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The authors present a completely new and highly application-oriented field of nonlinear analysis. The work covers the theory of non-smooth input-output systems and presents various methods to non-standard applications in mathematics and physics. A particular focus lies on hysteresis and relay phenomena, electric circuits with diode nonlinearities, and biological systems with constraints.

A triumphant story of determination and passion, Siberian Dream is a tale of two worlds -- one in Siberia, one in America -- and a young woman with a heart and spirit big enough to span them both. Irina's story begins amid the final days of the Soviet Union. Born into an ancient indigenous Siberian culture, she came Of age with a rich heritage of spirituality often at odds with a world in which individuality was stifled and poverty was a way of life. Picked by a talent scout to star in a Soviet film, Irina came to Moscow, then made her way to Paris where she struggled to break into the fashion industry enduring rejection because her exotic beauty was not readily accepted. Finally, in New York, she found herself embraced by the open spirit and industry of America, her struggle to survive transformed into a meteoric rise in fashion and film.

Irina Ratushinskaya was only 28-years-old when she was sentenced to seven years' hard labour and five years' internal exile, accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. Her crime: writing poetry.She was held for three years in a "strict regime" labour camp, in a special unit for women political prisoners where she suffered beatings, force-feeding and solitary confinement in brutal, freezing conditions. But her poems were smuggled out of the camp, and published in 1986 by Bloodaxe in No, I'm Not Afraid, the book which spearheaded an international campaign which eventually secured her release.

Publication of this, the first monograph on Irina Odoevtseva, is a long overdue event. Ella Bobrow, the poetess' long-standing friend and admirer, completed her book more than a decade ago. Only the vicissitudes of Soviet and Russian ?migr? literary politics forestalled the book's immediate and deserved appearance in the early 1980s. Odoevtseva's enforced exile in France, almost to the end of her life, prevented recognition in her native country as one of the prominent figures of St. Petersburg and Russian emigre literature. The standing that Irina Odoevtseva truly deserves has hitherto been apparent mainly to readers and scholars familiar with her poems, fiction and memoirs. For those still indoubt or ignorance, however, Ella Bobrow's book will serve as a broad introduction to one of Russia's major woman writers.- Christopher Barnes, University of Toronto