This book focuses on chemical and nanophotonic technology to be used to develop novel nano-optical devices and systems. It begins with temperature- and photo-induced phase transition of ferromagnetic materials. Further topics include: energy transfer in artificial photosynthesis, homoepitaxial multiple quantum wells in ZnO, near-field...

What makes us human? What made us become the way we are? One way to answer these questions is to identify the traits that all humans share, traits that are universal features of all human societies. Another way to do so is to ask how humans differ from other species, particularly from our closest relatives, the nonhuman primates. The...

In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive success. This book aims to provide a better understanding of the social scenarios in which selection pressure led to religious practices becoming...

Many terms often used to describe old-growth forests imply that these forests are less vigorous, less productive and less stable than younger forests. But research in the last two decades has yielded results that challenge the view of old-growth forests being in decline. Given the importance of forests in battling climate change and the fact...

Worldwide, there are an estimated 232, 000 new cases of pancreatic cancer annually. In the United States, it is the fourth leading cause of cancer death, and approximately 30,000 people die of pancreatic cancer each year. The disease is difficult to diagnose in its early stages, and most patients have incurable disease by the time they present...

Molecular properties and reactions are controlled by electrons in the molecules. Electrons had been thought to be particles. Quantum mechanics showed that electrons have properties not only as particles but also as waves. A chemical theory is required to think about the wave properties of electrons in molecules. These properties are well...

Analysis and Design of Discrete Part Production Lines provides a complete overview of production systems, investigating several production line problems, and describing the best approaches to the analysis of production line performance. Written by experts in the field of production and manufacturing research, this book also presents...

Nowadays, engineering systems are becoming increasingly complex and, for design purposes, must be considered as multidisciplinary systems made up of components from different engineering disciplines. With regard to the systematic development and the analysis of models, interdisciplinary methodologies supported by software become more and more...

This book offers a panoramic view of recent advances in spatial complexity, in order to enhance our understanding of complex spatial networks by simplicity in terms of both the basic driving forces of systemic impacts and the modelling of such systems. Simple models mapping out the evolution of complex networks are undoubtedly a key issue in...

Computational techniques based on simulation have now become an essential part of the statistician's toolbox. It is thus crucial to provide statisticians with a practical understanding of those methods, and there is no better way to develop intuition and skills for simulation than to use simulation to solve statistical problems. Introducing...

The realistic generation of virtual doubles of real-world actors has been the focus of computer graphics research for many years. However, some problems still remain unsolved: it is still time-consuming to generate character animations using the traditional skeleton-based pipeline, passive performance capture of human actors wearing arbitrary...

The proposed book explores the science and technology related to terahertz wave technologies, including the latest research on electromagnetic waves with an introduction to continuous wave THz technology and an emphasis on pulsed THz technology. The book begins with a review of the history of THz wave generation and detection methods and moves...