Author: Bohumil Hrabal File Type: mobi Hanta rescues books from the jaws of his compacting press and carries them home. Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera calls our very best writer today, celebrates the power and the indestructibility of the written word. Translated by Michael Henry Heim.br From Publishers WeeklyCzechoslovakian author Hrabal ( I Served the King of England ) pens an absorbing fable about a man who educates himself with the discarded printed matter he collects. 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From Library JournalIn this novella, written in 1976, narrator and authorial alter ego Hanta meditates on the 35 years he has spent at a hydraulic press in a dark cellar, compacting waste paper and books proscribed by various regimes. Though he no longer weeps or protests when rare treasures appear in his press, the books that he must destroy become his whole life, his only companions. When he is to be replaced by young workers with a more productive machine, Hanta dreams of a gigantic press that destroys not only himself but the entire city, with its traditions and culture. Written by a leading Czech writer (I Served the King of England, LJ 4189), this affecting metaphor expressing fear for Central European culture belongs in libraries collecting European fiction.br - Marie Bednar, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Parkbr 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Author: Peter Dayan File Type: pdf ReviewEugene Izhikevich has written an excellent introduction to the application of nonlinear dynamics to the spiking patterns of neurons. There are dozens of clear illustrations and hundreds of exercises ranging from the very easy to Ph.D.-level questions. The book will be suitable for mathematicians and physicists who want to jump into this exciting field as well as for neuroscientists who desire a deeper understanding of the utility of nonlinear dynamics applied to biology.--Bard Ermentrout, Department of Mathematics, University of PittsburghUpon the ruins of Freuds failed attempt to construct a universal theory of mind, Hobson builds a catholic, brain-based edifice to account for the phenomenology of awake consciousness, sleep, and dreams in sickness and health. Its cornerstone--that dreaming, psychosis, and psychedelic experiences are closely related phenomena caused by specific alterations in the brains neuromodulatory systems--allows him to explain a dizzying variety of altered states--from hypnosis to lucid dreaming, from out-of-body to religious experiences, mind-altering drugs and so on--within a single framework.--Christof Koch, Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, California Institute of TechnologyIt will not be surprising if this book becomes the standard text for students and researchers entering theoretical neuroscience for years to come. M. Brandon Westover Philosophical PsychologyNot only does the book set a high standard for theoretical neuroscience, it defines the field. Dmitri Chklovskii NeuronPeter Dayan and L. F. Abbott have crafted an excellent introduction to the various methods of modeling nervous system function. The chapters dealing with neural coding and information theory are particularly welcome because these are new areas that are not well represented in existing texts.--Phillip S. Ulinski, Committee on Computational Neuroscience, University of ChicagoDayan and Abbott inspire us with a work of tremendous breadth, and each chapter is more exciting than the next. Everyone with an interest in neuroscience will want to read this book. A truly remarkable effort by two of the leaders in the field.--P. Read Montague, Professor, Division of Neuroscience, and Director, Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Baylor College of MedicineAn excellent book. There are a few volumes already available in theoretical neuroscience but none have the scope that this one does.--Bard Ermentrout, Department of Mathematics, University of PittsburghTheoretical Neuroscience provides a rigorous introduction to how neurons code, compute, and adapt. It is a remarkable synthesis of advances from many areas of neuroscience into a coherent computational framework. This book sets the standards for a new generation of modelers.--Terrence J. Sejnowski, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and University of California, San DiegoThe first comprehensive textbook on computational neuroscience. The topics covered span the gamut from biophysical faithful single cell models to neural networks, from the way nervous systems encode information in spike trains to how this information might be decoded, and from synaptic plasticity to supervised and unsupervised learning. And all of this is presented in a sophisticated yet accessible manner. A must buy for anybody who cares about the way brains compute.--Christof Koch, Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, California Institute of TechnologyTheoretical Neuroscience marks a milestone in the scientific maturation of integrative neuroscience. In the last decade, computational and mathematical modelling have developed into an integral part of the field, and now we finally have a textbook that reflects the changes in the way our science is being done. It will be a standard source of knowledge for the coming generation of students, both theoretical and experimental. I urge anyone who wants to be part of the development of this science in the next decades to get this book. Read it, and let your students read it.--John Hertz, Nordita (Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics), DenmarkThe more we learn about the brain, the more we are coming to realize that understanding its development will be a key tounlocking its functions, especially its ability to adapt to new environments. The wide range of levels of development that can be studied, from the molecular to the cognitive, are described in this book by some of the leading researchers in this growing field of computational neural development.--Terrence J. Sejnowski, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and University of California, San DiegoAbout the AuthorL. F. Abbott is the Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Volen Center for Complex Systems at Brandeis University. He is the coeditor of Neural Codes and Distributed Representations (MIT Press, 1999).

Author: Matteo Pasquinelli File Type: pdf

Author: L. J. Shrum File Type: pdf ReviewThe multidisciplinary approach of this volume produces a rich review of literature that seems to surround the subject. In a sense, the paradigmatic lines that separate psychology, media, persuasion, and marketing research are also blurred, and favorably so.Communication Research TrendsThis book offers a good mix. It brings together a number of sound theorists and empiricists and offers both overviews of existing research and new ideas. A book such as this one that is particularly geared toward introducing new ideas and looking at existing ones from different perspectives is therefore twice as important.Journal of Communication