Risk Assessment in Geotechnical Engineering Review

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(More customer reviews)Two years ago when I started my masters in structural engineering, I had to learn about random field theory. The books that I found, considered the "must reads" for random field theory, might as well have been in Chinese (I don't understand Chinese - just for the record). It was extremely painful and frustrating trying to understand the completely not clear or easy to understand concepts - as they were presented in those books. Upon searching the internet, I found some papers written by Gordon Fenton. His description of random field theory and his work in general, was like an oasis in the desert. This is one very rare person who can explain complicated concepts so that they are easy to understand and apply. So when I found out he was publishing a book, I thought, this is a must have. And I haven't been disappointed. The first section on probability theory is without a doubt, the best explanation of the theory I have seen, with simple examples to help me concrete my understanding of the theory being presented. Therefore, this is the first textbook that I would recommend for people trying to understand the concepts of probability theory. Similarly, all other sections in the book are equally easy to understand and can make even me look intelligent - as he enables me to really understand the concepts being presented, because of his fantastic ability to communicate ' I like in particular, how he explains the practical reasons for why the theory can be simplified or assumptions can be made. Most boffin writers of textbooks don't explain "the obvious" which is not so obvious to the novice person reading their books. Sometimes I think that they don't realise that not everybody has done the mathematics degree required to understand some of the intricacies, which if not clearly explained, can stump the reader for days until they find out why they have assumed this or that. That's where Gordon Fenton is a real a gem. He doesn't leave you scratching your head, scrambling for other textbooks to fill in the gaps before you can continue with his explanations. So I highly recommend this book to anybody trying to understand probability theory, random field theory, estimation, reliability, Monte Carlo simulation and all other topics he covers in his book.

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NEW PROBABILISTIC APPROACHES FOR REALISTIC RISK ASSESSMENT IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING.
This text presents a thorough examination of the theories and methodologies available for risk assessment in geotechnical engineering, spanning the full range from established single-variable and "first order" methods to the most recent, advanced numerical developments. In response to the growing application of LRFD methodologies in geotechnical design, coupled with increased demand for risk assessments from clients ranging from regulatory agencies to insurance companies, authors Fenton and Griffiths have introduced an innovative reliability-based risk assessment method, the Random Finite Element Method (RFEM). The authors have spent more than fifteen years developing this statistically based method for modeling the real spatial variability of soils and rocks. As demonstrated in the book, RFEM performs better in real-world applications than traditional risk assessment tools that do not properly account for the spatial variability of geomaterials.
This text is divided into two parts:
Part One, Theory, explains the theory underlying risk assessment methods in geotechnical engineering. This part's seven chapters feature more than 100 worked examples, enabling you to develop a detailed understanding of the methods.
Part Two, Practice, demonstrates how to use advanced probabilistic tools for several classical geotechnical engineering applications. Working with the RFEM, the authors show how to assess risk in problems familiar to all geotechnical engineers.
All the programs used for the geotechnical applications discussed in Part Two may be downloaded from the authors' Web site at www.engmath.dal.ca/rfem/ at no charge, enabling you to duplicate the authors' results and experiment with your own data. In short, you get all the theory and practical guidance you need to apply the most advanced probabilistic approaches for managing uncertainty in geotechnical design.

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Metaheuristics: From Design to Implementation (Wiley Series on Parallel and Distributed Computing) Review

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(More customer reviews)The book is a good and detailed description of what metaheuristics involves. This is applied to solving hard computational problems. There are summaries of many methods developed over the last 50 years. The simplex method. Metropolis Monte Carlo. Simulated annealing. Genetic algorithms. And others. There is deliberately not enough information about most of these for you to use them given only the book as a starting point. Space considerations.
But mostly the book explains at a higher level, how methods can be understood. Some are for exploiting; ie. intensively looking in a given region of the objective space around a starting point. Simulated annealing is a good example of such a method.
Other methods are for exploring. A broader search in the objective or solution space. Genetic algorithms, with their mutations and crossover recombinations are very strong here, using ideas borrowed from biological evolution.
More importantly, the book shows how many hard problems have to be tackled by a combination of exploring and exploiting. The combining of algorithms is what gives metaheuristics its name.
One caveat is that even at a summary level, the description of tabu search was a bit unclear, compared to the excellent synopses of simulated annealing and genetic algorithms.

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A unified view of metaheuristics
This book provides a complete background on metaheuristics and shows readers how to design and implement efficient algorithms to solve complex optimization problems across a diverse range of applications, from networking and bioinformatics to engineering design, routing, and scheduling. It presents the main design questions for all families of metaheuristics and clearly illustrates how to implement the algorithms under a software framework to reuse both the design and code.
Throughout the book, the key search components of metaheuristics are considered as a toolbox for:

Designing efficient metaheuristics (e.g. local search, tabu search, simulated annealing, evolutionary algorithms, particle swarm optimization, scatter search, ant colonies, bee colonies, artificial immune systems) for optimization problems

Designing efficient metaheuristics for multi-objective optimization problems

Designing hybrid, parallel, and distributed metaheuristics

Implementing metaheuristics on sequential and parallel machines

Using many case studies and treating design and implementation independently, this book gives readers the skills necessary to solve large-scale optimization problems quickly and efficiently. It is a valuable reference for practicing engineers and researchers from diverse areas dealing with optimization or machine learning; and graduate students in computer science, operations research, control, engineering, business and management, and applied mathematics.

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Practical Poser 6 (Graphics) Review

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(More customer reviews)I own pretty much every Poser book yet published. I have to admit, despite referring to them, and the manuals, and online communities like Daz3d, Renderosity, and RDNA, I've never put enough time into my Poser work to become an expert. It's still just a hobby I dabble in. However, I have become good at picking out good tutorials and bad ones, and I also know a good technical book from one that's just repackaging the manual. "Practical Poser 6" is the first book I've seen that really can take you from beginner to expert. (Now if I can just spend the time to work my way through ALL the tutorials and learn everything it has to teach!)
This book is excellent, not just because it covers the latest version of Poser, but because it covers all aspects of using Poser in phenomenal detail. There are other Poser books that give you the basics (I've reviewed them too). But this book doesn't just list for you what each menu option does, what each dial in the Hair and Cloth rooms does, etc., and it doesn't just give you a few basic tutorials on posing Jessi (the default Poser woman that comes with Poser 6) and making some random hair styles. It takes you through each setting, *why* that setting exists, and when you might or might not want to use a particular option. The authors don't just tell you how to put Jessi in a standing pose, but they deliberate point out some trouble spots and how to correct them. OK, Jessi's stance isn't quite balanced, how do you fix it? She's wearing high heels, but her feet aren't positioned correctly -- how do you make her look natural? What do you do when you accidentally applied a pose to the wrong figure? Where can you get some free Python scripts to solve common problems?
Even in the first chapter, they described some options for customizing my workspace I hadn't even noticed yet. They give practical advice on organizing Runtimes. They list all the different kinds of files Poser reads or generates, and what each extension means! A newbie will be mystified by file extensions like cm2, cmz, pz2, ppz, etc. Sure, you can find out about them online or maybe by digging through the manual, but Practical Poser 6 is the first Poser book I've seen that gives you this basic information upfront -- what each filetype is, where you can find it, and where they sometimes get *misplaced*! The authors consistently show their awareness not just of the Poser application, but the third-party products and communities that most users will be dealing with, since they spend lots of time talking about common problems that result when you buy a model or prop and find it doesn't behave quite the way you expected.
Chapter 3, "Building Scenes," has you add conforming clothing, backgrounds, poses, and textures to Jessi incrementally and they show you a lifelike, animated pose that you can achieve yourself, not some stiff-armed mannequin with a plasticene expression. Their explanation of Inverse Kinematics is one of the best I've seen yet. This chapter alone will get a beginner enthused about working with Poser.
The chapters on cameras and lighting present information that until now you'd only get by skimming through multiple forums and reading a dozen tutorials.
The chapters on hair and clothing are another place where this book shines. Do you want to learn what every obsure dial in those rooms does? Read the manual. Do you want to learn the ins and outs of dynamic vs. conforming clothing, and how to create hair groups and how to make hair that looks like hair, or hair that looks like fur, or hair that looks like a feather? Read this book!
Morphs get complete treatment, and I might finally start making good use of magnets, since they provide such useful tutorials.
Next are chapters on texturing and modeling. Just enough to get your feet wet creating your own textures and models, but after absorbing these chapters, you'll be ready to start creating actual new products, and with enough practice, you may be able to sell them! There is a complete tutorial here that takes you through the creation of a new pair of pants for Jessi.
Next, a chapter on rendering. Want to really understand the difference between reflection maps and raytracing? Enlightenment at last! Learn about subsurface scattering, refraction, depth of field, aliasing, and other advanced topics, but you also get practical advice on how to select render options for the sort of image you want.
Finally, there is a chapter on something every Poser artist needs to learn but is rarely covered in Poser books -- postwork. Rarely will you get the perfect image you wanted after Poser is done rendering. You'll need to do "postwork" (doctoring the image further with Photoshop or other graphics applications) They cover this as well as some advanced tips and tricks for preparing your render to be postworked.
Appendix A describes the content of the included CD. The CD has a lot of free content -- a compact version of Apollo Maximus (a popular new third-party male figure), and a bunch of other free materials, characters, and poses from various third-party Poser content providers. This content alone probably makes this admittedly pricey book worth the cost.
Appendix B is a FAQ, which I also found educational, since these weren't dumb newbie questions, but annoying little bugs or advanced tricks. (How to create glowing objects, how to fix "bald spots" in a hair prop, how to customize your interface for working with dual monitors, what is a "gather node," etc.)
Maybe I wouldn't rave about "Practical Poser 6" quite so much if I hadn't already been through a bunch of other mediocre to disappointing Poser books, but this really is a book that will be useful for the serious beginner to intermediate-advanced Poser user. I give it an enthusiastic thumbs-up, and daresay that future Poser books now have a much higher standard to be compared against.

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Practical Poser 6 teaches Poser artists the tasks you want, and need, to learn so that you can get up to speed quickly and achieve your best results. Whether you're a hobbyist or professional, you'll learn how to create Poser scenes, how to add realism to your Poser characters, and even how to make your own Poser clothing. You'll learn practical, real-world tasks that will help you reach your goals and, most important, you'll have fun learning. In the first part of the book you'll get a quick overview and review of what you need to know in the Pose Room, starting with the Poser 6 interface and progressing, in a logical manner, to building scenes. You'll also learn how to use lights and cameras, and how to create and save your own light and camera sets to the Poser library.From there, you'll learn a plethora of practical skills including how to:* Work in the other Poser rooms* Prepare photographs in the Face Room and create and save custom faces * Use the Hair Room to add hair to Poser clothing or props, and how to pick up hair colors from underlying textures* Work with various types of Poser clothing, and learn the differences between conforming clothing and dynamic clothing* Decipher materials in the advanced Material Room view* Create and customize Poser clothing* Use magnets to create morphs in Poser* Export and import morphs to and from an external morphing program* Model a simple piece of clothing, create UV maps for common clothing articles (shirts, skirts, and pants), assign materials in clothing, and group them correctly* Save different types of Poser content into the Poser libraries so that they work properly* Enhance your Poser renders so that they look their best by learning how the render engine works

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Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a technical person but have very little DB experience and purchased the book because I had to for a college class. I feel the book was simply OK. Some points were made well others I had to read several times. Over all the explanations were not as concise as I would like but in all fairness DB concepts are hard to explain. The overall layout was good however I think there should have been more attention during the intro to familiarize the reader with DB's and the related concepts before delving in to the details of each phase of DB creation.
My only real gripe is that a new revision is published every year and the previous version of the $100 + dollar book becomes worthless. To save money I bought the previous version and found all the material I needed. However for the final exam the instructor of the online class gave us page numbers to use as reference so I was forced to buy the latest version which was the same book with a few new references...
If you are buying this book for reference or if you are buying this because you are taking a face to face class I recommend that you buy the previous version required by the instructor at a greatly reduced cost. You may be able to do this w/ an online class if the professor (or classmates) are flexible and willing to help reconcile the different page numbers.


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Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management, Eighth Edition, a market-leader for database texts, gives readers a solid foundation in practical database design and implementation. The book provides in-depth coverage of database design, demonstrating that the key to successful database implementation is in proper design of databases to fit within a larger strategic view of the data environment. Updates for the eighth edition include additional Unified Modeling Language coverage, expanded coverage of SQL Server functions, all-new business intelligence coverage, and added coverage of data security. With a strong hands-on component that includes real-world examples and exercises, this book will help students develop database design skills that have valuable and meaningful application in the real world.

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Computational Cell Biology Review

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(More customer reviews)As a field of applied mathematics, computational biology has exploded in the last decade, and shows every sign of increasing in the next. This book overviews a few of the topics in the computational modeling of cells. I only read chapters 12 and 13 on molecular motors, and so my review will be confined to these.
Nanotechnology could be described as an up-and-coming field, but in the natural world one can find examples of this technology that surpass greatly what has been accomplished by human engineers. The authors begin their articles with a few examples of natural molecular machines, including the "rotary motors" DNA helicase and bacteriophage, and the "linear motor" kinesin, the latter they refer to as a "walking enzyme". Important in the modeling of all these is the theory of stochastic processes in the guise of Brownian motion, which the authors hold is the key to understanding the mechanics of proteins. In chapter 12 they give a detailed overview of the mathematical modeling of protein dynamics, followed in chapter 13 by an illustration of the mathematical formalism in the bacterial flagellar motor, a polymerization ratchet, and a motor governing ATP synthase.
To the authors a molecular motor is an entity that converts chemical energy into mechanical force. The production of mechanical force though may involve intermediate steps of energy transduction, all these involving the release of free energy during binding events. But due to their size, molecular motors are subjected to thermal fluctuations, and thus to model their motion accurately requires the theory of stochastic processes. Thus the authors begin a study of stochastic processes, restricting their attention to ones that satisfy the Markov property. Starting with a discrete model of protein motion as a simple random walk, the authors show that the variance of the motion grows linearly with time, which is a sign of diffusive motion. The partial differential equation satisfied by the probability distribution function, in the continuous limit where the space and time scales are large enough, is left to the reader to derive as an exercise.
The authors then consider polymer growth as another example of a stochastic process, a kind of hybrid one in that it involves both discrete and continuous random variables, the position of the polymer being continuous, while the number of monomers in the polymer is discrete. The authors derive an ordinary differential equation for the probability of there being exactly n polymers at a particular time. From this they show how to obtain sample paths for polymer growth and give a brief discussion on the statistics of polymer growth.
Attention is then turned to the modeling of molecular motions, with the first example being the Brownian motion of proteins in aqueous solutions. The (stochastic) Langevin equation is given for the motion of the protein, both with and without an external force acting on the protein. To find a numerical solution of this equation is straightforward, as the authors show. But they caution however that simulation of this solution on a computer is liable to introduce spurious results, and so they derive the Smoluchowski model, a somewhat different way of looking at random motion via the evolution of ensembles of paths. In this formulation the Brownian force is replaced by a diffusion term, and the external force is modeled by a drift term.
The authors then consider the modeling of chemical reactions, which supply the energy to the molecular motors. Because of the time scales involved in these reactions, a correct treatment of them would involve quantum mechanics, but the authors use the Smoluchowski model. The simple reaction model they consider involves a positive ion binding to negatively charged amino acid, and using as reaction coordinate the distance between the ion and the amino acid, study the free energy change as a function of the reaction coordinate.
The numerical simulation of the protein motion is then considered in much greater detail, using an algorithm that preserves detailed balance. This involves converting the problem to a Markov chain and a consideration of the boundary conditions, which the authors do for the case of periodic, reflecting, and absorbing. Euler's method is used to solve the resulting equations for the Markov chain, and after dealing with issues of stability and accuracy, the Crank-Nicolson method is used. The last few sections of the chapter are devoted to the physics of these solutions and the authors give some intuitive feel for the entropic factors and energy balance on a protein motor.
In the last chapter of the book, the considerations in chapter 12 are applied to concrete molecular motors. The first one examined is a model for switching in a bacterial flagellar motor, which involves the protein CheY as a signaling pathway. The binding of CheY to the motor is modeled as a two-state process, with the binding site being either empty or occupied. The resulting set of coupled differential equations for the probabilities is solved for when the concentration of CheY is constant. An expression for the change in free energy is obtained, and the authors give a discussion of the physics in the light of what was done in the last chapter. The switching rate is computed, along with the mean first passage time.
Some other examples of molecular motors are also discussed, including the flashing racket, the polymerization ratchet, and a simplified model of the ion-driven F0 motor of ATP synthase. This latter motor is fascinating, since it describes the electrochemical energy involved in mitochondria for the production of ATP. The authors do a nice job of showing how the techniques of chapter 12 are used to solve this model, and also give an analytical solution for a certain limiting case.

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This textbook provides an introduction to dynamic modeling in molecular cell biology, taking a computational and intuitive approach. Detailed illustrations, examples, and exercises are included throughout the text. Appendices containing mathematical and computational techniques are provided as a reference tool.

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C4D 9.5: Real-World 3D Animation Production (Charles River Media Graphics) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was excited to get this title. For my needs, this book concentrated too much on use with thirdparty software and not enough on the depth of C4d itself and it's own modules. Perhaps that is what was intended. I don't regret adding it to my reference shelf for the odd consultation (books like this are almost always worth even a few great nuggets of knowlege) but it did not live up to my expectations of a definitive C4d reference. That may have had more to do with my expectations then the book itself.

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Cinema 4D 9.5: Real-World 3D Animation Production teaches how to produce commercial-quality 3D animation using Maxon's, powerful and affordable, Cinema 4D. Written for 3D animation professionals, hobbyists, and students, this practical, hands-on book uses real-world projects to teach the entire production process. Beginning with a review of how to model photorealistic objects, the book progresses through creating custom materials, cloth simulation, and character animation, to video game and simulation techniques. The book takes a software-integrated approach to 3D animation production with a focus on Cinema 4D and how to use it in concert with several other applications. This Cinema 4D-centric approach shows how real-world 3D animation production challenges can be met, not only with a great tool, but with a great tool box.Throughout the book, you'll learn a highly efficient workflow for creating 3D character animation with C4D. You'll learn various ways of producing motion graphics by integrating Adobe? Photoshop, and After Effects?, with C4D. You?ll explore projects that use BodyPaint to extend your ability to create fantasy and control the realism of how image maps relate to their objects. And you'll use Right Hemisphere Deep Creator 2 and Code Gardener's XPort 1.3 to explore methods for animating video games and simulations. Some experience with 3D animation is assumed, but all levels of users will be challenged to expand their skills.

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Mathematics: Modeling Our World Course 4 Pre-Calculus Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are a math teacher looking for activities using the graphing calculator and trying to engage your students, I recommend this book. It has ideas you can center your teaching around, or you can slavishly follow the book. Forensics and rockets - who could say no? The graphing calculator instructions are all included, there are extra materials on the web site.

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Handbook on Ontologies (International Handbooks on Information Systems) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recomend this book. Its cientific language gave me a deep view of ontology aproach. I'm very happy with Amazon's services and the quality of Book.
Thank you.


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An ontology is a formal description of concepts and relationships that can exist for a community of human and/or machine agents. The notion of ontologies is crucial for the purpose of enabling knowledge sharing and reuse. The Handbook on Ontologies provides a comprehensive overview of the current status and future prospectives of the field of ontologies considering ontology languages, ontology engineering methods, example ontologies, infrastructures and technologies for ontologies, and how to bring this all into ontology-based infrastructures and applications that are among the best of their kind. The field of ontologies has tremendously developed and grown in the five years since the first edition of the "Handbook on Ontologies". Therefore, its revision includes 21 completely new chapters as well as a major re-working of 15 chapters transferred to this second edition.

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Ceramics for Beginners: Hand Building (A Lark Ceramics Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)For years I've been wanting to work with clay. This book is filled with beautiful full color images of finished work that continuously inspire me. The step by step projects are easy to understand especially with the accompanied photography that visually illustrates the assembling process. You will learn the basics and beyond as this book teaches you about the medium itself and how to make handbuilding with clay a fluent vocabulary to use with your own artistic creations.

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Ceramics are always popular with crafters, and hand building with low-fire earthenware is a natural place to start. With its wealth of information and images, elegant design, and time-tested advice this beautiful new book by artist Shay Amber will inspire even the most intimidated beginner. Just as in her celebrated workshops, Amber guides would-be ceramists through all the basics, from selecting the right clay body to embellishing the surface with fabulous decorations and gorgeous glaze treatments to setting a firing temperature. She teaches how to pinch forms, create coils, make flat slabs, work with simple molds and armatures, and ornament your piece with stencils, slips, underglazes, terra sigillata, and more. Each technique is laid out in easy-to-follow step-by-step photos with projects in progress and stunning gallery images. Amber introduces a unique, easy-to-follow method for constructing a beautiful slab-built piece, and all the necessary templates are included. A dozen projects-including a pinched Tea Bowl, coil-built Espresso Cup Set, and luminous Lantern showcase the key methods. Comprehensive and accessible, this illustrated introduction will become the standard on the potter's bookshelf.

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Econometric Analysis of Count Data Review

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(More customer reviews)excellent. the book provides good examples and helps the readers to relate the huge literature and how one paper is related to another one.

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The book provides an up-to-date survey of statistical and econometric techniques for the analysis of count data, with a focus on conditional distribution models. The book starts with a presentation of the benchmark Poisson regression model. Alternative models address unobserved heterogeneity, state dependence, selectivity, endogeneity, underreporting, and clustered sampling. Testing and estimation is discussed. Finally, applications are reviewed in various fields.

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Digital Modelling for Urban Design Review

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(More customer reviews)President Obama's establishment of an Urban Affairs Office again spotlights the need for design of the urban environment which goes far beyond economic exploitation dominated by the real estate and construction industries which has produced ugly chaos in buildings and infrastructure. Mastering the complexities of cities and the forces which shape them is difficult but necessary for sound comprehensive design; otherwise piecemeal endeavors so beloved by dealmakers seeking favorable privileges produce projects of reduced public benefit. To counter aggressive, narrowly-interested manipulators of the urban fabric, design tools are needed to research, study, explore and propose benefits for city dwellers. Brian McGrath's "Digital Modelling for Urban Design" will be welcomed by urban designers faced with daily barrages of commercial demands to forgo overall public interest and concentrate on the avarice of property developers and their batteries of biased financial, legal and design professionals. With the tools he describes it will be possible to reinforce the original purpose for founding urban design: the design, production and preservation of livable, healthy, safe and beautiful cities for all their inhabitants not merely the few who think they rule as their own what belongs to all.

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While there is a rich array of urban theory, design, and representation books available, there is currently no book which brings together, in a single volume, urban design theory and new digital technologies in urban information mapping, modeling, and 3D simulation. Based on two decades of practicing and teaching architecture, author Brian McGrath's Digital Modelling for Urban Design explores the new theories and technologies of digital modelling, focusing on how to create moving and interactive 3D drawing, skills useful in the context of urban theory, and design and representation. Fully illustrated with original maps, 3D models, and drawings and photographs, this innovative work introduces digital modelling to students, architects, designers, and planners interested in the processes key to shaping the urban environment.

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21 Recipes for Mining Twitter Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a very short, very practical way to get you started exploring the Twitter APIs on your own. It offers a decent amount of code no experienced developer should have much trouble understanding and applying to his or her own needs. The cost per page is not exactly attractive and some readers may want a more in-depth less cookbook-like experience. If you are in a hurry to extract data from Twitter, this book may be for you - for less than $20 for the electronic edition, it will spare you more than that in time spent figuring out libraries and APIs. Plus, it offers some intro on many other interesting libraries that can be applied to a lot of problems besides Twitter mining.

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Millions of public Twitter streams harbor a wealth of data, and once you mine them, you can gain some valuable insights. This short and concise book offers a collection of recipes to help you extract nuggets of Twitter information using easy-to-learn Python tools. Each recipe offers a discussion of how and why the solution works, so you can quickly adapt it to fit your particular needs. The recipes include techniques to:

Use OAuth to access Twitter data
Create and analyze graphs of retweet relationships
Use the streaming API to harvest tweets in realtime
Harvest and analyze friends and followers
Discover friendship cliques
Summarize webpages from short URLs

This book is a perfect companion to O'Reilly's Mining the Social Web.

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Principles of Functional Verification Review

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(More customer reviews)Instead of attempting to teach you the "howtos" of functional verification this book teaches you the "whys". This causes it to be much less like a textbook than many others on the same subject. Therefore reading this book cover to cover is relatively easy and useful. Examples given are at the appropriate level of complexity - neither too simple nor too complex.
Readers of this book could easily range from senior management to test coders. Senior management would learn the purposes behind various aspects of functional verification and why the cost and complexity continues to rise. Engineers would be exposed to the reasoning behind the use of some functional verification techniques.
Each chapter discusses the ideas behind some aspects of functional verification with examples of how this might be used in an actual system being verified. There are few code examples since that would not contribute to the purpose of the book. The examples are primarily system architectures and how a specific component of functional verification would be used in testing that architecture.
The list of subjects covered is complete relative to the current state of the art.
Overall this is a very useful book to read. I would suggest that most verification engineers and their managers would benefit from exposure to this book. Even if you know all of this already it is a good book to have available to explain to other people what you are doing.

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As design complexity in chips and devices continues to rise, so, too, does the demand for functional verification. Principles of Functional Verification is a hands-on, practical text that will help train professionals in the field of engineering on the methodology and approaches to verification.In practice, the architectural intent of a device is necessarily abstract. The implementation process, however, must define the detailed mechanisms to achieve the architectural goals. Based on a decade of experience, Principles of Functional Verification intends to pinpoint the issues, provide strategies to solve the issues, and present practical applications for narrowing the gap between architectural intent and implementation. The book is divided into three parts, each building upon the chapters within the previous part. Part One addresses why functional verification is necessary, its definition and goals. In Part Two, the heart of the methodology and approaches to solving verification issues are examined. Each chapter in this part ends with exercises to apply what was discussed in the chapter. Part Three looks at practical applications, discussing project planning, resource requirements, and costs. Each chapter throughout all three parts will open with Key Objectives, focal points the reader can expect to review in the chapter. * Takes a "holistic" approach to verification issues* Approach is not restricted to one language* Discussed the verification process, not just how to use the verification language

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Statistical and Econometric Methods for Transportation Data Analysis Review

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(More customer reviews)This excellent book describes the techniques most useful for modeling the many complex aspects of transportation, such as travel demand, safety, emissions, and the environment. Taking care not to overwhelm readers with statistical theory, the authors clearly and concisely present the relevant analytical methods in quantitative chapters built on transportation case studies.

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As the field of transportation moves toward the "total quality management" paradigm, performance-based outcomes and quantitative measures have become increasingly important. Measuring performance in the field depends heavily on modeling trends and data, which in turn requires powerful, and flexible analytical tools. To date, however, transportation professionals have lacked a unified, rigorous guide to modeling the wide range of problems they encounter in the field. Statistical and Econometric Methods for Transportation Data describes the techniques most useful for modeling the many complex aspects of transportation, such as travel demand, safety, emissions, and the environment. Taking care not to overwhelm readers with statistical theory, the authors clearly and concisely present the relevant analytical methods in quantitative chapters built on transportation case studies. Mastering this material enables readers to:
Formulate research hypotheses
Identify appropriate statistical and econometric models
Avoid common pitfalls and misapplications of statistical methods
Interpret model results correctlyIdeal as both a textbook and reference, this book makes three unique contributions to transportation practice and education. First, it presents a host of analytical techniques-both common and sophisticated-used to model transportation phenomena. Second, it provides a wealth of examples and case studies, and third, it specifically targets present and future transportation professionals. It builds the foundation they need not only to apply analytical models but also to understand and interpret results published elsewhere.

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Microsoft Access 2010 Inside Out (Inside Out (Microsoft)) Review

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(More customer reviews)The book is very comprehensive. I have not read through the complete book as yet, however, the big advantage is that you can go to any section/subject and get the in depth information you require at any particular time. The information is also very clear and delves in great depth into each subject.
I especially like the complete samples of various database(s) as well as samples and code where applicable on the companion CD. With the CD you have the ability to load all these items onto your computer and make the references available at all times.
The greatest asset on the companion CD for me is the PDF file of the complete book. As I get older my eyesight is not like it used to be and I have trouble reading many books and periodicals. Having the book on PDF format makes it very easy for me to read.
Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase.

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You're beyond the basics, so dive right in and really put your database skills to work! This supremely organized reference is packed with hundreds of timesaving solutions, troubleshooting tips, and workarounds. It's all muscle and no fluff. Discover how the experts tackle Access 2010 -- and challenge yourself to new levels of mastery!

Master essential data management and design techniques
Import and link to data from spreadsheets, databases, text files, and other sources
Use action queries to quickly insert, update, or delete entire sets of data
Create custom forms to capture and display data
Design reports to calculate, summarize, and highlight critical data--and learn advanced techniques
Automate your application with macros and Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA)
Use Access Services to extend your database application to the Web
A Note Regarding the CD or DVD The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to booktech@oreilly.com.

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Production Rendering: Design and Implementation Review

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(More customer reviews)I won't hurt the rating by voting differently than the other two reviewers - I haven't read it! I wanted to check out this book because Amazon lists it as "1st Edition. edition (November 5, 2010)". It actually came out in 2004. I'm adding this "review" just so others are not fooled by this incorrect date.
For a newer book on production-quality rendering, you might also consider "Physically Based Rendering, Second Edition", which truly is from 2010 (the first edition is from 2004). Stephenson's book is focused on RenderMan, which is beginning to show its age and limitations; "Physically Based Rendering" (PRT) is entirely ray-based, vs. micropolygons (plus rays tacked on, as an extension). If you want to understand RenderMan's algorithms, I suspect "Production Rendering" is the book for you. If I was insane enough to create a production renderer from scratch, I'd write a pure ray tracer as of today, and so would find PRT of more interest.

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Details the techniques used by experienced graphics software developers to implement feature film quality rendering engines.Brings together all the skills needed to develop a rendering system.

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Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2008 Review

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(More customer reviews)An excellent book for 3ds max. Good explanation and illustrations of how things were done. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is into architectural visual field.

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In Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2008, VIZ expert Jon McFarland teaches you how to get the most out of Autodesk's potent 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software. As you follow real-world examples, you'll quickly see how to apply these techniques to your design projects. Whether you're entirely new to VIZ or simply want to master its newest features, this book offers the clear explanations and step-by-step instruction you need to make VIZ work for you.
Coverage includes:
Finding your way around in VIZ
Linking to AutoCAD files
Modeling using primitive and compound objects
Editing using modifers and sub-objects
Creating complex shapes with surface modeling tools
Managing your design data more efficiently
Simulating lighting effects accurately with global illumination
Rendering real-world surfaces with Architectural material
Setting up animated walk-throughs
Using radiosity to create accurate scene lighting
Using mental ray to achieve the most realistic rendering
Producing design presentation views
Understanding keyframes and function curve editing
Acquiring 3D models and props from the Web

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