and rational similarity of matrices with entries which are locally analytic functions in one variable. This volume is also devoted to various properties of operators in inner product space, with tensor products and other concepts in multilinear algebra, and the theory of non-negative matrices. It will be of great use to graduate students and researchers working in pure and applied mathematics, bioinformatics, computer science, engineering, operations research, physics and statistics

The search for cleaner, cheaper, smaller and more efficient energy technologies has to a large extent been motivated by the development of new materials. The aim of this collection of articles is therefore to focus on what materials-based solutions can offer and show how the rational design and improvement of their physical and chemical properties can lead to energy-production alternatives that have the potential to compete with existing technologies. In terms of alternative means to generate electricity that utilize renewable energy sources, the most dramatic breakthroughs for both mobile (i.e., transportation) and stationary applications are taking place in the fields of solar and fuel cells. And from an energy-storage perspective, exciting developments can be seen emerging from the fields of rechargeable batteries and hydrogen storage

This book reviews principal topical issues on the basic science of glasses and amorphous thin-films. It also includes select applications of these materials in current and evolving technologies, including optical recording, imaging, solar cells, battery technology and field-emission displays. The glass systems of interest include oxides, chalcogenides and chalcohalides of the group III, IV and V elements, as well as amorphous thin-films of the group IV elements. Glass formation in covalent melts can be understood in terms of new ideas based on constraint counting algorithms which have led to the fragile-strong classification and to the concept of rigidity transition. Vibrational excitations and characterization of the atomic scale structure at various length scales are addressed by an array of experimental probes, including X-ray and neutron scattering, Brillouin scattering, Raman scattering and infrared reflectance, solid state nuclear magnetic resonance, nuclear quadrupole resonance and Mossbauer spectroscopy. Chapters are also devoted to the physics of electronic transport in amorphous materials, to the physics of tunneling states in crystalline and amorphous solids, and the physics of light-induced effects in glasses. In addition, a chapter is devoted to the rapidly evolving field of numerical simulations of disordered systems by computer modeling. Each of these topics is discussed by experts who have made significant contributions to the field. The book can serve as a text for a graduate course in glass science. For an established researcher, it provides, in a concise form, a large body of experimental data on the basic materials research aspect of these fascinating materials

Our age is characterized by global access to information, places and cultures: we can gain more and more knowledge about "the others": other people and their cultures by "indirect knowledge"--Learning about them via the global information net assisted by electronic and other high-tech communication channels, as well as by "direct knowledge": personally visiting various parts of the world and meeting local people in their own natural and social environments. East and West, two major worlds of aspirations, cultures, world-views, theoretical and practical approaches to life and death, have come closer by personal experiences of both Westerners and Easterners. But do we really understand the similarities and differences between the cultural-cognitive-behavioural-emotional patterns of the East and the West, with special regard to their neurobiological underpinnings in the human brain? The contents of this book focus on cultural patterns and cognitive patterns in the East and West, with special regard to those patterns which are determined by our natural-genetic endowments in contrast to those patterns which are influenced by our cultural ("East-West") influences, and within this context a unique flavour is given to the "good life" aspects of adapting to this global community.

Nuclear planetary science has come to play an important role in our understanding of the origin and evolution of the planetary bodies in our solar system. A newly established branch of planetary science, its study aids in humankind's exploration of the present states of the structures of various planetary bodies (including the Earth), their atmospheres and their satellites, as well as small celestial bodies (e.g. asteroids), through direct observation. Knowing the elemental composition of the planetary bodies is essential in order to understand the formation and evolution of planetary bodies -- just as important as it is to know the mass, radius, density and orbit of the celestial body. Suitable for students and specialists interested in the much wider field of Earth and Planetary Science, topics related to the planets and asteroids in the solar system are dealt with in this book. Techniques related to nuclear planetary science's nuclear cosmochemical and geological methods are also covered in this book