Economic Evolution and Structure: The Impact of Complexity on the U.S. Economic System

Book Description

Frederic L. Pryor uses the concept of structural complexity to show how changes in the population, the labor force, the structure of industry, the financial system, foreign and domestic trade, and the government sector are related to the same general trend in the U.S. economic system over the past forty years and in the coming twenty years. The author investigates the impact of these changes on the functioning of the system, exploring such matters as the long-term rising unemployment rate, the alleged increasing volatility of the economy, the altering degree of competition, and the evolving economic role of the government.

Book Description

“It is the only book of its kind to combine legal issues with charting methods and an extensive review of practice settings where documentation varies greatly . . . . This is a little book chock-filled with useful information, tables, examples and charts . . . . In the back of the book is a good glossary and a list of legal case references.” —Ann Schmidt Luggen, Cincinnati, OH With the expansion of roles for nursing practice and the evolution of health care delivery systems, the number of nursing negligence and malpractice suits has grown. The impact of computer technology on the changing face of medical record keeping only compounds the issues. Nursing Documentation: Legal Focus Across Practice Settings addresses the challenges and issues that emerge from this changing environment. The vast majority of nursing malpractice suits sooner or later involves documentation, and the proliferation of forms of health care and health care communication will render legal documentation by nurses increasingly critical. Nursing Documentation: Legal Focus Across Practice Settings is intended to meet the needs of students and clinicians in determining how they should be recording their practice and what the legal implications of those records may be. If you are a nurse in practice or education and are not familiar with the contents of this book, you may be placing yourself at legal risk! Nursing Documentation: Legal Focus Across Practice Settings is the only book of its kind to combine legal issues with charting methods and an extensive review of practice settings where documentation varies greatly. This book provides nurses at all levels, as well as the insurance community, with information on the current state of recording and reporting health care delivery components. Sue E. Meiner identifies the basics of nursing liability in areas of written communications and issues where verbal reporting is necessary.

Book Description

Agricultural meteorology is concerned with the interactions between atmospheric/hydrological factors and agriculture, which in its widest sense includes animal husbandry, forestry, and horticulture. This volume is an up-to-date handbook and guide to this important field. After discussion of the fundamental aspects of the atmospheric, edaphic, and biotic components of the ecosystem, the methods of measuring the important variables are reviewed, with both direct and remote sensing and managing the data taken into account. Discussion of the various agricultural aspects follow, including hydrologic facets, reviews of optimum conditions for temperate and tropical crops as well as livestock, the relationship of pests and diseases to weather, and the role of the atmosphere in forest production. The final section explains weather services for agriculture, how to plan farm management in the light of weather information, the use of crop models, and how to modify existing climate. Economic implications are dealt with in relation to the futures market while the last chapter considers food security on many time and size scales to assist in long-term planning.

Handbook on agricultural and forest meteorology =: Manuel de la meteorologie agricole et forestiere

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Handbook on agricultural and forest meteorology =: Manuel de la meteorologie agricole et forestiere

Manufacturer: Fisheries and Environment Canada, Atmospheric Environment
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

French | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Nonfiction | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0660500752

Winds over wildlands: A guide for forest management (Agriculture handbook / United States Department of Agriculture)

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Winds over wildlands: A guide for forest management (Agriculture handbook / United States Department of Agriculture)
Charles C Buck
Manufacturer: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Weather | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Two volume set. Please see: Vol I: ISBN:3-7643-5486-0 & Vol II: ISBN 3-7643-5709-6

Mechanisms of control of gene expression: Proceedings of a Roche-UCLA Symposium, held at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, March 29-April 4, 1987 (UCLA symposia on molecular and cellular biology)

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Mechanisms of control of gene expression: Proceedings of a Roche-UCLA Symposium, held at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, March 29-April 4, 1987 (UCLA symposia on molecular and cellular biology)

Manufacturer: Liss
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0845126660

Book Description

This booklet comprises three statements of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) concerning the activities of the senate commission on genetic research. It includes discussion on research with human stem cells and the resulting ethical and legal problems. These statements are published in print for the first time in German and English.

Book Description

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." - Albert Einstein In a series of remarkable developments in the 20th century and continuing into the 21st, elementary particle physicists, astronomers, and cosmologists have removed much of the mystery that surrounds our understanding of the physical universe. We now have mathematical models that are consistent with all observational data, including measurements of incredible precision, and we have a good understanding of why those models take the form they do. Although current theories will probably be superseded by better, more detailed theories as science continues to advance, the great success of contemporary models makes it likely that scientists are on the right track. In short, the cosmos is undoubtedly comprehensible.

But the question arises: Where do the "laws" revealed by the mathematical models come from? Some conjecture that they represent a set of restraints on the behavior of matter that are built into the structure of the universe, either by God or some other ubiquitous governing principle. In this challenging, stimulating discussion of physics and its implications, physicist Victor Stenger disputes this notion. Instead, he argues that physical laws are simply restrictions on the ways physicists may draw the models they use to represent the behavior of matter if they wish to do so objectively. Since mathematical descriptions of data must be independent of any specific point of view, that is, they must possess "point-of-view invariance" (maximum objectivity), they naturally conform to certain fundamental laws that insure that objectivity, such as the great conservation principles of energy and momentum. The laws of physics, however, are not simply an arbitrary set of rules since the observed data beautifully demonstrate their accuracy.

For those fascinated by how physics explains the universe and affects philosophy, Stenger's in-depth presentation, complete with an appendix of mathematical formulas, makes accessible to lay readers findings normally available only to professional scientists.

Customer Reviews:

Succinct overview but title is misleading........2007-04-02

This is quite a nifty, compendium like summary of laws pertaining to cosmology/particle physics (I refer here to author's clear and mellifluous writing). However if you read his previous books ("Timeless Reality" and "Has Science Found God" in particular) be aware of repetitions. Be alerted as well: this book is neither a typical popular science nor text book. Mathematical supplements take 130 pages out of the total 320 pages!! These math offals/short-cuts are often indigestible even for people familiar with vector calculus. I always have a problem with such books (Penrose's "The Road to Reality" being even more apparent example); whom these books are targeted for - students, scientists or average (though educated) laymen? Another problem with this book - author states with respect to the title: "..the laws of physics are the way they are because they have been defined to be that way (?!).....The viewpoint I present will be that of a strict empiricist who knows of no way to obtain knowledge of the world other than by OBSERVATION and experimentation". This is an honest statement but does not answer a bit the title's question "Where.. from?". Do not hope to become clear on that after reading "The Comprehensible Cosmos". Observing a stray dog on a street does not solve the enigma of "where does he come from" (IMO).

Many a professor will wish to use it as a foundation for classroom discussion.......2007-03-05

Professor Victor J. Stenger provides a fine survey of the status and science of physics in THE COMPREHENSIBLE COSMOS: WHERE DO THE LAWS OF PHYSICS COME FROM? Where exactly do the 'laws' revealed by math come from, and do they represent religious constraints on behavior built in by God or a governing body? These and other intriguing questions provide students of physics with challenging food for thought in a survey essential to college-level collections. Many a professor will wish to use it as a foundation for classroom discussion and debate extending the realm of scientific observation and discovery into the world of philosophical meaning.

Comprehensible Cosmos, Stenger.......2007-02-06

Two parts. The first two thirds of the book is in general terms, and very interesting. The remaining third is mathematical appendices, accounts of the maths behind the first part. It seemed to me that the details of this mathematical presentation were flakey ( though of course the results are well established ).

The Power of P.O.V.I........2007-01-25

Review of Victor Stenger's Comprehensible Cosmos

January 24, 2007

Where do the laws of physics come from? The Power of P.O.V.I.

In this admirable new book, physics professor Victor Stenger once again exhibits his notable ability to convey complex ideas of physics with simplicity and elegance, while not sacrificing mathematical rigor and detail. Moreover, the book offers a "big-picture" perspective that will appeal to both physicists and non-physicists. However, although not required, a basic familiarity with physics and a mathematical background will greatly enhance readers' appreciation and comprehension of the book, particularly concerning the helpful mathematical supplements provided at the end.

Here Stenger takes on "ultimate" questions, such as, Where do the laws of physics come from? and Why is there something rather than nothing?- answers to which are commonly believed to be found exclusively within the province of theological and philosophical discourse and to be inherently beyond the reach of empirical and theoretical science. Stenger argues that the extraordinary empirical success of our current models of physics, though still incomplete and provisional, gives us good grounds to assume that they are on the right track: the cosmos is indeed comprehensible, and our current physical models provide a description of nature that is likely to faithfully reflect aspects of a reality that exists independently of our thoughts and particular physical models.

Stenger argues that, contrary to some popular views, the so-called "laws of physics", such as the great conservations laws, are not restrictions on the behavior of matter imposed by an external agent or by a world of abstract Platonic mathematical forms. Rather they arise from the self-imposed requirement that physicists' descriptions of nature be independent of the particular point-of-view of observers- that they be point-of-view invariant. In order to ensure universal applicability and to describe reality as objectively as possible, physicists aim to construct mathematical models that describe nature in such a way that these descriptions do not depend on the particular point of view or reference frame of observers. For instance, the law of conservation of energy is a manifestation of time-translation invariance. A description of nature that does not depend upon the absolute time at which observations are made will automatically entail the conservation of a quantity called `energy'. Similarly, the law of conservation of momentum naturally arises from the requirement that physicists' descriptions of nature are space-translation invariant- that they do not depend upon any particular point in space.

Stenger's account builds upon the work of mathematician Emmy Noether, who proved that certain mathematical quantities called the generators of continuous space-time transformations are conserved when those transformations leave the system unchanged. Hence, the great conservation laws are consequences of point-of-view invariance and thus are reflections of the symmetries of space and time. As Stenger puts it: "If you wish to build a model using space and time as a framework, and you formulate that model so as to be space-time symmetric, then that model will automatically contain what are usually regarded as the three most important "laws" of physics, the three conservation principles". Stenger further demonstrates how Newtonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, and special and general relativity also arise naturally from the point-of-view invariance and symmetries of our physical models.

In addition to showing the intimate connection between the laws of physics and the symmetries of space and time, Stenger argues that features of our complex lower energy universe may be accounted for by the spontaneous breaking of symmetries that were present during the higher energy state of the big bang. Our universe is akin to a less symmetric snowflake that froze out of a more symmetric sphere of water vapor. Stenger discusses the possibility that our universe arose via a well-understood process of quantum tunneling from a highly symmetric void, empty of energy, particles, space, and time- a featureless state essentially equivalent to `nothing' . Since the void also exhibits space-time symmetries, the laws of physics are ultimately derived from the symmetries of the void. Indeed, Stenger argues that the laws of physics are not really laws at all, in the usual sense of the term. On the contrary, they are reflections of the absence of laws- they are what Stenger refers to as "lawless laws". Other aspects of nature, such as the apparent indeterminism of quantum mechanics can be accounted for by an element of randomness in the universe (which, Stenger notes, is itself a manifestation of invariance). Ultimately then, symmetry and randomness lie at the bedrock of reality. Hence, the universe is not only comprehensible, but may have arisen in the simplest way possible: randomly and spontaneously from a highly symmetric void, that is, from a state essentially indistinguishable from `nothing'. But then why is there something rather than nothing? Indeed, if the universe came from a void, then why did it not remain as a void? The answer Stenger offers, and which gains support from the work of other physicists, is that a symmetric void is unstable- hence there had to be something. Our universe is simply a different phase of `nothing', just as ice and steam are different phases of water.

There are plenty more topics discussed in this original and insightful book, including particle physics, cosmology, and thermodynamics, which are beyond the scope of this review. Perhaps some readers might complain that Stenger is too cautious in his lack of commitment to particular physical models of reality. At times he suggests that "scientific criteria cannot distinguish between viable metaphysical schemes" and that space and time are useful inventions that cannot be proven to exist. While this may be the case, this suggestion may be seen to weaken his thesis that the cosmos is comprehensible and that physics is not just another cultural narrative. On the other hand, Stenger emphasizes throughout that our physical models ultimately must be constrained by and consistent with empirical observations. Indeed, the relentless testing of the observational consequences of our physical models is what distinguishes physics from fiction. Thus, our physical models, while human inventions, are not just arbitrary cultural constructs. To the extent that they succeed in describing nature and surviving risky empirical tests, they likely represent aspects of an underlying reality independent of our specific models. Moreover, Stenger comments on how a particulate model of reality characterized by "atoms and void", which he explicitly favors, displays some virtues over a model characterized by waves, fields, and other "Platonic" mathematical constructs. If indeed physics does have implications for metaphysics, then physics might someday provide compelling empirical or theoretical reasons to prefer one hitherto observationally equivalent metaphysical model over another. In any case, readers will appreciate the elegance and simplicity of Stenger's expository style, which are paralleled by the elegant simplicity of the scenario he has described for the origin of the universe and of the laws of physics.

Yonatan Fishman, PhD
Department of Neurology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Physics Demystified .......2006-12-23

Professor Stenger's book draws a map for the non-scientist through the otherwise intimidating terrain of physics. His survey bypasses the winding streets and cul-de-sacs that bewilder strangers, thus emphasizing the major avenues and boulevards that carry visitors from Democritus past Galilei, Newton, Einstein, Feynman, Hawking, and other physics landmarks. These luminaries light Professor Stenger's path from the nothing that preceded everything to the universes on each side of the first moment. "Nothing" includes neither matter nor energy. He walks us from that nothing void to the everything that includes us, everything from the tiniest strange quark to the greatest discernable distance. He does this by introducing the idea of point of view invariance, the idea that the laws of physics should apply in all reference frames. That simplest of keys opens the way for comprehending the cosmos, even for us who once knew but no longer remember much of calculus and trigonometry. He writes simply and clearly, without requiring the reader to re-read sentences over and over to glean an arcane point. Finally, for those who want meatier explanations in the language of mathematics, he includes several addenda in which he derives with undergraduate mathematics the points he makes earlier in simpler English.

Book Description

Published to commemorate the six-book 1596 edition, this first modernized text presents selections from modern England's first epic poem. A massive Arthurian romance that asserts national identity through the vivid myths of Christianity, The Fairy Queen simultaneously celebrates and critiques the Elizabethan Golden Age and the Queen who conjured it.

Customer Reviews:

A great disappointment, don't buy it.......2001-11-28

I bought this book as a study guide to a course in Renaissance literature, and Spenser in particular. I have now found that it is incomplete! Canto II of Book II only has 11 verses out of 46! Moreover, Cantos 4, 5 and 6 of Book II are completely missing! It does say 'Selection' in the subtitle, I now realize, although it was not made clear in the original description. The volume is doing me little to no good for its intended purpose. I consider it a waste of time and a deception to leave out huge parts of a work you are purporting to present under its original title. I feel cheated. Why wasn't the title "Bits and Pieces of The Faerie Queen"??

Most coherent and easy-to-read version of Faerie Queene.......1998-12-09

As a freshman student who is enrolled in English Literature, I needed all the help I could get,especially with English that is not modern. The Renaissance Version of the Faerie Queene is quite hard to read, and must be read over and over again before you can comprehend all the underlying themes and symbols. This edition, stated in modern English, makes the work so much more enjoyable and easy to understand. Not much is lost through this translation, and it has helped me greatly----especially for exams!

Amazon.com

Bring more joy to your favorite math-head with Five More Golden Rules from science writer and national treasure John L. Casti. Though a quick glance through the book will cause an intense fight-or-flight response in the numerophobic, Casti's writing is lovely and lucid as ever, explaining not just equations and theorems but their significance in our lives. Having discovered in Five Golden Rules that he couldn't restrict himself to just five important 20th-century mathematical theories, this follow-up explores the intricacies of knot theory, functional analysis, control theory, chaotic systems, and information theory. Each of the five lively chapters introduces its subject with a seemingly unrelated anecdote that is (of course) informed by the theory in question. Then it's headlong into the wonderful details of postulation and demonstration that make math so much fun. Unlike a textbook, Five More Golden Rules meanders and breaks away from its proofs to discover relations between the symbols and the real world, from the stock market to the coastline of Norway. Besides giving the reader a break, this makes the abstract, almost ethereal concepts concrete and provides a definite advantage to the interested student. Perhaps textbook publishers should take note of this technique; until they do, we'll have to curl up with Casti's Five More Golden Rules if we want to have fun with our higher math. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

"Casti is one of the great science writers." -San Francisco Examiner
"Casti's gift is to be able to let the nonmathematical reader share in his understanding of the beauty of a good theory." -Christian Science Monitor
Following up the acclaimed Five Golden Rules, another quintet of gleaming math discoveries
With Five More Golden Rules, readers are treated to another fascinating set of theoretical gems from acclaimed popular science author John Casti. Injecting all-new ingredients into his trademark recipe of real-world examples, historical anecdotes, and straightforward explanations, Casti once again brings math to thrilling life. All who enjoyed the unique pleasures of the original will love this follow-up survey highlighting the creme de la creme of math in the last century.
Explores how knot theory informs the classic tale of Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot
* Considers how the Shannon Coding Theory applies to decoding the human genome
John L. Casti, PhD (Santa Fe, NM), a resident member of the Santa Fe Institute, is a professor at the Technical University of Vienna and the author of Would-Be Worlds (Wiley) and Cambridge Quintet.

Customer Reviews:

MEANT for non-mathematicians???.......2002-05-23

I'm math and computer science student. I have studied linear algebra and know lots about linear spaces, n-dimensional vectors, matrices and other stuff. Still I sometimes found it hard to get out proof or just idea of those formulas. Why do you need formula, if you can't understant its essence. Then there are lots of calculus expressions. I DON'T think it's for everyone!

BUT, I found the book SPLENDID just because of those subjects covered - and covered quite generally without too deep details (although sometimes I wanted more).

I certainly don't agree with those folks who say that there is no explanation on subject's importance. There is ENOUGH! Then I ask you: "Why did you buy that book? Just randomly?" If you have little gray cells in your box then you'll understand why something is or isn't important. I DON'T have need for lengthy texts of explanations why this and not other subject. That is boring!

Where is the value added?.......2001-11-23

In this book, John Casti takes an academic's eye toward 5 interesting areas of mathematics. Unfortunately, his treatment of the material reminds me of sitting in all too many classrooms in graduate school, with a professor rambling and scribbling on the board without ever bothering to indicate why it even mattered. Like all too many of my professors, he leaves the truly interesting material (the impact) to the reader's imagination. Casti really missed the mark here. He had the opportunity not just to present mathematical proofs, but to show why this is really interesting stuff. Instead, the material is presented no differently than how it would appear in a graduate level textbook. So, why not stick with those graduate level textbooks? Where is his value added as an author?

nice sequel for math major not the layperson.......2001-05-03

In Five Golden Rules John Casti wrote a wonderful book about important theorems in mathematics that were discovered in the 20th Century. The style and description was such that a layperson could understand, enjoy and appreciate the results. All the theorems were discovered before 1950 and they all dealt with topics in applied mathematics and particularly game theory and operations research.

Perhaps he found the list of five golden rules too restrictive and thus comes the sequel "Five More Golden Rules". Again, it would be hard to argue the choices. Casti goes into the details of the theorems and the theory related to them much like he did in the first book. However, in this book, he has chosen topics from very abstract areas of mathematics. I have a masters degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in statistics and yet I had no familiarity with knot theory. So I learned a lot from chapter 1 but found it to be difficult reading, more like a mathematics textbook than a popular book for the scientist and layman.

This feeling continued as I read the other four chapters even though I was treading on territory that was very familiar to me (e.g. the Kalman filter of control theory). It was reassuring to me to see that this impression was also shared by the three customers that had already written reviews on the book.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly for mathematicians and other with strong math training. The Hahn-Banach theorem was the most important theorem that I learned about when I took my functional analysis course at the University of Maryland some 26 years ago. But I have not had much use for it since and I completely forgot what it said. Casti provides me with a nice reminder and shows how this result is a generalization of very practical results that relate to quantum mechanics and other results in physics.

The latter part of the 20th Century saw a great deal of activity in nonlinear dynamics. This is connected by Casti to the Hopf Bifurcation theorem. That chapter deals with many topics that grasped the attention of applied mathematicians, including chaos and catastrophy theory, strange attractors and the beautiful geometry of fractals. This material is not for a layperson. On the other hand, the introduction to the chapter, covering what a dynamical system is, provides a wonderful analogy to a treasure hunt in Central Park that can be appreciated by everyone.

The Kalman filter provides an example of how linearization of real dynamic systems allows one to write a prediction equation for the state at the next time point recursively as a function of the current state and the new measurements. This recursive formulation leads to the same solution that Wiener had found much earlier, but because of the recursion, it is much more suitable for real time computer applications. This was essential to controlling space vehicles and is the important result that made the trip to the moon possible. Casti covers the theory of Kalman filtering very well but emphasizes many of the interesting abstract concepts rather than the more concrete aspects of the solution.

The finally chapter on the Shannon Coding Theorem takes us into the realm of information theory. Casti provides the key references. Electronic communication in the 20th century has benefitted from the efficient coding of information that makes transmissions faster easier and error free. This is very important work with unforeseen applications. Casti points to applications in genetics.

Another interesting feature of the book is the connection made between the knot theory associated with Alexander's polynomials and DNA sequencing, a subject to be further explored in the 21st Century.

Beauty that is not made accessible to the layperson.......2000-12-03

«The linear dynamical system (**) is completely reachable if and only if the block matrix C contains n linearly independant vectors, that is, rank C = N»

If you don't feel completely at ease with this sentence, do not read this book. Every page contains mathematical propositions of such level, and such level of mathematical fluency is required in order to fully appreciate the content of John Casti's book. The content is interesting but the reading is made rendered somewhat tedious by this high density of maths. I have a degree in engineering, and I often fast forwarded trough the equations in an effort to not lose sight of the big picture Casti want to show the reader.

At the end you will be smarter, but it will not have been a relaxed reading. If you are looking for food for toughts, I would recommand, among others, «Paradigms Lost : Tackling the Unanswered Mysteries of Modern Science», by the same author.

More Difficult than Five Golden Rules.......2000-08-13

The prospective reader is warned that this book requires considerably more mathematical background than Five Golden Rules, a fact that is not made clear on the book jacket nor in the nonexistent forward or table of contents. In addition, Casti seems to have found it necessary to leave many more points incompletely explained than in Five Golden Rules; though perhaps this was unavoidable given the more difficult subject matter. I am puzzled about what audience Casti thought would read the book.

Five More Golden Rules: Knots, Codes, Chaos and Other Great Theories of 20th-Century Mathematics

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Five More Golden Rules: Knots, Codes, Chaos and Other Great Theories of 20th-Century Mathematics
John L. Casti
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUBUS4

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