“The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet, like the closing of a gigantic circle,” observes the ever-smaller hero of the 1950s movie The Incredible Shrinking Man. What I love most about close-up photography is the way size, scale and orientation gets lost as you photograph things that are smaller and...

The recent credit crisis and the resulting bailout program are unprecedented events in the financial industry. While it's important to understand what got us here, it's even more important to consider how we should get out. While there is...

The surgical treatment of the aortic valve and root disease, organic and ischemic mitral regurgitation, and endocarditis has made great strides. Still, there is the well-known dilemma: on the one hand the need for anticoagulation in patients with mechanical valves that otherwise guarantee long-term functioning and, on the other, the...

In this book, the term "electrochemical nanotechnology" is defined as nanoprocessing by means of electrochemical techniques. This introductory book reviews the application of electrochemical nanotechnologies with the aim of understanding their wider applicability in evolving nanoindustries. These advances have impacted...

In the four decades since Imre Lakatos declared mathematics a "quasi-empirical science," increasing attention has been paid to the process of proof and argumentation in the field -- a development paralleled by the rise of computer technology and the mounting interest in the logical underpinnings of mathematics.  Explanantion...

This book addresses the interests of a large community of researchers in the fields of XML-based annotation techniques and corpus-based language technology. It covers the most significant recent developments in this field, from multi-layered mark-up and standards to theoretical formalisms to applications. The contributions are based on research...

The urgency attached to the agenda of international terrorism and human and drugs- trafficking has forced the European Union into new cooperation with Africa and Asia. These...

Although in Hinduism it is mainly used to refer to widow immolation, the term 'sati' means 'true woman' - a female hero. Whitney Kelting has learned that in Jainism satis appear as subjects of devotional hymns. This seems paradoxical, given that Jain spirituality is to disengage oneself from worldly existence and Jain devotionalism is usually...

Humans perceive the three-dimensional structure of the world with apparent ease. However, despite all of the recent advances in computer vision research, the dream of having a computer interpret an image at the same level as a two-year old remains elusive. Why is computer vision such a challenging problem and what is the current state of the...

The southern coast of the North Sea is mainly protected by a single line of defence against flooding. The traditional means for heightening and strengthening the existing coastal barriers are limited due to the increased enormous resource costs, i.e. building materials, funding and space. On the other hand, further interests and needs such as...