From reception basics to cutting-edge software radio design, Communications Receivers, Third Edition brings you a storehouse of task-simplifying and task-clarifying information, examples, and tips. Written by well-known experts Ulrich Rohde, Jerry Whitaker, and Andrew Bateman, this guide covers everything from front end systems to frequency generators and controllers. Topics are thoroughly illuminated for you with hundreds of illustrations, diagrams, and mathematical equations.

This book is the first to deal with the important topic of the fire behaviour of fibre reinforced polymer composite materials. Composites are used in almost every conceivable application, although the high flammability and poor fire resistance of these materials remains a critical issue. The book covers all of the key issues on the behaviour of composites in a fire, including thermal degradation mechanisms, thermal softening, fire damage mechanics, and deterioration of mechanical properties. Also covered are fire protection materials for composites, fire properties of nanocomposites, fire safety regulations and standards, fire test methods, and health hazards from burning composites. This book will be of great interest to professionals in the composites industry, fire safety engineers, researchers in the fire properties of materials, and the users of composites in the aerospace, marine, civil infrastructure and automotive industries.

What do reserving a seat on an airplane, buying a movie ticket over the Internet, and launching a missile all have in common? Principles of Transaction Processing for the Systems Professional explains that these and many other computerized tasks require the use of transaction processing (TP). Authors Philip Bernstein and Eric Newcomer demonstrate that this previously specialized area of systems design is becoming more important with the growth of Internet commerce. This theoretically astute and practical-minded book begins with a description of the principles of successful transaction management. (The so-called "ACID" test requires that transactions be atomistic, consistent, isolated, and durable.) The authors illustrate the principles with real-world examples of transactions in everyday life, such as ATM systems and the stock market. Bernstein and Newcomer then outline how transaction processing monitors work and discuss some of the details, such as interface definition languages, which let disparate computers communicate, and remote procedure calls.

Expert techniques for designing your system to achieve maximum availability and predictable downtime With your company's reputation and profits at stake, downtime on your 24/7 web site is not an option, nor is poor application performance. Now in its second edition, this authoritative book provides you with the design blueprints to maximize your system availability. Striking a balance between costs and benefits, the authors show you all of the elements of your computer system that can fail-as well as ways to assess their reliability and attain resiliency and high availability for each one. A unique feature is "Tales from the Field," a collection of true-to-life experiences that will help you avoid mistakes and deploy your system with confidence.