[en] War history as a modern historic discipline is by far no longer a mere history of arms technique or a chronicle of battles. It deals with the change of warfare, shows how the wars of the various ages had determined society, and vice versay investigates the influence of social, economic, and -concerning mentality-historical changes on war. With this survey, which covers the period between the Middle Ages and the recent past, the author has presented a small masterpiece of the history of war. A book like this is particularly important and instructive in a time when all depends on the preventing of wars. (orig.)

[en] This article makes a review of the books Danger and Survival: Choices about the Bomb in the First Fifty Years written by McGeorge Bundy, and War and Peace in the Nuclear Age written by John Newhouse. A history of political decisions on weapon development is given, along with a what if analysis of other options. The lesson of these two books is that it has proved considerably easier to live with nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union than anyone expected forty years ago. It is all the easier if arms control issues, based on worst case analyses, are kept in their place, which is firmly in the background of the overall conduct of foreign policy

[en] Optimal therapy for adenocarcinoma of the prostate is controversial. Numerous options are available, however, comparison of results is difficult in view of the insufficiency of phase III randomized trials comparing alternative treatment strategies. These options include such strategies as no curative therapy (so-called watchful waiting), radiotherapy (external and/or internal), cryotherapy, or radical prostatectomy. Clearly, a broad spectrum of clinical approaches. When reported experiences involving radiation therapy and radical prostatectomy are compared, surgical patients tend to be younger, of earlier stage, of higher performance status, and have lower pre-therapy PSA. These prognostic factors influence the probability of disease control, and since patient selection can have a profound impact on results reporting, these issues need to be carefully controlled. A review of patients who are potentially candidates for surgery at the University of Michigan treated with conformal therapy external beam treatment, indicates that these relatively early patients are doing well. These issues will be elaborated upon further during the presentation

[en] Recent studies by Global Energy Decisions and Cambridge Energy Research Associates offered high 'headline impact' in finding that wholesale electric competition is fulfilling its promises and restructuring is benefiting consumers to the tune of billions of dollars. But both studies share a fundamental problem tied to the fact that portions of those 'savings' to consumers accrue from losses suffered by the competitive generation sector

[en] We propose that hydrogen-passivated multivacancies which appear to be fully saturated with H can actually capture additional H in electrically inactive sites. In silicon, first-principles total energy calculations show that splitting an (m≥2) multivacancy into a mono- and an (m-1) vacancy provides a low-strain pairing site for H, 0.4eV per H lower than any known bulk pairing site. This monovacancy ejection mechanism is an excellent candidate for the H reservoir found both in crystalline and amorphous Si. A distinct H pairing on the fully saturated m vacancies, by forming an internal surface Si-Si dimer, provides the final state of light-induced metastable degradation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon

[en] From a personal viewpoint the changes in biomedical radiography in the United Kingdom since 1949 are discussed

[en] A microscopic pathway for nonradiative electron-hole recombination by large structural reconfiguration in hydrogenated Si is found with first-principles calculations. Trapped-biexciton formation leads to a low-barrier reconfiguration of the H atom, accompanied by crossing of doubly occupied electron and hole levels in the band gap. This crossing represents the nonradiative recombination of the carriers, without multiphonon emission. The proposal provides a mechanism for carrier-induced H emission during metastable degradation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society

[en] By rigorously formalizing the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) argument, and Bohr’s reply, one can appreciate that both arguments were technically correct. Their opposed conclusions about the completeness of quantum mechanics hinged upon an explicit difference in their criteria for when a measurement on Alice’s system can be regarded as not disturbing Bob’s system. The EPR criteria allow their conclusion–incompleteness–to be reached by establishing the physical reality of just a single observable q (not of both q and its conjugate observable p), but I show that Bohr’s definition of disturbance prevents the EPR chain of reasoning from establishing even this. Moreover, I show that Bohr’s definition is intimately related to the asymmetric concept of quantum discord from quantum information theory: if and only if the joint state has no Alice-discord, she can measure any observable without disturbing (in Bohr’s sense) Bob’s system. Discord can be present even when systems are unentangled, and this has implications for our understanding of the historical development of notions of quantum nonlocality. -- Highlights: •Both the EPR argument, and Bohr’s reply, were technically correct. •Their opposed conclusions came from different criteria for disturbance. •Bohr’s criterion works against even the simplified (one-variable) EPR argument. •Bohr’s criterion for disturbance is intimately related to quantum discord. •This illuminates the historical development of notions of quantum nonlocality

[en] We report a synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of the average neighborhood of Si near the transition from a-Si:H to μc-Si on wedge-shaped samples prepared by hot-wire CVD in a chamber using a movable shutter. The thickness of the wedge varies from 30 to 160 nm. Nucleation of μc-Si occurs at a critical thickness of approximately 100 nm. X-Ray absorption was measured at the Si K-edge (1.84 keV) by total electron photoemission yield. The absorption oscillations in the EXAFS region are very similar to all along the wedge. Analysis indicates an average tetrahedral first neighbor shell with radial disorder decreasing with crystallization. In the near-edge (XANES) region multiple scattering effects appear at the onset of crystallinity. Unlike single crystal silicon, these effects involve only double scattering within the first neighbor shell, indicating an ill-formed second shell in μc-Si

[en] Solution of the partial differential equation for diffusion of mobile atoms during solid film growth demonstrates that the observed phase transition in low-temperature silicon epitaxy is triggered by supersaturation of the growing layer with hydrogen. The limiting thickness of the epitaxial layer, h_epi, is completely determined by measurable quantities: the flux of hydrogen, the hydrogen diffusion coefficient, and the layer growth rate. Our model accounts for the observed Arrhenius and growth rate dependence of h_epi