MATLAB(R) for Photomechanics- A Primer

Book Description

The term "photomechanics" describes a suite of experimental techniques which use optics (photo) for studying problems in mechanics. The field has been in existence for some time, but has always lagged behind other experimental and numerical techniques. The main reason for this is that the interpretation of data, which whilst providing whole-field visualization, is not in a form readily amenable to the end-user. Digital image processing has become common within the photomechanics community. However, one approach does not fit all, and subtle variations in technique and method have been developed by different groups working on specific applications.

This primer enables the user to get started with their experimental analysis quickly. It is based on the universally popular MATLAB® software, which includes dedicated and optimized functions for a variety of image processing tasks. These can readily scripted, along with the necessary mathematical expressions, for particular experimental techniques. The book provides an introduction to some of the optical techniques, and then introduces MATLAB® routines specific to the image processing in experimental mechanics. There are also case studies on particular techniques.

As part of the book, a collection of M-files is provided on CD-ROM, which also contains example images and test code. This provides a starting point for the user, who can then easily add or edit statements or function for their own images.

Book Description

Photomechanics describes the use of photonics techniques for the nondestructive measurement of variations in certain important physical quantities such as displacements, strains, densities, etc. in experimental solid mechanics and flow. Offering authoritative reviews by internationally recognized experts, the book provides a wealth of information on the essential principles and methods today available in this realm. These include holographic and moiré interferometry, speckle metrology, two- and three-dimensional computer-vision methods as well as laser-Doppler and pulsed-laser velocimetries. The instructive nature of the book makes it an excellent text for physicists and practicing engineers who want to use photomechanics for solving their specific measurement problems and for researchers in various disciplines requiring a broad introduction to the subject.

Book Description

he bestselling Brightness Falls--now in trade paper from the author of Bright Lights, Big City. In the story of Russell and Corrine Calloway, set against the world of New York publishing, McInerney provides a stunningly accomplished portrayal of people contending with early success, then getting lost in the middle of their lives.

Customer Reviews:

"Shivering at the dark threshold.".......2007-08-07

"Rich men, trust not in wealth,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic himself must fade,
All things to end are made.
The plague full swift goes by . . .

. . . Beauty is but a flower
Which wrinkles will devour.
Brightness falls from the air,
Queens have died young and fair;
Dust hath closed Helen's eye.
I am sick, I must die" (pp. 412-13).

With a writing style that has been compared to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Waugh. Jay McInerney's (1955) love story, Brightness Falls (1992), tells the sobering morality tale of a "perfect" New York couple, Russell and Corrine Calloway, and the gradual disintegration of their marriage (along the lines of Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage). Russell is now a literary editor at a prominent downtown publishing house, and Corrine is an anorexic stockbroker with a "Mother Teresa syndrome" (she volunteers in a soup kitchen). Set in the mid-1980s, McInerney's novel takes on the politics of love, the tensions between love and sex, and how relationships can falter over time. At odds with his mentor (Harold Stone), Russell attempts a hostile takeover of his publishing company with the help of a corporate raider (Bernie Melman), while also pursuing an affair with his investment banker (Trina). Corrine leaves Russell after his scheme fails, but their relationship manages to survive. McInerney ends his literate, subtle, insightful novel on a poignant note with Russell contemplating (as Corrine nests and dozes on his shoulder) "that whatever plenty befalls them together or separately in the future, they will become more and more intimate with loss as the years accumulate, friends dying or slipping away undramatically into the crowded past, memory itself finally flickering and growing treacherous toward the end; knowing that even the children who may be in their future will eventually school them in the pain of growth and separation, as their own parents and mentors die off and leave them alone in the world, shivering at the dark threshold" (p. 416). McInerney's characters, Russell and Corrine, return in his 2006 novel, The Good Life. Highly recommended.

G. Merritt

Elegiac.......2007-04-19

One can stand at a distance and criticize this novel as a tale of two self-absorbed yuppies, or one can come closer and actually read the book and find that it's not so easy to dismiss. Corinne and Russell are very real people, and McInerney does an excellent job fleshing them out. I sympathized with Corinne, a true lost soul who feels helpless as her husband's drive to succeed starts to change him, and also felt as indignant as Russell for the way he was being treated by his superior at the publishing company. All along the way, I felt dread in the pit of my stomach as to what would happen with Russell's attempt to takeover the company, but since McInerney sets the novel in the months right before the Stock Market Crash of 1987, that dread is most likely intentional.

This is the third McInerney novel I've read, and I can now say that I am a fan. "Brightness Falls" is denser and more complex than "Bright Lights, Big City" and "Story of My Life" but it doesn't hit a false note. He conveys late 80s Manhattan perfectly, and juggles the myriad points of view like a pro.

Why this novel does not have "National Bestseller" emblazoned across the top surprises me. Perhaps in 1992, people just weren't in the mood to read a novel about 80s excess, feeling it was too soon. Their loss. Several years on, this novel holds up very well. Interesting that the book also somewhat mirrors the Manhattan of today, where finance is once again booming, real estate is over the top and many are living well. People live high, and there's no real sign of stopping. Will this new world of ugly luxury condos (face it, they're ugly), the vanishing arts frontier and dwindling middle class last forever, supplanting a vibrant city with a glossy, homogeneous veneer? It seems that way; nobody foresees an end to to this new gilded age. The hubris is thick in the air and brightness falls when people least expect it.

The best of the best.......2006-01-24

Brightness Falls is Jay McInerney's best, hands down. While I loved his earlier books like Bright Lights Big City and Story of My Life, this is the book where McInerney shows us what he can do. BF is about a married 30-year old couple Russell and Corrine whom to their friends are as perfect as perfect can be, with their good looks, uncomplicated lives, and easy going natures. Underneath, they are also decent people who are sympathetic and all too human. Russell is drawn into the wild world of M&A sweeping through Manhattan on the eve of the 1987 stock market crash. Corrine balks but there's nothing she can do but stand by her man. Things go great and then bad quickly as we would expect. The plot is interesting but it's not the plot that gives this book its soul. It's the finely drawn characters and McInerney's ability to capture things just perfectly. There are passages which for sheer brilliance I re-read just to savor them. McInerney can take a simple scene and render it so vividly you can see your own life and memories mirrored in it. For instance, there is one chapter in which Russell returns home to the midwest to visit his father, an aging breed of General Motors execs living out his twilight years in a pleasant suburb of Detroit. The complicated emotions McInerney teases out, the exchange between father and son, these are depicted so truthfully, I could feel my own heart twist and contort as I thought of visits to my own family. BF is an example of truly inspired and inspiring writing.

the new thinking is all about loss.......2005-10-22

Brightness Falls is kind of dated (80s) but has some really fresh observations on ambition and failure. There's also a very complex reading of the breaking-up thing towards the end, and one of the best epigraphs ever. Definitely read McInerney but start with Bright Lights, Big City.

The Best Novel About Late 1980's Yuppie Culture.......2005-09-18

Set just before the 1987 stock market crash and taking its title from a macabre 17th century poem about the unavoidable ruination of youth, beauty, ambition and life itself, Jay Mcinerney's finest novel is the tale of a twenty-something married couple, Russell and Corrine, who live in New York City at the height of '80's excess and glamour. The man whose life forms the basis of this novel, Russell, is an aspiring writer who has shelved his ambitions and taken up work as a publisher, editing and pushing through other peoples' books. He is unhappy at his job, slightly bored in his marriage, and when the chance comes up to advance himself and become part-owner of a faltering publishing house, he seizes it....exactly days before the ruination the market collapse brings on. This is a novel of expertly appreciated manners and mores in Reagan's New York, augmented by a fabulously-sketched cast of characters, all moved along at a brisk pace by the power of Mcinerney writing in top form. Thus far this is the author's best novel and probably the greatest of all examinations of life among the upwardly-mobile in 1980's Manhattan.

Average customer rating:

A Very Different Book
Poor writing, plot, characters...
Strong Premise; Poor Writing
Delicate little novel, not fully realised.
Beautiful novel by one of SF's greatest short story authors

Brightness Falls From The Air
James Tiptree
Manufacturer: Orb Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312854072

Customer Reviews:

A Very Different Book.......2006-10-09

I can see why the reviewers are pretty much split down the middle on this one. The set-up is extraordinary, the writing style is unusual, and the payoff is less than the reader hopes for. Even so, I really enjoyed this novel. There are more ideas in this book than in a dozen average SF novels, so I can look past the fact that many of the ideas are never fleshed out. It is the first "James Tiptree" novel (or short story) that I've read, and now I will definitely search out some of her earlier and more highly regarded works to see what I think of them.

Poor writing, plot, characters..........2004-08-17

Cardboard characters, High School level writing, poor plotting, unremarkable prose, "Brightness Falls from the Air" is a book that confounds the reader who has earlier read the superlatives and the cover blurb by the New York Times. Was Gerald Jonas high that day?

The setup is fairly interesting: sixteen characters gather on a planet to witness the arrival of a visually spectacular nova front. This front is all that remains of a star destroyed along with an entire race of beings during an interstellar war. Our story opens as sixteen characters both human and alien arrive on the planet to witness the phenomena.

The story is needlessly melodramatic and constantly dragged down by incidental minutiae. The much lauded sexuality of the novel turns out to be a child pornographer and his troupe of pubescents, whose depiction is about as sexy and subversive as "Calendar Girls." Praise has been heaped upon Sheldon for her short stories. I saw no writing in evidence here that would cause me to go seek any of them out.

Here is one frustrating event that characterizes the failure of the novel: an alien bounty hunter, the last of his race, has spent the better part of his life tracking down the person who activated the device that destroyed his people's star. When he finally finds the person (one of our characters) he does a complete turnabout, realizes that the destruction of the artifact (which in turn destroyed the star) was a good thing since it had been psychologically destroying his people over the years (she must have hit the alien cable network), changes his mind and blows his head off (after a cliche hostage standoff). Some might say that this is an interesting and even shocking twist. I had to pinch myself from falling asleep. One question blows the entire construction out of the water: has this alien never thought about these things before? How can it be that only at the very end of his search does he wake up and realize that she did them all a favor? In plain language, a steaming heap of...BS.

And the relationship between Kip and Cory seems like some idealized autumn years marriage but with the woman (Sheldon perhaps?) 'deepened' by her 'dark' past. Hooey. And overall, could there be any more boring representation of a relationship between two people? Isn't everything just perfect? They don't use the bathroom, they don't stink, and they don't use harsh language - and they have really boring lovely sex: how enlightened!

You would be well advised to try one of her short stories first before launching into this C-grade affair.

Strong Premise; Poor Writing.......2004-06-09

In Brightness Falls from the Air, Ms. Triptree has written a rich yet unsatisfactory novel. Ms. Triptree's characters are an interesting collection and the general backdrop of the novel is well staged. Yet the novel is consistently hindered by the short-sighted and outright unintelligent attitudes of the characters. As such, what might have been a sophisticated novel soon becomes tedious and trite. Ms. Triptree does provide a final, dark revelation that proves eerily satisfying -- but ultimately it is the writing, not the plot, that prevents this novel from ever taking flight.

Delicate little novel, not fully realised........2002-04-09

A strange group of characters gather on a forbidden world to watch and experience the effects of a dying planet. It seems, however, that some of them come with an agenda that involves harm to the natives of the world-- natives who have already been harmed enough...

Tiptree introduces a wide variety of characters-- probably too many characters for the 270 pages of the book. They are developed enough to be interesting, but not enough to be even. It is not your run of the mill science fiction novel, and doesn't shy away from some fairly explicit sexuality and violence.

If you can find a copy of this book, I do recommend a read. Despite the flaws, it's both compelling and thought-provoking.

Beautiful novel by one of SF's greatest short story authors.......2000-08-01

One of the most surprising announcements in science fiction history was when award-winning but reclusive science fiction writer James Tiptree, Jr. revealed that she was actually Dr. Alice Sheldon.

Sheldon wote some of the best short fiction of the 70s, including such classics as "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (which anticipated many cyberpunk themes years before William Gibson), "The Women Men Don't See", and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?".

Brightness Falls from the Air was Sheldon's second (and final) novel. Although Sheldon's best work was certainly in her short stories, my favorite thing about this novel was seeing Sheldon express many of her recurring themes in a longer form, weaving several seemingly disparate plot lines into one. The novel works well both as a mystery and as science fiction, and offers a nice helping of excitement as well.

This is one of my favorite science fiction novels of all time, and is an excellent introduction to the work of James Tiptree, Jr.

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Brightness Falls
Jay McInerney
Manufacturer: Not Specified
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ4P30

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Brightness Falls
Jay McInerney
Manufacturer: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NVCILA

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Brightness Falls
McInerey
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JGHA0I

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Brightness Falls
Jay McInerney
Manufacturer: David McKay Company, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NPTMEM

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Brightness Falls
Jay McInerney
Manufacturer: New York Alfred A. Knopf 1992.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PCDBZE

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Brightness Falls
jay mcinerney
Manufacturer: bloomsbury publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary
McInerney, Jay | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000QTA9ZG

Product Description

book has bound-in ribbon bookmark

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Brightness Falls from Air
Tiptree
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0312076630

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Brightness Falls from the Air
Jr. James Tiptree
Manufacturer: Tor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NRAPD2

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