This book is a collection of papers presented at the conference “Forum Math-for-Industry 2014” for which the unifying theme was “Applications + Practical Conceptualization + Mathematics = fruitful Innovation” in October 2014. This epigram encapsulates the dynamics of the process that takes an application through to an innovation. Industrial mathematics can be viewed as the causal engine…
This concise brief describes how the demands of World War I, often referred to as the Chemists’ War, led to the rapid emergence of a new key industry based on fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Then, as now, nitrogen products, including nitric acid, and nitrates, were essential for both fertilizers and in the manufacture of modern explosives. During the first decade of the twentieth century, t…
This book is focused on the challenges to implement sustainability in diverse contexts such as agribusiness, natural resource systems and new technologies. The experiences made by the researchers of the School of Agricultural, Forestry, Food and Environmental Science (SAFE) of the University of Basilicata offer a wide and multidisciplinary approach to the identification and testing of differ…
This brief examines current research on improving Vehicular Networks (VANETs), examining spectrum scarcity due to the dramatic growth of mobile data traffic and the limited bandwidth of dedicated vehicular communication bands and the use of opportunistic spectrum bands to mitigate congestion. It reviews existing literature on the use of opportunistic spectrum bands for VANETs, including license…
This Springer Brief investigates spectrum sharing with limited channel feedback in various cognitive radio systems, such as point-to-point, broadcast scheduling and ad-hoc networks. The design aim is to optimally allocate the secondary resources to improve the throughput of secondary users while maintaining a certain quality of service for primary users. The analytical results of optimal resour…
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is the optical analog of ultrasound imaging and is a powerful imaging technique that enables non-invasive, in vivo, high resolution, cross-sectional imaging in biological tissue. Between 30 to 40 Million OCT imaging procedures are performed per year in ophthalmology. The overall market is estimated at more than 0.5 Billion USD. A new generation OCT technology…
This brief analyzes the characteristics of a microring resonator (MRR) to perform communication using ultra-short soliton pulses. The raising of nonlinear refractive indices, coupling coefficients and radius of the single microring resonator leads to decrease in input power and round trips wherein the bifurcation occurs. As a result, bifurcation or chaos behaviors are seen at lower input power …
The book reviews the most recent achievements in optical technologies for XUV and X-ray coherent sources. Particular attention is given to free-electron-laser facilities, but also to other sources available at present, such as synchrotrons, high-order laser harmonics and X-ray lasers. The optical technologies relevant to each type of source are discussed. In addition, the main technologies used…
Metamaterials are artificially designed materials engineered to acquire their properties by their specific structure rather than their composition. They are considered a major scientific breakthrough and have attracted enormous attention over the past decade. The major challenge in obtaining an optical metamaterial active at visible frequencies is the fabrication of complex continuous metallic …
This book focuses on optical wireless communications (OWC), an emerging technology with huge potential for the provision of pervasive and reliable next-generation communications networks. It shows how the development of novel and efficient wireless technologies can contribute to a range of transmission links essential for the heterogeneous networks of the future to support various communication…