Monte Verita - Böcker

Robust Control is one of the fastest growing and promising areas of research today. In many practical systems there exist uncertainties which have to be considered in the analysis and design of control systems. In the last decade methods were developed for dealing with dynamic systems with unstructured uncertainties such as HOO_ and £I-optimal control. For systems with parameter uncertainties, the seminal paper of V. L. Kharitonov has triggered a large amount of very promising research. An international workshop dealing with all aspects of robust control was successfully organized by S. P. Bhattacharyya and L. H. Keel in San Antonio, Texas, USA in March 1991. We organized the second international workshop in this area in Ascona, Switzer­ land in April 1992. However, this second workshop was restricted to robust control of dynamic systems with parameter uncertainties with the objective to concentrate on some aspects of robust control. This book contains a collection of papers presented at the International Workshop on Robust Control held at the Centro Stefano Franscini, Monte Verita, Ascona, Switzer­ land on April 12-17, 1992 as well as a list of open problems presented during a dis­ cussion session at the workshop. Thirtyfive leading researchers from all over the world working in the area of robust control of dynamic systems with parameter uncertainties were invited to present their recent results and to discuss with their colleagues the recent advances in this field.

From Sunday evening, April 5, until Thursday afternoon, April 9, 1992,49 scientists from 10 countries met at the Centro Stefano Franscini on Monte VeritA overlooking Ascona, in the state of Ticino in Switzerland, for an international workshop on Muonic Atoms and Molecules. More than two-thirds of the participants presented their results in talks of 20 to 40 minutes' duration. In addition, Prof. Gabriele Torelli gave, under the patronage of the Ministro del Ambiente of the state of Ticino, Dr. Mario Camani, a lecture in Italian entitled "Un modo insolito di studiare Ie proprieta nucleari, atomiche e chimiche". The scientific program commenced on Monday morning with discussions centering on nuclear muon capture and nuclear fusion and fission, moving on to muonic atom spectroscopy in the afternoon. All of Tuesday was devoted to muon catalyzed fusion and muon transfer. On Wednesday morning, different aspects of hot muonic atoms were discussed, followed by informal gatherings in the afternoon and evening. On Thursday morning we took a look at the prospects for the TRIUMF and PSI meson factories, and new experimental methods. The conference was brought to a close in the afternoon with C.P. summarizing the events of the past days. The two organizers want to thank all participants for their contributions and for the lively discussions which often followed the different talks.

This volume contains the proceedings of the workshop on "Soil Monitoring: Methods for Early Detection and Surveying of Soil Contamination and Degradation", held at the ETH seminar centre "Stefano Franscini" of Monte Verita, Ascona (Switzerland) from October 18 - 23, 1992. Seventy participants, representing a variety of institutions, nations, and disciplines, discussed the concepts, approaches, status, gaps, problems, and perspectives of soil pollution monitoring. The idea for this workshop came from A. Desaules when he was installing the Swiss National Soil Monitoring Network (NABO) as his doubts about the philosophy of soil monitoring prevailing at that time increased. This philosophy essentially equated soil mo­ nitoring with repetitive surveys of soil pollutant concentrations at pennanent observation sites. He sought others interested in discussing alternatives, and he found a ready partner in the ETH-Institute for Terrestrial Ecology. Soon it was realized that a discussion of the NABO would immediately raise general questions with respect to the conceptual basis of soil monitoring and that a minimum agreement on this basis was indispensable to discuss more specific problems related to the realization of the NABO. As a result, a workshop was organized whose objectives were in particular (i) an assessment of current knowledge on soil monitoring by pennanent networks, (ii) a syn­ thesis of the experience from different disciplines related to soil monitoring, (iii) the identification ofresearch gaps with respect to long-tenn and large-scale soil monitoring, and (iv) the design of a platfonn for the development of soil monitoring strategies and methodology.

One of the fascinating aspects of the field of ferroelectric ceramics is its interdisciplinary nature. This aspect is also a source of difficulty for the people working in the field. In a successful team of ferroelectricians the physics theoretician must understand the sintering technologist, the electrical engineer has to communicate with the crystallographer, the organic chemist will interact with the microelectronics engineer, the electron microscopist should collaborate with the systems engineer. It was the purpose of the summer school on ferroelectric ceramics that took place at the Centro Stefano Franscini (ETHZ), Monte VeritA, Ascona, Switzerland, in September 1991 to help to build bridges between people from the different disciplines and to draw for them, in the form of tutorial lectures, some of the different facets of ferroelectrics. The book is a written version of this summer school. It contains the following subjects: ferroelectric materials, physics of ferroelectrics, thin films, processing of ferroelectrics and their applications. It represents a cross section of topics of current interest. Materials are presented (L. E. Cross) from the point of view of the user, i. e. the tailoring of materials for specific applications. Two reviews address the important topic of ferroelectric domains and domain walls (I. Fousek and H. Schmid). In the part devoted to theory, three subjects of current interest are presented: phase transition in thin films (D. R. Tilley), weak ferroelectrics (A. K. Tagantsev) and dielectric losses (A. K. Tagantsev).

Massively Parallel Systems (MPSs) with their scalable computation and storage space promises are becoming increasingly important for high-performance computing. The growing acceptance of MPSs in academia is clearly apparent. However, in industrial companies, their usage remains low. The programming of MPSs is still the big obstacle, and solving this software problem is sometimes referred to as one of the most challenging tasks of the 1990's. The 1994 working conference on "Programming Environments for Massively Parallel Systems" was the latest event of the working group WG 10.3 of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) in this field. It succeeded the 1992 conference in Edinburgh on "Programming Environments for Parallel Computing". The research and development work discussed at the conference addresses the entire spectrum of software problems including virtual machines which are less cumbersome to program; more convenient programming models; advanced programming languages, and especially more sophisticated programming tools; but also algorithms and applications.

The idea of organising a colloquium on turbulence emerged during the sabbatical leave of Prof. Arkady Tsinober in Zurich. New experimental observations and the insight gained through direct numerical simulations have been stimulating research in turbulence and are leading to the developments of new concepts. The organisers felt the necessity to bring together researchers who have contributed significantly to the advances in this field in a colloquium in which the current achievements and the future development in the theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches would be discussed. The main emphasis of the colloquium was put on discussions. These discussions led to an interesting and exciting exchange of ideas, but also involved its very laborious transcription onto paper. It was due to the personal efforts of Mrs. A. Vyskocil, Dr. N. Malik and Dr. X. Studerus that this work could be completed. The colloquium was held in the relaxed atmosphere of the Centro Stefano Franscini in Monte Verita near Ascona, a locality of exceptional natural beauty, which was put at our disposal by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.We would like to express our gratitude for this generous financial and logistic support, which contributed considerably to the success of the colloquium. Zurich, April 1993 Th. Dracos, A. Tsinober Participants Adrian, R. J. Kambe, T. Antonia, R. A. Kit,E. Aref, H. Landahl, M. T. Betchov, R. Lesieur, M. Bewersdorff, H. -W. Malik, N. Castaing, B. Moffatt, H. K. Chen, J. Moin,P. Dracos, T. Mullin, T. Frisch, U. Novikov, E. A.

Recent climatic shifts, based on mild winters and more hot summers have released vegetation shifts all over the world. The book presents numerous case studies from Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Caucasus, Italy, Ireland, China, Japan, United Staes, Brazil and Chile. The authors analyse the resulting changes in compositions and structures of the forest vegetations, especially the process of Laurophyllisation.

Advancements in digital sensor technology, digital image analysis techniques, as well as computer software and hardware have brought together the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry, which are now converging towards sharing, to a great extent, objectives and algorithms. The potential for mutual benefits by the close collaboration and interaction of these two disciplines is great, as photogrammetric know-how can be aided by the most recent image analysis developments in computer vision, while modern quantitative photogrammetric approaches can support computer vision activities. Devising methodologies for automating the extraction of man-made objects (e.g. buildings, roads) from digital aerial or satellite imagery is an application where this cooperation and mutual support is already reaping benefits. The valuable spatial information collected using these interdisciplinary techniques is of improved qualitative and quantitative accuracy. This book offers a comprehensive selection of high-quality and in-depth contributions from world-wide leading research institutions, treating theoretical as well as implementational issues, and representing the state-of-the-art on this subject among the photogrammetric and computer vision communities.

The Conference on "Statistical Science", held in Monte Verita (Switzerland) on 18/20 November 1996, was intended to honour the memory of Stefano Franscini at the occasion of the bicentennial of his birth (1796-1996).

Unter den Gattungen der antiken Literatur ist nach Jahren der Ver- nachUissigung in der letzten Zeit ein besonderes Interesse am griechisch- romischen Roman festzustellen. Die vom 27. -31. Marz 1995 im Centro Stefano Franscini von den beiden Unterzeichnenden organisierte Tagung wollte diesem neu erwachten Interesse in zweifacher Weise gerecht wer- den: Einerseits wollten wir ein Forum bieten, urn die oft kontroversen Forschungsstandpunkte zu diskutieren und dadurch eventuell neue Mog- lichkeiten des Zugangs zu den erzahlenden Texten der Antike zu erOff- nen, andrerseits sollten die vielfaltigen Beziehungen zwischen den antiken und mittelalterlichen Erzahlformen in interdisziplinarer Zusammenarbeit von Klassischen Philologen, Byzantinisten, Mediavisten und Romanisten erhellt werden. Die in dem vorliegenden Band publizierten Beitrage, die Uberarbeiteten Fassungen der auf dem Monte Verita gehaltenen Vortrage, belegen, so hoffen wir, die auBerst ertragreiche und anregende Zusam- menarbeit der verschiedenen an der Tagung beteiligten literaturwissen- schaftlichen Disziplinen.An dieser Stelle seien einige Worte des Dankes gestattet: Dem Centro Stefano Franscini und der ETH ZUrieh sei gedankt flir die Gastfreund- schaft, die uns auf dem Monte Verita zuteil wurde, und fUr die Uberaus groBzUgige finanzielle UnterstUtzung, ohne die die Tagung nie hatte statt- finden konnen. Frau Katia Bastianelli hat durch ihren nie ermUdenden Einsatz den reibungslosen Ablauf der Tagung moglich gemacht. Die ZUr- cher Mitarbeiter, Tatiana Crivelli und Johannes Bartuschat, haben sich sowohl im Vorfeld der Tagung als auch in der redaktionellen Arbeit am vorliegenden Tagungsband selbstlos eingesetzt.

In den letzten 30 Jahren sind die Nutzungsanspruche an den knappen verfugbaren Lebensraum drastisch gestiegen. Wachsende Probleme ergeben sich bei der Roh- stoffgewinnung und bei der Abfallbeseitigung. Der Aufbau der obersten Teile der Geosphare, ihre Wechselwirkung mit der Atmosphare und die naturliche Stoffzirkulation - das traditionelle Gebiet der Erdwissenschaften - ist bei der Losung der anstehenden, meist anthropogen verursachten Umweltprobleme von zentraler Bedeutung. Gleichzeitig haben sich die technischen Methoden fur Beobachtung, Analyse und Sanierung rasch weiterentwickelt. In diese Richtung zielen die an der ETH Zurich angebotenen Nachdiplomkurse in angewandten Erdwissenschaften. Der erste Teil des Buches handelt ausschliesslich von Hanginstabilitaten. Im zweiten Teil folgt eine Erweiterung um einige weniger offensichtlichen Gefahrenprozesse, wie die Schadstoffausbreitung in der Geo-, Hydro- und der Atmosphare und die Beeinflussung von Grundwasserstromen durch Tunnelbauten. Verknupft mit den Grundlagen vermitteln die Beitrage einen Ausschnitt gegenwartiger Forschung und gewahren einen Einblick in fachubergreifende Problemlosungen aus der Praxis.

Advancements in digital sensor technology, digital image analysis techniques, as well as computer software and hardware have brought together the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry, which are now converging towards sharing, to a great extent, objectives and algorithms. The potential for mutual benefits by the close collaboration and interaction of these two disciplines is great, as photogrammetric know-how can be aided by the most recent image analysis developments in computer vision, while modern quantitative photogrammetric approaches can support computer vision activities. Devising methodologies for automating the extraction of man-made objects (e.g. buildings, roads) from digital aerial or satellite imagery is an application where this cooperation and mutual support is already reaping benefits. The valuable spatial information collected using these interdisciplinary techniques is of improved qualitative and quantitative accuracy. This book offers a comprehensive selection of high-quality and in-depth contributions from world-wide leading research institutions, treating theoretical as well as implementational issues, and representing the state-of-the-art on this subject among the photogrammetric and computer vision communities.

This book contains the proceedings of the first workshop held at Monte Verità near Ascona, Switzerland on September 24-29, 1989. The workshop was designed to survey the current understanding of water and solute transport through unsaturated soils under field conditions, and to foster research by discussing some unresolved key issues relative to transport modeling and experimentation in four "Think Tank" groups. The first part of this book consists of the reports prepared by the Think Tank groups, who discussed the following topics: modeling approaches, effective large scale properties, evaluation of filed properties, and the role preferential flow. The second part contains a selection of reviewed original contributions presented at the workshop, with topics ranging from the presentation of results from large scale experiments, to improved or new modeling approaches, and to legal or policy aspects. This book is intended for researchers in soil science, hydrology, and environmental engineering who have an interest in transport and reaction processes in the unsaturated zone. It will provide them with a representative sample of current research activities, and with a group discussion of future research directions in four important areas of water and solute transport.

This book contains the proceedings of the first workshop held at Monte Verità near Ascona, Switzerland on September 24-29, 1989. The workshop was designed to survey the current understanding of water and solute transport through unsaturated soils under field conditions, and to foster research by discussing some unresolved key issues relative to transport modeling and experimentation in four "Think Tank" groups. The first part of this book consists of the reports prepared by the Think Tank groups, who discussed the following topics: modeling approaches, effective large scale properties, evaluation of filed properties, and the role preferential flow. The second part contains a selection of reviewed original contributions presented at the workshop, with topics ranging from the presentation of results from large scale experiments, to improved or new modeling approaches, and to legal or policy aspects. This book is intended for researchers in soil science, hydrology, and environmental engineering who have an interest in transport and reaction processes in the unsaturated zone. It will provide them with a representative sample of current research activities, and with a group discussion of future research directions in four important areas of water and solute transport.

The present volume contains most of the invited talks and two contributed posters of a workshop which was held in]uly 1990 within the frame of the Centro Stefano Franscini, Monte Verita at Ascona in Switzerland. The main idea has been to demonstrate that in many areas in solid state physics the use of synchrotron radiation as a powerful source for polarized uv radiation between 5 eV and about 1500 eV yields exciting new results. Furthermore, one has tried to attract a larger number of Ph D-students to bring them into contact with experienced people in the field. This tutorial aspect, I su ppose, is also in the spirit of Stefano Franscini, after whom the Centro, a joint undertaking between the Cantone Ticino and the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), has been named. Stefano Franscini, himself a dedicated teacher, has been the first member of his Canton in the Swiss Federal Council. As such he has been head of the departement of the interior and has been strongly supporting the foundation of the ETHZ. But he is also reknown, even today, as Cantonal Counceler, who has organised the elementary school system in Ticino.

The idea of organising a colloquium on turbulence emerged during the sabbatical leave of Prof. Arkady Tsinober in Zurich. New experimental observations and the insight gained through direct numerical simulations have been stimulating research in turbulence and are leading to the developments of new concepts. The organisers felt the necessity to bring together researchers who have contributed significantly to the advances in this field in a colloquium in which the current achievements and the future development in the theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches would be discussed. The main emphasis of the colloquium was put on discussions. These discussions led to an interesting and exciting exchange of ideas, but also involved its very laborious transcription onto paper. It was due to the personal efforts of Mrs. A. Vyskocil, Dr. N. Malik and Dr. X. Studerus that this work could be completed. The colloquium was held in the relaxed atmosphere of the Centro Stefano Franscini in Monte Verita near Ascona, a locality of exceptional natural beauty, which was put at our disposal by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.We would like to express our gratitude for this generous financial and logistic support, which contributed considerably to the success of the colloquium. Zurich, April 1993 Th. Dracos, A. Tsinober Participants Adrian, R. J. Kambe, T. Antonia, R. A. Kit,E. Aref, H. Landahl, M. T. Betchov, R. Lesieur, M. Bewersdorff, H. -W. Malik, N. Castaing, B. Moffatt, H. K. Chen, J. Moin,P. Dracos, T. Mullin, T. Frisch, U. Novikov, E. A.

Advancements in digital sensor technology, digital image analysis techniques, as well as computer software and hardware have brought together the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry, which are converging towards sharing objectives and algorithms. The potential for mutual benefits by the close collaboration and interaction of these two disciplines is great, as photogrammetric know-how can be aides by image analysis developments in computer vision, while modern quantitative photogrammetric approaches can support vision activities. Devising methodologies for automating the extraction of man-made objects (such as buildings, roads) from digital aerial or satellite imagery is an application where this co-operation and mutual support is already reaping benefits. The spatial information collected using these interdisciplinary techniques is of improved qualitative and quantitative accuracy. This text offers a selection of contributions, treating theoretical as well as implementational issues, and representing the state-of-the-art on this subject among the photogrammetric and computer-vision communities.

The Conference on "Statistical Science", held in Monte Verita (Switzerland) on 18/20 November 1996, was intended to honour the memory of Stefano Franscini at the occasion of the bicentennial of his birth (1796-1996). It was jointly organized by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office and the University of Geneva. These proceedings gather a selected collection of contributions presented by statisticians from universities, research institutes and national statistical services of Europe, North America and Asia. Part I focuses on a historical appreciation of Stefano Franscini's life and work. Authors develop a deep analysis of the historical context, the political action, the scientific achievement and the intellectual legacy of the founding father of Swiss official statistics. The reader thus has an opportunity to appreciate the various facets of this exceptional man who not only drew the first comprehensive statistical portrait of Switzerland but also established the foundations for modem educational and political institutions. Part II groups papers on the relationship between statistical science and official statistics. Authors analyse the historical background, current context and new perspectives of co-operation between scientific research and official statistical services. They show how the relationship between both partners has evolved over the past decades, stressing certain prerequisites and opportunities for effective of rigourous interaction between academia's scientific activity and the production statistical information.

Advances in digital sensor technology, digital image analysis techniques, as well as computer software and hardware have brought together the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry, and these two fields now share objectives and algorithms to a great extent. This text contains contributions from around the world, which cover both theoretical and practical aspects of removing man-made objects (buildings, roads and so on) from digital aerial or satellite imagery, and show how this field has benefitted from increased co-operation between researchers in computer vision and photogrammetry.