Analog Circuit Design is based on the yearly Advances in Analog Circuit Design workshop. The aim of the workshop is to bring together designers of advanced analogue and RF circuits for the purpose of studying and discussing new possibilities and future developments in this field. Selected topics for AACD 2007 were: (1) Sensors, Actuators and Power Drivers for the Automotive and Industrial Environment; (2) Integrated PA's from Wireline to RF; (3) Very High Frequency Front Ends.

A great deal of the success of science has rested on its specific methods. One of which has been to start with the study of simple phenomena such as that of falling bodies, or to decompose systems into parts with well-defined properties simpler than those of the total system. In our time there is a growing awareness that in many cases of great practical or scientific interest, such as economics or the hu man brain, we have to deal with truly complex systems which cannot be decomposed into their parts without losing crucial properties of the total system. In addi tion, complex systems have many facets and can be looked at from many points of view. Whenever a complicated problem arises, some scientists or other people are ready to invent lots of beautiful words, or to quote Goethe "denn immer wo Begriffe feh len, dort stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein" ("whenever concepts are lack king, a word appears at the right time"). Quite often such a procedure gives not only the layman but also scientists working in fields different from that of the in ventor of these new words the impression that this problem has been solved, and I am occasionally shocked to see how influential this kind of "linguistics" has become.

OphthoBook is the printed version of the amazing OphthoBook.com online book and video series. The combination of this text, along with the online video lectures, creates the most informative and easy-to-understand ophthalmology review ever written. It is geared toward medical students, optometry students, and non-ophthalmologists who want to learn more about the eye without getting bogged down with mindless detail. The book is broken down into ten chapters: 1. Eye History 2. Anatomy 3. Glaucoma 4. Retina 5. Infection 6. Neuroophthalmology 7. Pediatric Ophthalmology 8. Trauma 9. Optics 10. Lens and Cataract Each chapter also includes "pimp questions" you might be asked in a clinic. Also, an entire chapter of ophthalmology board-review questions, flashcards, and eye abbreviations. Perhaps most useful, each chapter corresponds to the 20-minute video lectures viewable at OphthoBook.com. And lots of fun cartoons!

The basic principles guiding sensing, perception and action in bio systems seem to rely on highly organised spatial-temporal dynamics. In fact, all biological senses, (visual, hearing, tactile, etc.) process signals coming from different parts distributed in space and also show a complex time evolution. As an example, mammalian retina performs a parallel representation of the visual world embodied into layers, each of which r- resents a particular detail of the scene. These results clearly state that visual perception starts at the level of the retina, and is not related uniquely to the higher brain centres. Although vision remains the most useful sense guiding usual actions, the other senses, ?rst of all hearing but also touch, become essential particularly in cluttered conditions, where visual percepts are somehow obscured by environment conditions. Ef?cient use of hearing can be learnt from acoustic perception in animals/insects, like crickets, that use this ancient sense more than all the others, to perform a vital function, like mating.

Professor Colin Blakemore presents a fascinating insight to all the major topics in visual science research.