The appearance of this English edition of my book, ?rst published in Russian in mid-2006, is related to the help and support of two prominent scientists: Professor Michael Brown (Rhodes University Grahamstown, South Africa) and Dr. Judit Simon (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary). The story is as follows. In the winter of 2006, in the process of exchange of views by email with Michael on some problems of decomposition kinetics, I asked him about the possibility of publishing my book in English. He s- gestedthat Ishouldcontact Judit, the Series Editorof“Hot Topicsin Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry”. My application was kindly accepted, considered, and approved. As a result, Judit strongly recommended this book to Springer for publication, and Michael kindly agreed to help me with linguistic impro- ments of my hurriedly translated book. In the process of editing, he made some critical comments and questions, which stimulated me to improve and clarify the text, but we did have to agree to put our di?erences of scienti?c opinions aside so as not to delay the process. Without this invaluable help, this book would not be as “readable” as I hope it is now. The author uses this opportunity to express his sincere thanks to Michael and Judit for their signi?cant help and support. Although only about a year has gone after the preparation of the original edition of the book (in Russian), this English version of the manuscript has undergone considerable revision. These changes refer to Sections2. 2, 2.

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