The saddle has become an American icon. Wranglers rely on saddles every day, but discerning outsiders favor them for image enhancement and self-expression. Thus saddles turn up in paintings, films, even advertisements for cigarettes and automobiles. In the marketplace of western memorabilia they have great value.

Saddles--sometimes intricately and exquisitely carved--are no longer merely cowboy paraphernalia. At their most elaborate, they have a highly developed aesthetic. In America, saddlemaking can be regarded as one of the most complex and distinctly regional of western crafts.

One of the most famous saddlemakers is Donald L. King of Sheridan, Wyoming. His Sheridan-style saddle, one of the finest of all western saddles in craftsmanship and beauty, is commissioned regularly for championship rodeo trophies and is prized by collectors.

The son of an itinerant cowboy, King was immersed in the traditions of ranch life and crafts from an early age. Today he is acknowledged as the creator of the most influential style in western leathercraft. His intricate, hand-tooled works bear his signature emblem, the wild rose, and other floral elements. By the 1960s saddle aficionados had discovered him, and King's Saddlery became the center of a large community of saddlemakers. Within the following twenty years King had so profoundly influenced the aesthetics of his craft that he began to create saddles that were art objects for collectors, galleries, and museums.

This fascinating study of the Sheridan saddle and its creator not only highlights King's contributions but also traces the origins of the western saddle to its roots in Mexico and Spain.

Timothy H. Evans, former Wyoming state folklorist, is coauthor of "The Wyoming Folk Arts Handbook."

For more than a millennium, the ancient Olympics captured the imaginations of the Greeks, until a Christianized Rome terminated the competitions in the fourth century AD. But the Olympic ideal did not die and this book is a succinct history of the ancient Olympics and their modern resurgence.

Classics professor David Young, who has researched the subject for over 25 years, reveals how the ancient Olympics evolved from modest beginnings into a grand festival, attracting hundreds of highly trained athletes, tens of thousands of spectators, and the finest artists and poets.

Helps you choose the right computational tools and techniques to meet your drug design goals

"Computational Drug Design" covers all of the major computational drug design techniques in use today, focusing on the process that pharmaceutical chemists employ to design a new drug molecule. The discussions of which computational tools to use and when and how to use them are all based on typical pharmaceutical industry drug design processes.

Following an introduction, the book is divided into three parts:

Part One, The Drug Design Process, sets forth a variety of design processes suitable for a number of different drug development scenarios and drug targets. The author demonstrates how computational techniques are typically used during the design process, helping readers choose the best computational tools to meet their goals.

Part Two, Computational Tools and Techniques, offers a series of chapters, each one dedicated to a single computational technique. Readers discover the strengths and weaknesses of each technique. Moreover, the book tabulates comparative accuracy studies, giving readers an unbiased comparison of all the available techniques.

Part Three, Related Topics, addresses new, emerging, and complementary technologies, including bioinformatics, simulations at the cellular and organ level, synthesis route prediction, proteomics, and prodrug approaches.

The book's accompanying CD-ROM, a special feature, offers graphics of the molecular structures and dynamic reactions discussed in the book as well as demos from computational drug design software companies.

"Computational Drug Design" is ideal for both students and professionals in drug design, helping them choose and take full advantage of the best computational tools available.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

A complete bench-top guide to basic and advanced techniques used to solve real world research problems

Thanks to the proliferation of inexpensive, easy-to-use computational chemistry programs, the average laboratory chemist now has access to powerful tools once reserved solely for highly trained specialists. Computational Chemistry was designed specifically to enable chemists to add computational chemistry techniques to their working arsenal.

This book supplies the expert advice and guidance needed to confidently choose and successfully apply the correct computational chemistry techniques to an array of real world scientific problems. Computational chemist David Young provides clear-cut descriptions and step-by-step instructions for solving technical problems. He explores basic techniques in the field with a focus on their relative strengths and limitations. In addition, Young treats a range of advanced techniques from an easy-to-understand, nonmathematical standpoint, including transition structures, reaction coordinates, reaction rates, convergence problems, QM/MM, solvation, nonlinear optical properties, relativistic effects, mesoscale methods, and more.

Computational Chemistry features:

• Prioritized lists of methods for attacking difficult computational chemistry problems
• Brief critical reviews of most commercially available software packages, assessing each for its overall effectiveness and practical utility
• A review of the material from the perspective of various chemical systems (such as organic molecules, inorganics, biomolecules, polymers, liquids, or solids)