This book comprehensively outlines synchrotron-based X-ray imaging technologies and their associated applications in gaining fundamental insights into the physical and chemical properties as well as reaction mechanisms of energy materials. In this book the major X-ray imaging technologies utilised, depending on research goals and sample specifications, are discussed. With X-ray imaging techniques, the morphology, phase, lattice and strain information of energy materials in both 2D and 3D can be obtained in an intuitive way.

Atomic and nuclear physics are two flourishing but distinct branches of physics; the subject of isotope shifts in atomic spectra is one of the few that links these two branches. It is a subject that has been studied for well over fifty years, but interest in the subject, far from flagging, has been stimulated in recent years. Fast computers have enabled theoreticians to evaluate the properties of many-electron atoms, and laser spectroscopy has made it possible to measure isotope shifts in the previously unmeasurable areas of very rare isotopes, short-lived radioactive isotopes, weak transitions, and transitions involving high-lying atomic levels. Isotope shifts can now be measured with greater accuracy than before in both optical transitions and x-ray transitions of muonic atoms; this improved accuracy is revealing new facets of the subject. I am very grateful to Dr. H. G. Kuhn, F. R. S. , for having introduced me to the subject in the 1950s, and for supervising my efforts to measure isotope shifts in the spectrum of ruthenium. I thus approach the subject as an experimental atomic spectroscopist. This bias is obviously apparent in my use of the spectroscopist's notation of lower-upper for a transition, rather than the nuclear physicist's upper-lower. My reasons are given in Section 1. 3 and I hope that nuclear physicists will forgive me for using this notation even for muonic x-ray transitions.

The NATO Advanced Study Institute on Quantum Electrodynamics of Strong Fields was held at Lahnstein on the Rhine from 15-26 June, 1981. The school was devoted to the advances, theoretical and exper­ imental, in the physics of strong fields made during the past decade. The topic of the first week was almost exclusively quantum electrodynamics, with discussions of symmetry breaking in the ground state, of the physics of heavy ion collisions and of precision tests of perturbative quantum electrodynamics. This was followed in the second week by the presentation of a broad range of other areas where strong fields occur, reaching from nuclear physics over quantum chromodynamics to gravitation theory and astrophysics. We were fortunate to be able to call on a body of lecturers who not only have made considerable personal contributions to these advances but who are also noted for their lecturing skills. Their dedication for their subject was readily transmitted to the stu­ dents resulting in a very successful school. This enthusiasm is also reflected in their contributions to these Proceedings which, as I believe, will in time become a standard source of reference for future work on the physics of strong fields and will help to spread the benefits of the school to a larger audience than those who were able to attend. I regret that the Soviet colleagues Ya. B. Zeldovich and V. S. Popov were unable to participate.

This book highlights key technologies of signal processing in pulsar-based navigation. It discusses the modeling, simulation, acquisition, and correction of relativistic effects of signals from X-ray pulsars. It demonstrates the methods of contour reconstruction and denoising, and introduces the concept and methods of the average contour. The performance of the phase measurement methods using signal contour is analyzed. The role of wavelets and bispectral methods in the denoising of pulsar signals is discussed. The measurements of pulsar signals’ arriving time are looked into from the perspective of time series. The book is intended for researchers and engineers interested in pulsar-based navigation. It is also a good reference source for senior undergraduates and postgraduate students majoring in navigation and signal processing.

Numerous works on non-destructive testing of food quality have been reported in the literature. Techniques such as Near InfraRed (NIR) spectroscopy, color and visual spectroscopy, electronic nose and tongue, computer vision (image analysis), ultrasound, x-ray, CT and magnetic resonance imaging are some of the most applied for that purpose and are described in this book. Aspects such as theory/basics of the techniques, practical applications (sampling, experimentation, data analysis) for evaluation of quality attributes of food and some recent works reported in literature are presented and discussed. This book is particularly interesting for new researchers in food quality and serves as an updated state-of-the-art report for those already familiar with the field.

This book will provide readers with a good overview of some of most recent advances in the field of Photon Counting CT technology for X-ray medical imaging, especially as it pertains to new detectors. There will be a good mixture of general chapters in both technology and applications in CT medical imaging. The book will have an in-depth review of the research topics from world-leading specialists in the field. The conversion of the X-ray signal into analogue/digital value will be covered in some chapters. The authors also provide a review of CMOS chips for X-ray image sensors, methods of material discrimination and image reconstruction techniques.

This book will provide readers with a good overview of some of most recent advances in the field of Photon Counting CT technology for X-ray medical imaging, especially as it pertains to new detectors. There will be a good mixture of general chapters in both technology and applications in CT medical imaging. The book will have an in-depth review of the research topics from world-leading specialists in the field. The conversion of the X-ray signal into analogue/digital value will be covered in some chapters. The authors also provide a review of CMOS chips for X-ray image sensors, methods of material discrimination and image reconstruction techniques.