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This book is an introduction to several active research topics in Foliation Theory and its connections with other areas. It contains expository lectures showing the diversity of ideas and methods converging in the study of foliations. The lectures by Aziz El Kacimi Alaoui provide an introduction to Foliation Theory with emphasis on examples and transverse structures. Steven Hurder's lectures apply ideas from smooth dynamical systems to develop useful concepts in the study of foliations: limit sets and cycles for leaves, leafwise geodesic flow, transverse exponents, Pesin Theory and hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic types of foliations. The lectures by Masayuki Asaoka compute the leafwise cohomology of foliations given by actions of Lie groups, and apply it to describe deformation of those actions. In his lectures, Ken Richardson studies the properties of transverse Dirac operators for Riemannian foliations and compact Lie group actions, and explains a recently proved index formula. Besides students and researchers of Foliation Theory, this book will be interesting for mathematicians interested in the applications to foliations of subjects like Topology of Manifolds, Differential Geometry, Dynamics, Cohomology or Global Analysis.

This book gives a uniquely complete description of the geometry of the energy momentum mapping of five classical integrable systems: the 2-dimensional harmonic oscillator, the geodesic flow on the 3-sphere, the Euler top, the spherical pendulum and the Lagrange top. It presents for the first time in book form a general theory of symmetry reduction which allows one to reduce the symmetries in the spherical pendulum and the Lagrange top. Also the monodromy obstruction to the existence of global action angle coordinates is calculated for the spherical pendulum and the Lagrange top. The book addresses professional mathematicians and graduate students and can be used as a textbook on advanced classical mechanics or global analysis.

This book provides an introduction to h-harmonics and Dunkl transforms. These are extensions of the ordinary spherical harmonics and Fourier transforms, in which the usual Lebesgue measure is replaced by a reflection-invariant weighted measure. The authors' focus is on the analysis side of both h-harmonics and Dunkl transforms. Graduate students and researchers working in approximation theory, harmonic analysis, and functional analysis will benefit from this book.

In the last years there has been significant progress in the theory of valuations, which in turn has led to important achievements in integral geometry. This book originated from two courses delivered by the authors at the CRM and provides a self-contained introduction to these topics, covering most of the recent advances. The first part, by Semyon Alesker, provides an introduction to the theory of convex valuations with emphasis on recent developments. In particular, it presents the new structures on the space of valuations discovered after Alesker's irreducibility theorem. The newly developed theory of valuations on manifolds is also described. In the second part, Joseph H. G. Fu gives a modern introduction to integral geometry in the sense of Blaschke and Santalo. The approach is new and based on the notions and tools presented in the first part. This original viewpoint not only enlightens the classical integral geometry of euclidean space, but it also allows the computation of kinematic formulas in other geometries, such as hermitian spaces. The book will appeal to graduate students and interested researchers from related fields including convex, stochastic, and differential geometry.

This book systematically presents recent fundamental results on greedy approximation with respect to bases.Motivated by numerous applications, the last decade has seen great successes in studying nonlinear sparse approximation. Recent findings have established that greedy-type algorithms are suitable methods of nonlinear approximation in both sparse approximation with respect to bases and sparse approximation with respect to redundant systems. These insights, combined with some previous fundamental results, form the basis for constructing the theory of greedy approximation. Taking into account the theoretical and practical demand for this kind of theory, the book systematically elaborates a theoretical framework for greedy approximation and its applications. The book addresses the needs of researchers working in numerical mathematics, harmonic analysis, and functional analysis. It quickly takes the reader from classical results to the latest frontier, but is written at the level of a graduate course and does not require a broad background in the field.

This volume collects the texts of five courses given in the Arithmetic Geometry Research Programme 2009-2010 at the CRM Barcelona. All of them deal with characteristic p global fields; the common theme around which they are centered is the arithmetic of L-functions (and other special functions), investigated in various aspects. Three courses examine some of the most important recent ideas in the positive characteristic theory discovered by Goss (a field in tumultuous development, which is seeing a number of spectacular advances): they cover respectively crystals over function fields (with a number of applications to L-functions of t-motives), gamma and zeta functions in characteristic p, and the binomial theorem. The other two are focused on topics closer to the classical theory of abelian varieties over number fields: they give respectively a thorough introduction to the arithmetic of Jacobians over function fields (including the current status of the BSD conjecture and its geometric analogues, and the construction of Mordell-Weil groups of high rank) and a state of the art survey of Geometric Iwasawa Theory explaining the recent proofs of various versions of the Main Conjecture, in the commutative and non-commutative settings.

Mathematical logic is a branch of mathematics that takes axiom systems and mathematical proofs as its objects of study. This book shows how it can also provide a foundation for the development of information science and technology. The first five chapters systematically present the core topics of classical mathematical logic, including the syntax and models of first-order languages, formal inference systems, computability and representability, and Godel's theorems. The last five chapters present extensions and developments of classical mathematical logic, particularly the concepts of version sequences of formal theories and their limits, the system of revision calculus, proschemes (formal descriptions of proof methods and strategies) and their properties, and the theory of inductive inference. All of these themes contribute to a formal theory of axiomatization and its application to the process of developing information technology and scientific theories. The book also describes the paradigm of three kinds of language environments for theories and it presents the basic properties required of a meta-language environment. Finally, the book brings these themes together by describing a workflow for scientific research in the information era in which formal methods, interactive software and human invention are all used to their advantage.The second edition of the book includes major revisions on the proof of the completeness theorem of the Gentzen system and new contents on the logic of scientific discovery, R-calculus without cut, and the operational semantics of program debugging.This book represents a valuable reference for graduate and undergraduate students and researchers in mathematics, information science and technology, and other relevant areas of natural sciences. Its first five chapters serve as an undergraduate text in mathematical logic and the last five chapters are addressed to graduate students in relevant disciplines.

The aim of this book is to present and analyze philosophical conceptions concerning mathematics and logic as formulated by Polish logicians, mathematicians and philosophers in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a remarkable period in the history of Polish science, in particular in the history of Polish logic and mathematics. Therefore, it is justified to ask whether and to what extent the development of logic and mathematics was accompanied by a philosophical reflection. We try to answer those questions by analyzing both works of Polish logicians and mathematicians who have a philosophical temperament as well as their research practice. Works and philosophical views of the following Polish scientists will be analyzed: Waclaw Sierpinski, Zygmunt Janiszewski, Stefan Mazurkiewicz, Stefan Banach Hugo Steinhaus, Eustachy Zylinsk and Leon Chwistek, Jan Lukasiewicz, Zygmunt Zawirski, Stanislaw Lesniewski, Tadeusz Kotarbinski, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Alfred Tarski, Andrzej Mostowski and Henryk Mehlberg, Jan Sleszynski, Stanislaw Zaremba and Witold Wilkosz. To indicate the background of scientists being active in the 1920s and 1930s we consider in Chapter 1 some predecessors, in particular: Jan Sniadecki, Jozef Maria Hoene-Wronski, Samuel Dickstein and Edward Stamm.

This is the first systematic presentation of the capacitory approach and symmetrization in the context of complex analysis. The content of the book is original - the main part has not been covered by existing textbooks and monographs. After an introduction to the theory of condenser capacities in the plane, the monotonicity of the capacity under various special transformations (polarization, Gonchar transformation, averaging transformations and others) is established, followed by various types of symmetrization which are one of the main objects of the book. By using symmetrization principles, some metric properties of compact sets are obtained and some extremal decomposition problems are solved. Moreover, the classical and present facts for univalent and multivalent meromorphic functions are proven. This book will be a valuable source for current and future researchers in various branches of complex analysis and potential theory.

This book targets graduate students and researchers who want to learn about Lebesgue spaces and solutions to hyperbolic equations. It is divided into two parts.Part 1 provides an introduction to the theory of variable Lebesgue spaces: Banach function spaces like the classical Lebesgue spaces but with the constant exponent replaced by an exponent function. These spaces arise naturally from the study of partial differential equations and variational integrals with non-standard growth conditions. They have applications to electrorheological fluids in physics and to image reconstruction. After an introduction that sketches history and motivation, the authors develop the function space properties of variable Lebesgue spaces; proofs are modeled on the classical theory. Subsequently, the Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator is discussed. In the last chapter, other operators from harmonic analysis are considered, such as convolution operators and singular integrals. The text is mostly self-contained, with only some more technical proofs and background material omitted. Part 2 gives an overview of the asymptotic properties of solutions to hyperbolic equations and systems with time-dependent coefficients. First, an overview of known results is given for general scalar hyperbolic equations of higher order with constant coefficients. Then strongly hyperbolic systems with time-dependent coefficients are considered. A feature of the described approach is that oscillations in coefficients are allowed. Propagators for the Cauchy problems are constructed as oscillatory integrals by working in appropriate time-frequency symbol classes. A number of examples is considered and the sharpness of results is discussed. An exemplary treatment of dissipative terms shows how effective lower order terms can change asymptotic properties and thus complements the exposition.

This text is based on a lecture course given by the authors in the framework of Oberwolfach Seminars at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach in May, 2013. It is intended to serve as a thorough introduction to the rapidly developing field of positional games. This area constitutes an important branch of combinatorics, whose aim it is to systematically develop an extensive mathematical basis for a variety of two player perfect information games. These ranges from such popular games as Tic-Tac-Toe and Hex to purely abstract games played on graphs and hypergraphs. The subject of positional games is strongly related to several other branches of combinatorics such as Ramsey theory, extremal graph and set theory, and the probabilistic method. These notes cover a variety of topics in positional games, including both classical results and recent important developments. They are presented in an accessible way and are accompanied by exercises of varying difficulty, helping the reader to better understand the theory. The text will benefit both researchers and graduate students in combinatorics and adjacent fields.

The conjugate operator method is a powerful recently developed technique for studying spectral properties of self-adjoint operators. One of the purposes of this volume is to present a refinement of the original method due to Mourre leading to essentially optimal results in situations as varied as ordinary differential operators, pseudo-differential operators and N-body Schrodinger hamiltonians. Another topic is a new algebraic framework for the N-body problem allowing a simple and systematic treatment of large classes of many-channel hamiltonians. The monograph will be of interest to research mathematicians and mathematical physicists. The authors have made efforts to produce an essentially self-contained text, which makes it accessible to advanced students. Thus about one third of the book is devoted to the development of tools from functional analysis, in particular real interpolation theory for Banach spaces and functional calculus and Besov spaces associated with multi-parameter C0-groups. Certainly this monograph (containing a bibliography of 170 items) is a well-written contribution to this field which is suitable to stimulate further evolution of the theory. (Mathematical Reviews)

This book is concerned with cardinal number valued functions defined for any Boolean algebra. Examples of such functions are independence, which assigns to each Boolean algebra the supremum of the cardinalities of its free subalgebras, and cellularity, which gives the supremum of cardinalities of sets of pairwise disjoint elements. Twenty-one such functions are studied in detail, and many more in passing. The questions considered are the behaviour of these functions under algebraic operations such as products, free products, ultraproducts, and their relationships to one another.Assuming familiarity with only the basics of Boolean algebras and set theory, through simple infinite combinatorics and forcing, the book reviews current knowledge about these functions, giving complete proofs for most facts. A special feature of the book is the attention given to open problems, of which 185 are formulated.Based on Cardinal Functions on Boolean Algebras (1990) and Cardinal Invariants on Boolean Algebras (1996) by the same author, the present work is much larger than either of these. It contains solutions to many of the open problems of the earlier volumes. Among the new topics are continuum cardinals on Boolean algebras, with a lengthy treatment of the reaping number. Diagrams at the end of the book summarize the relationships between the functions for many important classes of Boolean algebras, including interval algebras, tree algebras and superatomic algebras.

In a coherent, exhaustive and progressive way, this book presents the tools for studying local bifurcations of limit cycles in families of planar vector fields. A systematic introduction is given to such methods as division of an analytic family of functions in its ideal of coefficients, and asymptotic expansion of non-differentiable return maps and desingularisation. The exposition moves from classical analytic geometric methods applied to regular limit periodic sets to more recent tools for singular limit sets.The methods can be applied to theoretical problems such as Hilbert's 16th problem, but also for the purpose of establishing bifurcation diagrams of specific families as well as explicit computations.- - -The book as a whole is a well-balanced exposition that can be recommended to all those who want to gain a thorough understanding and proficiency in the recently developed methods. The book, reflecting the current state of the art, can also be used for teaching special courses. (Mathematical Reviews)

Bartel Leendert van der Waerden made major contributions to algebraic geometry, abstract algebra, quantum mechanics, and other fields. He liberally published on the history of mathematics. His 2-volume work Modern Algebra is one of the most influential and popular mathematical books ever written. It is therefore surprising that no monograph has been dedicated to his life and work. Van der Waerden's record is complex. In attempting to understand his life, the author assembled thousands of documents from numerous archives in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States which revealed fascinating and often surprising new information about van der Waerden. Soifer traces Van der Waerden's early years in a family of great Dutch public servants, his life as professor in Leipzig during the entire Nazi period, and his personal and professional friendship with one of the great physicists Werner Heisenberg. We encounter heroes and villains and a much more numerous group in between these two extremes. One of them is the subject of this book. Soifer's journey through a long list of archives, combined with an intensive correspondence, had uncovered numerous details of Van der Waerden's German intermezzo that raised serious questions and reproaches. Dirk van Dalen (Philosophy, Utrecht University)Professor Soifer's book implicates the anthropologists' and culture historians' core interest in the evolution of culture and in the progress of human evolution itself on this small contested planet. James W. Fernandez (Anthropology, University of Chicago)The book is fascinating. Professor Soifer has done a great service to the discipline of history, as well as deepening our understanding of the 20th century. Peter D. Johnson, Jr. (Mathematics, Auburn University)This book is an important contribution to the history of the twentieth century, and reads like a novel with an ever-fascinating cast of characters. Harold W. Kuhn (Mathematics, Princeton University)This is a most impressive and important book. It is written in an engaging, very personal style and challenges the reader's ability of moral and historical judgment. While it is not always written in the style of 'objective' professional historiography, it satisfies very high standards of scholarly documentation. Indeed the book contains a wealth of source material that allows the reader to form a highly detailed picture of the events and personalities discussed in the book. As an exemplar of historical writing in a broader sense it can compete with any other historical book.Moritz Epple (History of Mathematics, Frankfurt University)

This book is devoted to the relation between two different concepts of integrability: the complete integrability of complex analytical Hamiltonian systems and the integrability of complex analytical linear differential equations. For linear differential equations, integrability is made precise within the framework of differential Galois theory. The connection of these two integrability notions is given by the variational equation (i.e. linearized equation) along a particular integral curve of the Hamiltonian system. The underlying heuristic idea, which motivated the main results presented in this monograph, is that a necessary condition for the integrability of a Hamiltonian system is the integrability of the variational equation along any of its particular integral curves. This idea led to the algebraic non-integrability criteria for Hamiltonian systems. These criteria can be considered as generalizations of classical non-integrability results by Poincare and Liapunov, as well as more recent results by Ziglin and Yoshida. Thus, by means of the differential Galois theory it is not only possible to understand all these approaches in a unified way but also to improve them. Several important applications are also included: homogeneous potentials, Bianchi IX cosmological model, three-body problem, Henon-Heiles system, etc.The book is based on the original joint research of the author with J.M. Peris, J.P. Ramis and C. Simo, but an effort was made to present these achievements in their logical order rather than their historical one. The necessary background on differential Galois theory and Hamiltonian systems is included, and several new problems and conjectures which open new lines of research are proposed.

This book offers comprehensive information on the polymorphisms of genes encoding pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Following a short description of the general role of PRRs in the immune system, the structure and function of Toll-like and NOD-like receptors are examined in detail. The main focus is on the role of inherited variation in PRRs and their correlation to cancer and cardiovascular diseases. A review of all epidemiological investigations is included, and a concept of genomic risk markers for the prevention of various diseases is also discussed.

This textbook provides a detailed treatment of abstract integration theory, construction of the Lebesgue measure via the Riesz-Markov Theorem and also via the Caratheodory Theorem. It also includes some elementary properties of Hausdorff measures as well as the basic properties of spaces of integrable functions and standard theorems on integrals depending on a parameter. Integration on a product space, change of variables formulas as well as the construction and study of classical Cantor sets are treated in detail. Classical convolution inequalities, such as Young's inequality and Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev inequality are proven. The Radon-Nikodym theorem, notions of harmonic analysis, classical inequalities and interpolation theorems, including Marcinkiewicz's theorem, the definition of Lebesgue points and Lebesgue differentiation theorem are further topics included.   A detailed appendix provides the reader with various elements of elementary mathematics, such as a discussion around the calculation of antiderivatives or the Gamma function. The appendix also provides more advanced material such as some basic properties of cardinals and ordinals which are useful in the study of measurability.  

There is now compelling evidence that the complexity of higher organisms correlates with the relative amount of non-coding RNA rather than the number of protein-coding genes. Previously dismissed as "e;junk DNA"e;, it is the non-coding regions of the genome that are responsible for regulation, facilitating complex temporal and spatial gene expression through the combinatorial effect of numerous mechanisms and interactions working together to fine-tune gene expression. The major regions involved in regulation of a particular gene are the 5' and 3' untranslated regions and introns. In addition, pervasive transcription of complex genomes produces a variety of non-coding transcripts that interact with these regions and contribute to regulation. This book discusses recent insights into the regulatory roles of the untranslated gene regions and non-coding RNAs in the control of complex gene expression, as well as the implications of this in terms of organism complexity and evolution.

Gamma-Glutamyl Transpeptidases (y-GTs) are members of the N-terminal nucleophile hydrolase superfamily, enzymes that cleave the y-glutamyl amide bond of glutathione to liberate cysteinylglycine. The released y-glutamyl group can be transferred to water (hydrolysis) or to amino acids or short peptides (transpeptidation). y-GT plays a key role in the gamma glutamyl cycle by regulating the cellular levels of the antioxidant glutathione, hence it is a critical enzyme in maintaining cellular redox homeostasis.y-GT is upregulated during inflammation and in several human tumors, and it is involved in many physiological disorders related to oxidative stress, such as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. Furthermore, this enzyme is used as a marker of liver disease and cancer. This book covers current knowledge about the structure-function relationship of y-GTs and gives information about applications of y-GTs in different fields ranging from clinical biochemistry to biotechnology and biomedicine.

Tamoxifen is a pioneering medicine for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer. It is the first drug targeted therapy in cancer to be successful. Tamoxifen targets the tumor estrogen receptor. The therapy is known to have saved the lives of millions of women over the past 40 years.This monograph, written by V. Craig Jordan - known as the "e;father of tamoxifen"e; - and his Tamoxifen Team at the Georgetown University Washington DC, illustrates the journey of this milestone in medicine. It includes a personal interview with V. Craig Jordan about his four decades of discovery in breast cancer research and treatment. V. Craig Jordan was there for the birth of tamoxifen as he is credited for reinventing a "e;failed morning after contraceptive"e; to become the "e;gold standard"e; for the treatment of breast cancer. He contributed to every aspect of tamoxifen application in therapeutics and all aspects of tamoxifen's pharmacology. He discovered the selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) and explored the new biology of estrogen-induced apoptosis.

The book deals with continuous piecewise linear differential systems in the plane with three pieces separated by a pair of parallel straight lines. Moreover, these differential systems are symmetric with respect to the origin of coordinates. This class of systems driven by concrete applications is of interest in engineering, in particular in control theory and the design of electric circuits. By studying these particular differential systems we will introduce the basic tools of the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations, which allow us to describe the global dynamics of these systems including the infinity. The behavior of their solutions, their parametric stability or instability and their bifurcations are described. The book is very appropriate for a first course in the qualitative theory of differential equations or dynamical systems, mainly for engineers, mathematicians, and physicists.

The essential question that fractal dimensions attempt to answer is about the scales in Nature. For a system as non-idealistic and complex as a protein, studying scale-invariance becomes particularly important.Fractal Symmetry of Protein Exterior investigates the diverse facets of the various scales at which we describe protein biophysical and biochemical phenomena. Although these ideas are entirely mathematical, mathematical expositions have been avoided, unless the use of some expressions becomes absolutely obligatory. A first chapter introduce into fractal dimensions, protein exteriors and to methods to study the roughness of surfaces. The main topics covered in the following chapters include: protein-protein interaction interfaces; protein surface-roughness and local shape as well as adhesion on protein and other rough biomolecular surfaces.

The essential question that fractal dimensions attempt to answer is about the scales in Nature. For a system as non-idealistic and complex as a protein, studying scale-invariance becomes particularly important.Fractal Symmetry of Protein Interior investigates the diverse facets of the various scales at which we describe protein biophysical and biochemical phenomena. Following a thorough introduction to fractal dimensions, fractal-dimension-based approaches, that have been employed to study protein interior biophysical properties, are described. The focus is on the question "e;which scales are scale-invariant?"e; Investigations related to scaling of biophysical and biochemical behaviors may one day help us to formulate a fundamental theory about protein biophysics; which, in turn, may help us to understand fundamental principles of proteins.

The book begins at the level of an undergraduate student assuming only basic knowledge of calculus in one variable. It rigorously treats topics such as multivariable differential calculus, Lebesgue integral, vector calculus and differential equations. After having built on a solid foundation of topology and linear algebra, the text later expands into more advanced topics such as complex analysis, differential forms, calculus of variations, differential geometry and even functional analysis. Overall, this text provides a unique and well-rounded introduction to the highly developed and multi-faceted subject of mathematical analysis, as understood by a mathematician today.

This book draws on an eight-year study carried out in the DOCG Prosecco area of Italy, a wine region known worldwide. It is unique in the sense that it is based on one of the most comprehensive investigations into terroir zoning ever performed in Italy.By drawing attention to the complex interrelations between environmental and human factors that influence the growth and production of the Glera grape, the study illustrates the distinct correlation between a wine and its 'terroir'.It shows that the morphology of the sites, the meso and microclimate, the soil, the grapevine planting density, the trellising system, the yield of the vineyard, and the vine water status in the summer lead to unique combinations of grape maturity, acidity, and aroma that ultimately influence the sensory properties of the wines produced. Furthermore, the book details numerous technical and agronomic considerations, specific to the "e;Glera"e; grape variety, for different production strategies, including a section on the impact of climate change on cv "e;Glera"e; phenology."e;The Power of the Terroir: the Case Study of Prosecco Wine"e; represents a valuable resource for anyone involved in studies or research activities in the fields of viticulture, climatology, agronomic sciences or soil sciences, but is also of interest to vine growers, professionals in the wine industry, and wine enthusiasts in general.

The Plancherel formula says that the L^2 norm of the function is equal to the L^2 norm of its Fourier transform. This implies that at least on average, the Fourier transform of an L^2 function decays at infinity. This book is dedicated to the study of the rate of this decay under various assumptions and circumstances, far beyond the original L^2 setting. Analytic and geometric properties of the underlying functions interact in a seamless symbiosis which underlines the wide range influences and applications of the concepts under consideration.

Real quaternion analysis is a multi-faceted subject. Created to describe phenomena in special relativity, electrodynamics, spin etc., it has developed into a body of material that interacts with many branches of mathematics, such as complex analysis, harmonic analysis, differential geometry, and differential equations. It is also a ubiquitous factor in the description and elucidation of problems in mathematical physics. In the meantime real quaternion analysis has become a well established branch in mathematics and has been greatly successful in many different directions. This book is based on concrete examples and exercises rather than general theorems, thus making it suitable for an introductory one- or two-semester undergraduate course on some of the major aspects of real quaternion analysis in exercises. Alternatively, it may be used for beginning graduate level courses and as a reference work. With exercises at the end of each chapter and its straightforward writing style the book addresses readers who have no prior knowledge on this subject but have a basic background in graduate mathematics courses, such as real and complex analysis, ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, and theory of distributions.

The notes in this volume correspond to advanced courses held at the Centre de Recerca Matematica as part of the research program in Arithmetic Geometry in the 2009-2010 academic year.The notes by Laurent Berger provide an introduction to p-adic Galois representations and Fontaine rings, which are especially useful for describing many local deformation rings at p that arise naturally in Galois deformation theory.The notes by Gebhard Bockle offer a comprehensive course on Galois deformation theory, starting from the foundational results of Mazur and discussing in detail the theory of pseudo-representations and their deformations, local deformations at places l = p and local deformations at p which are flat. In the last section,the results of Bockle and Kisin on presentations of global deformation rings over local ones are discussed. The notes by Mladen Dimitrov present the basics of the arithmetic theory of Hilbert modular forms and varieties, with an emphasis on the study of the images of the attached Galois representations, on modularity lifting theorems over totally real number fields, and on the cohomology of Hilbert modular varieties with integral coefficients. The notes by Lassina Dembele and John Voight describe methods for performing explicit computations in spaces of Hilbert modular forms. These methods depend on the Jacquet-Langlands correspondence and on computations in spaces of quaternionic modular forms, both for the case of definite and indefinite quaternion algebras. Several examples are given, and applications to modularity of Galois representations are discussed. The notes by Tim Dokchitser describe the proof, obtained by the author in a joint project with Vladimir Dokchitser, of the parity conjecture for elliptic curves over number fields under the assumption of finiteness of the Tate-Shafarevich group. The statement of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture is included, as well as a detailed study of local and global root numbers of elliptic curves and their classification.

This book is an essay on the epistemology of classifications. Its main purpose is not to provide an exposition of an actual mathematical theory of classifications, that is, a general theory which would be available to any kind of them: hierarchical or non-hierarchical, ordinary or fuzzy, overlapping or non-overlapping, finite or infinite, and so on, establishing a basis for all possible divisions of the real world. For the moment, such a theory remains nothing but a dream. Instead, the authors essentially put forward a number of key questions. Their aim is rather to reveal the "e;state of art"e; of this dynamic field and the philosophy one may eventually adopt to go further. To this end they present some advances made in the course of the last century, discuss a few tricky problems that remain to be solved, and show the avenues open to those who no longer wish to stay on the wrong track. Researchers and professionals interested in the epistemology and philosophy of science, library science, logic and set theory, order theory or cluster analysis will find this book a comprehensive, original and progressive introduction to the main questions in this field.