Introduction to Discrete Event Systems Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a great textbook for students who are interested in the control engineering field. Due to the difficulty, it is more focused for graduate students. This book has won the 1999 harold chestnut prize awarded by the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). The topics are language and automata theory, supervisory control, Petri net theory, (max,+) algebra, Markov chains and queueing theory, discrete-event simulation, perturbation analysis, and concurrent estimation techniques. This book is used in many universities in the US but also in countries like Korea as well.

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Introduction to Discrete Event Systems is a comprehensive introduction to the field of discrete event systems, offering a breadth of coverage that makes the material accessible to readers of varied backgrounds. The book emphasizes a unified modeling framework that transcends specific application areas, linking the following topics in a coherent manner: language and automata theory, supervisory control, Petri net theory, Markov chains and queuing theory, discrete-event simulation, and concurrent estimation techniques. This edition includes recent research results pertaining to the diagnosis of discrete event systems, decentralized supervisory control, and interval-based timed automata and hybrid automata models.

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Business Process Modelling with ARIS: A Practical Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent reference book on ARIS. It is really a "must have" for anyone learning and using ARIS. It is well written and well structured. The only reason I've rated it at 4 stars is because it is based on Release 5 of ARIS. An updated edition would be great.

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This practical book describes the key operations of ARIS Toolset - the market leading Business Process Modelling Tool. Based on his experience of using ARIS in British Telecommunications plc, the author describes practical ways of using the tool. Using screen shots and plenty of practical examples, Rob Davis shows how ARIS can be used to model business processes. Throughout the book Davis provides readers with tips and short-cuts, enabling users to start modelling quickly and effectively. He also provides insights into the ARIS concepts, and tells readers about the benefits and trade-offs of using the tool in alternative ways. Unlike other books, this practical guide tackles issues found in real projects.

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Introducing Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 Review

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(More customer reviews)I had purchased the Mastering Autodesk Revit book, but after a few pages I thought it would be better to read this book first to get more of the fundamentals down. I consider myself a quick learner with new programs but with all the changes between Revit and CAD I was getting caught up in the new vocabulary. This book provides a great foundation for learning Revit. The chapters are well organized and easy to read. There are also a lot of pictures so you dont have to be in Revit to understand what is going on although that does help reinforce the concepts.

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Revit all-stars present a fast, focused introduction to Revit functions, tools, and concepts
Hailed for its ease of use, power, and sophistication, Revit is the industry-leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) software package. Introducing Revit Architecture provides a thorough overview of Revit's concepts, interface conventions, tools, and tasks. In-depth discussions, reinforced by comprehensive step-by-step exercises, detail how to model, document, present, and share designs. Written by expert authors – all architects with years of Revit experience – Introducing Revit Architecture is the perfect resource for readers of all skill levels who want to quickly accomplish crucial Revit tasks.
Practical exercises on core Revit features enable new users to quickly get up to speed
A 16-page color insert focusing on real-world Revit uses drawn from the team's experience and industry contacts
Straightforward explanations, real-world examples, beautiful illustrations, and practical tutorials focus squarely on accomplishing vital Revit tasks

Introducing Revit Architecture helps professionals and students to easily and efficiently learn the basics of Revit and BIM.

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Autodesk Inventor 2009 Essentials Plus Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has provided me a step by step !detailed! explanation of Inventor 09 and all of its functions. I will begin using the book in my class rooms the coming semester since it has proven its worthiness in my buisnesses. I definently recommend this book to those interested in Autodesk Inventor 2009

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From basic sketching and modeling through advanced modeling techniques, more than 2,000 screen captures clearly illustrate and clarify essential Autodesk Inventor concepts, making Autodesk Inventor 2009 Essentials Plus the definitive industry and classroom resource.Thoroughly updated to Inventor 2009, this combination how-to and reference manual provides in-depth explanations of the user interface, toolbars, dialogue boxes, sketch tools, drawing views, assembly modeling, and more for learning and mastering Autodesk Inventor.Highlights include step-by-step tutorials that showcase practical skills and project exercises designed both for self-paced learning and classroom instruction.

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Mastering Revit Structure 2010 Review

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(More customer reviews)When I first opened this book the information it leaped off the page. The presentation of the data was well laid out and I notice things like that. The font selection was great and the good use of white space was impressive. Illustrations and screen shots were on just about every page.
The wonderful thing was the joy did not stop there. This book does not disappoint. Scattered throughout the book are "Real World Scenarios". Little vignettes of information that came from the practical minds of the authors. Things that they wanted to share apart from the systematic presentation of the topic. Also mixed in are questions that you should ponder - like "how much should I model?" that encourage you to think beyond the basics.
The book is also filled with step by step exercises. Each starts from a data set that can be downloaded from a companion website listed on page 51 (may be hard to find).
Insider tips and tricks are placed in the book to assist with the problems that you may encounter or to give you options. One that I found refreshing was the trick of using a wall to represent a column. They caution you that this may give the proper appearance but lack the property data you might need.
Each chapter ends with "the Bottom Line". A collection of reminders and questions that recall the content of the chapter and press you on to find new ways to use these tools. Clever idea.
One of the best chapters or sections is on worksharing and worksets. This presentation of the work flow and concepts is one of the best I have seen.
Just when you thought that the book was jammed with just about everything you could think of, there is a multi-page full color section on real projects. If you thought that structural work was all about square boxes, you need to look again. Seeing the bones of a facility in color is fascinating. No longer can you say "Revit can't do that" (well almost). There are small projects and very large projects shown.
Now you know that I am big on standards, so Chapter 17 is of great interest to me. Imagine a whole chapter on standards - GREAT!! Anyway, you can tell it is written by industry experts with many years of background in the trenches of CAD and BIM. Included in this chapter are tips on what to do and not do, how to make small changes that impact the whole team for the good and how to tweak Revit Structure to perform better.
To top it all off the Appendix is an escorted tour of the color gallery I mentioned above. These authors give you a personal guided tour of the projects they have worked on. Zooming in on details and explaining the nuances of the design and how they modeled it. What a value.
All in all, this book is a very valuable addition to your library. I would recommend it to novice and expert alike. The reward of digging into the meat of this book is that your Revit knowledge will expand and your ability to muscle the software into submission will increase.

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Mastering Revit Structure 2010 covers both the basics and the advanced features and functions. Written by a team of authors who are deeply involved with the Revit community, Mastering Revit Structure 2010 explains the tools and functionality in the context of professional, real-world tasks and workflows. With hands-on tutorials to demonstrate the concepts, Mastering Revit Structure 2010 is perfect for anyone who needs to learn Revit Structure 2010 quickly and thoroughly. Additionally, there is a companion Web site offers before-and-after tutorial files for downloading.

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Mediation Analysis (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a very readable, brief, and accurate introduction to mediation testing.
The book's notable strengths include: (1) integration of recent methodological developments beyond the now-dated Baron-Kenny approach, (2) one of the most readable introductions to the rather complex and often-misunderstood notions of moderated-mediation and mediated-moderation, and (3) frequent examples of how to conduct particular tests in structural equation modeling packages such as LISREL. The book also discusses how different types of variables should be dealt with (dichotomous, continuous, etc) in using each of the described procedures. All of these make 69 "real" pages of the book densely packed with contemporary methodological details.
The strengths of the book readily outweigh its weaknesses, which are two-fold.
First, the book's discussion of moderated-mediation and mediated-moderation models is rather simplistic. In particular, there are different classes of models (Type 1 through Type 5) that are not touched on here. Since you are reading this, the missing details can be found in the following two papers. (Please recognize that one of these papers might have appeared after the book was finished, and the author is unlikely to have a crystal ball specialized in forthcoming papers.)
Edwards, J., and Lambert, L. 2007. Methods for Integrating Moderation and Mediation: A General Analytical Framework Using Moderated Path Analysis. Psychological Methods. 12(1) 1-22.
Muller, D., Judd, C.M., and Yzerbyt, V. 2005. When Moderation Is Mediated and Mediation Is Moderated. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 89(6) 852-863.
Second, the author emphasizes SEM to a fault while discouraging the use of OLS regression. She also implies (page 49) that averaged construct scores are preferable for creating product terms in tests. This is a strong statement since this issue is still being debated in 2008.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who uses mediation tests in their research and wants to break out of the 1980s mode of thinking that mediation testing stopped with Baron Kenny (1986). Notwithstanding its _minor_ weaknesses, this is well worth the seventeen bucks.

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This book covers mediation analysis-the examination of whether an effect of one variable on another is direct or indirect or both. Author Dawn Iacobucci offers thorough coverage of introductory and advanced material as well as conceptual and statistical information. The book begins by introducing arguments of causality, and proceeds to examine current options for analyzing data patterns purported to exhibit meditational structures. Iacobucci shows direct and indirect paths via causal paths, regression, and structural equations models. She also grounds readers in a popular structural equations modeling approach so they can implement the statistical methods discussed in testing for evidence of mediation in a variety of empirical contexts.



Key Features



· Explores even the fundamental assumptions underlying mediation analysis

Describes options for analyzing mediation data

Provides syntax for a widely available and popular computer program so users can begin implementing mediation ideas immediately on their data



Intended Audience



This book is appropriate for any course in regression and correlation, sociological research methods, quantitative research methods, quantitative techniques in Business & Management, Psychology, Political Science, or Public Policy departments.

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The Frailty Model (Statistics for Biology and Health) Review

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(More customer reviews)The authors are academics who have done serious research in survival analysis and are very familiar with frailty models. The topic comes up when time to event data for one event is correlated with the time to event data for another or other events. This topic is sometimes referred to a subject in multivariate survival analysis or the analysis of clustered survival data.
As a professional biostatistician with a keen interest in survival models I have attended professional meetings in recent years and heard the term Frailty Model mentioned but I didn't know what it was. There of course is the natural connotation of weakness as in a feeble or frail person. But the actual formal dtatisticial meaning was a mystery. Other books that I am very familar with deal in part with frailty models but this is to my knowledge the first serious text dedicated to this topic. It also covers related methods to accomplish the same goal such as copulas (another term common in recent books and literature but one I was not familiar with either). For example Philip Hougaard wrote the first advanced text on multivariate survival models and covers parametric forms of frailty models. Klein and Moeschberger wrote a generaal survival analysis book that includes a chapter on semi-parameric fraility models. It showa how the EM algorithm is used to estimate parameters of the models. Ibrahim and colleague wrote a book on Bayesian methods in survival analysis and cover the Bayesian approach to both semi-parametric and parametric fraility models. Therneau and Grambsch wrote a recent book on the Cox proportional hazard model and its extensions. It included information on semi-parametric frailty models using the penalized partial likelihood approach to estimation.
This book is a well-written introduction to fraility models that includes all these methods provides real world examples and good explanations on how to interpret the results. The examples are illustrated using the freeware language R. This book could serve as either an undergraduate or graduate text in statistical methods and is a great reference for biostatisticians.

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Readers will find in the pages of this book a treatment of the statistical analysis of clustered survival data. Such data are encountered in many scientific disciplines including human and veterinary medicine, biology, epidemiology, public health and demography. A typical example is the time to death in cancer patients, with patients clustered in hospitals. Frailty models provide a powerful tool to analyze clustered survival data. In this book different methods based on the frailty model are described and it is demonstrated how they can be used to analyze clustered survival data. All programs used for these examples are available on the Springer website.

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Qualitative Data Analysis: An Introduction Review

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(More customer reviews)The Grbich book is my text for doctoral course in Qual.Research. It was in perfect shape when I received it. I requested quick delivery and it came in relatively soon enough for class. Good source. This is a text I use several times a week for writing papers because it explains concepts sometimes metaphorically and in the first person at times. Gbrich places herself in the shoes of the person who knows nothing about QR and builds to a clear, crisp understanding of the concept with the use of figures, exhibits and tables that compare and contrast theories so that you can see how they are similar and different...that's much appreciated from a novice.
JFD

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Qualitative Data Analysis: An Introduction provides a thorough but very accessible reference guide to epistemological changes and their impact on the field of qualitative research, together with a practical guide to the wide range of approaches social science researchers and postgraduate students are currently using to design and analyze this form of data. This is a book that will rapidly be recognized as essential for social researchers attempting qualitative approaches. It provides a first-class, reliable guide to the basic issues in data analysis with detailed examples, a glossary, further reading lists, and summaries of key points provided throughout the text.

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Probabilistic Graphical Models: Principles and Techniques (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series) Review

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(More customer reviews)Stanford professor, Daphne Koller, and her co-author, Professor Nir Friedman, employed graphical models to motivate thoroughgoing explorations of representation, inference and learning in both Bayesian networks and Markov networks. They do their own bidding at the book's web page, [...], by giving readers a panoramic view of the book in an introductory chapter and a Table of Contents. On the same page, there is a link to an extensive Errata file which lists all the known errors and corrections made in subsequent printings of the book - all the corrections had been incorporated into the copy I have. The authors painstakingly provided necessary background materials from both probability theory and graph theory in the second chapter. Furthermore, in an Appendix, more tutorials are offered on information theory, algorithms and combinatorial optimization. This book is an authoritative extension of Professor Judea Pearl's seminal work on developing the Bayesian Networks framework for causal reasoning and decision making under uncertainty. Before this book was published, I sent an e-mail to Professor Koller requesting some clarification of her paper on object-oriented Bayesian networks; she was most generous in writing an elaborate reply with deliberate speed.

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A general framework for constructing and using probabilistic models ofcomplex systems that would enable a computer to use available information for makingdecisions.

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Kinetics of Water-Rock Interaction Review

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(More customer reviews)If there are 50 experts in the field of water/rock kinetics, half of them had input or direct influence on this book. Kinetics of Water-Rock Interaction, edited by Brantley, Kubicki, and White is a compilation written by many of the experts in the field. For someone doing research in geochemical kinetics, this is a must have reference. The appendix alone is a valuable resource of mineral dissolution rate laws. Each chapter goes into meticulous detail of the different aspects of water/rock interactions and dissolution kinetics. Much of this field is empirical in nature, but Kinetics of Water-Rock Interaction has compiled fitted mathematics that allow one to predict the behavior of systems without setting up experiments. The driving forces that control dissolution rates and the competition between interface and transport control are deeply discussed. The field is still too young for any unified formula or precise behavioral predictions, but this work makes a huge first step in that direction.
Kinetics of Water-Rock Interaction isn't without blemishes however. At times the text wanders and is tedious. The information is very precise, but not always concise. Chapters are heavy on math and at the sacrifice of explaining general concepts. There is an unfortunate, not so rare, tendency to explain simple processes in overly complex language, limiting accessibility to those already somewhat versed in the field. I also caution that the compiled data in the appendices may not have always been handled in a way that would pass statistical muster. There is no alarm to be raised here, but a researcher using the data in the appendices should refer to the (clearly cited) originating texts to confirm how the data were interpreted/handled. What this field truly needs is a good text book. Unfortunately, this tome is not it. Kinetics of Water-Rock Interaction is a great resource and reference for the active researcher, but not a text book for introducing the uninitiated.
I look forward to many future editions of this book.

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Geochemical kinetics as a topic is now of importance to a wide range of geochemists in academia, industry, and government, and all geochemists need a rudimentary knowledge of the field. This book summarizes the fundamentals of geochemical kinetics with examples drawn especially from mineral dissolution and precipitation. It also encompasses discussion of high temperature processes and global geochemical cycle modeling. Analysis of textures of rocks, sediments, and mineral surfaces are incorporated throughout and provide a sub-theme of the book.

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Making Miniature Villages in Polymer Clay Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a craftin devil, by my husbands definition. I made thebest purchase of my craftin life last week, "Making MiniatureVillages in Polymer Clay". I started paging through it and couldn't believe the detailed photos and easy instructions. These designs are to die for, Sunny cottage is simply sweet, Hope's Place is dreamy, James' Place is masculine, and there are many more to numerous to mention, there is something for everyones. I could hardly wait to try my first one, which I started that night and was amazed at how easy it was. My husband looked through the book and couldn't believe I didn't pay more for such detail and instruction. I have bought similar books on polymer clay with not even half as much design, detail and instruction for twice the price. If you love polymer clay as much as I do, you won't be unhappy with this book.

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Combine the charm of miniature houses with theeasy-to-use medium of polymer clay, and you've got a fun hobbyeveryone can enjoy! This book contains 12 delightful, hand-sizedprojects, starting with simple cottages and progressing to elaboratemanors, a church, a grocery store and more.To help ensure greatresults, each project follows the same basic sequence of assemblageand includes detailed step-by-step illustrations, patterns,color-mixing recipes, and a photo of the finished house. You will alsolearn how to detail your villages with trees, flowers, fences,walkways and other special touches. Includes suggestions to help youcreate your own, unique variations--even miniatures of your own home!

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Computational Methods for Modeling of Nonlinear Systems, Volume 11 (Mathematics in Science and Engineering) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book introduces differential forms to physicists. It is suitable for those with no advanced training in math other than multivarible calculus and linear algebra. No prior knowledge of topology is needed, although it doesn't hurt. The book starts with a good intro explaining the motivation for forms and when they might be useful over tensors and vectors. The exterior algebra is then presented in chapter 2, followed by a chapter on the exterior derivative. The rest of the book prestents a good deal of applications of forms including the statement and proof of the Newton-Leibniz-Ostrogradksy-Gauss-Green-Stokes Theorem, usually just called Stoke's Theorem. I'd recommend this book to any grad student in Theoretical physics that plans on doing research on physics in the 21st century.

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In this book, we study theoretical and practical aspects of computing methods for mathematical modelling of nonlinear systems. A number of computing techniques are considered, such as methods of operator approximation with any given accuracy; operator interpolation techniques including a non-Lagrange interpolation; methods of system representation subject to constraints associated with concepts of causality, memory and stationarity; methods of system representation with an accuracy that is the best within a given class of models; methods of covariance matrix estimation;methods for low-rank matrix approximations; hybrid methods based on a combination of iterative procedures and best operator approximation; andmethods for information compression and filtering under condition that a filter model should satisfy restrictions associated with causality and different types of memory.As a result, the book represents a blend of new methods in general computational analysis,and specific, but also generic, techniques for study of systems theory ant its particularbranches, such as optimal filtering and information compression. - Best operator approximation,- Non-Lagrange interpolation,- Generic Karhunen-Loevetransform- Generalised low-rank matrix approximation- Optimal data compression- Optimal nonlinear filtering

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A Guide to Empirical Orthogonal Functions for Climate Data Analysis Review

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(More customer reviews)I asked my local library to purchase this book before I invested personally in it. Overall, it is very good. It begins with very limited sections on linear algebra & statistics and progresses to a very general overview of empirical orthogonal function analysis. This includes some discussion of principal components, eigenvalues, singular value decomposition, and multiple regression analysis. I liked this book because it started with the basics. However, I'm pretty confident that someone with a greater statistics & linear algebra background would find that the book spends too much time on 'pre-EOF' topics and does not go into enough detail about EOF analysis. Even I felt that way once I finished. The Matlab code the book provides as well as the explanations of different rotations used in EOF analysis are excellent additions which add a lot of value to the book. This is a small book however, and it is overpriced, in my opinion.

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Climatology and meteorology have basically been a descriptive science until it became possible to use numerical models, but it is crucial to the success of the strategy that the model must be a good representation of the real climate system of the Earth. Models are required to reproduce not only the mean properties of climate, but also its variability and the strong spatial relations between climate variability in geographically diverse regions. Quantitative techniques were developed to explore the climate variability and its relations between different geographical locations. Methods were borrowed from descriptive statistics, where they were developed to analyze variance of related observations-variable pairs, or to identify unknown relations between variables.

A Guide to Empirical Orthogonal Functions for Climate Data Analysis uses a different approach, trying to introduce the reader to a practical application of the methods, including data sets from climate simulations and MATLAB codes for the algorithms. All pictures and examples used in the book may be reproduced by using the data sets and the routines available in the book .

Though the main thrust of the book is for climatological examples, the treatment is sufficiently general that the discussion is also useful for students and practitioners in other fields.

Supplementary datasets are available via http://extra.springer.com

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Business Process Engineering Study Edition: Reference Models for Industrial Enterprises Review

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(More customer reviews)A book writen in a German style, very well structured. Exemples only when you need them, not a book of case studies but withot help.
The single bad thing is that even if the translator tryed his best, it is in finaly a German -English language, so quite hard to red it sometimes.
But if you want to understand a lot about BPR, you can count on it. It is not a "learn bpr in 24 hours" or a beginer's book.

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Written by the leading expertise in the area of business process modeling, this book describes modem methods for developing enterprise-wide information systems using the proven "Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS)" framework for the development of business process models for industrial companies. Examples from the standard software systems (SAP R/3) demonstrate the book's down-to-earth practicality. 554 illus.

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Numerical Methods for Stochastic Computations: A Spectral Method Approach Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a concise, self-contained, well-written introduction to numerical methods for uncertainty quantification. This book is aimed at first-year graduate students in engineering, which means an enterprising undergrad in applied math, with a couple of analysis courses, ought to be able to read this with ease. If the book seems a bit light on actual stochastic computation, it is because much of modern stochastic computations are still research, and the author builds for the readers the foundation needed for performing these computations. I highly recommend this book to any computational scientists, who I predict will be preoccupied in the next 5-10 years with quantifying uncertainties for their large-scale simulations.

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The first graduate-level textbook to focus on fundamental aspects of numerical methods for stochastic computations, this book describes the class of numerical methods based on generalized polynomial chaos (gPC). These fast, efficient, and accurate methods are an extension of the classical spectral methods of high-dimensional random spaces. Designed to simulate complex systems subject to random inputs, these methods are widely used in many areas of computer science and engineering.

The book introduces polynomial approximation theory and probability theory; describes the basic theory of gPC methods through numerical examples and rigorous development; details the procedure for converting stochastic equations into deterministic ones; using both the Galerkin and collocation approaches; and discusses the distinct differences and challenges arising from high-dimensional problems. The last section is devoted to the application of gPC methods to critical areas such as inverse problems and data assimilation.

Ideal for use by graduate students and researchers both in the classroom and for self-study, Numerical Methods for Stochastic Computations provides the required tools for in-depth research related to stochastic computations.

The first graduate-level textbook to focus on the fundamentals of numerical methods for stochastic computations
Ideal introduction for graduate courses or self-study
Fast, efficient, and accurate numerical methods
Polynomial approximation theory and probability theory included
Basic gPC methods illustrated through examples

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AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required Review

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(More customer reviews)AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 - No Experience Required published by Sybex under their Serious Skill efforts was written by Donnie Gladfelter. This is a massive collection of information for those that are just starting and those that have years of use under their belts. There are seventeen chapters dedicated to the basic of opening files, creating objects and navigating the interface to rendering and materials. The breadth of topics covered is impressive.
Some of the basic stuff is very good for those that are uninitiated. He even goes over where to click on objects for specific actions. This is a learned skill, but Donnie does a good job of explaining the little things that cause frustrations and delays for new users. He does not stop at the new user level - far from it. He covers advanced topics with the same prowess that makes the entire book worth having.
He starts with the things that you would expect to cover in a book like this but does so with greater depth, going into dialog boxes, settings and selections that may confuse those just starting. This basis of foundation builds as the book proceeds. Sprinkled throughout the book are little pullout comments that help those that might notice errors, cautions and erratic behaviors in the program at the beginning. Another nice touch is the pullout conversations about Standards and another on "What to do when you make a Mistake".
One really good chapter to me is "Using Layers as an Organizing Tool". The author goes to great lengths to explain the entire perspective of how Layers can make a difference and what impact getting it right. Colors, Linestyles, naming, etc - it is all covered. He goes over what should be assigned to what Layer and why and also how to do it.
Scattered throughout the book are Warnings and Tips. These are from the many years of using these tools that the author shares with the reader.
Blocks, Dynamic Blocks, Hatching and Dimensions are covered in depth. Sharing procedures for creating them,using them and placing them. All in the context of an ongoing Architectural drawing process. From creation of the first lines to the final Title Block and then setting up Layouts and plotting (even Sheet Set Manager). Xrefs are addressed as well as images and more.
The final chapters even get into 3D creation and use. (I like the Right Hand Rule illustration). Topped off with Rendering and Material gives the reader the full tour of the product from start to finish. Add to that the final Glossary of terms will move the novice to avid user quickly.
This publication is well worth the read and also to study. The wealth of knowledge shared from the authors ample experience will assist everyone who buys and reads this book.

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A step-by-step tutorial on AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT basics
AutoCAD is the leading drawing software, used by design and drafting professionals to create 2D and 3D technical drawings. This tutorial is aimed at AutoCAD novices and provides you with the essentials you need so you can acquire the necessary skills to work in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT immediately.

You'll begin with the basics and gradually progress to more advanced topics and features, such as grouping, elevations, hatches, and using text in drawings. Concise explanations, focused examples, and step-by-step instructions round out this hands-on tutorial.

Begins with the basics of AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, the leading 2D and 3D drawing software
Progresses to more advanced topics and skill sets and covers grouping, hatches, and text in drawings
Introduces dimensioning, external references, layouts and printing, and using 3D Contains helpful examples and step-by-step instructions so you can get started using AutoCAD immediately

Featuring the most up-to-date techniques, tactics, industry standards, and methods, this tutorial will get you started using AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT right away.

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Abstract State Machines: A Method for High-Level System Design and Analysis Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a well written good about an interesting, sensible formalism. I haven't tried using any of it in my line of work yet, but I'm pretty sure I will. Abstract State Machines (ASMs) are based on guarded, synchronously concurrent state transitions, with state effectively defined as a (finite) set of named, finite relations. The core of the formalism seems very simple and elegant and lends itself to clear, concise models at both high and low levels of abstraction. I believe it is more readily comprehended by practicioners than purely algebraic and / or functional approaches, being firmly rooted in the notion of state, operational abstract execution runs and state changes.
They models can be designed in a modular and composable manner in a natural way. The book gives a clear, rigorous account of it all, is readable and well organized, and positively loaded with helpul examples and references. My only complaint is that fully asynchronous (i.e. distributed) systems seem to get somewhat of a short thrift.
Overall, I am really excited about this stuff, and looking forward to a time when all system development can be undertaken and supported with such elegant, refinable models, as opposed to the hodgepodge scripting-language-centric mess that is the current practice.

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The systems engineering method proposed in this book, which is based on Abstract State Machines (ASMs), guidesthe development of software and embedded hardware-software systems seamlessly from requirements capture to actual implementation and documentation. The method bridges the gap between the human understanding and formulation of real-world problems and the deployment of their algorithmic solutions by code-executing machines. Within a single conceptual framework it covers design, verification by reasoning techniques, and validation by simulation and testing. ASMs improve current industrial practice by using accurate high-level modeling and by linking the descriptions at the successive stages of system development in an organic and efficiently maintainable chain of rigorous and coherent system models at stepwise-refined abstraction levels. In several industrial projects the ASM method has proven its superiority compared to the popular UML methodology when designing complex parallel or dynamic systems.This book combines the features of a textbook and a handbook: the reader will find detailed explanations, proofs, and exercises as well as numerous examples and real-world case studies. Researchers will find here the most comprehensive description of ASMs available today and professionals will use it as a "modeling handbook for the working software engineer." As a textbook it supports self-study or it can form the basis of a lecture course. The book is complemented by a CD containing the whole book text, additional course material, solutions to exercises, and additional examples. Even more information can be found on the related website maintained by the authors: http://www.di.unipi.it/AsmBook/

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