Research Books

Business consultant Philip E. Meza has done his research on the history of entertainment technology and the growing pains that have followed each innovation. Unfortunately, his slightly muddy larger concepts sometimes fail to justify the detailed histories that support them, sometimes making the book feel sort of padded. getAbstract says you need to read it anyway, if you are a content creator or decision maker in the media, entertainment or information industries. Meza provides real value by identifying a pattern in content companies' resistance to the very changes that eventually help them. In two particularly utilitarian appendices, he surveys the technologies that are pressuring media companies and reviews the current state of U.S. copyright law. His analysis of the content industries' lame responses to technological change and his prescriptions for the future are useful and insightful.

COMING ATTRACTIONS? HOLLYWOOD, HIGH TECH AND THE FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT instructs media and tech companies to understand convergence, showing how Hollywood and technology can benefit from each other's focus to bolster both the entertainment industry as a whole and high tech interests. Chapters discuss the switch to digital and web formats and how this represents huge potential market opportunities for both entities, exploring the history and development of different systems of entertainment delivery and their competitive options. California libraries both business and public will find COMING ATTRACTIONS an outstanding, specific survey key to understanding long-standing issues, conflicts, and relationships between entertainment, high tech and media industries alike.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

While this book helped me think more clearly about what I see in today's headlines, gave me tools for understanding the current convergence and to judge how companies such as Google and Viacom respond. It also helped me think about patterns in other industries where there is resistance to innovation and how early adopters can benefit. I found the history of the industry fascinating as well.

I got this book because I wanted to learn more about the changes I see taking place in entertainment, things like YouTube and watching new TV shows on iPods. The book covered this and a lot more. It provided an eye opening look at similiar intersections btw tech and entertainment in the recent past as well as a look into what the future holds. I don't work in either industry, but I found the book to be well written and easy to read (very entertaining, really!).

I am an international consultant and usining this book as a training tool with my clients. The stories and circus metaphors are very creative and interesting. This makes the book not only a tool I can use for work but also an enjoyable read.

I put this book to immediate use with an intercultural consult I did, with a company whose [mostly American] employees work with a very international clientele. The structure of adding contextual factors to the analysis of styles and values added a lot of depth to the discussion and people could really get it.

There are many books written about communications styles, but none quite like this one. Written by intercultural experts who are also educators, this book goes far beyond the basics of differences in how people communicate. It provides an organizational yet personal roadmap to get a real handle on diversity and how to create greater value from the collaboration of a diverse group of people.

The book uses some unique observation tools to help the reader use the concepts being learned, and it is sprinkled full of stories that illustrate their points exceptionally well.

Perhaps most unique though are the 26 exercises designed for use by individuals or groups to help them do what the subtitle of the book promises - Leverage the power of diverse communication styles.

The authors, in the introduction say more about the very appropriate subtitle, "the subtitle ... reflects our conviction that individuals and groups can benefit greatly when communication style differences are understood, respected, and utilized appropriately."

If you are a leader of diverse groups or a trainer of facilitator, this book belongs in your library. If you are individual ever striving to communicate more effectively with everyone you come in contact with, this book will help you on this journey as well.

I think this book makes an important contribution to the field of intercultural communication. It fleshes out the concept of communication style and emphasizes its importance in face-to-face intercultural interactions. The book's concepts are illustrated with interesting and detailed case studies from the authors' extensive experience with multicultural organizations.

The concepts might be a bit complicated, but not so much so that serious readers can't absorb and use them.

The authors use the engaging metaphor of a circus to tie their ideas together and help the reader follow the flow. This keeps the book from reading like a textbook; rather, it is engaging and thought-provoking throughout.

Finally, I couldn't tell from the writing that this was a book written by three different individuals. It has a uniform style and tone that's not common in books written by more than one person.

This book is a superb introduction to the modern analysis of biochemical systems. It is the first real introductory textbook, indeed, that I found on the subject, and I found it very well written and clearly structured. I like the fact that the book introduces mathematics really very slowly and comprehensively. This is a major plus, since in my experience many biology and medical students become immediately scared if they encounter complicated formulas right at the very beginning of a book. The gradually increasing complexity in mathematics makes it an ideal textbook. As an introductory text to canonical modeling and to analyses with S-systems it is also superb for scientists and researchers who have had little exposure to models of biochemical systems and to the corresponding mathematical background. The software PLAS is very helpful and makes it fun to work the examples and homework problems.

The approach of the book is based on canonical modeling techniques and differs significantly from the classic way biochemical systems have been presented until now. I wonder whether the student unfamiliar with these classical kinetic concepts (law of mass action, enzyme kinetics, glycolysis, etc.) would have difficulties switching to this approach. However, I suppose molecular biology students would probably have that background or could easily pick up the classical concepts from other sources. In a future edition, the author might want to think of a brief inclusion of classical approaches, pointing out in more detail their disadvantages in comparison with the S-system method. This is the only minus that I feel the book might have. Otherwise I find it super. I am sure for somebody who is interested in analyzing biochemical systems this will be the book to start with.

The book is very well structured, and I can only recommend it to all those interested in understanding the complexity of biochemical systems and their associated dynamics. As for myself, I will be using the book for parts of our course in molecular medicine.

Niko Stilianakis, PhD, Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

This book is a superb introduction to the modern analysis of biochemical systems. It is the first real introductory textbook, indeed, that I found on the subject, and I found it very well written and clearly structured. I like the fact that the book introduces mathematics really very slowly and comprehensively. This is a major plus, since in my experience many biology and medical students become immediately scared if they encounter complicated formulas right at the very beginning of a book. The gradually increasing complexity in mathematics makes it an ideal textbook. As an introductory text to canonical modeling and to analyses with S-systems it is also superb for scientists and researchers who have had little exposure to models of biochemical systems and to the corresponding mathematical background. The software PLAS is very helpful and makes it fun to work the examples and homework problems.

The approach of the book is based on canonical modeling techniques and differs significantly from the classic way biochemical systems have been presented until now. I wonder whether the student unfamiliar with these classical kinetic concepts (law of mass action, enzyme kinetics, glycolysis, etc.) would have difficulties switching to this approach. However, I suppose molecular biology students would probably have that background or could easily pick up the classical concepts from other sources. In a future edition, the author might want to think of a brief inclusion of classical approaches, pointing out in more detail their disadvantages in comparison with the S-system method. This is the only minus that I feel the book might have. Otherwise I find it super. I am sure for somebody who is interested in analyzing biochemical systems this will be the book to start with.

The book is very well structured, and I can only recommend it to all those interested in understanding the complexity of biochemical systems and their associated dynamics. As for myself, I will be using the book for parts of our course in molecular medicine.

Niko Stilianakis, PhD, Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

This is a well-executed entry level ODE solver the authors have included into a system of pull down GUI that make the process much easier. Standard time series analysis using ODE including phase plane, flux, and eigenvalue analysis are all incorporated under one beaker sort of speak. The most disturbing feature is the lack of a print command in the pull down menu and the index. Fortunately the main text is read by MS Word and will print from there. The graphs must be printed out through Excel, which is good given its greater flexibility. After the construction of a few well-directed Excel macros this problem disappeared. Direct insertion into Matlab through their Excel link allows Plas to be used as a DDE extension in parallel programming. The Insert feature (table) in Mathcad provides the same avenue. However Plas is so easy to use I find myself going to it rather than one of the bigger programs. The GUI interface table for the steady states and eigenvalue are just too easy. Obviously the more one knows about this type of analysis the more one appreciates the product however by the same token if one does know more they are probably using more sophisticated techniques. The really good part is the book however. An exceptionally well written and clear text, it would be good as introductory material in any computer (using a computer for dry lab scientific work) modeling environment without the freebe program. The methodology is suitable for Biophysics as well as Economics because the basic Plas method is a universal solution set whose methods deals with systems (ODEs). The authors refer to them as the S system, but they are simple cascaded linear ordinary differential equations. The reader was able to model a biophysics retinal adaptation model using 5 equations and 2 feedback loops involving amacrine, cone and in about 15 min. to check figures against one done in Matlab and Mathcad. The same models can be built using 1st and 2nd order difference equations with iterated range variables in the two math programs. This program uses somewhat different ODE algorithms (the linearized part of Taylor's expansion) which is similar in numerical values to your basic Runga-Kutta. While the book material and program are written more for the linear analysis done in today's science stuff (referred to as `the steady state') the subject material of main concern of this reader is the non-linear events and deterministic chaos where all the really interesting stuff is located. The built in graphing mode of Plas allows for 2 and 3D phase projection and eigenvalue analysis which is the basic required inputs for bifurcation and limit cycle analysis which makes this book and program a best buy. If bigger stuff (example, stability by Hankel reduction or system state conversion to zpk optimization) is on your list the "readability of its files" doesn't cause obsolescence

This work is an excellent, thorough presentation of a methodology for modeling and simulating biochemical systems. The book intelligently avoids the twin perils of being too superficial (website listings masquerading as bioinformatics text books) and being too academic (theoretical models that cannot be applied by biologists without a second PhD.)

Instead, a single modeling methodology called Biochemical Systems Theory is completely presented, from basics to advanced case studies of biological applications. The author begins by presenting a graphical method of modeling biochemical systems, then logically proceeds to explain a useful and powerful mathematical approach to simulating the behavior of modeled systems by using Power-Law methods. Finally, the modeling and simulation techniques are applied in several case studies, showing the reader what is most important: what can be learned about biology by the intelligent application of a computer simulation. Installable, working software is distributed along with the book, providing readers with instant access to the tools and models used in the case studies.

As any reasonable, experienced scientist or practitioner can attest to, every modeling approach to a problem has strengths and limitations. The author, a well known and established pioneer, demonstrates high integrity and candor in acquainting the reader with all of the challenges, as well as the power, of this particular modeling methodology.

What makes this book so important is its presentation of a complete methodology for modeling and problem solving. Readers who are truly interested in innovative yet proven methods for understanding the dynamics of real world biochemical systems will find this work extremely useful and relevant. Those who are looking for a broad survey of current methods should probably consult the literature for an updated review of the latest developments.

And finally, those few individuals who are quixotically pining away for "the perfect model" will probably need to relocate to the parallel universe where such impossibilities may actually exist. ;) In this universe, the best we can do is apply useful models and methodologies to gain real insight into the hard questions--with help from useful and well written books like this one.

The Consistent Consumer posits that consumers decide what to purchase according to their own internal value systems. The authors define five "value populations" that have shared histories and values which guide their purchasing decisions. This information can help readers of the book to tailor marketing plans, and future products, to meet the needs of the different value populations. We all want to better understand, and have better relationships with, our customers. The Consistent Consumer is a useful manual to push us in that direction. It's based on a revolutionary premise, well-written and well-executed. I highly recommend that you check it out!

This book has created a dramatic evolution in my understanding of communicating to target audiences.It has given me a better understanding of how to market to - or communicate with - different generations based on core values, not past behaviors. I highly recommend it.

I found this book to be quite useful. It has changed the way that I think about our clients, and how they make buying decisions. As a techie, it is often difficult for me to step outside my worldview and see these decisions from another point of view. This book motivated me to do so, and to consider the impact of clients' values on the decision-making process; it's been a worthwhile exercise.

Under the innovative premise that population groups can be better represented by their shared values rather then the traditional view of generations, The Consistent Consumer provides tremendous insight into the value creation events behind each of its defined five "Value Populations", along with valuable examples demonstrating practical approaches to successfully convert this knowledge into true business intelligence. The Consistent Consumer is an excellent resource for anyone looking to better understand and market to specific target population groups. Highly recommended!

this is a really great consumer behavior textbook for those who are interested in understanding the how marketing is applied in the ever-changing environment. highly recommended by marketing professors too!

The product was in a reasonable condition and for the price it was a good option!

Useful book, includes thinking on both consumer behavior and relevant market strategies. Good read for marketing beginners.

As a marketing major, this consumer behavior textbook has been an asset to my learning so far. Very descriptive with many graphic examples. Uses outside knowledge from today that help the reader to stay alert and interested.

I just finished reading the paperback version (considerably less expensive)of Contextual Teaching and Learning. I found it extraordinarly helpful in understanding how to really facilitate learning both in and out of the classroom. Dr. Johnson clarifies CTL (Contextual Teaching and Learning) for all of us, and explains how to put it to use with students. The concept of CTL, because it is based on current brain research and uses biology and physics as well as psychology, carries the potential to revolutionize teaching practices.
Unlike most books on education, this one goes much deeper, getting into universal principles that govern the activities of every living thing on the planet. Nevertheless, it does not bore readers with complex theory or elevated scientific language. The book is accessible and exciting for anyone who is searching for new ways to motivate and excite students. Johnson, a teacher herself, communicates the science in understandable terms and constantly relates them to teaching experience.
A major premise of the book is that all learners learn best in an environment reflecting three foundational, universal principles: 1) interdependence, 2) differentiation, and 3) self-organization. She translates these principles into eight components of a rich learning environment; each one is given a chapter, fully explaining how each works and providing real-life examples.
The book is a gold mine of ideas, presented coherently and with a great deal of love for the process and the people who make it work.

Written for professional educators yet comprehensible and practical in its presentation toward non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject matter, Contextual Teaching And Learning by education and business consultant Elaine B. Johnson (Executive Director of MBM Associates) is a solid, definitive guide to what "Contextual Teaching And Learning" (CTL) is and how it can enable teachers from grade school through university levels help students achieve academic excellence. Filled with examples of CTL's success, strategies to best apply CTL, and a thorough outline of the basics and history of CTL, Contextual Teaching And Learning is a welcome and invaluable addition to professional and academic teacher education supplemental reading lists and reference collections.

This paperback book is a "must" for all teachers who care about helping every student achieve excellence. It provides a clear, easy to follow explanation of how the brain learns. It offers practical examples from classrooms around the country, of brain-compatible teaching. It shows that the brain weaves patterns and makes connections in its search for meaning. Because the brain learns best when it makes connections to find meaning, teaching needs to place lessons in the context of students' own lives and experiences. When teaching occurs in context-is contextual-students will excel.

This is an excellent book for teachers in K through university. Available in paperback, it is a readable, engaging, well-researched discussion of the practices that make for great teaching.

The book illustrates that learning occurs when we discover meaning and that we discover meaning when we connect new information with things we already know. Aimed at helping ALL student achieve excellence in the classroom, "Contextual Teaching and Learning" explains how the human brain learns. It explains why certain teaching methods are brain-compatible and thus benefit students of all abilities. It explains that used together, these teaching methods constitute a holistic system that links lessons with students' daily lives, filling lessons with meaning.

Parents should read this book to understand the kinds of instruction they should seek for their children. Teachers should read the book to get concrete ideas about classroom practices. Those interested in the history of ideas should read it to find out why "context" matters to the human brain.

This is an awesome book! Great for beginner's of all ages, even me! I can't wait to use this with my daughter.

This book is outstanding! It has really easy to use time appropiate recipes that include options that might be easier to find today. This book covers American Indians, The Colonial Period, The Revolutionary War, Westward Expansion, The Civil War, and the last 6 chapters break up the U.S. and give recipes likely to be found in those areas. At the end of each chapter is a great resource of books on the subject with detailed discriptions that are VERY helpful! If you are a Teacher or a Homeschooler this book is a must!

As a homeschooling Mom this has been so fun. I can tie in recipes from the times with the time period they are studying, and it gives extra info. It has been a wonderful resource to ad to our studies.

I first found this book at a Library and instantly fell in love. I knew I had to get one of my own. It is such a treasure trove of information and the recipes are so interesting. In my search for a good resource on Native Americans, I have finally hit the jack pot. I love this book and highly highly recommend it for anyone....especially if your a homeschooler!

"A course in probability theory", written by Kai Lai Chung, has been referred by not only mathematicians but also mathematical economists.This book is written very rigorously, but almost all of the theorems have easy-to-understand proofs. So it is not difficult to follow. Moreover, there are lots of exercises in this book. So I do recommend this book.

This text by Chung was one of the texts that I used when I was taking a graduate course in probability at Stanford in 1975. It is carefully written but challenging. It provides good coverage of the central limit theorem, the law of large numbers and the law of the iterated logarithm. It also covers stable laws very well. The style is one of rigorous mathematics with theorems, and lemmas given with their mathematical proofs.
The book was recently revised. The revised text does not change much but new material on measure and integration that is now commonly included in the first graduate course in probability has been added. In the 1970s at Stanford a course in measure theory was a prerequisite for the course in advanced probability although some student took it concurrently.

If you plan to get this text, the revised edition is probably worth it. If you already have this edition and know your measure theory, it may not be worth it to get the new edition.

This text by Chung was one of the texts that I used when I was taking a graduate course in probability at Stanford in 1975. It is carefully written but challenging. It provides good coverage of the central limit theorem, the law of large numbers and the law of the iterated logarithm. It also covers stable laws very well. The style is one of rigorous mathematics with theorems, and lemmas given with their mathematical proofs.

The book was recently revised. The revised text does not change much but new material on measure and integration that is now commonly included in the first graduate course in probability has been added. In the 1970s at Stanford a course in measure theory was a prerequisite for the course in advanced probability although some student took it concurrently.

If you plan to get this text, the revised edition is probably worth it. If you already have this edition and know your measure theory, it may not be worth it to get the new edition.

There are several nice books in Grad-level Probability Theory. Billingsley's "Probability and Measure" is the richest one, but somehow poor organized and unpleasant printing. Resnick's "Probability Path" serve best for those who has no time to prepare first in measure theory and Lebesque integration but sacrifice some detail in latter part of the book. If you don't have previous Real Analysis training, I would suggest read Resnick first, and then find Billingsley for reference. But if you already good at measure and integration, Kai Lai Chung's "A Course in Probability Theory" still the best textbook teach step by step without losing detail. Chung's style is friendly to self studying like Resnick, but cover more detail in latter part of the book than Resnick. Chung's book is the best companion fot typical one semester course regradless what textbook your teacher choose. In the other words , Resnick helps students significantly in first half of the semester, Chung helps in the whole semester, and Billingsley may offer best effort after you took the Probability Theory course.

This is a treasure chest of information on the different types of indexes used in local courthouses. It never would have occurred to me that there were so many different indexes in use. It seems each region had its own preferred method. This is invaluable information for someone who is trying to access court records.

For those who have never done research in a Courthouse this task can be daunting to say the least. It can be very time consuming, especially when the courthouse employees are less than helpful. It can also be very expensive when they charge $.25 per copy of a document. Best to be prepared to have all the information you can get (dates, places, names, neighbors, etc.) before you get there and be prepared to spend days researching unless you are researching a very famous person who is well known to the local community (a previous Civil War Hero, a famous General, a Mayor of the City or Governor of the State).

All the details you need to use just about any courthouse index, and small enough to take to the courthouse with you

Having just returned from two weeks in Virginia and leaving this week for Texas for three weeks, I have not had an opportunity to completely review this fine book. I will; however, be taking it with me to Texas to be able to better understand the research I will be doing in the courthouse in Conroe, TX. I appreciate your fine service, - books arrive promptly and in excellent space. Thank you, Sandra Jane Tapper

A superb book. Very informative, well written, and filled with great photos. I recommend this book, for what that's worth.

Grand Gulch country is some of the best in the Southwest. A unique canyon that winds its way down to the San Juan river it also boasts an amazing array of cave sites of ancient Native American dwellings. Some are larger than others, containing houses and artifacts. Many have been harmed by exposure to people. Nevertheless because many are far up into the cliffs they have been well preserved. This book tells the tale of a numerb of items taken from the caves that then became useless to archeology because people did not know from whence they came. THe story examines the history of the attempt to reconnect them to their origins and thus help archeology understand the history of the American SOuthwest. It is both the history of early American archeology and this unique canyon and its off-shoots. A wonderful book.

Seth J. Frantzman

I appreciated this book, not just for the fantastic illustrations and stories, but for improving the reputation of the Wetherills, long considered no-good cowboy pot hunters. A great companion to this books is In Search of the Old Ones by David Roberts, in which Fred Blackburn features largely as a revolutionary who shapes Roberts' thinking about the mess each generation of southwestern archeologists passes on to the next.

Undoubtedly the popular book of the year in Southwest archaeology, "Cowboys and Cave Dwellers" tells how a group of talented and dedicated "amateurs" found the missing links between nearly forgotten collections of artifacts stored in museum basements and their original sites in Utah's spectacular Grand Gulch. In the process they unearthed valuable information about the people called Basketmakers, the first farmers of the Colorado Plateau. The first explorers and untrained archaeologists who dug sites in Grand Gulch removed thousands of artifacts, often taking little care to record their locations. By carefully matching old photographs, diaries, newspaper articles and the signatures those adventurers carved on the canyon walls, the authors of this book, the members of the Wetherill-Grand Gulch Research Project, were able to locate many of the caves and cliff dwelling where the treasures were originally found. They solved one of the most puzzling mysteries of Southeastern Utah archaeology: the location of long lost Cave 7, where Mesa Verde discoverer Richard Whetherill dug up dozens of skeletons that seemed to show evidence of a massacre. A good story with extensive historial and archaeological background and beautifully illustrated, this book is essential for anyone interested in Southwest archaeology. A good companion piece is William Ferguson's "The Anasazi of Mesa Verde and the Four Corners Region," which gives a broader view of the entire Mesa Verde-San Juan region.