Thinking in Complexity: The Computational Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind Review

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(More customer reviews)[A review of the 4th Edition, 2003.]
This book studies complexity and nonlinearity across a diverse range of applications. Much of the book revolves around organic evolution and the evolution of a sentient mind. And how complexity analysis might aid in the understanding of these fields. Not the least in devising deeper forms of artificial intelligence.
So intriguing techniques like cellular automata and neural networks are studied. There is a fair amount of speculation as to how these and other topics might ultimately relate to sentience or consciousness. But the musings are grounded in solid science. Like that of a Hopfield system or a Boltzmann machine. This 4th edition is a good reflection of the boundaries of our knowledge.

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Securities Valuation: Applications of Financial Modeling Review

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(More customer reviews)I work as a valuations manager for a multi-strat hedge fund. I purchased this book while in my MBA program. I've completed my degree and this one still is on my shelf.

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A textbook that provides a coherent description of valuation models over a wide range of securities. Students can study both the theories and the practical implementations of the valuation models. Further, students can use the extensive Excel models, applying to practical problems ( the cases) and exercises. The book is the only textbook that is supported by a complete set of excel models, enabling students to use the models in 'real life' cases. This book combines the theories and case studies in one coherent treatment, for the courses in securities valuation.

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The Algorithmic Beauty of Seaweeds, Sponges and Corals (The Virtual Laboratory) Review

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(More customer reviews)I really like things in the ocean. They are thinking about drilling in the Artic Ocean. Then they are fighting about who should own the Artic Circle.Its really stupid. I wish it would stop.

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This book gives a state-of-the-art overview of modeling growth and form of marine sessile organisms - such as stromatolites, algae, and metazoans including stony corals, hydrocorals, octocorals, and sponges -, using large-scale computing techniques, scientific visualization, methods for analyzing 2D and 3D forms, and particle-based modeling techniques. It originates from the workshop on Modeling Growth and Form of Marine Sessile Organisms, held at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, California, August 1999. Experts from various disciplines including developmental biology, ecology, computer science, physics and mathematics, who have research interests in modeling the development of these organisms have been invited to contribute. The book describes all the steps required to develop and experimentally validate morphological models including collecting biological information and methods for specifying and comparing forms. Examples are given of how models are currently being applied to simulate growth and form of marine sessile organisms. Potential applications of growth models and morphological analyses in modern and paleo-bio-monitoring, the detection of environmental change, and the conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems and aquaculture are addressed. The combination of simulation models with laboratory and field experiments provides a powerful tool to obtain insights on how the growth forms of marine organisms emerge from physical, genetic and environmental influences.

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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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Model-Driven Testing: Using the UML Testing Profile Review

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(More customer reviews)I have worked on software development for many years before working in software QA. I bought the book because of all the promises and hypes about model based testing, which is quite appealing. I used Spec# early on, but quickly turned off by the difficulty, complexity of the tool and for most part, a lack of support. NModel fixes all that (okay nearly)
The book starts with a historical review of modeling tools. If you want to get to the heart of the subject start at chapter 5 which lays out the principles of modeling software. Any software development experience will be beneficial since it assumes that you've done some software analysis and development.
The tools that the authors are offering are freely available from NModel website.
Mpv - is what you use to generate a FSM from your model, which the tool turns into a *.dot file for visualization.
Otg - off line test generator allows you to generate test cases from the model you built.
Ct - allows you to execute test cases generated by using Otg. It requires a stepper (see below)
If you have decent C# coding skill you should be able to read and follow the examples given in the book (which you can also download from NModel website). The work flow is 1) create a VS project, 2) analyze and describe your model in C# 3) compile it 4) generate test cases using Otg 5) build a stepper, and 6) execute the test cases. If a test case fails it indicates that there's a bug in the system under test or there's a bug in your model, or a requirement is ill-defined. A stepper is a test harness that bridges the model to the system under test. In practice expect to put in just as many time and effort on coding a stepper as coding your model.
In my project I successfully adapted NModel to build a model for a medical embedded device. My model described the behavior of the device. The test cases were generated on a host (pc) and a stepper executed each test case against the device. The tool captured the response from the device and compared it against the expected result generated from the model. I was able to generate hundreds of test cases easily based on the model I built, which is the real payoff. I was given enough time to work on a model and a test harness, but if your management does not understand the up-front cost of a model based testing this could be a hard sell.
This book offers a practical approach to software modeling and the tools they offer do work as advertised (please visit their homepage at codeplex for a bug list) My advice to those curious is to start with a small project, gain some experience before tackling a real project. I would recommend the book to anyone who might consider a model based testing, and I would consider using NModel tool set for my next project as well.

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Written by the original members of an industry standardization group, this book shows you how to use UML to test complex software systems. It is the definitive reference for the only UML-based test specification language, written by the creators of that language. It is supported by an Internet site that provides information on the latest tools and uses of the profile. The authors introduce UTP step-by-step, using a case study that illustrates how UTP can be used for test modeling and test specification.

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Fundamentals of Information Systems (with Printed Access Card) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recieved 4th edition, but requested a 5th edition. It is a required book for school, and I will be able to use it, but nonetheless, I still received the wrong edition

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Readers gain with a solid understanding of the core fundamentals of information systems (IS) today in just nine brief chapters with Stair/Reynolds' FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS, 6E. Readers explore the key principles of IS with a captivating overview of the IS discipline and the rapidly changing role of today's IS professional.More than 50 new references in each chapter bring the latest IS topics and examples to the forefront, while new opening vignettes, cases and special interest features clearly demonstrate the emphasis today's organizations place on innovation and speed. Readers gain an understanding of cloud computing, forecasting and some of the most recent developments affecting virtual communities, virtual teams and work structures. It's the concise IS overview readers need to function more effectively as workers, managers, decision makers, and organizational leaders in business today.

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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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Using the Workshop Approach in the High School English Classroom: Modeling Effective Writing, Reading, and Thinking Strategies for Student Success Review

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(More customer reviews)Without being reductive, this text is an excellent resource for High School English Teachers and secondary language/arts majors. I cannot recommend this text more highly. - Todd Finley

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Take a peek into an effective workshop-based classroom and discover how you can enhance adolescents' technical and creative abilities in reading, writing, and thinking.

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Modeling And Forecasting Primary Commodity Prices Review

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(More customer reviews)Quantitative analysis applied to trading futures markets. This is the basis of the modern school of trading. Not for the innumeric, however.

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The publication of this book at this time is particularly important. Recent economic growth in China and other Asian countries has led to increased commodity demand which has caused price rises and accompanying price fluctuations not only for crude oil but also for the many other raw materials. Such trends mean that world commodity markets are once again under intense scrutiny. This book provides new insights into the modeling and forecasting of primary commodity prices by featuring comprehensive applications of the most recent methods of statistical time series analysis. The latter utilise econometric methods concerned with structural breaks, unobserved components, chaotic discovery, long memory, heteroskedasticity, wavelet estimation and fractional integration. Relevant tests employed include neural networks, correlation dimensions, Lyapunov exponents, fractional integration and rescaled range. The price forecasting involves recent modeling approaches including STS, ARIMA, ARFIMA, and ARCH and GARCH models. Practical applications focus on the price behavior of more than twenty international commodity markets.

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Cognitive Modeling Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is quite easy to follow and describes the technical and practical details how to actually do cognitive modeling!
Highly recommended for people who are interested in cognitive modeling but don't know where to start.

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Cognitive Modeling is the first book to provide students with an easy-to understand introduction to the basic methods used to build and test cognitive models. Authors Jerome R. Busemeyer and Adele Diederich answer many of the questions that researchers face when beginning work on cognitive models, such as the following: What makes a cognitive model different from conceptual or statistical models? How do you develop such a model? How can you derive qualitatively different predictions between two cognitive models? Focusing on a few key representations, the authors introduce a basic problem in each chapter, illustrate the concept with three examples, and end with a summary of general principles, making this book by far the most accessible cognitive modeling book on the market. Key Features

Emphasizes modeling by presenting the tools needed to build a cognitive model, rather than simply reviewing existing models of cognition
Provides tutorial presentations of psychological, mathematical, statistical, and computational methods used in all areas of cognitive modeling
Includes detailed examples applied to real cognitive models published in the literature in a variety of areas, including recognition, categorization, decision making, and learning
Stresses the importance of designing the right conditions for evaluating models
Addresses the issues of individual differences in cognitive modeling head-on

Cognitive Modeling is ideal for students and researchers across the various domains of cognitive sciences, including perception, learning, decision making, and inference. It is intended for use in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses such as Cognition/Cognitive Modeling, Cognitive Science, Cognitive Psychology, Quantitative Methods, and Mathematical Modeling in Psychology.

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Biological Modeling and Simulation: A Survey of Practical Models, Algorithms, and Numerical Methods (Computational Molecular Biology) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you want to have working knowledge (with theoretical background) but do not have much time to take all related classes, then this book should be a good place to start. Exposition of concepts is akin to real biological problems. Many pseudo-codes are directly implementable within one or two hours. I recommend this especially for those who are not familiar with scientific programming since it teaches how to approach scientific problems. Although the book is meant to summarize related methods but each section covers enough details with clear explanation.

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A practice-oriented survey of techniques for computational modeling andsimulation suitable for a broad range of biological problems.

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SystemVerilog for Design Second Edition: A Guide to Using SystemVerilog for Hardware Design and Modeling Review

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(More customer reviews)(My review is about the 2006 2nd-edition, not the older 1st edition!)
In general, I agree with the other reviews. This book is written for an audience of Verilog designers, who know the Verilog language (and its limitations) all to well. The book covers Systemverilog's new features like, enum, struct, interfaces, etc., from the perspective of "how to write better RTL-code using Systemverilog instead of Verilog.' For example, it explains the pros/cons of the (Systemverilog) "interface" construct, vs a flat group of (Verilog) module-port declarations. The discussion helps designers appreciate RTL-coding from a (slightly) higher levle of abstraction.
You don't need a specific background (i.e. design-engineer) to benefit from this book; you just need a good familiarity with conventional Verilog.
As others have said, this book is not suitable as a reference. The paragraphs flow well, but it's hard to lookup an arbitrary topic from the index. So far, no hardcover-book can displace the official IEEE Systemverilog LRM as the best reference.
And since the book focuses on the 'design' (synthesizeable) aspect of Systemverilog, it doesn't cover non-synthesizeable language features (like classes, constrained random variables, etc.)

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In its updated second edition, this book has been extensively revised on a chapter by chapter basis. The book accurately reflects the syntax and semantic changes to the SystemVerilog language standard, making it an essential reference for systems professionals who need the latest version information. In addition, the second edition features a new chapter explaining the SystemVerilog "packages", a new appendix that summarizes the synthesis guidelines presented throughout the book, and all of the code examples have been updated to the final syntax and rerun using the latest version of the Synopsys, Mentor, and Cadance tools.

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OK I'm a Parent Now What?: A Collection of Articles About Mentoring Modeling and Making Fantastic Families Review

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(More customer reviews)I have used Brandi's personalized parenting services and it was tremendously helpful to me - this book is a necessity for every parent! No matter how much you think you know, Brandi has amazing suggestions and useful tips that will change your life and the time you spend with your kids. I highly recommend this book!!

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If you have a child in your life, you probably find yourself sometimes feeling a bit out to sea without a map to guide you. This book is the guide that will help you find new ways to get what you need accomplished without all of the tantrums and power-struggles that create conflicts within the family. This book is a compilation of articles touching on a myriad of child rearing topics such as parent-child communication, quick dinners, tantrums, how to get your kids to listen, productive discipline and much more. After finishing this book you will feel empowered to parent in a calmer, quieter and more productive way than you ever have before. Dive in and start your new parenting adventure now. Read the articles and take from them what fits into your family, then mold the concepts to fit your personality, your child's temperament, and your family ideals. Have fun and enjoy your new parenting journey.

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Atmospheric and Space Flight Dynamics: Modeling and Simulation with MATLAB® and Simulink® (Modeling and Simulation in Science, Engineering and Technology) Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this book as a reference for my aerospace engineering senior design project, in which I functioned as the dyanmics and control analyst. This book proved to be invaluable in every aspect of my responsibilities, particularly and most importantly in actual simulation of the equations of motion. The specific MATLAB codes provided are an excellent reference for writing your own scripts and functions for the numerical integration, and auxillary functions like the atmosphere and gravity programs were huge time-savers. If unfamiliar with the material, his step-by-step approach to the end goal of simulating a wide variety of atmospheric, transatmospheric, and spaceflight/orbital problems in both aero- and astronautical vehicles is perfectly structured. You will gain valuable insight into common dynamic modeling assumptions, both in 3 and 6 degree of freedom problems. I could not have asked for a better text.
The only possible suggestion for improvement I have is a greater number of even more in-depth, modern-type problems, like a recurring Space Shuttle example; this would cover a vertical-take off rocket with unique strcuture, aerodynamics, and staging into orbit, rendezvous with an orbiting station, lifting body reentry, and glide-to-target landing. Other possibilities include atmospheric simulations of hypersonic vehicles with ramjet/scramjet type propulsion. Still, these are just small suggestions in the face of what is an overall excellent publication; I would certainly buy future works from this author, particularly those with similar topics and examples as brought up above.

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This book offers a unified presentation that does not discriminate between atmospheric and space flight. It demonstrates that the two disciplines have evolved from the same set of physical principles and introduces a broad range of critical concepts in an accessible, yet mathematically rigorous presentation.The book presents many MATLAB and Simulink-based numerical examples and real-world simulations. Replete with illustrations, end-of-chapter exercises, and selected solutions, the work is primarily useful as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate-level students.

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Parametric Modeling with Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)Randy Shih is great for sneaking the teaching into the tutorials so that you barely realize you are having to work for it. It covers most of the commonly used commands including revolves, sweeps, shell, etc., as well as assembly and animation. You don't have to know anything going in, but you will finish with a pretty strong ability to create whatever you need in an very efficient manner.

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The primary goal of Parametric Modeling with Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 is to introduce the aspects of solid modeling and parametric modeling. The text is a hands-on, exercise-intensive approach to all the important parametric modeling techniques and concepts. This book contains a series of eleven tutorial style lessons designed to introduce beginning CAD users to the most commonly used features of Pro/ENGINEER. Each lesson introduces a new set of commands and concepts, building on previous lessons. This text guides you from constructing basic shapes to building intelligent solid models and creating multi-view drawings. The basic premise of this book is that the more designs you create, the better you learn the software. This book will establish a good basis for exploring and growing in the exciting field of computer aided engineering. By the end of this book the reader will advance to an intermediate level Pro/ENGINEER user.
Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Parametric Modeling Fundamentals 2. Constructive Solid Geometry Concept 3. Model History Tree 4. Parametric Relations and Constraints 5. Parent/Child Relationships 6. Datum Features, 3D Annotations, and Part Drawings 7. Symmetrical Features in Designs 8. Three Dimensional Construction Tools 9. Advanced Modeling Tools 10. Assembly - Putting It All Together 11. Advanced Assembly Modeling and Pro/AnimationIndex

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Modeling and Simulation in Scilab/Scicos with ScicosLab 4.4 Review

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(More customer reviews)The book "Modeling and Simulation with Scilab/Scicos"
is well written and understandable to
readers with the basic signal processing and programming
background.
The reader can refresh/improve the knowledge of
some basic control theory material, while at the
same time learns how to apply Scilab/Scicos at simulation and
modeling problems.
I worked with Matlab for many years before and I found
Scilab/Scicos a very powerful alternative to Matlab/Simulink
and is free!
I recommend strongly this book to any scientist/engineer that
plans to explore the benefits of the excellent open
source Scilab/Scicos environment.

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Scilab and its Scicos block diagram graphical editor, with a special emphasis on modeling and simulation tools. The first part is a detailed Scilab tutorial, and the second is dedicated to modeling and simulation of dynamical systems in Scicos. The concepts are illustrated through numerous examples, and all code used in the book is available to the reader.

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Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Modeling and Simulation Review

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(More customer reviews)The author is well-known in the PK/PD modeling field. It is a reader-friendly book. It is very easy to understand. You would not be bored by the terminology. The author explained the theory and ideas by the simplest words. Actually, it is a very fun book. You are just like reading a story, not a boring science book.
This book is for students/professionals with adequate backgroup of PK/PD, math and statistics. It is especially useful for an entry level modeler or future modeler.
I love this book.

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A natural hierarchy exists in pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling culminating in population pharmacokinetic models, which are a specific type of nonlinear mixed effects model. The purpose of this book is to present through theory and example how to develop pharmacokinetic models, both at an individual and population level. In order to do so, however, one must first understand linear models and then build to nonlinear models followed by linear mixed effects models and then ultimately nonlinear mixed effects models. This book develops in that manner - each chapter builds upon previous chapters by first presenting the theory and then illustrating the theory using published data sets and actual data sets that were used in the development of new chemical entities collected by the author during his years in industry. A key feature of the book is the process of modeling. Most books and manuscripts often present the final model never showing how the model evolved. In this book all examples are presented in an evolutionary manner.

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