George L. Donohue and Russell D. Shaver III with Eric Edwards
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
1801 Alexander Bell Dr., Suite 500, Reston, VA 20191-4344.
2008. 252 pages. $29.95. ISBN 978-1-56347-949-6.
Terminal Chaos: Why U.S. Air Travel Is Broken and How to Fix It
"For most passengers, air travel today has become one of the most stressful and frustrating experiences of modern life … Flying often becomes a degrading and illogical set of random events in which grown people are treated like children. The traveler is not only subjected to arbitrary rules and regulations, but no one seems interested in providing him with a straight answer.” So say authors George Donohue and Russell Shaver, who have long and distinguished experience in and near the airline industry. They analyze the problems that they say are, interestingly, not the inevitable result of the size or complexity of the U.S. system. (Air transportation in Europe, with almost identical air traffic control systems and safety standards, is far better, according to the authors.) Donohue and Shaver cite multiple reasons for the air travel chaos, among them a complete absence of advocacy for the passenger. The solutions they propose include holding the government decision-makers responsible, expanding the capacity of airports and airplanes, modernizing the air traffic control system, and implanting a program to significantly reduce congestion. There are eight appendices crammed with graphs and statistics. One of the most interesting is “Ten Travel Tips for Road Warriors.”
Quint Studer
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
111 River St., 4th Floor, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
2008. 306 pages. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-471-75729-0.
Results That Last
Business results that last don’t come from products or services, or particular leaders or employees, no matter how good they are. Products change and evolve; people come and go. What really leads to sustainable business results over time is quality leadership—not leaders, but leadership, according to author Quint Studer, who heads up a firm that helps clients attain and sustain outstanding results. In this book, subtitled “Hardwiring behaviors that will take your company to the top,” the author discusses various tools and techniques to instill the mindset that assures great leadership. His methodology includes standardizing behavior and responses of leaders to ensure a consistent experience for employees and customers, and aligning processes to lessen confusion and increase effectiveness. Communication is the consistent drumbeat of this book—between leaders and employees, among peers, and between employees and customers. With reliable, honest communication, the author posits, all systems within an organization have a realistic chance to function smoothly and successfully.
Sammy G. Shina.
McGraw-Hill
2 Penn Plaza, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10121.
2008. 384 pages. ISBN 978-0-07-149594-3.
Green Electronics Design & Manufacturing
A team of experts in the supply chain of the electronics industry contributed to this book to show how to master the strategy, design, test, and implementation issues of meeting global environmental regulations. Among the topics covered are: guidance for lead-free conversions while maintaining quality and reliability for printed circuit board production and rework of surface mount technology and palted through holes, and restriction of hazardous substances, or RoHS, compliance for hex-chrome and future halogen-free issues. Global environmental regulations and their impact on manu- facturing and design processes are discussed, along with techniques for managing corporate strategy and project design teams for green products. The author also presents proven methods for testing and analyzing green products and for dealing with the adverse results of green production.
Debra A. Miller, Editor.
Greenhaven Press, an imprint of Thomson Gale
27500 Drake Rd., Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535.
2007. 130 pages. 2007. $28.70. ISBN 978-0-7377-3403-4.
Will the World Run Out of Fresh Water?
Part of the publisher’s At Issue Series, this slim volume is a compendium of a dozen articles concerning the scarcity of water worldwide. The first one in the book, “Billions of People Will Run Out of Fresh Water by 2050,” is by Mechanical Engineering alumna Gayle Ehrenman, who covered fluids and fluid handling regularly for the magazine. It appeared originally in the September 2003 issue of ME as “Not a Drop to Drink.” Among the other interesting titles are: “The Water Crisis Already Affects Rich Countries,” “Global Warming Will Exacerbate Water Problems,” “The Scarcity of Water Could Lead to War,” and “The Water Crisis Does Not Have to Lead to War.”
Ahmad Smaili and Fouad Mrad.
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016-4314.
2008. Softcover. 714 pages. $110. ISBN 978-0-19-530702-3.
Applied Mechatronics
This book synthesizes the disciplines of mechanical and electrical engineering to provide a comprehensive overview of the various technologies and tools used to develop mechatronic devices. Co-written by mechanical engineering and electrical engineering professors who co-teach this interdisciplinary course, the text highlights the information each discipline might have considered prerequisite so students can focus on material new to them. Designed for a first course in mechatronics, it contains numerous practical, classroom-tested examples, experiments, and simulations using Simulink, Matlab, and Lab View. The book includes real-world applications of mechatronic devices and simulations of classical and intelligent control schemes.
A. Paglietti.
WIT Press, Southampton, England, c/o Computational Mechanics
25 Bridge St., Billerica, MA 01821.
2007. 192 pages. $125. ISBN 978-1-84564-065-1.
Plasticity of Cold Worked Metals: A Deductive Approach
Plasticity theory is a basic tool of structural analysis used to evaluate ultimate strength and post-elastic behavior of ductile structures. Modern computing codes make use of it, often by exploiting sophisticated computational analysis and advanced kinematics for large deformation. Yet, all this effort has its Achilles heel: the evolution law of the yield surface, also referred to as the work-hardening rule. Here, the author, a full professor of strength of materials and engineering at the University of Cagliari, Italy, approaches the work-hardening problem in a new and deductive way. It starts with a few elementary facts and analyzes them. The analysis it presents comes to the conclusion that plastic yielding of ductile metals is essentially virgin yielding—no matter how strong the material was cold worked originally.
Clair Soares.
Butterworth-Heinemann, an imprint of Elsevier
30 Corporate Dr., Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803.
2007. 276 pages. $79.95. ISBN 978-0-7506-8469-9.
Microturbines
In this book, author Claire Soares covers virtually every aspect of microturbine design, from installation and operation to maintenance and repair. A registered professional engineer in the oil and gas, power generation, and process industries, she discusses new developments in gas turbine technology, including smaller scale and a growing diversity of fuel types. According to the publisher, the book offers hard-to-find help on the particulars of selecting the right type of micro- turbine system for a specific type of application. There is also guidance on market factors and economics affecting microturbines and their applications, particularly for distributed power generation. In addition, case studies show microturbines used in hybrid systems with fuel cells and other types of power generation systems.
Stephen Malkin and Changsheng Guo.
Industrial Press Inc.
989 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10018.
2008. 374 pages. $89.95. ISBN 978-0-8311-3247-7.
Grinding Technology. Theory and Applications of Machining With Abrasives. Second Edition.
Presenting a consistent treatment of grinding theory and its practical use, this new edition focuses on grinding as a machining process using bonded abrasive grinding wheels as the cutting medium. Logically organized, this self-contained resource starts with a description of abrasives and bonded abrasive cutting tools, then moves on to thermal analyses of the grinding process for conventional, creep feed, and superabrasive grinding. The book concludes with methods for enhancing and optimizing grinding operations, simulation of grinding processes, and computer control of grinding machines.
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