Issues in Astronomy and Astrophysics / 2011 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Astronomy and Astrophysics. The editors have built Issues in Astronomy and Astrophysics: 2011 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Astronomy and Astrophysics in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Issues in Astronomy and Astrophysics: 2011 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Issues in Astronomy and Astrophysics / 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Planetary Science. The editors have built Issues in Astronomy and Astrophysics: 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Planetary Science in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Issues in Astronomy and Astrophysics: 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

The past two decades have observed dramatic advancement in our understanding of the universe. Such progress in turn has triggered further questions yet to be answered. Aspired by such prospects, several institutions dedicated to the research of cosmology have been established in the last decade, which include the Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (LeCosPA) at the National Taiwan University. To celebrate its 4th anniversary the First LeCosPA Symposium was held in February 2012 at NTU. Internationally renowned physicists and authorities in cosmology, particle astrophysics, gravity and general relativity, and high energy physics convened to survey our present understanding of the universe and to explore the future prospects from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. Topics covered include the detection and the nature of dark matter and dark energy, the fundamental understanding of space, time, mass and gravity itself, cosmological constant and vacuum energy, etc. This book should be valuable to researchers and students in the field of cosmology and particle astrophysics.

This volume contains a selection of chapters based on papers to be presented at the Fifth Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy Symposium. The symposium will be held June 13-15th at Penn State University. Modern astronomical research faces a vast range of statistical issues which have spawned a revival in methodological activity among astronomers. The Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V conference will bring astronomers and statisticians together to discuss methodological issues of common interest. Time series analysis, image analysis, Bayesian methods, Poisson processes, nonlinear regression, maximum likelihood, multivariate classification, and wavelet and multiscale analyses are all important themes to be covered in detail. Many problems will be introduced at the conference in the context of large-scale astronomical projects including LIGO, AXAF, XTE, Hipparcos, and digitized sky surveys.

Spectral lines, widths, and shapes are powerful tools for emitting/absorbing gas diagnostics in different astrophysical objects (from the solar system to the most distant objects in the universe—quasars). On the other hand, experimental and theoretical investigations of laboratory plasma have been applied in spectroscopic astrophysical research, especially in research on atomic data needed for line shape calculations. Data on spectral lines and their profiles are also important for diagnostics, analysis, and the modelling of fusion plasma, laser-produced plasma, laser design and development, and various plasmas in industry and technology, like light sources based on plasmas or the welding and piercing of metals by laser-produced plasma. The papers from this book can be divided into four groups: 1. stark broadening data for astrophysical and laboratory plasma investigations; 2. applications of spectral lines for astrophysical and laboratory plasma research; 3. spectral line phenomena in extragalactic objects, and 4. laboratory astrophysics results for spectra investigation. The reviews and research papers, representing new research on the topics presented in this book, are of interest for specialists and PhD students. We hope that the present book will be useful and interesting for scientists interested in the investigation of spectral line shapes and will contribute to the education of young researchers and PhD students.

Radioisotopes—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Radioisotopes. The editors have built Radioisotopes—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Radioisotopes in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Radioisotopes—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Astrostatistical Challenges for the New Astronomy presents a collection of monographs authored by several of the disciplines leading astrostatisticians, i.e. by researchers from the fields of statistics and astronomy-astrophysics, who work in the statistical analysis of astronomical and cosmological data. Eight of the ten monographs are enhancements of presentations given by the authors as invited or special topics in astrostatistics papers at the ISI World Statistics Congress (2011, Dublin, Ireland). The opening chapter, by the editor, was adapted from an invited seminar given at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2011) on the history and current state of the discipline; the second chapter by Thomas Loredo was adapted from his invited presentation at the Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V conference (2011, Pennsylvania State University), presenting insights regarding frequentist and Bayesian methods of estimation in astrostatistical analysis. The remaining monographs are research papers discussing various topics in astrostatistics. The monographs provide the reader with an excellent overview of the current state astrostatistical research, and offer guidelines as to subjects of future research. Lead authors for each chapter respectively include Joseph M. Hilbe (Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Arizona State Univ); Thomas J. Loredo (Dept of Astronomy, Cornell Univ); Stefano Andreon (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Italy); Martin Kunz ( Institute for Theoretical Physics, Univ of Geneva, Switz); Benjamin Wandel ( Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Univ Pierre et Marie Curie, France); Roberto Trotta (Astrophysics Group, Dept of Physics, Imperial College London, UK); Phillip Gregory (Dept of Astronomy, Univ of British Columbia, Canada); Marc Henrion (Dept of Mathematics, Imperial College, London, UK); Asis Kumar Chattopadhyay (Dept of Statistics, Univ of Calcutta, India); Marisa March (Astrophysics Group, Dept of Physics, Imperial College, London, UK)./body