Introduction to Python Programming And Data Structure By Liang

With unique scholarly analysis and practical discussion, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the relationship between environmental protection and human rights being formalized into law in many legal systems. This book instructs on environmental techniques and procedures that assist in the protection of human rights. The text provides cogent guidance on a growing international jurisprudence on the promotion and protection of human rights in relation to the environment that has been developed by international and regional human rights bodies and tribunals. It explores a rich body of case law that continues to develop within states on the environmental dimension of the rights to life, to health, and to public participation and access to information. Five compelling contemporary case studies are included that implicate human rights and the environment, ranging from large dam projects to the creation of a new human right to a clean environment.

This book provides a pioneering introduction to heritage languages and their speakers, written by one of the founders of this new field. Using examples from a wide range of languages, it covers all the main components of grammar, including phonetics and phonology, morphology and morphosyntax, semantics and pragmatics, and shows easy familiarity with approaches ranging from formal grammar to typology, from sociolinguistics to child language acquisition and other relevant aspects of psycholinguistics. The book offers analysis of resilient and vulnerable domains in heritage languages, with a special emphasis on recurrent structural properties that occur across multiple heritage languages. It is explicit about instances where, based on our current knowledge, we are unable to reach a clear decision on a particular claim or analytical point, and therefore provides a much-needed resource for future research.

Charles Messier's catalogue of nebulae and star clusters, published in 1784, marked the start of a new era of deep sky astronomy. This tradition of observing galaxies and clusters is kept alive by serious amateur astronomers who study the objects of the deep sky. Nearly all the objects are visible in a small telescope. Many, such as the Crab Nebula and the Andromeda galaxy, are among the most fascinating objects in the universe. Kenneth Glyn Jones has revised his definitive version of Messier's catalogue. His own observations and drawings, together with maps and diagrams, make this a valuable introduction to deep sky observing. Historical and astrophysical notes bring the science of these nebulae to the fore. This is a unique handbook, unlikely ever to be equalled in its completeness and importance to the telescope owner.

In the twentieth century, cumulative millions of readers received books by mail from clubs like the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Book Society or Bertelsmann Club. This Element offers an introduction to book clubs as a distribution channel and cultural phenomenon, and shows that book clubs and book commerce are linked inextricably. It argues that a global perspective is necessary to understand the cultural and economic impact of book clubs in the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. It also explores central reasons for book club membership, condensing them into four succinct categories: convenience, community, concession and, most importantly, curation. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Despite its remote and seemingly rigorous environment, the Antarctic is the world's most important habitat for seals, currently supporting more seals than all other parts of the world combined. As various national Antarctic programmes were established to study these animals, the need to standardize techniques became apparent. This book, arising from work by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (Group of Specialists on Seals), gives a detailed account of well-tried and, where possible, agreed methodologies, techniques, procedures and rationale for the collection and initial analysis of data on the biology and population ecology of Antarctic seals. This volume will not only help facilitate comparisons between different regions of Antarctica, but will also provide a guide for those studying seals in other parts of the world and those carrying out research on other large mammal species.

Bringing together the viewpoints of leading ecologists concerned with the processes that generate patterns of diversity, and evolutionary biologists who focus on mechanisms of speciation, this book opens up discussion in order to broaden understanding of how speciation affects patterns of biological diversity, especially the uneven distribution of diversity across time, space and taxa studied by macroecologists. The contributors discuss questions such as: Are species equivalent units, providing meaningful measures of diversity? To what extent do mechanisms of speciation affect the functional nature and distribution of species diversity? How can speciation rates be measured using molecular phylogenies or data from the fossil record? What are the factors that explain variation in rates? Written for graduate students and academic researchers, the book promotes a more complete understanding of the interaction between mechanisms and rates of speciation and these patterns in biological diver

This textbook, addressed primarily to physics and engineering students, is a comprehensive introduction to waves and oscillations, both mechanical and electromagnetic. Elementary aspects of matter waves are also considered. One objective is to illustrate the physics involved in the description and analysis of waves through a wide range of examples, from purely mechanical and purely electromagnetic to coupled electro-mechanical waves, such as plasma oscillations and hydromagnetic waves. In this process, the use of complex amplitudes in the mathematical analysis is illuminated and encouraged to make tractable a wider range of problems than is ordinarily considered in an introductory text. General concepts and wave phenomena such as wave energy and momentum, interference, diffraction, scattering, dispersion, and the Doppler effect are illustrated by numerous examples and demonstrations. Among the special topics covered are waves on periodic structures and in solids, wave guides, a detaile

Guglielmo Cinque is one of the world's leading theoretical syntacticians, and is particularly known for his application of recent theory to the analysis of Italian. This volume brings together ten of Professor Cinque's essays, some of which are published here for the first time, and some of which have not hitherto been easily available. They explore a wide range of aspects of Italian syntax, including the grammar of relative and 'pseudo-relative' clauses in the complement of perception verbs, impersonal si constructions, and the position and argument structure of adjectives in the noun phrase. The volume considers the implications of Cinque's work on Italian syntax for generative grammar more broadly, and compares Italian with the syntax of other Romance and also Germanic languages. It will be welcomed by all those working on Italian syntax, and on theoretical syntax generally.

This book contains a selection of essays and articles by John H. Jackson previously published over four decades and collected together into one volume. Each article has been selected for its continued relevance to contemporary issues in international trade. Particular attention has been given to making available articles which have previously been less accessible. For the most part articles are republished in their original form but, where appropriate, the author has clearly marked some omissions and added updating material. In selecting and grouping these writings into six thematic parts, the author has written a short introduction to each part for this book. These range from the origin of the GATT through to the Uruguay round of trade negotiations and the WTO. An important compendium from a globally recognized scholar which must become an indispensable purchase for all concerned with international trade policy issues.

This book is a thorough introduction to the formal foundations and practical applications of Bayesian networks. It provides an extensive discussion of techniques for building Bayesian networks that model real-world situations, including techniques for synthesizing models from design, learning models from data, and debugging models using sensitivity analysis. It also treats exact and approximate inference algorithms at both theoretical and practical levels. The treatment of exact algorithms covers the main inference paradigms based on elimination and conditioning and includes advanced methods for compiling Bayesian networks, time-space tradeoffs, and exploiting local structure of massively connected networks. The treatment of approximate algorithms covers the main inference paradigms based on sampling and optimization and includes influential algorithms such as importance sampling, MCMC, and belief propagation. The author assumes very little background on the covered subjects, supplying

Major scholars on Japan explore the Japanese style of learning in this important volume, drawing upon ethnographic and experimental studies of learning throughout the lifespan. The reader will get an inside view of Japanese teaching methods, where the emphasis is on the process of learning, rather than the end product. Applications across contexts - from religion to music, to mathematics, to guidance - are very differently handled than in the West. Contributors analyze various models of learning within and without the Japanese school system. The examples considered here allow us to understand better the rich coherence and variety of educational experiences in the broader social context. A carefully articulated introduction and conclusion by the editors provide salient comparisons of East and West and caution, that we do not simplify our model of either one. Teaching and Learning in Japanwill be of interest to educators, Japan scholars, and to educational psychologists.

Modern Polish philosophy has an impressive record as a powerful, innovating tradition, in many respects parallel to but independent of the development of analytical philosophy in Britain and America. Owing to an absence of adequate translations however, the work of its leading exponents has generally only been encountered second-hand. To remedy this, Quinton and Skolimowski have translated an introduction to philosophy written by Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, probably the outstanding representative of the generation. Problems and Theories of Philosophy surveys concisely and, so far as possible, systematically the main problems in epistemology and metaphysics and the most historically important of the solutions proposed to them. The book still reads freshly and displays many of the characteristic intellectual virtues of Polish philosophy: clarity and straightforwardness of presentation combined with a bracing rigour and precision. It is in no sense parochial to its Polish origins and can stand

This book presents a definitive account of the applications of the algebraic L-theory to the surgery classification of topological manifolds. The central result is the identification of a manifold structure in the homotopy type of a Poincaré duality space with a local quadratic structure in the chain homotopy type of the universal cover. The difference between the homotopy types of manifolds and Poincaré duality spaces is identified with the fibre of the algebraic L-theory assembly map, which passes from local to global quadratic duality structures on chain complexes. The algebraic L-theory assembly map is used to give a purely algebraic formulation of the Novikov conjectures on the homotopy invariance of the higher signatures; any other formulation necessarily factors through this one. The book is designed as an introduction to the subject, accessible to graduate students in topology; no previous acquaintance with surgery theory is assumed, and every algebraic concept is justified by

The essays collected in State, Trust and Corporation contain the reflections of England's greatest legal historian on the legal, historical and philosophical origins of the idea of the state. All written in the first years of the twentieth century, Maitland's essays are classics both of historical writing and of political theory. They contain a series of profound insights into the way the character of the state has been shaped by the non-political associations that exist alongside it, and their themes are of continuing relevance today. This is the first new edition of these essays for sixty years, and the first of any kind to contain full translations, glossary and expository introduction. It has been designed to make Maitland's writings fully accessible to the non-specialist, and to make available to anyone interested in the idea of the state some of the most important modern writings in English on that subject.

Quantum Chaos provides a comprehensive overview of our understanding of chaotic behaviour in a wide variety of quantum and semiclassical systems, and describes both experimental and theoretical investigations. A general introduction sets out the main features of chaos in quantum systems. Thereafter, in an authoritative collection of papers, prominent scientists put forward their particular interpretations of quantum chaos, with reference to a broad range of interesting physical systems. As yet, there is no universally accepted definition of quantum chaos. However, by dealing with such a wide range of topics from different branches of physics, this book provides an overview of this rapidly expanding field, and will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in many areas of physics and chemistry.

Two decades after Indonesia's transition to democracy, its labor movement has emerged as a vibrant and influential political actor. Labor and Politics in Indonesia provides the first in-depth analysis of this development, investigating how a structurally weak labor movement carved out a strategic foothold in a country with no recent history of union engagement in politics. Caraway and Ford show how Indonesia's labor movement achieved many of its goals first through the disruptive power of contentious politics and later by combining street and electoral politics. Labor and Politics in Indonesia challenges the dominant theoretical approaches in the study of Indonesian politics, demonstrating how this movement became an active, and surprisingly effective, participant in Indonesia's democracy. Caraway and Ford break new theoretical ground in their analysis of how legacies of authoritarianism, the post-transition political opportunity structure, and the tactical creativity of Indonesia's un

Traditional textbook analysis of international trade and labour movements typically ignores basic features of the welfare state. Similarly, the theory of finance and capital structure seldom treats international capital flows and their implications for central macroeconomic variables such as saving and investment. Under such circumstances, barriers to capital flows are undesirable. Despite the volumes that have been written on the markets and the desirability of regulating capital flows, there has been little work on the magnitude of distortions in these flows. This book fills a gap by combining elements from these disjointed parts of economics and presents them in an analytical framework. It lays the groundwork for the integration of capital, labour, and finance into a unified treatment of globalisation. The book is intended as a compact textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in international economics and public economics. It also serves as a reference for researche

Risk Modeling for Hazards and Disasters opens with an introduction to insurance risk modeling data and modeling concepts and then moves on to review innovative ideas from the most well-known vendor fi

This introductory textbook covers the biochemical, behavioural and social factors which influence the mind. It discusses all major groups of drugs which are commonly misused, including drugs normally available only on prescription, hallucinogenic drugs, narcotics, and socially acceptable drugs such as caffeine and nicotine. Alcohol, as the most widely used drug of abuse in most developed countries, is considered in detail: the biological effects of alcohol, the problems resulting from alcohol use, and the means by which alcohol abuse can be controlled, are all discussed. The final chapters deal with mental health and mental illness. An excellent introduction to the topic for advanced school and beginning undergraduate biology students.

This book, first published in 2000, was the first since Jorge Huerta's earlier study Chicano Theater: Themes and Forms to explore the diversity and energy of Chicano theatre. Huerta takes as his starting point 1979, the year Luis Valdez's play, Zoot Suit, was produced on Broadway. Huerta looks at plays by and about Chicana and Chicanos, as they explore, through performance, the community and its identity caught between the United States and Mexico. Through informative biographies of each playwright and analyses of their plays, Huerta offers an accessible introduction to this important aspect of American theatre and culture. Overall, Huerta establishes a pattern of theatrical activity that is closely linked with both Western European traditions of realism and an indigenous philosophy seen in contemporary Chicano culture. The book contains photographs from key productions and will be invaluable to students, scholars and general theatregoers.

Dr Andrews here provides a homogeneous treatment of the semantics (operational and logical) of both theoretical and practical logic programming languages. He shows how the rift between theory and practice in logic programming can be bridged. This is achieved by precisely characterizing the way in which 'depth-first' search for solutions to a logical formula - the usual strategy in most practical languages - is incomplete. Languages that perform 'breadth-first' searches reflect more closely the theory underlying logic programming languages. Researchers interested in logic programming or semantics, as well as artificial intelligence search strategies, will want to consult this book as the only source for some essential and new ideas in the area.

The explanation of animal communication by means of concepts like information, meaning and reference is one of the central foundational issues in animal behaviour studies. This book explores these issues, revolving around questions such as: what is the nature of information? What theoretical roles does information play in animal communication studies? Is it justified to employ these concepts in order to explain animal communication? What is the relation between animal signals and human language? The book approaches the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including ethology, animal cognition, theoretical biology and evolutionary biology, as well as philosophy of biology and mind. A comprehensive introduction familiarises non-specialists with the field and leads on to chapters ranging from philosophical and theoretical analyses to case studies involving primates, birds and insects. The resulting survey of new and established concepts and methodologies will guide future emp

Taken as a whole the essays in this volume illustrate the outstanding contribution made to French Revolutionary scholarship by British and American authors. Professor Johnson has selected essays which cover a wide spectrum of time, place and social class but are vitally concerned to describe and explain the social reality of revolution in its various phases. The essays fall into three main groups; the first sets the scene with studies of the social, economic and intellectual life of pre-Revolutionary France; the second studies the role of fate of certain social groups during the Revolution; and the third examines counter-revolution in two provincial areas. The editor has added an introduction and index, and some minor changes have been made to the essays. Many of these articles are already well known to professional historian and it is hoped that publication in the present form will make them available to a wider audience interested in the social experience of the most dramatic and far

Jane Ellen Panton (1847–1923) was the second daughter of the artist William Powell Frith, and an expert on domestic issues. Published in 1909, this is a further collection of Panton's memoirs, following her earlier autobiography Leaves from a Life (also reissued in this series). It looks back on life in mid-nineteenth-century England and the changes that had taken place since then, beginning by asking the question of how much the present generation knew about their country's past. Over fifteen chapters, Panton explores developments in the nature and structure of institutions such as the family, the community, the church, the electorate and the military, deeming certain changes as negative, such as the decline of county families and the gentry, while welcoming others, such as increased opportunities for women. Providing revealing insight into English middle-class concerns in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book remains of interest to social historians.

The polar regions are the 'canary in the coal mine' of climate change: they are likely to be hit the hardest and fastest. This comprehensive textbook provides an accessible introduction to the scientific study of polar environments against a backdrop of climate change and the wider global environment. The book assembles diverse information on polar environmental characteristics in terrestrial and oceanic domains, and describes the ongoing changes in climate, the oceans, and components of the cryosphere. Recent significant changes in the polar region caused by global warming are explored: shrinking Arctic sea ice, thawing permafrost, accelerating loss of mass from glaciers and ice sheets, and rising ocean temperatures. These rapidly changing conditions are discussed in the context of the paleoclimatic history of the polar regions from the Eocene to the Anthropocene. Future projections for these regions during the twenty-first century are discussed. The text is illustrated with many colo

Originally published in 1915, this textbook was written by English mathematician Harry Bateman (1882–1946) and 'is intended as an introduction to some recent developments of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory which are directly connected with the solution of the partial differential equation of wave-motion'. Notably, 'the higher developments of the theory which are based on the dynamical equations of motion are not considered'. Instead the book focuses on an overview of the theory of this vast subject, bringing into view the most recent developments. An extensive knowledge and understanding of mathematics is considered a pre-requisite, as is knowledge on the existing theorems surrounding such study. Interestingly, chapter eight contains some of Bateman's own contributions to the subject. This dynamic and engaging book outlines the theory of electrical and optical wave-motion, summarising the fundamental ideas of the subject and will be of considerable value to scholars of physics.

Megaflooding is the sudden discharge of exceptional volumes of water. Megafloods have significantly altered the terrain of Earth and Mars, and may have acted as triggers for climate change on these planets. Recently, research into megaflooding has made important advances: on Earth, real-time measurements of contemporary floods in Iceland complement research into older and larger terrestrial floods, while on Mars terabytes of data from several spacecraft orbiting that planet are dramatically revising our view of flooding there. Beginning with a historical overview of flood science, the book presents sections on morphology and mechanisms, flood sedimentology, and modelling, each illustrated with examples from Earth and Mars. By juxtaposing terrestrial and Martian research, this volume creates a unique synthesis to further our understanding of these enormous paleoflood events. It is an invaluable reference for researchers and students of hydrology, geomorphology, sedimentology and planeta

Pre-eclampsia is one of the leading causes of death and disability in mothers and babies. Over four million women worldwide will develop the disorder every year. This book, written by an international team of experts, focuses on both the scientific basis of pre-eclampsia and its management. The basic science section contains reviews of the most exciting research developments in pre-eclampsia. The clinical chapters provide a comprehensive review of the pertinent literature, highlighting data and ideas or developments in management. There is a section in each chapter (where relevant) that deals with practical management, giving clinicians a formulated treatment plan that they can implement directly. The book was originally published in 2007, and will have continuing relevance for all professionals interested in the reproductive sciences, and to obstetricians and physicians with an interest in pre-eclampsia.

In Blockchain Regulation and Governance in Europe, Michèle Finck examines the relationship between blockchain technology and EU law and introduces the theme of blockchain governance. The book provides a general introduction to blockchains as both a regulatable and a regulatory technology and outlines the interaction between distributed ledger technology and specific areas of EU law, such as the General Data Protection Regulation. It should be read by anyone interested in EU law, the relationship between law, innovation and technology, and technology governance.

Written by distinguished physics educator David Goodstein, this fresh introduction to thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and the study of matter is ideal for undergraduate courses. The textbook looks at the behavior of thermodynamic variables and examines partial derivatives - the essential language of thermodynamics. It also explores states of matter and the phase transitions between them, the ideal gas equation, and the behavior of the atmosphere. The origin and meaning of the laws of thermodynamics are then discussed, together with Carnot engines and refrigerators, and the notion of reversibility. Later chapters cover the partition function, the density of states, and energy functions, as well as more advanced topics such as the interactions between particles and equations for the states of gases of varying densities. Favoring intuitive and qualitative descriptions over exhaustive mathematical derivations, the textbook uses numerous problems and worked examples to help readers g

Charles Daubeny (1795–1867) first published Active and Extinct Volcanos in 1826. This reissue is of the second, augmented edition of 1848, which the author explains was significantly updated in the light of the work of Charles Darwin. Part I contains geological descriptions of most of the world's known volcanos, arranged by region, many of them based on Daubeny's own observations. Part II contains descriptions of earthquake-prone regions, thermal springs, and thermal waters. In Part III Daubeny introduces his influential theory of the causes of volcanic action, proposing that it results from contact between water and metals beneath the earth's surface. He also discusses the factors that give volcanos particular characteristics, and the impact of volcanos on their environments. This pioneering work of Victorian geology provided the scientific community with some of the first descriptions and data sets on previously unstudied volcanic regions, and is still referred to today.

Robin Horton's critical and creative writings on African religious thought have influenced anthropologists, philosophers, and all those interested in the comparative study of religion and thought. This selection of some of his classic papers, with a new introduction and postscript by the author, traces Horton's theoretical ideas over thirty years. In attempting to understand African religious thought, he also tackles broader issues in the history and sociology of thought, such as secularisation and modernisation. Part I is a critical assessment of two established interpretive approaches, the Symbolist and the Theological. Part II proposes an alternative 'Intellectualist' approach that emphasises the structural and processual similarities between religious and scientific thinking. The postscript appraises the Intellectualist approach in the light of theorising about religion and world views.

The Carmen Saeculare was composed and published in 17 BCE as Horace was returning to the genre of lyric which he had abandoned six years earlier; the fourth book of Odes is in part a response to this poem, the only commissioned poem we know from the period. The hardening of the political situation, with the Republic a thing of the past and the Augustan succession in the air, threw the problematic issue of praise into fresh relief, and at the same time provided an impulse towards the nostalgia represented by the poet's private world. Professor Thomas provides an introduction and commentary (the first full commentary in English since the nineteenth century) to each of the poems, exploring their status as separate lyric artefacts and their place in the larger web of the book. The edition is intended primarily for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, but is also important for scholars.

This graduate textbook presents a concrete and up-to-date introduction to the theory of Coxeter groups. The book is self-contained, making it suitable either for courses and seminars or for self-study. The first part is devoted to establishing concrete examples. Finite reflection groups acting on Euclidean spaces are discussed, and the first part ends with the construction of the affine Weyl groups, a class of Coxeter groups that plays a major role in Lie theory. The second part (which is logically independent of, but motivated by, the first) develops from scratch the properties of Coxeter groups in general, including the Bruhat ordering and the seminal work of Kazhdan and Lusztig on representations of Hecke algebras associated with Coxeter groups is introduced. Finally a number of interesting complementary topics as well as connections with Lie theory are sketched. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography on Coxeter groups and their applications.

Infants, Toddlers and Caregivers is an ideal introduction to care and education in the first three years of life, featuring a respectful approach inspired by field pioneers Magda Gerber and Dr. Emmi P

John Milne (1850–1913) was a professor of mining and geology at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo. While living in Japan, Milne became very interested in seismology, prompted by a strong seismic shock he experienced in Tokyo in 1880. Sixteen years later Milne and two colleagues completed work on the first seismograph capable of recording major earthquakes. This book, originally published in London in 1886, explains why earthquakes happen and what effects they have on land and in the oceans. As Milne points out, Japan provided him with 'the opportunity of recording an earthquake every week'. Starting with an introduction examining the relationship of seismology to the arts and sciences, the book includes chapters on seismometry, earthquake motion, the causes of earthquakes, and their relation to volcanic activity, providing a thorough account of the state of knowledge about these phenomena towards the end of the nineteenth century.

This book provides an introduction to the general principles of nuclear magnetic resonance and relaxation, concentrating on simple models and their application. The concepts of relaxation and the time domain are particularly emphasised. Some relatively advanced topics are treated, but the approach is graduated and all points of potential difficulty are carefully explained. An introductory classical discussion of relaxation is followed by a quantum-mechanical treatment. Only when the the principles of relaxation are firmly established is the density operator approach introduced; and then its power becomes apparent. A selection of case studies is considered in depth, providing applications of the ideas developed in the text. There are a number of appendices, including one on random functions. This treatment of one of the most important experimental techniques in modern science will be of great value to final-year undergraduates, graduate students and researchers using nuclear magnetic re

Political thought is an essential ingredient of politics and the study of political ideas is equally essential for the analysis of political systems. Although the study of African politics has expanded in past years, African political ideas have been relatively neglected. Yet a significant characteristic of African political activity is that those who exert the greatest influence in practical politics also take the lead in formulating those ideas that might be characterised as political thought. The relationship between African political thought and African political action is, in formal terms, a close one. In addition to the main introduction, which discusses the characteristics and significance of African political ideology, the editors have provided short introductions to each major section of documents, biographies of the authors quoted, and a substantial bibliography of works by individual Africans or non-Africans who have influenced thought, as well as of more general sources. Wi

Computer vision aims to detect and reconstruct features of surfaces from the images produced by cameras, in some way mimicking the way in which humans reconstruct features of the world around them by using their eyes. In this book the authors describe research in computer vision aimed at recovering the 3D shape of surfaces from image sequences of their 'outlines'. They provide all the necessary background in differential geometry (assuming knowledge of elementary algebra and calculus) and in the analysis of visual motion, emphasising intuitive visual understanding of the geometric techniques with computer-generated illustrations. They also give a thorough introduction to the mathematical techniques and the details of the implementations and apply the methods to data from real images using the most current techniques.

Magnetic reconnection is at the core of many dynamic phenomena in the universe, such as solar flares, geomagnetic substorms and tokamak disruptions. In an authoritative volume, two world leaders on the subject give a comprehensive overview of this fundamental process. The book provides both a full account of the basic theory and a wide-ranging review of the physical phenomena created by reconnection - from laboratory machines, the Earth's magnetosphere, and the Sun's atmosphere to flare stars and astrophysical accretion disks. It also provides a succinct account of various mechanisms of particle acceleration and of how reconnection can be important in such mechanisms. The clear and pedagogical style makes this book an essential introduction for graduate students and an authoritative reference for researchers in solar physics, astrophysics, plasma physics and space science.