The hardest requirements on a material are in general imposed at the surface: it has to be wear resistant for tools and bearings; corrosion resistant for turbine blades; antireflecting for solar cells; and it must combine several of these properties in other applications. `Surface engineering' is the general term that incorporates all the techniques by which a surface modification can be accomplished. These techniques include both the more traditional methods, such as nitriding, boriding and carburizing, and the newer ones, such as ion implantation, laser beam melting and, in particular, coating. This book comprises and compares in a unique way all these techniques of surface engineering. It is a compilation of lectures which were held by renowned scientists and engineers in the frame of the well known `EuroCourses' of the Joint Research Centre of the Commission of the European Communities. The book is principally addressed to material and surface scientists, physicists and chemists, engineers and technicians of industries and institutes where surface engineering problems arise.

Physicists firmly believe that the differential equations of nature should be hyperbolic so as to exclude action at a distance; yet the equations of irreversible thermodynamics - those of Navier-Stokes and Fourier - are parabolic. This incompatibility between the expectation of physicists and the classical laws of thermodynamics has prompted the formulation of extended thermodynamics. After describing the motifs and early evolution of this new branch of irreversible thermodynamics, the authors apply the theory to mon-atomic gases, mixtures of gases, relativistic gases, and "gases" of phonons and photons. The discussion brings into perspective the various phenomena called second sound, such as heat propagation, propagation of shear stress and concentration, and the second sound in liquid helium. The formal mathematical structure of extended thermodynamics is exposed and the theory is shown to be fully compatible with the kinetic theory of gases. The study closes with the testing of extended thermodynamics through the exploitation of its predictions for measurements of light scattering and sound propagation.

This book features high-quality papers presented at the International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Informatics (ICCII 2018), which was held on 28–29 December 2018 at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, JNTUH College of Engineering, Hyderabad, India. The papers focus on topics such as data mining, wireless sensor networks, parallel computing, image processing, network security, MANETS, natural language processing and Internet of things.

A panel of internationally renowned scientists discuss the latest results in plasma technology. This volume has been compiled with both a didactic approach and an overview of the newest achievements for industrial applications. It is divided into two main sections. One is focused on fundamental technology, including plasma production and control, high-pressure discharges, modeling and simulation, diagnostics, dust control, and etching. The section on application technology covers polymer treatments, silicon solar cell, coating and spray, biomaterials, sterilization and waste treatment, plasma propulsion, plasma display panels, and anti-corrosion coatings. The result is an indispensable work for physicists, chemists and engineers involved in the field of plasma technology.