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61. |  Numerical Algorithms for Personalized Search in Self-organizing Information Networks By: Sep Kamvar Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 07-SEP-2010 Insert Date: 05-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Numerical Algorithms for Personalized Search in Self-organizing Information Networks This book lays out the theoretical groundwork for personalized search and reputation management, both on the Web and in peer-to-peer and social networks. Representing much of the foundational research in this field, the book develops scalable algorithms that exploit the graphlike properties underlying personalized search and reputation management, and delves into realistic scenarios regarding Web-scale data. Sep Kamvar focuses on eigenvector-based techniques in Web search, introducing a personalized variant of Google's PageRank algorithm, and he outlines algorithms--such as the now-famous...
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62. |  Szego's Theorem and Its Descendants By: Barry Simon Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 08-NOV-2010 Insert Date: 05-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Szego's Theorem and Its Descendants This book presents a comprehensive overview of the sum rule approach to spectral analysis of orthogonal polynomials, which derives from Gábor Szego's classic 1915 theorem and its 1920 extension. Barry Simon emphasizes necessary and sufficient conditions, and provides mathematical background that until now has been available only in journals. Topics include background from the theory of meromorphic functions on hyperelliptic surfaces and the study of covering maps of the Riemann sphere with a finite number of slits removed. This allows for the first book-length treatment of orthogonal...
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63. |  By: Joshua S. Bloom Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 13-FEB-2011 Insert Date: 05-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: What Are Gamma-Ray Bursts? Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest--and, until recently, among the least understood--cosmic events in the universe. Discovered by chance during the cold war, these evanescent high-energy explosions confounded astronomers for decades. But a rapid series of startling breakthroughs beginning in 1997 revealed that the majority of gamma-ray bursts are caused by the explosions of young and massive stars in the vast star-forming cauldrons of distant galaxies. New findings also point to very different origins for some events, serving to complicate but enrich our understanding of the exotic and...
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64. |  By: Biao Xiang Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 06-NOV-2006 Insert Date: 05-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Global "Body Shopping" How can America's information technology (IT) industry predict serious labor shortages while at the same time laying off tens of thousands of employees annually? The answer is the industry's flexible labor management system--a flexibility widely regarded as the modus operandi of global capitalism today. Global "Body Shopping" explores how flexibility and uncertainty in the IT labor market are constructed and sustained through concrete human actions. Drawing on in-depth field research in southern India and in Australia, and folding an ethnography into a political economy examination,...
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65. |  By: Reuben Hersh; Vera John-Steiner Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 13-DEC-2010 Insert Date: 05-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Loving and Hating Mathematics Mathematics is often thought of as the coldest expression of pure reason. But few subjects provoke hotter emotions--and inspire more love and hatred--than mathematics. And although math is frequently idealized as floating above the messiness of human life, its story is nothing if not human; often, it is all too human. Loving and Hating Mathematics is about the hidden human, emotional, and social forces that shape mathematics and affect the experiences of students and mathematicians. Written in a lively, accessible style, and filled with gripping stories and anecdotes, Loving and Hating...
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66. |  By: Nannerl O. Keohane Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 11-OCT-2010 Insert Date: 05-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Thinking about Leadership Leadership is essential to collective human endeavor, from setting and accomplishing goals for a neighborhood block association, to running a Fortune 500 company, to mobilizing the energies of a nation. Political philosophers have focused largely on how to prevent leaders from abusing their power, yet little attention has been paid to what it actually feels like to hold power, how leaders go about their work, and how they relate to the people they lead. In Thinking about Leadership , Nannerl Keohane draws on her experience as the first woman president of Duke University and former...
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67. |  By: Darrell M. West Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 05-JUL-2005 Insert Date: 05-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Digital Government Few developments have had broader consequences for the public sector than the introduction of the Internet and digital technology. In this book, Darrell West discusses how new technology is altering governmental performance, the political process, and democracy itself by improving government responsiveness and increasing information available to citizens. Using multiple methods--case studies, content analysis of over 17,000 government Web sites, public and bureaucrat opinion survey data, an e-mail responsiveness test, budget data, and aggregate analysis--the author presents the most...
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68. |  By: Viktor Mayer-Schönberger Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 25-JUL-2011 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Delete
Delete looks at the surprising phenomenon of perfect remembering in the digital age, and reveals why we must reintroduce our capacity to forget. Digital technology empowers us as never before, yet it has unforeseen consequences as well. Potentially humiliating content on Facebook is enshrined in cyberspace for future employers to see. Google remembers everything we've searched for and when. The digital realm remembers what is sometimes better forgotten, and this has profound implications for us all. In Delete , Viktor Mayer-Schönberger traces the important role that forgetting has...
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69. |  By: Hermann Weyl; Peter Pesic; Peter Pesic Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 31-MAR-2009 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Mind and Nature Hermann Weyl (1885-1955) was one of the twentieth century's most important mathematicians, as well as a seminal figure in the development of quantum physics and general relativity. He was also an eloquent writer with a lifelong interest in the philosophical implications of the startling new scientific developments with which he was so involved. Mind and Nature is a collection of Weyl's most important general writings on philosophy, mathematics, and physics, including pieces that have never before been published in any language or translated into English, or that have long been out of...
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70. |  By: Paul J. Nahin Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 17-AUG-2009 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt What does quilting have to do with electric circuit theory? The answer is just one of the fascinating ways that best-selling popular math writer Paul Nahin illustrates the deep interplay of math and physics in the world around us in his latest book of challenging mathematical puzzles, Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt . With his trademark combination of intriguing mathematical problems and the historical anecdotes surrounding them, Nahin invites readers on an exciting and informative exploration of some of the many ways math and physics combine to create something vastly more powerful, useful,...
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71. |  By: George A. Akerlof; Rachel E. Kranton Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 21-JAN-2010 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Identity Economics Identity Economics provides an important and compelling new way to understand human behavior, revealing how our identities--and not just economic incentives--influence our decisions. In 1995, economist Rachel Kranton wrote future Nobel Prize-winner George Akerlof a letter insisting that his most recent paper was wrong. Identity, she argued, was the missing element that would help to explain why people--facing the same economic circumstances--would make different choices. This was the beginning of a fourteen-year collaboration--and of Identity Economics . The authors explain how our...
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72. |  The Little Book of String Theory By: Steven S. Gubser Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 08-FEB-2010 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: The Little Book of String Theory The Little Book of String Theory offers a short, accessible, and entertaining introduction to one of the most talked-about areas of physics today. String theory has been called the "theory of everything." It seeks to describe all the fundamental forces of nature. It encompasses gravity and quantum mechanics in one unifying theory. But it is unproven and fraught with controversy. After reading this book, you'll be able to draw your own conclusions about string theory. Steve Gubser begins by explaining Einstein's famous equation E = mc >2 , quantum mechanics, and black holes. He then...
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73. |  By: Kim Plofker Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 29-DEC-2008 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Mathematics in India Based on extensive research in Sanskrit sources, Mathematics in India chronicles the development of mathematical techniques and texts in South Asia from antiquity to the early modern period. Kim Plofker reexamines the few facts about Indian mathematics that have become common knowledge--such as the Indian origin of Arabic numerals--and she sets them in a larger textual and cultural framework. The book details aspects of the subject that have been largely passed over in the past, including the relationships between Indian mathematics and astronomy, and their cross-fertilizations with...
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74. |  By: Ralph Lorenz; Jacqueline Mitton Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 01-JUL-2010 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Titan Unveiled For twenty-five years following the Voyager mission, scientists speculated about Saturn's largest moon, a mysterious orb clouded in orange haze. Finally, in 2005, the Cassini-Huygens probe successfully parachuted down through Titan's atmosphere, all the while transmitting images and data. In the early 1980s, when the two Voyager spacecraft skimmed past Titan, Saturn's largest moon, they transmitted back enticing images of a mysterious world concealed in a seemingly impenetrable orange haze. Titan Unveiled is one of the first general interest books to reveal the startling new discoveries...
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75. |  By: Lawrence Weinstein; John A. Adam Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 01-APR-2008 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Guesstimation Guesstimation is a book that unlocks the power of approximation--it's popular mathematics rounded to the nearest power of ten! The ability to estimate is an important skill in daily life. More and more leading businesses today use estimation questions in interviews to test applicants' abilities to think on their feet. Guesstimation enables anyone with basic math and science skills to estimate virtually anything--quickly--using plausible assumptions and elementary arithmetic. Lawrence Weinstein and John Adam present an eclectic array of estimation problems that range from devilishly...
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76. |  Unsolved Problems in Mathematical Systems and Control Theory By: Vincent D. Blondel; Alexandre Megretski Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 06-JUL-2004 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Unsolved Problems in Mathematical Systems and Control Theory This book provides clear presentations of more than sixty important unsolved problems in mathematical systems and control theory. Each of the problems included here is proposed by a leading expert and set forth in an accessible manner. Covering a wide range of areas, the book will be an ideal reference for anyone interested in the latest developments in the field, including specialists in applied mathematics, engineering, and computer science. The book consists of ten parts representing various problem areas, and each chapter sets forth a different problem presented by a researcher in the...
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77. |  By: Charles Fefferman; C. Robin Graham Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 01-DEC-2011 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: The Ambient Metric (AM-178) This book develops and applies a theory of the ambient metric in conformal geometry. This is a Lorentz metric in n + 2 dimensions that encodes a conformal class of metrics in n dimensions. The ambient metric has an alternate incarnation as the Poincaré metric, a metric in n + 1 dimensions having the conformal manifold as its conformal infinity. In this realization, the construction has played a central role in the AdS/CFT correspondence in physics. The existence and uniqueness of the ambient metric at the formal power series level is treated in detail. This includes the derivation...
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78. |  Symmetric Markov Processes, Time Change, and Boundary Theory (LMS-35) By: Zhen-Qing Chen; Masatoshi Fukushima Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 20-NOV-2011 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Symmetric Markov Processes, Time Change, and Boundary Theory (LMS-35) This book gives a comprehensive and self-contained introduction to the theory of symmetric Markov processes and symmetric quasi-regular Dirichlet forms. In a detailed and accessible manner, Zhen-Qing Chen and Masatoshi Fukushima cover the essential elements and applications of the theory of symmetric Markov processes, including recurrence/transience criteria, probabilistic potential theory, additive functional theory, and time change theory. The authors develop the theory in a general framework of symmetric quasi-regular Dirichlet forms in a unified manner with that of regular Dirichlet...
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79. |  By: George G. Szpiro Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 15-MAR-2010 Insert Date: 04-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: Numbers Rule Since the very birth of democracy in ancient Greece, the simple act of voting has given rise to mathematical paradoxes that have puzzled some of the greatest philosophers, statesmen, and mathematicians. Numbers Rule traces the epic quest by these thinkers to create a more perfect democracy and adapt to the ever-changing demands that each new generation places on our democratic institutions. In a sweeping narrative that combines history, biography, and mathematics, George Szpiro details the fascinating lives and big ideas of great minds such as Plato, Pliny the Younger, Ramon Llull,...
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80. |  By: Shumeet Baluja Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication Date: 17-APR-2011 Insert Date: 03-OCT-2011 Slots: 1.0 | Overview: The Silicon Jungle What happens when a naive intern is granted unfettered access to people's most private thoughts and actions? Young Stephen Thorpe lands a coveted internship at Ubatoo, an Internet empire that provides its users with popular online services, from a search engine and shopping to e-mail and social networking. When Stephen's boss asks him to work on a project with the American Coalition for Civil Liberties, Stephen innocently obliges, believing he is mining Ubatoo's vast databases to protect the ever-growing number of people unfairly targeted in the name of national security. But nothing is as...
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