Unmanned is an in-depth examination of why seemingly successful wars never seem to end. The problem centers on drones, now accumulated in the thousands, the front end of a spying and killing machine that is disconnected from either security or safety. Drones, however, are only part of the problem. William Arkin shows that security is actually undermined by an impulse to gather as much data as possible, the appetite and the theory both skewed towards the notion that no amount is too much. And yet the very endeavor of putting fewer human in potential danger places everyone in greater danger. Wars officially end, but the Data Machine lives on forever. Throughout his career, Arkin has exposed powerful secrets of so-called national security and intelligence. Now he continues that tradition. The most alarming book about warfare in years, Unmanned is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of mankind.

Genomic imprinting is the process by which gene activity is regulated according to parent of origin. Usually, this means that either the maternally inherited or the paternally inherited allele of a gene is expressed while the opposite allele is repressed. The phenomenon is largely restricted to mammals and flowering plants and was first recognized at the level of whole genomes. Nuclear transplantation experiments carried out in mice in the late 1970s established the non-equivalence of the maternal and paternal genomes in mammals, and a similar conclusion was drawn from studies of interploidy crosses of flowering plants that extend back to at least the 1930s. Further mouse genetic studies, involving animals carrying balanced translocations (reviewed in Chapter 3), indicated that imprinted genes were likely to be widely scattered and would form a minority within the mammalian genome. The first imprinted genes were identified in the early 1990s; over forty are now known in mammals and the list continues steadily to expand.

1. General trends and coupling schemes. 1.1. Introduction. 1.2. The aligned coupling scheme. 1.3. The pair coupling scheme. 1.4. Competition between aligned and pair coupling. 1.5. Quasi-particles -- 2. The collective vibrational model. 2.1. Vibrations in quantum mechanics. 2.2. The energy spectrum for shape oscillations. 2.3. Electromagnetic transition strengths. 2.4. The hydrodynamic collective parameters. 2.5. Comparison with experiment. 2.6. Sum rules -- 3. The unified model for vibrations. 3.1. Even-even nuclei. 3.2. Odd-mass nuciei - weak coupling. 3.3. Excitation of vibrational states in inelastic scattering -- 4. The vibrating potential model (VPM). 4.1. The adiabatic approximation. 4.2. The possibility of going to higher order. 4.3. The vibrating potential model (VPM). 4.4. Discussion -- 5. The E1 photoresonance. 5.1. The collective model. 5.2. The independent particle model (IPM). 5.3. The compatibility of the two approaches. 5.4. The unified model. 5.5. The structure of the photoresonance -- 6. The collective rotational model. 6.1. The two-particle rotor. 6.2. The asymmetric rotor model. 6.3. The symmetric rotor model. 6.4. K = 0 bands. 6.5. The symmetric core model. 6.6. K = 1/2 bands. 6.7. Electromagnetic moments and transitions. 6.8. Band mixing -- 7. The unified model for rotations. 7.1. The aligned wave-function. 7.2. The Nilsson model. 7.3. Intrinsic structure. 7.4. Even-even nuclei. 7.5. Odd-mass nuclei - strong coupling. 7.6. Excitation of rotational states in inelastic scattering -- 8. The moment of inertia. 8.1. The irrotational flow model. 8.2. The rotational flow model. 8.3. The two-fluid model. 8.4. The cranking model. 8.5. The pushing model -- 9. Hartree-Fock seH-consistent field theory : spherical nuclei. 9.1. Hartree theory. 9.2. Hartree-Fock (HF) theory. 9.3. Realistic and effective interactions. 9.4. Hartree-Fock calculations for closed-shell nuclei. 9.5. The shell model.

An uncensored account of General Schwartz's term as the wartime US Air Force Chief of Staff under presidents Bush and Obama. The General’s dysfunctional home life drove him to apply to the Air Force Academy over forty years ago, where he was provided with a new family and sense of worth he had never earned from his own father. This purpose has driven the General throughout his remarkable career, taking him to Alaska, the Pentagon, and Germany; to Florida during Hurricane Opal, and has also allowed him to work alongside Presidents Bush and Obama and Secretaries of Defense Don Rumsfeld, Bob Gates and Leon Panetta. Journey is a book about leadership. It is packed with the General’s lessons from life in the military: breaking the mold, flying uncharted airspace, battles?from Iraq to the Pentagon, Afghanistan to Congress. It’s about pushing limits in an era of diminishing budgets and fewer resources to fuel the furnace of innovation. He chronicles the phenomenal story of the evolution of the US special operations, such as what was achieved when taking down Bin Laden. The General discusses the controversial new technologies that have been allowing America to build new capabilities in remote aircraft and cyber warfare. Many believe General Schwartz’s greatest legacy will be the dramatic acceleration of the “drone” program. He is a staunch advocate for it and this book will explain why.

Modern electronic devices and novel materials often derive their extraordinary properties from the intriguing, complex behavior of large numbers of electrons forming what is known as an electron liquid. This book provides an in-depth introduction to the physics of the interacting electron liquid in a broad variety of systems, including metals, semiconductors, artificial nano-structures, atoms and molecules. One, two and three dimensional systems are treated separately and in parallel. Different phases of the electron liquid, from the Landau Fermi liquid to the Wigner crystal, from the Luttinger liquid to the quantum Hall liquid are extensively discussed. Both static and time-dependent density functional theory are presented in detail. Although the emphasis is on the development of the basic physical ideas and on a critical discussion of the most useful approximations, the formal derivation of the results is highly detailed and based on the simplest, most direct methods.

Still and moving images are crucial factors in contemporary political conflicts. They not only have representational, expressive or illustrative functions, but also augment and create significant events. Beyond altering states of mind, they affect bodies and often life or death is at stake. Various forms of image operations are currently performed in the contexts of war, insurgency and activism. Photographs, videos, interactive simulations and other kinds of images steer drones to their targets, train soldiers, terrorise the public, celebrate protest icons, uncover injustices, or call for help. They are often parts of complex agential networks and move across different media and cultural environments. This book is a pioneering interdisciplinary study of the role and function of images in political life. Balancing theoretical reflections with in-depth case studies, it brings together renowned scholars and activists from different fields to offer a multifaceted critical perspective on a crucial aspect of contemporary visual culture.