Simulation Books

This book doesn't contain a lot of jargon. It has pictures of how to do things and explains things in non-technical terms. Great for beginners but also useful as a refresher when you haven't used some aspect for awhile. Well laid out index so easy to find what your looking for. These people have done a good job. Hope they bring out another one more advanced.

I had no idea what the interface looked like or ANY idea about how to use 3DS Max; I just knew I want to learn how to do animations.

Well, I know this book isn't going to have me making 3D animation movies, but it does give a great insight into the program's basics.

Lots of hands-on exercises, just as I like. Lots of pictures too. The authors do an excellent job of spelling out the basics and telling you exactly what you need to do to complete an excerise. And, as you move further along in the book, they "neglect" to tell you how to do something they've already covered - just like a teacher would do in class. It forces you to explore, reread (if you don't understand a subject) and practice with the program - what you need to do if you're ever going to learn to use 3DS Max.

A very well written book about the basics of 3DS Max 7.

I highly recommend this book to the beginning 3ds max student. It was very helpful to me, as it explained more of the basics and gave more detail behind the steps. Also, the tutorials frequently used diffent tools to accomplish the same task. This showed how to use the graphical interface, quad-menus, toolbars, etc.

I found it the best of several books I bought to get my feet wet with 3ds max. It really helped with some of the basic lighting and material concepts. While, this book doesn't even begin to touch all the features of 3ds max, it was a great primer and I'm glad I read it.

This book is perfect for those just getting started in 3ds Max 7. There are a lot of easy to follow screen shots to accompany the text so it is possible to still follow along when you're not in front of your computer. It is written with plenty of step by step explanations of what you are doing and why as well as a great accompanying disk to help with tutorials. It even tackles some of the more difficult aspects of 3d modeling such as composition, the dreaded material editor (it even throws in a side bar about UVW unwrapping) and lighting. It is written with the beginner in mind and does a great job explaining concepts and procedures without insulting your intelligence. It may, however, be a little below intermediate users, it can be a great tool to brush up on fundamentals. I can't recommend this book enough for those looking to get their feet wet in MAX.

The book by Till & O'Connell is great for newcomers simply because it doesn't attempt to give you too much information but only what new users might need to learn the basics of max 7. I had never turned on max 7 and within a week I was amazed as to how much I had learned without having any previous experience with 3d softwares. This should be the first book you buy if you are starting from scratch with max 7.

I am an instructor for a 3D Game Content course and Game Art is one of our books. The industry art pipeline and procedures are very well laid-out in this book. Would love a second edition covering the next gen techniques that will be surfacing.

Great book that covers modeling techniques for game companies, uv layout's , future Tech Compontents such as Normal Maps, etc. A well good purchase for anyone who wants to know how it's done or to improve there knowledge.

I was an art director in the video game industry for a number of years and one of the most frustrating aspects was interviewing artists that wanted to be part of the industry but did not know how to prepare themselves. This book addresses that problem in a thoughtful and comprehensive way.

For any aspiring artist that wants to be in the video game industry, this is the book. The examples and explanations are clear and easy to follow. Using this book, you would be able to prepare a very capable portfolio.

Buy it, read it, and put the knowledge to use.

I have read this book and find it extremely informative. The book is written with the readers perspective in mind. It gives beautiful insight into the industry and the dynamics of it. It also has great walk-throughs with media on a CD that you can use as part of the "practical" experience.

Good Job!

People don't think alike. The person who can handle the programming complexity of doing a graphics engine is often not the person who is capable of designing the characters, scenery, and equipment needed for the rest of the game. In this area, the digital artist comes into his/her own. Note this says digital artist. This requires two separate skills, one is the ability to create vizualize what art is needed, the other is to use a computer rather than some other media to generate the desired image.

The game design business represents an opportunity for the digital artist to obtain jobs with real companies that are relatively well paying. This book gives an artist's perspective into the game industry. It talks about the industry, the work, and gives insight on how to get a job. But mostly it talks about what kind of art is needed for gaming. It shows the detail that is necessary to produce a visually pleasing game.

The CD included with the book includes numerous illustrations and files from Maya and ds max. It also includes a trial version of Rt/Shader software. The book presumes that you have a workingknowledge of at least one major 3D program (3ds max or Maya) and Photoshop.

This is a splendid book that is positioned to take an aspiring digital artist and carry him to the next level -- employment doing a job well beyond flipping burgers.

Sometimes I encounter books that are extremely important, that give me an appreciation for a knowledge domain I do not know enough about, and that I simply cannot read and review in the traditional sense. However, having invested good money and time in the book, if I admire I book, I generally seek to use my broad reading as a base for putting the book in an appreciative context with useful links for other readers.

This book, and Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life (Princeton Studies in Complexity) are two such books. This one starts with:

"instead of explaining it, can you grow it?"

Howard Bloom, in Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century teaches us that the only way to create a sustainable peace in the Palestine region is to provide absolute security for an entire generation, and raise two whole generations, one on each side, from kindergarten on us, generations that do not consider "the other" to be "pigs and monkeys" by the age of five.

Similarly, the literature on wealth of networks and the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid is growing, and I am convinced that public intelligence (decision support, full disclosure, end of information asymmetries) is going to accomplish two things in the next twenty years:

1) Eradicate corruption and enforce the triple-bottom line

2) Elevate five billion poor by teaching them one cell call at a time so that they can create infinite stabilizing wealth.

See for example:
Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)

So the very best thing I can say about this book is that I am glad I bought it, I am very glad to have a sense, however weak, of this important exploratory area, and now I know that I need a team of generative social scientists that can do complex modeling for peace and prosperity solutions.

See also, just published at Amazon and free online at Earth Intelligence Network, Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

I urge one and all to become familiar with World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER), as best I can tell that is the center of gravity for empowering individuals with deep knowledge of the true costs and many human rights abuses and other crimes that we support today for lack of knowledge. I also recommend the pioneering EarthGame work of Medard Gabel, at BigPictureSmallWorld.

Eventually I see the USA Waging Peace, with a Multinational Decision Support Center providing unclassified intelligence to all actors on the world stage, and publishing an annual and constantly updated Global Range of Gifts Table to connect the billion rich with the five billion poor at the $1-$100 level.

In commenting on this book, I am primarily seeking to point readers toward other books on the substance of peace and prosperity and our many ills. If you are technically inclined, this is a very top work that also inspires the lay reader who "does not do math."

What a mesmerising book. Well written, nicely presented, good graphics, only a couple of minor typographical errors. It takes some effort to wade through it, but the rewards are there. As I read, I started to compare what was being said with what was going on in my own life, whether at work or at home - the things I do just happen to coincide with some of the things Epstein was writing about. The insight from the examples provided was quite eye opening. Things that were happening around me made a little more sense.

I particularly appreciated Epstein's reminder that agent-based approaches are not designed to generate solutions but to provide insight; nor can they be used efficiently in all circumstances; nor are they even appropriate in all circumstances; nor are they the only viable approach.

I was particularly impressed by how Epstein (or whoever) chose to model his agent based rules and the graphical technique he used to display his results. Very imaginative.

I'm not mathematically deep enough to appreciate some of his attempts to link generative science to deduction through partial recursive functions, but something didn't ring quite right there. The attempt read a little defensively. We shall see.

What I find most fascinating, something which remains an open question, is how simple agent-based approaches with their relatively simple rules can actually converge on any answer, much the less a useful answer. This seems to go against the grain, often espoused when speaking about chaos or complexity, that everything is connected to everything. Although that may be so, the agent-based model seems to suggest that most variables cancel themselves out as part of what makes emergence so fascinating. It is the basis of this cancelling out process framed by the choice of what one finds relevant that I am most interested in, that is, the whole notion of being able to choose relevant variables in the first place is what I find most fascinating.

Why is this so!!

Interesting book. Well worth a read.

Josh Epstein's new Opus is a landmark publication in the emerging field of multiagent-based simulation of dynamic social systems. Since Josh is not only one of this still nascent (though burgeoning) field's ablest and most creative practitioners, but also among its most thoughtful critics, the reader of has two treats in store: (1) a generous, and wide-ranging, sampling of case studies (including social networks and evolution, population growth, emergence of economic classes, civil unrest, timing of retirement, the dynamics of adaptive organizations and the spread of infectious disease), and (2) a cogent "meta" discussion of what multiagent models ARE, ARE NOT and how (when their properties and limitations are *not* properly taken account of) they can easily be MISAPPLIED.

Far from suggesting that multiagent-based models are a panacea solution to all (or most) social dynamical systems, Josh's book carefully articulates the conditions for which such an approach IS (and is NOT) appropriate; an approach rarely taken by other, similar, overviews of the field. Indeed, the cogent philosophical discussion in Chapter One - alone! - in which the generativist's position is defined and put into a broader modeling/simulation context, is worth the price of admission; I have not seen a better "manifesto" of multiagent-based modeling elsewhere.

Finally, without taking away any of the inherent "beauty" (in the technical sense) of the often exaggerated concept of "emergence," Josh succeeds admirably in both defining the term, and de-mystifying it, stripping it of some of its unnecessary "quasi-mystical" baggage (at least as it is often portrayed in lay publications).

Anyone who is interested in understanding how agent models may be used to help explore the dynamics of social dynamical systems, should have this book firmly on top of their "must read" list! Josh has generously provided future generations of agent explorers their go-to source of both inspiration and ideas. Well done Josh!

This book did a good job of introducing me to the current state of agent-based modeling. It also, perhaps inadvertently, highlighted some of the current weaknesses of the field. In particular, the models shown in each paper rarely shared common features, and there was little consistency in method.

Epstein argues persuasively that agent-based modeling is a tool, not a methodological approach, and you should no sooner expect consistent usage here than with differential calculus. That said, it was a bit disconcerting.

Also, while the goal espoused here was to use the bare minimum of constraints that retain explanatory power, I was disappointed that relevant work from other fields was often abstracted away. For example, a few models used social networks; but the networks presented were static, not dynamic, and were not built around power-law ratios. Such additional complexity may well have distracted from the main point; but it would have been nice to see at least some discussion of why the models were simplified.

Regardless, I was very pleased with the book and would highly recommend it.

It's refreshing and exciting, in a quiet intellectual kind of way, to encounter a book that includes philosophy of science, music theory, Anasazi disappearance mysteries, ethnic cleansing, and an explanation of why CEOs exist. Josh has produced the book I've been wanting to read any time during the last 20 years, which have been a bit barren from the theory and modeling perspective in social science. He also makes clear the mathematical and philosophical basis of the agent-based approach, producing a baseline both for future work in the field and for competing paradigms such as systems dynamics, discrete simulations, and cellular automata (Wolfram's New Kind of Science), however incommensurable. I was particularly interested in the occasional use of probability modeling (negative exponential distributions generated through simple rules are a very interesting advance in understanding the waiting times between civil violence outbursts) and I'd love to see a deeper relationship established, say between Bayesian models of dynamic systems and agent-based models. Keep up the great work, Josh! Also, kudos to the publisher for the sheer quality of the book: excellent paper, great color plates, and priced to sell rather than as the work of art it is.

Having never taken a course in computer-based dynamic modeling, this text proved to be an excellent introduction to the topic - and then some. The opening chapter clearly explains the reasons modeling is so important in our complex world, and subsequent chapters in the opening section walk the student through the basic processes of using STELLA and MADONNA to explore dynamic biological systems. (The text is supplied with a run-time version of STELLA.) Later sections build students' modeling skills by adding layers of complexity as a wide variety of biological questions are examined.

The presentation style permits exploration of so many topics by first presenting the basic elements of a model and then guiding the eager student to adjust the model to answer additional questions. Thus, the text truly has something to offer anyone interested in biological systems. Furthermore, it is not necessary to study the chapters in order. Yet the text is carefully woven with analogies so that the skills and knowledge gained from one chapter's model can easily be directed to building and solving those in other chapters.

I also found the text easy to follow during lectures. As the models were presented in class, the equations and the figures in the text - both models and graphs - allowed me to focus my attention on the discussion rather than on getting the "pictures" down in my notes. The text contains plenty of white space around equations and figures so that the student can simply take notes directly onto the pages. One of the most useful features in each chapter is the box showing the equations "in the basement" of STELLA that drive the model. The text is definitely a learning tool, not simply a book to be read but not used.

"Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems" is a text that will be kept close to my computer and pulled from the shelf often. The systems thinking and independent learning encouraged by this book will be very useful as I complete my education and move into my new career.

I have used this book to learn dynamic modeling both as part of a class and in research work. This is an excellent book for beginners and professional modelers alike. The book uses STELLA, an iconographic modeling software, as the platform for learning. However, the knowledge gained through the book and the software is based on more general modeling philosophies that can be applied using other modeling software or programming languages as well. The approach used here is to learn by hands-on training through examples. One does not need to study a lot of theories to start developing models; rather the theories and principles evolve through the modeling exercises. It is not required, though advisable, to purchase the software to go through the examples as the book comes with a run-time version of STELLA.

Another aspect of the book that I found to be interesting is that after going through the initial few chapters, the rest of the book can be studied in any order. It includes a host of examples from various areas of biological sciences and it is possible to focus on one's area of interest - be it population dynamics, genetics, environmental pollution or epidemics. It gives a fair introduction to spatially dynamic modeling as well. I must also mention that one does not need to be a biologist to use this book. I have had friends with economics and engineering backgrounds who used this book to learn dynamic modeling.

One of the most important strengths of this book is that it is easy enough to be accessible to people from a wide range of disciplines and at the same time advanced enough to expose the user to moderate to highly complex modeling challenges. I strongly recommend this book to academics who are teaching dynamic modeling and anyone else who is involved in research that include dynamic processes and interactions. This book teaches dynamic modeling as a versatile tool - so much so that I even used it (for fun) to model my personal finances!

I suggest that the reader take a systematic approach to study this book while sitting in front of the computer and doing the examples as you go along. This will maximize the learning from this book. This is certainly one of the most practical books on modeling that I have come across.

The increasing interconnectedness and complexity of ecological and biological systems is undoubtedly increasing the potential environmental consequences of our decisions. Thus the growing importance of improving our understanding of the characteristics and internal relationships that govern the system's behavior. Hannon and Ruth clearly illustrate how we can think about problems from a `dynamic systems' perspective, and how we can use technical programs to apply this new way of thinking as a tool to model biological systems. They present the means to build a greater understanding of the phenomena we see, the context of the problems that confront us, and the potential and expected effects of any interventions we may make.

Like the book's theoretical foundations, the modeling software used is both user-friendly for easy up-take by beginners, and sufficiently powerful for those at a more advanced level needing a robust software package. The reader is actively guided through the model development, simulation and interpretation process. This learning by participation and experience increases the readers understanding of the wide variety of contexts in which modeling techniques can be applied, and how to apply them.

Those interested in biological issues will find this valuable from the practical biological examples that are used, and the novel approach in which these issues are addressed. These range from spatial and population dynamics, to models of organisms, genetic movements and physical systems.

Further, the clarity of writing, and the familiarity of the examples and problems addressed, makes this an enjoyable educational experience for all people interested in developing a new perspective of the environment in which they live and work.

Perhaps most importantly, the analogical strength of the techniques used and models developed is such that researchers in all fields of academia, from economics to sociology, will benefit from it. It challenges us to re-examine how we define the problems we seek to solve, and to discipline our existing conceptualization of systems. It presents us with tools that challenge, yet compliment and strengthen traditional scientific approaches.

Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems is a wonderful book for students and researchers interested in learning about dynamic modeling. I used this book in the first class I took dealing with dynamic modeling and found it very easy to understand and follow. The basic design of the book is to introduce the basic concepts of dynamic modeling and how to get started designing models in STELLA. Descriptions for designing models and the example models are based on STELLA modeling software, an intuitive iconographic program that allows even non-technical readers to begin modeling quickly. After the introduction to dynamic modeling the book is divided up into parts based on different areas of biology: Physical and Biochemical Models, Genetics Models, Models of Organisms, Single Population Models, Multiple Population Models, and Catastrophe and Self-Organization. In each of these parts there are a number of models dealing with different issues. The models are clearly explained and both the iconographic diagram and the equations are given so users can create the example models from the book or check their own work.

This book is a great resource for both novice and experienced modelers. Biologists from all areas will find this useful if they are interested in learning about dynamic modeling. Even if one's area of interest is not exactly one of the areas focused on in the book, the skills and basic method of dynamic modeling will be learned and the reader can then apply these to their area of interest. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in dynamic modeling, even non-biologists. With its great examples and clear explanations this makes a great resource for learning about dynamic modeling.

This book is a concise, effective introduction to dynamic systems modeling
and how it can be used to provide insight to biological problems. The use
of dynamic modeling is demonstrated through example models, a new model
each chapter. The authors walk the reader/student through each model and
then make suggestions as to how it can be further exploited for greater
understanding of the problem. The greatest aspect of this book lies in
its demystification of computer modeling in general and shows that any
person, no matter their quantitative skills, can effectively model a
system by adhering to certain fundamentals. The models that are provided
range from ecosystems to individual cells, espousing a 'systems' approach
to every level of biology. Overall, this book is easy to understand; providing a mental tool by which one can bring greater clarity to complex, dynamic problems.

I was referred to this book by an American Artist whom had lived in Japan for almost 50 years. As a Chinese, I thought I know Chinese history, but after reading through JD's detail account of events with vivid description of the personalities, I can visualize the historical moments through the paper. It is so well written that I have to read very slowly to digest it. Combining this with other readings during the same period, including Ray Huang's lesser known Yellow River Blue Mountain (his autobiography), I am beginning to see history in perspective!

John Davies has crafted a superb tale of his years in Asia and Moscow. He was a classic Old China Hand, raised by missionary parents in China, a fluent speaker of the language, and a natural to serve in the State Department and as Army liaison during World War II. The book combines period documents with later reflections, dazzling readers with thrilling adventures and portentous encounters with the era's major figures: Generalissimo and Madame Chiang, Stilwell, Mao, Zhou Enlai, Roosevelt, Marshall. The 1948-9 Nationalist debacle sparked an anticommunist hunt for scapegoats blamed for "losing" China (it was never ours to lose), tragically depriving the US of wise counsel from Davies, John Service, Oliver Clubb, John Vincent and others. As J.K. Fairbank noted, neither before nor since has America had such gifted country experts to advise on foreign policy. Davies's view of a defense-minded Soviet Union again was more realistic than the official line which helped provoke the Cold War. His globetrotting is a little hard to follow, and fuller coverage of post-1945 events would be welcome, but these are quibbles. See L. Van Slyke ed, "The China White Paper." E. Sevareid, "Not so Wild a Dream" augments Davies's modest paragraph on their celebrated parachute jump and escape from Burma. E.J. Kahn, "The China Hands" details wartime conflicts and postwar persecutions, while J.S. Service, "Lost Chance in China" contains prophetic field reports by Davies's most astute colleague.

If you wish to understand Sino-American relations in the 20th Century, this book by our most brilliant (and persecuted) Political Officer in the State Department, must be your starting point. It is more than educational. His digressions - descriptions of the voyages of Cheng Ho during the Ming Dynasty; Mukden during the early years of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria; the celebration in Moscow after V-E day; etc., etc. - reveal a literary gift of the highest magnitude. Truly, one of the best books I have ever read. In fact, it irks me that so few people have read it.

While I had previously read Seagrave's Soong Dynasty and Tuchman's Stilwell, it was the bibliographical notes of Ambassador Lilley's China Hands that got me turned on to this book. I ordered it from an Amazon seller and I wasn't disappointed.

Mr. Davies offers vivid, evocative descriptions of events and people he encountered in China from his birth in Sichuan in 1908 until the Communist takeover in 1949. Apparently a religious record keeper, Davies is able to rely on his contemporaneous diary entries and letters to produce colorful details that would have been impossible to to recall 30 or 40 years after the fact. Davies does an exceptional job of mixing macroscopic historical events with his own microscopic personal narrative to create a flowing portrait of early 20th century China.

Though very much loyal member of Stilwell's China detail, Davies offers even-handed analysis of the events that eventually led to the fall of the Nationalist regime in China. Instead of putting the blame for the "loss" of China on any individual, Davies seems to point at the prevalence of sentimentalism over China in the minds of American foreign policy actors as leading to the mishandling of China during the 1940s.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in China, Asian studies, or WWII history.

As above, a wonderful description of Chinese history in the 20th century by someone who was there. From the manchu's through early revolution to Chiang and the Communist struggle; one insight follows another.

A superbly written book on fabrication of silicon integrated circuits.Chapter 2 provides a gentle yet fairly detailed introduction to the overall process and each item touched therein is expanded subsequently.The language is clear and figures convey their intended meaning,overall its a wonderful starting point for further study in silicon integrated circuits technology.As has been pointed out in one of the reviews here, this book has been adopted in many US universities.The link embedded in this review is one such instance and as such can be used to obtain more information and benefit from a full set of audio lectures, assignemnts and other supplementary material as a part of MIT's open course ware program.The instructor is Prof Judy Hoyt.
[...]

Before this book was published, Wolf & Tauber's book was the only good reference I had. Plummer's new book has a thorough review of basic principles, very well updated parts on current manufacturing equipments (Wolf's book also has extensive coverage in this respect). The best part in my opinion is oxidation & diffusion parts where the authors are one of the leaders in current research. The book not only focuses on the specific details, but also gives an integrated view of the whole CMOS fabrication process, which I enjoyed a lot.

I strongly recommend this book for students who want to learn basics of IC fabrication and also professional engineers who needs a good and well updated reference.

I've read a number of books in this field - Plummer, Wolf, Campbell, Sze, Madou. Each book has its strength, and Plummer's book stands out in terms of its broad, in-depth coverage of modern silicon CMOS technology. It doesn't cover MEMS or other exotic nanofabrication.

Many students who've read the book said that Chap 2, where a modern CMOS process flow is described step by step from the substrate to back-end, was the best part. By doing so, the authors teach us that not only unit processes but their collection, i.e. process integration, is the key in successful CMOS technology.

Overall, the quality of the content and attention to small details are superb, as one can expect from a book written by one of world's foremost researchers in the field (Plummer is the Dean of Engineering School at Stanford). In particular, I liked chap2 for integrated description of CMOS flow, the lithography chapter which covers optical systems, details of photoresists, phase shift masking. Also, diffusion and ion implantation parts are second to none, since the authors made numerous contributions to the research field. It's such pleasure to learn about the latest in silicon IC processing from the Silicon Valley authority at Stanford!

The book has been adopted by many US engineering schools already, and I see it on many bookshelves belonging to IC engineers. If you need an authoritive, well-organized reference for modern silicon IC processing, I strongly recommend this book.

The best part of this book is that it covers modern fabrication technology. I expecially liked the approach of introducing the complete CMOS fabrication flow in the beginning. It puts a context to following chapters. It is what I call system level approach for slicon fabrication. There is also emphasis on measurement and simulutions that are missing from traditional books. Both these are essential to modern technology. Also, I was very happy to see details on manufacturing choices - e.g. LOCOS vs STI. Explanations are clear.
This is a text book, therefore at times may seem too dense, but definitely worth it if you are a process engineer.

if your an electrical / process engineer, this is one of the must have books.

This book should be in the library of anyone involved with DC-DC converters. The book covers the theory of converters and the SPICE applications are very helpful. I used the Top Spice demo to simulate the buck converter and was quickly running simulations.

This book is a must have for the power supply designer! I own about every book written on the subject, and this ranks with the top 5. I feel that it is especially valuable to the reader who has studied the subject reading other top books in the field.

Each simulation problem is well resolved with examples and a brief of theory is also included in each. Very good for Spice users but not to much useful for others simulation package users.

Once in a while a book comes along that covers a subject in such detail and yet is chocked with examples that are easy to prove and use by students and designers in the field as this one. It is evident that Mr. Basso went to great lengths to make sure that users of different spice software platforms were included by supplying a CD with models and demos for all the major platforms. I don't know of another offering that deals with closing the feedback loop in the detail as this book does. I think any serious graduate program should consider including this book as a text. Money and time well spent; it is my second reference for serious SMPS work.

Charles Denton
Custom Engineering

Christophe Basso worked very hard giving years of his life to produce the best Switch-Mode Power Supply book available, by far. I have a large collection of books on SMPS and although many are very good books, they are not nearly as complete or practical as Basso's book. He derives all his equations and then shows many real world example designs from start to finish. In my opinion and the opinion of many power electronics professionals and power electronics college students, the averaged switch model is the easiest to create and most intuitive to understand and use. Basso has digested the best information from the best references and then creatively enhanced many models and invented new SPICE models/sub-circuits you need for large and small signal analysis and simulations with the SPICE of your choice. His knowledge of creating analog behavioral models (ABM) that perform just like the real components or circuit functions, is amazing. He created ABM PWMs from individual ABM components. Everything he creates, he verifies. You buy this book at a bargain price and get a CD with all the models/sub-circuits you need to check your existing designs and start new designs with the highest confidence. Once you look at his ABMs, you will want to create some of your own because it is so much fun. In a short time, I've used his models/sub-circuits and his techniques with PSPICE to identify lack of or no phase margin in Switch-Mode Power Supplies for a huge corporation. I have many more power supplies to analyze/simulate and several new ones to design.

I've worked as a power electronics engineer for many years and I'm so thankful to Christophe Basso for working so hard and smart to produce the best Switch-Mode Power Supply book ever written. Very thorough and very practical. Get this book and apply Basso's knowledge, techniques, and SPICE models/sub-circuits to your designs and you will never have another unstable Switch-Mode or Linear Power Supply.

This is a great book for anyone interested in modeling dynamic systems. The authors provide wonderful background theory as a basis for building computer simulations. The simple step-by-step instructions guide you through the process of creating your own simulations using StarLogo. This book is an interesting, easily understandable beginner's manual and comes with all the software you need. It's a great way to teach yourself or other people how to program a simulation. I love the turtles!

This book is a great guide to taking the somewhat difficult ideas explored in Mitchel Resnick's book "Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams" and implementing them with students. Adventures in modeling can be used alone but, for any teacher who wants to use this book in a computer class, it is helpful to read the other book first. The activities and challenges here are reasonable for students from college down though middle school. I know of one teacher who has even successfully used these activites with pre-teens.

The book is good overall but I felt they need to use more carefully thought out examples and not try to push an 'agenda'.
It is as if the author(s) are trying to make an issue over creation vs evolution. In the very beginning chapter, they make an invalid example by comparing evolution vs creation to central control vs decentralized systems. This is a quote from the book, "This tendency to assume centralized control, which we call the centralized mindset, makes it difficult for people to understand the workings of many phenomena in the world. The recurrent questioning of evolutionary theories is another example: When people see complex living systems in the world, they assume that someone or something must have explicitly designed them; instead, these livings systems are the products of millions of incremental changes over time."

This is a great book for people intereted in modeling systems behavior. The authors give an excellent background summary of the theory involved in StarLogo. The program given with the CD is easy to install and use. The book takes you step by step through thinking about and creating your own computer simulation in an easy to understand manner. There's lots of support for any technical difficulties you might have and good examples of what you can do with the program. I highly recommend it to everyone.

This book can be viewed as one of the first attempts to use results from psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and philosophy with the intent of gaining an understanding of how the mind/brain works, but all of this is done within the "computational mind" paradigm. The approach taken by the authors is one of the most honest of those in the literature, for throughout the book they are careful to note just how much evidence there is to support their position(s), and to what extent further work is to done. Philosophically speaking, the authors are clearly in the materialist camp, believing that Cartesian dualism does not cohere with current scientific knowledge. But they state that materialism is not an established fact, allowing the possibility, but not the probability, that dualism may in fact be true. They reject early on though any "arguments from ignorance" in their assertion that just because neuroscience does not have an explanation of consciousness, that such an explanation is impossible. The authors call the failure to be able to think of consciousness in terms of neuronal activity "intuition dissonance", and reject completely its efficacy in establishing the truth of the nature of the mind/brain.

The underlying theme in the book is to explain emergent properties as "high-level" effects that are dependent on "lower-level" phenomena, hence rejecting the thesis that they are "nomologically autonomous", i.e. that such a dependence cannot be done and is outside the domain of science. The science in this book recognizes its historical origins, and it is clear that the authors will not accept explanations of the mind/brain that do not involve scientific experimentation and analysis. Much has been done experimentally in neuroscience since this book was published, especially using the techniques of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A brief discussion of MRI is given in the Appendix of the book, but no doubt if the book were updated there would be a lengthy overview of it. The current experimental situation in neuroscience has led some to predict a total "reverse engineering" of the brain in the upcoming decades. This prediction is an optimistic one, but no doubt detailed knowledge of the brain will continue to accelerate, this being a sign of what the authors call "a remarkable time in the history of science".

The authors devote an entire chapter to the computational modeling of the brain, mostly of course dealing with the mathematics of neural networks. The approach in this chapter though is still at a level that would allow a general audience to follow it. Readers with a background in physics, especially statistical physics, will appreciate more the discussion on Hopfield networks and Boltzmann machines. Experimental results are inserted as graphs throughout the book, with detailed explanation. As a whole the discussion of the biology of the brain is purely descriptive, and the line drawings could stand some improvement.

The chapter on neuronal plasticity is the most interesting in the book, the authors viewing the brain as an entity that is continuously undergoing modification. Their stated goal in the chapter is to explain how the "local" property of plasticity can result in the "global" property of learning. Clearly intelligence to the authors is an emergent property, i.e. an object or device may be characterized as intelligent without its components being intelligent. Particularly interesting in this chapter was the discussion of the amnesia of a patient who underwent bilateral resection of mesial temporal lobe structures. The time scales of the patient's memory are striking: he remembered things before the surgery but could not remember things that happened a few minutes or hours ago, but could remember things within a minute in his past. The authors also mention the fascinating work of Antonio Damasio and his collaborators, this research being even more important at the present time. The scientific study of consciousness is just beginning and no doubt this study will give many surprises as it develops throughout the twenty-first century.

This extremely interesting book integrates our vast knowledge of neuroscience with computational models of perception, sensori-motor integration, memory etc.
For students of neuroscience, computer science and psychology this book is extremely important, because it gives you the necessary fundamentals of this field(namely computational neuroscience) so you can get to more advanced levels easily.
Understanding the book will need some background in higher mathematics (differential calculus).

There is an argument that this is a book of its time. It is nearly fifteen years since it was put together and a great deal of neural water has flowed under the bridge. The thematic enthusiasm for computationalism that dominates the book has not been convincingly proved in the meantime. If anything, the computational properties of models have been shown to entertain many unpleasant complexity results. Moreover, the localisation of brain functions grounded in naive interpretations of lesion effects has come under greater scrutiny due to detailed MRI results. Given twhat was known at the time, it is unsurprising that the book focuses on the visual system - a focus also found in Christof Koch's recent book. Acknowleding all that and more, it would be hard to find a better condensation of science, computationalism, and philosophical speculation than in this book.

Leaving aside downsides arising from recent discoveries that the authors could not have anticipated, the book can be frustrating to read at times. In particular, there is a tendency to introduce technical concepts and descriptors into accounts without prior definition. For example, very early on in a brief account of monkey vision there is mention of V4, MT, etc. The terms are neither defined nor explained. Strangely, in the introduction to networks, the inner product of two vectors is explained while the outer product is not. Small points but the oversight recurs.

The philosophical content in the book is light, but the assumptions driving the work are among the most contentious. There is no point reaming off a list but the book does not shirk supporing the brain-as-a-computer hypothesis.

All in all a stimulating work, if in need of updating.

This book is an excellent follow-up to "Engine of Reason, Seat of the Soul". It gets into the details of what's known about computational neuroscience and the working of the human brain (and other animals ' brains and nervous systems. Great summaries of specific "tricks" of brain processing, e.g., how vison works, etc.

The most complete and straightforward four-stroke text to date. This book is a must have for any serious engine designers library. Filled with many gems of wisdom, insight, and direct calculations relating to four-stroke engine design as well as historical background in engine design.. The book is so packed with information that numerous readings may be necessary to grasp all that Blair has to offer. Design examples abound from the top engine designers in the world (although anonymity is required). The professor has done an exemplary job in assimilating the results to find the common thread among the great current and past engine designers. A good review of thermodynamics for the past and present college students and a good stating place to those without college thermodynamics. The heart of the book is wave dynamics in the engine design process, both in theory and application. Finally for those that must silence the music of the 4-stroke there is a section on muffler design.

As was the case with the Author's previous books on the design of Two-Stroke Engines, this book follows the same pattern of building a design simulation package based on sound basic theories relating to the IC engine which have been developed over a long period and backing up the theory with many real world examples. Chapter 1 begins with a very easy to follow description of the four stroke engine with the diagrams and accompaning text easily understood. I particularly like how the geometry of the aperture posed by a poppet valve is handled and also the method of providing the valve lift characteristics as a function of crankangle. The method allows the valve lift data to be easily changed when using the simulation program for the purpose of optimising the valve open period and lift.Care must be taken when transferring the valve lift data from the simulation to the actual cam requirements, since one must allow for tappet clearance and cam manufacturers prefer to give opening and closing data at 0.050 in. lift. In the latter portion of the chapter the author provides some relavant comparisons of the thermodynamic cycles of IC engines with some good practical worked examples to illustrate his point.While the use of the ideal Otto cycle or Diesel cycle would produce inaccurate simulations, the chapter concludes by showing how the introduction of the real combustion process, heat transfer loss, and friction and pumping losses into the simulation process yields predictions that give good correlation with measured data. In chapter 2 the concept of pressure waves and unsteady gas flow is introduced. The Schlieren pictures provide a wonderful illustration of a pulse from a pressure wave travelling along a pipe and enters the atmosphere. At this juncture the reader must get a good grasp of unsteady gas flow and pressure wave motion, otherwise, the succeeding chapters of this book will be mostly meaningless. After the initial introduction to wave motion the chapter goes on to provide the theory and illustrations of pressure waves as they transverse through numerous duct shapes, branch systems and duct endings. The concept of the duct being broken into mesh lengths is introduced and accuracy is improved by the addition of heat transfer through the ducts during the process. In chapter 3 the author evaluates three distinct methods regarding the measurement and use of coefficients of disharge for the valves and ducts.Data is provided to justify the use of the "Actual Discharge Coefficients" method in the simulation. The remainder of the chapter provides examples of the CD's used for all the engine duct possibilities. A clear explanation is provided in chapter 4 of the practical aspects of combustion in actual engines. The choice of a combustion model encompasing a heat release rate and mass fraction burned described by Vibe coefficients appears justified from the correlation with the practical data provided in this chapter. Combustion models for both spark ignition and Diesel engines are presented. The wide versatility of the Blair simulation is demonstrated in chapter 5 were measured and calculated power comparisons are made for a string trimmer engine at less than 1KW of power to the Infinity IRL racing engine making over 500 KW of power. Correlation of engine parameters is quite good for both these applications as is a varied number of other applications in between. The simulation package appears to be a must for the modern engine designer. Some excellent emperical engine design data is provided in chapter 6 while chapter 7 provides noise reduction methods for both intake and exhaust. A superb book for just about anyone with an interest in the design of internal combustion engines.I have designated this book as the new text book for an IC engine course I will be teaching to mechanical enginneering students in the spring semester at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

This extensive new work by Professor Blair on four-stroke engine design is a welcome addition to his previously published treatises on two-stroke engines. Coverage of material spans basic ideas of unsteady gas flow, to the detailed analysis of single and muticylinder engine configurations using a state-of-the-art computer code. One of the highlights of the book from my own perspective is the author's coverage of engines with historical significance. The new insight gained from detailed analysis of their operating behavior using the computer code gives one a much greater appreciation of the intricacies of efficient engine design. This book will be a valuable asset to teacher and and student alike, by providing a broad range of relevant subject matter in a single volume. I highly recommend this excellent book.

As a relatively new designer of the four-stroke-cycle engine, Design and Simulation of Four-Stroke Engines is by far the most important single source of information to me. I also own Blair's Design and Simulation of Two-Stroke Engines. This book covers four-stroke engines with the same blend of sophisticated full thermodynamic cycle modeling and empirical insight. An introductory chapter enlightens the reader to the geometry of the four-stroke engine, defines terminology as it will be found in subsequent chapters and reviews thermodynamic theory as it will be applied to the computer model. Chapter 2, as in Design and Simulation of Two-Stroke Engines, lays the ground work for the heart of the computer model, the prediction of unsteady gas flow through engine ducting. A more complete explanation of a one dimensional method for the prediction of unsteady, compressible flow through engine ducting simply cannot be found. The following chapter is dedicated to the definition and measurement of an "actual" coefficient of discharge for poppet valve systems and why they are critically important to the model as compared with the more traditional ideal or isentropic coefficients of discharge. Chapter 4 explains the theory for the 2-zone burn model for combustion in the cylinder while providing insight into the proper design and geometry of the combustion chamber. Throughout the book, the focus is on the naturally-aspirated four-stroke engine, however, where applicable information is given on turbocharging and direct and in-direct diesel combustion. One of the most important chapters to the actual user of the computer model is Chapter 5. I have used Prof. Blair's software in two-stroke and four-stroke versions for the Mac and now use Optimum Power's offerings for the IBM compatible. No less than 6 different engines are analyzed using the simulation ranging from a string trimmer to a motorcycle to a turbo-diesel automobile. All the relevant data is given to create the geometry in the model. As each engine is discussed, the strengths of the particular design are pointed out and explained via the pressure wave diagrams created by the model itself. All these engines display very good correlation with actual measurements even though they vary in output from 1 kW to 525 kW. In addition to the geometric data for these engines, the combustion input parameters for the model are also given which are from actual running engines. Therefore, one could take this combustion information and apply it to a similar model with good confidence that this is close to reality. In order to reduce the design cycle time, Blair has included an entire chapter on empirical approaches to design geometry that are intended to be good starting points for input into the model. I find the intake tract tuned length program and the poppet valve time-area program the most useful. A final chapter is devoted to the current state of the design methodology for intake and exhaust silencing systems and how the thermodynamics from Chapter 2 are now being implemented to predict silencer performance. In conclusion, Design and Simulation of Four-Stroke Engines is a highly recommended read for anyone involved in the design or tuning of four-stroke engines and a must for anyone involved in the thermodynamic modeling of these engines.