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Several Complex Variables is a central area of mathematics with strong interactions with partial differential equations, algebraic geometry, number theory, and differential geometry. The 1995–1996 MSRI program on Several Complex Variables emphasized these interactions and concentrated on developments and problems of interest that capitalize on this interplay of ideas and techniques. This collection, first published in 2000, provides a remarkably clear and complete picture of the status of research in these overlapping areas and will provide a basis for significant continued contributions from researchers. Several of the articles are expository or have extensive expository sections, making this an excellent introduction for students to the use of techniques from these other areas in several complex variables. Thanks to its distinguished list of contributors this volume provides a representative sample of the work done in Several Complex Variables.
The German mathematician Felix Klein discovered in 1879 that the surface that we now call the Klein quartic has many remarkable properties, including an incredible 336-fold symmetry, the maximum possible degree of symmetry for any surface of its type. Since then, mathematicians have discovered that the same object comes up in different guises in many areas of mathematics, from complex analysis and geometry to number theory. This volume explores the rich tangle of properties and theories surrounding this multiform object. It includes expository and research articles by renowned mathematicians in different fields. It also includes a beautifully illustrated essay by the mathematical sculptor Helaman Ferguson, who distilled some of the beauty and remarkable properties of this surface into a sculpture entitled 'The Eightfold Way'. The book closes with the first English translation of Klein's seminal article on this surface.
This book offers an interdisciplinary perspective on personality disorder with chapters by philosophers, psychiatrists, and psychological scientists. Written to be accessible to all three disciplines, it updates traditional conceptualizations and offers new and novel perspectives on personality disorder, with a special emphasis on borderline and narcissistic personalities. Featuring contributions from established senior researchers as well as early career scholars from across four continents, it offers surveys of contemporary research and clinical expertise that together plumb the foundational understandings of personality disorder.
Random matrices arise from, and have important applications to, number theory, probability, combinatorics, representation theory, quantum mechanics, solid state physics, quantum field theory, quantum gravity, and many other areas of physics and mathematics. This 2001 volume of surveys and research results, based largely on lectures given at the Spring 1999 MSRI program of the same name, covers broad areas such as topologic and combinatorial aspects of random matrix theory; scaling limits, universalities and phase transitions in matrix models; universalities for random polynomials; and applications to integrable systems. Its stress on the interaction between physics and mathematics will make it a welcome addition to the shelves of graduate students and researchers in both fields, as will its expository emphasis.
During 1996–7 MSRI held a full academic year program on Combinatorics, with special emphasis on the connections with other branches of mathematics, such as algebraic geometry, topology, commutative algebra, representation theory, and convex geometry. The rich combinatorial problems arising from the study of various algebraic structures are the subject of this book, which represents work done or presented at seminars during the program. It contains contributions on matroid bundles, combinatorial representation theory, lattice points in polyhedra, bilinear forms, combinatorial differential topology and geometry, Macdonald polynomials and geometry, enumeration of matchings, the generalized Baues problem, and Littlewood–Richardson semigroups. These expository articles, written by some of the most respected researchers in the field, will continue to be of use to graduate students and researchers in combinatorics as well as algebra, geometry, and topology.
Spaces of holomorphic functions have been a prominent theme in analysis since early in the twentieth century. Of interest to complex analysts, functional analysts, operator theorists and systems theorists, their study is now flourishing. This volume, an outgrowth of a 1995 program at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, contains expository articles by programme participants. Here researchers and graduate students will encounter Hardy spaces, Bergman spaces, Dirichlet spaces, Hankel and Toeplitz operators, and a sampling of the role these objects play in modern analysis.
First published in 1997, this book contains six in-depth articles on various aspects of the field of tight and taut submanifolds and concludes with an extensive bibliography of the entire field. The book is dedicated to the memory of Nicolaas H. Kuiper; the first paper is an unfinished but insightful survey of the field of tight immersions and maps written by Kuiper himself. Other papers by leading researchers in the field treat topics such as the smooth and polyhedral portions of the theory of tight immersions, taut, Dupin and isoparametric submanifolds of Euclidean space, taut submanifolds of arbitrary complete Riemannian manifolds, and real hypersurfaces in complex space forms with special curvature properties. Taken together these articles provide a comprehensive survey of the field and point toward several directions for future research.
The book of Ecclesiastes is the Bible's problem child. Its probing doubts, dark ruminations, self- reflexive dialogues, and unflinching observations have simultaneously puzzled and fascinated readers for over two millennia. Some read the book's message as hopelessly pessimistic, while others regard the text as too contradictory to bear any consistent message at all. In this study, Jesse Peterson offers a coherent portrait of the book and its author-the early Jewish sage known as Qoheleth-by examining both through a philosophical lens. Drawing from relevant contemporary philosophical literature on meaning in life, death, well-being, and enjoyment, Peterson outlines a clear and compelling portrait of Qoheleth and his philosophical assumptions about what is good and bad in the human experience. As Peterson argues, Qoheleth's grievances concerning the pursuit of meaning in life are paired with a genuine affirmation of life's value and the possibility of a joy-filled existence.
Signal processing is everywhere in modern technology. Its mathematical basis and many areas of application are the subject of this book, based on a series of graduate-level lectures held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. Emphasis is on challenges in the subject, particular techniques adapted to particular technologies, and certain advances in algorithms and theory. The book covers two main areas: computational harmonic analysis, envisioned as a technology for efficiently analysing real data using inherent symmetries; and the challenges inherent in the acquisition, processing and analysis of images and sensing data in general [EMDASH] ranging from sonar on a submarine to a neuroscientist's fMRI study.
US–Chinese strategic competition is a defining factor in world politics. The prevailing narrative on US–China relations predicts inevitable conflicts between these two giants, potentially leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy. While fully acknowledging the inherent dangers of potential wars or military conflicts between the two powers, this book shows that competition is not necessarily detrimental. By systematically examining US–China institutional balancing across security, economic and political domains, particularly in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, this book highlights three positive externalities or unintended consequences: the revitalisation of regional institutions to address emerging challenges, unexpected collaborations between great powers (the US and China) and regional actors, and the provision of public goods by both nations. The book argues that constructive and institutionalised competition between the US and China, if managed with strategic foresight and restraint, could inadvertently lead to positive outcomes – institutional peace – in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hopf algebras have important connections to quantum theory, Lie algebras, knot and braid theory, operator algebras and other areas of physics and mathematics. They have been intensely studied in the past; in particular, the solution of a number of conjectures of Kaplansky from the 1970s has led to progress on the classification of semisimple Hopf algebras and on the structure of pointed Hopf algebras. Among the topics covered are results toward the classification of finite-dimensional Hopf algebras (semisimple and non-semisimple), as well as what is known about the extension theory of Hopf algebras. Some papers consider Hopf versions of classical topics, such as the Brauer group, while others are closer to work in quantum groups. The book also explores the connections and applications of Hopf algebras to other fields.
Symplectic geometry originated in physics, but it has flourished as an independent subject in mathematics, together with its offspring, symplectic topology. Symplectic methods have even been applied back to mathematical physics. Noncommutative geometry has developed an alternative mathematical quantization scheme based on a geometric approach to operator algebras. Deformation quantization, a blend of symplectic methods and noncommutative geometry, approaches quantum mechanics from a more algebraic viewpoint, as it addresses quantization as a deformation of Poisson structures. This volume contains seven chapters based on lectures given by invited speakers at two May 2010 workshops held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute: Symplectic and Poisson Geometry in Interaction with Analysis, Algebra and Topology (honoring Alan Weinstein, one of the key figures in the field) and Symplectic Geometry, Noncommutative Geometry and Physics. The chapters include presentations of previously unpublished results and comprehensive reviews, including recent developments in these areas.
The violence of colonial wars between 1890 and 1914 is often thought to have been uniquely shaped by the nature of each of the European empires. This book argues instead that these wars' extreme violence was part of a shared 'Colonial Way of War'. Through detailed study of British, German and Dutch colonial wars, Tom Menger reveals the transimperial connectivity of fin-de-siècle colonial violence, including practices of scorched earth and extermination, such as the Herero Genocide (1904-1908). He explores how shared thought and practices arose from exchanges and transfers between actors of different empires, both Europeans and non-Europeans. These transfers can be traced in military manuals and other literature, but most notably in the transimperial mobility of military attachés, regular soldiers, settlers or 'adventurers'. Pioneering in its scope, Menger's work re-thinks the supposed exceptionality of standout cases of colonial violence, and more broadly challenges conceptions we have of imperial connectivity.
This fascinating book brings together a multidisciplinary team of authors from a variety of backgrounds and lived experience who offer insight into the historical roots and current reasons for the hybrid natural and social scientific conceptual platform of psychiatry. The role of values in the development and recovery from mental illness are covered as well as progressive developments, outlining a novel research methodology. Demonstrating the importance of the integration of each main dimension of psychiatry (such as biological, psychological, social, and existential), the book includes values in theory and research in working out the epistemological foundations of psychiatry as an academic discipline and in clinical practice. Covering the major directions from which the subject of mental ill health has been approached (neurobiology, psychoanalysis and the psychotherapies), the common conditions and the controversies surrounding them are explored. Highly relevant to academics, clinicians and students in psychiatry, psychology, primary and social care.
In an empire such as Byzantium, where the large urban centres monopolised cultural activity and literary creation, writing texts in praise of local saints offered a noteworthy incentive for literary expression on the periphery. Between the establishment of Christianity on the island in the fourth century and its passing from Byzantine to Frankish rule in the thirteenth, Cyprus saw a significant number of hagiographical texts dedicated to its bishop saints and defending the claims and privileges of its Church. This book offers the first systematic study of this body of texts, inquiring into their literary background and engagement both with contemporary Mediterranean history and with issues specifically affecting Cyprus. It also draws attention to hagiographical texts written in later times as reflecting the enduring interest of Byzantine Christianity in the saints of Cyprus, whose cult had by then acquired a universal appeal.
Bringing together perspectives from the histories of medicine, sexuality, and the book, Sarah Bull presents the first study of how medical publications on sexual matters were made, promoted, and sold in Victorian Britain. Drawing on pamphlets, manuals, textbooks, periodicals, and more, this innovative book illustrates the free and unruly circulation of sexual information through a rapidly expanding publishing industry. Bull demonstrates how the ease with which print could be copied and claimed, recast and repurposed, presented persistent challenges to those seeking to position themselves as authorities over sexual knowledge at this pivotal moment. Medical publishers, practitioners, and activists embraced allegations of obscenity and censorship to promote ideas, contest authority, and consolidate emergent collective identities. Layer by layer, their actions helped create and sustain one of the most potent myths ever made about the Victorians: their sexual ignorance.This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Sean O'Casey is one of Ireland's best-known writers. He is the most frequently performed playwright in the history of the Irish National Theatre, and his work is often revived onstage elsewhere. O'Casey is also widely studied in schools, colleges, and universities in the English-speaking world. This book offers a new contextualisation of this famous writer's work, revisiting his association with Irish nationalism, historical revisionism, and celebrated contemporaries such as W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. The volume also brings O'Casey's work into contact with topics including disability studies, gender and sexuality, post-colonialism, ecocriticism, and race. Sean O'Casey in Context explores a number of existing ideas about O'Casey in the light of new academic developments, and updates our understanding of this important writer by taking into account recent scholarly thinking and a range of theatrical productions from around the globe.
In recent times, there has been a growing interest in how Celtic languages are acquired, due to ongoing efforts for minority language revitalisation through immersion education. With contributions from a team of leading scholars, this is the first volume to bring together state-of-the-art studies on language development in both children and adults learning the three most prominent Celtic languages spoken in the UK and Ireland: Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Irish. It focuses on how core language areas – phonology, lexicon, morphology and syntax – are acquired by different groups of learners, providing key insights into theoretical and empirical debates around bilingual language development and linguistic change more generally. The volume also covers the socio-cultural and educational context within which these languages are learnt, highlighting how these factors affect linguistic outcomes in a minority language context. It is essential reading for academic researchers and students in developmental linguistics, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and Celtic languages.
Bringing together a globally representative team of scholars, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of comparative syntax, the study of universal and variable properties of the structure of building blocks in natural language. Divided into four thematic parts, it covers the various theoretical and methodological approaches to syntactic variation; explores dependency relations and dependency marking; shows how the building blocks of syntax both vary and display universal properties across languages, and explores the interfaces between syntax and other aspects of language structure. It also includes examples from a typologically broad range of languages, as well as data from child language, sign language, language processing, and diachronic syntax, giving a clear picture of the ubiquity of cross-linguistic variation. It serves as a source of inspiration for future research, and forges a deeper understanding of the variant and invariant parts of language, making it essential reading for researchers and students in linguistics.