bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Transport in Interacting Mesoscopic Systems
Authors: Bruus Henrik , Flensberg Karsten
Published: November 2023

In Chapter 7 we studied transport of electrons through phase coherent mesoscopic systems. The underlying assumption was that the charge carriers could be viewed as non-interacting particles. This assumption is generally valid for extended systems at low temperatures. In the case of mesoscopic systems or nanostructures, “extended” should be thought of as many channels or at least a few almost open channels that connect the system to the electron reservoirs of the leads. When this is no longer the case, interactions play a dominant role for the transport properties. This is easily understood physically, because if the charge tends to be localized on the nanostructure, the flow of electrons becomes correlated due to the Coulomb interactions. The degree of correlation is controlled by the Coulomb energy cost for adding or removing electrons. This energy can become considerable, of order of mev for small systems such as semiconductor quantum dots, or even as large as ev for molecular devices. Because of this charging effect, it is not permissible to think about the particles as independent entities, and hence a many-body approach is needed. In this chapter, we shall study a few examples that illustrate the importance of many-body physics, and discuss the different theoretical tools available.
Fermi Liquid Theory
Authors: Bruus Henrik , Flensberg Karsten
Published: November 2023

The concept of Fermi liquid theory was developed by Landau in 1957–59 and later refined by others. The basic conclusion is that a gas of interacting particles can be described by a system of almost non-interacting “quasiparticles.” These quasi particles are approximate excitations of the system at sufficiently short time scales. What we mean by “sufficiently short” of course has to be quantified, and this condition will set the limits for the applicability of the theory.
Impurity Scattering and Conductivity
Authors: Bruus Henrik , Flensberg Karsten
Published: November 2023

We now return to the problem of calculating the resistance of a metallic conductor due to scattering against impurities. The basic physics of impurity scattering was discussed in Chapter 12, where we saw how the single-particle Green’s function acquired a finite lifetime after averaging over the positions of the impurities. In Chapter 15 the conductivity was calculated within the Boltzmann equation approach. We now rederive the Boltzmann equation result starting from a microscopic quantum approach. The advantage of this microscopic approach, besides giving a first principle justification of the Boltzmann equation, is that it can be extended to include correlation and coherence effects that cannot be described in the semi-classical Boltzmann approach. In order to get familiar with the techniques, we therefore start by deriving the semi classical result. Then we go on to include the quantum mechanical effect known as weak localization, which is due to interference between time reversed paths. Weak localization involves coherent scattering on many impurities, and it can therefore not be explained semi-classically.
Minority Games as market models
Authors: Challet Damien , Marsili Matteo , Zhang Yi-Cheng
Published: November 2023

In the last two chapters, we have introduced the Minority Game as a market model and shown how analytic and numerical tools reveal the richness of the standard Minority Game. But what has this model to do with financial markets? We have been speaking of market efficiency and volatility but where is the price? Where is money? What is the market mechanism? We have presented the Minority Game as a coarse-grained model of a financial markets in which all these details are hidden, the minority rule acting as a generic agent interaction. But is the market really a Minority Game? A generic argument suggesting this conclusion, discussed in (Challet et al. 2000a), is that markets are institutions which allow agents to exchange goods. Through these exchanges, traders can reallocate their resources in order to increase their well-being, selling what they have in excess in order to buy what they prefer or need. As trading per se does not create any wealth, the market must be a zero sum game. Taking out transaction costs and other frictions (such as bid–ask spread) which are needed to reward the market maker for the service he is providing, the game becomes a Minority Game. This is particularly true of speculators, who have no special interest in the assets they trade but only on the possibility to extract profit from trading.
Introduction
Authors: Fox Mark
Published: November 2023

Quantum optics is the subject that deals with optical phenomena that can only be explained by treating light as a stream of photons rather than as electromagnetic waves. In principle, the subject is as old as quantum theory itself, but in practice, it is a relatively new one, and has really only come to the fore during the last quarter of the twentieth century.
Black holes and Kruskal space
Authors: Rindler Wolfgang
Published: November 2023

If this were 1011, the suns would have to be packed like stacks of cannon balls to fit into the horizon sphere. But we have a factor 106 to spare; that is, such a stack expanded by a linear factor of 102 would still fit into the galactic horizon. In other
The full field equations; de Sitter space
Authors: Rindler Wolfgang
Published: November 2023

We have not yet seen the full version of Einstein’s field equations, only the special version that applies in vacuum. For the exterior Schwarzschild problem that was quite sufficient, since symmetry did most of the work for us; and in the case of gravitational waves it was also sufficient, as long as propagation rather than generation was our interest. But if, for example, we want to calculate the spacetime around (and inside) an arbitrary blob of matter, or the gravitational waves emitted by some double star system, then we need to know how matter interacts with spacetime, or in other words, the field equations with source terms.
Climate observations by remote sensing
Authors: Taylor F W
Published: November 2023

Progress with understanding any aspect of the Earth as a physical system, in particular the environmental effects of climate change, depends critically on our ability to design and carry out suitable programmes of measurements. Theory and modelling alone cannot improve our understanding of the physics on which predictions rely, and only relevant data of high quality can test and improve specific models and parameterizations. By developing suitable instruments, we can explore and understand the physical processes in the atmosphere and oceans at the same time as we monitor the climate system for variations and secular change.
Climate sensitivity and change
Authors: Taylor F W
Published: November 2023

The climate on the surface of the Earth is the result of a balance between a large number of factors, all of which can change. If the heat from the Sun increased, for example, we would expect the surface of the Earth to respond by getting hotter. If the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, this also tends to produce an increase in surface temperature. These are examples of external and internal, respectively, climate forcing.108 How sensitive is the climate to different kinds of internal and external forcing? Can we estimate the relative importance of each variable, in terms of its likely effect on the climate?
Epilogue
Authors: Taylor F W
Published: November 2023

Everyone knows that climate is a topic that is attracting a great deal of attention, among powerful politicians and the general public as well as scientists. This is hardly surprising, given the stakes involved if the climate change that occurs in the next 100 yrs is as bad as the current best predictions say. Misunderstandings are rife, however, along with controversy and rash predictions, of both the doom-laden and the overly complacent variety. The student of climate is expected to shed light on the issues and debates that will help progress towards a productive consensus.
The pendulum clock
Authors: Baker Gregory L , Blackburn James A
Published: November 2023

The spinning Earth is, of course, a timekeeper. The instantaneous position of the sun in the sky during the day, or of particular stars in the night sky, indicates a moment in time. Weather permitting, sundials could mark off daytime intervals as sequences of positions of the shadow cast by a stick or wedge (the gnomon).

While timekeeping with devices of various descriptions (water clocks, burning candles, ﬂowing sand) has a long history, for millennia accuracy was not a high priority. Human affairs were mainly local and exactness was not essential. Ultimately, however, the need for public timekeeping led to a progression of significant advances and inventions.

The epoch of the first large mechanical clocks began around 1335 in Milan. Many towns and cities throughout Europe installed similar clocks in cathedrals and public squares. An example of an early English cathedral clock is the one at Salisbury (c.1275–1284) (Fig. 10.1).
Implementation of plasticity models into flnite element code
Authors: Dunne Fionn , Petrinic Nik
Published: November 2023

Several commercial flnite element software packages (e.g. ABAQUS, LSDyna, and MARC) provide the facility for users to specify their own material models. In ABAQUS, the user is required to provide a Fortran subroutine called a ‘UMAT’. This chapter is concerned with the implementation of plasticity models into flnite element code, which is carried out, by example, in using ABAQUS. In particular, we start by developing an ABAQUS UMAT for elasticity, and discuss the tests necessary to verify the model implementation into ABAQUS. We go on to consider isotropic hardening plasticity with explicit and implicit integration, with continuum and consistent tangent stiffnesses, large deformation formulations using rotated variables provided by ABAQUS, and from first principles using the deformation gradient. We use the problem of simple shear with elasticity to verify the large deformation implementations. We then present an implicit implementation for elasto-viscoplasticity (and creep). All the Fortran coding, together with the necessary ABAQUS input files, are available through the OUP wepsite.
Europe goes West
Authors: Loadman John
Published: November 2023

The prehistory of rubber took many years to deduce and resulted from archaeological excavations carried out right through to modern times and which are, indeed, ongoing today. The earliest ‘Western’ references to natural rubber inevitably involve Christopher Columbus, but the honour for the first certain ref erence to rubber in print belongs to Pietro, Martire d’Anghiera, who talked of ‘gummi optima’, and described how it was obtained from certain trees as a white juice which dried to a transparent material, the properties of which were improved by fumigation. For a few years the literature flowed. In 1535 Captain Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo gave a detailed description of the ball games played in the Greater Antilles, whilst Antonio de Herrera Tordesillas described how Cortez had watched such a game at the court of Montezuma.
Slaves to Rubber
Authors: Loadman John
Published: November 2023

At the turn of the twentieth century the rubber plantation industry in Asia was getting off to a slow and shaky start (Ridley claimed that disruptive actions by Sir Frank Swettenham, the first Resident-General of the Federated Malay States, had set it back by at least ten years), whilst the African rubber industry was extremely small. Nevertheless, the industrialised countries, particularly America and Great Britain, were crying out for rubber and had to rely on the Amazonian basin to meet their demands.
Chemicals and Curatives
Authors: Loadman John
Published: November 2023

This chapter provides a brief and necessarily superficial look at the history of vulcanisation. Its intent is not to educate chemically but to describe in as non-technical a way as possible the changes which have taken place from the first faltering steps of its infancy, guided by Goodyear and Hancock, to its full maturity today. Without this process our rubber would be useless.
Vortices
Authors: Darrigol Olivier
Published: November 2023

I have been able to solve a few problems of mathematical physics on which the greatest mathematicians since Euler have struggled in vain . . . But the pride I could have felt over the final results . . . was considerably diminished by the fact that I knew well how the solutions had almost always come to me: by gradual generalization of favorable examples, through a succession of felicitous ideas after many false trails. I should compare myself to a mountain climber who, without knowing the way, hikes up slowly and laboriously, often must return because he cannot go further, then, by reflection or by chance, discovers new trails that take him a little further, and who, when he finally reaches his aim, to his shame discovers a royal road on which he could have trodden up if he had been clever enough to find the right beginning. Naturally, in my publications I have not told the reader about the false trails and I have only described the smooth road by which he can now reach the summit without any effort. (Hermann Helmholtz, 1891)

One way of addressing the practical failures of Euler’s fluid mechanics was to introduce viscosity into the fundamental equations. This approach, described in the previous chapter, only helped in cases of laminar flow, such as the loss of head in capillary tubes or the damping of pendulum oscillations. In the 1860s, Hermann Helmholtz invented another approach based on vortex-like solutions of Euler’s equations.
Cyclopean Vision
Authors: Morgan Michael
Published: November 2023

The walls of Tyrins, on the edge of the Argolic Gulf, are 7 metres thick. In Greek legend these, and the nearby fortress of Mycenae, were built by the race descended from the Cyclops (hence the architectural term ‘Cyclopean’ for ‘huge or massive’). Like the architects of the 1960s, the builders of Mycenae were louts, but they had good three-dimensional vision. Polyphemus, the most famous of his homicidal and gloomy race, could deal impressively and destructively with moving objects: ‘Neither reply nor pity came from him, but in one stride he clutched at my companions and caught two in his hands like squirming puppies to beat their brains out, spattering the floor.
‘Actual dynamical models of things’
Authors: Morgan Michael
Published: November 2023

The brain is a computer made of meat, as the AI guru Marvin Minsky said. However, the real question is: ‘What sort of computer?’ To call the brain a computer is about as useful as saying that a country is a democracy. The old East Germany called itself a democracy, and so does the USA, which wants other countries to be democracies too, so long as they support free-market capitalism and buy McDonald’s hamburgers. Democracy is an abstract political theory claiming to give sovereign power to its people; but the interesting question to the people is how this desirable state of affairs is to be brought about, and by what institutions.
Controlled Hallucination
Authors: Morgan Michael
Published: November 2023

The Reverend Bayes was born in London, like two other founding fathers of computing, Charles Babbage and Alan Turing. His grave is in London’s Bunhill Fields, off the City Road, where shoemakers ‘popped their weasels’ (pawned their tools) to pay for drinks in The Eagle public house. The Fields were a burial pit for plague victims – hence their name, a corruption of ‘Bone Hill’. Bayes keeps company in Bunhill with William Blake, John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe. Blake’s grave, where he lies with Sophia, is often marked by flowers. Bayes’ grave is undistinguished and unnoticed by visitors. Yet Bayes’ theorem on probability is now a vital tool for understanding the problem that neural networks and the brain itself have in inferring ‘what is out there’ from its sensory input.
The Babel Library of Icons
Authors: Morgan Michael
Published: November 2023

In his story ‘The Library of Babel’, Jorge Luis Borges (who had been director of the National Library of Argentina) describes a library that contains all possible 410-page books. Most of the books are complete gibberish (worse even than Finnegans Wake), including one in which the letters ‘MCV’ are perversely repeated from the first line to the last. Some contain a few lines of obscure dialect embedded in a typographical word salad. It takes the librarians over 100 years to discover that the language of two lines of text in one of the books is a Samoyed-Lithuanian dialect of Guarani, with classical Arabic inflections.
Internal Energy and Entropy Changes on Deformation
Authors: Treloar L R G
Published: November 2023

IN the preceding chapter attention was drawn to the peculiar thermoelastic phenomena encountered with rubber, and the significance of these phenomena in relation to the kinetic theory of rubber elasticity proposed by Meyer and his associates was emphasized. In the present chapter we shall examine in closer detail the underlying thermodynamic relations involved in the study of these thermoelastic phenomena and the way in which they may be applied experimentally to obtain quantitative information bearing on the question of the mechanism of the deformation process.
The General Strain: Phenomenological Theory
Authors: Treloar L R G
Published: November 2023

IN previous chapters attention has been given to the deviations from the Gaussian statistical theory, which in the case of simple extension may be represented to a close approximation by the two-constant formula of Mooney. It has also been noted that in the case of uniaxial compression these deviations are either non-existent or very much less evident. From this it follows that the Mooney equation is not capable of providing a completely satisfactory and self-consistent basis for the representation of the general form of the strain-energy function for all types of strain.
Orderings
Authors: Matoušek Jirří , Nešetřil Jaroslav
Published: November 2023

The reader will certainly be familiar with the ordering of natural numbers and of other number domains by magnitude (the “usual” ordering of numbers). In mathematics, such an ordering is considered as a special type of a relation, i.e. a set of pairs of numbers. In the case just mentioned, this relation is usually denoted by the symbol “≤” (“less than or equal”). Various orderings can be defined on other sets too, such as the set of all words in a language, and one set can be ordered in many different and perhaps exotic ways.
Graphs: an introduction
Authors: Matoušek Jirří , Nešetřil Jaroslav
Published: November 2023

Many situations in various practically motivated problems and also in mathematics and theoretical computer science can be captured by a scheme consisting of two things: a (finite) set of points, and lines joining some pairs of the points.
Probability and probabilistic proofs
Authors: Matoušek Jirří , Nešetřil Jaroslav
Published: November 2023

The reader will most likely know various problems about determining the probability of some event (several such problems are also scattered in the other chapters). Textbooks often contain such problems taken “from real life”, or at least pretending to be real life problems. They speak about shufiing and drawing cards, tossing coins or even needles, or also about defunct lightbulbs, defunct phone lines, or decaying radioactive atoms—depending on the author’s inclinations and fantasy. In this chapter we want to show a remarkable mathematical application of probability, namely how mathematical statements can be proved using elementary probability theory, although they don’t mention any probability or randomness.
Attempts At Explanation
Authors: Scarani Valerio
Published: November 2023

During the lectures to the students in Fribourg, as with other people foreign to the world of physics, I have stated that my audience was driven to raise the same questions as the physicists: can we accept randomness in physical phenomena? Is interference determined by the mechanisms, and correlations at a distance by an exchange of information? In the presence of non-separability of physical properties, can we still talk about distinct entities? We feel the need to interpret quantum phenomena because we are not at ease with the indistinguishability principle and with some of its consequences. The unease comes from the fact that this principle, which appears to be omnipresent in the microscopic world, is unknown in everyday life and even seems to contradict our normal perceptions – the reader must recall the game with the sets of cars in Chapter 2. Seen from this point of view, the interpretations can be divided into three broad categories:
The Explanatory Role Of Consciousness In Action
Authors: Eilan Naomi
Published: November 2023

On the view that I will be calling ‘common sense realism’, conscious experiences have a critical causal role in explaining action. On this view, because of the way a pain feels to me, subjectively, I take steps to stop it; or because a cake seems, phenomenally, to be on my left, I reach out in that direction. During the past two decades, this fundamental ingredient in our everyday psychology has been put under severe pressure, both by philosophers and by psychologists, who for a variety of reasons have claimed that phenomenal consciousness is causally epiphenomenal; it has no causal role at all. To put it very crudely—as far as the causal workings of our minds are concerned, we might as well be zombies.
First-Person Understanding Of Action In Criminal Law
Authors: Burkhardt BjÖRn
Published: November 2023

Actions—one’s own just as much as those of others—can be understood from two different perspectives, but the terminology characterizing these perspectives is not uniform. One widespread approach is to contrast the firstand the third-person point of view (see, e.g. Korsgaard, 1996b; Kim, 1998; Velmans, 2000). Other comparisons can also be found, such as internal and external perspective (Weischedel, 1967; Nagel, 1986), personal and impersonal point of view (Hornsby, 1997), practical and theoretical point of view (Bok, 1998; Korsgaard, 1996a), intentional and deterministic discourse (Kelman, 1987; Boldt, 1992; Herrmann, 1996), or reactive and deliberative interpretation (Pearl, 2000).
The sociology of social class
Authors: Heath Anthony
Published: November 2023

Class is a theory-laden concept or rather set of concepts. The different theoretical traditions in sociology have spawned different theories of class and stratification, and these in turn have spawned different measures. As a result, British sociology exhibits a bewildering array of class schemas. There are the two ‘official’ schemas: the Registrar General’s (with its six classes) and the OPCS (Office of Population Censuses and Surveys) scheme of 17 socioeconomic groups (OPCS 1980). There is the Market Research scheme of six ‘social grades’ (A, B, Cl, C2, D and E) (Monk 1978). From academic sociologists come the Hall-Jones classification (Hall and Jones 1950), the class schema of John Goldthorpe (Goldthorpe, Llewellyn, and Payne 1980), and the Marxist schemas of E.O. Wright (Wright 1979, 1985). Finally, there are also continuous scales, as opposed to discrete class schemas, such as the Cambridge scale (Stewart, Prandy, and Blackburn 1980) and the Hope-Goldthorpe scale (Goldthorpe and Hope 1974).
The Biology of Social Class
Authors: Mascie-Aylor C G Nicholas
Published: November 2023

The primary objective of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive summary of those biological variables which are associated with social class. ‘Associated’ can have several meanings; it can refer to significantly more or less individuals than expected with a specified character in a social class. Alter-natively, for a continuous character the term signifies average or mean differences between classes. In the latter case this might result in a measurable gradient for either an increase or decrease in mean values from social class I to V.
Birds in biological isolates
Authors: Blondel Jacques
Published: November 2023

The way in which the number and identity of species inhabiting an island, a set of islands, or any other discrete patch of habitat varies with such parameters as size, degree of isolation, and habitat heterogeneity has been an important question in ecology, evolutionary biology, and more recently in conservation biology. In the late 1960s and 1970s, a tremendous amount of work was generated by the model of island biogeography of Preston (1962) and MacArthur and Wilson (1963,1967). This model and its predictions have been investigated on real oceanic islands (e.g. Hamilton et al. 3963. Terborgh 1971, 1973; Diamond et al. 1976; Diamond and Mayr 1976; Mayr and Diamond 1976), and also on mountaintops (Cook 1974; Johnson 1975), caves (Culver et al. 1973; Vuilleu- mier 1973), ponds (Hubbard 1973), and such patches of habitat as isolated fragments of forest (e.g. Moore and Hooper 1975; Galli et al. 1976; Burgess and Sharpe 1981; Pickett and White 1985; Soule 1986).
Modelling the population dynamics of the Grey Partridge: conservation and management
Authors: Potts G R , Aebischer N J
Published: November 2023

Computers first became available for use in ecological research in the late 1950s and by the mid-1960s a number of population simulation models had been published. These population models were mainly for harvested commercial fish or for insect pests. It was not until 1969 that they were first used on a bird, the Great Tit Parus major (Pennycuick 1969).
The proposed ‘Species Plantarum Project’ (SPP)
Authors: Brummitt R K
Published: November 2023

The Species Plantarum Project is envisaged as an international co-operative project to synthesize verified basic taxonomic information on the vascular plants of the world from level of family down to species and below. It will include: names (accepted names and synonyms with places of publication and types); distributions (geographical country by country by TDWG system, ecological in a form still to be determined, and status according to the TDWG POSS system); and morphological characters (short diagnostic descriptions, probably keys, plus fixed field data for selective recall). Data will be stored in a computer system allowing distribution in electronic form, probably on-line, and publication in hard copy. A worldwide network of contributors, editors, and regional and systematic advisors will be set up. The project has nomenclatural implications as a means of producing a list of names which may be ‘protected’ from upsets caused by the priority rules. An open meeting to establish the project in the international botanical community was held at Kew in November 1990. Introduction The idea of the Species Plantarum Project was first discussed publicly at the fourth meeting of TDWG (International Working Group for Taxonomic Databases in Plant Sciences) at Missouri, in October 1988.
The role of individual botanists and small organizations in the development and maintenance of a global plant information system (GPIS)
Authors: Stirton C H
Published: November 2023

Individual botanists, whether from large or small organizations, have an important role to play in the development, maintenance, and editing of a global plant information system (GPIS). However, this role is attendant on a number of biopolitical decisions which are being made by a few major botanical institutions. This chapter assesses how individuals and small organizations might contribute to the decision-making process in setting standards for a GPIS, and providing and editing its data. A model is provided for a centralized database system but a distributed system is also considered. Emphasis is given to the importance of establishing a GPIS; the harmonization of existing ‘world’ plant databases; linking the development of a GPIS to other global database developments; the most productive use of individual expertise; and finally the special role of small organizations.
The role of large institutions in a global plant species information system
Authors: Morin Nancy R
Published: November 2023

The large botanical and systematic institutions take a part in the community that is more than the sum of their parts. They represent a wealth of resources, communities of researchers, the focus of international and regional networks, the instigators of major institutional projects, and both the providers and the users of many specialist services. These features are equally important in computerized botanical information systems. A large institution such as Missouri Botanical Garden accumulates electronic resources, develops a large community of system users, provides the focus for several network projects, undertakes major database development, and both provides and uses plant taxonomic database services. Such institutions are clearly in a position to make very substantial contributions to a global plant species information system in expertise, facilities, finance, and also as users.
Linking related databases: a microbiological approach
Authors: kirsop B
Published: November 2023

The Microbial Strain Data Network (MSDN) is an information and communications network set up primarily, but not exclusively, for microbiologists and biotechnologists. It is sponsored by the International Council of Scientific Unions. It is an independent organization with a Secretariat in Cambridge. The network uses the telecommunications services of Telecom Gold, BT North America and Internet and currently has issued nearly 400 mailboxes. The information relates in the main to microorganisms and cultured cells, and is mostly in the form of catalogues, strain databases and directories. These and other bibliographic, nomenclatural, regulatory and commercial databases are linked to the network. Some databases are stored on the MSDN computers and use the same software; others are accessed through electronic gateways, the data remaining on a remote computer. All may be accessed from the MSDN database menu, so providing a one-stop shopping service to a diverse collection of data resources.
Design aspects of an enterprise computing environment for systematics
Authors: Beach James H
Published: November 2023

Networking provides the metaphor for the late twentieth century culture: it speaks of interactivity, decentralization, the layering of ideas from a multiplicity of sources. Networking is the provenance of far-reaching connectivity and, mediated, accelerated, and intensified by the computer, it leads to the amplification of thought, enrichment of the imagination, both broader and deeper memory, and the extension of our human senses. Computer networking means the linking of person to person, mind to mind, memory to memory regardless of their dispersal in space and their dislocation in time (Ascott 1990). The promise of the research networks The research internet will reorganize modes of communication and methods of collaboration within organismic botany. High-capacity, inexpensive communication channels will create a demand for immediate access to botanical data, information, and knowledge. Will systematics institutions be able and willing to provide them?
A critical view on proposed hormone action: the example of auxin
Authors: Hertel Rainer
Published: November 2023

Biological processes have molecular components and, on the other hand, a contextual meaning within larger processes: in this chapter we are interested in the mechanism of auxin action, in the molecular components and their sequential function, and less in the biological context, less in ontogenesis or phylogeny of the system. The biosynthesis and breakdown of indoleacetic acid (IAA) will not be dealt with. This plant growth substance fulfils the criteria of a hormone and shows analogies to animal hormones or transmitters, e.g. it is an amino acid metabolite like serotonin or thyroxine, and it is transported to its site of action. A small number of types of mechanism of action for animal hormones and transmitters have become textbook knowledge: gene activation with steroids and their cytosolic/caryoplasmic receptors; the G-protein cascade after, for example, adrenergic receptors or rhodopsin photoexeitation; the inositol-phosphate sequence; various protein kinases acting, for example, on channels, or modulation of Ca 2+ levels. Is one of these mechanisms realized with auxin in plants? Answers have been given according to the prevailing fashion, but it is still possible that auxin’s transduction chain is something new and different.
Ecological adaptations at levels with different scaling: ecosystems, whole plants, cells, membranes, molecules
Authors: Lüttge Ulrich
Published: November 2023

Life is full of examples of such metastable states existing between (at least) two possible stable states, which often are qualitatively highly different. Examples occur on all possible levels of scaling. Mechanistic explanations for a given behaviour at a certain level are often searched for and found on the level marked by the next smaller scale. Hence, in order to understand the bases of ecological behaviour or adaptations it is necessary to go through a complete series of levels with different scaling to the extent that they are accessible by available methodology. Let us look at a series of examples of metastable and stable states.
Assimilate translocation and membrane transport as limiting factors for plant growth
Authors: Delrot Serge
Published: November 2023

Plant growth depends on water, ions, and organic solutes. Water and ions are absorbed from the soil, while most organic solutes are synthesized autotrophically, and must be transported from the leaf to various organs in order to allow the normal development of the plant Besides its metabolic role, water is important both to convey the ions from the soil to the upper part of the plant, and to convey the assimilates from the mature leaves to the growing organs. If we compare ions and assimilates, additional differences must be stressed: once in the plant, a large proportion of the ions taken up from the soil stay in the plant; in contrast, a sizeable amount of assimilate is lost by respiration or is spatially or metabolically compartmented. For these reasons, the amounts of assimilate transported are much more important for growth of the plant than the amounts of ion. In most cases, only one part of the plant is harvested for human use or consumption (fruit, root, stem). Compared to plant growth, where the total biomass of the plant is considered, plant productivity therefore refers more specifically to the yield or to the growth of the harvested organs.
Compartmentation of nutrient ions in relation to supply and growth
Authors: Leigh Roger A , Storey Richard , Miller Anthony J , Zhen Rui-Guang
Published: November 2023

It is now accepted that nutrient ions in plant cells are asymmetrically distributed between cytoplasm and vacuole and that the pools of nutrients in each of these compartments have different functions (see Wyn Jones et al. 1979; Leigh and Wyn Jones 1986; Leigh and Storey 1991). Nutrients in the cytoplasm have a metabolic role either as substrates (e.g. nitrate, phosphate) or as activators and cofactors for enzymes (e.g. potassium, magnesium). In contrast, nutrients in the vacuole have no known biochemical functions but are accumulated to contribute to sap osmotic potential, for storage, or both. Transport of ions between cytoplasm and vacuole is also important in regulating the composition of the cytoplasm, including control of cytoplasmic pH (Pelle and Bertl 1986), Ca2+ (Blackford et al. 1990), inorganic phosphate (Pi) (Lee and Ratcliffe 1983), and K+ (Leigh and Wyn Jones 1984).
Natural products in plant growth regulation
Authors: Ballio Alessandro
Published: November 2023

In a natural environment plant growth and differentiation are regulated by a number of structurally unrelated chemical signals arising from a single ecosystem. Signalling is, in general, a sophisticated process that starts with the specific perception of a natural product, either endogenous or extracellular, followed by a transduction pathway that eventually leads to a physiological response. Among endogenous plant metabolites, those belonging to the five recognized groups of phytohormones, auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, abscisic acid, and ethylene, are ubiquitous growth regulators. Plant growth-regulating substances other than these recognized phytohormones have been reported occasionally. Some (e.g. brassinosteroids, jasmonic acid, and triacontanol) are widely distributed endogenous compounds, active at very low concentration, and might be considered hormone-like metabolites if not true plant hormones; others are products of plants or micro-organisms, the so-called secondary metabolites, that have been more or less unexpectedly found to affect plant growth. This last group consists of a vast set of very varied products, often their chemistry is better known than their biological activities.
The search for phytohormone receptors: a role for auxin-binding proteins
Authors: Hesse Thomas , Palme Klaus
Published: November 2023

The major internal substances that regulate plant growth and development are simple chemical factors, termed phytohormones. They interact in complex ways to produce a mature, growing plant and elicit many physiological responses in plants. For example, it is well established that they stimulate or inhibit plant growth in response to environmental cues such as light, temperature, touch, and gravity, and thus allow a plant to respond efficiently to environmental demands by growing in particular directions, by producing flowers, or by displaying any responses relevant to survival of the plant in a particular habitat. Auxins, cytokinins, ethylene, abscisic acid, and gibberellic acids, the major classes of phytohormones thought to act as specific chemical messengers, have received particular attention. In contrast to animal hormones, which are known to be produced in small quantities at definite sites within an organism and are then transported to another part of the organism, phytohormones are apparently not produced in specialized tissues. Nevertheless, the concepts developed for understanding the molecular functions of animal hormones have strongly influenced research into phytohormones. It has been argued that, similar to hormone action in ‘vertebrates’, the first step in phytohormone action is interaction of a ligand with a binding site, most likely a protein, located either at the plasma membrane or at various other intracellular sites. Hence, it is thought that binding of phytohormones to such proteins should be specific, reversible, of high affinity, saturable, and result in a defined biological response.
From phytochrome to phytochromes
Authors: Lercari Bartolomeo
Published: November 2023

Plants are bound to a particular site for their lifetime. As a living system lacking mobility, the ability to sense and subsequently to react properly to dramatic environmental changes is a crucial prerequisite for survival. Light is probably the most important environmental stimulus to which plants react: it is not only the source of energy (photosynthesis), but is involved in several developmental and regulatory processes from the macroscopic level, for example, visible movements, flowering, and leaf expansion, down to the molecular level of gene expression (Simpson and Herrera-Estrella 1990; Smith and Whitelam 1990). Sophisticated mechanisms of photoreception give plants the ability to sense changes in light quantity and quality, direction, and duration. Plants have evolved mechanisms by which they regulate their growth and development according to their light environment (photomorphogenesis). In photomorphogenesis light is a signal that determines the pattern of differentiation, but does not satisfy its energy requirement.
Hormones in the seed of Sechium edule: role in germination and growth
Authors: Lorenzi Roberto , Ceccarelli Nello
Published: November 2023

For several years we have been studying the presence and metabolism of plant hormones with the aim of elucidating their physiological role during the development of seed and fruit in Sechium edule. A feature common to all classes of hormones studied so far is their high con centration in endosperm and young cotyledons. Seeds of Sechium edule contain very high concentrations of both free and conjugated gibberellins (GAs) throughout seed development: both free and conjugated GAs are also present in massive concentrations at completion of seed development. Investigations of the identity and the endogenous levels of seed GAs have been reported. Lorenzi and Ceccarelli (1983) first reported on the structure and concentration of biologically active GAs in the endosperm and cotyledons of seeds at different developmental stages.
Space science
Authors: Gibson Roy
Published: November 2023

At the risk of offending purists and specialists alike, space science in this section will be restricted only to the science of space, that is to say of the Earth, the planets, and what lies around, between, and beyond them. It will not include the science which can be conducted in space either by automatic or manned spacecraft, such as investigations using the microgravity environment in a spacecraft. It cannot be too often repeated that the advances achieved in space techniques owe much to the vision and demands of space scientists. The earliest sounding rockets and satellites contained only scientific experiments. The 1960s and 19 70s were thus a period of tremendous space science activity, with fruitful cooperation between large numbers of scientific groups in most parts of the world. Of course, there was also intense rivalry, and the familiar striving to be first to publish new and exciting results, but the irritations caused by such human foibles were massively out-weighed by the genuine international cooperation.
Postscript
Authors: Weinberger P
Published: November 2023

It is barely thirty years since the first, primitive satellite orbited the Earth, and already many of the developments of space technology are taken for granted. The weather charts which appear daily on television have long ceased to cause viewers to marvel at the wonders of the satellite. Successful launches of even the most sophisticated rockets have little chance of appearing in the news, other than as a two-liner; an accident or even a serious launch delay, of course, still merits a few columns and even a photograph or two. Perhaps one should not complain at this indifference. Space has made its own way quite creditably over the past three decades, and one can be forgiven for believing that it has no need for publicity except in journals produced by and for the space community. Certainly the telecommunications sector is so largely;. privatized that it must be treated like any other industry struggling to make a profit.
The legacy of Chernobyl: the prospects for energy in the former Soviet Union
Authors: Medvedev Zhores A
Published: November 2023

Dr Zhores A. Medvedev is not only a distinguished biochemist but also a member of the small, brave group of Russian scientists-of whom Andrei Sakharov was the most eminent-who sacrificed their careers and risked their personal liberty by openly opposing the human rights policies of the former Soviet regime. Born in Tbilisi, twin brother of the historian Roy Medvedev, Zhores Medvedev worked as a senior scientist in the Timiryazev Academy of Agricultural Science until 1962, as Head of the Molecular Radio-Biology Laboratory in the Institute of Medical Radiology, Obninsk, until 1969, and as Senior Scientist in the Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry of Farm Animals, Borovsk, until 1972. A year later, Dr Medvedev was exiled from the Soviet Union for his persistent and increasingly public opposition to the use of psychiatric treatment as a weapon against political dissidents. He settled in London, where he took up a post with the National Institute for Medical Research. Zhores Medvedev has made good use of his freedom to record the truth. He was the first scientist to expose the nuclear catastrophe-more serious, in local terms, than Chernobyl-which had occued in 1957 at Kyshtym, near Chelyabinsk, as the result of an accident in a nuclear weapons production plant. He has written extensively about recent Soviet history: his most recent book is ‘The legacy of Chernobyl’ (Blackwell, Oxford, 1990).
Variational methods
Authors: Baldomir D , Hammond P
Published: November 2023

In the previous chapter we introduced the description of electromagnetic field quantities in terms of differential forms, which associate the extension of three-dimensional or four-dimensional space-time with the physical interaction. Since the dominant idea of electromagnetism is the distribution of energy in space and time, this makes such an association of geometry and physics particularly suitable for electromagnetic investigations.
Coordinate Systems
Authors: Tai Chen-To
Published: November 2023

In this book, all coordinate systems used are orthogonal unless stated otherwise. The coordinate variables and the corresponding unit vectors in the general orthogonal system will be denoted by (v1, v2, v3) and (u1, u2, u3).

The coefficients hi 's are called the metric coefficients of that system. If one of the coordinate variables has the dimension of length, then the corresponding metric coefficient is dimensionless.
Vector Analysis in Space
Authors: Tai Chen-To
Published: November 2023

This is the most important chapter in the entire book. A new method, designated the symbolic vector method, in treating vector analysis will be introduced. The main advantages of this method are the differential expressions of the three key functions in vector analysis are derived based on one basic formula, all of the integral theorems in vector analysis are deduced from one generalized theorem, the commonly used vector identities are found by an algebraic method without pedorming any differentiation, and two differential operators in the curvilinear coordinate system are introduced. They are designated as the divergence operator and the curl operator, which are distinct from the operator used for the gradient. The technical meaning of the words “divergence,” “curl”, and “gradient” will be explained shortly. It should be pointed out that the nomenclature for some technical terms introduced in this chapter is different from the original one used in [18).
Semiconductor circuits
Authors: Möschwitzer Albrecht
Published: November 2023

The smallest circuit elements of integrated circuits are basic gates which contain only a few devices. Corresponding to the main types of transistors treated in Chapter 2 we have two groups of basic gates in: (1) silicon and GaAs field-effect technology; (2) silicon bipolar technology.
Summary Of Space Phasor Theory
Authors: Vas Peter
Published: November 2023

In this chapter, a summary of the space phasor equations of smooth-air-gap and salient-pole machines is given, since some of these equations will be extensively used in later chapters. However, it should be noted that the details of space phasor theory have been recently described by the author in two books in the technical literature (Vas 1990; Vas 1992). Here, the stator and rotor voltage differential equations of symmetrical three-phase or quadrature-phase smooth-air-gap electrical machines are given in space phasor terms by using the stationary reference frame and also the general reference frame. The application of space phasor theory results in a drastic simplification of the voltage equations compared with the phase-variable equations, and when the space phasor voltage equations are expressed in the general reference frame they contain all the transformed models used in the generalized theory of electrical machines. Furthermore, a very clear insight can be gained into the various physical processes through the application of space phasor theory.