Kluwer Academic Publishers – förlag

Named "Outstanding Academic Title" by ChoiceThis encyclopedia, which constitutes a wide ranging and authoritative collection of academic articles, covers the sedimentological aspects of sediments and sedimentary rocks. As such it provides a comprehensive, one-volume reference work for students and faculty in universities, and for professionals in geology and allied disciplines (geography, engineering, environmental studies), as well as informed lay readers.

This book is designed as an introduction into what I call 'abstract' Topological Dynamics (TO): the study of topological transformation groups with respect to problems that can be traced back to the qualitative theory of differential equa­ is in the tradition of the books [GH] and [EW. The title tions. So this book (,Elements . . . ' rather than 'Introduction . . . ') does not mean that this book should be compared, either in scope or in (intended) impact, with the 'Ele­ ments' of Euclid or Bourbaki. Instead, it reflects the choice and organisation of the material in this book: elementary and basic (but sufficient to understand recent research papers in this field). There are still many challenging prob­ lems waiting for a solution, and especially among general topologists there is a growing interest in this direction. However, the technical inaccessability of many research papers makes it almost impossible for an outsider to under­ stand what is going on. To a large extent, this inaccessability is caused by the lack of a good and systematic exposition of the fundamental methods and techniques of abstract TO. This book is an attempt to fill this gap. The guiding principle for the organization of the material in this book has been the exposition of methods and techniques rather than a discussion of the leading problems and their solutions. though the latter are certainly not neglected: they are used as a motivation wherever possible.

This work provides a comprehensive survey of the EMU project. The main advantages and disadvantages of a single currency are evaluated. A key feature of the analysis is the attempt to integrate economic and political aspects. The book is a revised version of the report by the Swedish Government Commission on the EMU. Although the analysis focuses on the consequences for Sweden of joining versus not joining the monetary union, it should be relevant for the discussion in all EU countries. An analysis of how the demands on economic policy will be affected by the monetary union is included. Various chapters discuss monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, unemployment and labour markets, the transition to monetary union, and the exchange-rate arrangements between participants and non-participants. Other chapters analyze the importance of the EMU for European political integration, democratic aspects, and how membership in the monetary union will affect the possibilities for an individual member state to exert influence within the EU.This book should be of interest to professional economists and political scientists, students, and those who want to form an opinion about the monetary union on the basis of a balanced assessment of the consequences.

In relation to the problems faced today, in contemplation and in practical affairs, philosophers must confront the question 'What is knowledge?', and consider whether knowledge has lost its object. Such was the problem placed before the seminar convened by the Philosophical Society of Turkey at Ankara in 1989. The 17 papers derived from the lectures and discussions deal with problems of knowing and believing, of the kinds and criteria of knowledge, of truth and fallibility, and of the cultural as well as individual factors in cognition. The authors include Guido Kung, L. Jonathan Cohen, Ernest Sosa, Arda Denkel, Venant Cauchy, David Evans, Gurol Irzik, Ioanna Kucuradi, Evandro Agazzi, Richard T. DeGeorge, Kwasi Wiredu, Teo Grunberg, H. Odera Oruka, Jindrich Zeleny, V.A. Lektorsky, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, and Francisco Miro Quesada. There is a critical and analytical Prologue by the convener of the Seminar, Ioanna Kucuradi.

This text summarizes those management principles that should be valid in areas where forests continuously are used for production, where biodiversity aspects are important as well as economy and productivity, and where demands on soil status and water quality are set. The very long-term aspects are especially emphasized, and it is shown how system model thinking is used to reach the goals. Biogeochemical aspects are put forward as they are very important in areas on poor bedrock with acid soils. Forest vitality and stress on trees are treated, as well as the importance of wildlife and their effects of browsing. The balance between social and recreational demands from the society and the economical needs of the landowner is of great concern. Experiences from a special area in South Sweden are presented.

VHDL is a comprehensive language that allows a user to deal with design complexity. Design, and the data representing a design, are complex by the very nature of a modern digital system constructed from VLSI chips. VHDL is the first language to allow one to capture all the nuances of that complexity, and to effectively manage the data and the design process. As this book shows, VHDL is not by its nature a complex language. In 1980, the U. S. Government launched a very aggressive effort to advance the state-of-the-art in silicon technology. The objective was to significantly enhance operating performance and circuit density for Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) silicon chips. The U. S. Government realized that in order for contractors to be able to work together to develop VLSI products, to document the resulting designs, to be able to reuse the designs in future products, and to efficiently upgrade existing designs, they needed a common communication medium for the design data. They wanted the design descriptions to be computer readable and executable. They also recognized that with the high densities envisioned for the U. S. Government's Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) chips and the large systems required in future procurements, a means of streamlining the design process and managing the large volumes of design data was required. Thus was born the concept of a standard hardware design and description language to solve all of these problems.

The Third International Symposium on Cladocera, papers from which make up this volume, covered findings on the behaviour, life history, population genetics, reproduction, chemical communication, predator-prey interactions, epibionts, taxonomy, phylogeny, palaeolimnology and biogeography of this animal group. The Cladocera occupy an intermediate position in lake ecosystems, both as plankton and benthic organisms. Their often high abundance and their function, as transfer organisms from algae and dead organic matter to macro-invertebrates and fish, make them one of the most important organisms to affect the biological processes in freshwater ecosystems. The Cladocera living among the plankton often have recognizable distribution patterns and migrations; their size and brief life cycles make them popular in laboratory experiments; their cyclic parthenogenesis makes them suitable for many aspects of population genetics; and they are present as microfossils in lake sediments. All these features confer a unique status on the Cladocera as model organisms in many aspects of modern systematics and ecology.

One of the ultimate goals in Robotics is to create autonomous robots. Such robots will accept high-level descriptions of tasks and will execute them without further human intervention. The input descriptions will specify what the user wants done rather than how to do it. The robots will be any kind of versatile mechanical device equipped with actuators and sensors under the control of a computing system. Making progress toward autonomous robots is of major practical inter­ est in a wide variety of application domains including manufacturing, construction, waste management, space exploration, undersea work, as­ sistance for the disabled, and medical surgery. It is also of great technical interest, especially for Computer Science, because it raises challenging and rich computational issues from which new concepts of broad useful­ ness are likely to emerge. Developing the technologies necessary for autonomous robots is a formidable undertaking with deep interweaved ramifications in auto­ mated reasoning, perception and control. It raises many important prob­ lems. One of them - motion planning - is the central theme of this book. It can be loosely stated as follows: How can a robot decide what motions to perform in order to achieve goal arrangements of physical objects? This capability is eminently necessary since, by definition, a robot accomplishes tasks by moving in the real world. The minimum one would expect from an autonomous robot is the ability to plan its x Preface own motions.

One hundred years ago - in 1899 - Emil Kraepelin, Professor of Psychiatry in Heidelberg and later in Munich - created, in two very important pieces of work, the concept of "manisch-depressives Irresein" ("manic-depressive insanity"). The first was entitled Die klinische Stellung der Melancholie(The Clinical Position of Melancholia), and the second publication was the sixth edition of his textbook. In the same year Kraepelin's pupil and colleague, Wilhelm Weygandt, published his book Uber die Mischzustande des Manisch- Depressiven Irreseins (On the Mixed States of Manic-Depressive Insanity). A century after Kraepelin's creation of "manic-depressive insanity", we celebrate. Is this really appropriate? We believe it is firmly established that the "folie circulaire" of Jean-Pierre Falret or the "folie a double forme" of Jules Baillarger differs from recurrent depression, which is also different from Kraepelin's "manic-depressive insanity". Yet the answer to the question of xvi Preface whether it is appropriate to celebrate is clear: Yes. This not only because the work of Emil Kraepelin is fundamental in the true sense of the word.There can be no doubt that Emil Kraepelin is the most important founder of modern psychiatry. Just one of the many reasons for this opinion is his enormous contribution to the definition, description and diagnosis of affective disorders.

Most public finance books are texts, which are aimed at undergraduate or graduate students. They are overly technical in nature and appeal only to a narrow range of bureaucrats and academics. Books on taxation are written for tax practitioners and usually emphasize either what the law is or how to maneuver through the labyrinth of tax law to minimize taxes for clients. Philosophy books on taxation or public finance simply do not exist. The Philosophy of Taxation and Public Finance is different. It is written in nontechnical language and is aimed to appeal to a wide range of readers, including practitioners, academics and students in the fields of taxation, public finance, economics, law, philosophy and political science as well as general readers who are interested in learning why they are being taxed the way they are. The author addresses the major issues and topics in taxation and public finance and injects them with philosophical insights. He discusses questions such as:-What arguments have been used to justify taxation? -When is tax evasion unethical? -Are some taxes better than others? -What are the proper functions of government? -How much is enough? Is the ability to pay concept valid? -When can punitive taxes be justified?

"Intuition" has perhaps been the least understood and the most abused term in philosophy. It is often the term used when one has no plausible explanation for the source of a given belief or opinion. According to some sceptics, it is understood only in terms of what it is not, and it is not any of the better understood means for acquiring knowledge. In mathematics the term has also unfortunately been used in this way. Thus, intuition is sometimes portrayed as if it were the Third Eye, something only mathematical "mystics", like Ramanujan, possess. In mathematics the notion has also been used in a host of other senses: by "intuitive" one might mean informal, or non-rigourous, or visual, or holistic, or incomplete, or perhaps even convincing in spite of lack of proof. My aim in this book is to sweep all of this aside, to argue that there is a perfectly coherent, philosophically respectable notion of mathematical intuition according to which intuition is a condition necessary for mathemati­ cal knowledge. I shall argue that mathematical intuition is not any special or mysterious kind of faculty, and that it is possible to make progress in the philosophical analysis of this notion. This kind of undertaking has a precedent in the philosophy of Kant. While I shall be mostly developing ideas about intuition due to Edmund Husser! there will be a kind of Kantian argument underlying the entire book.

This volume contains the papers presented at the Third Alexander von Humboldt Colloquium on Celestial Mechanics. The papers cover a large range of questions, from the behaviour of dust particles to the stability of the solar system as a whole. The motions of asteroids and their classification into families are also discussed. Specific topics addressed are KAM theory, chaotic motions, resonances, Lyapunov characteristic exponents, perturbation theory and numerical integration.

This volume of proceedings contains review and research papers concerning the impact of modern dynamics in astronomy. Modern dynamics is playing an increasing role in the solution of problems raised by astronomical observations. This new relationship is being fostered by discoveries of new systems, such as the Kuiper belt, pulsar and star companions; by progress in theoretical dynamics, like KAM and Nekhorochev theories and adiabatic invariants; and by the dissemination of fast computers. The two main areas of applications which are discussed are "stellar systems", including dynamics of galaxies, and "small bodies in the solar system". In both cases the concepts and tools of chaotic motion are considered and fully discussed.

Design and Analysis of Analog Filters: A Signal Processing Perspective includes signal processing/systems concepts as well as implementation. While most books on analog filter design briefly present the signal processing/systems concepts, and then concentrate on a variety of filter implementation methods, the present book reverses the emphasis, stressing signal processing concepts. Filter implementation topics are presented in Part II: passive filters, and operational amplifier active filters. However, greater emphasis on signal processing/systems concepts is included in Part I of the book than is typical. This emphasis makes the book very appropriate as part of a signal processing curriculum.Useful Aspects of Design and Analysis of Analog Filters: A Signal Processing Perspective extensive use of MATLAB® throughout, with many homework problems involving the use of MATLAB.over 200 figures; over 100 examples; a total of 345 homework problems, appearing at the ends of the chapters; complete and thorough presentation of design characteristics; complete catalog of design approaches. Audience: Design and Analysis of Analog Filters: A Signal Processing Perspective will interest anyone with a standard electrical engineering background, with a B.S. degree or beyond, or at the senior level. While designed as a textbook, its numerous practical examples make it useful as a reference for practicing engineers and scientists, particularly those working in systems design or communications. MATLAB® Examples: A valuable relationship between analog filter theory and analysis and modern digital signal processing is made by the application of MATLAB to both the design and analysis of analog filters. Throughout the book, computer-oriented problems are assigned. The disk that accompanies this book contains MATLAB functions andm-files written specifically for this book. The MATLAB functions on the disk extend basic MATLAB capabilities in terms of the design and analysis of analog filters. The m-files are used in a number of examples in the book. They are included on the disk as an instructional aid.

Data visualization is currently a very active and vital area of research, teaching and development. The term unites the established field of scientific visualization and the more recent field of information visualization. The success of data visualization is due to the soundness of the basic idea behind it: the use of computer-generated images to gain insight and knowledge from data and its inherent patterns and relationships. A second premise is the utilization of the broad bandwidth of the human sensory system in steering and interpreting complex processes, and simulations involving data sets from diverse scientific disciplines and large collections of abstract data from many sources. These concepts are extremely important and have a profound and widespread impact on the methodology of computational science and engineering, as well as on management and administration. The interplay between various application areas and their specific problem solving visualization techniques is emphasized in this book. Reflecting the heterogeneous structure of Data Visualization, emphasis was placed on these topics: -Visualization Algorithms and Techniques; -Volume Visualization; -Information Visualization; -Multiresolution Techniques; -Interactive Data Exploration. Data Visualization: The State of the Art presents the state of the art in scientific and information visualization techniques by experts in this field. It can serve as an overview for the inquiring scientist, and as a basic foundation for developers. This edited volume contains chapters dedicated to surveys of specific topics, and a great deal of original work not previously published illustrated by examples from a wealth of applications. The book will also provide basic material for teaching the state of the art techniques in data visualization.Data Visualization: The State of the Art is designed to meet the needs of practitioners and researchers in scientific and information visualization. This book is also suitable as a secondary text for graduate level students in computer science and engineering.

Freja is a joint Swedish and German satellite, launched on October 6, 1992 and orbiting at 600--1750 km, covering the lower part of the auroral acceleration region. It has been designed to provide high-resolution measurements (both temporal and spatial) of auroral plasma characteristics. The high telemetry rate, together with the 15 Mbyte distributed on-board memories allow Freja to resolve meso and micro-scale phenomena in the 100 m range for particles and 1--10 m range for electric and magnetic fields. The UV imager resolves auroral structures of 1 km size at a time resolution of one image every 6 s. The novel plasma instruments are orders of magnitude better than any that have gone before. The Freja Mission is about the scientific objectives, instruments and platform itself. Detailed descriptions are given of the instrumentation and the first data acquired. It is one of the very few books to contain such material in a single volume, relating the instruments' design with their in-flight characteristics. For space engineers and other researchers interested in space science.

This book is devoted to some results from the classical Point Set Theory and their applications to certain problems in mathematical analysis of the real line. Notice that various topics from this theory are presented in several books and surveys. From among the most important works devoted to Point Set Theory, let us first of all mention the excellent book by Oxtoby [83] in which a deep analogy between measure and category is discussed in detail. Further, an interesting general approach to problems concerning measure and category is developed in the well-known monograph by Morgan [79] where a fundamental concept of a category base is introduced and investigated. We also wish to mention that the monograph by Cichon, W«;glorz and the author [19] has recently been published. In that book, certain classes of subsets of the real line are studied and various cardinal­ valued functions (characteristics) closely connected with those classes are investigated. Obviously, the IT-ideal of all Lebesgue measure zero subsets of the real line and the IT-ideal of all first category subsets of the same line are extensively studied in [19], and several relatively new results concerning this topic are presented. Finally, it is reasonable to notice here that some special sets of points, the so-called singular spaces, are considered in the classi

My 'discovery' of the Polish School of philosophy of medicine stemmed from my studies in the genesis of Ludwik Fleck's epistemology. These studies, and my interest in the scientific roots of Fleck's epistemology were a nearly 'natural' result of my own biography: like Fleck I had been trained, an had worked as an immunologist, and had later switched to studies in the social history of medicine and biology. Moreover, it so happened that Fleck's book, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact -the description of a science as it is, not as it should be -was the first epistemological study in which I found echos of my experience in the laboratory. My interest in Fleck was also highlightened by the fact that in his works, and, as I discovered later, in the works of his predecessors of the Polish School of philosophy of medicine, was formulated the problem that had stimulated my interest in the history of medicine and biology, and is still central to my present investigations: the relationships between biological knowledge and clinical practice. The writing of the book was made possible through to the help of many colleagues and friends. The unfailing support for my research, whatever its subject might be, from my colleagues from Unit 158 of INSERM and in particular from its head Patrice Pinell, has made my study of the Polish School possible.

Coding Approaches to Fault Tolerance in Combinational and Dynamic Systems describes coding approaches for designing fault-tolerant systems, i.e., systems that exhibit structured redundancy that enables them to distinguish between correct and incorrect results or between valid and invalid states. Since redundancy is expensive and counter-intuitive to the traditional notion of system design, the book focuses on resource-efficient methodologies that avoid excessive use of redundancy by exploiting the algorithmic/dynamic structure of a particular combinational or dynamic system. The first part of Coding Approaches to Fault Tolerance in Combinational and Dynamic Systems focuses on fault-tolerant combinational systems providing a review of von Neumann's classical work on Probabilistic Logics (including some more recent work on noisy gates) and describing the use of arithmetic coding and algorithm-based fault-tolerant schemes in algebraic settings. The second part of the book focuses on fault tolerance in dynamic systems. Coding Approaches to Fault Tolerance in Combinational and Dynamic Systems also discusses how, in a dynamic system setting, one can relax the traditional assumption that the error-correcting mechanism is fault-free by using distributed error correcting mechanisms. The final chapter presents a methodology for fault diagnosis in discrete event systems that are described by Petri net models; coding techniques are used to quickly detect and identify failures. From the Foreword: "Hadjicostis has significantly expanded the setting to processes occurring in more general algebraic and dynamic systems... The book responds to the growing need to handle faults in complex digital chips and complex networked systems, and to consider the effects of faults at the design stage rather than afterwards." George Verghese, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCoding Approaches to Fault Tolerance in Combinational and Dynamic Systems will be of interest to both researchers and practitioners in the area of fault tolerance, systems design and control.

Decentralism of political power to regions and local government occurs worldwide in response to demands from the periphery. Such devolution of power raises a number of problems - political, financial, and legal. By gathering together important papers from a series of workshops sponsored by the SNS Constitutional Project and the Center for European Integration Studies, this volume presents a number of these problems from a truly interdisciplinary perspective. The authors believe that fiscal federalism, while originating in formally federal states, is relevant also to the analysis of state-local relationships in unitary states with some degree of regional or local authority. Among the topics they cover are the division of responsibilities and powers of taxation, bailouts, systems of equalization, and state grants, as well as problems related to democracy and citizens' rights. While the book's primary focus is Nordic, its international perspective is enhanced by contributions from Europe, Canada, and the U.S.

What is the nature of technology? And what is the body of knowledge for technology? Those questions are discussed both in the philosophy of technology and in technology education, but in different ways. Philosophers develop valid concepts of technology and educationalists reflect on the way such concepts can be built up in the minds of pupils and students. Not only the overall concept of technology but also specific concepts within technology are presented both from philosophical and from educational perspectives. This book shows how the philosophy of technology can provide an academic background for the development of technology education. At the same time it helps philosophers to take into account the intuitive ideas people hold in their considerations about the true nature of technology. The texts are adapted versions of papers that were presented at the second Jerusalem International Science and Technology Education Conference held in 1996.

Policy scientists have long been concerned with understanding the basic tools, or instruments, that governments can use to accomplish their goals. The initial interest in inductively developing comprehensive lists of generic instruments for policy analysis soon gave way to efforts to discover more parsimonious, but still useful, specifications of the elementary components out of which instruments can be assembled. Moving from a generic instrument to a fully specified policy alternative, however, requires the designer to go much beyond the elementary components. Rather than directly specifying some of these details, the designer may instead set the rules by which they will be specified. The creation of these specifications and rules can be thought of as institutional design. This book helps scholars and policy analysts formulate more effective policy alternatives by a better understanding of institutional design. The feasibility and effectiveness of policies depend on the political, economic, and social contexts in which they are embedded.

Deregulation is a fairly new paradigm in the electric power industry. And just as in the case of other industries where it has been introduced, the goal of deregulation is to enhance competition and bring consumers new choices and economic benefits. The process has, obviously, necessitated reformulation of established models of power system operation and control activities. Similarly, issues such as system reliability, control, security and power quality in this new environment have come in for scrutiny and debate. In this book, we attempt to present a comprehensive overview of the deregulation process that has developed till now, focussing on the operation aspects. As of now, restructured electricity markets have been established in various degrees and forms in many countries. This book comes at a time when the deregulation process is poised to undergo further rapid advancements. It is envisaged that the reader will benefit by way of an enhanced understanding of power system operations in the conventional vertically integrated environment vis-a-vis the deregulated environment. The book is aimed at a wide range of audience- electric utility personnel involved in scheduling, dispatch, grid operations and related activities, personnel involved in energy trading businesses and electricity markets, institutions involved in energy sector financing. Power engineers, energy economists, researchers in utilities and universities should find the treatment of mathematical models as well as emphasis on recent research work helpful.

There has been a tremendous amount of scientific progress in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of transport processes in the liver within the last few years. Cloning of various members of organic anion and cation transporters has provided the necessary tools to study their regulation under physiological and pathophysiological conditions and has advanced our knowledge about bile formation. Mutations of various hepatic organic anion transporters have been identified in humans as hereditary defects leading to the heterogenous syndrome of progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC). Various mouse models including knockout animals have given us the opportunity to gain insight into lipid transport by the liver and the genetics of cholesterol gallstone formation. The physiology of bile duct cells and the molecular mechanisms leading to various cholangiopathies have been a main scientific focus in hepatology in recent years. Drug targeting to the liver by hepatic organic anion transporters represents an attractive way of selective delivery of pharmaceutical agents in humans. Ursodeoxycholic acid is successfully used in the treatment of patients with chronic cholestatic liver disease and major advances have been made in understanding its mode of action in liver and bile duct cells. This book, the proceedings of the Falk Workshop held in Aachen, Germany, on 25-26 January 2001, contains chapters on all important aspects of biliary transport by well-known experts in this field. It is an essential resource for new developments in the field of biliary transport, both in basic science and clinical medicine.

Low Power Design in Deep Submicron Electronics deals with the different aspects of low power design for deep submicron electronics at all levels of abstraction from system level to circuit level and technology. Its objective is to guide industrial and academic engineers and researchers in the selection of methods, technologies and tools and to provide a baseline for further developments. Furthermore the book has been written to serve as a textbook for postgraduate student courses. In order to achieve both goals, it is structured into different chapters each of which addresses a different phase of the design, a particular level of abstraction, a unique design style or technology. These design-related chapters are amended by motivations in Chapter 2, which presents visions both of future low power applications and technology advancements, and by some advanced case studies in Chapter 9. From the Foreword: `... This global nature of design for low power was well understood by Wolfgang Nebel and Jean Mermet when organizing the NATO workshop which is the origin of the book. They invited the best experts in the field to cover all aspects of low power design. As a result the chapters in this book are covering deep-submicron CMOS digital system design for low power in a systematic way from process technology all the way up to software design and embedded software systems. Low Power Design in Deep Submicron Electronics is an excellent guide for the practicing engineer, the researcher and the student interested in this crucial aspect of actual CMOS design. It contains about a thousand references to all aspects of the recent five years of feverish activity in this exciting aspect of design.' Hugo de Man Professor, K.U. Leuven, Belgium Senior Research Fellow, IMEC, Belgium

Furthermore, if the effects of regulations on user costs are excluded, it is impossible to analyze monetary policy effects. Chapter 2 examines the principal areas of regulation that affect user costs. For example, reserve requirements, as administered by the Federal Reserve, act as a tax on financial firms so covered. Required reserves earn no return to the financial firm and there is foregone revenue. Deposit insurance increases the user cost of servicing deposits to the banks. Interest rate regulations place limits on interest rates on time de­ posits, or prohibit payments on demand deposits during part of the period studied. Underlying all these are the open market operations of the Federal Reserve, and their effects on interest rates and the quantities of financial goods. Chapter 2 reveals that previous work on the estimation of bank tech­ nologies is incomplete, and that the regulations require modelling as a part of the profit maximizing structure. 1.3 User Cost Derivation Chapter 3 discusses the construction of user costs. These are derived for the services from all assets or liabilities on a bank balance sheet or appearing on the income statement. The user cost formulation permits goods to be classified as outputs and inputs. Those with a positive user cost, where expenditures per unit exceed revenues per unit, are inputs. The unit for financial goods such as loans or deposits is one dollar per period. Goods with a negative user cost, with expenditures falling below revenue per unit, are outputs.

This book is a review and description of the state-of-the-art methods of tree-ring analy~is with specific emphasis on applications in the environmental sciences. Traditionally, methods of tree-ring analysis, or more properly in this case methods 0/ dendrochronology, were developed and used for dating archaeological and historical structures and for reconstructing past climates. The classic book Tree Rings and Climate, by H.C. Fritts, published in 1976, provided a superb introduction to the science and an in-depth description of techniques useful for extracting climatic information from tree rings. This book, which was published by Academic Press, is sadly out of print and, even though only 12 years old, lim­ ited in its methods and applications. This is owing to the extremely rapid development of the science since the 1970s. Only recently have tree rings as environmental sensors been fully recog­ nized as a valuable tool in detecting environmental change. For example, tree­ ring measurements have been critically important in studies of forest decline in Europe and North America. There are also attempts to use tree-ring analysis for ecological prognosis to solve large-scale regional problems including the sustain­ ability of water supplies, prediction of agricultural crops, and adoption of silvi­ cultural measures in response to ecological changes. More speculatively, dendro­ chronological methods are also used for dating and evaluating some astrophysical phenomena and for indicating possible increase in the biospheric carrying capac­ ity due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide.