Research Books

Barry Feig book seems to be very helful for market researchers, advertising professionals and marketers who try to succeed with new products. He gives hands-on advice how to find meaningful positionings, explains how to market research them and shares many of his invaluable innsights with the reader. One basic tenet of his book seems to adress the marketers of products: Either you offer something meaningful to the buying public or you rather don't offer it at all. One of the future big trends in marketing might be to avoid wasteful marketing initiatives. Barry Feig's book will be required reading for all those marketers who will try to follow this future trend.

Barry Feig book seems to be very helful for market researchers, advertising professionals and marketers who try to succeed with new products. He gives hands-on advice how to find meaningful positionings, explains how to market research them and shares many of his invaluable innsights with the reader. One basic tenet of his book seems to adress the marketers of products: Either you offer something meaningful to the buying public or you rather don't offer it at all. One of the future big trends in marketing might be to avoid wasteful marketing initiatives. Barry Feig's book will be required reading for all those marketers who will try to follow this future trend.

Barry Feig book seems to be very helful for market researchers, advertising professionals and marketers who try to succeed with new products. He gives hands-on advice how to find meaningful positionings, explains how to market research them and shares many of his invaluable innsights with the reader. One basic tenet of his book seems to adress the marketers of products: Either you offer something meaningful to the buying public or you rather don't offer it at all. One of the future big trends in marketing might be to avoid wasteful marketing initiatives. Barry Feig's book will be required reading for all those marketers who will try to follow this future trend.

Barry Feig book seems to be very helful for market researchers, advertising professionals and marketers who try to succeed with new products. He gives hands-on advice how to find meaningful positionings, explains how to market research them and shares many of his invaluable innsights with the reader. One basic tenet of his book seems to adress the marketers of products: Either you offer something meaningful to the buying public or you rather don't offer it at all. One of the future big trends in marketing might be to avoid wasteful marketing initiatives. Barry Feig's book will be required reading for all those marketers who will try to follow this future trend.

This is a great book on marketing. The author has helped develop many products primarily for the food trade. This book is a major rewrite to his "The New Products Workshop: Hands-On Tools for Developing Winners." Both books are great. If you can't get both, then get this newer one.

This book is important because it details Barry Feig's proprietary product development process. As a consultant he goes in to large food companies and helps them develop ideas and marketing programs for new products. There are very few books on this topic.

I highly recommend this book. The only downside to this book is that it could stand a little more organiziing of the topics. Overall though, this is a book that you should buy if you are at all interested in how to develop new products and how to test them with the marketplace.

Perhaps the most unique thing is how he recomends that you meet one on one with the customer in developing your product proto-types. He tells you exactly what to show the prospective customers and what to ask them.

Peppered throughout the book are stories about new product developement that he has experienced.

Great book.

High end mathematical theory has veered away from actually doing arithmetic because most of the problems being addressed required a tremendous amount of calculation and that calculation was difficult in the days of only pen and paper. About twenty years ago the advent of big/fast computers (by the standards of those days) began to allow the ready solution of these problems without requiring large numbers of people doing the computing.

Borwein and Bailey have been pioneers in the exploration of the types of mathematical problems that would lend themselves to solution using digital computational means. This book describes this new approach to mathematics, commonly called 'experimental mathematics.'

Obviously in computer related mathematics it began with a lot of emphasis on prime numbers, on calculating the value of Pi to ever greater precision. It has since moved on to many other classes of problems, and the work of the principle researchers in the field is summarized here.

See my book review that appeared in American Scientist

http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/mamarim/mamarimhtml/mathexp.html

"Mathematics by Experiment" is a ground-breaking book about a new way of doing math that generated so much excitement it was reviewed in "Scientific American" six months before it got into print. The authors are long-time collaborators David Bailey, chief technologist in the Computational Research Department of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Jonathan Borwein, professor of science at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C.

They write that applied mathematicians and many scientists and engineers were quick to embrace computer technology, while pure mathematicians -- whose field gave rise to computers in the first place, through the work of beautiful minds like Alan Turing's -- were slower to see the possibilities. Two decades ago, when Bailey and Borwein started collaborating, "there appeared to be a widespread view in the field that 'real mathematicians don't compute.'"

Their book is testament to a paradigm shift in the making. Hardware has "skyrocketed in power and plummeted in cost," and powerful mathematical software has come on the market. Just as important, "a new generation of mathematicians is eagerly becoming skilled at using these tools" -- people comfortable with the notion that "the computer provides the mathematician with a 'laboratory' in which he or she can perform experiments: analyzing examples, testing out new ideas, or searching for patterns."

In this virtual laboratory Bailey and Borwein, with other colleagues, were among the first to discover a number of remarkable new algorithms, among them an extraordinary, simple formula for finding any hexadecimal or binary digit of pi without knowing any of the preceding digits. Further research led to proof that a wide class of fundamental constants are mathematically "normal" -- probably including pi, alhough that remains to be proved.

Their section on "proof versus truth" is an example of the gems even a mathematical tyro can find among these equations. Bailey and Borwein don't claim computers can supply rigorous proofs. Rather, the computer is a way to discover truths -- and avenues for approaching formal proofs. But often, the authors add, "computations constitute very strong evidence..., at least as compelling as some of the more complex formal proofs in the literature."

Drawing on their own work and that of others, Bailey and Borwein not only explain experimental mathematics in a lively, surprisingly accessible fashion but give many engaging examples of the "new paradigm" in action.

The collaborative work of Jonathan Borwein and David Bailey, Mathematics By Experiment: Plausible Reasoning In The 21st Century provides a complex and informative text for advanced mathematics students which offs an historical context and rationale behind experimental mathematics, as well as how modern technology enables the analysis of new examples and the discovery of patterns in a previously unimaginable "laboratory" of raw processing power. A thoroughly detailed work, Mathematics By Experiment offers a veritable wealth of meticulously presented examples which are most especially recommended for graduate-level mathematics studies.

If one peruses the mathematical literature for the last one hundred years one will notice that in most cases no diagrams or pictures appear. The level of rigor in all cases is impressive though, but unfortunately this makes the understanding of the results much more difficult. There seems to be an inverse relationship between rigor and understanding in mathematics, at least for those who are new to the subject at hand. In order to gain this understanding, the drawing of pictures and diagrams is useful, along with a certain amount of experimentation with the concepts at hand. Intuition, how mysterious, and however ill defined, plays a role in both the understanding of mathematical results and in their discovery. Many mathematicians do not want to acknowledge this, as a visitation to a typical conference will readily verify. The attitude has been expressed that mathematics has "always been abstract" and therefore that pictures or diagrams violate its spirit. Even a well-known geometry center whose goal was to use sophisticated computer graphics to visualize complex mathematical objects lost its funding, to the consternation of a few but with glee to most.

Thus the way to discovery of mathematics, i.e. the heavy use of intuition, the disorganized shuffling of concepts, and the experimental doodling, has been masked by the final product of this process: a superb example of logical rigor and organization called modern mathematics. The authors of this book however think otherwise, and they give the best apology for the role of experimental mathematics than anyone else in the literature. The book is packed with highly interesting examples and challenging exercises, all of which are ample proof of the need for doing experimentation in mathematics.

In addition to these considerations, the book is just plain fun to read, and even though time constraints may prohibit the working out of every exercise, the book could be used profitably in a graduate course in mathematics or even possibly in an undergraduate course at the senior level. Hopefully this approach to scholarship in mathematics will take hold in this century, and mathematicians will not only write down their final results with all their splendid rigor, but also how they got there. This would serve to educate younger generations of mathematicians in just how discovery in mathematics is done and increase their efficacy in the same. The book will also assist those who are trying to build machines capable of discovering novel results in mathematics. Machine proofs of difficult theorems and conjectures are now a reality, and in the twenty-first century we will no doubt see many more of these.

This book therefore contains a lot of hints about how to proceed in mathematics. Its acceptance will depend on how well it does its job in the creation of new mathematical results and in the teaching of them. Results in mathematics that seem plausible serve to make conjectures and motivate the construction of rigorous proofs. This book is a first step in a hopefully larger work.

Maurice was apparently a very practically minded commander for this book of advice is packed, in a most readable and concise form, full of advice for tactics, strategy, and logistics. It is a treasure for the student of ancient warfare desiring knowledge of the every-day challenges of commanders. Mr. Dennis' translation is very readable while not losing too much of the Greek terminology the serious student will be seeking.

Maurice organizes his advice into an introduction followed by 11 books on topics including calvary and infantry formations, strategy, tactics, logistics, ambushes, sieges, and an analysis of the strategy and tactics of other people's in his time. The back matter of the book includes a brief but fairly thorough glossary and a good index. The front matter includes a full page map of the Byzantine empire circa AD 600. Various troop formations and orders of battle are illustrated by simple yet clear sketches and text-art.

No library of ancient history is complete without this work. Each book division can be studied alone as your interest leads making it especially useful as a reference book. At the same time, the translation and style makes it an easy read as a solid overview of ancient warfare. The thoughtful organization makes it a perfect companion for study and classroom use.

This is my first exposure to Maurice's handbook, so I cannot write a critical review of Mr. Dennis' work. Absent my ability to critique the translation, I give the book five stars as a combined score for Mr. Dennis and the long-departed Roman author.

Mr. Dennis' translation is very readable and smooth. The glossary was valuable while reading, and the index has been useful as I'm going over some specific topics again. The introductory material provided enough tutorial that I could enjoy the text without confusion. I appreciated the footnotes that give the Latin commands for directing troops. I find the "Bibliographical Notes" more useful than the typical stark list of references.

The only thing that I could really wish for are footnotes detailing variants in the surviving texts. While that would satisfy my curiosity, it could serve only as a distraction for those not interested in minutiae. One can't mark the book down for personal quirks. :-)

As for the text itself, it's a fascinating journey through the mind of a seasoned Roman general. Written to train the Empire's top military leaders, the well-organized handbook presents the material thoroughly without repetition. The plain, no-nonsense language keeps the material accessible to the non-erudite. The fact that it influenced warfare for hundreds of subsequent years comes as no surprise.

Long attributed to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice, the "Strategikon" became the practical handbook for Byzantine army organization, covering everything from basic training to tactical planning against the armies of different nations and to basic strategy and diplomacy.

A young Byzantine man of good birth was expected to learn from childhood how to use the bow, ride a horse, then do both, while also training to fight on foot with sword, and then train to do it all in armor, and be capable of making long rides or long marches in full kit before being deemed fully qualified for service in the army.

Although heavily dependent upon mercenary forces, the Byzantines did not forget the lessons of the latter Western Roman Empire -- along with the mercenaries, the Byzantines established a hard core of well-trained native soldiers who acted as a unifying force around which the mercenaries gathered.

The "Strategikon" gives detailed marching orders for a variety of column types, orders of battle, the fighting styles of different enemies of the Byzantines, etc. It is this detail which helps the textual critics to analyze whether or not the Emperor Maurice himself wrote the book, or if it was written at his request, or under his dictation. Whoever the author, it is undoubted that he was a skilled tactician and an experienced veteran officer of high rank. In any case, "Strategikon" was for generations one of THE handbooks of military theory for the Byzantines, one which enabled them to maintain their independence (even in exile) for centuries after the book was written, and one which still has value for "Maurice's" comments on the need to train recruits thoroughly in ALL of the types of fighting which they might need to do.

Maurice's Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy is the English translation of the famous Strategikon, a practical handbook writen around 600 AD outlining Romano-Byzantine military practice and doctrine of the previous and following centuries.
This book gives indispensable first hand information of the armies of these centuries.
All texts are held in a language that is easily understandable even for those readers not having English as their native language.
Only disadvantage is, that the original Greek and Latin terms aren't always mentioned. This doesn't effect the ability to understand the texts, but make it more difficult to bring them into context with other works often overcrowded with Greek or Helenised terms.

This is a beautifully produced translation of the Strategikon, a military manual attributed to the eastern Roman emperor Maurice and thought to have been written sometime between A.D. 580 and 600. Packed full of the accumulated wisdom of a thousand years of Hellenistic and Roman experience in warfare, the Strategikon was meant to be a primer for the novice general--roughly the Western equivalent to Sun Tzu's "Art of War."

Simply put, the Strategicon is a gold mine of historical data on the Roman army of the late 6th century. It is of particular interest because this period marks a time when Roman power had made its last vain attempt to regain authority over the Western provinces of the Empire, and was now undergoing a period of contraction and collapse. The Strategikon describes an army whose core is no longer the heavy infantry of the early Roman Principate, but armored cavalry lancers and archers. It is a time when Greek was fast becoming the predominant language in Roman society as a whole, while vestiges of Latin remained in the jargon of the army. The legion of old was replaced by the meros, the centurion by the hekatontarch.

The Strategikon records many aspects of the Roman army life at this time, including: induction of new recruits, description of ranks and responsibilities, formation of units, drills, rules, punishments, instructions on marching through enemy territory, foraging for food, and the set-up of fortified camps. It is rich in advice for the prospective general when battling against the various enemies of the Empire, from the Persians, to the Slavs, to the Avars and Goths. Perhaps most interesting of all, it contains several detailed diagrams for the order of battle of a Late Roman/Early Byzantine army of various sizes and configurations. It also gives a great deal of advice on how to defeat the enemy via guile, deception, misinformation, ambush, concealed traps, etc.

All in all, the Strategikon is a source that can not be neglected for the scholar of the Late Roman or Byzantine army. The University of Pennsylvania Press is to be congratulated for making the work available in such an accessible and attractively-produced volume.

This terrific new book from two of the world's best-known and respected marketers - Stan Rapp and Chuck Martin - contains a powerful surprise for the reader. The title suggests that it might be about the authors' special take on e-marketing -- it turns out to be that, and much more.

The authors actually tackle a full range of enterprise issues from integrating IT and marketing functions to strategic partnerships to email marketing. Their points are substantiated with dozens of examples and numerous case studies. The effect is a convincing and eye-opening presentation of the extent to which marketing does, and should, pervade every aspect of business today.

The thread that that pulls the authors' observations together is the customer-centric philosophy pioneered by co-author Stan Rapp in his and Tom Collin's book, "MaxiMarketing," published in 1986. The result is a well-organized unfolding of ideas and solutions that help the reader understand how new technologies, such as the wireless Internet, might be used to build customer relationships while simultaneously improving a firm's operating efficiency.

Obviously, the authors are high-level thinkers. Many of their ideas stimulated new ideas for my own business, which is the whole point of a book like this. For example, their discussion of how to turn products into "offerings" by surrounding them with value-added services was especially interesting and helpful.

Perhaps the greatest value of the book is that its seven "imperatives" provide the basis for a sound strategic direction. Follow them and there's little doubt the book will live up to its promise of "dominating" the competition. That's especially helpful these days when change is so rapid and so much is new and untested.

Read this book and be prepared for some very powerful ideas and new directions not just for marketing, but for the entire business.

I really enjoyed this book and benefited a lot from its excellent content as it was easy to follow and presented E-marketing as it should really be: more MARKETING and less E, or less Technical Mumbo Jumbo.
Being an IT Business consultant, I highly recommend this book to anyone in the IT Business especially technical people who need to bridge their gap between Technology and Business knowledge.

Cheers.

Amr Selim
IT Business Consultant

Commit the Seven Imperatives to memory, but not as a mere mantra. This an essential tool bag ready to go to work. 'Max-e-Marketing in the Net Future: The Seven Imperatives for Outsmarting the Competition in the Net Economy' are seven elegantly crafted and clarifying doses of excellent advice that will de-fuzz the out-of-focus business models of many dot.coms, and for that matter, help any company struggling to straddle and merge the old ways of doing business with e-business. Concise examples from over 200 companies from American Express to zoho.com are cited and explained. Real-world case studies and real-world top executives exclusively interviewed, coupled with Martin and Rapp's own considerable depth and breadth of experience, make this juicy reading. Their perspective is bulls-eye. Once begun, I didn't put it down. Using Martin and Rapp's premises for avoiding pitfalls and grasping opportunities, our dot-com has redefined and refined our own business model so completely that we now have a clear path to profitability. We even take the author's message to the Fortune companies we now call on. 'Max-e-marketing In The Net Future' is all about really getting really real.

Max-E Marketing is a book that I read in an evening, put to work in a day, and will be absorbing for some time to come while evaluating and implementing the seven imperatives in my own business environment. I found the pairing of co-authors Stan Rapp and Chuck Martin to be a master stroke. The combined power of their marketing savvy, e-business vision, and journalistic discipline yields a clarity of thought and usefulness of principle that should help any business executive who is determined to outsmart the competition in the Net Economy. But what really sets this book apart is the rich mix of real-world examples. They represent a range of companies and industries so broad that every reader will find a way to relate to every major point. The seven imperatives each reflect straightforward click-and-mortar business strategy, yet they are presented here as marketing strategy. Lest a reader miss the point of that, the authors deliver the message one more time in imperative number seven: "Make business responsible for marketing and marketing responsible for business."

Commit the Seven Imperatives to memory. But not as a mere mantra. This is an essential tool bag ready to go to work.

"Max-e-Marketing in the Net Future: The Seven Imperatives for Outsmarting the Competition in the Net Economy" are seven elegantly crafted and clarifying doses of excellent advice that will de-fuzz the out-of-focus business models of many dot.coms, and for that matter, help any company struggling to straddle and merge the old ways of doing business with e-business. Concise examples from over 200 companies from American Express to zoho.com are cited and explained. Real-world case studies and real-world top executives exclusively interviewed, coupled with Martin and Rapp's own considerable depth and breadth of experience make this juicy reading. Their perspective is bulls-eye. Once begun, I didn't put it down.

Using Martin and Rapp's premises for avoiding pitfalls and grasping opportunities, our dot-com has redefined and refined our own business model so completely that we now have a clear path to profitability. We even take the author's message to the Fortune Companies we now call on. "Max-e-marketing In The Net Future" is all about really getting really real.

This is an excellent first book for nonparametric statistical methods. It is a cookbook, but is a good introduction to the many nonparametric techniques for assessing data. These are oftentimes much better suited for your data than the standard stuff you get in intro to statistics. The book by David J. Sheskin or by Conover should your next book.

In the 1960s Siegel's book was the most popular and the most often cited. This is because except for Fraser it was the only useful test available to researchers. The book was written in a somewhat non-technical manner in order to be accessible to social scientists. At the time it became the standard book for all researchers. Theoretical books such as Hajek and Sidak's "Rank Tests" Came out at the end of the decade and the other good statistical books such as Hollander and Wolfe; Conover,; Lehmann; and Randles and Wolfe didn't come out until the 1970s.

So Siegel's book has historical significance but now the pratitioner and the theorists have many other good books to choose from. The text has been revised many times presumably to keep up with the research advances that have practical use for social scientists.

Speaking as an MPH level student, (i.e. not a real mathematician) this is about the only usable book on nonparametric stats I have encountered, so I ended up buying it despite the rather high price for a not terribly large book. But, as happens frequently in healthcare and social sciences, when faced with data that can't be analyzed with the normal mean and standard deviation stuff (i.e. survey answers, etc.) this book offers a lot of possibilities beyond the standard chi square test, and more importantly, is clear about what test is appropriate, and how to apply it.

This is (together with Empirical Methods for Artificial Intelligence by Paul R. Cohen) the best of the statistics books I read.

For a non math major (or stats major) user, this book offers an easy way to have works done quickly. But be cautious, an first-class cookbook does not necessarily yeild a first-class meal on your table.

This little book has saved me a couple of times. Full of data, tables, conversions, etc.... Spend the money and get yourself a copy. You'll be amazed how often you reach for it.

I thoroughly enjoyed hunting in this book for various conversion factors, and would recommend it with just one reservation.

Unfortunately, the authors were somewhat arbitrary in deciding which units any particular one would be converted to. If I had written this book, I would have included at least the following for each unit: (1) All other units in the SAME system (i. e., if we are talking about a pre-revolutionary French unit of length, all other pre-revolutionary French units of length) and (2) the nearest-sized SI unit. Unfortunately they frequently leave out conversions between units of the same system that would be useful, and often units of the same approximate size are converted to different SI units, making comparisons difficult. (For example, one foot-size unit may be expressed as so many centimeters, while another as such a fraction of a meter.)

Both of these omissions can be circumvented by using a calculator and working with what these authors have chosen to include, but the book would be easier to use if they had done what I would have.

Now that I have this book, I don't have to search the world over every time I want to convert some measurement. The format is easy to use and well formatted. A great volume to have for anyone who needs to convert units and can't remember all the formulas.

This is a handy book with literally thousands of conversions. Look up your unit, and convert to metric, or convert from a metric unit to your unit. The units are identified by the country of origin including ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, etc.

This work is seriously comprehensive, although you may occasionally need a calculator, as suggest by another reviewer. But you'll have the calculator with you anyway, because you're looking in the book to do a conversion. That's what happens to me.

There is a depth of research in this book that I love. You can dive in and discover versions of a unit that you never knew existed (e.g., no, not just the two different feet in use in the US, but all the variants on the angular measure known as the 'mil'). You need to do the work: the authors give you all the basic data.

Most of this book you (as one individual) will never need. But there are enough people who will, collectively, need all of it, to justify this book being in print almost forever. The price is right to have it on your bookshelf and it should last you a lifetime. Go for it!

Great book. Well organized and to the point. No useless theory cluttering up the technical material. Very useful.

This book is one of the best book covering measurement and sensors. The book cover almost any sensor you think of, describe it function (the background physics) and then explain how it work with some application in software. This book must have for any one working with sensor (engineers, physicist...). the book start explaining it material assuming no prior knowledge for the reader which make it much easier and easy to follow up, start from simple point to explain and then get more complicated with mathematics applied for that particular sensor. I have a degree on physics and I believe this book is a good reference even in physics and I enjoy this book so much. It is a lot fun to read for professional or even for any reader. Any time I was searching for more information about specific sensor this book never turn me down. In short it's on of the greatest book I bought and I don't mind paying it's price because it worth every penny.

This book is one of the best book covering measurement and sensors. The book cover almost any sensor you think of, describe it function (the background physics) and then explain how it work with some application in software. This book must have for any one working with sensor (engineers, physicist...). the book start explaining it material assuming no prior knowledge for the reader which make it much easier and easy to follow up, start from simple point to explain and then get more complicated with mathematics applied for that particular sensor. I have a degree on physics and I believe this book is a good reference even in physics and I enjoy this book so much. It is a lot fun to read for professional or even for any reader. Any time I was searching for more information about specific sensor this book never turn me down. In short it's one of the greatest book I bought and I don't mind paying its price because it worth every penny.

This book is one of the best book covering measurement and sensors. The book cover almost any sensor you think of, describe it function (the background physics) and then explain how it work with some application in software. This book must have for any one working with sensor (engineers, physicist...). the book start explaining it material assuming no prior knowledge for the reader which make it much easier and easy to follow up, start from simple point to explain and then get more complicated with mathematics applied for that particular sensor. I have a degree on physics and I believe this book is a good reference even in physics and I enjoy this book so much. It is a lot fun to read for professional or even for any reader. Any time I was searching for more information about specific sensor this book never turn me down. In short it's one of the greatest book I bought and I don't mind paying its price because it worth every penny.

This unwieldy tome is a great book on just about every kind of sensor you could think of. It is an edited work, and consists of over 100 chapters/articles written by different groups of individuals. In spite of that, the book has a good logical flow.

Part one is on measurement and instrumentation in general. It discusses the desirable characteristics, operational modes, accuracy, and standards of instrumentation in general.

The next ten sections discuss specific classes of sensors, their operation, applicable mathematical equations, and typical configuration/circuits needed for their use. The sensors are broken down into those that measure spatial variables, time and frequency, solid mechanical variables, fluid mechanical variables, thermal mechanical variables, electromagnetic variables, optical variables, radiation, chemical variables, and finally biomedical variables. It would probably be very difficult for any one person to understand all of these sections, as specific sections require a basic knowledge of specific disciplines, but the language is very accessible and the content very interesting. Each article contains an extensive bibliography and list of reference articles where more information can be obtained.

The next section is about signal processing. This covers everything from A/D conversion to the mathematics of analog and digital signal processing. There are plenty of circuits shown and even some worked out examples on how to design filters with certain given characteristics. This is very accessible to anyone with a background in signals and systems.

Next is a less mentally taxing section on displays. There is some history of each device, theory of operation, and advice on the most suitable environment for each type of display device, as well as interfacing information.

The final section is a brief one on control. This section seemed rather rushed and really didn't do a very good job of explaining control systems compared to the high quality of the rest of the book.

Of all the books I've owned or read on the subject of sensors, this one has the best combination of device physics, theory of operation, application circuitry, signal processing, and applicable mathematics. I highly recommend this book to any scientist who needs to learn about specific sensors and anything related to their operation, control, and possible interfaces.

All information is fairly up-to-date. For anyone interested in current UN affairs, what they do or how they recieve awards you'll find this book interesting.

The peacekeeping operations of the United Nations have grown in number and importance in recent years, producing a thicket of bewildering acronyms (UNIKOM and UNIPOM, UNOMUR and UNAMIR),and for participants a corresponding number of awards, which are often confusingly similar in appearance. For the first time this is all sorted out, in this well-produced guide.
The book features excellent color illustrations of the medals, ribbons, and insignia, with information on the historical context, mandate (mission), participant countries and strengths, fatalities incurred, and number of medals issued. There is also a chronology, a world map of operations, a splendid section on Korean War medals and variants, background essays, bibliography, index, and more, providing comprehensive coverage of this relatively neglected area. Borts' admirable work will likely be the standard on the subject for many years to come, and will be of particular interest to students of contemporary military affairs as well as collectors.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

The peacekeeping operations of the United Nations have grown in number and importance in recent years, producing a thicket of bewildering acronyms (UNIKOM and UNIPOM, UNOMUR and UNAMIR),and for participants a corresponding number of awards, which are often confusingly similar in appearance. For the first time this is all sorted out, in this well-produced guide.
The book features excellent color illustrations of the medals, ribbons, and insignia, with information on the historical context, mandate (mission), participant countries and strengths, fatalities incurred, and number of medals issued. There is also a chronology, a world map of operations, a splendid section on Korean War medals and variants, background essays, bibliography, index, and more, providing comprehensive coverage of this relatively neglected area. Borts' admirable work will likely be the standard on the subject for many years to come, and will be of particular interest to students of contemporary military affairs as well as collectors.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

Amongst the many things I can say about this book, it is exciting material stating the exact nature of the United Nations Orders and Medals from one of the world's most renowned figures in the industry. Its uncanny accuracy is unprecedented.

The peacekeeping operations of the United Nations have grown in number and importance in recent years, producing a thicket of bewildering acronyms (UNIKOM and UNIPOM, UNOMUR and UNAMIR),and for participants a corresponding number of awards, which are often confusingly similar in appearance. For the first time this is all sorted out, in this well-produced guide.
The book features excellent color illustrations of the medals, ribbons, and insignia, with information on the historical context, mandate (mission), participant countries and strengths, fatalities incurred, and number of medals issued. There is also a chronology, a world map of operations, a splendid section on Korean War medals and variants, background essays, bibliography, index, and more, providing comprehensive coverage of this relatively neglected area. Borts' admirable work will likely be the standard on the subject for many years to come, and will be of particular interest to students of contemporary military affairs as well as collectors.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

Disclaimer: I'm the author, so I had to give it a lot of stars. But 5 stars do belong to the second edition (2006), which is now available from Amazon. Completely revised and much improved.

After reading this book, I now know how to perform effective searches using MEDLINE. It has cut my research time considerably. My thanks go out to the author for helping make sense of a considerably complex system.

This book was enjoyable to read and has proven extremely useful already. Searching Medline can be a frustrating and unproductive endeavor. This book helped me find exactly what I was looking for without tearing my hair out. This book is a must for anyone who has to locate articles in the medical literature.

This book is an invaluable guide to Medline. The instructions are extremely clear and easy to understand and the historical information is fascinating. I highly recommend it.

After reading this book I thought that it deserved a special review, this is, not the type of review that usually begins with "a must read for every clinician" but something special as this book deserves. Most of us have had already the necessity of accessing Medline database in our research but most of the times we get hit by the results that a simple search presents. We then start browsing and browsing the results and we get tired of so much information that some times does not correspond to our desires or doesn't focus on the subject we were looking for. Now what? - we ask. The answer is simple as the author says; the focus is not just on simple searching but on effective searching. Medline is a complex and very wide database and knowing some of its basic concepts will help us understanding how simple and effective can our search be made. This is what the author presents in this book, a "rutter" for easy and effective navigation in this complex and wide sea of scientific information. There are no secrets in Medline but there are basic concepts like knowing some of the 19,000 Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) or just simple understanding how they are organized and how this understanding will help us to get the effective search results for our needs. This is given by the author with many examples of ways to start an effective search in Medline and thus not waste so much of our precious time browsing through the great amount of information that this resource can present. The book is very accessible in the way that the concepts are presented with many examples and a glossary for quick reference on MeSH. In a couple of hours the reader will with no doubt find this book from Brian S. Katcher an excellent guide and a valuable acquisition. I must say that after reading it, I finally understood how much precious time I've wasted in my "not guided" Medline searches. Now things are easier and clear thanks to the time, the knowledge and the effort that the author has put in this book.

This really is a great book if you want some detail on how the atmosphere works - the physics of the atmosphere. The descritive content is so well written and the diagrams so clear that you dont need to go into the algebra and trigonometry to get a deeper understanding of the near earth environment - what goes on there. There are a whole lot of options to go deeper into the maths if you want. Highly recommended for those interested in boundary layer meteorology, weather systems and air pollution dispersion.

Want to know a little more about hurricanes? Air pollution? Thunderstorms? Stull presents terrific synopses of many meteorological topics. He doesn't try to be the expert in every sub-specialty in the field; instead, he provides the basic material and encourages the reader to seek additional information from expert books and web sites. I'm currently taking a class in atmospheric transport and diffusion. Stull summarizes the course material and leads me to references I didn't know existed. I'm ordering this book as a reference now and as a starting point for future study.

This is the most complete introductory-advanced book I have seen to date. It covers many pertinient subjects. Important meteorological concepts are explained in enough detail to satisfy even the more advanced users, but simple enough to give the beginner excellent insight. These concepts do not have to be presented in a difficult fashion to make the author appear intelligent - he makes a bold, simple statement by taking tough concepts and making them understandable to the masses!

As the title of this book implies, it was written for those readers who are not specialists in meteorology but who are interested in a more technical introduction to the subject, and not just one written for the "general audience." The book serves this need very well, and it is a joy to read, even if it is not read cover to cover, as was the case for this reviewer. Each topic, weather it is hurricanes, tornadoes, or turbulence, is presented with many examples, with unit and "reasonableness" checks accompanying these examples. The mathematics is straightforward, with the physics being emphasized with numerous back-of-the-envelope calculations dispersed throughout the text. As in any high-quality book that seeks to explain, and not merely expound, diagrams are used throughout. And most importantly, the author encourages student readers to break out on their own and investigate the various meteorological phenomena without the guidance of the book. This has the effect of encouraging independence of thought and intellectual honesty. This is strongly emphasized in the discussion on climate change, definitely the best chapter in the book in the opinion of this reviewer, wherein the author discusses the ethics of scientific investigation. There have been a few investigators that have violated the canon of ethics that the author outlines, but the state of scientific and technological knowledge at the present time is ample proof that many do not.

The chapter on climate change could in fact be used as an introduction to a more serious investigation of this topic, one that is independent of the political overtones that seem to have poisoned the atmosphere of debate on it. The author discusses climate change in terms of `heuristic models' that he admits are oversimplified, but do serve as a didactic tool to illustrate the main processes and physics. He does allude to `global climate models' but cautions that the large number of approximations involved in these models make them very tentative at best. The Greenhouse effect is discussed via the Stefan-Boltzmann law, and the resulting overestimation of the average temperature leads the author to complicating this scenario via the infrared "atmospheric window", and water-vapor, cloud, and ice-albedo feedbacks. Again, these discussions are simplified and preliminary to more in-depth discussions on climate change that interested readers can pursue. And as in any scientific investigation, they must be accompanied by strong skepticism and a willingness to confront the facts as they are.