Showing posts with label linear programming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linear programming. Show all posts

Linear Programming: Foundations and Extensions (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science) Review

Linear Programming: Foundations and Extensions (International Series in Operations Research and Management Science)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I read the 2nd edition of Dr. Vanderbei's text in its entirety before taking my doctoral qualifying exams. I was shocked to read some of the negative reviews -- this is an outstanding introductory text for a graduate-level course!
In my opinion, the text strikes a delicate balance between two extremes: a strict treatment of theory and an exclusive focus on applications. Vanderbei provides a very readable explanation of fundamental theoretical results in linear programming, yet he also provides meaningful and insightful applications of the theory. In contrast to many other linear programming texts, Vanderbei effectively treats both the "why" and the "how."
Here's a brief guide to the book. Part One of the text is sufficient for readers who want to gain a basic understanding of linear programming theory and how to solve linear programming problems via the simplex method. Part Two discusses network-type problems, an important problem class on which linear programming methods have proven invaluable in solving industrial-sized problems. Part Three introduces the motivated reader to interior-point methods, a more recent class of algorithms for solving linear programming problems. This section effectively summarizes key research in interior-point methods, an area in which the author is an expert. Part Four demonstrates how Parts One, Two, and Three can be applied in a more general sense to solve convex programming problems.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Linear Programming: Foundations and Extensions (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science)



Buy Now

Click here for more information about Linear Programming: Foundations and Extensions (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science)

Read More...

Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the Social Sciences) Review

Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the Social Sciences)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This book gives a detailed description of the use of an advanced method to deal with nested data sets.
At a general level the constructs and ideas are well written and can be followed reasonably easily.
However the mathematics is often written very dense, which makes reading and understanding complex.
My main problem with the book, is that in many of the examples they provide, the given formula's, and data skip rapidly to the solution. Thus it is often not insightfull at all, how the data led to the numerical outcome (and I and several of my colleagues could not reproduce all of the example outcomes). A more extensive discussion and a more step-by-step construction of the examples would have been helpful there.
So in short: Conceptually this book is fine, but for practical use mathematics are too dense, and examples are too hard to follow

Click Here to see more reviews about: Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the Social Sciences)


Popular in the First Edition for its rich, illustrative examples and lucid explanations of the theory and use of hierarchical linear models (HLM), the book has been reorganized into four parts with four completely new chapters. The first two parts, Part I on "The Logic of Hierarchical Linear Modeling" and Part II on "Basic Applications" closely parallel the first nine chapters of the previous edition with significant expansions and technical clarifications, such as:

* An intuitive introductory summary of the basic procedures for estimation and inference used with HLM models that only requires a minimal level of mathematical sophistication in Chapter 3* New section on multivariate growth models in Chapter 6 * A discussion of research synthesis or meta-analysis applications in Chapter 7* Data analytic advice on centering of level-1 predictors and new material on plausible value intervals and robust standard estimators


Buy NowGet 26% OFF

Click here for more information about Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the Social Sciences)

Read More...

Modeling and Simulation in Scilab/Scicos with ScicosLab 4.4 Review

Modeling and Simulation in Scilab/Scicos with ScicosLab 4.4
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
The book "Modeling and Simulation with Scilab/Scicos"
is well written and understandable to
readers with the basic signal processing and programming
background.
The reader can refresh/improve the knowledge of
some basic control theory material, while at the
same time learns how to apply Scilab/Scicos at simulation and
modeling problems.
I worked with Matlab for many years before and I found
Scilab/Scicos a very powerful alternative to Matlab/Simulink
and is free!
I recommend strongly this book to any scientist/engineer that
plans to explore the benefits of the excellent open
source Scilab/Scicos environment.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Modeling and Simulation in Scilab/Scicos with ScicosLab 4.4

Scilab and its Scicos block diagram graphical editor, with a special emphasis on modeling and simulation tools. The first part is a detailed Scilab tutorial, and the second is dedicated to modeling and simulation of dynamical systems in Scicos. The concepts are illustrated through numerous examples, and all code used in the book is available to the reader.

Buy NowGet 20% OFF

Click here for more information about Modeling and Simulation in Scilab/Scicos with ScicosLab 4.4

Read More...

Introduction to Management Science: A Modeling and Case Studies Approach with Spreadsheets Review

Introduction to Management Science: A Modeling and Case Studies Approach with Spreadsheets
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Factors that contributed to a low rating for this book include, a lack of user-friendliness and lengthy case studies. The blue colored wordings (black would be better) can be quite glaring under the lights making it not smoothing to the eyes.
Furthermore, it uses long case studies which could have been shortened by cutting down on the introductions to the companies it made reference to. More focus should be given to concepts at the earlier stage of every section, instead of making the reader running through a lengthy introduction before focusing on the concepts.
Important concepts could also have been left out. One example would be the omission of 'Reduced Cost' under the chapters of Linear Programming and Integer Programming.
However, this book is certainly catered to users of MS Excel. It has in-depth discussions of Excel in areas of Management Science

Click Here to see more reviews about: Introduction to Management Science: A Modeling and Case Studies Approach with Spreadsheets

These authors are well known for their best selling text, Introduction to Operations Research.This new text is also headed for great success, as it offers a unique case-study approach, and it integrates the use of Excel.Each chapter includes a case study which is meant to show the students a real and interesting application of the topics addressed in that chapter...--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Introduction to Management Science: A Modeling and Case Studies Approach with Spreadsheets

Read More...

AMPL: A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming Review

AMPL: A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Most software "companions" (more than a manual...not quite a book) really do not do justice to the software. Quite the contrary for the AMPL guide. AMPL (the language) is a *very* powerful and *very* easy to use Optimization package. It interfaces with most of the major solvers. Users program in AMPL which is more or less pseudocode and then solve LP, nonlinear, combinatorial, integer, etc. programs. Unlike most software packages, it is both robust and easy to use. Likewise with the companion/book. There are many great, easy to follow examples, and it clearly explains the intrecacies of the language. A must use software and most own book for anyone doing any optimization work.

Click Here to see more reviews about: AMPL: A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming



Buy NowGet 22% OFF

Click here for more information about AMPL: A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming

Read More...

Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets (2nd Edition) Review

Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets (2nd Edition)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This is one of the best textbooks I have read. Although the subject matter can be difficult for the average student, the text clearly illustrates the concepts and how to solve them using Microsoft Excel. And I have found almost no errors in this book. It is truly outstanding and I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to use Linear Programming techniques to solve real world problems.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets (2nd Edition)



Buy Now

Click here for more information about Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets (2nd Edition)

Read More...

Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence Review

Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This book is, bar none, the best book on longitudinal analysis in social sciences.
The book has three outstanding features that make it the must-have for researchers who conduct longitudinal studies. First, the book has numerous examples that use data from real studies, collected by prominent scholars in this area. With the help of the accompanying website at UCLA, you will learn how to set up data files, which is crucial in longitudinal analysis. The sample codes and data files in SAS, SPSS, Stata, MLwiN, Mplus, HLM, and Splus will allow you to replicate the analyses. The authors use every effort to explain the results in plain, understandable language. They use a lot of graphs and tables to compare different nested models and help you to choose the one that best describes your data. It feels like you have an excellent tutor by your side when you are reading this book.
Second, the coverage of this book is comprehensive. Part I covers the regular growth curve modeling and multilevel modeling, with a few chapters dealing with time-varying covariates, discontinuous and nonlinear change. Part II covers discrete-time and continuous-time survival analysis. If you are conducting a longitudinal study, chances are you will find a technique in this book that suits you just right.
Third, the book is quite deep. Although it gears toward applications of different longitudinal analyses, it is no cakewalk. You need at least some background in multiple regression and multivariate statistics. I think the treatment of mathematics (both concepts and formulas) is just right. In some sections you may need to revisit them often in order to fully understand the subject.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence

Change is constant in everyday life.Infants crawl and then walk, children learn to read and write, teenagers mature in myriad ways, the elderly become frail and forgetful.Beyond these natural processes and events, external forces and interventions instigate and disrupt change:test scores may rise after a coaching course, drug abusers may remain abstinent after residential treatment. By charting changes over time and investigating whether and when events occur, researchers reveal the temporal rhythms of our lives. Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis is a much-needed professional book for empirical researchers and graduate students in the behavioral, social, and biomedical sciences.It offers the first accessible in-depth presentation of two of today's most popular statistical methods: multilevel models for individual change and hazard/survival models for event occurrence (in both discrete- and continuous-time). Using clear, concise prose and real data sets from published studies, the authors take you step by step through complete analyses, from simple exploratory displays that reveal underlying patterns through sophisticated specifications of complex statistical models. Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis offers readers a private consultation session with internationally recognized experts and represents a unique contribution to the literature on quantitative empirical methods. Visit http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/examples/alda.htm for: Downloadable data sets Library of computer programs in SAS, SPSS, Stata, HLM, MLwiN, and more Additional material for data analysis

Buy NowGet 21% OFF

Click here for more information about Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence

Read More...