Bøger udgivet af Imperial College Press

Presents a comprehensive overview of the modern theory of spectral line broadening and shifting by pressure of atmospheric gases. This book describes semi-classical methods for calculating vibrotational line widths and shifts, including various modifications and developments realised by the authors themselves.

Presents a description of the physiologic manifestations of sleep that are significant from the viewpoint of the principle of homeostasis. This book shows that the systemic homeostatic regulation of many physiologic variables underlying cellular life is not active in a particular state of the ultradian sleep cycle in mammals.

Covers the studies and achievements in some adaptive and very functional polymers such as chitosan, cyclodextrin, dendrimer and hyper-branched polymers in terms of principles of adaptiveness, properties, structure design and characterization with an emphasis on their applications, particularly in textiles and related areas.

Intends to present several main advances in Natural Language Semantics and the interface between syntax and semantics, based on logical theories of linear logic and ludics, and on sharp analyses of computing due to advanced theories in Theoretical Computer Sciences.

Explores the concept of knowledge discovery processes and enhances decision-making capability through the use of intelligent agents like ants, termites and honey bees. This title provides readers with an integrated set of concepts and techniques for understanding knowledge discovery and its practical utility.

Between 1941 and 1945 almost 70,000 inmates died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northwestern Germany. Almost half of these deaths were caused by disease, mainly typhus, in the first few months of 1945, shortly before and after the liberation. It was at this time, in April of 1945, that Michael Hargrave answered an advertisement at the Westminster Hospital Medical School for 'volunteers'. On the day of his departure the 21-year-old learned that he was being sent to Bergen-Belsen, liberated only a few weeks before. This firsthand account, a diary written for his mother, details Michael's month-long experience at the camp. He compassionately relates the horrendous living conditions suffered by the prisoners, describing the sickness and disease he encountered and his desperate, often fruitless, struggle to save as many lives as possible. Amidst immeasurable horrors, his descriptions of the banalities of everyday life and diagrams of the camp's layout take on a new poignancy, while anatomic line drawings detail the medical conditions and his efforts to treat them. Original newspaper cuttings and photographs of the camp, many previously unpublished, add a further layer of texture to the endeavors of an inexperienced medical student faced with extreme human suffering.

Privacy is an unwieldy concept that has eluded an essentialised definition despite its centrality and importance in the body of bioethics. The compilation presented in this volume represents continuing discussions on the theme of privacy in the context of genetic information. It is intended to present a wide range of expert opinion in which the notion of privacy is examined from many perspectives, in different contexts and imperatives, and in different societies, with the hope of advancing an understanding of privacy through the examination and critique of some of its evolving component concepts such as notions of what constitute the personal, the context of privacy, the significance and impact of the relational interests of others who may share the same genetic inheritance, and mechanisms for the protection of privacy (as well as of their limitations), among others. More specifically, the discussions in this volume encourages us to think broadly about privacy, as encompassing values that are entailed in the sociality of context and of relations, and also as freedom from illegitimate and excessive surveillance. A long-standing question that continues to challenge us is whether genetic information should be regarded as exceptional, as it is often perceived. A conclusion that could be derived from this volume is that while genetic information may be significant, it is not exceptionally so. The work presented in this volume underlines the continuing and growing relevance of notions of privacy to genomic science, and the need to take ownership of a genetic privacy for the future through broad, rigorous and open discussion.Contributors: Alastair V Campbell, Benjamin Capps, Jacqueline JL Chin, Oi Lian Kon, Kenji Matsui, Thomas H Murray, Nazirudin Mohd Nasir, Dianne Nicol, Anh Tuan Nuyen, Onora O'Neill, Margaret Otlowski, Yvette van der Eijk, Chunshui Wang, Ross S White.

This is an original and wide-ranging account of the careers of a close-knit group of highly influential ecologists working in Britain from the late 1960s onwards. The book can also be read as a history of some recent developments in ecology. One of the group, Robert May, is a past president of the Royal Society, and the author of what many see as the most important treatise in theoretical ecology of the later twentieth century. That the group flourished was due not only to May's intellectual leadership, but also to the guiding hand of T. R. E. Southwood. Southwood ended his career as Linacre Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford, where he also served a term as Vice-Chancellor. Earlier, as a professor and director of the Silwood Park campus of Imperial College London, he brought the group together. Since it began to coalesce at Silwood it has been named here the Silwood Circle. Southwood promoted the interests of its members with the larger aim of raising the profile of ecological and environmental science in Britain. Given public anxiety over the environment and the loss of ecosystems, his actions were well-timed.Ecology, which had been on the scientific margins in the first half of the twentieth century, came to be viewed as a science central to modern existence. The book illustrates its importance to many areas. Members of the Silwood Circle have acted as government advisors in the areas of conservation and biodiversity, resource management, pest control, food policy, genetically modified crops, sustainable agriculture, international development, defence against biological weapons, and epidemiology and infectious disease control. In recounting the science they carried out, and how they made their careers, the book reflects also on the role of the group, and the nature of scientific success.

Britain was the first country to exploit atomic energy on a large scale, and at its peak in the mid-1960s, it had generated more electricity from nuclear power than the rest of the world combined. The civil atomic energy programme grew out of the military programme which produced plutonium for atomic weapons. In 1956, Calder Hall power station was opened by the Queen. The very next year, one of the early Windscale reactors caught fire and the world's first major nuclear accident occurred. The civil programme ran into further difficulty in the mid-1960s and as a consequence of procrastination in the decision-making process, the programme lost momentum and effectively died. No nuclear power stations have been built since Sizewell B in the late 1980s. This book presents a study of Government papers that have recently become available in the public domain. For the first time in history, the research reactor programme is presented in detail, along with a study of the decision-making by the Government, the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA), and the Central Electricity Board (CEGB). This book is aimed at both specialists in nuclear power and the interested public as a technical history on the development and ultimate failure of the British atomic energy programme.

Provides a treatment of the modern and rigorous mathematical methods and models applied to composites modeling on micro-, meso- and macroscale. This book presents a selection of the useful mathematical methods and models which establish the fundaments for a meaningful and accurate theoretical and computer modeling of these materials in the future.

Provides a comprehensive description of the field of gene delivery, gene therapy and genetic pharmacology, with descriptions of the main gene transfer vectors and a set of selected therapeutic applications, along with safety considerations.

A collection of original scientific articles from a group of outstanding scientists around the world who have worked or are affiliated with the Nobel Laureate Professor William N Lipscomb throughout his scientific career. It is suitable to young students worldwide.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of senile dementia, affecting more than 24 million people worldwide. This book provides a panoramic view across in vitro and in vivo studies along with computer simulations, designed to increase the readers' understanding of oligomerisation and fibril formation.

Based on published studies, this title takes a perspective on the 30-year collapse of pharmaceutical industry productivity in the search for small molecule "magic bullet" interventions. It adapts formalism across a number of disciplines to the strategy for design of mutilevel interventions, focusing, first, on molecular, and larger scale examples.

The principle of local activity explains the emergence of complex patterns in a homogeneous medium. At first defined in the theory of nonlinear electronic circuits in a mathematically rigorous way, it can be generalized and proven at least for the class of nonlinear reaction diffusion systems in physics, chemistry, biology, and brain research. Recently, it was realized by memristors for nanoelectronic device applications. In general, the emergence of complex patterns and structures is explained by symmetry breaking in homogeneous media, which is caused by local activity. This book argues that the principle of local activity is really fundamental in science, and can even be identified in quantum cosmology as symmetry breaking of local gauge symmetries generating the complexity of matter and forces in our universe. Applications are considered in economic, financial, and social systems with the emergence of equilibrium states, symmetry breaking at critical points of phase transitions and risky acting at the edge of chaos.

Contains 31 peer-reviewed papers based on the presentations at the 7th International Annual Workshop on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (IBSB 2007) held at the Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo from July 31 to August 2, 2007. This volume is dedicated to the memory of Prof Dr H C Reinhart Heinrich.

Contains papers presented at the 18th International Conference on Genome Informatics (GIW 2007) held at the Biopolis, Singapore from December 3 to 5, 2007. This book contains abstracts from the five invited speakers such as: Frank Eisenhaber, Sir David Lane, Hanah Margalit, Lawrence Stanton, and Michael Zhang.

Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Siemens have defined the dark side of the corporate world in 21st century. This book is designed to address the diverse requirements of directors and heightened investor awareness, with an intelligent and comprehensive presentation of the structure and practice of boardroom management.

Provides a coverage of relevant platelet biology and antiplatelet therapy that is in clinical use. This book delivers a review of the developments in antiplatelet therapy. It is intended for practicing clinicians as well as those involved in the development of new antithrombotic therapies.

Aims to familiarize the reader with the properties of the chaotic dynamics of Hamiltonian systems by avoiding specialized mathematical tools. This book is suitable to those who are actively working on the problems of dynamical chaos as well as to those looking for new inspiration in this area.

Proposes a set of models to describe fuzzy multi-objective decision making (MODM), fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), fuzzy group decision making (GDM) and fuzzy multi-objective group decision-making problems. This book also gives a set of related methods (including algorithms) to solve these problems.

Pseudo-Riemannian geometry is an active research field not only in differential geometry but also in mathematical physics where the higher signature geometries play a role in brane theory. This book presents a comprehensive treatment of various aspects of pseudo-Riemannian geometry.

Provides a novel and unique approach to the treatment of human diseases based on the study of natural animal models. This book shows how medical scientists can take advantage of the "research" that nature has already performed over billions of years in biological problem solving through animal design testing and selection.

Provides an account of internal, external and unsteady slow viscous flows, including the advances. This book shows how the method of eigenfunctions, in conjunction with least squares, can be used to solve problems of low Reynolds number flows, including three-dimensional internal and unsteady flows.

Outlines the developments and research directions being made world-wide in earth sciences. This book explains how methodologies such as satellite remote sensing and supercomputing simulations are changing research in earth sciences; how the earth system is being viewed in a holistic way, linking the atmosphere, ocean and solid earth; and more.

Quantum information describes the field which bridges quantum physics and information science. This book presents the state of the art of quantum information with continuous quantum variables. It also discusses results achieved in QUICOV and presented at the first five CVQIP conferences from 2002-2006.

Covers the physics of glasses and focusses on their thermal and mechanical properties, as well as various models leading to the formation of the glassy states of matter from overcooled liquids. This book applies the models of agglomeration and growth to describe the formation of quasicrystals, fullerenes.

Discusses the methods used in helio- and asteroseismology for the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. This book presents a comprehensive discussion of helioseismic and asteroseismic methodology, collecting techniques from over 300 research papers spread out over decades, with a critical discussion and inter-comparison.