Modeling

This book provides a good, clear, concise explanation of Cox's proportional hazards models. For someone seeking a non-mathematical description this is a great guide. The original datasets from the text examples can even be downloaded and you can go through the same process yourself. Because of some mistakes in the text, I would recomend looking at other sources as well.

I enjoyed the authors' book on logistic regression analysis in 1989, and this book is just as good, or better, with many extremely practical suggestions on building regression models for survival data. Happily, the authors summarize, compare, and contrast several major texts on survival analysis which have appeared in the past 10 years. For example, they discuss different names used by different authors for score residuals. They present a helpful appendix on the counting process approach to survival analysis, which will make more advanced texts accessible to students; thus, anyone who wants to use survival analysis, at any level, should consult this book, even if he has already studied books by Miller, Lee, Collett, Fleming-Harington,Andersen, et al, etc. An unfortunate drawback to this book is that the first printing contains many careless errors, some of which may affect student learning: for example, the definition of a survival function is misstated. I recommend that you insist on the second or third printing when buying this book, and you will be quite satisfied.

Hosmer and Lemeshow have given us a clear, nontechnical introduction to using survival models. The book strikes a good balance between covering the basics and addressing the most recent, state-of-the-art techniques, including repeated events, frailty models, and others. They also do a good job of addressing practical issues, including estimation details and available software. While most of the examples are drawn from medicine and biostatistics, this book could also serve as a useful starting point for social and behavioral scientists interesting in learning the fundamentals of these models, as well as a useful reference for applied researchers.

Have actually improved performance results by implementing many of the techniques found in the Field Guide (tips have helped me in a number of places and ways). An easy read. Practical, applicable and actionable.

This is an excellent everyday guide to data quality. Easy to read and filled with tips and techniques for starting and improving a data quality program. The field guide format makes it a great reference book.

Extremely easy to read and learn from. Provides key learnings and guidelines for not only surviving but thriving in the information age. Important for all CEO's and senior leaders in business to read to help develop an understanding of the importance of data quality and practical steps to achieve it.

I wish I had this book as soon as it was published. After programming on the S/38 and the AS/400 (in RPG) for over 14 years now (with some interruptions), I consider this one the best AS/400-related computing book I have purchased - ever! And compared to other computer books, well, if only that kind of quality would be available on other topics as well more frequently, either DBMS's or programming languages. The book saved one of my clients hours of work: with no previous SQL knowledge but having this book they were able to do some work with SQL that otherwise would have required them to write a program. Another client (and myself for my own system) took advantage of the chapters on Referential Integrity. If you're serious about accessing your data on your DB2/400 database, you owe it to yourself to buy this book !

It has become my daily Bible in my job as an AS/400 DBA. Even after reading the whole book last winter, I still seem to read a passage from it everytime I need inspiration on doing something new or different (or that I can't remember how it is done) with DB2/400.

I am looking to modernize our AS/400 database development with the latest modeling tools and functions without disrupting the traditional DDS-centric RPG development efforts of my programmer customers. I serve customers in dozens of countries with varying levels of SQL/400 knowledge, but being an ex-mainframe DBA, I appreciate the effort IBM has placed into DB2/400 (or "DB2 for AS/400") into giving it mainframe-DB2-like capabilities. I am hoping Paul Conte will come up with a new edition of this book for OS/400 V4.3 because I would love to see these issues addressed in the same manner that DB2/400 V3.6 is presented in this book. Maybe even a chapter devoted to interoperability issues between DDS and SQL/400 and why/how to make the migration would be splendid.

Having programmed the AS/400 since its inception, I thought I knew everything about the DB2/400 database. But Conte's insightful volume reveals new possibilities and capabilities.

Filled with a perfect mix of theory and hands-on examples, this book allows a reader of any level of experience to benefit from the author's many years of expertise. Conte is a stickler for professionalism and attention to detail, and "Database Design And Programming For DB2/400" not only typifies his love of excellence, but encourages the reader to raise his or her own personal expectations.

If you're a manager, buy every programmer a copy and make it mandatory reading. If you're a programmer who wants to be the best, you must have this book; my copy rests at arm's length on my desk. If you're an educator, this would make an ideal textbook.

This book has been very helpful for myyoung children's clay classes. We successfully completed several projects from this book and everyone was happy: teacher, kids, parents. It was fun seeing the older kids come over from their wheels and be jealous of the little kids' projects. The book has also been a source of joy to me since the animal projects we did in class were so much fun, I continued the projects long after class was over.

The writing is clear, sometimes sparse, but the pictures are good. I also appreciated the associated learning that can accompany the projects (or vice versa).

The concise, clearly worded directions are easy to follow. No wasted words; no partial explanations. In the photographs accompanying each project, I like the mix of student and mature work. Also commendable are the explanations of how basic handbuilding techniques can be combined to produce lively ceramic art. All in all, The Great Clay Adventure stimulates the imagination. I highly recommend this book for clay artists, art teachers and school libraries.

Barbara McKenzie, Ph.D.
Professional Potter
Instructor, Durham Arts Council

The past three years I have had the privilege of chairing an exhibition of K-12 student work in clay for the NC Pottery Center located in Seagrove, NC. This year my grant was generous enough for me to present each teacher who participated in our exhibiton a copy of Ellen Kong's book, The Great Clay Adventure. Each receipient was thrilled and eager to begin new clay projects with students.

We at the Pottery Center feel confident that distributing this incredible and inspiring book across our clay rich state of 100 counties will definitely stimulate our next generation of potters!!! Thank you, Ellen Kong!!

I have loved this book for a long time - TONS of great activities and kids really love getting squishy. The Peanut Butter Playdough recipe is worth it alone! Now I heard that Bright Ring Publishing is putting this book out in a Bilingual Spanish Edition! I can't wait to use it in the classroom! What a wonderful resource and bold move! Bravo! And thank you from all of my Spanish-speaking students! They will love to see projects in their own language!

This book is far better organized than some activity books by other authors. Every activity has a symbol in the corner of the page indicating the age range for each project. Additional symbols for cooking, no cooking, air dry, bake dry, edible, caution, and "adult supervision always necessary" are used when applicable. These symbols make it very easy to flip through the book to find a good project for your child(ren). It is especially useful when trying to find projects for children of mixed ages. The layout of the directions is excellent with one project per page, materials clearly listed, mixture process easily explained, and then many optional variations and ideas to further change or expand on the basic project.

Lots of dough's, modeling compounds, homemade beads, plaster and papier mache projects. A section with edible items such as dog biscuits, pie crust, gingerbread and pretzels. At 150 pages you can imagine there is a lot here to keep you busy for a long time. Many of the projects can be made with ingredients most people have on hand at home. Some projects are fast and easy and others are more complex.

I would highly recommend this for every parent, teachers of young children, and even babysitters. This would make a great birthday gift as an alternative to toys, for 2 year-olds and up. I have found this very helpful on days when my children seem bored with our usual daily routine and on rainy days. As a homeschooling mother I have a lot of projects to do with my children, many of which I know are usually done in preschool or kindergarten.

WONDERFUL!

Yep, 31 playdough recipes alone in chapter one ... some bake, some air dry, some handmix, some cook on the stove. Where to begin? Anything squishy and clay-like is found in these pages, from plaster of Paris, to papier-mache, to mud, to flour and salt clay, and more. This book is a basic for any home with kids, and that includes grandparents!

Very general overview for the subject of dynamic systems modeling, providing ample historical perspectives. Not suitable for folks looking for deep technical matters.

This is the kind of book that should be available in every area of science and mathematics. A book that is not a research book, but yet is not a broad popularization. This book can benefit both persons who are just beginning a study of dynamic modeling and I dare say things will be learned by even those that are researchers in the area. Good work Foster Morrison whoever you are.

This book is certainly the best book you'll find around for treating in depth the subject of modeling dynamic systems. The style is clear and very intuitive. It provides a well-structured identification of dynamic systems and explains the "what you can do and what you cannot" for modeling all types of dynamic systems. It's true that it can be hard to find but waiting some couple of weeks certainly is no reason for not trying to get this extraordinary overview of dynamic systems !

The only drawback you could find is that it is too short... reading it makes you want more...so using it as an introduction to dynamic systems can only motivate you at going further in the field of dynamic systems modeling !

Let me start out by saying that an excellent starter book on FEA has yet to be written. It's a frustrating situation, but we'll have to live with it for now. Cook has the foundation for a really good book here. He does a decent job of explaining element formulations and their limitations without bringing on endless pages of variational calculus that we're all sick of seeing in FEA books.

But the book needs more development. What engineers want is a book that will give the BASIC mathematical foundations, and then get on with showing how to DO finite element analysis. That was the attempt of Adams and Askenazi's book, "Building Better Products with Finite Element Analysis", but unfortunately it came across as overly-simplified and lacking in specifics (too much fluff, and not enough meat).

In contrast, Cook zeros in on the core material without wasting words. Problem is, the material comes across in a cursory manner without the development it deserves. The author frequently broaches complex topics, and then gives insufficient discussion to clarify them. I'm sure he understands them, but the rest of us need a little more explanation, in layman's terms, with examples.

In summary, the book needs more... more real world problems; more examples on how to avoid pitfalls in applying boundary conditions; more useful discussion on contact analysis; more quantitative information on how fine to make a mesh. Sure, we all know that hex elements are better than tets, but how much better? Roughly how many hex elements per 90 degrees of arc are required to get sufficient accuracy for hex-8s, tet-4s, and tet-10s? I realize there are no exact answers to these questions, but surely there are rules of thumb that practicing engineers use, because most practicing engineers don't have time to run 10 different mesh refinements and do a convergence analysis.

I apologize if I sound like I'm venting, which I am, but if you don't find any of this helpful, just remember what you paid for it.

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Every FE analyst NEEDS to know the content in this book, because as the author points out, FE modeling is much more than mere meshing and pre-preprocessing. It's nothing fancy, just a numerical method for the solution and the rest of the process, knowing the problem theoretically and conceptually is much more important than pretty pictures. A MUST HAVE for every FE analyst.

been looking for something like this for my 15 year old daughter who is interested in becoming a fashion model. i found it a good source of information on the subject- thanks

Outstanding! Everything I need to know in one easy to read book.
Jackie Cioffa and Karen Moran THANK YOU!

Wow! The illustrations in this guide are sooo cool and the advice was smart and to the point- It saved me a lot of time and answered tons of questions I had about the fashion world. I loved the map on NYC and got to check out their hotspot suggestions. Thx so much to those two top models!

If this book was actually what I had been looking for, I would have given it 5 stars. However, it wasn't exactly what I had thought. It is not so much a "how-to" book as it is an illustrated diary of the artist's amazing process. This particular sculptor sculpts the entire skeleton, muscular system out to the finished sculpture you see on the front of the book. It's amazing but a little more detailed than I believe a beginner such as myself needs - I was a little daunted by the entire process but also quite in awe. The photographs are tremendous. This book would probably be better suited to students in advanced sculpture.

get it. Beat up little kids and take their lunch money to save up for it. By the way you should get it.

This book, along with the other titles in the series: "Modeling the Head in Clay" and "Terracotta," is an excellent resource for beginning sculptors. In fact, if I could buy only one book on sculpting, it would be one of these three (and most probably this one). The book is a walk-though of a single sculpture, which is instructive, but it is also a great reference. Mr. Lucchesi's style is realistic with natural poses, and quite pleasing -- it exudes peace and repose. Ms. Malmstrom has a gift for photographing and describing exactly those parts of the process most interesting to students. The medium is clay, and I'm working in wax, but I have not found this to be a problem. Be advised that it concentrates on the female figure, so an additional anatomy book may be helpful for proportioning male figures.

The book is composed of four parts: modeling concepts, analysis/design, implementation and large system issues.

The first part describes the main concepts on object oriented modeling. The topics on object relationships (association, aggregation, generalization) are excellent.

The second part, I consider that contains the best chapters. There are a lot of advices on how to develop database applications following object orientation and on how to choose a data management approach.

The third part, about implemmentation, has good and bad chapters. I don't like the chapters on relational databases. They include valuable information on how to map classes to relational databases but some space is wasted with basic concepts on relational databases and the main example is developed using Microsoft Access.

The last part is the smallest one and contains introductory topics on distributed databases, integration of applications and reverse engineering.

The class diagrams are in OMT notation.

I have read this book cover to cover. Think about that. When was the last time you (or anyone you know) read a technical book cover to cover? It is that good. It *does* get a bit deep and theoretical in many places, but it covers the subject matter with more depth and more meaningful examples than any other book I have ever seen. A MUST READ, if you want to design serious object databases!!

This book really enables to seamlessly synthesize 2 approaches - relational and object oriented while building systems with complex data structures and persistence requirements.