A First Course in Structural Equation Modeling Review

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(More customer reviews)This book does a good job of explaining the basic concepts involved in SEM, path analysis, and CFA in easy to understand terms. Also, it lays out syntax and output for running popular SEM programs, such as LISREL, EQS, and Mplus. This book is perfect for the person who is trying to learn SEM on their own. I think it gives you enough to be able to know how to run a SEM, but it isn't enough to really make you a pro at it.

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In this book, authors Tenko Raykov and George A. Marcoulides introduce students to the basics of structural equation modeling (SEM) through a conceptual, nonmathematical approach. For ease of understanding, the few mathematical formulas presented are used in a conceptual or illustrative nature, rather than a computational one.Featuring examples from EQS, LISREL, and Mplus, A First Course in Structural Equation Modeling is an excellent beginner's guide to learning how to set up input files to fit the most commonly used types of structural equation models with these programs. The basic ideas and methods for conducting SEM are independent of any particular software.Highlights of the Second Edition include:' Review of latent change (growth) analysis models at an introductory level' Coverage of the popular Mplus program' Updated examples of LISREL and EQS' A CD that contains all of the text's LISREL, EQS, and Mplus examples.A First Course in Structural Equation Modeling is intended as an introductory book for students and researchers in psychology, education, business, medicine, and other applied social, behavioral, and health sciences with limited or no previous exposure to SEM. A prerequisite of basic statistics through regression analysis is recommended. The book frequently draws parallels between SEM and regression, making this prior knowledge helpful.

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Spreadsheet Modeling and Applications: Essentials of Practical Management Science (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac) Review

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(More customer reviews)Item was good
came on time no delay
And i highly recommend this seller

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Chris Albright and Wayne Winston have brought their hallmark teach-by-example approach to the undergraduate spreadsheet modeling course. Renowned for their other successful texts in operations research/management science, Winston and Albright successfully show how spreadsheets are used in real life to model and analyze real business problems. By modeling problems using spreadsheets from the outset, SPREADSHEET MODELING AND APPLICATIONS prepares future managers for the types of problems they will encounter on the job. Real cases throughout the text further cement this book's status as the most relevant of its kind on the market. This text is also accompanied by Palisade Corporation's professional spreadsheet add-ins, DecisionTools Suite.

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Patterns of Data Modeling (Emerging Directions in Database Systems and Applications) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a much awaited real data modeling patterns book - corresponding to the programming pattern book by the so-called Gang of Four. This is a must-read book for all practitioners, intermediate or advanced data modelers, and researchers who work on conceptual modeling or systems analysis & design. The book covers data modeling patterns that we should apply, antipatterns that we should avoid, archetypes that are common modeling structures occurring across different applications, canonical patterns that correspond to meta models of modeling languages & diagrams, and relational database design that maps modeling constructs to relational schema. The book is rich with diagrams that illustrate each patterns and cases. In most cases, the book presents the diagrams in both UML and IDEF1X notations. The book is quite easy to read and rich with useful modeling techniques and tips based on the author's experience. Even with my 25 years of teaching and research activities in data modeling & research, I learned several important ideas. This is an outstanding and unique book in advanced data modeling. I strongly recommend the book for anyone who wants to be an expert in modeling!
Il-Yeol Song, Professor, College of Information Science and Technology, Drexel University, USA

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Best-selling author and database expert with more than 25 years of experience modeling application and enterprise data, Dr. Michael Blaha provides tried and tested data model patterns, to help readers avoid common modeling mistakes and unnecessary frustration on their way to building effective data models. Unlike the typical methodology book, Patterns of Data Modeling provides advanced techniques for those who have mastered the basics.Recognizing that database representation sets the path for software, determines its flexibility, affects its quality, and influences whether it succeeds or fails, the text focuses on databases rather than programming. It is one of the first books to apply the popular patterns perspective to database systems and data models. It offers practical advice on the core aspects of applications and provides authoritative coverage of mathematical templates, antipatterns, archetypes, identity, canonical models, and relational database design.

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Modeling Life: Art Models Speak About Nudity, Sexuality, And the Creative Process Review

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(More customer reviews)Sarah Philips undertook this research in Portland, during the mid-1990s. She puts in print words of art models themselves, which surprisingly hadn't happened much before. In the book we can read four more or less extended interviews with models, but dozens of conversations took place. Philips relates the models' words with interesting theoretical issues. It's a very enlightening book, since we come to know a very ignored and undervalued occupation. The book raises questions such as:
Why are there more female than male art models?
Is the myth that a model is an artist's mistress true?
Is a model the same as a stripper?
Does modeling objectify or degrade the person (usually the woman), as some feminists say?
Why would nudity be empowering and boost the model's self-confidence?
Why would someone do this job, normally part-time, since they could earn more money elsewhere? (In Portland, in the 1990s, they earned from $8.50 to $10 an hour.)
Is modeling always passive?
Why do most models underrate photography as "less artistic" than drawing, for instance?
What's the role of pornography, especially on the internet, when handling photos of artistic nudity?
What specific boundaries exist in personal space, verbal contact or eye contact when posing?
What's the difference between a "sublimely" sensual pose and a blunt sex pose?
How do models handle cold, and physical stressful or painful poses?
How do models deal with erections and menstruation?
There are no definite answers, but the discussion is really fascinating. Not all models agree upon all issues, and age and gender usually influence the answers.
I think the core of the whole question is the fact that in art modeling there are new rules, for our everyday regulations are upside down: a person doesn't hide his/her nakedness, and the others ARE supposed to observe it. The boundary is the motto "nothing unusual is happening". Don't behave as if this situation is abnormal, surprising, sexually arousing or deserving lewd peeking. It's just natural for professional artists and models to work with nudity, which can make many newcomers and art students blush.
Nudity in art is not for a particular physical aesthetics that discriminates all other bodies. It's not for sexuality, either. It's rather a celebration of the natural, general beauty of every human body, no matter its shape, color, size or other specific characteristics.
I am a painter myself, and I always work with the female nude. I can say that I am grateful to my models for their good work and professionalism. They are the body of my art, and they inspire its soul. As the model "Michael" says in the book: "If it wasn't for us, we wouldn't have a lot of the greatest works of art." For all the curious, and all of us artists who work with models, this book is necessary to understand, not stigmatize this indispensable job, in the models' own words.


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A fascinating consideration of the work of life models and the models' own perspectives on their craft.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Computational Modeling of Genetic and Biochemical Networks (Computational Molecular Biology) Review

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(More customer reviews)Regulatory networks are central to every aspect of computational biology. Determining what they are, and what genes, proteins, and post-translational modifications interact is a major and exciting field of study.
I just didn't come away from this book with that excitement. I was hoping for more about the large-scale regulation networks, but these papers go down to the quantum mechanics of interactions between pairs of molecules. I appreciate that the exact interactions matter, and that computation is probably the only way to examine some kinds of interactions (e.g. the ones in lethal mutations). It's just not what I think of as a "network."
I was also hoping for some more specifics about the computation techniques. There were some interesting insights here. For example, I never thought about the similarities between steady state chemical equilibrium and steady state Markov model behavior before, but the formalisms have striking similarities. I was also interested in some of the information-based measures for determining how well a model represents a system. I learned that the statistical assumptions behind normal chemical "equilibrium" break down at the scale of bacteria - instead, presence or absence of individual molecules matters more. Still, those were isolated kinds of facts and never came together into a whole for me.
The range of views was worthwhile. On the whole, though, the models all seemed very low-level to me, probably not well suited to handling more than a few dozen interactions, and the computation specifics were not always explicit. I'm still looking for a book with more information that I can apply directly.

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The advent of ever more sophisticated molecular manipulation techniqueshas made it clear that cellular systems are far more complex and dynamic thanpreviously thought. At the same time, experimental techniques are providing analmost overwhelming amount of new data. It is increasingly apparent that linkingmolecular and cellular structure to function will require the use of newcomputational tools.This book provides specific examples, across a wide range ofmolecular and cellular systems, of how modeling techniques can be used to explorefunctionally relevant molecular and cellular relationships. The modeling techniquescovered are applicable to cell, developmental, structural, and mathematical biology;genetics; and computational neuroscience. The book, intended as a primer for boththeoretical and experimental biologists, is organized in two parts: models of geneactivity and models of interactions among gene products. Modeling examples areprovided at several scales for each subject. Each chapter includes an overview ofthe biological system in question and extensive references to important work in thearea.

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Introduction to Computational Science: Modeling and Simulation for the Sciences Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great book for the college bound. Very interesting and easy to read.

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Computational science is a quickly emerging field at the intersection of the sciences, computer science, and mathematics because much scientific investigation now involves computing as well as theory and experiment. However, limited educational materials exist in this field. Introduction to Computational Science fills this void with a flexible, readable textbook that assumes only a background in high school algebra and enables instructors to follow tailored pathways through the material. It is the first textbook designed specifically for an introductory course in the computational science and engineering curriculum.

The text embraces two major approaches to computational science problems: System dynamics models with their global views of major systems that change with time; and cellular automaton simulations with their local views of how individuals affect individuals. While the text is generic, an extensive author-generated Web-site contains tutorials and files in a variety of software packages to accompany the text.

Generic software approach in the text
Web site with tutorials and files in a variety of software packages
Engaging examples, exercises, and projects that explore science
Additional, substantial projects for students to develop individually or in teams
Consistent application of the modeling process
Quick review questions and answers
Projects for students to develop individually or in teams
Reference sections for most modules, as well as a glossary
Online instructor's manual with a test bank and solutions

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Game Theory Evolving: A Problem-Centered Introduction to Modeling Strategic Interaction (Second Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Herb Gintis is an economist with a strong interest in the assumptions we make about human rationality in our social, political, and economic theories. He has produced a remarkable and deceptively innovative text that could productively be used in a broad range of fields.
The topic of game theory is interesting to many people because it describes interaction between competitors, presumably helping us pick the best strategy if the circumstances are well enough understood. We might wonder whether the circumstances are well enough understood in daily life to apply the methods of game theory to our own choices, since it usually to assume that we are rational competitors trying to maximize our own gain.
Game Theory Evolving addresses this fascinating question not from a theoretical perspective so much as giving the reader the tools for investigating it themselves in two distinct but complementary ways.
First, it provides practical problem-oriented chapters for learning the principles and thinking in terms of game theoretic methods. The problems are not the usual textbook "who cares, anyway ?" type. Rather they are fun and interesting to solve and often lead to direct insights into real situations.
Second, it extends game theory into the realm of evolutionary thinking, so we not only understand strategic action but we get some deeper insight into how our historical needs shaped our behavior and even our thought processes. Game theory may help explain how we learned to cooperate and why under some conditions we tend to punish cheaters and treat people fairly even though it provides no apparent advantage to us.
Disguised as a lowly academic textbook, Game Theory Evolving is actually a basic toolkit, a passport into the remarkable modern study of evolutionary thinking about human nature, through a practical grounding in the mathematical techniques that have the potential to join our understanding of social sciences and biology.

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Information Modeling and Relational Databases, Second Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) Review

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(More customer reviews)Everyone needs this book. Read more to find out why:
If you intend to create genuinely useful business applications without first creating an accurate conceptual data model and deriving the database schema from the model, then I hope your projects have very large budgets and flexible deadlines, because you'll need both. Accurate conceptual data models are not an academic curiousity, they are a practical necessity. Well designed databases are the heart of every business application, and accurate conceptual data models are the foundation of every well designed database.
This book presents a method for data modeling called Object Role Modeling (ORM). If you've never created a data model before, you might as well learn the best method from the start. If you've used E-R (Entity Relationship) modeling before, this is your chance to learn a method that overcomes the limitations of E-R, while building on the knowledge you already have.
ORM is based on facts (assertions about the business sphere you are modeling), not entities and attributes. Business users understand facts much better than they understand data modeling abstractions. By using ORM facts, you create your data model in a language that business users can understand and validate. Poor communication with business users and inadequate understanding of requirements are major causes of design deficiencies. ORM solves these issues through its fact based approach.
ORM is also much more expressive than any other popular data modeling notation, ncluding UML and all major flavors of E-R. Many business rules should be expressed as data constraints, but traditional data modeling languages don't do well at capturing these constraints. By capturing the constraints in an ORM model and validating with the users, you make the construction of a good application much easier.
Halpin is an excellent writer, and this book is very easy to read. The many examples and crisp writing style mean that you'll actually understand what the author intends, a refreshing change from most computer books. If you've read the previous edition of this book, this update is very worthwhile. There is a lot of expanded and new material, and you'll be happy you purchased the new edition.

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Information Modeling and Relational Databases, second edition, provides an introduction to ORM (Object-Role Modeling)and much more. In fact, it is the only book to go beyond introductory coverage and provide all of the in-depth instruction you need to transform knowledge from domain experts into a sound database design. This book is intended for anyone with a stake in the accuracy and efficacy of databases: systems analysts, information modelers, database designers and administrators, and programmers. Terry Halpin, a pioneer in the development of ORM, blends conceptual information with practical instruction that will let you begin using ORM effectively as soon as possible. Supported by examples, exercises, and useful background information, his step-by-step approach teaches you to develop a natural-language-based ORM model, and then, where needed, abstract ER and UML models from it. This book will quickly make you proficient in the modeling technique that is proving vital to the development of accurate and efficient databases that best meet real business objectives. *Presents the most indepth coverage of Object-Role Modeling available anywhere, including a thorough update of the book for ORM2, as well as UML2 and E-R (Entity-Relationship) modeling. *Includes clear coverage of relational database concepts, and the latest developments in SQL and XML, including a new chapter on the impact of XML on information modeling, exchange and transformation. * New and improved case studies and exercises are provided for many topics. * The book's associated web site provides answers to exercises, appendices, advanced SQL queries, and links to downloadable ORM tools.

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The Modeling of Nature: Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Nature in Synthesis Review

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(More customer reviews)Fr Wallace has an wonderful little gem here. Reflecting his experience both as a physicist and a philospher in the tradition of Aquinas and Aristotle, Wallace demonstrates how Aristotelian philosophy of nature, that of form, prime matter, powers, etc. coalesces nicely with the current understanding of modern physics, biology, and chemistry. One need not be a science or philosophy major to follow Wallace; he does a very good job of relating scientific and philosophical concepts in a manner that makes them interesting to the layperson. Highly recommended for anyone interested in how ancient and medieval philosophy coincides with the discoveries of science and modern physics.

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Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a concise, effective introduction to dynamic systems modeling
and how it can be used to provide insight to biological problems. The use
of dynamic modeling is demonstrated through example models, a new model
each chapter. The authors walk the reader/student through each model and
then make suggestions as to how it can be further exploited for greater
understanding of the problem. The greatest aspect of this book lies in
its demystification of computer modeling in general and shows that any
person, no matter their quantitative skills, can effectively model a
system by adhering to certain fundamentals. The models that are provided
range from ecosystems to individual cells, espousing a 'systems' approach
to every level of biology. Overall, this book is easy to understand; providing a mental tool by which one can bring greater clarity to complex, dynamic problems.

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Models help us understand the dynamics of real-world processes by using the computer to mimic the actual forces that are known or assumed to result in a system's behavior. This book does not require a substantial background in mathematics or computer science. Using STELLA II and MADONNA software, Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems applies methods of computer modeling to a wide range of topics from laboratory biology and ecology. STELLA II and MADONNA run-time software and computer files of sample models accompany the book on a CD-ROM. The software is compatible with both Macintosh- and Windows-based systems.

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Constructing Measures: An Item Response Modeling Approach Review

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(More customer reviews)The book was required for a class I'm taking, it serves it purpose and got here within a reasonable amount of time.

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Constructing Measures introduces a way to understand the advantages and disadvantages of measurement instruments, how to use such instruments, and how to apply these methods to develop new instruments or adapt old ones. The book is organized around the steps taken while constructing an instrument. It opens with a summary of the constructive steps involved. Each step is then expanded on in the next four chapters. These chapters develop the "building blocks" that make up an instrument--the construct map, the design plan for the items, the outcome space, and the statistical measurement model. The next three chapters focus on quality control. They rely heavily on the calibrated construct map and review how to check if scores are operating consistently and how to evaluate the reliability and validity evidence. The book introduces a variety of item formats, including multiple-choice, open-ended, and performance items; projects; portfolios; Likert and Guttman items; behavioral observations; and interview protocols.Each chapter includes an overview of the key concepts, related resources for further investigation and exercises and activities. Some chapters feature appendices that describe parts of the instrument development process in more detail, numerical manipulations used in the text, and/or data results. A variety of examples from the behavioral and social sciences and education including achievement and performance testing; attitude measures; health measures, and general sociological scales, demonstrate the application of the material. An accompanying CD features control files, output, and a data set to allow readers to compute the text's exercises and create new analyses and case archives based on the book's examples so the reader can work through the entire development of an instrument.Constructing Measures is an ideal text or supplement in courses on item, test, or instrument development, measurement, item response theory, or rasch analysis taught in a variety of departments including education and psychology. The book also appeals to those who develop instruments, including industrial/organizational, educational, and school psychologists, health outcomes researchers, program evaluators, and sociological measurers. Knowledge of basic descriptive statistics and elementary regression is recommended.

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Service-Oriented Modeling (SOA): Service Analysis, Design, and Architecture Review

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(More customer reviews)I have purchased and read many SOA books and they have all fallen into one of 2 camps. They are usually either "HOW-TO" implement a SOAP/XML/WSDL based request response guides with the standard buzzwords of SOA Governance, WS-*Everything and the Kitchen Sink*, and of course a vague description of how an Enterprise Service Bus magically does away with years a poorly implemented legacy systems. This is the first SOA book that I have read that did not waste my time with page after page trivial XML examples but actually presented an entire working formal language(extended or inspired by the UML component model I believe) to describe your existing environment("As-Is") and future-state architecture in everday terms understandable by business users and application developers. I'll admit when I read that the approach is both 'Holistic' and 'Anthropomorphic' I felt like I was being marketed some Ginko-Biloba pseudo mysticism but as I read through I understood that this is an approach to SOA, probably the first, to actually make the the underlying services and consolidation of services visible and tanglible in the way an architect builds a scale model of a proposed structure to provide an in depth understanding of the project to those who are unable to turn equations into 3D structures in there heads(which is most of us). The authors crowning achievement, in my opinon, is the realization that everything (Legacy System, Schedule Batch Job, Business Apporval Process, Business Rules, Storage) must be treated as 'Services' is a quantum leap for SOA that moves the concept of SOA from a vague buzzword to a concrete deliverable, tangible item.

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Answers to your most pressing SOA development questionsHow do we start with service modeling? How do we analyze services for better reusability? Who should be involved? How do we create the best architecture model for our organization? This must-read for all enterprise leaders gives you all the answers and tools needed to develop a sound service-oriented architecture in your organization.Praise for Service-Oriented ModelingService Analysis, Design, and Architecture"Michael Bell has done it again with a book that will be remembered as a key facilitator of the global shift to Service-Oriented Architecture. . . . With this book, Michael Bell provides that foundation and more-an essential bible for the next generation of enterprise IT."-Eric Pulier, Executive Chairman, SOA Software"Michael Bell's insightful book provides common language and techniques for business and technology organizations to take advantage of the SOA paradigm. By focusing modeling techniques on the business problem, Bell provides a way for professionals to work throughout the life cycle to create reusable and enduring services."-Mike Zbranak, CIO, Chase Card Services"This book will become an imperative business and technology service-oriented modeling recipe for any manager, architect, modeler, analyst, and developer in today's software development industry."-Jeff Schneider, CEO, MomentumSI"'Innovative' and 'groundbreaking' are words that best describe Michael Bell's Service-Oriented Modeling. It depicts a true service modeling approach that elegantly closes a clear and critical service modeling gap in the SOA industry. This holistic book ties these concepts together using real-world examples across a service life cycle that transitions services from ideas and concepts into production assets that deliver business value. A must-read for business and technical SOA practitioners."-Eric A. Marks, CEO, AgilePath Corporation"As hot as SOA is today, many business and technology professionals still find it challenging to mind the gap between their disparate methodologies and objectives. Herein Michael Bell speaks clearly to both camps in straightforward language, outlining disciplines each can use to communicate effectively and advance the realization of corporate aims. This book is a bible for all who seek to drive business/technology into the future."-Mark Edward Goodrich, Director, Investing Product Management, Reuters Media"This book takes senior IT architects and systems designers into the depths of modeling for SOA, with a fresh new perspective on tools, terminology, and how to turn the theory into practice. His full life-cycle approach balances process, control, and accountability to align all the participants in the delivery pipeline-clearing the road for successful SOA business solutions."-Phil Gilligan, Chief Technology Officer, EBS

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Hierarchical Modeling and Inference in Ecology: The Analysis of Data from Populations, Metapopulations and Communities Review

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(More customer reviews)Royle & Dorazio (2008): A truly synthetic overview
This book not only illustrates, and presents R and WinBUGS code for, plenty of methods for inference about distribution and abundance in animal and plant populations and communities; it does much more. It presents a truly synthetic overview of these methods and makes the reader understand how they relate to each other. At the same time, the authors succeed extremely well in teaching a modern, "organic way" of statistical modeling -- where one first thinks hard about how the observed data might have arisen via a combination of stochastic processes (the book is about hierarchical models, remember) and then builds a custom statistical model for exactly those processes. This combination of presenting a unifying synthesis of a vast array of methods and showing how to model a study system organically in my view is unique among the currently available statistical ecology books.

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A guide to data collection, modeling and inference strategies for biological survey data using Bayesian and classical statistical methods.This book describes a general and flexible framework for modeling and inference in ecological systems based on hierarchical models, with a strict focus on the use of probability models and parametric inference. Hierarchical models represent a paradigm shift in the application of statistics to ecological inference problems because they combine explicit models of ecological system structure or dynamics with models of how ecological systems are observed. The principles of hierarchical modeling are developed and applied to problems in population, metapopulation, community, and metacommunity systems. The book provides the first synthetic treatment of many recent methodological advances in ecological modeling and unifies disparate methods and procedures.The authors apply principles of hierarchical modeling to ecological problems, including * occurrence or occupancy models for estimating species distribution* abundance models based on many sampling protocols, including distance sampling* capture-recapture models with individual effects* spatial capture-recapture models based on camera trapping and related methods* population and metapopulation dynamic models* models of biodiversity, community structure and dynamics * Wide variety of examples involving many taxa (birds, amphibians, mammals, insects, plants)* Development of classical, likelihood-based procedures for inference, as well asBayesian methods of analysis* Detailed explanations describing the implementation of hierarchical models using freely available software such as R and WinBUGS* Computing support in technical appendices in an online companion web site

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Modeling Military Miniatures: Tips, Tools, & Techniques Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has some good information about modifying and creating miniature military figures. I suppose those techniques could be used on any miniature figure modeling.

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Building upon his previous book, Sculpting Miniature Military Figures, Kim Jones shows how his various techniques and hand-made tools can make the sculptors project easier. Kim gives tips on constructing weapons, adding straps and belts to a figure, and creating realistic terrain using materials that can be found around the house. In this new book, Kim helps solve some of the seemingly difficult problems that can confront the novice sculptor. Each technique is detailed using close-up photography and clear, concise captions to explain every step. This book is a must for not only military miniaturists, but modelers of all kinds.

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Financial Modeling of the Equity Market: From CAPM to Cointegration (Frank J. Fabozzi Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)Fabozzi, the guy who churned out a dozen fixed income books, has turned his attention to equity models. With two coauthors, his Financial Modeling of the Equity Market book is a comprehensive treatise on quantitative methodologies employed in equity investment and trading. Densely packed with mathematical and statistical formulae, this book is an excellent reference guide for those desiring to learn and understand equity models. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is, like other Fabozzi books, this is heavy on the "trees" but light on the "forest," i.e., it gives you lots of equations and details but does not provide a good overview as to the why. In a sense, its audience is the technocrats, not the thinkers. It's good for the financial engineers, not the financial innovators. Still, the vast majority of us on Wall Street, yours truly included, are technical people who don't have a vision, so for us mere mortals, this is a one-stop-shop book on quant equity models.

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An inside look at modern approaches to modeling equity portfolios
Financial Modeling of the Equity Market is the most comprehensive, up-to-date guide to modeling equity portfolios. The book is intended for a wide range of quantitative analysts, practitioners, and students of finance. Without sacrificing mathematical rigor, it presents arguments in a concise and clear style with a wealth of real-world examples and practical simulations. This book presents all the major approaches to single-period return analysis, including modeling, estimation, and optimization issues. It covers both static and dynamic factor analysis, regime shifts, long-run modeling, and cointegration. Estimation issues, including dimensionality reduction, Bayesian estimates, the Black-Litterman model, and random coefficient models, are also covered in depth. Important advances in transaction cost measurement and modeling, robust optimization, and recent developments in optimization with higher moments are also discussed.
Sergio M. Focardi (Paris, France) is a founding partner of the Paris-based consulting firm, The Intertek Group. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Portfolio Management. He is also the author of numerous articles and books on financial modeling. Petter N. Kolm, PhD (New Haven, CT and New York, NY), is a graduate student in finance at the Yale School of Management and a financial consultant in New York City. Previously, he worked in the Quantitative Strategies Group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he developed quantitative investment models and strategies.

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MODELING OF ASPHALT CONCRETE (McGraw-Hill Construction) Review

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(More customer reviews)It has arrived very fast as I bought it in USA and it was send to Brazil. Very reliable! I recomend!

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An Expert Guide to Developing More-Durable and Cost-Effective Asphalt Pavements

Written by distinguished experts from countries around the world, Modeling of Asphalt Concrete presents in-depth coverage of the current materials, methods, and models used for asphalt pavements.
Included is state-of-the-art information on fundamental material properties and mechanisms affecting the performance of asphalt concrete, new rheological testing and analysis techniques, constitutive models, and performance prediction methodologies for asphalt concrete and asphalt pavements. Emphasis is placed on the modeling of asphalt mixes for specific geographic/climatic requirements.
In light of America's crumbling infrastructure and our heavy usage of asphalt as a paving material, this timely reference is essential for the development of more-durable and cost-effective asphalt materials for both new construction and rehabilitation.
Harness the Latest Breakthroughs in Asphalt Concrete Technology:
• Asphalt Rheology • Constitutive Models • Stiffness Characterization • Models for Low-Temperature Cracking • Models for Fatigue Cracking and Moisture Damage • Models for Rutting and Aging

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A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server: Covering SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Review

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(More customer reviews)"A Developers Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server" is billed to be for all level of data modelling development, however it is written in a style targeted to beginning novice developers only, and never progresses very far beyond demonstrating the fundamentals of Data Modeling. For novices, it is extremely good resource, explaining highly technical concepts in an easy to understand non-technical language. However, for the experienced developer, it would be best to look elsewhere.

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"A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server explains the concepts and practice of data modeling with a clarity that makes the technology accessible to anyone building databases and data-driven applications."Eric Johnson and Joshua Jones combine a deep understanding of the science of data modeling with the art that comes with years of experience. If you're new to data modeling, or find the need to brush up on its concepts, this book is for you."—Peter Varhol, Executive Editor, Redmond MagazineModel SQL Server Databases That Work Better, Do More, and Evolve More Smoothly Effective data modeling is essential to ensuring that your databases will perform well, scale well, and evolve to meet changing requirements. However, if you're modeling databases to run on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2005, theoretical or platform-agnostic data modeling knowledge isn't enough: models that don't reflect SQL Server's unique real-world strengths and weaknesses often lead to disastrous performance. A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server is a practical, SQL Server-specific guide to data modeling for every developer, architect, and administrator. This book offers you invaluable start-to-finish guidance for designing new databases, redesigning existing SQL Server data models, and migrating databases from other platforms. You'll begin with a concise, practical overview of the core data modeling techniques. Next, you'll walk through requirements gathering and discover how to convert requirements into effective SQL Server logical models. Finally, you'll systematically transform those logical models into physical models that make the most of SQL Server's extended functionality. All of this book's many examples are available for download from a companion Web site. This book enables you to
Understand your data model's physical elements, from storage to referential integrity
Provide programmability via stored procedures, user-defined functions, triggers, and .NET CLR integration
Normalize data models, one step at a time
Gather and interpret requirements more effectively
Learn an effective methodology for creating logical models
Overcome modeling problems related to entities, attribute, data types, storage overhead, performance, and relationships
Create physical models—from establishing naming guidelines through implementing business rules and constraints
Use SQL Server's unique indexing capabilities, and overcome their limitations
Create abstraction layers that enhance security, extensibility, and flexibility

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