Digital Microscopy, Volume 72, Second Edition: A second edition of "Video Microscopy" (Methods in Cell Biology)

Book Description

This updated second edition of the popular methods book "Video Microscopy" shows how to track dynamic changes in the structure or architecture of living cells and in reconstituted preparations using video and digital imaging microscopy. Contains 10 new chapters addressing developments over the last several years. Basic information, principles, applications, and equipment are covered in the first half of the volume and more spcialized video microscopy techniques are covered in the second half.

This updated second edition of the popular methods book "Video Microscopy" shows how to track dynamic changes in the structure or architecture of living cells and in reconstituted preparations using video and digital imaging microscopy. Contains 10 new chapters addressing developments over the last several years. Basic information, principles, applications, and equipment are covered in the first half of the volume and more spcialized video microscopy techniques are covered in the second half.

Book Description

Tensor Calculus and Analytical Dynamics provides a concise, comprehensive, and readable introduction to classical tensor calculus - in both holonomic and nonholonomic coordinates - as well as to its principal applications to the Lagrangean dynamics of discrete systems under positional or velocity constraints. The thrust of the book focuses on formal structure and basic geometrical/physical ideas underlying most general equations of motion of mechanical systems under linear velocity constraints. Written for the theoretically minded engineer, Tensor Calculus and Analytical Dynamics contains uniquely accessbile treatments of such intricate topics as: o tensor calculus in nonholonomic variables o Pfaffian nonholonomic constraints o related integrability theory of Frobenius The book enables readers to move quickly and confidently in any particular geometry-based area of theoretical or applied mechanics in either classical or modern form.

Customer Reviews:

comprehensive but biased view of tensor analysis..........2006-01-26

Papastavridis is an author with a unique attitude towards mathematics. He avoids the coordinate free formulation of tensors on manifolds. In his view, the exterior differential calculus is an esoteric abstraction which is hard to grasp by many and thus has the danger of turning down able people from embarking on doing research in analytical mechanics. This is basically a recapitulation of his views which have been explicitly stated within the book in a broader context.

With that said, don`t expect to find anything pertaining to modern differential geometric view of mechanics. However, this book presents one of the most extensive survey of tensor analysis with indices. The bibliography is indeed comprehensive, and a welcome feature in such a monograph.

Personally, I benefitted alot from this book both in terms of physical aspects of mechanics and in terms of classical tensor analysis. However, I still believe in the power of mathematical abstractions in grasping of the holistic image of a physical and/or mathematical entity. In this respect, the language of differential forms is rather important and allows further useful topological generalizations like cohomology. It is true that the current engineering/science curricula does not leave much space for the modern view, but this is ultimately where it will be heading to. Despite his dislike of exterior calculus, Papastavridis inevitably builds a strong basis for delving into tensor analysis on manifolds. For the latter Bishop and Goldberg is still the best choice with an unbeatable price.

The definitive book on tensors in analytical mechanics.......2000-08-28

This book is not a text book. It is, in some sense, the final word on tensor formalism in finite degree of freedom (analytical) mechanics. It is one of the most scholarly books I have come across. The list of references is very exhaustive and the author is well read in the literature on the subject, not just in english, but also in russian, french, and german. The style is clear and concise, the notation is carefully chosen and summarized in a useful section where conventions, notation, and basic formulae are listed.

Tensor calculus and analytical dynamics: a classical introduction to holonomic and nonholonomic tensor calculus; and its principal applications to the Lagrangean dynamics of constrained mechanical systems. For engineers, physicists, and mathematicians.

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Tensor calculus and analytical dynamics: a classical introduction to holonomic and nonholonomic tensor calculus; and its principal applications to the Lagrangean dynamics of constrained mechanical systems. For engineers, physicists, and mathematicians.
John G. Papastavridis
Manufacturer: Boca Raton, CRC Press, [
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000U29VXU

Book Description

A critical examination of Grass's work offers overwhelming evidence that Cat and Mouse and Dog Years are part of a unified structure begun by The Tin Drum and that they continue to explore the same key figures, themes, and symbols. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

Customer Reviews:

The Tin Drum.......2004-11-06

I can't say that it's the kind of book I read without putting down. It took me four years to read it in German, it was a project from which I learned more German, to like Gunther Grass and to look at midgets or short people in a different way. For me they now stand for Oskar, the main character of the book a boy who shatters windows and glasses of his teacher, makes the Nazis dance to the wrong tune, loves nurses and much more. It's a wonderful book. I recently read a list of the 50 favorite books of Germans. This one was number 48 for them. It's close to number one for me. It's a wonderful book -whether it takes you a week or 4 years.

Well worth reading.......2003-10-15

I have read the book in the original language (German)and I couldn't put it down until I was done.
I dont know if it is just as good translated, but I love his choice of words and the pictures he is painting with them.
I mainly read the book, because I am interested in the history of that time,place and the people.
If that is what you are looking for, this book is a must.

A great set, great value.......2000-08-23

If you can't check these out at a library (or can't just have these great works for just a few weeks) this trilogy is for you. Tin Drum, in my opinion, is the best of the set, expressing oppression and pain with the best of Grass's stark realism and sardonic wit.

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Challenging But Worth It
An Existential Work? Authenticity and Responsibility
Real and surreal at the same time
Great symbolic book, but what does it all mean?
unreadable, like most of the work of this writer

The Tin Drum
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 067972575X
Release Date: 1990-01-16

Amazon.com

Meet Oskar Matzerath, "the eternal three-year-old drummer." On the morning of his third birthday, dressed in a striped pullover and patent leather shoes, and clutching his drumsticks and his new tin drum, young Oskar makes an irrevocable decision: "It was then that I declared, resolved, and determined that I would never under any circumstances be a politician, much less a grocer; that I would stop right there, remain as I was--and so I did; for many years I not only stayed the same size but clung to the same attire." Here is a Peter Pan story with a vengeance. But instead of Never-Never Land, Günter Grass gives us Danzig, a contested city on the Polish-German border; instead of Captain Hook and his pirates, we have the Nazis. And in place of Peter himself is Oskar, a twisted puer aeternis with a scream that can shatter glass and a drum rather than a shadow. First published in 1959, The Tin Drum's depiction of the Nazi era created a furor in Germany, for the world of Grass's making is rife with corrupt politicians and brutal grocers in brown shirts:

There was once a grocer who closed his store one day in November, because something was doing in town; taking his son Oskar by the hand, he boarded a Number 5 streetcar and rode to the Langasser Gate, because there as in Zoppot and Langfuhr the synagogue was on fire. The synagogue had almost burned down and the firemen were looking on, taking care that the flames should not spread to other buildings. Outside the wrecked synagogue, men in uniform and others in civilian clothes piled up books, ritual objects, and strange kinds of cloth. The mound was set on fire and the grocer took advantage of the opportunity to warm his fingers and his feelings over the public blaze.

As Oskar grows older (though not taller), portents of war transform into the thing itself. Danzig is the first casualty when, in the summer of 1939, residents turn against each other in a pitched battle between Poles and Germans. In the years that follow, Oskar goes from one picaresque adventure to the next--he joins a troupe of traveling musicians; he becomes the leader of a group of anarchists; he falls in love; he becomes a recording artist--until some time after the war, he is convicted of murder and confined to a mental hospital.

The Tin Drum uses savage comedy and a stiff dose of magical realism to capture not only the madness of war, but also the black cancer at the heart of humanity that allows such degradations to occur. Grass wields his humor like a knife--yes, he'll make you laugh, but he'll make you bleed, as well. There have been many novels written about World War II, but only a handful can truly be called great; The Tin Drum, without a doubt, is one. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Acclaimed as the greatest German novel written since the end of World War II, The Tin Drum is the autobiography of thirty-year-old Oskar Matzerath, who has lived through the long Nazi nightmare and who, as the novel begins, is being held in a mental institution. Willfully stunting his growth at three feet for many years, wielding his tin drum and piercing scream as anarchistic weapons, he provides a profound yet hilarious perspective on both German history and the human condition in the modern world.

Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim.

Customer Reviews:

Challenging But Worth It.......2007-10-09

Grass's "The Tin Drum" is a must read for those interested in a German perspective of WWII. The novel should also be read by those willing to make an emotional investment in the prose as well as devote a fair amount of time to read the weighty work. I admit I struggled with the novel's length and density. At times I thought I was going to give up and try reading it another time like I did with Nietzsche. But then incredibly beautiful, humorous, vivid, and even disturbing passages came that left me breathless, wanting more.

Keeping the plot straight isn't too difficult: the main character, Oskar Matzerath, constantly reinforces that he is writing from the present as a patient in a mental hospital. Grass skillfully changes the tense, time, and story over and over; yet he makes it accessible for the general reader. Through Grass's uncanny writing ability, the reader can see how Oskar must reexamine the past to learn from it. Oskar's obsession with the past allows him to rethink events that require thought and consideration by everyone (WWII).

Read the entire book. I love a chapter near the end about The Onion Basement. It's worth the struggle and commitment.

An Existential Work? Authenticity and Responsibility.......2007-09-13

It's not that Grass is not a capable writer; his prose, in and of itself, has enough complexity, wit, and humor to keep one entertained. The problem, or should I say the difficult, with the book arises from its content; there are numerous incidents in this book that easily fall under the classification of weird, with a capital W. For instance, Oskar prays to a preserving jar that contains a ring finger, while visiting the beach with his family, a fisherman pulls a severed horse's head out of the sea, and a group of nuns is gunned down.

It's an exaggeration, but not much of one, to say that this book is just a series of weird events, one occurring after the other. Given all this weirdness, it is quite a challenge to extract any meaning or sense from the text, an almost hopeless task, really. Perhaps, though, that was Grass's intent in writing the book; to show that life is meaningless, that it can't be understood; there is no reason why any of us exist and you'd be an utter fool to attempt to find or create one, given the utterly unpredictable, chaotic, and unstable world we live in. Tempting, as this interpretation may be, I think Grass's real intent in writing the book was to explore the issues of identity and mortality.

Oskar Matzerath is introduced too us as a mental patient, Exactly who he is though remains unclear to us readers, because who he is, is constantly influx throughout the whole novel - at first, he's the mental underdevelopment kid, then a lover, then a member of a front-line theatre company, then a gang leader, engraver, model, musician, murder suspect, and finally, fugitive. Is it any wonder then, that in the end, who he is, is even a mysterious to him; near the end of the novel he ask himself who he is, but gives no answer.

I think Oskar's lack of a sense of identity originates from the fact that foundation of his identity is negation. In order to frustrate his alleged father desire that he become a shopkeeper, he decides to injure himself at three years old. Thus, as a result of this injury, his growth is stunted and he is believed to be mentally feeble. A part which, he plays to perfection for years on end, with the result that fake Oskar becomes the real Oskar. And as such, once he begins to discard this persona, he literally becomes no one, and as such, he is forced to latch onto any role he can play, to generate any sense of self.

While the issue of identity is the central focus of the book, death is ever present throughout, and at the end takes center stage; Oskar comes to realize that his own death has been a possibility all along. Oskar experiences the first death of someone he knows early on, and by the end of the book, 9 other people have died. Most of these deaths are unexpected and often occur through rather weird and absurd means. For instance, Oskar's mother dies from eating to much fish, the owner of the Onion cellar dies from a bunch of pigeons attacking his car, and his father dies from swallowing a pin.

So what then is Grass up to here with having so many of his characters die throughout the book? I think it is to inform us that our own death is an ever present possibility in our day to day lives that we fail to acknowledge. And given this fact, the responsibility for the content and significance of our lives, is solely in our hands; we have no control over how and when we will die, but we can, and do, have control over the choices we make and the ends we pursue.

We should live our lives authentically and choose to be responsible enough to live lives that matter. A message I never tire of hearing, but one I wish was a little more easily deciphered in the present work.

Real and surreal at the same time.......2007-08-10

The Tin Drum is quite simply one of the very best novels about WW2. It is a highly personal story, not about a soldier, but about a boy, Oskar Matzerath, born into a middle-class Polish family who chooses to remain a child. He willfully stops growing at the age of 3, much to his parents' sorrow, and much to his own stubborn satisfaction..... for a while. He is adept at playing the drum, which drives his poor Mother to distraction. He is also able to shatter glass by screaming, a secret which he delightedly keeps to himself. Then his beloved mother dies, the war comes, his city is destroyed, and he and his family must begin their lives over again.
The book's plot is very complex and so is the character of Oskar. The author constructs a vividly detailed, serene pre-war rendering of the lovely city of Danzig, where Gunter Grass was raised and which is Oskar's city. Most disturbing are the descriptions of Nazi brutality and destruction. Metaphors abound in this book, some of them humorous, others repulsive.
Is Oskar insane, as his doctors believe? The reader is left to decide.
Read this book and it will become part of you: It's THAT GOOD. Not many novels are as good! I was blown away reading The Tin Drum in English, and how I wish I could read and understand German. The first thing I'd do is read The Tin Drum in its original language.

Great symbolic book, but what does it all mean?.......2007-03-10

Yes, this is a lengthy book to slog through, but it is thoroughly enjoyable and completely unpredictable. The general plot has been told by other reviewers, so it will not be noted here. The chapter titles alone are enigmatic enough to keep you reading. My big question is what does it all mean? I'm sure the academic literary types have had a field day with this colossus! The tin drum is one HUGE, book-long symbol of what a person needs to get through life, I suppose... A very intellectual, compelling read for those patient enough to do so...

unreadable, like most of the work of this writer.......2006-12-06

I have never understood the carryings on about Gunther Grass. I am a scholar of German literature and I've always found Grass just about unreadable, except for the novelle CAT AND MOUSE (Katz und Maus). The work has always struck me as somehow fascinated by the very fascism it wants to decry, and this novel is but another example of Grass' strange and -- as we know now -- unexpressed guilt-ridden post-ww2 narration. Sorry, folks, but you're better off with the equally insane writer Peter Handke, himself a problematic political figure, but he writes with integrity and unflinching honesty, and frankly, he's a better writer, as is the underrated (in this country at least) Heinrich Boll.

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The Tin Drum
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: Fawcett crest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CLI3N

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The Tin Drum
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: Vintage Books/ Random House Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: B000AXS34M

Product Description

Most talked about novel on the American lterary scene

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Dog Years
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: Fawcett Crest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: B000FH4IDS

Product Description

In this ferocious novel of the Hitler years and their aftermath, the author of THE TIN DRUM tells a brilliant, bizarre and savage tale ot the 'love-hate and blood brotherhood of Nazi and Jew

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The Tin Drum

Manufacturer: Fawcett Crest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000CRIS3W

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Excelente libro!
Read it slowly
que quiere decir?
un libro complicado

El Tambor De Hojalata / The Tin Drum
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: Sudamericana
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Cien años de soledad: Edición conmemorativa (The 40th Anniversary Edition)

ASIN: 9500714671

Book Description

On the day of his third birthday the main character, Oskar Matzerath, decides to stop growing. The same day he receives his first tin drum, which will be with him as he travels around Europe. He works as an artist's model, enrolls in a troupe of traveling musicians, deals in the black market, and becomes a leader of a group of anarchists. the drum will be the key to all Oskar's memories, even when some time after the war he is confined to a mental institution convicted of a murder he did not commit.

Customer Reviews:

Excelente libro!.......2002-05-12

Me parece que es un libro increiblemente bien escrito, digno de un genio y que definitivamente vale la pena leer, probablemente las personas que no vivimos la primera y segunda guerra mundial no podamos comprender algunos acontecimientos, pero las impresiones del autor acerca de los hechos son puramente impresionistas, y tomando en cuenta la epoca en que fue escrito es una obra de arte!!

Read it slowly.......2001-05-30

....Reading this book you realise the big distance between "exciting" to "amazing". And I have to say that I have been amazed. This is the first book I ever read of Günter Grass and his style left me speechless. There are (many) paragraphs that I re-read several times, not because of difficulties in understanding, but because of the undescriptable sensation I got. But style is not the only memorable issue here. Seeing the world through Oskar's eyes makes you feel as if you were loking at yourself, being convinced that stupidness became so usual that you cannot distinguish it anymore. Of course you will not like it if you are a fan of, let's say, Michael Crichton... This would be like comparing Beethoven with the Spice Girls!...

que quiere decir?.......2000-07-21

Encuento que este es un libro dificil de leer, es muy largo y ademas como que uno no logra identificarse con los personajes y entender la historia. Tal vez es que el libro tiene muchas metaforas y yo no las logre descifrar. Tengo curiosidad por ejemplo en lo que se refiere a las cuatro faldas que usaba la abuela de Oscar, cual es el significado para el. Srea dificil de saber. He tratado de encontrar algunas resenas sobre el libro y no lo he conseguido. Quizas la revision de otro lector me ayude a entender un poco de que se trata.

un libro complicado.......2000-04-02

la historia de este libro es un poco increible, un nino de tres anos nos cuenta sus aventuras a traves de su vida desde la prision sanatorio donde se encuentra apegado a su tambor de hojalata y a las memorias que al tocarlo le llegan.no he podido entender que queria decir el autor con la alegoria. se referia a alemania que no podia crecer? o a algun personaje en particular? el libro le falta claridad y puede hasta llegar a ser canson y aburrido, ya que da muchas vueltas y no sabe uno para donde van las cosas. sus personajes parecen sin vida, frios, y el mismo amorio entre la madre de oscar y jan brosnski parece frio, lejano espero que otro lector llegue al final de la obra y a lo mejor le pueda encontrar el significado que me quede buscando... LUIS MENDEZ.

German Film Classics in Context (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Tin Drum, Death in Venice, The Blue Angel, The White Rose, The Student of Prague, Mephisto, Olympia, Hangmen Also Die, Murans Faust, Tonio Kroger, The Three Penny Opera, Triumph of the Will)

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German Film Classics in Context (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Tin Drum, Death in Venice, The Blue Angel, The White Rose, The Student of Prague, Mephisto, Olympia, Hangmen Also Die, Murans Faust, Tonio Kroger, The Three Penny Opera, Triumph of the Will)
Frank Baron
Manufacturer: Sharp Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0840001843

Günter Grass and His Critics: From The Tin Drum to Crabwalk (Literary Criticism in Perspective)

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Günter Grass and His Critics: From The Tin Drum to Crabwalk (Literary Criticism in Perspective)
Siegfried Mews
Manufacturer: Camden House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

When the Swedish Academy announced that Günter Grass had been awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature, it singled out his first novel The Tin Drum (1959, English translation 1963) as a seminal work that had signaled the postwar rebirth of German letters, auguring "a new beginning after decades of linguistic and moral destruction." Nearly fifty years after its publication, the novel's significance has been generally acknowledged: it is the uncontested favorite among Grass's works of fiction on the part of reading public and critics alike, yet its canonical status tends to obscure the decidedly mixed and even hostile reactions it initially elicited. Along with The Tin Drum, Grass's impressive body of literary work since the 1950s has spawned a cottage industry of Grass criticism, making a reliable guide through the thicket of sometimes contradictory readings a definite desideratum. Siegfried Mews fills this lacuna in Grass scholarship by way of a detailed but succinct, descriptive as well as analytical and evaluative overview of the scholarship from 1959 to 2005. Grass's politically motivated interventions in public discourse have kept him highly visible, blurring the boundaries between politics and aesthetics. Mews therefore examines not only academic criticism but also the daily and weekly press (and other news media), providing additional insight into the reception of Grass's works. Siegfried Mews is Professor of German at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Pebbles in a tin drum
Ajita Kaura
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers India
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 8172232233

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