NATO Science Series: E: Applied Sciences – serie

"Physics and Materials Science of High Temperature Superconductors II" represents the results of a fruitful dialogue between physicists and materials scientists which took place under the auspices of a NATO Advanced Study Institute in Porto Carras, Greece, between 18 and 31 August 1991. It builds on and carries forward the success of NATO ASI 181 published in 1990. The theoretical side of the discussions reveal the basic premise of the phenomenological and Ginzburg-Landau theories of superconductivity, the implications of short coherence length, long penetration depth, the melting of flux lattices, and other matters, while the materials science includes discussions of microstructures, local inhomogeneities, deviations from ideal chemistry, the effects of systematic errors in materials preparation, the definition of imperfections, and the utilization of common materials analysis techniques.The reader is made aware of the potential significance of Angstrom scale structural and chemical details, and the need to consider basic theoretical concepts when designing procedures to process viable, solid conductors, specifically the effects of oxygen stoichiometry and deviations from it, as well as the microstructural demands on pinning in the light of very short coherence lengths.

An overview of fundamental principles, novel application areas of biotechnology and its impact on international economy. Recent developments in the field of biotechnology are covered with the help of short papers and poster abstracts. Thus, relationships between fundamental principles and applications have been defined, while current research in the field as well as future needs and prospects are presented. The book encompasses the whole spectrum of biotechnology, emphasizing both scientific and commercial aspects of new developments and how they can meet the challenges of industry. The book gives a perspective on the current state of biotechnology research throughout the world with the help of contributors from 15 different countries. It is designed to serve as a reference book for both academics and industrialists, indicating new starting points to young researchers for new projects in the field.

Large areas of crops are now grown under water-stressed conditions on non-irrigated and under limited irrigation in semi-arid and arid regions. In the future, this area of water-stressed crops will increase as a result of increasing competition from other water users, declining ground water levels, and the bringing into production of fragile lands that have low water-holding capacity, such as sandy desert soil. Consequently, strategies and practices to increase total yields and efficient water use must be improved. Following the introductory material and keynotes, this book is divided into four parts. Part I covers soil water management, Part II deals with model approaches to evaluate the soil-water-atmosphere interactions, Part III treats water saving techniques through soil conditioning, and Part IV discusses case studies of water management systems. "Water Saving Techniques for Plant Growth" thus represents a general account of interest and activities of the various scientific disciplines which are concerned in deseert encroachment as part of global change.

This book deals with many aspects of high density digital recording. It begins with very basic concepts in magnetism and magneto-optics, then continues with the synthesis and physical properties of recording media, thin films and particulate media. More technological aspects of recording heads and their contact with the recording media are also discussed in subsequent chapters. The second part of the book is devoted to the magneto-optical properties of various recording media and to the engineering of magneto-optical recording.

This text reviews the major advances made in recent years in both the theoretical and experimental areas of rapid solidification technology and processing. Topics covered include: processing technologies of rapid solidification and thermodynamic properties; thermodynamics of metastable alloys, relaxation, diffusion, magnetic and electric properties; the structural characterization of supercooled melts, and ultrafine polycrystalline materials.

This volume covers in detail both the fundamental and practical properties of interstitial intermetallic materials, materials which are useful as hydrogen storage materials, as rechargeable hydrogen electrodes in batteries, and as new potential hard permanent magnetic materials. Various techniques, such as magnetic, diffraction, thermodynamic and spectral methods for studying these materials are covered in detail at a tutorial level. The synthetic methods used to obtain these new materials are also covered in detail. It combines the expertise from two different groups of scientists working on different properties and uses of several newly developed interstitial intermetallic materials. This includes scientists working on the thermodynamics of hydrogen storage materials and rechargeable hydride batteries and also those working on hard permanent magnetic materials. The two groups provide a different, but complementary, view of the properties of interstitial intermetallic materials. The book is intended for both scientists and engineers working in the field and advanced graduate students in the fields of chemistry, physics, materials science and materials engineering.

The world's fibre-optics communications market is forecast to reach 8.3 billion dollars annually by 1998. The full exploitation of this enormous potential in science, engineering and other applications requires the precise characterization of optical fibres and their associated systems and components, based on effective and accurate measurements supported by reliable measuring standards and good practice in measurement and calibration. Furthermore, it is necessary to have in place permanent intercomparison practices, both horizontal and vertical. This book provides coverage of trends in this topic of great commercial and scientific interest.

This text examines all aspects of constructing and using SQUID magnetic sensors that operate at either liquid helium or liquid nitrogen temperatures (4 or 77 K, respectively). There is comprehensive coverage of a range of established and emerging applications: biomagnetism, geophysics, nondestructive evaluation, detection of unexploded ordnance, and gravity gradiometry. The principles of both dc and rf SQUIDS are discussed extensively, as are the geometries, electronic circuitry and analysis techniques required to maximize performance. A major chapter of SQUID gradiometers in real environments presents original information on how to minimize noise from external sources. The discussions of biomagnetism describe the growing importance of neuromagnetometry with systems employing over 100 SQUID sensors, as well as the emergence of magnetocardiography and foetal heartbeat monitoring. Analysis techniques relevant to both biomagnetism and nondestructive evaluation are presented in depth.

This volume describes current fundamental advances in the experimental and theoretical study of molecular dynamics and stochastic dynamic simulations, X-ray crystallography and NMR of biomolecules, the structure of proteins and its prediction, time resolved Fourier transform IR spectroscopy of biomolecules, the computation of free energy, applications of vibrational CD of nucleic acids, and solid state NMR. Further presentations include recent advances in UV resonance Raman spectroscopy of biomolecules, semiempirical MO methods, empirical force fields, quantitative studies of the structure of proteins in water by Fourier transform IR, and density functional theory. Metal-ligand interactions, DFT treatment of organometallic and biological systems, and simulation vs. X-ray and far IR experiments are also discussed in some detail. The text provides a broad perspective of the current theoretical aspects and experimental findings in the field of biomolecular dynamics, revealing future research trends, especially in areas where theoreticians and experimentalists could collaborate.

For chemists, biochemists, physicists and materials scientists, pressure as an experimental variable represents a tool that provides unique information about the microscopic properties of the materials being studied. In addition to its use as a research tool for investigating the energetics, structure, dynamics and kinetics of molecular transformations of materials, pressure is also being used to modify the properties of materials to preserve or improve their properties. The contributions collected here cover the main areas of high pressure research, including applications in materials science, condensed matter physics, chemistry and biochemistry. In addition, some papers offer more specialised aspects of high pressure studies. The book makes clear the impressive range of fundamental and applied problems that can be studied by high pressure techniques and also points towards a major growth of high pressure science and technology in the new millennium.