Become confident in your choices. Where should I live? Is it time to get a new job? Which job candidate should I hire? What business strategy should I pursue? We spend the majority of our lives making decisions, both big and small. Yet, even though our success is largely determined by the choices that we make, very few of us are equipped with useful decision-making skills. Because of this, we often approach our choices tentatively, or even fearfully, and avoid giving them the time and thought required to put our best foot forward. In Smart Choices, John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa—experts with over 100 years of experience resolving complex decision problems—offer a proven, straightforward, and flexible roadmap for making better and more impactful decisions, and offer the tools to achieve your goals in every aspect of your life. Their step-by-step, divide-and conquer approach will teach you how to: • Evaluate your plans • Break your potential decision into its key elements • Identify the key drivers that are most relevant to your goals • Apply systematic thinking • Use the right information to make the smartest choice Smart Choices doesn’t tell you what to decide; it tells you how. As you routinely use the process, you’ll become more confident in your ability to make decisions at work and at home. And, more importantly, by applying its time-tested methods, you’ll make better decisions going forward. Be proactive. Don’t wait until a decision is forced on you—or made for you. Seek out decisions that advance your long-term goals, values, and beliefs. Take charge of your life by making Smart Choices a lifetime habit.
Adam Budd's critical edition presents John Armstrong's poem The Art of Preserving Health (1744) and other key sources of the eighteenth-century cult of sensibility. It also includes a comprehensive introduction and explanatory notes, clarifying Armstrong's classical, medical, and social references. Readers will come away convinced of the poem's uniquely engaging perspective on the place of literature, medicine, the body, and the book trade in the literary history of sensibility.
Dugas credits the reemergence of Shakespeare's plays and his rise to fame in the 1700s to economic factors surrounding the theater business including the acquisition and adaptation of Shakespeare's plays by the Tonson publishing firm, which marketed collector's editions of his work, spurring a price war and rousing public interest"--Provided by publisher.
This compact, engaging book puts Shakespeare's originality in historical context and looks at how he worked with his sources: the plays, poems, chronicles and romances on which his own plays are based.
Sets forth the state of the science and technology in plasma protein production With contributions from an international team of eighty leading experts and pioneers in the field, Production of Plasma Proteins for Therapeutic Use presents a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge about the function, use, and production of blood plasma proteins. In addition to details of the operational requirements for the production of plasma derivatives, the book describes the biology, development, research, manufacture, and clinical indications of essentially all plasma proteins with established clinical use or therapeutic potential. Production of Plasma Proteins for Therapeutic Use covers the key aspects of the plasma fractionation industry in five sections: Section 1: Introduction to Plasma Fractionation initially describes the history of transfusion and then covers the emergence of plasma collection and fractionation from its earliest days to the present time, with the commercial and not-for-profit sectors developing into a multi-billion dollar industry. Section 2: Plasma Proteins for Therapeutic Use contains 24 chapters dedicated to specific plasma proteins, including coagulation factors, albumin, immunoglobulin, and a comprehensive range of other plasma-derived proteins with therapeutic indications. Each chapter discusses the physiology, biochemistry, mechanism of action, and manufacture of each plasma protein including viral safety issues and clinical uses. Section 3: Pathogen Safety of Plasma Products examines issues and procedures for enhancing viral safety and reducing the risk of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy transmission. Section 4: The Pharmaceutical Environment Applied to Plasma Fractionation details the requirements and activities associated with plasma collection, quality assurance, compliance with regulatory requirements, provision of medical affairs support, and the manufacture of plasma products. Section 5: The Market for Plasma Products and the Economics of Fractionation reviews the commercial environment and economics of the plasma fractionation industry including future trends, highlighting regions such as Asia, which have the potential to exert a major influence on the plasma fractionation industry in the twenty-first century.
“The best comprehensive review of the Obama administration’s policies available,” by the author of Bush on the Home Front (Daniel P. Franklin, author of Pitiful Giants: Presidents in their Final Term). Barack Obama came into office as the economy was careening into the worst downturn since the Great Depression. On the political front, he would be challenged by the same intense congressional polarization faced by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, now exacerbated by the rise of the Tea Party movement. In this comprehensive assessment of domestic policymaking, John D. Graham considers what we may learn from the Obama presidency about how presidents can best implement their agendas when Congress is evenly divided. What did Obama pledge to do in domestic policy and what did he actually accomplish? Why did some initiatives succeed and others fail? Did Obama’s policies contribute to the losses experienced by the Democratic Party in 2010 and 2014? In carefully documented case studies of economic policy, health care reform, energy and environmental policy, and immigration reform, Graham asks whether Obama was effective at accomplishing his agenda. Counterfactuals are analyzed to suggest ways that Obama might have been even more effective than he was and at less political cost to his party. As with the author’s acclaimed Bush on the Home Front, this book elaborates and applies a theory of presidential effectiveness in a polarized political environment.
Democracy today faces deep and complex challenges, especially when it comes to political communication and the quality of public discourse. Dishonest and manipulative communication amplified by unscrupulous politicians and media pervades these diabolical times, enabling right-wing populism, extremism, truth denial, and authoritarianism to flourish. To tackle these issues, we need to encourage meaningful deliberative communication – creating spaces for reflective and constructive dialogue, repairing unhealthy public spheres while preserving healthier ones, and building discursive bridges across deep divides. Citizens who see through elite manipulations should be at the core of this response, especially if bad elite behavior is to be effectively constrained. Democratic activists and leaders, diverse interpersonal networks, resilient public spheres, deliberative innovations and clever communication strategies all have vital roles to play in both defending and renewing democracy. Healthy discursive infrastructures can make democracies work again.
The Executive's Guide to Information Technology is a sophisticated and comprehensive guide to running a cost-effective, efficient, and business delivery-focused corporate Information Technology (IT) unit. Eschewing the theoretical for the practical, the book gives managers the guidance they need to handle any problem effectively. It provides specific policies, approaches, and tools for each critical IT management functionó from application management to vendor management. IT management experts John Baschab and Jon Piot provide the techniques IT managers and executives need to accurately assess their current operations. Further, they offer a step-by-step improvement plan designed to raise productivity and service levels while reducing costs significantly. The authors begin by examining the symptoms and causes of waste, inefficiency and underperformance in typical IT departments before offering in-depth analysis of each operational area of IT management. They present current and emergent best practices for transforming the department into a world-class service organization. Packed with prescriptive advice and hard-earned insight, this comprehensive resource is organized into stand-alone chapters that provide quick access to important information when managers need it. In addition, spreadsheets, documents, and checklists are designed to aid in planning and decision-making and can be easily accessed on the included CD-ROM. Designed to help IT managers and top executives get the most out of their departments, their budget and themselves, the book covers such topics as: managing the department, establishing leadership roles, assessing the organization, cost management, project demand management, operations management, infrastructure planning, vendor selection and management, technical standards setting, investment evaluation, and productivity and quality measurement programs. With The Executive's Guide to Information Technology, IT managers will understand the main sources of waste in their departments, identify major management issues, learn and implement critical steps toward improvement, and manage more effectively. The book will help managers improve their performance and stature within their organizations by providing the tips and tools to overcome typical areas of friction and miscommunication between IT departments and other business functions. Executives will understand how to work effectively with the CIO or IT director, as well as provide constructive management input to the IT function, achieving the best return on their IT assets.
A long-awaited book from developmental disorders expert John Morton, Understanding Developmental Disorders: A Causal Modelling Approach makes sense of the many competing theories about what can go wrong with early brain development, causing a child to develop outside the normal range. Based on the idea that understanding developmental disorders requires us to talk about biological, cognitive, behavioral and environmental factors, and to talk about causal relationships among these elements. Explains what causal modelling is and how to do it. Compares different theories about particular developmental disorders using causal modelling. Will have a profound impact on research in the fields of psychology, neuroscience and medicine.
This title was first published in 2000. This investigation into why aspiring managers chose to study shipping and logistics in the UK uniquely discusses the issues which influenced their academic and career choices. It catalogues the attractions and deterrents to advanced study in an industry needing more highly skilled practitioners. Qualitative, quantitative and mapping approaches to modelling the vocational study decision are reported, along with a unique comparison of students’ cognitive maps.
Composed of a series of essays, this book deals with the broad issues affecting the nature of architectural materials and provides a focused review of the state of the art materials. It also provides designers with the tools they need to evaluate and select from the thousands of different materials that are available to them. The book is organized into three sections; ‘Time’ looks at how the materials used in architectural design have changed over the years showing how we have come to use the materials we do in contemporary design. ‘Materials’ covers all five material families; metals, polymers, ceramics, composites and natural materials giving in depth information on their properties, behavior, origins and uses in design. It also introduces a review of the cutting edge research for each family. ‘Systems’ outlines the technical design-orientated research that uncovers how new architectural assemblies can be designed and engineered. All of this practical advice is given along with many real case examples illustrating how this knowledge and information has been, and can be, used in architectural design.
Climate change presents a large, complex and seemingly intractable set of problems that are unprecedented in their scope and severity. Given that climate governance is generated and experienced internationally, effective global governance is imperative; yet current modes of governance have failed to deliver. Hayley Stevenson and John Dryzek argue that effective collective action depends crucially on questions of democratic legitimacy. Spanning topics of multilateral diplomacy, networked governance, representation, accountability, protest and participation, this book charts the failures and successes of global climate governance to offer fresh proposals for a deliberative system which would enable meaningful communication, inclusion of all affected interests, accountability and effectiveness in dealing with climate change; one of the most vexing issues of our time.
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