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From flat-panel televisions to thermonuclear fusion for energy production, plasmas currently have numerous and wide applications in sciences and industry. A diversity of plasma diagnostics is available to physicists and engineers to measure and control plasma parameters. Among them, the Langmuir probe is the most inexpensive and most popular instrument and method. The Langmuir probe is a small electrode which is submerged in plasma in order to measure the probe current-voltage characteristic. The same characteristic is processed further to derive the electron and ion concentration, the electron distribution function, and the plasma potential at the probe location. Langmuir probe diagnostics afford rapid measurements of the electron distribution function and plasma potential at a good time resolution, ~ 10-8 seconds in a wide range of plasma densities 10+3 - 10+14 cm-3, and the electron energy from the room temperature to hundreds of electron-volts - qualities which are essential for researchers. In view of these facts, Langmuir probe diagnostics are applied very frequently to measuring plasma parameters. This book will be useful in teaching plasma diagnostics to undergraduate and graduate students in plasma physics courses. And it will also serve as a practical reference manual for physicists and engineers working in the growing area of plasma physics. The reader of this book will learn what kind of plasma parameters the Langmuir probe can measure, how to develop the probe diagnostics for specific cases, and how the probe data obtained should be processed to deduce reliable plasma parameters. In this book, the reader can find not only the basic physics information important to understanding the principles of probe operation, but also how the "real" probe disturbs plasma, and how it is possible to reconstruct undisturbed plasma parameters with available probe data.

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) represents a milestone in the progression of a continuously advancing methodology for data analysis, which finds extensive use in industry, society and even in education. This book is a handy encyclopedia for researchers, students and practitioners looking for the latest and most comprehensive references in DEA. J.K. Mantri has specifically selected 22 research papers where DEA is applied in different fields so that the techniques discussed in this book can be used for various applications. In A Bibliography of Data Envelopment Analysis (1978-2001), Gabriel Tavares states that DEA is a mathematical programme for measuring performance efficiency of organizations popularly named as decision-making units (DMU). The DMU can be of any kind such as manufacturing units, a number of schools, banks, hospitals, police stations, firms, etc. DEA measures the performance efficiency of these kinds of DMUs, which share a common characteristic: they have a non-profit organization where measurement is difficult. DEA assumes the performance of the DMU using the concepts of efficiency and productivity, which are measured as the ratio of total outputs to total inputs. The efficiencies estimated are relative to the best performing DMU, which is given a score of 100%. The performance of other DMUs varies between 0% and 100%.

Nobody should have a monopoly of the truth in this universe. The censorship and suppression of challenging ideas against the tide of mainstream research, the blacklisting of scientists, for instance, is neither the best way to do and filter science, nor to promote progress in the human knowledge. The removal of good and novel ideas from the scientific stage is very detrimental to the pursuit of the truth. There are instances in which a mere unqualified belief can occasionally be converted into a generally accepted scientific theory through the screening action of refereed literature and meetings planned by the scientific organizing committees and through the distribution of funds controlled by "club opinions". It leads to unitary paradigms and unitary thinking not necessarily associated to the unique truth. This is the topic of this book: to critically analyze the problems of the official (and sometimes illicit) mechanisms under which current science (physics and astronomy in particular) is being administered and filtered today, along with the onerous consequences these mechanisms have on all of us. Apart from the editors, Juan Miguel Campanario, Brian Martin, Wolfgang Kundt, J. Marvin Herndon, Marian Apostol, Halton C. Arp, Tom Van Flandern, Andrei P. Kirilyuk, Dmitri Rabounski and Henry H. Bauer, all of them professional researchers, reveal a pessimistic view of the miseries of the actual system, while a glimmer of hope remains in the "leitmotiv" claim towards the freedom in doing research and attaining an acceptable level of ethics in science.

IN THIS ISSUE:ForewordEMMANUEL ALVARADOArtist's CommentaryCYNTHIA ZAITZIndelible Ink of the Palimpsest: Language, Myth and Narrative in H.D.'s TrilogyMICHELE BRAUNMary-ing Isis and Mary Magdalene in "The Flowering of the Rod": Revisioning and Healing Through Female-Centered Spirituality in H.D.'s TrilogyJULIE GOODSPEED-CHADWICKRethinking the Maya: Understanding an Ancient Language in Modern Linguistic TermsRHIANNA C. ROGERSMonarch of All I Can Sway: "Crusoeing" Alongside Oscar Wilde's "The Decay of Lying"VAL CZERNYMina Loy's Design FlawsCOLBEY EMMERSON REIDForm and Function in the Social Perception and Appreciation of Web SitesEMMANUEL ALVARADO

If writing a multidisciplinary treatise is difficult (and this endeavor wasn't exactly a walk in the park) then I had to imagine how difficult it might be for the reader to assimilate the cross references to evolution, information dynamics and clinical psychology that characterize this book. Moreover, I had to consider that reading a book written in language derived from quantum physics, psychology and anthropology might prove to be a bit dreary, even for seasoned clinicians. So to preclude possible confusion this book was written with Information Theory in mind. That's why, for the sake of clarity, certain themes are repeated in successive chapters to serve as an anchor point for the diverse ideas that revolve around them. As to the book itself, it is offered as an integrative theory. For those who favor linear determinism and the narrow treatment of variables one at a time, this might seem speculative. Others, with an interest not just in understanding who we are, but how we fit into a vast cosmos might find it intriguing. My only hope is that it fosters debate.

One of the intriguing questions of the post-Cold War era has been whether the EU will play a major global role in world politics as non-traditional threats and challenges came to the forefront. Launching new policies such as the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the European Security and Defence Policy and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) have been considered important steps in the EU?s evolution as a regional and possibly global actor. Neighborhood Challenge analyzes critical aspects of the European Union's relations with its neighbours, by extending its analysis beyond the ENP. Unlike existing books on the subject, the volume covers the entire neighborhood from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to North Africa; from the Western Balkans to the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Such an extensive overview of EU policies toward its neighbors is a timely and valuable contribution to European Studies literature. This book can be used as a tool for both academicians and practitioners who specialize in European foreign and security policy; as a textbook in European Union foreign policy courses both at the undergraduate and graduate level; and as a comprehensive reference book for postgraduate students writing dissertations on European foreign and security policy in general and European Neighborhood Policy in particular. The contributions analyze challenges and prospects posed by countries neighboring the EU and the effectiveness of EU policy in dealing with these agendas. Region-focused chapters examine the EU?s politics toward the Western Balkans, Middle East, CIS, and the Black Sea; country-focused chapters explore aspects of Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Iran, Bosnia, Kosovo; and thematically-focused chapters deal with energy security, organized crime, and other issues. Neighborhood Challenge is intended to contribute to the existing literature on EU foreign and security policy in two ways: First, its material is not restricted to the ENP. Instead, it addresses all EU neighbors in a large region and their position in European security. The authors argue that not only the countries in the immediate neighborhood of the EU but also those located in relatively far away regions have a role to play in European Union foreign affairs. Secondly, many of the contributions were written by experts living in countries which neighbor the EU. Their contributions lend new ideas and insight to the relevant literature on EU security and foreign policy.