Material Methods brings together resources for researchers investigating both the material, as well as the social world through material objects we design, buy, make, exchange and collect. It covers the whole research process, from theoretical underpinnings, selection of methods and their possible uses, as well as representing and analysing data. It introduces students and researchers to the wide range of cross-disciplinary methods which help us to approach and interpret material culture and materials. The book also provides students and researchers with the tools to critically reflect upon pre-existing methods to see their limitations as well as possibilities, and apply them to their own research practice.

This is an open access book. The book provides an overview of the state of research in developing countries – Africa, Latin America, and Asia (especially India) and why research and publications are important in these regions. It addresses budding but struggling academics in low and middle-income countries. It is written mainly by senior colleagues who have experienced and recognized the challenges with design, documentation, and publication of health research in the developing world. The book includes short chapters providing insight into planning research at the undergraduate or postgraduate level, issues related to research ethics, and conduct of clinical trials. It also serves as a guide towards establishing a research question and research methodology. It covers important concepts such as writing a paper, the submission process, dealing with rejection and revisions, and covers additional topics such as planning lectures and presentations. The book will be useful for graduates, postgraduates, teachers as well as physicians and practitioners all over the developing world who are interested in academic medicine and wish to do medical research.

An essential guide to designing, conducting, and analyzing event-related potential (ERP) experiments, completely updated for this edition. The event-related potential (ERP) technique, in which neural responses to specific events are extracted from the EEG, provides a powerful noninvasive tool for exploring the human brain. This volume describes practical methods for ERP research along with the underlying theoretical rationale. It offers researchers and students an essential guide to designing, conducting, and analyzing ERP experiments. This second edition has been completely updated, with additional material, new chapters, and more accessible explanations. Freely available supplementary material, including several online-only chapters, offer expanded or advanced treatment of selected topics. The first half of the book presents essential background information, describing the origins of ERPs, the nature of ERP components, and the design of ERP experiments. The second half of the book offers a detailed treatment of the main steps involved in conducting ERP experiments, covering such topics as recording the EEG, filtering the EEG and ERP waveforms, and quantifying amplitudes and latencies. Throughout, the emphasis is on rigorous experimental design and relatively simple analyses. New material in the second edition includes entire chapters devoted to components, artifacts, measuring amplitudes and latencies, and statistical analysis; updated coverage of recording technologies; concrete examples of experimental design; and many more figures. Online chapters cover such topics as overlap, localization, writing and reviewing ERP papers, and setting up and running an ERP lab.

This introductory graduate text is based on a graduate course the author has taught repeatedly over the last ten years to students in applied mathematics, engineering sciences, and physics. Each chapter begins with an introductory development involving ordinary differential equations, and goes on to cover such traditional topics as boundary layers and multiple scales. However, it also contains material arising from current research interest, including homogenisation, slender body theory, symbolic computing, and discrete equations. Many of the excellent exercises are derived from problems of up-to-date research and are drawn from a wide range of application areas.

Non-Destructive Material Characterization Methods provides readers with a trove of theoretical and practical insight into how to implement different non-destructive testing methods for effective material characterization. The book starts with an introduction to the field before moving right into a discussion of a wide range of techniques that can be immediately implemented. Various imaging and microscopy techniques are first covered, with step-by-step insights on characterization using a polarized microscope, an atomic force microscope, computed tomography, ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, infrared tomography, and more. Each chapter includes case studies, applications, and recent developments. From there, elemental assay and mapping techniques are discussed, including Raman spectroscopy, UV spectroscopy, atomic absorption spectroscopy, neutron activation analysis, and various others. The book concludes with sections covering displacement measurement techniques, large-scale facility techniques, and methods involving multiscale analysis and advanced analysis. - Provides an overview of a wide-range of NDT material characterization methods, strengths and weaknesses of these methods, when to apply them, and more - Includes eddy current sensing and imaging, ultrasonic sensing and imaging, RF and THz imaging, internet and cloud-based methods, among many others - Presents case studies, applications and other insights on putting these methods into practice

This book provides an introduction to the fundamental theory, practical implementation, and core and emerging applications of the material point method (MPM) and its variants. The MPM combines the advantages of both finite element analysis (FEM) and meshless/meshfree methods (MMs) by representing the material by a set of particles overlaid on a background mesh that serves as a computational scratchpad. The book shows how MPM allows a robust, accurate, and efficient simulation of a wide variety of material behaviors without requiring overly complex implementations. MPM and its variants have been shown to be successful in simulating a large number of high deformation and complicated engineering problems such as densification of foam, sea ice dynamics, landslides, and energetic device explosions, to name a few, and have recently found applications in the movie industry. It is hoped that this comprehensive exposition on MPM variants and their applications will not only provide an opportunity to re-examine previous contributions, but also to re-organize them in a coherent fashion and in anticipation of new advances. Sample algorithms for the solutions of benchmark problems are provided online so that researchers and graduate students can modify these algorithms and develop their own solution algorithms for specific problems. The goal of this book is to provide students and researchers with a theoretical and practical knowledge of the material point method to analyze engineering problems, and it may help initiate and promote further in-depth studies on the subjects discussed.

Characterization is the most important step in the study of materials. The various techniques used for material characterization gives one the knowledge about structure and properties of materials. The present book titled "Material Characterization Techniques for Beginners" is intended to expose readers to various techniques available for material characterization. The book is divided into four themes, Imaging Techniques, Spectroscopy. Diffraction and Scattering Techniques and Electrical Characterization Techniques. The present book is multidisciplinary and designed to be a complete reference book for students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The book deals with various techniques available for material characterization under the four themes mentioned above. The principle and working of each technique are explained in a simple and lucid language. Also, it includes the application of these techniques and which technique to be used for a particular study.

The Material Point Method: A Continuum-Based Particle Method for Extreme Loading Cases systematically introduces the theory, code design, and application of the material point method, covering subjects such as the spatial and temporal discretization of MPM, frequently-used strength models and equations of state of materials, contact algorithms in MPM, adaptive MPM, the hybrid/coupled material point finite element method, object-oriented programming of MPM, and the application of MPM in impact, explosion, and metal forming. Recent progresses are also stated in this monograph, including improvement of efficiency, memory storage, coupling/combination with the finite element method, the contact algorithm, and their application to problems. - Provides a user's guide and several numerical examples of the MPM3D-F90 code that can be downloaded from a website - Presents models that describe different types of material behaviors, with a focus on extreme events. - Includes applications of MPM and its extensions in extreme events, such as transient crack propagation, impact/penetration, blast, fluid-structure interaction, and biomechanical responses to extreme loading

Ultrasonic signals are increasingly being used for predicting material behavior, both in an engineering context (detecting anomalies in a variety of structures) and a biological context (examining human bones, body parts and unborn fetuses). Featuring contributions from authors who are specialists in their subject area, this book presents new developments in ultrasonic research in both these areas, including ultrasonic NDE and other areas which go beyond traditional imaging techniques of internal defects. As such, both those in the biological and physical science communities will find this an informative and stimulating read.