Optimization: Algorithms and Consistent Approximations (Applied Mathematical Sciences)

Book Description

This book covers algorithms and discretization procedures for the solution of nonlinear progamming, semi-infinite optimization and optimal control problems. Among the important features included are the theory of algorithms represented as point-to-set maps, the treatment of min-max problems with and without constraints, the theory of consistent approximation which provides a framework for the solution of semi-infinite optimization, optimal control, and shape optimization problems with very general constraints, using simple algorithms that call standard nonlinear programming algorithms as subroutines, the completeness with which algorithms are analysed, and chapter 5 containing mathematical results needed in optimization from a large assortment of sources. Readers will find of particular interest the exhaustive modern treatment of optimality conditions and algorithms for min-max problems, as well as the newly developed theory of consistent approximations and the treatment of semi-infinite optimization and optimal control problems in this framework. This book presents the first treatment of optimization algorithms for optimal control problems with state-trajectory and control constraints, and fully accounts for all the approximations that one must make in their solution.It is also the first to make use of the concepts of epi-convergence and optimality functions in the construction of consistent approximations to infinite dimensional problems.

Customer Reviews:

Optimization : Algorithms and Consistent Approximations.......2000-04-04

A good book on an important subject!

superbly written ... work of art........1999-10-21

Develops a powerful algorithmic and implementable framework for solving finite and semi-infinite nonlinear optimization problems with a special emphasis on min-max optimization problems.

Average customer rating:

Haunting and terrifying

Haunting

De Profundis Clamavi

Fires on the Plain

A treat for all the senses -- beautiful and bizarre.

Fires on the Plain (Tuttle Classics)
Shohei Ooka
Manufacturer: Tuttle Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Black Rain: A Novel (Japan's Modern Writers)

Harp of Burma (UNESCO Collection of Contemporary Works)

The Woman in the Dunes

Masks Masks

The Setting Sun

ASIN: 0804813795

Book Description

The author's experience as a prisoner captured by American forces during WWII figures prominently in this haunting novel about the ultimate degradation of a man by war. Set in Leyte, where the Japanese army is disintegrating under the hammering blows of American forces, the story focuses on the disintegration of one man, Private Tamura. One by one, each of his ties to society is destroyed, until Tamura, a sensitive and intelligent man, becomes an outcast. Yet it is the novel's uplifting vision during a time of ultimate horror that has made it one of Japan's greatest novels.

Customer Reviews:

Haunting and terrifying.......2007-05-17

This is quite possibly one of the most gripping, devastating novels I've ever read, and certainly one of the most compelling books to come out of World War II from any cultural standpoint. The style of narration (and the psychology of the narrator) will be familiar to those who've read The Stranger (there's even a scene midway through that startlingly evokes Camus' masterpiece), and we not only sense, we LIVE the narrator's increasing despair, degradation, and misery as his situation steadily worsens and he is subjected to increasingly bizarre and grotesque displays of violence. The portrait of a demoralized, defeated army, literally starving and grasping at any potential straws for survival, is possibly startling for American audiences, who may be accustomed to seeing World War II from a different viewpoint altogether. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys fiction, period.

Haunting.......2005-04-10

Both a soldier and professor of literature in his lifetime, Shohei Ooka weaves in his own experiences as a POW during WWII to present the story of Private Tamura in the unforgettable war story Fires on the Plain. Abandoned by his company on Leyte Island, in the Philippines, as it is losing in a slow, agonizing battle with American forces, Tamura has nowhere to go, nothing to do. As he becomes further and further removed from the "society" of his regiment, his peers, Tamura begins to fall apart. He has come down with consumption and as such is no longer of any use to his platoon, which is facing annihilation. Food is the primary obsession of Japanese commanders - there simply isn't enough. The dying and wounded are therefore sent to the field hospital to be kept until they expire - or are kicked out when their food supply runs out. When Tamura, however, returns from a brief visit to the hospital, his commander slaps him brutally. "You damned fool! D'you mean to say you let them send you back here?" He is thus sent back again; the hospital, however, will not let in patients who don't have their own food. Without food, patients are pronounced "cured" and sent on their way. And thus begins an existential and brutal journey into a heart of darkness.
The story focuses on the gradual and permanent removal from society of Private Tamura. Slowly but surely, his ties to society are severed. Tamura, an intelligent and decent man, is thus completely alone in a war zone. He doesn't have a reason to die, so he stumbles about the Philippine countryside in search of food. While searching for sustenance, he must avoid both the local people and American soldiers. During his trials, Tamura carries on an internal dialog on his situation, which reads like a treatise on the existence of God. The imagery is poetic and horrifying, a portrait of a man's descent into hell. Haunting and powerful.

De Profundis Clamavi.......2004-01-07

Abandoned by his company, Private Tamura wanders Leyte Island with neither a reason to live nor a reason to die. Ooka's starving Japanese soldier is absolutely captivating in his determination to analyze the horrors of warfare objectively while he witnesses them first hand. Stumbling through countless forests and mountains, the poetry that seeps from his reasoning is all the more powerful given his completely numbed and desensitized state. There's simultaneous beauty and terror in every one of Tamura's insights all the way through to his confrontations with cannibalism and his struggles to discern between God and himself. My only hope is that on second reading I might better understand some more of the abstract themes Ooka tackles. It's so beautiful...do read it!

Fires on the Plain.......2000-04-12

The part that gave me a shiver was when the protagonist's own left hand stopped him from cutting up a dead soldier's body to eat the flesh and he found it God's hand, not his. Such a beautiful scene. It still makes me cry.

A treat for all the senses -- beautiful and bizarre........1999-05-20

Ooka Shohei's Fires on the Plain (Nobi) is vividly transcribed and will leave readers with a lasting impression. The author manages to merge stunning literary description with the horrors of war as seen from the point of view of a losing army. The protagonist's slow descent into madness is sublimely rendered -- at once painful to read yet impossible to put down. Like another reviewer posting here, I too read this on a plane and found myself transported 50 years and thousands of miles to the Philippines, amid lush jungles and the fallout of armed conflict. The impact of this novel's stunning end must be experienced to be appreciated. An engaging and educational read that speaks eloquently to our most basic human needs, desires, delusions and taboos.

Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest

Average customer rating:

complete book about longleaf pines
Best book on longleaf yet.
America's Rain Forest

Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest
Lawrence S. Earley
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807856991

Book Description

Covering 92 million acres from Virginia to Texas, the longleaf pine ecosystem was, in its prime, one of the most extensive and biologically diverse ecosystems in North America. Today these magnificent forests have declined to a fraction of their original extent, threatening such species as the gopher tortoise, the red-cockaded woodpecker, and the Venus fly-trap. Conservationists have proclaimed longleaf restoration a major goal, but has it come too late?

In Looking for Longleaf, Lawrence S. Earley explores the history of these forests and the astonishing biodiversity of the longleaf ecosystem, drawing on extensive research and telling the story through first-person travel accounts and interviews with foresters, ecologists, biologists, botanists, and landowners. For centuries, these vast grass-covered forests provided pasture for large cattle herds, in addition to serving as the world's greatest source of naval stores. They sustained the exploitative turpentine and lumber industries until nearly all of the virgin longleaf had vanished.

Looking for Longleaf demonstrates how, in the twentieth century, forest managers and ecologists struggled to understand the special demands of longleaf and to halt its overall decline. The compelling story Earley tells here offers hope that with continued human commitment, the longleaf pine might not just survive, but once again thrive.

Customer Reviews:

complete book about longleaf pines.......2006-11-19

mr. earley goes deep into everything you could want to know about this native tree species,a cornerstone to both the natural world of the southeastern united states and the economic growth and development of the country as a whole.......he tells all about the past history,present day status,and projected outlook of the longleaf pine tree:it's one-time dominance of the coastal plain landscape,compared to it's present day status;all about the naval stores and timber industries,and their heavy dependence upon it that led to it's near demise and current numbers;and the changes in land management of the longleaf forest and it's various ecosystems,with much insight to the controlled burning philosophy that has gained in popularity during the last 50 years or so.....with photos, including some impressive shots of long-gone virgin growth trees dwarfing the grown men standing among them.

Best book on longleaf yet........2005-09-08

This book is as accurate and detailed as any scholarly paper but is written so well that it is certain to be a classic of literature like Archie Carr's "The Windward Road."

America's Rain Forest.......2004-11-23

For years I have been concerned about the disappearance of the South American Rain Forest. What was shocking from Earley's book is how we had our own expansive Forest with it's own ecosystem and let it disappear before our very eyes without anyone noticing.

It is not only a wonderfully told story of the Longleaf pine but it is a genuine history of how the South's economic development between the time of the settlers and up until today nearly destroyed it's most valuable resource and the ecology that was a part of it.

The only problem with this book was not being able to put it down after I started reading it.

Average customer rating:

Too Slow
Unbelievable
Is Belva Plain kidding?
A Well-Written Book-All About Truthfulness in Relationships
Pleases again

After the Fire
Belva Plain
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0385334702
Release Date: 2000-04-18

Book Description

In her stunning new novel, New York Times bestselling author Belva Plain has written a compelling story of family and fortune, beauty and betrayal. With unerring insight and emotional power, she penetrates a shattered marriage to explore one of the most provocative issues of our time.

What happens when the picture-perfect marriage dissolves? In her unsparing evocation of a family in crisis, Belva Plain goes to the heart of a marriage between a naïve young artist and her handsome physician husband. At first everything is idyllic. Then one terrible night she commits an act she will regret for the rest of her life. An act that gives her husband the ultimate weapon: blackmail. The price of his silence is uncontested custody of their two children.

When her own beautiful, angry mother wants to know why she won't fight for custody, she can give no answers. For she alone knows, or believes she knows, what really happened on that fateful night.

In a novel that is both provocative and heartbreaking, Belva Plain proves herself the writer who sets the standard for family stories, a novelist of incomparable depth and grace.

Customer Reviews:

Too Slow.......2005-09-27

This has got to be one of the worst books I have ever read. It is too slow. The author tends to drag on each situation. I think the plot is good it was just not well written at all. I am struggling to finish it just because I am curious to see what happens with the children.

Unbelievable.......2004-11-01

I'll have to reserve a higher rating until I finish this saga. I think I will have to agree with the previous reviewer that gave a low rating. The dialog is so stilted I can't believe what I am reading. I AM a Belva Plain admirer, but her writing here leaves much to be desired.
Back to this unbelievable couple and their disolving marriage.

Is Belva Plain kidding?.......2004-03-21

This book isn`t worth the paper it is written on!!It contained nothing of substance.Where did this couple live?What were their last names?What was a day like at home for the mother(Hyacynth)?What were her children like?What was important to her?These are just a few of the subjects not even touched upon by the author.I couldn`t get past the first 100 pages.I hav not read any of this authors other books since Evergreen,which I loved.This book was a waste of my time and money.I will not ever waste anymore money on this authors books.

A Well-Written Book-All About Truthfulness in Relationships.......2003-03-14

In this story, the picture-perfect marriage dissolves when Hyacinth's physician-husband, is found to be having an affair. One terrible night she commits an act that she will regret for the rest of her life. An act that gives her husband the ultimate weapon; blackmail. The price of his silence is uncontested custody of their two children.

When her own beautiful, angry mother wants to know why Hyacinth won't fight for custody, she can give no anwers. For she alone knows, or believe she knows, what really happened on that fateful night.

Pleases again.......2003-03-14

This is the story of the marriage of Hyacinth and Gerald. Hyacinth is a romantic, naïve, young artist who believes in true love and in the integrity of Gerald; her new husband fresh out of medical school. Gerald has big plans for the future and a need for the society that Hyacinth's family can provide. Hyacinth's needs are those of any wide-eyed young girl who has lived in the shadow of a beautiful mother. She needs only the true love that she doesn't believe she truly deserves.

The reader enters Hyacinth's world, feels her trust in the man she loves, and lives her heartbreak as the marriage slowly dissolves, taking her children with it in an ugly divorce based on blackmail. We follow Hyacinth as she finds the courage to make her way alone, while grieving for her children and for the comfort and warmth of the home she had made with them. Her intense love for Gerald turns to hate and to a fierce determination to get her children back. In After the Fire, Belva Plain skillfully weaves the tendrils of suspense in a story filled with joy, betrayal, sadness, and ultimate victory!

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The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire (Civilization of the American Indian Series)
R. David Edmunds
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 080612069X

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Great Book

Rough and dry

Good book on a not well known period

An outstanding book on a critical conflict

A Close Look at Long Forgotten Battles

Circle of Fire: The Indian War of 1865
John D. McDermott
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Blue Water Creek and the First Sioux War, 1854 - 1856 (Campaigns and Commanders, 6)

ASIN: 0811700615

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-07-21

Another excellent book by a great author. This may be the definitive work on this subject. Great job keeping the balence of perspective between the Indians and the soldiers.

Rough and dry.......2005-08-30

This book has two things going for it:

1. It covers an often overlooked period of the Indian Wars of the West.

2. It is footnote heavy, for those of us who want to explore more deeply into this period.

It has six things going against it:

1. Dryly written. McDermott just doesn't have a flare for writing interesting narrative.

2. Poor maps. The course/routes of the Connor, Cole and Walker prongs of the summer/fall offensive is not mapped, but McDermott, for some inexplicable reason, includes a useless map showing 10 "avenger" campsites in the Julesberg area from December 1864 to February 1865 without dates for the 10 sites. It is of no value to the narrative.

3. Editor mistakes. The footnote numbers for Chapter 9 are one out of sequence for their explanation in the Notes section at the end of the book. There are also several index listings that are erroneous (can't be found on the page listed).

4. Incongruity. McDermott for some reason devotes over a full page to a menu of food served at a banquet in honor of General Connor after his campaign was completed. This is not important or necessary.

5. Misstatements. The one that comes to mind was the statement McDermott makes concerning the range of the Spencer carbine being 900 yards! Perhaps if it was fired at a 45 degree angle. The EFFECTIVE range of a Spencer carbine is around 150 yards.

6. PCness. As mentioned by another reviewer, McDermott refers to the Indians throughout his book as "avengers". He dismisses the Indian custom of horribly mutilating white dead/captives as just part of Indian culture. He amazingly accepts at face value George Bent's claim that no white prisoners were ever tortured (p. 165). Yet McDermott mentions a case of a white captive having his tongue cut out by his Indian captors because he was screaming too much while being slowly roasted (p. 151). George Bent, as one of the Indian leaders in the 1865 war, would have a rather good reason to deny any torture took place.

The book is not all bad, but needs re-writing and re-editing in my opinion.

In all honesty, I got a better overall view of the 1865 Sioux War by reading the long chapter 15 of Robert Utley's "Frontiersmen in Blue". Check that out.

Good book on a not well known period.......2005-01-20

This is a good book on a period of the west that is not well known. The author does a good job of researching his topic. Although the writing is somewhat dry and to the point, there appears to be little truthful that can be said and this period is not well documented. Some sections that I like especially where the early parts when about the Indian raiding that closed the roads in Colorado in 1865 and the fear that spread into Denver. The section on the Connor campaign in August/September was also interesting. Especially about the one unit attacked by thousands of Indians and the excerpts on Roman Nose who road in front of the soliders guns without getting touched. Although this isn't a great book, it is an interesting book and one worth looking at if you are interested in the Indian wars in the west.

An outstanding book on a critical conflict.......2004-05-17

The events of 1865 were decisive in determing whether American Indians or Euroamericans would control passage over and use of the Great Plains. The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 awakened and motivated the peoples of the central and northern Plains as few other events ever would. The result, as author McDermott concludes, was a rare series of events in which the Indians assumed the initiative. Meanwhile, the United States government--which was about to economize on military spending with the close of the Civil War--had to decide how serious a commitment it had to military solutions to Indian conflict. The Indian War of 1865 is probably--with the possible exception of the wars in the Pacific Northwest--the hardest Indian conflict to study and understand. The records are dispersed, the participants diverse, and the geographical range of the events far spread. Yet McDermott has managed to see the "big picture" rather than simply focus on disperate local violence. The book is unique in its examination of the pattern of events. It is not a "fast read" and at times the wealth of details can be overwhelming. However, the footnotes--unlike those in many other studies--are genuinely useful and the conclusions chapter is a masterpiece. This is a book that should be in the library of every school with a course touching upon the American West. Dr. Michael A. Hughes, Editor Emeritus of the Journal of the Indian Wars

A Close Look at Long Forgotten Battles.......2004-03-16

Although not as engaging as some of his earlier works, this is an invaluable book on many levels. The author's topic is a challenging one, since he must tie together Indian battles across a geographically diverse area, from Kansas and Colorado, all the way to northern Wyoming. Trying to link a tight narrative across this wide area may somewhat interfere with the flow of the narrative but not to the detriment of the knowledge and insight conveyed.

For anyone, such as myself, who has visited the Big Horn Mountains area of northern Wyoming and wanted more detail on both the Sawyers Expedition and the Conner Battle site on Tongue River, this book is indispensible. Sites relating to those two little-known campaigns are dutifully marked but little information has been readily available (at least to this reader)until Mr. McDermott's excellent book. The author shows how the army's failure to subjugate those areas served as a prelude to Red Cloud's War, after which the military withdrew from the region until the Great Sioux War of 1876, best known for the Custer massacre. My interest in these events justifies the purchase of this book. The book contains in depth, insightful analysis of various aspects of what distinguished Indian warfare from the more conventional Civil War. Full attention is paid to the overwhelming importance of logistics in these campaigns, especially the army's inability to field healthy horses that could hold up to the rigors of campaigning. If your bookshelves bulge with books pertaining to the much better known and written about Custer battle, you owe it to your overall background knowledge to include this one with them.

Average customer rating:
Fires on the Plain

Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 014003045X

Average customer rating:
Lizzie And the Prairie Fire: Girl Pioneer in the American Midwest (American Frontier Story) (American Frontier Story) (American Frontier Story)
Gail Wood
Manufacturer: White Mane Kids
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

1800s | Fiction | United States | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 157249381X
Release Date: 2006-09-25

Product Description

Living in a sod home in 1892, Lizzie Lipinski craves more excitement from her life on the prairie. But Lizzie gets more than she could possibly want when she comes face to face with a wall of raging flames sweeping the prairie. Can Lizzie find the strength to save her home and family and acquire a new appreciation for her life on the prairie?

4 Book Set By Belva Plain; Looking Back; After the Fire; Fortune's Hand; Legacy of Silence

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4 Book Set By Belva Plain; Looking Back; After the Fire; Fortune's Hand; Legacy of Silence
Belva Plain
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WHTSHM

Product Description

4 Book Set By Belva Plain; Looking Back; After the Fire; Fortune's Hand; Legacy of Silence.

5 Belva Plain Titles - Fortune's Hand - Sight of the Stars - Looking Back - After the Fire - Crescent City

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5 Belva Plain Titles - Fortune's Hand - Sight of the Stars - Looking Back - After the Fire - Crescent City
Belva Plain
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Product Description

5 mass market paperbacks.

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AFTER THE FIRE
PLAIN BELVA
Manufacturer: DELACORTE PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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