This survey is the expanded version of my talk at the AMS meeting in April 1997. I explain to non-experts how to use the orbit method, discuss its strong and weak points and advertise some open problems.

nowadays, liveliness and rapid maintenance of the development process of the companies are dependent on the accurate and complete understanding of the merits of the financial activities. since these merits are relative concepts that are based on comparisons, lists of ranking and comparison of industries with each other act as useful signposts for managers, politicians, and investors. the point ...

Performing policy iteration in dynamic programming should only require knowledge of relative rather than absolute measures of the utility of actions { what Baird (1993) calls the advantages of actions at states. Nevertheless, existing methods in dynamic programming (including Baird's) compute some form of absolute utility function. For smooth problems, advantages satisfy two di erential consist...

My task, as I understand it, is to select a single rule of procedure and explain why (and how) it must be reformed in order to build a better civil justice system in the twenty-first century. Let me say at the outset that I intend to shirk this responsibility. My principal reason is the integrated nature of our rules of procedure. All the rules—or at least all the rules worth talking about in t...

Hubbell's neutral theory of biodiversity has challenged the classic niche-based view of ecological community structure. Although there have been many attempts to falsify Hubbell's theory, we argue that falsification should not lead to rejection, because there is more to the theory than neutrality alone. Much of the criticism has focused on the neutrality assumption without full appreciation of ...

eulogizing mohammad (pbuh), with the long history as we know it, has always been in the center of attention for poets since his birth. as we know, one of the most notable poems, categorized as religious poems, is that of bordeh bosiri which was written in 7th century and revitalized the eulogy of the prophet. since then, following bosiri’s style, many have portrayed their genuine affections on ...