Managers in organisations must make rational decisions. Rational decision making is the opposite of intuitive decision making. It is a strict procedure utilising objective knowledge and logic. It involves identifying the problem to solve, gathering facts, identifying options and outcomes, analysing them, considering all the relationships and selecting the decision. Rational decision making requires support: methods and software tools. The identification of the problem to solve needs methods that would measure and evaluate the current situation. Identification and evaluation of options and analysis of the available possibilities involves analysis and optimisation methods. Incorporating intuition into rational decision making needs adequate methods that would translate ideas or observed behaviours into hard data. Communication, observation and opinions recording is hardly possible today without adequate software. Information and data that form the input, intermediate variables and the output must be stored, managed and made accessible in a user-friendly manner. Rational Decisions in Organisations: Theoretical and Practical Aspects presents selected recent developments in the support of the widely understood rational decision making in organisations, illustrated through case studies. The book shows not only the variety of perspectives involved in decision making, but also the variety of domains where rational decision support systems are needed. The case studies present decision making by medical doctors, students and managers of various universities, IT project teams, construction companies, banks and small and large manufacturing companies. Covering the richness of relationships in which the decisions should and must be taken, the book illustrates how modern organisations operate in chains and networks; they have multiple responsibilities, including social, legal, business and ethical duties. Nowadays, managers in organisations can make transparent decisions and consider a multitude of stakeholders and their diverse features, incorporating diverse criteria, using multiple types and drivers of information and decision-making patterns, and referring to numerous lessons learned. As the book makes clear, the marriage of theoretical ideas with the possibilities offered by technology can make the decisions in organisations more rational and, at the same time, more human.

We all have stories to tell -- of a rapturous first kiss, a life-altering moment of choice, or the shocking revelation of a long-guarded secret. And these stories are often as distinctive, fascinating, exciting and entertaining as those found in the memoirs and autobiographies that currently top the nation's bestseller lists. We just need to know how to tell them best.

Veteran, writing teacher, lecturer, and author of So You Want to Write a Novel, Lou Willet Stanek can help you translate your joys and ordeals, thoughts and triumphs into superbly crafted nonfiction -- taking you step-by-step through the writing process with care, encouragement, and expert advice. She shows you how to unlock your memories, create settings and scenes, protray major characters and dramatic events. And she offers the key to finding your own unique voice, and to presenting your greatest charcter -- yourself -- without boring your reader or sounding egotistical.

Complete with invaluable exercises, nuts-and-bolts techniques, and motivational tools, Writing Your Life is indispensible for every aspiring writer who wishes to mine the rich lode of his or her past for all the gems hidden there.

Managers in organisations must make rational decisions. Rational decision making is the opposite of intuitive decision making. It is a strict procedure utilising objective knowledge and logic. It involves identifying the problem to solve, gathering facts, identifying options and outcomes, analysing them, considering all the relationships and selecting the decision. Rational decision making requires support: methods and software tools. The identification of the problem to solve needs methods that would measure and evaluate the current situation. Identification and evaluation of options and analysis of the available possibilities involves analysis and optimisation methods. Incorporating intuition into rational decision making needs adequate methods that would translate ideas or observed behaviours into hard data. Communication, observation and opinions recording is hardly possible today without adequate software. Information and data that form the input, intermediate variables and the output must be stored, managed and made accessible in a user-friendly manner. Rational Decisions in Organisations: Theoretical and Practical Aspects presents selected recent developments in the support of the widely understood rational decision making in organisations, illustrated through case studies. The book shows not only the variety of perspectives involved in decision making, but also the variety of domains where rational decision support systems are needed. The case studies present decision making by medical doctors, students and managers of various universities, IT project teams, construction companies, banks and small and large manufacturing companies. Covering the richness of relationships in which the decisions should and must be taken, the book illustrates how modern organisations operate in chains and networks; they have multiple responsibilities, including social, legal, business and ethical duties. Nowadays, managers in organisations can make transparent decisions and consider a multitude of stakeholders and their diverse features, incorporating diverse criteria, using multiple types and drivers of information and decision-making patterns, and referring to numerous lessons learned. As the book makes clear, the marriage of theoretical ideas with the possibilities offered by technology can make the decisions in organisations more rational and, at the same time, more human.

When Henri Lefebvre published The Urban Revolution in 1970, he sketched a research itinerary on the emerging tendency towards planetary urbanization. Today, when this tendency has become reality, Lefebvre's ideas on everyday life, production of space, rhythmanalysis and the right to the city are indispensable for the understanding of urbanization processes at every scale of social practice. This volume is the first to develop Lefebvre's concepts in social research and architecture by focusing on urban conjunctures in Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dhaka, Hong Kong, London, New Orleans, Nowa Huta, Paris, Toronto, SAGBPo Paulo, Sarajevo, as well as in Mexico and Switzerland. With contributions by historians and theorists of architecture and urbanism, geographers, sociologists, political and cultural scientists, Urban Revolution Now reveals the multiplicity of processes of urbanization and the variety of their patterns and actors around the globe.

When Henri Lefebvre published The Urban Revolution in 1970, he sketched a research itinerary on the emerging tendency towards planetary urbanization. Today, when this tendency has become reality, Lefebvre's ideas on everyday life, production of space, rhythmanalysis and the right to the city are indispensable for the understanding of urbanization processes at every scale of social practice. This volume is the first to develop Lefebvre's concepts in social research and architecture by focusing on urban conjunctures in Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dhaka, Hong Kong, London, New Orleans, Nowa Huta, Paris, Toronto, SAGBPo Paulo, Sarajevo, as well as in Mexico and Switzerland. With contributions by historians and theorists of architecture and urbanism, geographers, sociologists, political and cultural scientists, Urban Revolution Now reveals the multiplicity of processes of urbanization and the variety of their patterns and actors around the globe.

How socialist architects, planners, and contractors worked collectively to urbanize and develop the Global South during the Soviet era In the course of the Cold War, architects, planners, and construction companies from socialist Eastern Europe engaged in a vibrant collaboration with those in West Africa and the Middle East in order to bring modernization to the developing world. Architecture in Global Socialism shows how their collaboration reshaped five cities in the Global South: Accra, Lagos, Baghdad, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait City. Lukasz Stanek describes how local authorities and professionals in these cities drew on Soviet prefabrication systems, Hungarian and Polish planning methods, Yugoslav and Bulgarian construction materials, Romanian and East German standard designs, and manual laborers from across Eastern Europe. He explores how the socialist development path was adapted to tropical conditions in Ghana in the 1960s, and how Eastern European architectural traditions were given new life in 1970s Nigeria. He looks at how the differences between socialist foreign trade and the emerging global construction market were exploited in the Middle East in the closing decades of the Cold War. Stanek demonstrates how these and other practices of global cooperation by socialist countries-what he calls socialist worldmaking-left their enduring mark on urban landscapes in the postcolonial world. Featuring an extensive collection of previously unpublished images, Architecture in Global Socialism draws on original archival research on four continents and a wealth of in-depth interviews. This incisive book presents a new understanding of global urbanization and its architecture through the lens of socialist internationalism, challenging long-held notions about modernization and development in the Global South.

This book examines ways of assessing the rational management of nonrenewable resources. Integrating numerous methods, it systematically exposes the strengths of exergy analysis in resources management. Divided into two parts, the first section provides the theoretical background to assessment methods, while the second section provides practical application examples. The topics covered in detail include the theory of exergy cost and thermo-ecological cost, cumulative calculus and life cycle evaluation. This book serves as a valuable resource for researchers looking to investigate a range of advanced thermodynamic assessments of the influence of production processes on the depletion of nonrenewable resources.

This book examines ways of assessing the rational management of nonrenewable resources. Integrating numerous methods, it systematically exposes the strengths of exergy analysis in resources management. Divided into two parts, the first section provides the theoretical background to assessment methods, while the second section provides practical application examples. The topics covered in detail include the theory of exergy cost and thermo-ecological cost, cumulative calculus and life cycle evaluation. This book serves as a valuable resource for researchers looking to investigate a range of advanced thermodynamic assessments of the influence of production processes on the depletion of nonrenewable resources.

Lyme borreliosi, s commonly known as lyme disease, is now acknowledged as the most highly prevalent arthropod-borne human disease in northern temperate regions of the world. This book describes the basic characteristics of the disease, the biology of the pathogens in their vectors and vertebrate hosts, their ecology in different regions of the world and the global epidemiology of the disease. The final chapters address the prevention and control measures that have resulted from this knowledge

Disrupted Realism is the first book to survey the works of contemporary painters who are challenging and reshaping the tradition of Realism. Helping art lovers, collectors, and artists approach and understand this compelling new phenomenon, it includes the works of 38 artists whose paintings respond to the subjectivity and disruptions of modern experience. Widely published author and blogger John Seed, who believes that we are "the most distracted society in the history of the world," has selected artists he sees as visionaries in this developing movement. The artists' impulses toward disruption are as individual as the artists themselves, but all share the need to include perception and emotion in their artistic process. Six sections lay out and analyze common themes: "Toward Abstraction," "Disrupted Bodies," "Emotions and Identities," "Myths and Visions," "Patterns, Planes, and Formations," and "Between Painting and Photography." Interviews with each artist offer additional insight into some of the most incisive and relevant painting being created today.

In this innovative work, Lukasz Stanek frames a uniquely contextual appreciation of Henri Lefebvre's idea that space is a social product. Stanek explicitly confronts both the philosophical and the empirical foundations of Lefebvre's oeuvre, especially his direct involvement in the fields of urban development, planning, and architecture.
Countering the prevailing view, which reduces Lefebvre's theory of space to a projection of his philosophical positions, Stanek argues that Lefebvre's work grew out of his concrete, empirical engagement with everyday practices of dwelling in postwar France and his exchanges with architects and planners. Stanek focuses on the interaction between architecture, urbanism, sociology, and philosophy that occurred in France in the 1960s and 1970s, which was marked by a shift in the processes of urbanization at all scales, from the neighborhood to the global level. Lefebvre's thinking was central to this encounter, which informed both his theory of space and the concept of urbanization becoming global.
Stanek offers a deeper and clearer understanding of Lefebvre's thought and its implications for the present day. At a time when cities are increasingly important to our political, spatial, and architectural world, this reassessment proposes a new empirical, and practical, interpretation of Lefebvre's ideas on urbanism.

This volume coins the term "Team 10 East" as a conceptual tool to discuss the work of Team 10 members and fellow travelers from state-socialist countries--such as Oskar Hansen of Poland, Charles Polonyi of Hungary, and Radovan Niksic of Yugoslavia. This new term allows the book's contributors to approach these individuals from a comparative perspective on socialist modernism in Central and Eastern Europe and to discuss the relationship between modernism and modernization across the Iron Curtain. In so doing, "Team 10 East" addresses "revisionism" in state-socialist architecture and politics as well as shows how Team 10 East architects appropriated, critiqued, and developed postwar modernist architecture and functionalist urbanism both from within and beyond the confines of a Europe split by the Cold War.

Thermo-ecology: Exergy as a Measure of Sustainability integrates thermo-ecology and exergy replacement cost as a new and original tool called thermo-ecology cost, or TEC. This tool allows for a more inclusive measurement of the impacts of using renewable and non-renewable resources by including the thermodynamics law in decision-making and presenting applications of this tool across industries and lifecycle assessments. It includes ways to investigate these effects more effectively by combining these critical aspects. This combination has emerged as a valuable decision-support tool for policymakers and the industry as they seek to evaluate the impacts of a product or process.

This edited volume explores ideas of legal realism which emerge through the works of Russian legal philosophers. Apart from the well-known American and Scandinavian versions of legal realism, there also exists a Russian one: readers will discover fresh perspectives and that the collection of early twentieth century ideas on law discussed in Russia can be understood as a unified school of legal thought - as Russian legal realism. These chapters by renowned European and Eastern European legal philosophers add to ongoing discussions about the nature of law, especially in the context of developments around our scientific knowledge about the mind and behaviour. Analyses of legal phenomena carried out by legal realists in Russia offer novel arguments in favour of embracing psychological and sociological perspectives on the law. The book includes analysis of the St. Petersburg school of legal philosophy and Leon Petrazycki's psychological theory of law. This original and multifaceted research on Russian realists is of considerable value to an international audience. Researchers and postgraduate students of law, legal theory and legal ethics will find the book particularly appealing, but it will also interest those investigating the philosophy or sociology of law, or legal history.

This open access book looks at the migration of Southern European EU citizens (from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece) who move to Northern European Member States (Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom) in response to the global economic crisis. Its objective is twofold. First, it identifies the scale and nature of this new Southern European emigration and examines these migrants' socio-economic integration in Northern European destination countries. This is achieved through an analysis of the most recent data on flows and profiles of this new labour force using sending-country and receiving-country databases. Second, it looks at the politics and policies of immigration, both from the perspective of the sending- and receiving-countries. Analysing the policies and debates about these new flows in the home and host countries' this book shows how contentious the issue of intra-EU mobility has recently become in the context of the crisis when the right for EU citizens to move within the EU had previously not been questioned for decades. Overall, the strength of this edited volume is that it compiles in a systematic way quantitative and qualitative analysis of these renewed Southern European migration flows and draws the lessons from this changing climate on EU migration.

In this 264-page book are 125 two-sided record sheets for Battle for Ruin Mist: The Roleplaying Game(tm). 50 two-sided character record sheets, 25 two-sided quick battle sheets, and 50 two-sided campaign record sheets. Player Battle System, Campaign Battle System, Active Cooperative Adventuring, Active Player-vs-Player Combat, Active Campaign Combat, Dynamic Magic System, d100 System, and Percentile Gaming System are trademarks or registered trademarks of Reagent Press.

PARENTING MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED: Robert Stanek's Bugville Critters stories were recommended to parents for their children by Parenting Magazine in September 2008. The magazine recommended "Visit Dad and Mom at Work," "Go To School," "Have A Sleepover," and "Visit Garden Box Farms." These stories are included in "Bugville Critters Storybook Treasury Volume 1" and in "Bugville Audio Collection 1." ABOUT THIS BOOK: Robert Stanek's magical Bugville Critters stories are capturing the imaginations of young children everywhere. Here in one enchanting volume are four Stanek favorites in their entirety, including the Tour Of Bugville from the extended editions. Starting with Robert's first Lass Ladybug story, Have Trouble at School, and including Break Their Bad Habits, Stay After School, and Have a Bad Day, Bugville Critters Storybook Treasury Volume 3 is the perfect collection to share with the entire family. A $40 value in a premium, full-size, full-color edition.

A full-color, premium-size, perfect-bound children's picture book! Robert Stanek, the highly-acclaimed author of more than 75 books for young people and adults, including Journey Beyond the Beyond and The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches, has selected an irresistible combination for this age group--loveable critters and exciting reading adventures. In this story, Buster's imagination takes him on a trip through the solar system on a rocket ship. He sees the earth and moon from space. As he sets off to explore the rest of the solar system, he encounters asteroids and many strange and wonderful sights. The wonderfully-crafted story is paired with energetic illustrations and playful examples that help children discover the world around them and the joy of reading. Other Big Little Reader(tm) stories starring Buster Bee that you may enjoy include: Go to School, Have a Sleepover, Visit Garden Box Farms, Go on Vacation, Play Their First Big Game, and Rush to the Hospital.