Vladimir N. Pokrovskii – författare

The book is of interest to energy specialists engaged in planning and analyzing the production and consumption of energy carriers, and to economists wanting to know how energy and technology affect economic growth. This third edition has been substantially revised and three brand new chapters have been added.

The book is of interest to energy specialists engaged in planning and analyzing the production and consumption of energy carriers, and to economists wanting to know how energy and technology affect economic growth. This third edition has been substantially revised and three brand new chapters have been added.

I used the opportunity of this edition to correct some minor mistakes and clarify, wherever it possible, exposition of the theory in comparison with the previous edition of this book (Kluwer, Dordrechtet cet, 2000). It provokes - largement of the book, though I tried to present the modern theory of thermic motion of long macromolecules in compact form. I have tried to accumulate the common heritage and to take into account di?erent approaches in the theory of dynamics of linear polymers, at least, to understand and make clear the importance of various ideas for explanation of relaxation phenomena in linear polymers, to present recent development in the ?eld. The theory of non-equilibrium phenomena in polymer systems is based on the fundamental principles of statistical physics. However, the peculiarities of thestructureandthebehaviourofthesystemsnecessitatetheimplementation of special methods and heuristic models that are di?erent from those for gases and solids, so that polymer dynamics has appeared to be a special branch of physicsnow. Themonographcontainsdiscussionsofthemainprinciplesofthe theoryof slowrelaxationphenomena in linearpolymers, elaborated inthe last decades.The basic model of a macromolecule, which allows us a consistent explanation of di?erent relaxation phenomena (di?usion, neutron scattering, viscoelasticity, optical birefringence), remains to be a coarse-grained or be- spring model, considered in di?erent environments: viscous, to describe the behaviourofdilutesolutions,orviscoelastic,todescribethebehaviourofboth weakly and strongly entangled systems.

In this book the theory of social production is systematically formulated in terms and concepts of classical political economy and neo-classical economics. In this way the subject becomes accessible not only to professional researchers in areas of the theory of production and economic growth, but also to the educated reader who is curious about the principles behind the functioning of a national economy. The book can be considered as an introduction for students with a background in physics, chemistry and engineering, who wish to specialize in economics. It is explained how the growth of production is connected with achievements in technological consumption of labour and energy. The theory allows one to analyse the past and the present of the social production system and to build scripts of the future progress. The book could be interesting for energy specialists who are engaged in planning and analysing production and consumption of energy carriers and determining energy policy, and for economists who want to know how energy and technology are affecting economic growth.