Quantum Mechanics for Applied Physics and Engineering is devoted to the use of quantum mechanics in applied physics and engineering. Topics covered include elementary quantum theory, quantum statistics and many-particle systems, and energy bands in crystals. Approximation techniques for the Schrödinger equation are also described. Comprised of seven chapters, this book opens with an overview of basic quantum mechanics and includes a discussion on wave-particle duality, probability current density, and periodic boundary conditions. Quantum statistics is then considered as a prelude to the free-electron theory of metals, along with the use of perturbation theory to evaluate modifications in free-electron theory. The following chapters explore the use of WKB approximation to deduce the transmission coefficient for electron tunneling in solids; the theory of electronic energy bands; and the application of the Schrödinger equation to the problem of the periodic potential of a crystalline solid. Examples from solid-state physics are employed to illustrate specific applications and to demonstrate the principal results that can be deduced by means of quantum theory. This monograph is written primarily for engineers and applied physicists.

Information Technologies for Education and Training have gained increasing atten tion and significance in the past decade. Accordingly, the availability of an enormous amount of information sources through the Internet, the technological progress in the ICT sector, and an increasing flexibility in organizations and enterprises have accelerated the information and knowledge growth in our society. Knowledge and Lifelong Learning have become critical success factors for the long-term positioning on the global market. Recent mergers of globally distributed enterprises show that knowledge has to be available and transferable within a short time frame. Global, flexible, and service-oriented organizations need highly qualified employees. These trends also show the rapidly growing significance of new aspects of ba sie and further education. Traditional education, ending with a graduation, will be complemented by a lifelong leaming process. Every individual is required to contin uously leam new and changing knowledge. Consequently, the support of leaming processes through innovative technologies becomes an elementary component of every educationallevel. The Handbook is a comprehensive guide for researchers and practitioners work ing with Educational Technologies. lts overall goal is to enable the reader to gain a deep understanding of past, current, and future research and applications in the field of Educational Technologies. It will provide a reference source for both practitioners and researchers in the enterprise and educational sector. From a research perspective, the reader will gain an in-depth understanding of complex theories, strategies, concepts, and methods of Educational Technologies.

This inaugural handbook documents the distinctive research field that utilizes history and philosophy in investigation of theoretical, curricular and pedagogical issues in the teaching of science and mathematics. It is contributed to by 130 researchers from 30 countries; it provides a logically structured, fully referenced guide to the ways in which science and mathematics education is, informed by the history and philosophy of these disciplines, as well as by the philosophy of education more generally. The first handbook to cover the field, it lays down a much-needed marker of progress to date and provides a platform for informed and coherent future analysis and research of the subject. The publication comes at a time of heightened worldwide concern over the standard of science and mathematics education, attended by fierce debate over how best to reform curricula and enliven student engagement in the subjects. There is a growing recognition among educators and policy makers that the learning of science must dovetail with learning about science; this handbook is uniquely positioned as a locus for the discussion. The handbook features sections on pedagogical, theoretical, national, and biographical research, setting the literature of each tradition in its historical context. It reminds readers at a crucial juncture that there has been a long and rich tradition of historical and philosophical engagements with science and mathematics teaching, and that lessons can be learnt from these engagements for the resolution of current theoretical, curricular and pedagogical questions that face teachers and administrators. Science educators will be grateful for this unique, encyclopaedic handbook, Gerald Holton, Physics Department, Harvard University This handbook gathers the fruits of over thirty years’ research by a growing international and cosmopolitan community Fabio Bevilacqua, Physics Department, University of Pavia