Operators Books

If you've ever wondered what could happen if a massive earthquake ever struck a major city, here's your answer -- in stunningly heartwrenching detail.

You'll get to know the characters personally -- just everyday people, going about their everyday lives in Seattle... until hell breaks loose. Then you feel every tremor, every crumbling wall, every panicked heartbeat, as a modern city struggles to survive in the face of mind-numbing disaster.

As if that isn't enough, Ms. Talbott weaves in another storyline -- the search for a missing person and her background, that commences even before Seattle quivers with the first of many shock waves. And Ms. Talbott keeps you hanging, just like the window washer dangling from his safety harness or the man trapped under a tree on a cliff (read the book!) as she throws out clues that keep you turning the pages, all the time wondering: "Who is this woman? Where did she come from? Why is she hiding?"

A mind-piquing mystery set against a backdrop of unimaginable catastrophe, that Ms. Talbott brings to life with the magic of words. Earthquake survivors will sigh with relief that someone understands and can communicate the trauma, while people far from earthquake zones will learn a new appreciation of the solid ground beneath their feet.

All in all, a page-turning novel of suspense and emotion that should inspire people to fall to their knees and thank God that such a scenario hasn't happened... yet.

Once you start A Shattered City, you won't want to put it down until the last page is turned. A winner!

A SHATTERED CITY:EARTHQUAKE IN SEATTLE tells the story of a major earthquake hitting Seattle, Washington. A sunny Saturday afternoon in July turns horrific as a 9.1 quake destroys the city and surrounding suburbs. Disaster junkies and Seattleites should find it compelling reading, and it should serve as a wakeup call to those who live in earthquake zones to get those disaster kits together.

A SHATTERED CITY does a decent job describing the disaster and its aftermath. Character development is a bit thin, but the story moves along well, and is compelling enough that you will want to keep reading. Amateur radio operators play a major role in the recovery, so hams will find the novel enjoyable and inspiring.

The novel is a bit over-the-top, not so much in terms of the huge earthquake, but in some of the subplots. There's a "false prophet" who inadvertently predicts the earthquake, and a beautiful private detective searching for a tycoon's long-lost wife by flying around the city in a giant helicopter. All of this just distracts from the main story: how a major city copes with an overwhelming disaster.

A SHATTERED CITY also suffers from very poor editing. I'm not sure it was proofread, let alone edited. There are wild inconsistencies in spelling and capitalization throughout, and numerous instances of poor grammar and usage. While editing isn't a high priority in most mass market paperbacks, the complete lack of it here gives the book a rather amateurish feel.

If you can overlook some of the goofier plotlines and glaring editing problems, A SHATTERED CITY is well worth a read.

This book answered all the questions I had at the end of 'Maggie Sweet'! I love the characters, and was thrilled to learn more about Maggie's mother Betty. And way to go Betty!! It was about time she started living for herself!

Now, I realize this books takes place in 1985, and Poplar Grove is a VERY southern little town, but the reason I gave this book four stars was because of Mama Dean. She was a bit over-the-top for my taste. I really didn't like her, and I can't believe that Betty or Maggie had never once stopped and told her where to go. I know she's an old woman, but she's just nasty all the time.

But...even though I don't like her, I too would love Ms. Stacy to continue the story of Poplar Grove with the telling of Mama Dean's story. What happened between her and her husband? How did she grow up? And why is she such a cranky old woman now? And I'd also love to see how Betty and Charlie do, as well as Maggie and Jerry, and even Steven and Theo!

If you've read 'Maggie Sweet', you just HAVE to read this book. It picks up right where 'Maggie' left off, and you'll fall in love with the characters the second you meet them. Thanks Ms. Stacy for a great read, and I really hope to here more from this exciting little town!!

*Betty Sweet Tells All* is the sequel to *Maggie Sweet* by Judith Minthorn Stacy, and I loved them both. Betty, Maggie's mother, picks up where Maggie left off in the first novel. When Maggie leaves her husband of nineteen years for no apparent reason, Betty tries to take on the responsibility of fixing everyone's problems. The novel is humorous, sweet, and sentimental all at once. If you liked the first novel, definitely pick up a copy of this one.

The novel, set in 1985, follows the lives of a small-town family and their day-to-day crises. Maggie's working on finding normality after leaving her husband, Steven, a my-way-or-the-highway guy and reuniting with Jerry, her high school boyfriend. Nobody can understand why Maggie's up and done something so foolish, but Betty tries to understand and forgive Maggie. When Betty realizes that she's been trying to fix everything in their lives, she decides to take time out for herself and maybe fall in love.

The novel was a lot of fun and well-written. Each character seems to have a story of their own, and I hope Stacy will continue the series by focusing on Mama Dean and Maggie's twin daughters, Jill and Amy. Enjoy!

This book was a great help in directing our white water rafting company. Many prompting questions and ideas are presented to help with business planning. Carol presents questions and ideas that made us look at our business in a lateral and critical way from the overall principals to the tiniest details. I would recommend it to any ecotourism operator.

I am developing a eco-cruise company and found this book to be highly useful in stragetic planning. I highly recommend it for anyone experienced in the tourism business but desires to learn more about eco-tourism. It pinpoints certain aspect of tourism and provides examples of how your business can be ecotourism.

Although I am sure Sydney Guilaroff knew all the people he talked about, his book does have a number of inaccuracies, and he comes off as a somewhat naive and not very well educated person. Not sure how much of this is his fault or the fault of his editor/writer. He credits himself for being in so many places at the right time and being the inspiration for so much that after awhile, it gets a little hard to take. Just the Summer Stock story alone is pure bunk; Judy wore the same outfit from the Get Happy number in a deleted scene from Easter Parade 2 years prior. It hardly makes sense that Guilaroff can take credit for the outfit himself. Either way, for film buffs, it is a fun and breezy read, although if you are looking for some very keen insights that are truthfully written, probably not the book for you.

While being well written, Sydney Guilaroff's autobiography reveals him either as someone with perfect timing or one who brings bad luck to others. He was with Joan Crawford at her sickbed when she won her Oscar for Mildred Pierce, he spoke with Marilyn Monroe the night she died and recommended she take a Nembutal!, he ran into Lana Turner after she had purchased the knife that would kill Johnny Stompanato, he was with Elizabeth Taylor for her emergency tracheotomy, and he spoke with Judy Garland and Princess Grace of Monaco before they died. This kind of opportunism existed even before he became the head of MGM's hairdressing and makeup department from 1934, when as a novice he styled Louise Brooks' hair into her signature bob, and then at Saks New York was visited by Claudette Colbert and Joan Crawford. It was Crawford who helped bring him to Hollywood, since she insisted on visiting him for each film and Mayer resented her absence, though he also considered the coiffures worn by his female stars to be lacklustre. However Sydney had differences with Mayer, refusing to be signed to a contract and he quit after one argument, only to be brought back with the promise that he would have no dealings with the studio boss. Guilaroff's insider view of MGM makes him an informed source on Crawford leaving, where he says she left volantarily, and Garbo effectively fired after the failure of Two-Faced Woman. He perpetutates the myth that Judy Garland's recordings for Annie Get Your Gun were mediocre (proven to be wrong by their modern day commercial release) and provides the disparate and shocking tale of her drug-induced incapability even during her Summer Stock Get Happy return to work after she had lost the weight she had carried during production. The story of Judy performing the number perfectly in one take as soon as the music started is either evidence of her impulse to entertain or proof of Guilaroff's fabrication. Garland's drug-taking are about the lowest he is willing to stoop, though Irene Dunne's deliberate request for retests so that she could earn more money is catty. We learn Garbo was an insomniac, Cary Grant a depressive, though it's a surprise that he doesn't rationalise Montgomery Clift's drug-taking during Raintree County as a post-accident necessity considering he picked up on Garland's addiction the first time he met her. Guilaroff isn't shy about his accomplishments and credits himself with colouring Shirley MacLaine, Ann-Marget and Lucille Ball their red hair colours, providing Marlene Dietrich with a non-surgical facelift which used hooks in a wig to stretch her skin taut, and suggesting Garland wear the fedora for Get Happy since she had pulled out all her hair. He also attributes non-hair related suggestions, like the all over the face kissing Garbo gave Robert Taylor in Camille, directed Marilyn's test for The Asphalt Jungle, recommended Richard Burton for Cleopatra, and defended Lena Horne from the commissary racism. He also, perhaps unwittingly, exposes himself unflatteringly when he tells of his dislike of grey hair, criticising Crawford for it and thereby terminating her communication with him before she died, and spotting Garbo after she too had dismissed him. Guilaroff believes that Monroe's death was suicide and not accidental, her depression not alieviated by her psychiatrist and spurred on by her involvement and rejection by the Kennedys. His personal life remains a mystery, his remarkable adoption of a child while remaining a bachelor and not an admitted homosexual (his experience adoption helped Crawford succeed with hers), though he does admit to proposing to Garbo and being turned down, and to having long term sexual affairs with her and Ava Gardner.

The first volume provides a very broad coverage of the "evolutionary" literature. Reading this first volume will probably save you a lot of time. The evolutionary literature actually becomes quite large these days. The focus of this first volume is on broad coverage, not details although some chapters are already quite advanced.

If you need a fast coverage of the literature in evolutionary computation, this is the book. Pointers to all decisive contributions to the field are there. Reading from cover to cover might be difficult if the purpose is to introduce one to the field, but this is certainly the reference i would suggest to students and researchers new in this field. Each chapter is self-contained and references to the most important works for each chapter is provided at the end of the chapter.

Overall, this and the second volume combined do well to cover the major topics of evolutionary computation. Unfortunately, the IOP (the publisher) is not very good making the books (especially the first volume) available. I used both volumes for a course I teach in evolutionary computation. I completed the course, and most of my students received volume 2, but did not get volume 1 until well after the semester was over.

In fairness, things may have changed since this class was taught. I would STRONGLY suggest that anyone interested in the books contact the publisher prior to order to make sure they will be received in a timely manner.

The contents of these volumes used to be available free online from the IOP site. They are still on the IOP site, but you now have to pay. Pity.

First of all, this review is for the first edition only. Depending on whether the front matter is being included in the page count, the second edition appears to have either 4 or 15 more pages. If I can get access to this book online for free (all of Springer's Lecture Notes in Mathematics books are available online now, and depending on your University they may be freely downloadable) I'll update my review later.

This was the second book published on Seiberg-WItten gauge theory, just after John Morgan's The Seiberg-Witten Equations and Applications to the Topology of Smooth Four-Manifolds. (MN-44). Since then, 2 more books devoted to the subject also have been published: Nicolaescu's Notes on Seiberg-Witten Theory (Graduate Studies in Mathematics) and Marcolli's Seiberg-Witten Gauge Theory. As Moore states in his preface, the purpose of this book was to make the subject of gauge theory accessible to second-year graduate students who have studied differential geometry and algebraic topology and to prepare them for more advanced treatments, such as that of Morgan. Thus 2/3 of the book is devoted to preliminary material on vector bundles, connections, characteristic classes, hodge theory, spinors, clifford algebras, Dirac operators, and the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, although if a student really has studied differential geometry already (and you really shouldn't be learning it from this book), vector bundles and connections should be familiar. The third chapter introduces the Seiberg-Witten equations and establishes standard results about their moduli spaces (see my review of John Morgan's book for a brief explanation of what gauge theory is if you are unfamiliar with this terminology), such as compactness, generic smoothness, and orientability. This then allows the SW invariants to be defined, which are subsequently computed for Kaehler surfaces. Finally, a few topological results on 4-manifolds are deduced, much more easily than with the older Donaldson gauge theory.

The preliminary material that is covered in the first 2 chapters is done rather well, with an explicit representation frequently used for the Clifford algebra to make the calculations more clear (in contrast to the more formal presentation of Morgan). The introduction to the Atiyah-Singer index theorem in particular is good, with it being applied to give easy proofs of Rohlin's theorem, Lichnerowicz theorem, and (a sketch of) the Hirzebruch signature theorem.

His coverage of the properties of the SW moduli space is not as thorough as that of Morgan, but he does give a very compact proof of compactness (albeit in the simply connected case only). The treatment of Sobolev spaces and elliptic estimates is rather inadequate, which is an unexpected shortcoming in a book that aims to be an introduction to gauge theory - the reader needs to follow up with his references (such as Freed and Uhlenbeck's Instantons and Four-Manifolds (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Publications); Donaldson and Kronheimer's The Geometry of Four-Manifolds (Oxford Mathematical Monographs) is far, far beyond the level of this book). His explanation of how to apply the Sard-Smale theorem to deduce the smoothness of the moduli space for generic perturbations is excellent, something that is sorely lacking in Morgan (and moreover Moore defines the SW equations with the perturbations already included, which avoids repetition). Moore also does a good job of explaining the mechanics of proofs of orientability in gauge theory, probably the most uninteresting part of the theory. He does, however, leave out such important steps as demonstrating that the quotient space in which the moduli space is defined is a smooth Hausdorff manifold (except at reducible points), or proving (rather than just stating) that the invariants are independent of the Riemannian metric on the underlying manifold. His derivation of the homotopy type of the quotient space is clearer than Morgan's, although he only states it for the simply connected case, which makes a big difference. There is also no discussion at all of wall-crossing formulas, as b+ is assumed to be > 1 in the definition of the invariants, which limits the applicability of the results a little.

For the applications of SW invariants, more is covered than in Morgan (but for more restrictive cases), such as a simple proof of (part of) Donaldson's Theorem that the only negative definite unimodular form represented by a compact smooth simply connected 4-manifold is -I (this proof occupies virtually the entire book of Freed and Uhlenbeck), which shows that not all topological 4-manifolds carry a smooth structure. Finally some invariants for some Kaehler surfaces (in much less generality than in Morgan) are calculated, following a trick that Witten used in his original paper, and as a corollary, an example is found (relying heavily upon other algebraic-geometric references) of a compact 4-manifold with an infinite number of smooth structures.

There aren't an excessive number of typos/errors in the book, but the ones that are present tend to be more apt to confuse. For example, on pg. 57, in the equation between equations 2.10 and 2.11, the letter e appears twice where a gradient sign (a "nabla") with an e subscript was intended. On pg. 64, in the 4th equation from the bottom, the first term on the RHS should be 2, not 1. On pg. 76, in the third line from the top, the subscript on W should be -, not +. Also on pg. 76, 2 paragraphs up from the Transversality theorem, it should read "codimension being = dim(Ker(D...," not <= as is stated. Near the bottom of pg. 77, the words "for F=0" should be added after "dF is surjective." On pg. 79, in the line above the last displayed equation, the V should have a subscript 1. And on pg. 80, the word injective should be replaced with surjective (which of course is a big difference).

Overall, this is probably the best introduction to Seiberg-Witten gauge theory for those who are not familiar with Yang-Mills/Donaldson theory. It constitutes good preparation for being able to move on to more advanced works, such as Morgan, Marcolli, or the many reasearch papers in the field. On the other hand, for anyone with a stronger background in differential geometry and anlysis to begin with, you should be able to breeze through this book very quickly. Nicolaescu's newer and larger book is far more comprehensive and even more oriented toward novices, but it is a bit overly large and difficult to follow, so for a first taste of the subject Moore is probably superior.

This book is a short and elementary introduction to the Seiberg-Witten equations, which created quite a stir back in 1994 when they were first proposed. The book is elementary enough that it could be read by someone without a background in the intricacies of the geometry and topology of 4-dimensional topological and smooth manifolds, but the results can be better appreciated if one already has such a background. A background in quantum field theory, specifically the guage theory of the strong interaction, called quantum chromodynamics, will also help in the appreciation of the book. A lot of work has been done in elucidating the properties of the Seiberg-Witten equations since this book was written, but the book could still serve as an introduction to these developments.

The author gives a brief introduction to the use of Seiberg-Witten equations in chapter 1, along with a review of the background needed from the theory of vector bundles, differential geometry, and algebraic topology needed to read the book. All of this background is pretty standard, although the appearance of spin structures may not be as familiar to the mathematician-reader, but completely familiar to the physicist reader. Detailed proofs of the main results are not given, but reference to these are quoted. Also, the theory of characteristic classes is outlined only briefly so no insight is given as to why they work so well. In particular, the reason for the vanishing of the second Stiefel-Whitney class as a precondition for the manifold having a spin structure is not given.

In chapter 2, the author goes into the spin geometry of 4-manifolds in more detail. After discussing the role of quaternions in this regard, spin structures are defined. A spin structure on a manifold M, via its cocycle condition, give two complex vector bundles of rank two over M. The complexified tangent bundle can thus be represented in terms of these vector bundles, which are themselves quaternionic line bundles over M. The author also defines spin(c) structures, and shows how, using an almost complex structure, to obtain a canonical spin(c) structure on a complex manifold of complex dimension two. The spin(c) structure also allows a construction of the "virtual vector bundles" W+, W-, and L, for manifolds that do not have a spin structure. These bundles play a central role in the book. Clifford algebra becomes meaningful on the direct sum W of W+ and W-, and spin connections can be defined on W. In particular given a unitary connection on a complex line bundle L over a spin manifold M, one can obtain a connection on the tensor product of W and L. When M is not a spin manifold, this is still possible but one must use the "square" L^2 of L. One can then define the Dirac operator over the sections of this tensor product, which the author does and extends it to one with coefficients in a general vector bundle. The author then discusses, but does not prove, the Atiyah-Singer index theorem and the Hirzebruch signature theorem. These theorems, the author emphasizes, are proved in the context of linear partial differential equations, and give invariants of 4-manifolds.

This sets up the discussion in chapter 3, which deals with the problem of how to find invariants of 4-manifolds if one works in the context of nonlinear partial differential equations. Those familiar with the Donaldson theory, which was done using the (nonlinear!) Yang-Mills equations, will understand the difficulties of this approach. The strategy of the nonlinear approach as outlined by the author is to show that the solution set of a nonlinear PDE is compact and a finite-dimensional compact manifold. The solution set depends on the Riemannian metric, but its cobordism class does not, and this may give a topological invariant. The fact that it is defined in terms of a PDE might give a way of distinguishing smooth structures.

The Seiberg-Witten theory is one method for doing this. The Seiberg-Witten equations are nonlinear, but the nonlinearity is "soft" enough that it can be dealt with. They arise in the context of oriented 4-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with a spin(c) structure and a positive spinor bundle W+ tensored with L. A connection on L^2 and a section of this spinor bundle are chosen to satisfy these equations, which involve the self-dual part of the connection. One also needs to work with the "perturbed" Seiberg Witten equations, where a self-dual two-form is added. The moduli space of the solutions to the perturbed Seiberg-Witten equations is shown to form a compact finite-dimensional manifold. The proof follows essentially from the Weitzenbock formula, the Sobolev embedding theorem, and Rellich's theorem. Sard's theorem shows that the moduli space is smooth and the Fredholm theory shows it is oriented. The Seiberg-Witten invariants are associated to virtual complex line bundles over the 4-manifold, and when the dimension of the self-dual harmonic two-forms is greater than or equal to 2, and the dimension of the moduli space is even. Their definition does involve the Riemannian metric, but changing this metric only alters the moduli space by a cobordism. It is proved that oriented Riemannian manifolds with positive scalar curvature have vanishing Seiberg-Witten invariants. Kahler surfaces are shown to have positive Seiberg-Witten invariants, and the author proves that there is a compact topological manifold with infinitely many distinct smooth structures. Unfortunately though, an explicit example of one of these is not given. Such an example may be very important from the standpoint of physics, for the behavior of dynamical systems or quantum field theories might be very different for different smooth structures.

I highly recommend this book for independent study or as a supplement to a text. You can see if you're on the right track with exercises because the text has solutions and hints in the back. People must keep in mind that this book focuses on linear functional analysis and not functional analysis in general.

This undergrad text is extremely clear, with lots of examples and exercises. I thought the coverage was a bit limited, even for an undergrad text and the writing style is kind of dry. Still, it's perhaps even easier than Kreyszig.

It might not be the "best whodunnit ever written", it is not even the best one in this series either, but it is a good mistery, nice and easy to read, with a very funny & enjoyable "grand finale" that reminds us of the Marx Brothers at "A Night at the Opera".

Grant Michael's Stan Kraychek (Nancy Drew with a curling iron) sets off for a summer opera fest with a wild cast of characters, some of them charming and some darker and more disagreeable. Three deaths later, and of course our Stan gets embroiled in solving the mystery. Actually, the mystery isn't that complicated, but Michaels brings his unique point of view and superb style of descriptive writing to the effort and the result is a very enjoyable read. While not as gripping as some of the earlier stories in terms or pure who-done-it, you'll enjoy this one, whether you like opera or not.

Ross writes directly and engagingly, providing a multitude of scenarios and examples to drive home his points. There's even a section that provides guidelines for software and scanner selection. A comprehensive, informative book and great reference guide.

So far this is the only book I know of available on OCR and I have been researching over four years for two scanning classes I teach at a local community college. This probably is because not many people who own scanners actually have need of Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Those who do, such as office workers and librarians, will learn a great deal about preparing documents before attempting to scan/ocr. The author obviously has been involved in OCR since early days and provides manual solutions rather than explaining features in newer and more helpful OCR software. Creating forms in OCR is not covered.

Is good for some one who has no experience with trucking business or any type of business at all,all is common sense.For me a waste of money

Truck drivers who are looking for an easy way to manage their books while on the road need look no further. Brady drove for twenty-three years, using the techniques outlined in this book, and earned top money while doing so. It shows you what to buy and how to put your own record keeping system together. Legal deductions for every driver on the road will ease your tax bill, too. Spend a little money to save a lot more.