The Halophiles 2013 meeting is a multidisciplinary international congress, with a strong history of regular triennial meetings since 1978. Our mission is to bring researchers from a wide diversity of investigation interests (e.g., protein and species evolution; niche adaptation, ecology, taxonomy, genomics, metagenomics, horizontal gene transfer, gene regulation; DNA replication, repair and recombination; signal transduction; community assembly and species distribution; astrobiology; biotechnological applications; adaptation to radiation, desiccation, osmotic stress) into a single forum for the integration and synthesis of ideas and data from all three domains of life, and their viruses, yet from a single environment; salt concentrations greater than seawater. This cross-section of research informs our understanding of the microbiological world in many ways. The halophilic environment is extreme, especially above 10% NaCl, restricting life solely to microbes. The microorganisms that live there are adapted to extreme conditions, and are notable for their ability to survive high doses of radiation and desiccation. Therefore, the hypersaline environment is a model system (both the abiotic, and biologic factors) for insightful understanding regarding conditions and life in the absence of plant and animals (e.g., life on the early earth, and other solar system bodies like Mars and Europa). Lower salinity conditions (e.g., 6-10% NaCl) form luxuriant microbial mats considered modern analogues of fossilized stromatolites, which are enormous microbially produced structures fashioned during the Precambrian (and still seen today in places like Shark’s Bay, Australia). Hypersaline systems are island-like habitats spread patchily across the earth’s surface, and similar to the Galapagos Islands represent unique systems excellent for studying the evolutionary pressures that shape microbial community assembly, adaptation, and speciation. The unique adaptations to this extreme environment produce valuable proteins, enzymes and other molecules capable of remediating harsh human instigated environments, and are useful for the production of biofuels, vitamins, and retinal implants, for example. This research topic is intended to capture the breadth and depth of these topics.

Like real analysis, complex analysis has generated methods indispensable to mathematics and its applications. Exploring the interactions between these two branches, this book uses the results of real analysis to lay the foundations of complex analysis and presents a unified structure of mathematical analysis as a whole. To set the groundwork and mitigate the difficulties newcomers often experience, An Introduction to Complex Analysis begins with a complete review of concepts and methods from real analysis, such as metric spaces and the Green-Gauss Integral Formula. The approach leads to brief, clear proofs of basic statements - a distinct advantage for those mainly interested in applications. Alternate approaches, such as Fichera's proof of the Goursat Theorem and Estermann's proof of the Cauchy's Integral Theorem, are also presented for comparison. Discussions include holomorphic functions, the Weierstrass Convergence Theorem, analytic continuation, isolated singularities, homotopy, Residue theory, conformal mappings, special functions and boundary value problems. More than 200 examples and 150 exercises illustrate the subject matter and make this book an ideal text for university courses on complex analysis, while the comprehensive compilation of theories and succinct proofs make this an excellent volume for reference.

This work builds on earlier publications in this series, particularly Occasional Paper Number Nine, The Creation of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency: Congress's Role as Overseer, by Anne Daugherty Miles. The author of the present paper has examined how the Coast Guard became a member of the Intelligence Community, how Congress was involved, and how Congress will likely be increasingly involved in the organization of the Community. Although the United States Coast Guard has utilized intelligence capabilities since the service's inception in 1790, the Coast Guard was not included as a formal member of the Intelligence Community until December 2002. Mr. Wirth describes the story behind the short but significant amendment to the National Security Act of 1947 which resulted in the Coast Guard's formal entry into the Intelligence Community. Researched within eighteen months of passage, this case study exhaustively documents extensive congressional and Coast Guard staff work. Interviews at the action officer level clearly reveal the view from the bureaucratic trenches, and additional attention to talking points, meeting minutes, and email summaries add immediacy as they further clarify positions from within departments, staffs and agencies. A brief examination of the surrounding political and geopolitical events, such as the bombing of the USS Cole, political changes in Congress, internal Coast Guard actions, and the tragic attacks of September 11th, provide context to the passage of this provision. Derived from a thesis completed in 2003, this paper illustrates the importance of gathering electronic data immediately, since much of the reference material on which this study is based existed only as informal e-mail or documents stored on computers. Much of it likely would have been erased had the research started even a year later.

In the late eighties and early nineties, driven by the post–Cold War environment and lessons learned during military operations, United States policy makers made intelligence support to the military the Intelligence Community's top priority. In response to this demand, the CIA and DoD instituted policy and organizational changes that altered their relationship with one another. While debates over the future of the Intelligence Community were occurring on Capitol Hill, the CIA and DoD were expanding their relationship in peacekeeping and nation-building operations in Somalia and the Balkans. By the late 1990s, some policy makers and national security professionals became concerned that intelligence support to military operations had gone too far. In Subordinating Intelligence: The DoD/CIA Post–Cold War Relationship, David P. Oakley reveals that, despite these concerns, no major changes to national intelligence or its priorities were implemented. These concerns were forgotten after 9/11, as the United States fought two wars and policy makers increasingly focused on tactical and operational actions. As policy makers became fixated with terrorism and the United States fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, the CIA directed a significant amount of its resources toward global counterterrorism efforts and in support of military operations.

Power Electronics is a large size technology, mainly covering four categories: the AC/DC rectifiers, DC/DC converters, DC/AC inverters, and AC/AC converters. This book offers approximately 100 novel topologies of all four. The applications are used in sustainable energy generation areas, such as distributed generation (DG), micro-grid (MG), smart grid (SG) systems, and electrical vehicles (EV). With case studies from GE, AEG, Simplatroll Ltd, and Chinese Power Manufacturing Co., the reader will be exposed to practical applications in industry and real-world settings. This new edition features an entirely new chapter on best switching angles to obtain lowest THD for multilevel DC/AC inverters. Additionally, all chapters have been updated and include homework problems throughout.

These days, it's rare to pick up a newspaper and not see a story related to intelligence. From the investigations of the 9/11 commission, to accusations of illegal wiretapping, to debates on whether it's acceptable to torture prisoners for information, intelligence—both accurate and not—is driving domestic and foreign policy. And yet, in part because of its inherently secretive nature, intelligence has received very little scholarly study. Into this void comes Reforming Intelligence, a timely collection of case studies written by intelligence experts, and sponsored by the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR) at the Naval Postgraduate School, that collectively outline the best practices for intelligence services in the United States and other democratic states. Reforming Intelligence suggests that intelligence is best conceptualized as a subfield of civil-military relations, and is best compared through institutions. The authors examine intelligence practices in the United States, United Kingdom, and France, as well as such developing democracies as Brazil, Taiwan, Argentina, and Russia. While there is much more data related to established democracies, there are lessons to be learned from states that have created (or re-created) intelligence institutions in the contemporary political climate. In the end, reading about the successes of Brazil and Taiwan, the failures of Argentina and Russia, and the ongoing reforms in the United States yields a handful of hard truths. In the murky world of intelligence, that's an unqualified achievement.

In this book, Melanie Gutjahr addresses the documentation surrounding the history of U.S. national intelligence reform efforts, going back almost to the beginning of post-WWII intelligence. She examines the question of whether the intelligence community appears capable of reshaping itself quickly and effectively enough to cope with 21st century expressions of globalization. Finding a negative answer to that question, she goes on to address the prospect that Congress may generate the wherewithal to effect a transformation in intelligence matters by building on the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.