This volume is a collection of experimental and theoretical papers presented at the international "Topical Meeting on Optical Bistability", held at the University of Rochester, June 15-17, 1983, sponsored jointly by the Air Force Office of Scientific Re search; the Army Research Office; and the Optical Society of America. The Conference, which had 150 attendees, overlapped (on June 15) with the Fifth Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics with two joint sessions. Some of the topics cover ed in this volume are also treated io the Proceedings of that Conference. Since the last international conference on Optical Bistability, held in Asheville, North Carolina, June 3-5, 1980, there have been new and important fundamental advances in the field. This is borne out in papers in this volume dealing with optical chaos and period doubling bifurcations leading to chaos as well as the report of results of an experiment using a very simple system exhibiting ab sorptive optical bistability in a ring cavity using optically pump ed sodium atoms, which was successfully analyzed quantitatively by a simple theory. Other advances discussed here include the ob servation of optical bistability due to the effect of radiation pressure on one mirror of a fabry-Perot cavity. and the prediction of mirrorless intrinsic opittal bistability due to the local field correction incorporated into the Maxwell-Bloch formulation. Advances in optical bistability in semiconductors relate closer to actual device applications.

This volume contains the proceedings of the US-Australia workshop on Control and Chaos held in Honolulu, Hawaii from 29 June to 1 July, 1995. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation (USA) and the Department of Industry, Science and Technology (Australia) under the US-Australia agreement. Control and Chaos-it brings back memories of the endless reruns of "Get Smart" where the good guys worked for Control and the bad guys were associated with Chaos. In keeping with current events, Control and Chaos are no longer adversaries but are now working together. In fact, bringing together workers in the two areas was the focus of the workshop. The objective of the workshop was to bring together experts in dynamical systems theory and control theory, and applications workers in both fields, to focus on the problem of controlling nonlinear and potentially chaotic systems using limited control effort. This involves finding and using orbits in nonlinear systems which can take a system from one region of state space to other regions where we wish to stabilize the system. Control is used to generate useful chaotic trajectories where they do not exist, and to identify and take advantage of useful ones where they do exist. A controller must be able to nudge a system into a proper chaotic orbit and know when to come off that orbit. Also, it must be able to identify regions of state space where feedback control will be effective.

"Contains papers presented at the 35th Taniguchi International Symposium held recently in Sanda and Kyoto, Japan. Details the latest developments concerning moduli spaces of vector bundles or instantons and their application. Covers a broad array of topics in both differential and algebraic geometry."

The subject of random vibrations of elastic systems has gained, over the past decades, great importance, specifically due to its relevance to technical problems in hydro- and aero-mechanics. Such problems involve aircraft, rockets and oil-drilling platforms; elastic vibrations of structures caused by acoustic radiation of a jet stream and by seismic disturbances must also be included. Appli cations of the theory of random vibrations are indeed numerous and the development of this theory poses a challenge to mathematicians, mechanicists and engineers. Therefore, a book on random vibrations by a leading authority such as Dr. V.V. Bolotin must be very welcome to anybody working in this field. It is not surprising that efforts were soon made to have the book translated into English. With pleasure I acknowledge the co-operation of the very competent translater, I Shenkman; of Mrs. C. Jones, who typeJ the first draft; and of Th. Brunsting, P. Keskikiikonen and R. Piche, who read it and suggested where required, corrections and changes. I express my gratitude to Martinus Nijhoff Publishers BV for entrust ing me with the task of editing the English translation, and to F.J. van Drunen, publishers of N. Nijhoff Publishers BV, who so kindly supported my endeavours. Special acknowledgement is due to Mrs. L. Strouth, Solid Mechanics Division, University of Waterloo, for her competent and efficient preparation of the final manuscript.

Pattern Recognition on Oriented Matroids covers a range of innovative problems in combinatorics, poset and graph theories, optimization, and number theory that constitute a far-reaching extension of the arsenal of committee methods in pattern recognition. The groundwork for the modern committee theory was laid in the mid-1960s, when it was shown that the familiar notion of solution to a feasible system of linear inequalities has ingenious analogues which can serve as collective solutions to infeasible systems. A hierarchy of dialects in the language of mathematics, for instance, open cones in the context of linear inequality systems, regions of hyperplane arrangements, and maximal covectors (or topes) of oriented matroids, provides an excellent opportunity to take a fresh look at the infeasible system of homogeneous strict linear inequalities – the standard working model for the contradictory two-class pattern recognition problem in its geometric setting. The universal language of oriented matroid theory considerably simplifies a structural and enumerative analysis of applied aspects of the infeasibility phenomenon. The present book is devoted to several selected topics in the emerging theory of pattern recognition on oriented matroids: the questions of existence and applicability of matroidal generalizations of committee decision rules and related graph-theoretic constructions to oriented matroids with very weak restrictions on their structural properties; a study (in which, in particular, interesting subsequences of the Farey sequence appear naturally) of the hierarchy of the corresponding tope committees; a description of the three-tope committees that are the most attractive approximation to the notion of solution to an infeasible system of linear constraints; an application of convexity in oriented matroids as well as blocker constructions in combinatorial optimization and in poset theory to enumerative problems on tope committees; an attempt to clarify how elementary changes (one-element reorientations) in an oriented matroid affect the family of its tope committees; a discrete Fourier analysis of the important family of critical tope committees through rank and distance relations in the tope poset and the tope graph; the characterization of a key combinatorial role played by the symmetric cycles in hypercube graphs. Contents Oriented Matroids, the Pattern Recognition Problem, and Tope Committees Boolean Intervals Dehn–Sommerville Type Relations Farey Subsequences Blocking Sets of Set Families, and Absolute Blocking Constructions in Posets Committees of Set Families, and Relative Blocking Constructions in Posets Layers of Tope Committees Three-Tope Committees Halfspaces, Convex Sets, and Tope Committees Tope Committees and Reorientations of Oriented Matroids Topes and Critical Committees Critical Committees and Distance Signals Symmetric Cycles in the Hypercube Graphs

Contains both an exhaustive introduction to the subject as well as a detailed discussion of fundamental problems and research results. Despite the unified presentation of the subject, care has been taken to present the material in largely self-contained chapters.

Both parts of Volume 44 of Advances in Econometrics pay tribute to Fabio Canova for his major contributions to economics over the last four decades.

This book offers an essential introduction to the linear and non-linear behavior of solid materials, and to the concepts of deformation, displacement and stress, within the context of continuum mechanics and thermodynamics. To illustrate the fundamental principles, the book starts with an overview of solid mechanics, experimental methods, classes of material behaviors, and the thermodynamic modeling framework. It then explores linear elastic behavior, thermoelasticity, plasticity, viscoplasticity, fracture mechanics and damage behavior. The last part of the book is devoted to conventional and magnetic shape memory alloys, which may be used as actuators or sensors in adaptive structures. Given its range of coverage, the book will be especially valuable for students of engineering courses in Mechanics. Further, it includes a wealth of examples and exercises, making it accessible to the widest possible audience.