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Elsevier Science

  • Chemistry and Biology of Hyaluronan

    • 1st Edition
    • Hari G. Garg + 1 more
    • English
    It was probably the French chemist Portes, who first reported in 1880 that the mucin in the vitreous body, which he named hyalomucine, behaved differently from other mucoids in cornea and cartilage. Fifty four years later Karl Meyer isolated a new polysaccharide from the vitreous, which he named hyaluronic acid. Today its official name is hyaluronan, and modern-day research on this polysaccharide continues to grow. Expertly written by leading scientists in the field, this book provides readers with a broad, yet detailed review of the chemistry of hyaluronan, and the role it plays in human biology and pathology. Twenty-seven chapters present a sequence leading from the chemistry and biochemistry of hyaluronan, followed by its role in various pathological conditions, to modified hylauronans as potential therapeutic agents and finally to the functional, structural and biological properties of hyaluronidases. Chemistry and Biology of Hyaluronan covers the many interesting facets of this fascinating molecule, and all chapters are intended to reach the wider research community.
  • 50 Years Progress in Crystal Growth

    A Reprint Collection
    • 1st Edition
    • Robert Feigelson
    • English
    There is no question that the field of solid state electronics, which essentially began with work at Bell laboratories just after World War II, has had a profound impact on today's Society. What is not nearly so widely known is that advances in the art and science of crystal growth underpin this technology. Single crystals, once valued only for their beauty, are now found, in one form or another in most electronic, optoelectronic and numerous optical devices. These devices, in turn, have permeated almost every home and village throughout the world. In fact it is hard to imagine what our electronics industry, much less our entire civilization, would have been like if crystal growth scientists and engineers were unable to produce the large, defect free crystals required by device designers. This book brings together two sets of related articles describing advances made in crystal growth science and technology since World War II. One set is from the proceedings of a Symposium held in August 2002 to celebrate 50 years of progress in the field of crystal growth. The second contains articles previously published in the newsletter of the American Association for Crystal Growth in a series called "Milestones in Crystal Growth".The first section of this book contains several articles which describe some of the early history of crystal growth prior to the electronics revolution, and upon which modern crystal growth science and technology is based. This is followed by a special article by Prof. Sunagawa which provides some insight into how the successful Japanese crystal growth industry developed. The next section deals with crystal growth fundamentals including concepts of solute distribution, interface kinetics, constitutional supercooling, morphological stability and the growth of dendrites. The following section describes the growth of crystals from melts and solutions, while the final part involves thin film growth by MBE and OMVPE.These articles were written by some of the most famous theorists and crystal growers working in the field. They will provide future research workers with valuable insight into how these pioneering discoveries were made, and show how their own research and future devices will be based upon these developments.
  • Synthesis of Biaryls

    • 1st Edition
    • Ivica Cepanec
    • English
    Organic chemistry is one of the most rapidly growing sciences. There is a wide variety of applications of organic compounds, for instance, pharmaceutically active substances, agrochemicals, optoelectronics, etc. Within this group there are hundereds and thousands of new compounds synthesized or isolated from natural sources. Such important organic chemistry developments are accompanied by the profound break-through of new reactions, increasingly efficient methodologies, reagents and catalysts. The chemistry of biaryls is one of the most interesting fields in organic chemistry, this book looks at these reactions both new and old. Synthesis of Biaryls presents the description of a given method for the synthesis of biaryls: short introduction, reaction mechanism, application, representative synthetic procedures, conclusion and literature references. This book will be of interest to organic chemists in industry and academia.
  • Crystal Growth - From Fundamentals to Technology

    • 1st Edition
    • Georg Müller + 2 more
    • English
    The book contains 5 chapters with 19 contributions form internationally well acknowledged experts in various fields of crystal growth. The topics are ranging from fundamentals (thermodynamic of epitaxy growth, kinetics, morphology, modeling) to new crystal materials (carbon nanocrystals and nanotubes, biological crystals), to technology (Silicon Czochralski growth, oxide growth, III-IV epitaxy) and characterization (point defects, X-ray imaging, in-situ STM). It covers the treatment of bulk growth as well as epitaxy by anorganic and organic materials.
  • Well-Architectured Fluoropolymers: Synthesis, Properties and Applications

    • 1st Edition
    • Bruno Ameduri + 1 more
    • English
    Because of the increasing need for ever better performing materials endowed with specific properties, macromolecular engineering has become a useful tool for designing well-architectured polymers (telomers, telechelics, stars, dendrimers, alternating, block- and graftcopolymers). These polymers are nowadays seeing an enormous growth. Among them, fluoropolymers are seen as high value added materials in many applications ranging from surfactants, optical fibers, biomaterials, coatings, to membranes for fuel cells. Indeed, the relationship between structure of the monomer to the properties of the polymers is of increasing interest so that these properties are tuned for the most appropriate applications. As most fluoropolymers are prepared from radical synthesis, this book devotes various parts on the use of the controlled radical (or pseudo-living) polymerisation of fluoromonomers leading to discoveries of thermoplastic elastomers or original surfactants for polymerisation in supercritical CO2. Well-Architectured Fluoropolymers: Synthesis, Properties and Applications is composed of five chapters starting with a general introduction outlining basic concepts. Emphasis is placed on recent developments, and each chapter describes comprehensive techniques of synthesis of well-defined fluorotelomers or polymers, their properties, characterisations, and their applications, for immediate use by today’s engineers, industrial and academic scientists, and researchers. The book has been arranged to enable self-managed reading and learning. It is both a source of data and a reference.
  • Computational Complexity: A Quantitative Perspective

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 196
    • Marius Zimand
    • English
    There has been a common perception that computational complexity is a theory of "bad news" because its most typical results assert that various real-world and innocent-looking tasks are infeasible. In fact, "bad news" is a relative term, and, indeed, in some situations (e.g., in cryptography), we want an adversary to not be able to perform a certain task. However, a "bad news" result does not automatically become useful in such a scenario. For this to happen, its hardness features have to be quantitatively evaluated and shown to manifest extensively.The book undertakes a quantitative analysis of some of the major results in complexity that regard either classes of problems or individual concrete problems. The size of some important classes are studied using resource-bounded topological and measure-theoretical tools. In the case of individual problems, the book studies relevant quantitative attributes such as approximation properties or the number of hard inputs at each length.One chapter is dedicated to abstract complexity theory, an older field which, however, deserves attention because it lays out the foundations of complexity. The other chapters, on the other hand, focus on recent and important developments in complexity. The book presents in a fairly detailed manner concepts that have been at the centre of the main research lines in complexity in the last decade or so, such as: average-complexity, quantum computation, hardness amplification, resource-bounded measure, the relation between one-way functions and pseudo-random generators, the relation between hard predicates and pseudo-random generators, extractors, derandomization of bounded-error probabilistic algorithms, probabilistically checkable proofs, non-approximability of optimization problems, and others.The book should appeal to graduate computer science students, and to researchers who have an interest in computer science theory and need a good understanding of computational complexity, e.g., researchers in algorithms, AI, logic, and other disciplines.
  • Fluid Catalytic Cracking VI: Preparation and Characterization of Catalysts

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 149
    • Mario L. Occelli
    • English
    This volume looks at the recent progress of this technology as reported in the 21 papers presented during the 219th National Meeting of the ACS in New York, September 5-11, 2003.In addition, the volume focuses on the use of modern spectroscopic techniques for the generation of detailed structural analysis required for the advancement of the science of FCC design.Other chapters look at the use and importance of solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), microcalorimetry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to the study of FCCs and discussing strategies to control pollutant emissions from a refinery FCCU and looking at advances in FCC preparation.
  • Stan Shiels on centrifugal pumps: Collected articles from 'World Pumps' magazine

    • 1st Edition
    • Stan Shiels
    • English
    This collection of all of Stan Shiels’ articles for World Pumps covers specification, operational issues, troubleshooting and the well-known ‘PumpAcademy’ articles which covered specific topics of importance to pump engineers. The result is a volume which is enjoyable and instructive to read,containing facts and opinions as fresh as the day they were written.
  • Traffic and Transport Psychology

    Proceedings of the ICTTP 2000
    • 1st Edition
    • Talib Rothengatter + 1 more
    • English
    This volume gives an overview of the trends in Traffic and Transport Psychology. It reflects the considerable development of the most important factors for driving a road vehicle, and the variety of international research approaches. The first part contains basic approaches and integrated models as well as general theories and their implementation into Traffic and Transport Psychology. The second part deals with the driver, especially cognition, performance, social and differential effects and impairment. Important aspects are treated, such as speed perception, reaction times, interaction, risk acceptance, aggression and gender differences. Special chapters refer to performance and fatigue. The third part focuses on safety, driver support, selection and influencing drivers by enforcement, training and programs for the rehabilitation of traffic offenders. Classic ergonomic methods are discussed as well as modern telematic devices, or trends regarding driver-assessment. In the last part, current developments are presented in relation to better mobility and the protection of the environment. Questions are asked, such as whether we could reduce the use of cars, how travel behaviour can be modified or to what extent the use of alternatives to motor vehicles benefits safety as well as the environment. This work is not only important for psychologists. It should be read by all transport professionals interested in the application of psychology to traffic.
  • Unifying Concepts in Granular Media and Glasses

    From the Statistical Mechanics of Granular Media to the Theory of Jamming
    • 1st Edition
    • Antonio Coniglio + 3 more
    • English
    Deep connections are emerging in the physics of non-thermal systems,such as granular media, and other "complex systems" such as glass formers, spin glasses, colloids or gels. This book discusses the unifying physical theories, developed in recent years, for the description of these systems. The special focus of the book is on recent important developments in the formulation of a Statistical Mechanics approach to granular media and the description of out-of-equilibrium dynamics, such as "jamming" phenomena, ubiquitous in these "complex systems". The book collects contributions from leading researchers in these fields, providing both an introduction, at a graduate level, to these rapidly developing subjects and featuring an up to date, self contained, presentation of theoretical and experimental developments for researchers in areas ranging from Chemistry, to Engineering and Physical Sciences.