Advanced Problems in Applied Chemistry: Topics in Environmental Chemistry and Related Fields

Book Description

A unique problem-solving book including practice problems, learning objectives, pre-tests and self-tests in the applied chemistry areas of agriculture, marine science, biological/medical science and environmental science.

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If this is anything like what he used to be..........2003-09-02

I was a student of O'Connor's and Hassell in the 1980's when they were chemistry professors at Texas A&M. Both were in a class by themselves as educators. If this book is up to their usual standards, then it should be a good book indeed.

Book Description

This book is about stochastic Petri nets (SPNs), which have proven to be a popular tool for modelling and performance analysis of complex discrete-event stochastic systems. The focus is on methods for modelling a system as an SPN with general firing times and for studying the long-run behavior of the resulting SPN model using computer simulation. Modelling techniques are illustrated in the context of computer, manufacturing, telecommunication, workflow, and transportation systems. The simulation discussion centers on the theory that underlies estimation procedures such as the regenerative method, the method of batch means, and spectral methods.Tying these topics together are conditions on the building blocks of an SPN under which the net is stable over time and specified estimation procedures are valid. In addition, the book develops techniques for comparing the modelling power of different discrete-event formalisms. These techniques provide a means for making principled choices between alternative modelling frameworks and also can be used to extend stability results and limit theorems from one framework to another. As an overview of fundamental modelling, stability, convergence, and estimation issues for discrete-event systems, this book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Applied Probability, and Statistics. This book also will be of interest to practitioners of Industrial, Computer, Transportation, and Electrical Engineering, because it provides an introduction to a powerful set of tools both for modelling and for simulation-based performance analysis. Peter J. Haas is a member of the Research Staff at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. He also teaches Computer Simulation at Stanford University and is an Associate Editor (Simulation Area) for Operations Research.

Customer Reviews:

Very detailed overview of SPNs.......2004-03-09

Petri nets have been used in operations research and the mathematical modeling of discrete-event systems ever since they were invented in the early 1960s. The applications of Petri nets are immense, having permeated many different fields, some of these being network engineering, queueing theory, and automated manufacturing. This book gives a very clear introduction to the mathematical theory of stochastic Petri nets (SPNs), which were invented in the 1980s, and which are used to model discrete-event systems which undergo stochastic state transitions occur only at an increasing sequence of random times. The book should be viewed as a monograph rather than a textbook since there are no exercises (unfortunately), but readers could still gain a good understanding of stochastic Petri nets by its perusal. One could make up for the lack of exercises by perhaps thinking of new applications of SPNs. My interest in the book was motivated by my wish to use SPNs to model network and application servers, poker games, and machine curiosity and decision-making in artificial intelligence. I only read chapters 1-5 and chapter 9, and so my review will be confined to these.

The author defines an SPN as a graph composed of a finite set of `places' and a finite set of `transitions'. A subset of these transitions are taken to be `immediate' transitions, and the set of places consists of normal input places, inhibitor input places, and output places, given a particular transition. A (countable) set of markings denoting the number of `tokens' in a place is also defined. In chapter 2, the author gives several examples of SPNs, such as a producer-consumer system, a queue with batch arrivals, a token ring network, a flexible manufacturing system, a particle counter, and a slotted ring network. Some of these examples illustrate the use of marking-dependent transitions, and the fact that SPN representations of discrete-event systems are not unique. The author also briefly discusses the SPSIM simulation language for SPNs. Also discussed briefly are restricted SPNs, wherein the marking set is not specified explicitly, and an accompanying notion of reachability.

The marking process of an SPN is described in terms of an underlying general state-space Markov chain in chapter 3. This allows sample paths to be generated, and one can utilize the results from the theory of Markov chains to study the long-time behavior of SPNs and define performance measures for them. The author gives an explicit algorithm for generating sample paths for the underlying chain and using this, for the marking process itself. This is followed by a discussion of sufficient conditions needed to guarantee infinite lifetimes for the marking process, thus avoiding "explosions", wherein an infinite number of marking changes occur in a finite time interval with probability 1. The author also gives criteria for showing when the marking process is a time-homogeneous continuous-time Markov chain.

In chapter 4, the author discusses to what extent discrete-event systems can be modeled within the SPN framework. He does not answer this in general, claiming that it cannot be, but instead compares the modeling power of SPNs to that of generalized semi-Markov processes (GSMPs). These systems differ, he says, in their event-scheduling and state-transition mechanisms, and the form of the state-space. GSMPs are more general than SPNs, but the author shows that SPNs have at least the modeling power of GSMPs, in that for any GSMP there exists an SPN that `strongly mimics' it: there is a marking process such that both of the processes have the same finite-dimensional distributions using an appropriate mapping between the underlying state spaces. Conversely, for any SNP with both timed and immediate transitions, the author shows that there exists a GSMP that strongly mimics the marking process of the SPN. A very brief but interesting discussion on the ability of Petri nets to mimic a Turing machine is given in the notes to the chapter.

The author turns his attention to stability issues in chapter 5. This attention is dictated by the fact the in order for SPNs to be practical for simulation purposes, their marking processes must have well-defined time-average limits. The stability of an SPN is shown, as expected, with reference to the underlying state-space Markov chain used to define the marking process. In this context, the author uses the notion of "Harris recurrence", wherein Markov chains that have this property repeatedly return to a dense, compact set of states. Criteria for establishing Harris recurrence are given throughout the chapter. Readers will have to know some amount of measure theory in order to read this chapter. The author gives a brief review of it in one of the appendices.

Chapter 9 covers colored stochastic Petri nets (CSPNs), which have myriads of applications and so a thorough reading of it is essential for those involved in those applications. As the author explains, associating colors with tokens and transitions will allow the simplification of Petri nets that have large numbers of places and transitions. The tokens are removed and deposited deterministically, and so CSPNs have less modeling power than SPNs. The tradeoff though is the conciseness of the CSPNs. Noted in the definition of CSPNs is the presence of input and output incidence functions, which determine when a transition is enabled in a color and the number of tokens removed and deposited when a transition fires in a color. Several examples of CSPNs are discussed, including machine repair, a token ring network, a system of cyclic queues with feedback, and one dealing with customer complaint processing. As was the case for SPNs, the marking process of a CSPN is defined in terms of a general state-space Markov chain that describes the CSPN at successive marking changes. The author studies the stability of CSPNs , and considers what are called "symmetric" CSPNs, which are those that remain the same under permutations of its set of colors. The mathematical analysis of symmetric CSPNs is, as expected, simpler than non-symmetric CSPNs.

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Stochastic Petri Nets
Falko Bause , and Pieter S. Kritzinger
Manufacturer: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3528155353

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Application and Theory of Petri Nets 2001

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Software Development | Software Design, Testing & Engineering | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 3540422528

Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Application and Theory of Petri Nets, ICATPN 2001, held in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK in June 2001. The 19 revised full papers presented together with three invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 48 submissions. All current issues on research and development of Petri nets are addressed, in particular timed, stochastic, colored, symmetrical, and high-level Petri nets; formal verification, model checking, embedded systems, real-time systems, dependable computing, and state spaces.

Max-Plus Linear Stochastic Systems and Perturbation Analysis (The International Series on Discrete Event Dynamic Systems)

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Max-Plus Linear Stochastic Systems and Perturbation Analysis (The International Series on Discrete Event Dynamic Systems)
Bernd F. Heidergott
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0387352066

Book Description

During the last decade, the area of stochastic max-plus linear systems has witnessed a rapid development, which created a growing interest in this area. This book provides a thorough treatment of the theory of stochastic max-plus linear systems. Max-plus algebra is an algebraic approach to discrete event systems (DES), like queuing networks that are prone to synchronization. Perturbation analysis studies the sensitivity of the performance of DES with respect to changes in a particular system parameter.

The first part of the book addresses modeling issues and stability theory for stochastic max-plus systems. The second part of the book treats perturbation analysis of max-plus systems: a calculus for differentiation of max-plus systems is developed. This calculus leads to numerical evaluations of performance indices of max-plus linear stochastic systems, such as the Lyapunov exponent or waiting times.

Modelling with Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets

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Modelling with Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets
G. Balbo , G. Conte , S. Donatelli , G. Franceschinis , and M. Ajmone Marsan
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Ltd (Import)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Performance Analysis of Communication Systems : Modeling with Non-Markovian Stochastic Petri Nets

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Performance Analysis of Communication Systems : Modeling with Non-Markovian Stochastic Petri Nets
Reinhard German
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Provides a clear and systematic introduction to the use of stochastic Petri nets in communications systems engineering and the analysis techniques and algorithms used in performance evaluation.
The field of communication systems is full of complex design questions concerning performance and reliability. Since data traffic and errors occur in a random fashion, stochastic models are used for developing and comparing systems. In particular, stochastic Petri nets have become a popular tool for the description and automatic evaluation of such models. The use of non-Markovian models has become important as they allow more flexibility.
This book
* Provides a clear exposition of the use of stochastic Petri nets in communication systems engineering
* Introduces the reader to the analysis techniques and algorithsm used in performance evaluation
* Provides an accompanying example to clarify the use of each definition, concept and algorithm
* Mathematica routines used for implementing the algorithms are available on the Wiley ftp site
The text will appeal to researchers, industrial engineers, and graduate students studying communication systems and stochastic modeling. The numerous examples will benefit those working in performance evaluation, reliability, operations research, queueing theory and computer science.
The Mathematica routines used for implementing the algorithms are available for downloading on the following Wiley ftp site: ftp://ftp.wiley.co.uk/pub/books/german

Performance Evaluation of Automated Manufacturing Systems Using Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets

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Performance Evaluation of Automated Manufacturing Systems Using Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets
Robert Yacoub Al-Jaar
Manufacturer: UMI University Microfilms International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MYEBCM

Performance Evaluation Of Flexible Manufacturing Systems Using Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets

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Performance Evaluation Of Flexible Manufacturing Systems Using Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets
Sivasankaran Somasundaram
Manufacturer: UMI University Microfilms International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: B0006DGCHG

Performance Modelling with Deterministic and Stochastic Petri Nets

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A must for anyone interested in Performance Modelling

Performance Modelling with Deterministic and Stochastic Petri Nets
Christoph Lindemann
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Ltd (Import)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

A must for anyone interested in Performance Modelling.......1999-08-12

The book addresses readers with every kind of knowledge:

Part one motivates performance modelling and describes several stochastic modelling formalisms. Therefor it is ideal for readers new to the subject.

In Part two deterministic and stochastic petri nets are introduced. Two different approaches for numerical analysis of DSPN are presented, which represent an active area of research. This part addresses engineers as well as active scientists, for there are pointers and references to more detailed mathematical papers given.

Applications of the introduced modelling formalism in performance analysis of multiprocessor systems and memory consistency protocols are shown in part three. It is interesting for the engineer, who can learn how to apply DSPN effective. It is also understandable for novices, because a basic introduction to multiprocessor systems is given.

Additionally the book is shipped with the software-package DSPNexpress on CD-ROM, which is explained in part four. It addresses readers, who want to use the results of the book with the mathematical background hidden by a intuitive graphical interface.

The book is highly readable and gives a complete overview about performance modelling and recent research results. The software makes the introduced methods easy to use. Because of pointers to advanced material, the book is interesting even for advanced scientists.

Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Applications and Theory of Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency, ICATPN 2006, held in Turku, Finland in June 2006.

The 16 revised full papers and 6 revised tool papers presented together with 4 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 93 submissions. All current issues on research and development in the area of Petri nets and modeling of concurrent systems are addressed, in particular UML and Petri nets in software development, networking, workflow management, biochemical network analysis, systems modeling, process semantics probabilistic modeling, embedded systems, software services, performance analysis and simulation.

Book Description

As a young man in Georgia, G. Moxley Sorrel enlisted in a cavalry unit even before the Civil War erupted, so eager was he to serve his home state. During the war, as an aide-de-camp on Brigadier General James Longstreet’s staff he fought in many battles, including those at Chickamauga and Chattanooga. He was at Longstreet’s side when Longstreet was struck down in 1864.

Sorrel’s “rough jottings from memory” provide vivid and detailed descriptions of many of the war’s chief participants and events. His military career was cut short when he was shot in the lungs at Hatcher’s Run. Although he survived, the war ended before he could return to duty. In his declining years he wrote, “For my part, when the time comes to cross the river like the others, I shall be found asking at the gates above, ‘Where is the Army of Northern Virginia? For there I make my camp.’”

Customer Reviews:

One of the more insightful insider's look at the Civil War.......2007-10-19

Moxley Sorrel was one of the best staff officers in the Confederate army. He served as one of the key staff officers in the service of Gen. James Longstreet's First Corps. This book, in his own words, is one of the more insightful books by an "insider" from the Civil War.

The book provides some brief background, prior to Sorrel joining Longstreet's staff (which, by the way, appears to have been one of the better corps staffs on the Confederate side--east or west or trans-Mississippi).

His career was distinguished and he had a rare opportunity to observe Longstreet and other major Confederate officers. The book portrays Sorrel's views on major battles of the war--from the Peninsula to Seven Pines to the Seven Days to Second Manassas and on to Gettysburg. Then, an examination of the First Corps' movement to the western theatre, where it played a key role at Chickamauga.

Sorrel became a battlefield figure at the Wilderness, as he led a flanking attack on Union General Winfield Scott Hancock. He finished the war as a battlefield commander rather than a staff officer.

What is best about this book, though, is his careful and thoughtful analysis of events and officers. A very nice work indeed.

Interesting if rather uninspiringly.......2006-07-02

maybe it was because Longstreet wasn't a very talkable sort I don't know but this book does provide some interesting insights and seldom bogs down.

At the Right Hand of Longstreet.......2006-03-03

VERY GOOD BOOK, I ENJOYED IT VERY MUCH, WROTE VERY WELL

Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer.......2005-04-14

This late memoir seems to have been one of the most heavily used sources for scholars of Lee, Longstreet and other generals and the Gettysburg campaign in particular.

As a memoir, it's not very personable, with the author's personal experiences and even his serious injury told in a distant manner, which is not uncommon for works of this kind. It is interesting as an account of Longstreet and others around him, although it shouldn't be taken as absolute gospel; Sorrel's opinion on the Gettysburg campaign in particular seems calculated to deflect any possible criticism from his erstwhile chief.

There are some interesting and unexpected tidbits here -- for one, the role of the spy Harrison, whose very existence has been questioned by some writers. Far from appearing only once on the eve of Gettysburg, he appears in Sorrel's memoir as a regular contact of Longstreet's and one who was still living when the memoir was written. This would seem to strengthen the argument that Harrison's information about Federal activities in the Gettysburg campaign would have been useful to the Confederate command.

It's also interesting (and refreshing) to see how non-teetotal Sorrel's Army of Northern Virginia is -- whiskey everywhere, and even a priceless scene of Longstreet and other officers singing arias while standing on a table.

Excellent account of a soldier's life during the war.......2004-10-15

General Gilbert Moxley Sorrell's memoir of the War Between the States is a must-read for any serious student of the War and a fascinating historical account of soldierly life and experiences. Sorrell served in Longstreet's Brigade beginning at Manassas and as his staff officer until his promotion to Brigadier-General in 1864. He paints a vivid picture of camp life and of the political climate of the times that is often overlooked in military accounts. Highly recommend

Book Description

"My primary concern is with the ethics of representing vulnerable subjects—persons who are liable to exposure by someone with whom they are involved in an intimate or trust-based relationship, unable to represent themselves in writing, or unable to offer meaningful consent to their representation by someone else. . . . Of primary importance is intimate life writing—that done within families or couples, close relationships, or quasi-professional relationships that involve trust—rather than conventional biography, which can be written by a stranger. The closer the relationship between writer and subject, the greater the vulnerability or dependency of the subject, the higher the ethical stakes, and the more urgent the need for ethical scrutiny."—from the Preface

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Hastings Center Report, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1829 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Confessions and transgressions: ethics and life writing.(An Ethics of Life Writing book review)(Vulnerable Subjects Ethics and Life Writing book review)(Book review)
Author: Martha Montello
Publication: The Hastings Center Report (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 36 Issue: 2 Page: 46(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

VULNERABLE SUBJECTS: ETHICS AND LIFE WRITING

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VULNERABLE SUBJECTS: ETHICS AND LIFE WRITING

Manufacturer: Cornell University Ithaca and London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IB44N0

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