World Scientific

Advanced asset pricing theory.

For readers with a good grasp of undergraduate-level calculus, Ma (Fudan U., China) explains how investors make choices on portfolio holdings among a bunch of tradable securities, how they revise their investment decisions within a given time frame when new information arrives, and how security price is determined in an ideal frictionless economy with rational investors. He introduces several new theoretical models, and hopes to stimulate further research as well as teach the conventional methods. Proofs are worked out for most of his assertions, so the book is pretty self-contained. In sections on foundations, discrete-time modeling, and continuous-time modeling, he considers such topics as portfolio risk management, dynamic choice for recursive investors, and a general theory of equilibrium asset pricing. Distributed in the US by World Scientific. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Astronomical spectroscopy; an introduction to the atomic and molecular physics of astronomical spectra, 2d ed.

Tennyson (U. College London) presents essentially a written version of his lecture course for third-year undergraduate students who had previously completed an introductory course on quantum mechanics covering the hydrogen atom, but no further atomic physics or spectroscopy. Among the topics he discusses are why to record the spectra of astronomical objects, atomic hydrogen, helium spectra, alkali atoms, spectra in magnetic fields, molecular structure, rotational spectra, and the electronic spectra of diatomic molecules. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

China at 60; global-local interactions.

While previous studies on China generally have used 1979 as the watershed year of its transformation from the Mao era to Deng's economic reforms, the year 2009 marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China is the benchmark for analysis here. Lai-Ha (China Research Centre, U. of Technology, Sydney, Australia) introduces the intimate relationship between China's evolving foreign policy and domestic politics. In a dozen chapters, international scholars examine how Chinese leaders have played the principles of change within continuity and independence and self-reliance within a harmonious world. The book includes a Chinese Pinyan/character-English glossary, and tables and graphs showing recent Chinese deals and economic and health trends. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

A complexity approach to sustainability; theory and application.

This series will address aspects of complexity in a range of social and natural sciences, and in so doing help define and mature the science of complexity itself. In this first volume, Epinosa (business, Hull U., Britain) and Walker, an independent British researcher, describe how to manage complexity in large, interactive socio-ecological systems, focusing on the Viable Systems Model. Understanding how complex systems work and how they interact with each other is necessary, they argue, to redesign social and economic systems to create a sustainable society. After defining the concepts of complexity and sustainability, they discuss viability through complexity management, societies as viable systems, complexity and environmental management, rethinking sustainable development, and envisioning solutions for the required societal transition. Distributed in the US by World Scientific. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Computational intelligence in complex decision systems.

Part of series publishing state-of-the-art research on computational intelligence topics, this collection of sixteen articles on complex decision systems showcases current research in a variety of automation, fuzzy logic and decision making areas. Topics discussed include intelligent decision making in virtual reality training environments, statistical approaches to complex multi-criteria decisions, evolutionary computing for fuzzy decision making in load dispatch problems and multi-user "smart home" environments. Individual papers include numerous charts, tables and equations and the work includes a volume wide subject index. Contributors are academics in computer science and engineering disciplines from universities around the world. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Complex variables; principles and problem sessions.

Kapoor (U. of Hyderabad, India) finds the theory of functions of a complex variable to be one of those areas of mathematics that were created for reasons not even remotely connected to any practical, real-world applications, but turn out to be extremely useful. Mathematicians use it to move toward ever more general and abstract results, he says, and engineers use it to generate concrete results to solve specialized problems. Therefore, designing an introductory course and textbook is a creative challenge. The first part of his text presents the definitions, theorems, proofs and their analysis by example and counter-example — at a level of formality suitable for beginners. The second part contains problems on which to practice the theories and techniques. These are arranged in sessions each focused on a specific objective, among then elementary functions and differential, Cauchy integral formula, and contour integration. This format could be adapted to other sciences, he says, especially for self-study when no teacher or expert is available. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Distribution theory and applications.

Specialists in topological algebra theory, Kinani and Oudadess (both Ecole Normale Supérieure de Takaddoum, Morocco) add to the voluminous literature on distribution theory with an introduction drawn from their teaching that they believe combines clarity of exposition, elementary presentation, rigor, and thoroughness. It should be accessible to undergraduates not only in mathematics, they say, but also theoretical and experimental physics. Their topics include spaces of function, tensor product, tempered distributions, Laplace transformation, and Sobolev spaces. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Electromagnetic analysis using transmission line variables, 2d ed.

Following a trend he finds in nature to discretize, Weiner, who has a background in the US military and military contractors, applies the discretization process to the electromagnetic propagation medium. He contends that the transmission line method offers an extremely intuitive means for dealing with a wide assortment of electromagnetic propagation problems, may lead to new insights into small scale effects when the cell size shrinks below classical radar, and facilitates the study of plane wave correlation effects effectively. Among his topics are the notation and mapping of physical properties, boundary conditions and dispersion, and spice solutions. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Financial valuation and econometrics.

Writing for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students of finance, Lim (Singapore Management U.) introduces financial valuation and financial data analysis using econometric methods. There are plenty of books on each of the three areas, he says, but his innovation is to explain methods in basic econometrics, particularly linear regression analysis, and weave them into threads of foundational finance theory, concepts, ideas, and models. Typically pairing a technique with a sample application, he discusses such topics as two-variable linear regression: financial hedging, random walk: market efficiency, errors-in-variable: exchange rates and risk premium, and generalized methods of moments: consumption-based asset pricing. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Fractional calculus and waves in linear viscoelasticity; an introduction to mathematical models.

Drawing on his own research in relevant sciences over the past decades, Mainardi (U. of Bologna, Italy) shows how fractional calculus provides a suitable method for describing dynamical properties of linear viscoelasticity media including problems of wave propagation and diffusion. He emphasizes mathematics for its own sake, but in the sense of a language for everyday use rather than as a body of theorems and proofs, so that unnecessary mathematical formalities are avoided. Readers are assumed to have previous experience with elementary aspects of mathematical analysis including the theory of integral transforms and Laplace and Fourier type. Distributed in the US by World Scientific. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The great recession; history, ideology, hubris and nemesis.

Siam-Heng (National U. of Singapore) explores the causes of the economic crisis sparked by the collapse of the US housing bubble in 2007. He begins his narrative with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, arguing that the end of the Cold War set the stage for the neoliberal ideology of "free market" fundamentalism in which successive economic crises in an era of deregulation failed to dislodge a belief in the self-correcting nature of markets. He then considers features of the bursting of Japan's economic bubble in 1990 and the subsequent "lost decade," the 1994 Mexican peso crisis, and the 1997 Asian financial crisis that are similar to the current crisis, as well as those features that are distinct. He next describes the financial excesses that are rampant in the global financial system and considers how finance can be returned to "its proper role in allocating financial resources to promote socially useful and economically productive consumption and investment." Finally, he considers the role of Keynesian stimuli in responding to the crisis, the geopolitical impact of the crisis, the reduced influence of the United States over the global economy, the continuing strengths of the American economy, and the reasons why recovery is likely to be weak and slow. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Introduction to algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.

This textbook is based on a lecture course in mathematics in 1998, but augmented with exercises to allow students to practice the methods described. Patil (Indian Institute of Science) and Storch (Ruhr U., Germany) provide full proofs in most cases, which assume that students have some experience with the basic concepts of algebra such as groups, rings, fields, vector spaces, and modules. They introduce the two areas of mathematics together and demonstrate their interplay. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Introduction to relativistic statistical mechanics; classical and quantum.

Back in the day, says Hakim (Paris-Meudon Observatory) relativistic statistical mechanics was simply a matter of changing the expression of the energy from the Newtonian to the relativistic one, and checking the Lorentz invariance for the final result. Now the demands of astrophysics, elementary particle physics, and even condensed matter physics require a much more involved approach and more nuanced results. Noting that the field has become too large to be treated in a single volume, he offers an introduction to some recent developments, and provides an extensive bibliography. His topics include the one-particle relativistic distribution function, curved space-time and cosmology, the density operator, applications to nuclear matter, and the relativistic Fermi liquid. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

An introduction to string theory and D-brane dynamics; with problems and solutions, 2d ed.

Szabo (Heriot-Watt U., Britain) has expanded the string theory lectures he delivered at summer schools in England in 2001, Scotland in 2002, and Canada in 2003 for students in theoretical high-energy physics who had just completed their first year of graduate study. He assumes no prior background in string theory, but a solid foundation in quantum field theory, and an introductory-level understanding of particle physics and group theory. A final chapter has been added to the 2004 first edition with solutions to all the exercises. Distributed in the US by World Scientific. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Introduction to supersymmetry, 2d ed.

The first edition appeared two decades ago, and was used or recommended in courses at several universities, say Müller-Kirsten (U. of Kaiserslautern, Germany) and Wiedemann (Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State U., Germany), and the highest praise came from those the textbook was designed for: students without prior knowledge of supersymmetry. It has long been out of print, so they present a second edition, maintaining the explicit calculational details and making corrections and slight changes. They have also updated the bibliography. Among their topics are no-go theorems and graded Lie algebras, representations of the super-Poincaré algebra, superspace formalism and superfields, supersymmetric Lagrangians, and supersymmetric Gauge theories. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Laser science and applications; proceedings.

The 20 papers consider in turn the basics of laser science, and laser applications in engineering and in medicine. The keynote, plenary, and invited papers cover generating and characterizing attosecond high harmonic pulses, high power lasers and interactions, laser accelerators, and problems and breakthroughs in laser techniques in conserving artwork. Among the contributed papers are discussions of automated polarization-discrimination techniques for minimizing lidar-detected skylight background noise, simulating optical resonators for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, and laser and non-coherent light effects on peripheral blood normal and acute lymphoblastic leukemic cells by using different types of photosensitizers. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Machine learning approaches to bioinformatics.

In this textbook for graduates and researchers beginning research and practice in bioinformatics, Yang covers unsupervised and supervised learning approaches that can be used in bioformatics, and concepts relevant to computational systems biology, now the most important research targets in bioinformatics. He assumes readers have some basic linear algebra and statistics background. Most of the case studies are implemented in R programming. His topics include approaches to estimating probability density, self-organizing maps, multi-layer perceptron, feature selection, and causal and Bayesian gene networks. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Many-body theory of molecules, clusters, and condensed phases.

Reprinted from publication between the middle of the 20th century and the early 21st, 113 technical papers look at quantum electron crystals, nuclear structure factor and pair potentials in some sp liquid metals, electron correlation functions in liquid metals, Thomas-Fermi semiclassical approximations, transcending Thomas-Fermi theory, and local and non-local applications of one-body potential theory. Among the topics are electron crystallization, melting a magnetically induced Wigner electron solid and anyon properties, structure and forces in simple liquid metals, the quantum theory of pure liquid metals as two-component systems, Thomas Fermi fields for molecules with tetrahedral and octahedral symmetry, electron theory of interaction between point defects in metals, constructing non-local energy density functionals, and foundations of Walsh's rules for molecular shape. There is no index. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Matrix methods; theory, algorithms and applications.

The algebraic theory, algorithmic problems, and numerical applications that support matrix methods were the themes of the July 2007 "Second International Conference on Matrix Methods and Operator Equations" in Moscow, and of the 39 papers here edited from presentations there. They assume a good knowledge of basic linear algebra and general mathematical background. Among the topics are determining the Schein rank of Boolean matrices, a new class of singular non-symmetric matrices with non-negative integer spectra, treating boundary artifacts in image restoration by reflection and/or anti-reflection, multi-level algorithm for graph partitioning, and new smoothers in multi-grid methods for strongly non-symmetric linear systems. There is no subject index. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Matrix partial orders, shorted operators and applications.

Mitra (Indian Statistical Institute, India), Bhimasankaram (U. of Hyderabad, India), and Malik (U. of Delhi, India) present the first full length monograph on the mathematics of matrix orders and shorted operators, topics that are otherwise scattered across the literature. They present the fields in a unified way, focused on matrix orders and shorted operators for finite matrices over a field (not over more general algebraic structures or operators over more general spaces), and illustrate them with applications in generalized inverses, statistics, and electrical networks. New results are included throughout, particularly on partial orders of modified matrices. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)