To my parents, for everything. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my dissertation committee members, Ling Liu, Kishore Ra-machandran, Jim Xu and Zhen Liu, for their time and suggestions. I greatly appreciate their insight and comments that have influenced and improved my research. I am so fortunate to be a part of the System research group, from which I have received not only insp...

Having been found 'vehemently suspected of heresy' by the Holy Office in 1633, at the time of his death (1642) Galileo's remains were laid to rest in the tiny vestry of a lateral chapel of the Santa Croce Basilica, Florence. Throughout his life, Vincenzo Viviani, Galileo's last disciple, struggled to have his master's name rehabilitated and his banned works reprinted, as well as a proper funera...

the signs of sadness, concern and losing one’s thought balance are among the varieties of the manifestation of loneliness in human beings. the contemporary arab poet is a sensitive, bright minded man, living under the dominance of colonialism or anti-freedom organizations, suffering from different forms of loneliness. such a condition will cause that poet to lose his life balance and peaceful b...

On the occasion of the 300th anniversary (on April 15, 2007) of Euler’s birth, an attempt is made to bring Euler’s genius to the attention of a broad segment of the educated public. The three stations of his life—Basel, St. Petersburg, and Berlin—are sketched and the principal works identified in more or less chronological order. To convey a flavor of his work and its impact on modern science, ...