Over fifteen years ago, because of the tremendous increase in the power and utility of computer simulations, The University of Georgia formed the first institutional unit devoted to the use of simulations in research and teach ing: The Center for Simulational Physics. As the international simulations community expanded further, we sensed a need for a meeting place for both experienced simulators and neophytes to discuss new techniques and recent results in an environment which promoted lively discussion. As a consequence, the Center for Simulational Physics established an annual workshop on Re cent Developments in Computer Simulation Studies in Condensed Matter Physics. This year's workshop was the fifteenth in this series, and the con tinued interest shown by the scientific community demonstrates quite clearly the useful purpose that these meetings have served. The latest workshop was held at The University of Georgia, March 11-15, 2002, and these proceedings provide a "status report" on a number of important topics. This volume is published with the goal of timely dissemination of the material to a wider audience. We wish to offer a special thanks to IBM Corporation and to the National Science Foundation for partial support of this year's workshop. This volume contains both invited papers and contributed presentations on problems in both classical and quantum condensed matter physics. We hope that each reader will benefit from specialized results as well as profit from exposure to new algorithms, methods of analysis, and conceptual devel opments. Athens, GA, USA D. P.

This status report features the most recent developments in the field, spanning a wide range of topical areas in the computer simulation of condensed matter/materials physics. Highlights of this volume include various aspects of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, studies of properties of real materials using both classical model simulations and electronic structure calculations, and the use of computer simulation in teaching.

This status report features the most recent developments in the field, spanning a wide range of topical areas in the computer simulation of condensed matter/materials physics. Both established and new topics are included, ranging from the statistical mechanics of classical magnetic spin models to electronic structure calculations, quantum simulations, and simulations of soft condensed matter.

Over ?fteen years ago, because of the tremendous increase in the power and utility of computer simulations, The University of Georgia formed the ?rst institutional unit devoted to the use of simulations in research and teaching: The Center for Simulational Physics. As the international simulations c- munityexpandedfurther,wesensedaneedforameetingplaceforbothex- riencedsimulatorsandneophytestodiscussnewtechniquesandrecentresults in an environment which promoted lively discussion. As a consequence, the Center for Simulational Physics established an annual workshop on Recent DevelopmentsinComputerSimulationStudiesinCondensedMatterPhysics. This year’s workshop was the seventeenth in this series, and the continued interest shown by the scienti?c community demonstrates quite clearly the useful purpose that these meetings have served. The latest workshop was held at The University of Georgia, February 16–20, 2004, and these proce- ings provide a “status report” on a number of important topics. This volume is published with the goal of timely dissemination of the material to a wider audience. We wish to o?er a special thanks to IBM and to SGI for partial support of this year’s workshop. This volume contains both invited papers and contributed presentations on problems in both classical and quantum condensed matter physics. We hope that each reader will bene?t from specialized results as well as pro?t from exposure to new algorithms, methods of analysis, and conceptual dev- opments.

This status report features the most recent developments in the field, spanning a wide range of topical areas in the computer simulation of condensed matter/materials physics. Both established and new topics are included, ranging from the statistical mechanics of classical magnetic spin models to electronic structure calculations, quantum simulations, and simulations of soft condensed matter.

This volume contains invited and contributed papers presented at the conference on ‘Microscopy of Semiconducting Materials’ held at the University of Cambridge on 2-5 April 2007. The event was organised under the auspices of the Electron Microscopy and Analysis Group of the Institute of Physics, the Royal Microscopical Society and the Materials Research Society. This international conference was the fifteenth in the series that focuses on the most recent world-wide advances in semiconductor studies carried out by all forms of microscopy and it attracted delegates from more than 20 countries. With the relentless evolution of advanced electronic devices into ever smaller nanoscale structures, the problem relating to the means by which device features can be visualised on this scale becomes more acute. This applies not only to the imaging of the general form of layers that may be present but also to the determination of composition and doping variations that are employed. In view of this scenario, the vital importance of transmission and scanning electron microscopy, together with X-ray and scanning probe approaches can immediately be seen. The conference featured developments in high resolution microscopy and nanoanalysis, including the exploitation of recently introduced aberration-corrected electron microscopes. All associated imaging and analytical techniques were demonstrated in studies including those of self-organised and quantum domain structures. Many analytical techniques based upon scanning probe microscopies were also much in evidence, together with more general applications of X-ray diffraction methods.

The field of "Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks" is gaining importance and restorers and laser scientists now work together to develop new applications. This book presents a fascinating and valuable application of laser technology. The proceedings of the 2005 congress addresses scientists, conservator-restorers, companies, architects, decision-makers and other experts involved in conservation projects or in the research of new laser equipment.

The Adriatic Meetings have traditionally been conferences on the most - vanced status of science. They are one of the very few conferences in physics aiming at a very broad participation of young and experienced researchers with di?erent backgrounds in particle physics. Particle physics has grown into a highly multi-faceted discipline over the sixty years of its existence, mainly because of two reasons: Particle physics as an experimental science is in need of large-scale laboratory set-ups, involving typically collaborations of several hundreds or even thousands of researchers and technicians with the most diverse expertise. This forces particle physics, being one of the most fundamental dis- plines of physics, to maintain a constant interchange and contact with other disciplines, notably solid-state physics and laser physics, cosmology and - trophysics, mathematical physics and mathematics. Since the expertise necessary in doing research in particle physics has become tremendously demanding in the last years, the ?eld tends to organize purely expert conferences, meetings and summer schools, such as for detector development, for astroparticle physics or for string theory. TheAdriaticMeetingthroughitsentirehistoryhasbeenaplaceforest- lishing exchange between theory and experiment. The 9th Adriatic Meeting successfully continued this tradition and even intensi?ed the cross-discipline communication by establishing new contacts between the community of c- mologists and of particle physicists. The exchange between theorists and - perimentalists was impressively intensive and will certainly have a lasting e?ect on several research projects of the European and world-wide physics community.

These proceedings are a continuation of the series of International Conferences in Germany entitled "Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils." The primary objective is to discuss and understand unsaturated soil behaviour such that engineered activities are made better with times in terms of judgment and quality. The proceedings contain recent research by leading experts in Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils.

The search for table-top and repetitive pump schemes during the last decade has been the driving force behind the spectacular advances demonstrated during the 10th International Conference on X-Ray Lasers, organized in 2006 in Berlin. The proceedings of this series of conferences constitute a comprehensive source of reference of the acknowledged state-of the-art in this specific area of laser and plasma physics.