Product Description

Transactional Information Systems is the long-awaited, comprehensive work from leading scientists in the transaction processing field. Weikum and Vossen begin with a broad look at the role of transactional technology in today's economic and scientific endeavors, then delve into critical issues faced by all practitioners, presenting today's most effective techniques for controlling concurrent access by multiple clients, recovering from system failures, and coordinating distributed transactions.

The authors emphasize formal models that are easily applied across fields, that promise to remain valid as current technologies evolve, and that lend themselves to generalization and extension in the development of new classes of network-centric, functionally rich applications. This book's purpose and achievement is the presentation of the foundations of transactional systems as well as the practical aspects of the field what will help you meet today's challenges.

* Provides the most advanced coverage of the topic available anywhere--along with the database background required for you to make full use of this material.
* Explores transaction processing both generically as a broadly applicable set of information technology practices and specifically as a group of techniques for meeting the goals of your enterprise.
* Contains information essential to developers of Web-based e-Commerce functionality--and a wide range of more "traditional" applications.
* Details the algorithms underlying core transaction processing functionality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A wonderfully written book on an important topic
Database concurrency control and recovery is one of pinnacles of computer science. An amazing collection of models, theoretical results, and implementation techniques enable thousands of users to simultaneously pound on a large database implemented on unreliable disks and networks, with full confidence that their data will be correctly stored. This book tells how this miracle is accomplished.

I teach database systems and also do research on databases, including systems-level refinements to concurrency control and recovery algorithms. This book has been invaluable to me in understanding the three major aspects of concurrency control in databases: the beautiful theory, the carefully constructed algorithms, and the specifics of the practice.

When this book first came out two years ago, I read most of it over a period of an intense week. That was such an enjoyable experience, because the book is very well structured and written in a smooth yet careful style. The authors ensured that all required concepts were in place before introducing a new concept. And the prose just flows, rendering difficult concepts understandable through well-chosen examples.

Since then I have referred to this book often with specific questions that arose in my research. Each time, my question has been answered fully in the book.

Each chapter ends with a section entitled "Lessons Learned" which summarizes the key ideas of the chapter and just as importantly, states the practical application of each concept. Some concepts have not yet been realized in practice; the authors are up front about this and explain why.

Mike Tarrani's review does a good job of explaining the similarities and differences between this book and the other seminal book on transaction processing, by Jim Gray and Andreas Reuter. Both books have their place, and both should be on the shelf (and read by!) all those who want to understand transaction processing at a deep level. And I agree with Jim Gray who noted in his foreword to the Weikum/Vossen book that it is likely to become (indeed, has) the standard reference in this field.

Very Very Good
Exceptionally clear writing.Encyclopedic in its coverage of transactions.Anyone dealing with transactions (not just DB developers) would find this a very valuable resource.If you need a book on transactions, this should be your first choice.

A must for serious DB professionals
Tradicionally, the 'transaction' concept is always discussed at the RDBMS classes in the University. But this book goes FAR BEYOND this wide known implementation; with a solid math foundation (some math required, specially set theory and algorithms ) it shows you there are a lot of 'real-life' transactions that requiere some formal methods for defining their implementation.

This book has no discussion or topic regarding any comercial vendor technologies (specially databases), and I think this is very good. The Page and Object models for transaction processing are clearly explained. There's a very nice discussion concerning RAID technologies.

This is not an 'academic' book in all the sense of the word. It can help IT professionals to make better transactional system desing (databases, workflow,e-business,etc).

I would like some RDBMS vendors will include this kind of theory in their documentation....

Up-to-date ... sends an old friend into semi-retirement
Before this book was published my primary reference and personal favorite TP book was "Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques" by Jim Gray and Andreas Reuter. At over 1100 pages that book thoroughly covered the basics and drilled down into the nuances of transaction processing in a way unmatched by other books on the topic since it was first published in 1993.

This book changes that by going far beyond transaction processing.It starts with the same fundamentals as the older book, and even covers many of the same topics, such as concurrency control, but it addresses each topic from a much wider perspective.For example, the discussion of concurrency goes far beyond the issues of transaction processing as a middleware component.It extends into application, database and search issues.Another indication that this book is more up-to-date is the material on queue managers.While they are at the opposite end of the spectrum from transaction processing monitors, they are integral to any discussion of transactional information systems.More importantly, both transaction processing monitors and queue managers are used in modern enterprise architectures.Having both topics discussed in great detail is a major point in this book's favor.

Personally I intend to keep my copy of the older "Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques" because it does cover some of the subject matter more deeply.However, this book has replaced it as my principal reference and if I had to choose between them this is the one I'd go with. ... Read more

Product Description

Although usually well-funded, systems development projects are often late to market and over budget. Worse still, many are obsolete before they can be deployed or the program is cancelled before delivery. Clearly, it is time for a new approach. With coverage ranging from the complex characteristics and behaviors of enterprises to the challenges they pose for engineering and technology, Enterprise Systems Engineering: Advances in the Theory and Practice examines the impacts of enterprise processes and leading-edge technologies on the evolution of an enterprise.

As much about history as it is about systems engineering, this book provides a snapshot of the early thinking in enterprise systems engineering—a snapshot taken before the memory of its perspective is corrupted by time. It discusses emerging methods essential to successful systems engineering. The editors define and examine key building blocks of the evolving field of enterprise systems engineering. They address the issues of the changing nature of systems engineering, lay out a recommended direction for the future, and provide a unified basis for moving toward a mature discipline with the expanded scope.

During the last decade, something has changed in the way people work together. Seldom do isolated groups work on local problems to build stove-pipe solutions and systems seldom are developed in a social, political, economic, or technical vacuum. Yet concerted attempts to better implement systems engineering seemed not to improve the situation. Standing on the threshold of a new era in systems engineering, the editors point an arrow in the direction of systems engineering evolution, a direction that is equal parts social change and technological change.

Product Description
Written by one of the most respected mathematicians in the field, this book conveys the essential mathematical ideas in dynamical systems using a combination of theory and computer experimentation. This introductory look at dynamical systems includes investigating the rates of approach to attracting and indifferent fixed points to the discovery of Feigenbaum's constant; exploring the window structure in the orbit diagram; and understanding the periods of the bulbs in the Mandelbrot set. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

There Are Better Choices
This is a fine text, and I was able to follow it fairly easily.However, it is rather dated (1992) and there have been improvements in the subject in several areas.I found Steven Strogatz's "Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos" (2001) a significantly better book for both content and readability.

Has soul - but no cigar
The content of the book is great, only a little short and condensed. I wish more examples were available. Also I wish sometimes author would approach a topic from different angles, instead of leaving us behind after plowing through something...

Very poor print quality and layout, the colored pages are FALLING OUT from the book. Definitions are not always apparent and it is difficult to discern important parts in the book. Graphs are "grayscale" and are also of very poor quality.
I guess this is all due to the book being old, and it is printed on-demand, as shows in the font/typeface - which looks like it's been "xeroxed".

Nice begginers text
This text is a great begginners guide to chaotic systems, it provides very clear explanations and proofs as well as some examples to help you along.

Excellent book.Explains concepts clearly.
I went from knowing absolutlely nothing about dynamical systems to being able to look at a point on the Mandelbrot Set and visualize what the corresponding Julia Set looks like.Ever wonder why weather cannot be predicted accurately??Read this book... ... Read more

Product Description

Linear System Theory, Second Edition, outlines the basic theory of linear systems in a unified, accessible, and careful manner, with parallel, independent treatment of continuous-time and discrete-time linear systems.

Customer Reviews (4)

Very Poor choice for Beginners or Intermediates
I got the book for a course I was taking in my masters program.I had taken one Linear Systems course in my undergraduate.While I bought the book new, it didn't make it through HALF of the semester before the binding broke and pages fell out.The book omits many useful proofs, and if it doesn't omit the proof, it expects you to figure out on your own with very little prompting.It does have some useful examples but assumes the reader has a VERY broad and deep understanding about linear algebra and calculus.It's very high level and often difficult to follow.

Good book on linear systems theory
This is an authoritative book on linear systems theory, containing a good blend of state space methods, transfer matrix methods, and geometric theory. It is not necessarily an easy read, but it is thorough. As an example, many linear systems theory books "cheat" when presenting the solution of linear time invariant system: they assume that the structure of the solution is already known, e.g. that the solution is of the form x(t) = exp(At)*z(t) where z(t) is then shown to have the desired form. In Rugh's book, instead, few assumptions of prior knowledge are used. This necessarily makes the proof more demanding, but also leads to a more realistic problem -- for students who want to really understand how to develop new results.

There are other valuable -- and simpler books. E.g. Chen's book in its third edition is very nice wrt. relating the various methods of analysis with standard linear algebra methods such as QR decomposition, etc.

Really terrible book, not suitable for text.
This is really a terrible book on system theory. It can never point out the essencial points of the theory. Rather, the auther uses a lot of mathematics to make the book a nightmare. One can never easily get the idea. There is nothing but matrices. Well, those matrix techniques are not so difficult in the viewpoint of mathematics,except, complicated sometimes.

This one may be okay to look at when you are fairly familiar with the linear system theory but definitely it is not suitable for a textbook. Unfortunately, our school chose it as our text.

Whatever...
Kailath's System Theory essentially rejected Chen's Linear System Theory for its undue emphasis on computation of the matrix exp. and other crimes. Kailath in turn beat realization theory to death, and is now rejected byRugh. Well, this is but a better organized rewrite and update of Brockett's1969 book. While that was easy to learn from, this one is not. In fact nocurrent text on system theory is easy to learn from, save Luenberger'swhich is too watered down anyway. The student is as usuall left to his owndevices. Good luck. ... Read more

Product Description

Creating some links between control feedback and biology modeling communities based on similarities in modeling, observing and perceiving alive structures, and analyzing interconnections between biological structures and subsystems was the main objective of this volume.

In this context, biology systems need appropriate analysis tools due to their structure and hierarchy, complexity and environment interference, and we believe that these aspects may generate interesting research topics in control area. Indeed, several works, raising the potential impact of control developments to bring some beginning of answers in the context of biological systems, have been published in the recent years.

The idea of this book was conceived in the context mentioned above with the objective to help in claiming many of the problems for control researchers, starting discussions and opening interactive debates between the control and biology communities, and, finally, to alert graduate students to the many interesting ideas at the frontier between control feedback theory and biology.

Product Description
Emerging in the 1940s, the first cybernetics--the study of communication and control systems--was mainstreamed under the names Artificial Intelligence and computer science and taken up by the social sciences, the humanities, and the creative arts. In Emergence and Embodiment, Bruce Clarke and Mark B. N. Hansen focus on cybernetic developments that stem from the second-order turn in the 1970s, when the cyberneticist Heinz von Foerster catalyzed new thinking about the cognitive implications of self-referential systems. The crucial shift he inspired was from first-order cybernetics' attention to homeostasis as a mode of autonomous self-regulation in mechanical and informatic systems, to second-order concepts of self-organization and autopoiesis in embodied and metabiotic systems. The collection opens with an interview with von Foerster and then traces the lines of neocybernetic thought that have followed from his work.

In response to the apparent dissolution of boundaries at work in the contemporary technosciences of emergence, neocybernetics observes that cognitive systems are operationally bounded, semi-autonomous entities coupled with their environments and to other systems. Second-order systems theory stresses the recursive complexities of observation, mediation, and communication. Focused on the neocybernetic contributions of von Foerster, Francisco Varela, and Niklas Luhmann, this collection advances theoretical debates about the cultural, philosophical, and literary uses of their ideas. In addition to the interview with von Foerster, Emergence and Embodiment includes essays by Varela and Luhmann. It engages with Humberto Maturana's and Varela's creation of the concept of autopoiesis, Varela's later work on neurophenomenology, and Luhmann's adaptations of autopoiesis to social systems theory. Taken together, these essays illuminate the shared commitments uniting the broader discourse of neocybernetics.

Contributors. Linda Brigham, Bruce Clarke, Mark B. N. Hansen, Edgar Landgraf, Ira Livingston, Niklas Luhmann, Hans-Georg Moeller, John Protevi, Michael Schiltz, Evan Thompson, Francisco J. Varela, Cary Wolfe ... Read more

Product Description
A thoroughly updated and revised look at system reliability theory

Since the first edition of this popular text was published nearly a decade ago, new standards have changed the focus of reliability engineering and introduced new concepts and terminology not previously addressed in the engineering literature. Consequently, the Second Edition of System Reliability Theory: Models, Statistical Methods, and Applications has been thoroughly rewritten and updated to meet current standards.

To maximize its value as a pedagogical tool, the Second Edition features:

• Additional chapters on reliability of maintained systems and reliability assessment of safety-critical systems
• Discussion of basic assessment methods for operational availability and production regularity
• New concepts and terminology not covered in the first edition
• Revised sequencing of chapters for better pedagogical structure
• New problems, examples, and cases for a more applied focus
• An accompanying Web site with solutions, overheads, and supplementary information

With its updated practical focus, incorporation of industry feedback, and many new examples based on real industry problems and data, the Second Edition of this important text should prove to be more useful than ever for students, instructors, and researchers alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

System Reliabiility Theory
This is the most complete reliability book that I have seen.It is appropriate as both a textbook and a reference.It is well-written and easy to understand.I highly recommend this book for anybody interested in learning reliability theory.

System Reliabiility Theory
This is an excellent text for learning reliability analysis.It contains just the right mixture of material to be useful for a practicing engineer that must learn the reliability business in a hurry.

The book is veryclear and fairly concise. There are worked examples to demonstrate how thetheory should be applied and the examples are also clear and concise.

Iwould highly recommend this book as an introduction to reliability andavailability also. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A systems classic
Laszlo presents sytems thinking theory in a clear style. He balances the science and abstract thinking with a easliy understood writing style

More great books from Ervin Laszlo
This is another great book by Ervin Laszlo which provides a great overview of the world and life in an easy to read format. This all points towards a new vision for the future we sorely need in this present age.

Well written, easy to understand
I enjoyed reading this book which elaborates on systems theory and natural systems. I only wish the politics could be left out. I am interested in the science not the liberal slant characteristic of academia.

Understanding Systems to Heighten Awareness
Ervin Laszlo, one of the greatest minds contributing to systemic theory, has done an excellent job of introducing this construct which takes one "outside the box!" Opening the door to bring heightened awareness of Self and the universe, Laszlo presents systemic and holistic thinking in invitng simplicity, while facilitating the exploration of the same. The world which Laszlo opens to the reader is a world that can inspire visionary thinking, leading us to a more peaceful, understanding existence. I strongly recommend anyone to follow Laszlo into a world of holism, growth and new paths to a more peaceful world!

Excellent explanation of systems theory!
If you would like to learn about systems theory with minimal background knowledge, this is an excellent book! It shows how we are all inseperable parts of nature and that everything we do to everyone and everything else influences ourselves as well. It shows us how nature is organized into many levels of whole units. It eloquently shows how we are all parts of larger whole units made of smaller whole units. It is just a wonderful book that reminds us of our connection with the rest of the universe. If you are interested in systems theory, I also recommend another super-fascinating book called "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato that discusses this in relation to human consciousness. It is also one of my favorites! I am sure you will feel that these books are well worth the money. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides a self-contained comprehensive exposition of the theory of dynamical systems. The book begins with a discussion of several elementary but crucial examples.These are used to formulate a program for the general study of asymptotic properties and to introduce the principal theoretical concepts and methods.The main theme of the second part of the book is the interplay between local analysis near individual orbits and the global complexity of the orbit structure. The third and fourth parts develop the theories of low-dimensional dynamical systems and hyperbolic dynamical systems in depth.The book is aimed at students and researchers in mathematics at all levels from advanced undergraduate and up. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great, advanced intro to dynamical systems
This is really one of the very best books on dynamical systems available today.Nearly every topic in modern dynamical systems is treated in detail.The authors have provided many important comments and historical notes on the material presented in the main text.The writing is clear and the many topics discussed are given appropriate motivation and background.

There are only two potential drawbacks.First, the prerequisites for this book are quite high.The reader should be familiar with real and functional analysis, differential geometry, topology, and measure theory, for starters.Fortunately a well-organized appendix collects the key results of each of the branches of math for the reader's reference.Second, many dynamical systems of interest to applied mathematicians, scientists, and engineers arise from differential equations.This book does not discuss in much detail the connection between ODEs and continuous dynamical systems.Other books (e.g. Perko) treat this connection more thoroughly.

For completeness, clarity, and rigor, Katok and Hasselblatt is without equal.If you work in dynamical systems, you should definitely have this excellent text on your bookshelf.Highly recommended.

Great book with lots of detail
This book is a comprehensive overview of modern dynamical systems that covers the major areas. The authors begin with an overview of the main areas of dynamics: ergodic theory, where the emphasis is on measure and information theory; topological dynamics, where the phase space is a topological space and the "flows" are continuous transformations on these spaces; differentiable dynamics where the phase space is a smooth manifold and the flows are one-parameter groups of diffeomorphisms; and Hamiltonian dynamics, which is the most physical and generalizes classical mechanics. Noticeably missing in the list of references for individuals contributing to these areas are Churchill, Pecelli, and Rod, who have done interesting work in the area of both topological and Hamiltonian mechanics. No doubt size and time constraints forced the authors to make major omissions in an already sizable book.

Some elementary examples of dynamical systems are given in the first chapter, including definitions of the more important concepts such as topological transitivity and gradient flows. The authors are careful to distinguish between topologically mixing and topological transitivity. This (subtle) difference is sometimes not clear in other books. Symbolic dynamics, so important in the study of dynamical systems, is also treated in detail.

The classification of dynamical systems is begun in Chapter 2, with equivalence under conjugacy and semi-conjugacy defined and characterized. The very important Smale horseshoe map and the construction of Markov partitions are discussed. The authors are careful to distinguish the orbit structure of flows from the case in discrete-time systems.

Chapter 3 moves on to the characterization of the asymptotic behavior of smooth dynamical systems. This is done with a detailed introduction to the zeta-function and topological entropy. In symbolic dynamics, the topological entropy is known to be uncomputable for some dynamical systems (such as cellular automata), but this is not discussed here. The discussion of the algebraic entropy of the fundamental group is particularly illuminating.

Measure and ergodic theory are introduced in the following chapter. Detailed proofs are given of most of the results, and it is good to see that the authors have chosen to include a discussion of Hamiltonian systems, so important to physical applications.

The existence of invariant measures for smooth dynamical systems follows in the next chapter with a good introduction to Lagrangian mechanics.

Part 2 of the book is a rigorous overview of hyperbolicity with a very insightful discussion of stable and unstable manifolds. Homoclinicity and the horseshoe map are also discussed, and even though these constructions are not useful in practical applications, an in-depth understanding of them is important for gaining insight as to the behavior of chaotic dynamical systems. Also, a very good discussion of Morse theory is given in this part in the context of the variational theory of dynamics.

The third part of the book covers the important area of low dimensional dynamics. The authors motivate the subject well, explaining the need for using low dimensional dynamics to gain an intuition in higher dimensions. The examples given are helpful to those who might be interested in the quantization of dynamical systems, as the number-theoretic constructions employed by the author are similar to those used in "quantum chaos" studies. Knot theorists will appreciate the discussion on kneading theory.

The authors return to the subject of hyperbolic dynamical systems in the last part of the book. The discussion is very rigorous and very well-written, especially the sections on shadowing and equilibrium states. The shadowing results have been misused in the literature, with many false statements about their applicability. The shadowing theorem is proved along with the structural stability theorem.

The authors give a supplement to the book on Pesin theory. The details of Pesin theory are usually time-consuming to get through, but the authors do a good job of explaining the main ideas. The multiplicative ergodic theorem is proved, and this is nice since the proof in the literature is difficult.

Excellent rigorous introduction to chaotic dynamical system
This remarkable book is by far the best rigorous introduction to many facets of the modern theory of (chaotic) dynamical systems.It introduces and rigorously develops the central concepts and methods in dynamical systems in a hands-on and highly insightful fashion.The authors are world experts in smooth dynamical systems and have played a major role in the development of the modern theory and this shows througout the book.

The book starts with a comprehensive discussion of a series of elementary but fundamental examples.These examples are used to formulate the general program of the study of asymptotic properties as well as to introduce the principal notions (differentiable and topological equivalence, moduli, asymptotic orbit growth, entropies, ergodicity, etc.) and, in a simplified way, a number of important methods (fixed point methods, coding, KAM-type Newton method, local normal forms, etc.). This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

The main theme of the second part is the interplay between local analysis near individual (e.g., periodic) orbits and the global complexity of the orbit structure. This is achieved by exploring hyperbolicity, transversality, global topological invariants, and variational methods. The methods include study of stable and unstable manifolds, bifurcations, index and degree, and construction of orbits as minima and minimaxes of action functionals.

In the third and fourth part the general program is carried out for low-dimensional and hyperbolic dynamical systems which are particularly amenable to such analysis. In addition these systems have interesting particular properties. For hyperbolic systems there are structural stability, theory of equilibrium (Gibbs) measures, and asymptotic distribution of periodic orbits, in low-dimensional dynamical systems classical Poincare-Denjoy theory, and Poincare-Bendixson theories are presented as well as more recent developments, including the theory of twist maps, interval exchange transformations and noninvertible interval maps.

This book should be on the desk (not bookshelf!) of any serious student of dynamical systems or any mathematically sophisticated scientist or engineer interested in using tools and paradigms of dynamical systems to model or study nonlinear systems.

Excellent rigorous introduction to chaotic dynamical systems
This remarkable book is by far the best rigorous introduction to many facets of the modern theory of (chaotic) dynamical systems.It introduces and rigorously develops the central concepts and methods in dynamical systems in a hands-on and highly insightful fashion.The authors are world experts in smooth dynamical systems and have played a major role in the development of the modern theory and this shows througout the book.

The book starts with a comprehensive discussion of a series of elementary but fundamental examples.These examples are used to formulate the general program of the study of asymptotic properties as well as to introduce the principal notions (differentiable and topological equivalence, moduli, asymptotic orbit growth, entropies, ergodicity, etc.) and, in a simplified way, a number of important methods (fixed point methods, coding, KAM-type Newton method, local normal forms, etc.). This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

The main theme of the second part is the interplay between local analysis near individual (e.g., periodic) orbits and the global complexity of the orbit structure. This is achieved by exploring hyperbolicity, transversality, global topological invariants, and variational methods. The methods include study of stable and unstable manifolds, bifurcations, index and degree, and construction of orbits as minima and minimaxes of action functionals.

In the third and fourth part the general program is carried out for low-dimensional and hyperbolic dynamical systems which are particularly amenable to such analysis. In addition these systems have interesting particular properties. For hyperbolic systems there are structural stability, theory of equilibrium (Gibbs) measures, and asymptotic distribution of periodic orbits, in low-dimensional dynamical systems classical Poincare-Denjoy theory, and Poincare-Bendixson theories are presented as well as more recent developments, including the theory of twist maps, interval exchange transformations and noninvertible interval maps.

This book should be on the desk (not bookshelf!) of any serious student of dynamical systems or any mathematically sophisticated scientist or engineer interested in using tools and paradigms of dynamical systems to model or study nonlinear systems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

BORING, but possibly necessary if you are trying to learn about system's analysis
While the content of this book is brilliant, the writing is painfully dry even when compared to other philosophy/sociology/political theory pieces.

The ideas of social system purpose to "adapt, integrate, attain goals and maintain patterns" indeed has interesting application for both the physical and social sciences. The diagrams provided are helpful to articulating why these concepts are revolutionary.

However, the writing reviews works in such a manner as I would really rather read the original authors and drawn my own conclusions. Instead of constantly providing endless references to Freud and Durkheim, please...just come out and say what you mean and use a footnote to reference the author!!

Oh and Headers! I wish the book better employed headers! The topic is so interesting; and yet I struggled to stay awake. I would mention that the charts presented in the final chapters are helpful for those who must present this material for a class.

If you must learn about structures, you should take a look at this book. If you have some background, focus on the latter chapters which are less repetitive and have better diagrams. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
This groundbreaking text applies the concepts of complexityscience to provide a unified scientific explanation of all aspects ofhumancreativity. The book clearly describes the psynetmodel--anovel complex-systems theory--that integratesideas fromcomputer science, mathematics, neurobiology, philosophy,andcognitive and personality psychology. Goertzel shows how commoncomputer science algorithms, such as neural nets and geneticalgorithms, fit into the mental and creative process, and proposesthat the understanding of mathematics must be extended tosuccessfully deal with the mind's workings. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume presents an introduction to the common ground between operator theory and linear systems theory. Pure mathematical topics are included such as Hardy spaces, closed operators, the gap metric, semigroups, shift-invariant subspaces, the commutant lifting theorem and almost-periodic functions, which would be suitable for a course in functional analysis. The book also includes applications to partial differential equations, the stability and stabilization of linear systems, power signal spaces, and delay systems, treated from an input/output point of view. ... Read more

Product Description
The first integrative theory of human development in decades is presented in this volume by two leading developmentalists.

Through a synthesis of developmental contextualism and the Living Systems Framework, the authors examine how people interact with the environment and how, in turn, these interactions impact upon individuals' biology, psychology and behaviour. By integrating the results from many research investigations, this volume offers a comprehensive exploration of how multiple elements interact and shape people's lives.

Product Description
A complete, coherent description of the theory, methodology, & practice of System Identification. This completely revised second edition introduces subspace methods that utilize frequency domain data, & general non-linear black box methods, including neural networks & neuro-fuzzy modeling. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

System Identification: Theory for the User, Ljung
Contrary to other reviewers, I have used this book for very PRACTICAL USER applications. Yes, the book is "heavy" in mathematical proofs and the notation will keep you focused. However, you do not need the proofs to apply the material. They are there for those (I am NOT one of them) who would like to read/understand them. PRACTICAL System Identification is by its nature an application of stable recursive computations and thus is indeed "heavy" in mathematics. I applied very successfully the recursive methods, which I studied in the first edition of this book, in my early System Identification Control projects. Was it easy? No, not by any means. It took some very careful studying and very careful programming of the recursive least square algorithms. Then, with the advent of the Matlab System Identification Toolbox, the topic of system identification (using Ljung's 2nd edition of "System Identification: Theory for the User") became indeed very accessible for the USER. Yes, you will need to have a relative good understanding of Stochastic Processes. However, since the topic of system ID is graduate material, I would anticipate that most readers will have studied stochastic processes as part of their undergrad studies.
Many years ago I was so fortunate to be able to attend a Matlab organized conference in Boston near MIT. As part of this conference a System ID Toolbox workshop was given by Prof. Ljung. It was this workshop, this Toolbox and this text, that took systems ID from my "basement" levels to the very applied levels. Even though I am now retired, I still spend most my days trying to keep up with the advances in Control Systems. I gave my old copy of this book to an ex-colleague. Now I miss the book; so I just ordered another copy.

System Identification Review Book
Covred basic and advanced topics in system Id. sield. It is good to read it while reading the System Id user's guide in MATLAB.

Notational Inconsistency killed this book
I have two system identification books on my table right now: One is by Prof Ljung and the other is 'Time Series: Theory and Methods' by Profs. Brockwell and Davis, and I must say that I refer to the latter much more often than the former. The primary reason for this is that Prof. Ljung's book uses notation very inconsistently.This makes for very difficult reading. On the other hand 'Time Series: T&M' is consistent and an excellent resource. Both books are of an advanced nature, suitable for graduate students. Again, 'Time Series T&M' is more rigorous.

Nonetheless, if you plan on using Matlab's Sys Id toolbox, I would recommend Prof. Ljung's book. He wrote the toolbox, and he refers heavily in the Matlab documentation to the book.

Poorly written book for the engineer. Might be useful for a mathemtician
Let me be the first to slam this book as having little practical use.The author uses a very unconventional, inconsistent notation that renders this book virtually unreadable. This is coming from somebody who has taken various courses in probability/stochastic processes, system dynamics, controls, and Kalman filtering.

The "theory" part in the title is dead on, but what about the "for the user" part?What user is this referring to, an ivory tower professor? Most of the problems at the end of each chapter begin with "prove", which in my opinion makes this a math book and not an engineering text.A practical example never surfaces in the text.

good reference
This book is a fundamental volume for whoever is interested in identification techniques. Theory is explained clearly. ... Read more

Product Description
One look inside Clinical Applications of Bowen Family Systems Theory, and you’ll see that your most current clinical dilemmas are not as difficult to solve as you think. You’ll find plenty of information to assist you in treating a vast audience of populations--the elderly, college students, troubled couples, remarried families, and children with severe medical problems. You’ll also find that you’re able to apply the Bowen systems theory to nearly every clinical situation--emotional dysfunction in children, alcoholism, incest, divorce, depression, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Clinical Applications of Bowen Family Systems Theory is an ideal companion for family therapists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, and counselors. You’ll find your working comprehension of Murray Bowen’s work will grow, and you’ll become more adept at applying what you read in real-life clinical situations, especially in these related areas:

• family systems assessment based on the Bowen Theory
• marital fusion and differentiation
• bridging emotional cut-off from a former spouse
• dealing with a child-focused divorce
• case studies of alcoholism and family systems
  
  Clinical Applications of Bowen Family Systems Theory is the first book to collect, illustrate, and walk you through a full application of this highly effective treatment method in any number of clinical settings. Both beginning and experienced therapists will find interesting reading in the history of the theory, and the result will be interested clients who begin to create functional, thriving personal histories for themselves.

Customer Reviews (2)

Totally worth it.
It has one valuable chapter after another.Other books on the subject that I have read follow Bowen's idea of sticking to theory; so I found this one extremely useful, as it is dedicated to the clinical applications of the theory.Definitely worth the price; I'll be consulting it often.

Excellent case examples of Bowen Theory
This book is an outstanding way to see how Natural Systems (Bowen) Theory based therapy is done in several settings and for various diagnoses. Not the first book to read on Bowen theory, but definately a must read! ... Read more

Product Description
This book has some of the characteristics of an encyclopedia. It presents and analyzes many diverse facts about cells, organs, organisms, groups, organizations, societies, and supranational systems, but it integrates all this knowledge into a single conceptual system. The book is a presentation of the state of current knowledge in all of the sciences relevant to these seven levels of living systems. It also provides a theoretical integration and a methodological approach to quantitative basic research, and how applied research and development can arise from this. The set of concepts presented by the author is powerful and draws attention to all facets of a given problem in a social system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

It's Like Aristotle Said
This is the Bible on the living systems we see around us in today's world. Years ago, a reviewer described Miller's theory as "fundamental yet capable of elaboration in great detail." No one has explained it better.

Here Miller lays out 19 processes which every living system needs to perform in order to compete and survive; eight processes for information, nine processes for matter and energy, and two processes for both. Miller also sees that there are billions and billions of different kinds of living systems in the world from microscopic cells to international organizations. So, he has categorized them into seven levels from the simplest and tiniest to the most complex and largest. And, he frequently makes interesting comparisons across these different levels.

Miller weaves volumes of information about the life sciences into his theory, particularly the biology of evolution. The concept of "emergence" appears to be its bedrock. New characteristics emerge as living systems become more complex, miraculously it would seem. In that sense, the book appears to be a detailed proof of Aristotle's famous conclusion that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts."

Many readers of this book have described it as a reference book, which it is. But, that description sells the book too short. Miller's prose is graceful and readable. I would say this book is enjoyable and well worth reading even if you have only enough time to read one chapter.

Two interesting companions to Living Systems would be Kevin Kelly's Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and Economic Order and also Ruppert Sheldrake's Morphic Resonance: The Habits of Nature. It might be said that Living Systems is a sequel to Alfred North Whitehead's famous book Process and Reality.

A good introduction to systems throry at the largest levels.
Although reading such a long book in its entirety seems at first measure adaunting task (and one that few people's academic credentials hold upto....), readers daring enough to try are pretty well rewarded across thewhole of this book. This book is an introduction to systems theory (i.e.that the result of a conglomeration of small scale processes can be seen toaccumulate into larger, predictable processes at macro levels, similar tohow a person who makes individual knots can end up with a rug...) thatstraddles the mark from physics to political economy (which is running farindeed!!!)

This is a really big book besides having a lot of pages, and Ihave a hunch that not too many people are going to buy it outside ofresearchers or university librarians. But, I suppose, if you're either ofthese (though if one were going to research they'd probably look to asucession of smaller books, no?) I'd buy this book.... your collectionwould be enriched through having it....

A Theory of Everything
Don't let the size of this book stop you from exploring it. The author hasdesigned the book so it (slowly) reveals itself, working from basicconcepts of how dynamic systems work through levels of biological andsocial complexity.It is abrilliant work, a must for anyone involved inany sort of analytical work.It is one of the most important books of the20th century and, if attention is paid, will be an important guidebook tothe 21st.

To see more of Miller's work and its implications, see the website Principia Cybernetica.

simplifying the whole thing
Despite this is a book with an enormous and difficult text, since the very first chapter it enlightens the most basic message: that sciences, and knowledge, can be integrated, in a sort of unified theory, the"general theory of living systems", as the author puts it. And itdoes; since I began to understand the hole thing, it really makes me easierto think, and to view the world, like somekind of natural phylosophy, ororganic phylosophy. It's really helpfull. (My email isgalfroid@hotmail.com)

Amazing
This book is perhaps the most elaborate statement of general living systems theory yet to be written.Not recommended for those not well versed in both systems terminology and biological concepts.However, ifyou are adept in these areas, you will be rewarded with incredibleinsights. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

JP Chaplin : A St. Michaels College Psychology Dept. Chairman 1974
I was a student that JP reluctantly admitted to his senior year "topics" course. Stern and authoritative on EVERY aspect of the history of psychology, he embodied the BEST of both teacher and professional; this book relects that essence. To understand where we are without a discussion of how we got there, is treasonous. This book allows a reader with "tabular rosa" to acquire a speaking knowledge of most aspects of modern psychology. I hope you give it a chance as he did for me. ... Read more