CRC Press
Kaizen assembly; designing, constructing, and managing a lean assembly line.
Consultant Ortiz provides a step-by-step guide to getting assembly lines operating at maximum potential, starting with explaining the creation of a governing committee and the importance of upper management's commitment to change, the selection of a Kaizen team, the tracking system and periodic meetings. He explains how Kaizen reduces overproduction, wait time, transportation, over-processing, inventory, motion and defects/rejects, and how it applies to business metrics and visual management. Using an example, he describes a Kaizen event from four weeks ahead to the first through fifth days of implementation, giving procedures, forms, agendas of meetings, and pitfalls to avoid. He then covers areas of training and accountability and ways to move forward with more events. He closes with a case study, including a description of the line six moths after implementation. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Laser safety management.
Barat, laser safety officer for the National Ignition Facility Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, provides practical tools for successfully implementing a laser safety program in any environment. He defines the three elements of laser safety — users, the laser safety officer and incidental personnel — and covers types of injuries, safe standard operating procedures, tools for avoiding pitfalls, training, control measures, and personal protection equipment. He discusses non-beam hazards, includes practical control examples and sample forms, and covers US and European regulations and standards. The guide also includes a sample safety design program for evaluating an existing safety plan. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Liquid chromatography — mass spectrometry, 3d ed.
The technology behind liquid chromatograpy and mass spectrography (LC-MS) has matured to the point where applications have become the focus of the most exciting research. Niessen (bio-pharmaceutical sciences, Free U., Amsterdam) continues to track the most recent literature for this edition, updating the technological basis for LC-MS and focusing on atmospheric-pressure ionization. He describes advances in small LC-MS molecule applications including the analysis of pesticides, environmental studies, drug discovery and development, drug metabolism, quantitative bioanalysis, clinical applications, and the analysis of steroids, food safety and plant phenols. He includes significant LC-MS biomolecule applications, including the analysis of proteins, peptides and enabling technologies, oligosaccharides, lipids and phospholipids, and nucleic acids, and applications in proteomics and the identification of post-translational modifications. In each case he shows how LC-MS works in the study, how to customize strategies and interpret results, and why the results are useful. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Manufacturing optimization through intelligent techniques.
Providing detailed information about how to implement the myriad conventional and intelligent techniques for different types of manufacturing problems, Saravanan (mechatronics engineering, Kumaragura College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India) explains how to model optimization problems, select suitable techniques, develop the optimization algorithm and software, and implement the program. Using examples from literature, Saravanan delineates new techniques for solving optimization problems in tolerance allocation and design; selection of machining parameters, integrated product development, scheduling, concurrent formation of machine groups and part families; and selection of robot coordinates, robot trajectory planning, and intelligent machining. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Materials for rigid and flexible printed wiring boards.
Both of the Jawitz' have been working with printed circuits for decades and here summarize what they have learned about the materials for the boards themselves for the benefit of designers, engineers, and fabricators. Most of the data they present comes directly from the manufacturer's, so they recommend crossing fingers. They cover reinforcement materials (mostly glass), resins, flexible films, copper foils, rigid laminates, high-speed and high-frequency laminates, and metal core and constraining core materials. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Measurement error in nonlinear models; a modern perspective, 2d ed.
Continuing to focus on analytic strategies for regression problems for practical situations in which predictors are measured with error, this edition includes developments across the last decade, including greatly expanded discussion and applications of Bayesian computation through chain Monte Carlo techniques, a new chapter on longitudinal data and mixed models, and new material on nonparametric regression, density estimation, survival analysis, and score functions, with unique data sets available online. Topics include foundation concepts, including models and sources of data, linear regression and attenuation, regression calibrations, simulation extrapolation, instrumental variables, score function methods, likelihood and "quasilikelihood," Bayesian methods, hypothesis testing, nonparametric estimation, semiparametric regression, survival data, and response variable error. Appendices include background material and technical details, and all chapters have bibliographic notes. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Medicinal plants of Asia and the Pacific.
In this combination of reference and field guide, Wiart (pharmacology, U. of Malaya) supports the work of active researchers seeking detailed accounts by others in their field as well as the curiosity of those in pharmacology, medicine, biotechnology, veterinary medicine and biochemistry. He describes 173 medicinal plants and includes very fine botanical plates, full descriptions, and the rationality of uses in medicine in terms of chemotaxonomy, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. Medicinal plants are arranged by all relevant plant families and include their botany and ethnopharmacology. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Micellar catalysis.
Khan (chemistry, U. of Malaya, Malaysia) introduces the chemistry of micellar-mediated catalytic reactions, discussing the range of kinetic models used to describe them and what those models have contributed to understanding of the dynamic structural features of micelles and the mechanistic aspects of their effects on reaction rates. Over the course of the first three chapters he describes the physicochemical properties of micelles, presents the general theory of catalysis in chemical reactions, and introduces the kinetic models and general mechanisms of micellar catalysis. Effects on reaction rates are explored in the following three chapters, which individually discuss normal micelles, mixed normal micelles, and metallomicelles. The final chapter discusses chemical kinetics and kinetic parameters. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Modern differential geometry of curves and surfaces with Mathematica, 3d ed.
Written by Salamon (Politecnico di Turin, Italy) and Abbena (U. of Turin, Italy) to serve as a textbook for a traditional course in classical differential geometry at the advanced undergraduate level, this work incorporates the software tool Mathematica for plotting out complex geometric functions and can also serve as an introduction to the use of this computer tool. For the new edition, they have reorganized the material so that Mathematica code has been separated from the rest of the body of the text. Also included in the text are capsule biographies of some 75 historical mathematicians and scientists. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Multiple correspondence analysis and related methods.
A generalization of simple correspondence analysis, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) handles larger data sets including high-dimensional categorical data. In this accessible textbook format, contributors of the 23 chapters describe the method in practice, analyzing and visualizing two-way arrays, and nonlinear principle component analysis. They give directions of the methods, including geometric analysis of structured individuals and variables tables, dual scaling, validation techniques, subsets of responses categories, dichotomous unidimensional work, analysis of sets of tables, including multiple factor analysis, classification, including correlation analysis, and related methods, including categorical conjoint measurement, assessing the behavior of survey items, three-way contingency tables, models for visualizing interactions, and logistic biplots. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Multidimensional nonlinear descriptive analysis.
Nishisato (emeritus, education, U. of Toronto) offers help to researchers, mostly in the social sciences, faced with analyzing data that is discrete or non-numerical, not necessarily sampled randomly from a population, and involves not only linear but also non-linear relations. After introducing the conceptual and technical preliminaries of data analysis in non-technical terms, he describes applications of what he calls multi-dimensional non-linear descriptive analysis (MUNDA to friends) to diverse data types. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Natural products from plants, 2d ed.
In a reference primarily for graduate and undergraduate students in a variety of plant biology courses, biologists, botanists, chemists, a physician, and other contributors explore the natural products plants produce and why they produce them. Their topics include phytochemicals, the molecular biology of plant natural products, characterizing them, modes of action at target sites, plant conservation, and the relationship between people and plants. No date is noted for the first edition. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Neurobehavioral genetics; methods and applications, 2d ed.
Working from their research on subjects ranging from primates to invertebrates, contributors of these 30 papers include new developments in developmental neurobehavioral genetics, gene-to-gene interactions, bioinformatics, gene expression and single cell techniques. They also consider how past advances have led to current thinking about neurobehavioral issues as they address the history of the field, traits (Mendelian, polygenic and complex), quantitative genetics, QTL detection and gene identification, gene expression, bioinformatics of behavior, congenic and consomic strains, animal resources, sample size requirements, the role of association studies in psychiatric disorders, family and twin methods, interactions between genes and environments, schizophrenia, major affective disorders, pedigree analysis and subjective well-being, personality genes, aggression, analysis of emotional behaviors using animal models, food search behaviors, courtship, learning and memory, brain dopamine, hippocampal structures, expression and brain structure, synaptic mechanisms and genes associated with mental retardation, pharmacogenetics, alcohol, and behavior genetics in the ever-useful nematode. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Neural networks for applied sciences and engineering; from fundamentals to complex pattern recognition.
Samarasinghe (natural resources engineering, Lincoln U., New Zealand) describes how neural networks are used to find patterns in scientific data. Beginning with the basics, she explains a variety of neural networks' internal workings, and how to apply them to solve real problems. Among the types are Multilayer Perceptron for predictions and classification, Self-Organizing Feature Maps for unsupervised clustering, and Recurrent Networks for understanding and forecasting time-series. Distributed in the US by Taylor and Francis. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Nucleic acid testing for human disease.
The testing encompasses highly diverse methods for detecting and characterizing properties of DNA and RNA in their various forms, and is used widely for clinical diagnosis and in research settings. Depending on the job at hand, the DNA or RNA tested may be that of the human host or of a pathogen. Scientists from several medical fields explain aspects of the technology and survey the application of nucleic acid testing in the diagnosis and treatment of such human diseases as infections, cancer, and inherited disorders. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Numerical methods for engineers, 2d ed.
No date is noted for the first edition of the textbook, but the second uses the newest version of the programming language Fortran 95 to introduce numerical methods in linear algebraic, non-linear, eigenvalue, and ordinary and partial differential equations. Interpolation and curve fitting and numerical integration are also covered. Programs are set out in the text. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Nutrient-drug interactions.
Hoping to correct some of the lack of safety testing of "natural" medicinal products, Meckling (medical biophysics, U. of Guelph, Canada) presents this volume discussing the interaction of foods and herbs with the pharmacologic agents most commonly used in disease treatment and prevention. Each of the nine contributed chapters discusses the treatment or prevention of an ailment, covering the macronutrient, micronutrient, and phytochemical impact of various nutrients on drug action. Diet suggestions are provided when a certain nutrient may significantly increase or decrease the toxicity or efficacy of a drug. Treatments for diabetes, cancer, major depression, and cardiovascular disease are discussed, among other ailments. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The occupational ergonomics handbook, 2d ed.: Fundamentals and assessment tools for occupational ergonomics.
Marras (The Ohio State University Institute for Ergonomics) and Karwowski (Center for Industrial Ergonomics, University of Louisville) introduce the discipline and profession of ergonomics. Section I covers legal issues, quality management, professional certification, and cost justification for interventions, as well as fundamentals of biomechanics, anthropometry, and individual disorders and injuries. Section II focuses on ergonomics assessment methods and tools and their validity, describing tools for the assessment of both physical and cognitive work demands. This second edition features a new organization designed to make material more accessible. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Oceanography and marine biology; an annual review; v.44.
Gibson (Scottish Association for Marine Science; Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Oban, Scotland) and fellow Scottish marine scientists introduce eight reviews by international authors on the latest information on topics ranging widely in subject and geographical and taxonomic coverage. The volume begins with an in-depth review of validation efforts for ecological and biogeochemical models of the greater North Sea, with appended details on available datasets. A couple of papers synthesize what is known about algae communities and mollusks. Others treat trends being exacerbated by human activity: the potential toxic effects of increasing manganese levels on crustaceans, and the implications of climate change for marine mammals. Figures include possible scenarios. A correction is given for an article in volume 43. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Operational calculus and related topics.
Mathematicians Glaeske (Friedrich-Schiller U., Germany), K.A. Skornik (Polish Academy of Sciences, Katowice), and A.P. Prudnikov (1927-99) introduce operational calculus and the related topics of integral transforms of functions and generalized functions. The three areas are the backbone of many branches of pure and applied mathematics, and though centuries old continue to be goosed and applied to new problems in mathematics and other disciplines. The work is part monograph and part textbook for students of mathematics, physics, and engineering. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
