NATO ASI – serie

The recent meeting of the world's white dwarf specialists was held in Leicester, in July 1992, reporting on the wealth of astronomical data that has been made available from a new generation of space-based observatories and recent theoretical advances which are essential for interpretation of the results. Astronomers now have access to previously unavailable spectral ranges and dramatically improved sensitivity in those wavebands already explored. Results from the ROSAT all-sky survey, Hubble Space Telescope, Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope and the Colorado Rocket-borne Spectrometer shed new light on the composition of white dwarfs and their evolution. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the internal structure of white dwarfs with asteroseismological techniques which are outlined in several papers. New observational results, which utilize this theoretical work are also presented. This text is suitable for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in isolated white dwarfs or binary systems containing a white dwarf component.

Systems with competing energy scales are widespread and exhibit rich and subtle behaviour, although their systematic study is a relatively recent activity. This text presents lectures given at a NATO Advanced Study Institute reviewing the current knowledge and understanding of the subject, particularly with regard to phase transitions and dynamics, at an advanced tutorial level. Both general and specific aspects are considered, with competitions having several origins; differences in intrinsic interactions, interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic effects, such as geometry and disorder; irreversibility and non-equilibration. Among the specific physical application areas are supercooled liquids and glasses, high-temperature superconductors, flux or vortex pinning and motion, charge density waves, domain growth and coarsening, and electron solidification.

The Earth's magnetosphere is part of our environment, and physical processes in the magnetosphere and coupling between the solar energy stream, the solar wind, and the magnetosphere are important to our understanding of our environment. Variations in the electromagnetic and particle energy output of the Sun have a significant effect on global changes. The energy transfer mechanisms at the dayside magnetospheric boundary layers and their ionospheric signatures may be even more important to solar-terrestrial research than the nightside processes. The dayside boundary layer and the polar cusps are the Earth's windows to outer space.

This text provides updated coverage of key topics involved in integrated resource planning (IRP), also called least-cost planning. IRP in comparison with conventional power can provide the same energy services at a lower societal cost and with reduced environmental impacts. The history and basics of IRP is presented. The link between IRP and the environment is characterized in terms of impacts and cost-effectiveness. The book also features detailed chapters on IRP modelling, energy-efficient technologies, and international experience, including Eastern Europe and developing countries. The book is intended for researchers, specialists and electric utility staff involved in energy planning, electricity conservation, demand-side management and environmental planning.

Superconductors with high critical temperatures are extremely complex and it remains difficult to synthesize high quality samples. In this regard, the materials and crystallographic aspects, drawing together the fields of structural chemistry and physics, solid state chemistry and physics, and applications and properties, both for cuprate and organic superconductors, play a vital role in our understanding of the phenomenon. Among other things, the contributions to local structural elucidation contained in the present work should affect the reader's prejudices concerning the idealized average structure.

This book contains the edited version of the lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on computer-aided analysis of rigid and flexible mechanical systems, held in Troacuteia, Portugal, from June 27-July 9, 1993. The topics presented include formulations and numerical aspects of rigid and flexible multibody dynamics, object-oriented paradigms, optimal design and synthesis, robotics, kinematics, path planning, control, impact dynamics and aspects of application. The book discusses these topics in a tutorial and review manner, providing a comprehensive summary of current work. It should, therefore, be suitable for a range of readers, from advanced students to researchers and implementers.

While the emergence and evolution of solar surface magnetic flux reveals what goes on in the solar interior, the interplay of convection and magnetic field in the photosphere regulates the field dispersal and drives the instabilities which heat the outer solar atmosphere. This book presents a synthesis between observers and theorists, both with regard to the magnetic elements which make up solar magnetic fields (ranging from tiny flux tubes to whole active regions), and to the surface patterns in which these elements display properties of the subsurface dynamo. A major breakthrough comes from numerical simulations. Modelling of flux concentration, flux tube dynamics, penumbral toplogy, umbral fine structure, and so on, turns solar physics into an experimental science. The reviews and research papers in this volume provide an overview of the solar frontier of astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics. The elements and patterns of solar surface magnetism contain much information about the subsurface solar dynamo, as well as on the magnetically-dominated energy budget and structuring of the outer solar atmosphere.The volume treats high-resolution solar polarimetry, the physics of solar magnetic elements, and the information contained in their patterns of emergence on the solar surface in depth, with a balance between theoretical and observational studies.

Assessment has long been recognized as a key feature inlearning efficacy, especially through formative evaluation. Item banking, the storage and classification of test items,is an essential part of systematic assessment. This volume is based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshopheld as part of the Special Programme on AdvancedEducational Technology. The workshop brought togetherscholars from around the world to discuss and criticallyanalyze the issues and problems associated with SubjectiveProbability Measurement (SPM) or the more generic researcharea called self-assessment. Recent advances in computertechnology (expert systems, interactive video disks, andhypermedia) along with the developing sophistication ofself-assessment scoring systems based on SPM made thisconference particularly important and timely. The book is divided into three main parts:- The input: item banking and hypermedia- The process: subjective probabilities- The output: teaching and learning feedbacks.In summary, although SPM is a difficult theoretical conceptfor most educators to comprehend, the sophisticated natureof modern computer systems coupled with comprehensiveformative and summative evaluation and self-assessmentsystems make SPM transparent to the user.

Object-oriented database management systems (OODBMS) are expected to serve advanced application domains such as engineering design, office information systems, imaging systems, and multimedia. This book, based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshop, covers all aspects of object-oriented database systems from design principles to implementation of prototypes. Topics covered include model concepts, query optimization, query languages, functional programming formalism, storage systems, transaction models, interoperability, distributed computing, rule languages, open architectures, hypermedia systems, and many others. Designers and developers will benefit from the comprehensive presentation of the various modules of such systems, while practitioners will find examples of implemented prototypes.

This book identifies elements in industrial training programs incorporating advanced educational technology that could be appropriately transferred to the secondary school environment. New didactic concepts for developing key qualifications through technology education programs using advanced educational technology in innovative integrative situations are explained from educational, technological, engineering, and management perspectives. The target of the work is to develop integrated learning situations suitable for secondary schools and teacher education, as well as for university-level technology, teacher education, and engineering programs. The book is based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held within the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology.

The advent of fast and sophisticated computer graphics has brought dynamic and interactive images under the control of professional mathematicians and mathematics teachers. This volume in the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology takes a comprehensive and critical look at how the computer can support the use of visual images in mathematical problem solving. The contributions are written by researchers and teachers from a variety of disciplines including computer science, mathematics, mathematics education, psychology, and design. Some focus on the use of external visual images and others on the development of individual mental imagery. The book is the first collected volume in a research area that is developing rapidly, and the authors pose some challenging new questions.

This volume in the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology addresses fundamental principles in the design of a dialogue component in intelligent tutoring systems. The purpose of the book is to link fundamental issues of communication and interaction to the more restricted domain of instructional dialogue. The papers are grouped into parts on: theoretical issues in instructional dialogue; theory into practice - interaction in learning environments; natural dialogue and interaction theory; and feedback and control in human-machine communication. The book originates from a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in Italy in 1992 and the authors are leading researchers in educational technology, dialogue research and user-interface design.

This text presents methodologies for basinwide approaches to water quality restoration. Topics covered include the identification of pollution sources, definition of standards and their attainability, surface and groundwater modelling, remediation of contaminated soils and sediments, development and implementation of low cost treatment technologies, basinwide water quality management and remediation, and economic and institutional issues.

This volume presents different studies carried out on induced seismicity, both from experimental and theoretical viewpoints. Several examples of seismic activity induced by underground nuclear explosions, impoundment of artificial reservoirs, and mining activities are given and discussed. Another important subject which is covered is earthquakes induced by other large earthquakes. Further, tectonic stress release in the immediate vicinity of an underground nuclear explosion is treated. The release produces aftershocks of small magnitude, usually for several weeks, occurring a few kilometers within the shot point. This phenomenon is of importance in the context of monitoring a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.