Advance Books

Dr. Athanasios C. Antoulas is one of the world's leading authorities on model order reduction. In this book he clearly differentiated Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) methods and Krylov subspace projection methods and their explanation in part III and IV is excellent. The fist two chapter of introduction and preliminaries give you sufficient background to understand Part III and IV. The book does require some familiarity with numerical linear algebra and may be difficult for a new comer in the area to follow, however the way it is written it can be used both by engineers and scientist. A must-have book for any one working on model order reduction or dealing with large scale dynamical system. By reading this book I clearly understood the concept of reachability and observability and how it is applied to better understand a dynamical system. Overall a book with excellent source of knowledge, both as text and reference book. My recommendation definitely 5 stars.

It is good to see that archaeological science is alive and well. Given the wave of post-processualism that is ever so popular, Plenum Press should be thanked for publishing no-nonsense archaeological method books like these.

The big gives a nice overview of the state of archaeological obsidian studies. In part due to advances in analytical equipment, in part given the fact we know a lot more than the late 1970s, this is an excellent sequel to ADVANCES IN OBSIDIAN GLASS STUDIES.

The book contains a nice overview of obsidian studies from an analytical perspective and a geographic perspective. Techniques such as x-ray fluorescence, neutron activation analysis, and proton induced x-ray emission are nicely introduced to the reader. The state of obsidian studies is reviewed for most of the Old and New World. The only regions that seem to be missing are Japan and the Near East. The chapter by Glascock et al. is a nice overview of some common multivariate statistical techniques used by archaeologists.

A fantastic book for archaeological scientists, geologists, or anyone else interested in obsidian studies.

Although written more towards an analysists point of view, this book brings to light, and to the 20th century, Freud's work regarding the influence of fear of death being the central motivating factor in human behavior and development, and a producer of anxiety that must be continually buffered ("normally" by self esteem). The book is excelently, clearly, consisely written, with great research (regects the normal/silly layman thinking that Freud is nothing but sex, fear of castration, wanting sex with mother, etc - these are symbolic, and clarifies that the underlying anxiety unique to the human species (though some have said that whales experience something similar) is due to fear of death and annihilation. Related to the work of Otto Rank and Ernest Becker (Denial of Death & Escape from Evil) also. I really enjoyed this book!

Considering the complexity of the topic covered in this book, it is incredibly readable. In short, it turns out that the view that bacterial cells are unaware of one another is quite wrong. They chatter away through the exchange of genetic amino acids. And they don't only communicate with their own species. They chat with a variety of species as they form biofilms, creating functional microbial societies where they feed off one another's secretions and defend one another against predators.

90% of the cells in the human body are microbes. Most of them are quite friendly, but the few that are pathogenic can wreak havoc! Traditionally, antibiotics have been used to kill off unwanted bacteria, but that has resulted in more virulent strains that then resist drugs. So, this book proposes that we don't kill them, but simply knock out their cytoarchitectural communication infrastructures. That may sound militaristic, but if we can target the communication amino acids of only the virulent bacterias, then the human body could be more easily cured of disease while leaving the healthy microflora intact.

As this book is so accessible, I would recommend it not just to scientists, but also anyone interested in this type of science and its metaphysical implications. Even if the chemistry is a bit much, the concepts are abundant and clear. The decriptions of viewing bacteria as collectives or biofilms versus individuals is compelling. This could easily lead to an overall reevaluation of what it means for a human to be a body. And it certainly suggests we reconsider just what our relationship to our own microflora is.

I found Bacterial Invasion to be a thorough treatment of the subject presented in a very readable manner. A great book for the non-specialist. Concisely edited.

I got this book as a review and to renew my license, but ended up being quite immersed in the complete and easy learning way it was written. Even with new methods and drugs, nursing is still hands on, and this book was very, very informative. I am so happy I chose a course which required reading this book.

How did life originate? Well, it's a wide open question. As Popa tells us, an explanation that is missing a critical step won't do. There are plenty of clues. But Popa shows us that there are still many approaches to putting the clues together.

There are plenty of approaches that are being pursued today. Popa tells us about many of them. Still, let's remind ourselves of some of them. One is to look for fossil evidence and DNA evidence of our earliest ancestors. Say that these turn out to be hyperthermophiles. Use that information, as well as the stability properties of RNA and DNA, to deduce the environment life originated in. A second idea is to look at the way we synthesize RNA (or DNA) today. Use that information to speculate about how the first RNA and DNA evolved. A third idea is to look at the self-assembly properties of entities for clues. A fourth idea is to note the similarity of ATP and the nucleic acid adenine. Assume this is no coincidence! A fifth idea is to do all sorts of experiments with collections of monomers and see if they arrange themselves into replicating strings. A sixth idea is to concentrate on computer simulations of all this. Computer simulations of the origin of replication show that there are some dangers, such as the "selfish RNA catastrophe," the "short-circuit catastrophe," the "population collapse catastrophe," and simply the risk of too many replication errors. Draw conclusions from the fact that these hazards were successfully avoided. A seventh idea is to at least answer the question of what came first, replication, metabolism, or cellularization. And so on. It seems that there is a great deal we aren't at all sure of.

Popa starts with the issue of the issue of the development of cellularization, metabolism, and replication. He asserts that since all are needed for life, they must have evolved together, not serially. He states that the ATP coincidence probably is unimportant, with ATP's use as an energy carrier being a late development. And he takes on the mathematical modelers by stating that they generally omit first order effects by not tracing the energy flow and the degradation of the evolving entities.

The issues Popa dwells on most are the energy sources, bioinformation, chirality, and the origin of specificity (as opposed to "metabolism" or "homeostasis"). Of these, the part on chirality was the most interesting to me. Popa discusses the implication that life's chirality implies the existence of some large-scale chiral driver, such as rotating vortices or asymmetries in right and left circularly polarized light.

There's also quite a bit of useful material about the definition of life. Popa is right to make the point that "life" and "living entities" are not at all synonymous.

Anyway, it is an interesting book about a tough problem: I'm glad I can just read about it and don't have to solve it!

It's time someone in international relations penetrated the many rationales for security that enable us to get away with murder. To Burke, security is a self-justifying system of politics that operates mainly to keep itself going. How leading philosophers, scholars, and governments bolster that system becomes clear through Burke's careful, fearless, innovative, tender, and important analysis.

--Professor Christine Sylvester, University of Lancaster, UK


In a lucid and compelling book Anthony Burke dissects the politics of security in several theories of state territory. He also addresses closely a series of recent state practices of security. In doing so, he opens the door to a post-security politics, a politics that goes beyond the construction of permanent, unspecified enemies.

--Professor William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins University, USA


It is rare to find a work of political philosophy that so skilfully combines a detailed knowledge of the contemporary scenes of national and international violence with close attention to the ontological and ethical principles by which we might regard and evaluate them. This properly scathing treatment of the modern paradigm of 'security' opens the way to an urgently demanded interrogation of the terms on which the lauded freedom of the West might be pursued beyond its current blatant disregard for the life of the Other.

--Dr Fiona Jenkins, Australian National University, Australia


The volume engages many of the major figures in political and ethical thinking in a dialogue that is both informative and self-reflective. Burke refuses to duck the big questions or take sides in some of the more polarized debates about international ethics. As such these meditations are provocative critical essays that should raise numerous talking points for scholarly discussion. Pitched as such to critical scholars looking for a fresh innovative theoretically informed but non-dogmatic voice in the seminar room, this book should do very well.

--Professor Simon Dalby, Carleton University, Canada


This is a very substantial book with an excellent and timely analysis of many significant security issues currently at play in the international community.

--Professor Thomas Keating, University of Alberta, Canada


Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence is one of those rare books that successfully combine sophisticated philosophical reflections with meticulous analyses of concrete political situations. In a series of compelling studies that range from the Middle East to East Timor, and from Vietnam to the War on Terror, Burke convincingly demonstrates that the strategic use of violence is far less controllable - and far less ethical - than commonly assumed. Beyond Security is a must read for anyone interested in critical moral reasoning at a time when war has become widely accepted as a normal and rational way of pursuing political objectives.

--Professor Roland Bleiker, University of Queensland, Australia

I AM WORKING IN A PROJECT ABOUT BLOOD BRAIN BARRIER, THAT IS WHY I WOULD LIKE TO REVIEW THE BOOK

"this book represents one of the best of its kind. Each chapter represents an excellent point of well-referenced initial contact to the increasing number of funded investigators interested in the biology of the mammary gland."- TRENDS in Endocriniology, Metabolism 12:8