Book Description

Mastering Simulink® presents readers with in-depth coverage of programming using Simulink. This book is intended to serve as a detailed tutorial for all new users of Simulink and as a reference for experienced users.The book presents an overview of Simulink and describes in detail the procedures for building, editing, and running a Simulink model. Provides explanations for debugging techniques, including the interactive debugger. Introduces Stateflow™, a Simulink extension which adds the capability to model finite state machines subsystems using a variant of the popular Statecharts formalism. Covers subsystems, masking, callbacks, graphical animations, and S-functions.For anyone interested in Control Theory and Operational Amplifiers. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A brief introduction, certainly not "mastering Simulink"
I have been using Simulink ever since it's born in early 90's. I got this book because I have "Mastering Simulink 2" from the same authors. Few years ago, Simulink official manual is poorly written in the sense that a lot of important information were left out. "Master Simulink 2" was useful then. Starting Matlab 6, MathWorks has put in a big effort to roll out its official manuals, especially on Simulink 4. Therefore, this new book has little value (no more information) on top of the existing manuals.

This book has a few nontrivial c-mex file examples that are pretty much the only useful pages I can get some benefits from. The official manual "Writing S-Function" covers a lot more detailed materials to show user how to write c-mex, Fortran-mex, Ada-mex files with Simulink, which is the essence of building any real world design applicaiton. The book did not talk about Simulink Performance Tools, which is a very useful side product to work with Simulink.

Overall, for any beginner who can not access the official MATLAB 6/Simulink 4 manuals, this book is a good choice to solve some simple "textbook" problems. But I doubt anyone can learn much from this book to accomplish serious, pratical, and real-world design applications. ... Read more

Book Description

Cellular automata, dynamic systems in which space and time are discrete, are yielding interesting applications in both the physical and natural sciences. The thirty four contributions in this book cover many aspects of contemporary studies on cellular automata and include reviews, research reports, and guides to recent literature and available software. Chapters cover mathematical analysis, the structure of the space of cellular automata, learning rules with specified properties: cellular automata in biology, physics, chemistry, and computation theory; and generalizations of cellular automata in neural nets, Boolean nets, and coupled map lattices.

Current work on cellular automata may be viewed as revolving around two central and closely related problems: the forward problem and the inverse problem. The forward problem concerns the description of properties of given cellular automata. Properties considered include reversibility, invariants, criticality, fractal dimension, and computational power. The role of cellular automata in computation theory is seen as a particularly exciting venue for exploring parallel computers as theoretical and practical tools in mathematical physics.

The inverse problem, an area of study gaining prominence particularly in the natural sciences, involves designing rules that possess specified properties or perform specified task. A long-term goal is to develop a set of techniques that can find a rule or set of rules that can reproduce quantitative observations of a physical system. Studies of the inverse problem take up the organization and structure of the set of automata, in particular the parameterization of the space of cellular automata. Optimization and learning techniques, like the genetic algorithm and adaptive stochastic cellular automata are applied to find cellular automaton rules that model such physical phenomena as crystal growth or perform such adaptive-learning tasks as balancing an inverted pole.

Howard Gutowitz is Collaborateur in the Service de Physique du Solide et Rsonance Magnetique, Commissariat a I'Energie Atomique, Saclay, France. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

comment by the editor of the book
This book is 10 years old, but in this
slow-moving field where results are hard won,
most of it is still worthwhile. Just the
fact that you are contemplating buying this
book puts you in a very rare class IV of
individuals. Confirm your status and buy
a copy! 2000 were printed, looks like a few
still left. get 'em while they're hot. ... Read more

Book Description

The shared platform of the articles collected in this volume is used to advocate a dynamical systems approach to cognition. It is argued that recent developments in cognitive science towards an account of embodiment, together with the general approach of complexity theory and dynamics, have a major impact on behavioral and cognitive science. The book points out that there are two domains that follow naturally from the stance of embodiment: first, coordination dynamics is an established empirical paradigm that is best able to aid the approach; second, the obvious goal-directedness of intelligent action (i.e., intentionality) is nicely addressed in the framework of the dynamical synergetic approach. ... Read more

Book Description

A Thorough Update of the Industry Classic on Principles of Plasma Processing

The first edition of Principles of Plasma Discharges and Materials Processing, published over a decade ago, was lauded for its complete treatment of both basic plasma physics and industrial plasma processing, quickly becoming the primary reference for students and professionals.

The Second Edition has been carefully updated and revised to reflect recent developments in the field and to further clarify the presentation of basic principles. Along with in-depth coverage of the fundamentals of plasma physics and chemistry, the authors apply basic theory to plasma discharges, including calculations of plasma parameters and the scaling of plasma parameters with control parameters.

New and expanded topics include:

• Updated cross sections
• Diffusion and diffusion solutions
• Generalized Bohm criteria
• Expanded treatment of dc sheaths
• Langmuir probes in time-varying fields
• Electronegative discharges
• Pulsed power discharges
• Dual frequency discharges
• High-density rf sheaths and ion energy distributions
• Hysteresis and instabilities
• Helicon discharges
• Hollow cathode discharges
• Ionized physical vapor deposition
• Differential substrate charging

With new chapters on dusty plasmas and the kinetic theory of discharges, graduate students and researchers in the field of plasma processing should find this new edition more valuable than ever. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Overrated
As a praciticing process engineer my opinion is this book lacks insight.Typical text book written a professor in the academic community with no practical experience.This book spends far to much time deriving equationsand not discussing the basics concepts.The author makes a half heartedattempt to relate the first 14 chapters to the real worl, in a short andinadequate Chapter 15. This is the first mail book order book i took thetime to return.In all honesty this book is not worth the $90.00.Spendyour money elsewhere

The book provides an excellent overview of plasma processing
This book provides an excellent introduction and overview of plasma discharges applied to semiconductor manufacturing. It is well-organized, clearly-written and full of useful examples and exercises.And unlike manybooks on plasma physics, it is not overly-mathematical and contains manyuseful physical insights. I strongly recommend this book for anyone wantingto review the field of plasma processing.

An excellent overview of common plasma processing devices
Lieberman covers many of the standard processing devices and much of the physics needed to model them effectively.

The presentation is clear and extremely useful both as a reference and as a tutorial.A must-have bookfor anyone interested in plasma processing.

Very Good Theoretical Coverage of Plasma's, including ECR
This book provides a theoretical overview of plasma's, including coverage of ECR applications. This was very valuable for Hitachi Etchers. The theory is presented at an undergraduate level and assumes the reader has knowledge of vector analysis. Highly recommended for any Etch Process Engineer in the Semiconductor Industry. ... Read more

Book Description

The quadratic cost optimal control problem for systems described by linear ordinary differential equations occupies a central role in the study of control systems both from the theoretical and design points of view. The study of this problem over an infinite time horizon shows the beautiful interplay between optimality and the qualitative properties of systems such as controllability, observability and stability. This theory is far more difficult for infinite-dimensional systems such as systems with time delay and distributed parameter systems. In the first place, the difficulty stems from the essential unboundedness of the system operator. Secondly, when control and observation are exercised through the boundary of the domain, the operator representing the sensor and actuator are also often unbounded.The present book, in two volumes, is in some sense a self-contained account of this theory of quadratic cost optimal control for a large class of infinite-dimensional systems. Volume I deals with the theory of time evolution of controlled infinite-dimensional systems. It contains a reasonably complete account of the necessary semigroup theory and the theory of delay-differential and partial differential equations. Volume II deals with the optimal control of such systems when performance is measured via a quadratic cost. It covers recent work on the boundary control of hyperbolic systems and exact controllability. Some of the material covered here appears for the first time in book form. The book should be useful for mathematicians and theoretical engineers interested in the field of control. ... Read more

Book Description

A comprehensive treatment of model-based fuzzy control systems
This volume offers full coverage of the systematic framework for the stability and design of nonlinear fuzzy control systems. Building on the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model, authors Tanaka and Wang address a number of important issues in fuzzy control systems, including stability analysis, systematic design procedures, incorporation of performance specifications, numerical implementations, and practical applications.
Issues that have not been fully treated in existing texts, such as stability analysis, systematic design, and performance analysis, are crucial to the validity and applicability of fuzzy control methodology. Fuzzy Control Systems Design and Analysis addresses these issues in the framework of parallel distributed compensation, a controller structure devised in accordance with the fuzzy model.
This balanced treatment features an overview of fuzzy control, modeling, and stability analysis, as well as a section on the use of linear matrix inequalities (LMI) as an approach to fuzzy design and control. It also covers advanced topics in model-based fuzzy control systems, including modeling and control of chaotic systems. Later sections offer practical examples in the form of detailed theoretical and experimental studies of fuzzy control in robotic systems and a discussion of future directions in the field.
Fuzzy Control Systems Design and Analysis offers an advanced treatment of fuzzy control that makes a useful reference for researchers and a reliable text for advanced graduate students in the field. ... Read more

Book Description

When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts--indeed, so great that the sum far transcends the parts and represents something utterly new and different--we call that phenomenon emergence. When the chemicals diffusing in the primordial waters came together to form the first living cell, that was emergence. When the activities of the neurons in the brain result in mind, that too is emergence. In The Emergence of Everything, one of the leading scientists involved in the study of complexity, Harold J. Morowitz, takes us on a sweeping tour of the universe, a tour with 28 stops, each one highlighting a particularly important moment of emergence. For instance, Morowitz illuminates the emergence of the stars, the birth of the elements and of the periodic table, and the appearance of solar systems and planets. We look at the emergence of living cells, animals, vertebrates, reptiles, and mammals, leading to the great apes and the appearance of humanity. He also examines tool making, the evolution of language, the invention of agriculture and technology, and the birth of cities. And as he offers these insights into the evolutionary unfolding of our universe, our solar system, and life itself, Morowitz also seeks out the nature of God in the emergent universe, the God posited by Spinoza, Bruno, and Einstein, a God Morowitz argues we can know through a study of the laws of nature.Written by one of our wisest scientists, The Emergence of Everything offers a fascinating new way to look at the universe and the natural world, and it makes an important contribution to the dialogue between science and religion. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Quatsch, schmarrn, ...
Translation: nonsense. Anyone who proclaims that reductionism is dead is woefully ignorant of the enormous breakthroughts, by standard 'reductionist' methods, in cell biology, including cancer research. See R. Weinberg's "One Renegade Cell: How Cancer Begins", as an antidote to the anti-scientific philosophy propagated in this book.

First, there are no known laws of "self-organization". The only known laws of nature are the laws of physics and consequences deduced from the laws, namely, chemistry and cell biology. Complex adaptable models and other efforts to mathematize Darwinism are so far not falsifiable, hence are not yet science and may never be. Second, no one has yet defined 'emergence' in any meaningful (i.e., falsifiable) way. Worse, every mathematical model that can be written down is a form of 'reductionism', including so-called complex adaptable ones. Let us think clearly and be try to be precise: Quantum theory reduces phenomena to (explains phenomena via) atoms and molecules. All of chemistry is about that. Cell biology attempts to reduce observed phenomena to DNA, proteins, and cells. Believers in self-organized criticality try to reduce the important features of nature to the equivalent of sandpiles via the hope for a not yet found universality principle. Network enthusiasts hope to reduce phenomena to nodes and links, and also wish for a universality principle. In order to try to isolate cause and effect, there is no escape from reductionism of one form or another. Holism is an empty illusion: holism cannot even be mathematized or falsified. Holism is religion, not science, and should not be advertised as if it would be science.

See Schrödinger's "What is Life" for a clear explanation why we should not expect to discover macroscopic (statistical) laws of biological evolution, the only way to understand evolution being mutation by mutation at the level of DNA. Following Mendel, who was a reductionist in the Galilean spirit of physics, two of those who followed Schrödinger's line of thought discovered the structure of DNA, and the genetic code. Genes and the genetic code are excellent examples of emergent objects that can be studied systematically. The genetic code is the source of the most important complexity in nature: life.

Show me one, single, holist contribution to science or medicine, and I'll eat my words (without Schmarrn...)!

Gene Autry sometimes shot from the hip, but he at least occasionally hit something!

A Reply to Scientific Atheism
Morowitz the scientist makes a single point, which he drives home again, and again, ceaseless, incessantly, until finally it begins to sink in. It is, in this respect, perhaps the intellectual equivalent of Ravel's Bolero, or the yogi's infinitely repeated "Om". The point is that reductivism is the only tool we have for analyzing the world, it is an amazingly powerful tool, and yet at every level of complexity, emergent phenomena arise that could not have been predicted by the levels that preceded them, and can barely, if at all, be modeled an understood using reductivist analytical and experimental techiques.

This is a message that will be rejected by one particular group: the self-styled "scientific atheists" who claim that scientific methodology ineluctably implies that God does not exist, or at least that there is no more reason to believe in God than it is to believe in the Tooth Fairy. Morowitz, by contrast, follows Spinoza in identifying the world of science as dealing with the product of the "immanent God" whose transcendance we attempt to capture spiritually.

Scientific atheism's error is its inability to appreciate the notion of emergence. Just as consciousness emerges from a material and chemical substrate the scinetific understanding of which tell us virtually nothing about the nature of its emergent properties, so the physical universe may give rise to an emergent spirituality that simply escapes the scientific imagination. Morovitz' interesting book makes this point extremely clearly.

I believe Amazon is due major kudos for providing a forum in which readers can compare and contrast their ideas. I really enjoyed the previous nine reviews of this provocative book.

False Equation
Morowitz stats by pretending he is presenting emergence, but by the last chapter it becomes clear that his goal to look for the nature and operation of God in the emergent universe. His book is therefore more of a work of theology than science. The theology is cloaked in scientific jargon and mathematical equations, but its theology none the less. He asks the right questions but hasn't a clue as to the right answers. This is but one more attempt by a believer in the supernatural to use science to prove God and show a connection between science and religion. He failed on both counts .

On Harold J. Morowitz's book "The Emergence of Everything"
Motowitz's monumental book outlines 28 examples of said emergence, ranging from the making of our nonuniform universe, the emergence of stars and the elements of the periodic table, the solar system, planetary structures, universal metabolism, prokaryotic life, eukaryotic life, multicellular organisms, animals, humans, mind, philosophy and spirituality.

At each level of emergence there may be agents that interact with their neighbors, not necessarily Darwinian interaction but some kind of interaction. Agents that find themselves to be successful are then latter discovered to be necessary for latter steps in the emergence, and their success is found as agents comply to what Morowitz calls a "pruning rule". The Darwinian selection principle, permitting agents to leave the most offspring as they are found to be fittest from natural selection, is such a pruning rule. The Pauli exclusion rule is a second example that Morowitz gives. The exclusion principle restricts the electron cloud that surrounds the natural elements (in our periodic table) in such a way that chemistry and bonding properties emerge from quantum mechanics; properties that are discovered to be necessary for life as we know it.

On page 101 Morowitz writes:

"...in our discussion of the Pauli exclusion principle we dealt with the restriction that no two electrons in a structure can share the same four quantum numbers - presumably four quantum numbers because of the four dimensions in formulating the Schrödinger equation using relativistic quantum mechanics. This principle does not come from dynamics of the problem, but from the symmetry requirements on the solutions.... Because of the non-dynamical feature, several physicists and philosophers of science detect a kind of noetic feature deep in physics"

Morowitz points to this noetic quality in several places. Continuing on pages 101 to 102 he writes on the first recognized example of life-based behavior found in prokaryotes:

".... Somewhere in bacterial evolution, motility appeared. The operative structures are flagella, which rotate, propel the cells. A number of cases were discovered in which cells in a gradient of nutrients swim toward higher concentrations, and in a gradient of toxins swim toward lower concentration. The mechanism is somewhat indirect. Periodically the swimming cells randomly switch directions. In a favorable gradient they change less frequently, and in an unfavorable gradient they change more frequently. They are letting their profits run and cutting their losses. For a population of cells, this leads to a fit behavioral repertoire. The behavior looks causal, but the endpoint looks teleological. It requires sensing the environment, concentration versus time, and responding to the time gradient, which is also a space gradient, since the organisms are swimming. I think it is important to look at these hints of cognitive behavior as they appear."

Regarding the mental or noetic aspect of all animal life, on page 138 Morowitz writes:

"... There is currently a reexamination that argues that mental activity is universally distributed through the animal kingdom and perhaps in other taxa down to the unicellular eukaryotes. Psychologist Donald R. Griffen has gathered a great deal of evidence in the book Animal Minds and argues for the universality of cognition.... I see the grand dawn of the emergence of reflective thought."

Morowitz describes the Principle of Competitive Exclusion (previously studied by Alfred Lotka, Vito Volterra, and Charles Elton), as a pruning rule that implies "... the impossibility of two species occupying the same niche in a steady-state ecosystem". For Morowitz this principle stems from Darwinian selection, but it has unsavory consequences as it affect social aspects of humanization. He writes of the principle that "... humans, having reflective thought and the power of choice, are not bound to living out a set of mathematical relations". In chapter 26, Morowitz gives accounts on how the Principle of Competitive Exclusion can be studied and used as a tool to avoid the unsavory qualities of ourselves (including prejudices and examples of genocide) that emerge from the principle when we unknowingly back into it.

Morowitz did not notice that the Principle of Competitive Exclusion has a shadow principle, that I will name the Principle of Cooperative Inclusion. Nevertheless, this shadow principle has a noetic quality that Morowitz has grown fond of. It is such a teleological principle that says that hate will destroy itself when it is forced to coexist with the inclusion brought by love. And so my friends we hold onto the angry tension, not by competitive exclusion but by cooperative inclusion. A better world will unfold as hate ranges war with its own angry shadow; the catharsis will expunge our prejudices.

Morowitz has many kind words for Teilhard de Chardin. On page 175 he writes: "... I see the World Wide Web as a reification of instantiation of the noosphere and consider Teilhard as an even more prescient thinker. Human thought is collective."

Interesting Topic, Only Fair Execution
While the concept of emergence is quite interesting, this book lacks enough depth to really cover the material in a meaningful way. The book is more a collection of brief essays on various topics, and does provide a useful overview of the topic.

However, the same material in a more masterful writer's hands could have been a fascinating work. Each of the chapters only contained a skeletal outline of the emergent behavior, with nothing to flesh it out. Because the facts were so sketchy (and often amounted to prose hand-waving) I wasn't always convinced that the arguments were sound. ... Read more

Book Description

Today's distributed systems are characterized by interactions-often complex-between many different hardware and software components cooperating and exchanging information. To simplify development of interactive systems and facilitate communication and documentation, experts of varying disciplines employ descriptions, or specifications, of a given system's behavior and/or structure.Specification and Development of Interactive Systems offers a unique approach to program and software development suitable for large distributed systems, with an emphasis on modular system development and systems engineering. The authors build a basic method, called FOCUS, that enables interactive systems to be described by characterizing their histories of message interaction.The method covers functional requirements, timing, structure, and implementation issues of systems. In addition, the book describes how to connect the models and techniques to tables and diagram-based methods popular in practical systems engineering.Topics and features: * Specification of interface behavior and modular top-down system development * Specification of time and the modeling of hardware/software systems * Interface refinement and the modeling of development steps leading from one level of abstraction to the next * State transition diagrams and tables and the usage of common description techniques, such as found in UMLThis book provides a mathematical and logical foundation for the specification and development of interactive systems based on a model that describes systems in terms of their input/output behavior. The reader gains a comprehensive understanding of all fundamental models, techniques, and methods for interactive system design. The book is an essential resource for all researchers and professionals in computer science, software systems engineering and computer engineering. ... Read more

Book Description

This is a book about modelling, analysis and control of linear time- invariant systems. The book uses what is called the behavioral approach towards mathematical modelling. Thus a system is viewed as a dynamical relation between manifest and latent variables. The emphasis is on dynamical systems that are represented by systems of linear constant coefficients. In the first part of the book the structure of the set of trajectories that such dynamical systems generate is analyzed. Conditions are obtained for two systems of differential equations to be equivalent in the sense that they define the same behavior. It is further shown that the trajectories of such linear differential systems can be partitioned in free inputs and bound outputs. In addition the memory structure of the system is analyzed through state space models. The second part of the book is devoted to a number of important system properties, notably controllability, observability, and stability. An essential feature of using the behavioral approach is that it allows these and similar concepts to be introduced in a representation-free manner. In the third part control problems are considered, more specifically stabilization and pole placement questions. This text is suitable for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students in mathematics and engineering. It contains numerous exercises, including simulation problems, and examples, notably of mechanical systems and electrical circuits. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Systems theory done right!
This is an excellent book on mathematical control theory. As opposed to the classical state-space approach, the behavioural theory gives a more fundamental and natural way of looking at physical systems. The book deals with the notions of controllability, observability, stability and feedback in a beautiful mathematical framework. A more appropriate title would be "Systems theory done right"! ... Read more

Book Description

In this important book, John H. Holland dramatically shows us that the "emergence" of order from chaos has much to teach us about life, mind, and organizations. Creative activities in both the arts and the sciences depend upon an ability to model the world. The most creative of those models exhibits emergent properties, so that "what comes out is more than what goes in." From the ingenious checkers-playing computer that started beating its creator in game after game, to the emotive creations of the poet, Emergence shows that Holland's theory successfully predicts many complex behaviors in art and science. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Above the General Interest and Disoganized
While the intended audience is the general interest reader, this book will be a bit complicated for most people who are unfamilar with Turning Machines, i.e., stack machines, etc.

Toss Up
Parts of this book were interesting, but overall it was much ado about not much, and what was done was often overdone (I agree with another reviewer on this point). I see that Amazon has coupled this book with Hidden Order. I can't see why. It would be like buying the same book twice. Anyway, so much of this has been warmed over so many times now that it's frankly a bit dry. I'd like to see a book that really breaks new ground in complexity without overusing buzz words or talking down to me, holding my hand through simple things. Here, the topic is more attractive than the content I'm afraid. Anyone really interested in complexity and emergence will need to go into technical details well beyond this book. Others, like me, will likely find the details that are here to be a bit tedious.

Science Fiction
The review says "Think of the food replicators in the imaginary future of Star Trek--with some basic chemical building blocks and simple rules, those machines can produce everything from Klingon delicacies to Earl Grey tea. If scientists can understand and apply the knowledge they gather from studying emergent systems, we may soon witness the development of artificial intelligence, nanotech, biological machines, and other creations heretofore confined to science fiction." -- What?? Like we are about to make food replicators because of the "deep understanding" that we now have of emergent systems??

I agree with the other reviewer who says the book is characteristically weak. The cover is prettier than Hidden Order. But so what.

There have to be better books on complexity than this for the average popular science reader.

A contribution for the understanding of the complexity
It is very important to the universal thinking the unsderstanding about complexity and its cognitive perception by humans. I read Dr. Holland's first book in London at 1993 and that time I follow his steps in order to reach a meaningfull knowledge to our lives and our existence in the universe. The title of the book is very difficult to develop but Dr. Holland has a special skill to clarify and transmmit the ideas breaking down our paradigm about the universe and the world and life complexity.

Holland does not have the gift of popularization
John Holland's "Emergence" just doesn't make it as a science popularization. The ideas Holland presents are fascinating, exciting, and indeed highly relevant for our globalized, interconnected world.

Unfortunately, none of this comes across. Like many scientists (I know... I *am* a scientist), Holland simply has no idea how a nonscientist would grasp the concept of emergence. He overexplains simple examples like the numbers and board games of the first two chapters, then underexplains the deeper ideas of later chapters. The final chapter is pretty good in terms of unifying the book's themes and providing a broader view of how emergence fits into science and human culture. However, the reader has not been adequately prepared for this broadening because the middle chapters were so poorly explained.

I fear that most readers will come away without sensing the truly revolutionary nature of this new branch of science. Holland lacks passion! The book is bland because Holland seems not to be able to present rigorous science in conjunction with thrill and emotion. He should take a lesson from the experts at popularization, such as Sagan and Gribbin, who succeed at presenting factually correct science in a way that engages and excites nonscientists. ... Read more

Book Description

System and Control Theory is one of the most exciting areas of contemporary engineering mathematics. From the analysis of Watt's steam engine governor - which enabled the Industrial Revolution - to the design of controllers for consumer items, chemical plants and modern aircraft, the area has always drawn from a broad range of tools. It has provided many challenges and possibilities for interaction between engineering and established areas of 'pure' and 'applied' mathematics. This impressive volume collects a discussion of more than fifty open problems which touch upon a variety of subfields, including: chaotic observers, nonlinear local controllability, discrete event and hybrid systems, neural network learning, matrix inequalities, Lyapunov exponents, and many other issues. Proposed and explained by leading researchers, they are offered with the intention of generating further work, as well as inspiration for many other similar problems which may naturally arise from them. With extensive references, this book will be a useful reference source - as well as an excellent addendum to the textbooks in the area. ... Read more

Book Description

This book explores the process of modeling complex systems in the widest sense of that term, drawing on examples from such diverse fields as ecology, epidemiology, sociology, seismology, as well as economics. It also provides the mathematical tools for studying the dynamics of these systems. Boccara takes a carefully inductive approach in defining what it means for a system to be 'complex' (and at the same time addresses the equally elusive concept of emergent properties). This is the first text on the subject to draw comprehensive conclusions from such a wide range of analogous phenomena. ... Read more

Book Description

Random Signals, Noise and Filtering develops the theory of random processes and its application to the study of systems and analysis of random data. The text covers three important areas: (1) fundamentals and examples of random process models, (2) applications of probabilistic models: signal detection, and filtering, and (3) statistical estimation--measurement and analysis of random data to determine the structure and parameter values of probabilistic models. This volume by Breipohl and Shanmugan offers the only one-volume treatment of the fundamentals of random process models, their applications, and data analysis. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent Book !
This is one of the best books around for studying Random Processes ! The author has also provided a very good introduction to Detection, Estimation and Modelling of Stochastic Processes. I found this book very useful and I'd strongly suggest this book for an introductionary level graduate course. If you want to build a strong foundation in Random Signal Theory, this book is the way to go.. Other advanced texts like Simon Haykin's "Adaptive Filter Theory" will be a lot easier to understand once you study this book thoroughly and work out the exercise problems.

A crisp text on a vast expanse i.e. Random Processes
The authors have unleashed the subject of Stochastic Processes using a carefully paced and proven approach of introducing the material using a number of elegant examples where emphasis is to generalize specific results. This quality text will certainly not dissapoint readers who have come to expect high quality from K. Sam Shanmugam and Authur .M.Breipohl .It can be recommended for first course and also for gaduate level courses on the fascinating and challenging subject of Random Processes ... Read more

Book Description

"SSM offers an elegantly simple approach that is both powerful, yet non-threatening and one that forces organisations to confront questions essential to their very survival such as, "Are we doing the right thing?"
From the Foreword by Mike Duffy, Operations Director, The Smith Group

Since its inception more than thirty years ago, the benefits of using Soft Systems Methodology for problem solving has gained worldwide recognition. Yet, despite recognising the importance of SSM, students and practitioners still experience considerable difficulty with the intellectual process involved.

Based on a lifetime experience as an academic and consultant, Brian Wilson provides guidance on how to develop a range of conceptual models across a variety of business problems. Building on his earlier work in Systems: Concepts, Methodologies and Applications he takes a practical approach to the topic based on the premise that all organisations are unique. He develops concepts to articulate ways of thinking about complexity. These are an alternative to mathematically-based concepts, and they offer rigorous, and defensible ways of answering the question 'What do we take the organisation to be?' A model of the most appropriate and relevant concept for your own organisation can then be successfully developed and applied.

Of relevance to organisations of any type, or any size, this book shows how model building within SSM can be used to cope with real-life problems. It will be an invaluable resource for students and practitioners in both the public and private sectors.

... Read more

Reviews (1)

Well written and informative introduction to SSM
Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is an offshoot of systems thinking and has its roots in Peter Checkland's seminal 1981 book, "Systems Thinking, Systems Practice" (now out of print). This book shows how to apply SSM to the problem sets for which it was designed: the unpredictable behavior of human actions, which are often counter to the logic we apply to "hard" problems such as computer systems behavior and other systems that follow predictable laws of physics.

As a consultant who aligns information systems to business processes this book provided me with a streamlined approach to dealing with the human factor, especially organizational politics and resistance to change - both of which I routinely deal with. The approach is reasonably straightforward, and involves the following steps:

- Frame the problem and surrounding situation
- Use 'rich pictures' portray the situation. A 'rich picture' is an informal rendering, and should capture issues and thinking, systems and interactions.
- Develop a root definitions and perspectives from which to view the situation (Clients, Actors, Transformations, World-view and Environment). A 'root definition' is a process that transforms an input into an output - a typical process flow.
- Build a conceptual model of what the system to remedy the problem or situation needs to accomplish. The basis of the conceptual model is human activity.
- Compare the model to the ideal, examine alternatives and select the best option.
- Design and implement the system or solution.

The approach taken by the author is to provide the knowledge needed to employ SSM in a sequence of chapters that lead you through models and methodology, the principles of human activity modeling, system selection, business process reengineering issues, the consensus primary task model, the relationships to training and HR, and generic model building.

Consensus primary task model (CPTM) is a key element of the approach in this book and is crucial to successfully employing SSM, which, after all, is designed to deal with the ambiguities of people. The CPTM is an aggregation of the conceptual models, which results in a 'strawman' model that is used to build consensus. From this evolves into the agreed upon model and approach.

The key differences between the usual 'committee' approach and SSM are the structure and framework, ensuring that viewpoints are systematically examined, and the emphasis on consensus instead of compromise. While the book makes SSM appear to be easy, which is a function of the author's clear writing, employing it in the real world requires training and discipline. It's especially well suited to organizational change management projects as well as strategic planning. ... Read more

Book Description

Integrates the traditional approach to differential equations with the modern systems and control theoretic approach to dynamic systems, emphasizing theoretical principles and classic models in a wide variety of areas. Provides a particularly comprehensive theoretical development that includes chapters on positive dynamic systems and optimal control theory. Contains numerous problems. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent treatment of dynamic systems
This introduction to dynamic systems is presented with an algebraic formalism which makes things clear and concise. All concepts are explained intuitively as well as formally, having in mind the objective of making things clear. Few books exhibit such a good approach and other reviewers are right when they emphasize the highly pedagogical quality of Luenberger's books ! This is no overstatement.

The advantage of using this algebraic formulation lies in the simplicity as well as the understandability of the state-space approach, which is best explained in those terms. Most books assume that everyone knows what a state space is without explicitly showing what it is really about. This book just uses the reverse assumption, in that you're not asssumed to know everything before getting into it.

Only some basic knowledge in algebra (undergraduate-level) is required but even without experience in algebraic formalism, it is possible to go through the content thanks to the important number of examples and the intuitive explanations.

A must-read !

Excellent supplementary reading of Linear System Theory
The economic application examples are interesting for engineering students.

The best mathematical textbook ever written
I studied this book for two semesters as a doctoral student, and consider it the best mathematical textbook ever written. Luenberger writes concisely and with great clarity and elegance. His notation is crisp and easy to follow. The book begins with basic concepts of matrix algebra and dynamic equations, and then builds step-by-step to encompass an enormously broad set of applications. The examples are drawn from all over the map, and are great fun to explore. This is a truly mind-expanding text.

Thomas P. Lyon, Associate Professor, Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University ... Read more