I have just taken this course from Dr. Van Trees at GMU. Est&Det organized many concepts taught in other graduate engineering courses into a coherent philosophy. The result is not only a rich understanding of estimation and detection, but also random processes, Wiener filtering, Kalman filtering, radar and communications theory etc.

The course was taught directly from the text with little outside material. Very little has become obsolete in the 30+ years since it was written.

The strong positives of this book are the philosophical organization, clear concise writing, and incredibly well conceived homework problems.

The only negative of the book is that there are many proofs done in great detail. This provides the necessary foundation for the material, but also makes it easy for the student to lose track of the bigger picture.

Dr. Van Trees tends to try to drive home the higher level concepts while glossing over many of the details when he is lecturing. The exercise problems then force the student to give the necessary attention to pertinent details. In my opinion, this is an excellent approach to teaching the material.

Overall, this course was as good as any I've every taken. The text is as important and useful as any other I have.

This is an excellent book for those who have excellent people to talk to about non-trivial concepts...interestingly we had a teacher who would often make improvements to Van Trees work! (dont worry...i wont name you Dr.Stuller)

Harry Behn's poem, written in simple but delicate rhyme, feels like a Haiku poem. The poem is compressed into short verse that moves the tree from season to season. The poem is about the relationship of the reader to a tree and the tree's relationship to the world.. Through the kindness of the tree, a bird's nest finds it's home, colorful leaves drop at Halloween, and fruit is given to us. The tree lives above us. It is the first to feel the touch of the sun in the morning and the moon at night. The illustrations , by James Endicott move across the page like a quiet dance. Each pictures shows a detail of the tree as it makes it's transformation throughout the year in simple lines and curves that is reminiscent of Japanese drawing. By the end of the book we have seen, both in words and pictures, day turning into night, the seasons changing and are reminded that one tree's kindness has been seen and felt through the eyes of many generations

Though set in medieval England, Edith Pargeter's Heaven Tree trilogy (The Heaven Tree, The Scarlet Seed and the Green Branch) transcends the boundaries of the "historical fiction" genre. Although meticulously researched and unerring in historical detail, the story takes the reader beyond costumes and castles into the complex world of the human heart. Pargeter draw powerful pictures of all the characters, and her magic is such that, by the end of the saga, one has wept in compassion for the "villain" as much as for the sorrows of the "heroes". Few books have detailed so thoroughly the light and dark places of the human heart--and to have done so while telling "a rattling good tale" is an accomplishment beyond compare. This trilogy is a "keeper", to be read over and over in the way that one consults an old and wise, compassionate friend

I have never felt it necessary to write a review of a book on this website, although I read quite a few. But this is a book that deserves it. I somehow got my hands on the hardcover edition of this book several years ago. It is my all-time favorite book. Other reviewers have given summaries of this novel; I don't want to waste space I could otherwise use to praise this trilogy. I have never felt so involved in a novel or so familiar with the characters in my life. Please don't let the length of this trilogy, or the difficulty of obtaining a copy stop you from reading these books. It will be so worthwhile if you read them.

I have never written a book review before, but this book inspires me to share my pleasure with everyone. This is, without a doubt, my favorite book. A friend told me about it several years ago and, bless her soul, lent me her copy of the trilogy. After reading it and living through the journey of Harry, Adam, Benedetta, Gilleis, and of course, my favorite, Isambard, I was transported back to this historical time. The pictures it paints are so vivid, so engulfing, that I couldn't tear myself away, and even at 899 pages, the journey was too short. After experiencing this brilliant story, I had to own a copy for myself. Though it was out of print at the time, I contacted the publishher (FREQUENTLY) until they released another printing. This is the only book I own that I have never lent to anyone - I can't bear to part with it! I have re-read this book at least 4 times, and I'm planning on diving into it again this summer.

"The Man Who Planted Trees" is a wonderful short story about the fictional life of a man who singlehandedly restores a valley to life by becoming the Johnny Appleseed of Trees. More importantly, its about a man who, having suffered the loss of his wwife and only child, chooses to live a simple life in anonymous service with little but his own resources and his love for trees. The short-term effect is almost unnoticeable; long-term its staggering.

The wood engravings that accompany the text stand out and mirror the book's theme of asutere simplicity quite beautifully. Its a wonderful book for children, nature enthusiasts, gardeners and those looking for hope that follwoing one's heart and living out of love, rather than fear, can ultimately make a difference.

The Man Who Planted Trees is the tale of Elzeard Bouffier, a man who, after his son and wife die, spends his life reforesting miles of barren land in southern France. Bouffier's planting of thousands and thousands of trees results in many wondrous things occurring, including water again flowing in brooks that had been dry for many years. The brooks are fed by rains and snows that are conserved by the forest that Bouffier planted. The harsh, barren land is now pleasant and full of life.

Written by Jean Giono, this popular story of inspiration and hope was originally published in 1954 in Vogue as "The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness." The story's opening paragraph is as follows:

"For a human character to reveal truly exceptional qualities, one must have the good fortune to be able to observe its performance over many years. If this performance is devoid of all egoism, if its guiding motive is unparalleled generosity, if it is absolutely certain that there is no thought of recompense and that, in addition, it has left its visible mark upon the earth, then there can be no mistake."

The Man Who Planted Trees has left a "visible mark upon the earth" having been translated into several languages. In the "Afterword" of the Chelsea Green Publishing Company's edition, Norma L. Goodrich wrote that Giono donated his story. According to Goodrich, "Giono believed he left his mark on earth when he wrote Elzeard Bouffier's story because he gave it away for the good of others, heedless of payment: 'It was one of my stories of which I am the proudest. It does not bring me in one single penny and that is why it has accomplished what it was written for.'"

This special edition is very informative. Not only does it contain Giono's inspirational story, which is complemented beautifully by Michael McCurdy's wood engraving illustrations and Goodrich's informative "Afterword" about Giono, but it also contains considerable information about how wood and paper can be conserved in the section "The WoodWise Consumer." Goodrich writes about Giono's effort to have people respect trees.

"Giono later wrote an American admirer of the tale that his purpose in creating Bouffier 'was to make people love the tree, or more precisely, to make them love planting trees.' Within a few years the story of Elzeard Bouffier swept around the world and was translated into at least a dozen languages. It has long since inspired reforestation efforts, worldwide."

The Man Who Planted Trees is not only a wonderful story, it will inspire you and your children to care for the natural world.

-Reviewed by N. Glenn Perrett

Jean Giono's inspiring story of the "man who planted trees" reached me some days ago as a birthday gift from my two sons.They thought it an appropriate gift for me probably because I am now engaged in an effort to grow trees in some land which I bought as a barren waste land. I found the book extremely inspiring.The interesting thing is that there indeed are unsung heroes and heroines in many parts of the world who do do such inspiring work without thought of reward.Some months back I read in Indian newspapers about a poor couple in the Karnatak state of India who decided to plant trees to assuage their sorrow in being childless.As they had no land of their own they decided to plant trees on the roadside.And ended up with magnificent avenue trees on miles and miles of the road near their village. There still seems to be hope for mankind!

Before I picked up this simple little Tome, I knew absolutely nothing about bonsai. I was studying eastern cultures and thought to myself, "Hey, I'm bored. I'll bet that this could be an interesting side diversion." I did a quick search on Amazon, and decided this book looked the most concise. It is very reasonably priced, who can't spare a meager $5 to decide if a new activity interests you? The book is very clear and has many helpful full color pictures. I believe that all topics essential to Bonsai are covered: potting, trimming, shaping, wiring, feeding, watering. It even explains the basics of more advanced bonsai techniques: growing the roots onto rock, intricate hanging patterns. A complete list of equipment if provided for the 'real' bonsai gardener, but I made due with tools that I had lying around the house. After 15 minutes with the book, you've probably absorbed the majority of the information, and you can get started. I think the total cost to get me started was something like: $5 Book, $4 Juniper, $3 Pot. So I'm out $12.00 and a few hours of time before I decide if I enjoy this hobby or not. My cheap little bonsai is six months old now, and it looks just as nice as any picture I can find in the book. So unless you are planning on making bonsai your life's work, 101 Essential Tips is probably the only book you will ever need.

If you like Bonsai, or received one as a gift, this is the book to get. Filled with 101 (literally) facts and tips, it is concise, streamlined and offers excellent pictures.

All critical areas are covered in the book: potting, trimming, shaping, wiring, feeding, watering (the most important perhaps!). If you want to take a crack at an advanced level of Bonsai care, it even guides and discusses growing the roots onto rock, and hanging patterns. There's also a few great tips that clears up the confusion about what sort of tools you *really* need.

This is a MUST to add to your Bonsai book collection.

I am just starting out in this hobby. I went to the bookstore and looked at many books before picking this one out. Most were priced at twenty dollars or more and I just didn't want to spend that much for something I was just getting into. I checked out several books from the library and read them, including another larger book by the same author. After reading them, I looked through this one and felt that most of the really important info in the larger books was in this one as well with less words and pictures. I am really happy with this book. The photos are clear and informative, and the information is just what I need to get started. Sometimes when starting out, it is better not to get too bogged down in details or you will never dive in. I think this book is just the thing to get a beginner started without making the whole bonsai thing seem out of reach and demanding. Eventually, I can see I will want a guide with more info on individual plants and their care, but this will get me started, and at a great price.

This book seems to be complete and informative for basic information about the subject matter. It is a good reference for basic information. The reader must look elsewhere for detailed information (such as would be of interest to engineers, scientists, and luthiers).

This book is the fourth book in Dr van Trees' series "Detection, Estimation, and Modulation Theory". It relies extensively on volumes I and III (but not volume II), and the reader of volume IV will want to have volumes I and III available.

As for the book itself, it is BIG. For some reason, it gives the impression of being somewhat inflated. I can't pinpoint the exact reason for this, but I suspect it must have something to do with the relation between font size and paper size. The publishers claim there are 2000 references in the book. This may very well be true, as the bibliographies after each chapter generally are 10 to 15 pages long. Unfortunately, there is no overall bibliography in the book. While such a bibliography would inflate the book by somewhere between 100 and 150 pages (it is ~1500 pages in the current version), I think it would be worth adding it.

What the contents is concerned, it is a definite academic angle on the material and the presentation. The practitioner may want to pay attention to the fact that the book title is "_Optimum_ Array processing", not "_Practical_ Array Processing". The "Multiple Signal Classification" (MUSIC) method and "Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariant Techniques" (ESPRIT) algorithm are discussed extensively in the later chapters, but some details that turn out to be cruical when putting these methods to practical use appear to be missing in this book. The very motivation for developing the ESPRIT algorithm is that the MUSIC algorithm is extremely sensitive to array calibration data, i.e. that the array calibration matrix must be known with very high presicion. The inventors of ESPRIT, Roy and Kailath, pay meticulous attention to this problem in their journal articles (which are cited by van Trees). The problem of lacking array calibration data has indeed spawned an entire research field known as "blind source estimation". This is not mentioned at all in this book.

The second issue I would like to point out is that alternative, SUBoptimum array processing techniques are very breafly commented in section 9.4 (which all in all is half a page long). I find one sentence in that section somewhat annoying:

"We found that, for estimating the [Direction of Arrivals] of plane-wave signals the [suboptimum] algorithms did not perform as well as MUSIC and ESPRIT"

and then the author defer from discussing these algorithms further. I am sure this decision can be defended from the point of view that the scope of the book is optimum array processing. However, I would like to see how the author tests the suboptimum methods, how they perform, and what he bases his conclusions on. There is a vast difference between tests with synthetic data, generated by the computer, and working with data measured in the real world. My experience from working with real-world data from short arrays at low signal-to-noise ratios, is the exact opposite: The optimum algorithms work bad, if at all, while suboptimum algorithms do the job.

All in all, this book gives an as complete overview of the state-of-the-art in array processing as practically possible by one man to give in one volume. There are a couple of shortcommings, though. If this book was written by any other author and was published in any other series, it would be a clear five-star. However, Dr van Trees has, with his "Detection, Estimation, and Modulation Theory" series, established himself as perhaps _the_ authority in the field, and therefore I believe this book should be measured by somewhat stricter standards. Thus the four stars.