Discover the war-ravaged lands of Dormus, the exciting world setting for the international bestselling gamebook series, DestinyQuest. Dormus is a world riven with strife and conflict, it's very fabric of reality under threat from otherworldly forces and cataclysmic events. These are dark and perilous days, where fractious tensions threaten to bring down kingdoms and empires, and demonic invaders sow seeds of chaos to hasten the fall of humanity. This is a time when great heroes will rise - legendary men and women of fame, who will spin the web of destiny anew, changing lives and history, influencing kings and nations, and becoming beacons of hope amidst a desperate world teetering on the brink of ruin. Inside this beautifully illustrated hardback volume you will find: * A detailed history of the world, from its creation by the celestial Fates, to the current End Days of crumbling empires and war-weary kingdoms. * A comprehensive timeline that charts the key events that have shaped the world of Dormus, right up to the present - interlinking with the narratives of the gamebook series. * An overview of the magic system, detailing the chaotic forces of the Shroud and the effects of its demonic taint, as well as the runic magic of the dwarves and the dangerous arts of channelling elemental forces. * Exciting character stories and biographies, exploring some of the key heroes (and villains) who have influenced the DestinyQuest world, including the legendary witchfinder, Eldias Falks, and the enigmatic archmage, Avian Dale. * Detailed summaries of the main factions that vie for power and influence within the kingdom of Valeron, from the secretive enclaves of the Arcane Hand to the scheming masters of shadow, the Nevarin. Whether you are a fan of the DestinyQuest series or a gamemaster looking for a new and immersive setting for your homebrew roleplaying campaigns, the World Companion delivers a wealth of exciting secrets and discoveries - everything you need to arm yourselves for epic adventures ahead. So, are you ready to embrace your destiny?

"I stayed up last night until I finished 'The Fragrance of Heliotrope'. It was sweet and tender and sad all at once It was so much Cecilia. I loved every page, for it truly showed her charm and courage. What a beautiful memory book for her grandchildren, her friends and all memoir readers to cherish." - Claire Carney What an inspirational lesson, too, on personal courage and on how to live fully even after chronic illness intrudes. This is a woman of great charm, who managed her insulin dependent diabetes for forty two years while raising and guiding a family, conducting an often adventurous professional life in this country and abroad. Before and following the onset of the disease, she interacted professionally and socially with royalty, U.S. Senators, wives of Secretaries of State, Ambassadors, Nobel Laureates, University Presidents and Professors, even a famous World War II General. In her last four years, coping unobtrusively with her blindness and other debilitating complications of her disease, she confidently maintained her social and community involvements: attending meetings, entertaining regularly, introducing or querying public speakers, even insisting on doing book reviews when her turn came round. It was all an inspirational performance, conducted with grace, winning smiles and confidence.

Empowered by new wealth and by their faith, early modern Londoners began to use philanthropy to assert their cultural authority in distant parts of the nation. Culture, Faith, and Philanthropy analyzes how disputes between London and provincial authorities over such benefactions demonstrated the often tense relations between center and periphery.

This book represents an update of a well-received volume published in 1989, Caribbean in World Affairs. Given the broad changes that have occurred in the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and taking into account requests for a second edition from Caribbean scholars and policymakers in recent years, the author has written this new edition with the same aim as the original: to provide a comprehensive and theoretically-grounded account of diplomatic developments in these microstates. The author provides a lasting analysis of small state behavior, noting the recent renewal of interest in small states in both the global north and south. The new material includes attention to the changed global setting, updated theoretical developments in foreign policy, and the inclusion of Haiti and Suriname, newer members of Caricom.

Theoretically expansive yet historically well-grounded, ""Post-Wall Berlin: Borders, Space and Identity"" offers a powerful lens through which to view this city's latest self-reinvention. Presenting a trans-disciplinary approach to understanding one of the world's most iconic cities, the book relates to recent trends in post-Cold-War cultural history, memory studies, visual culture, and border studies. Through a focus on the moving boundaries of Berlin, Janet Ward reshapes the parameters of urban enquiry and sheds new light on debates surrounding the city's division and rebuilding, post-1989 and post-9/11 globalization, the new Europe, urban preservation and 'memory sites'. This book is, in short, a bold reassessment of the modern and postmodern urban condition.

Boards of directors can help businesses succeed--yet many family businesses do not have functioning boards of directors that play a valuable role in providing oversight to their businesses. In" Building a Successful Family Business Board," the authors show why private firms need the in-depth expertise and objective feedback that a well-chosen board, including qualified independent directors, can provide, and demonstrates how owners and directors can work together to ensure a long and profitable life for the firm. The book provides best practices for owners and directors with step-by-step guidelines for developing and managing a board--from writing the initial prospectus, through conducting lively meetings, to maintaining open, honest communication between owners, directors, family members, and other stakeholders in the firm.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Methods and Protocols describe a number of genetic, biochemical and immunological techniques. These techniques provide an advancing understanding of the pathology, breakdown of the immune system and therapeutic challenges of SLE in both humans and animal models. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols and key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Methods and Protocols appeal to biomedical and clinical scientists in a number of pathology disciplines at the doctoral and post-doctoral level.

This series [pushes] the boundaries of knowledge and [develops] new trends in approach and understanding. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW Of necessity, historians of the late Middle Ages have to rely on an eclectic mix of sources, ranging from the few remaining medieval buildings, monuments, illuminated manuscripts and miscellaneous artefacts, to a substantial but often uncatalogued body of documentary material, much of it born of the medieval administrator's penchant for record keeping. Exploring this evidence requires skills in lateral thinking and interpretation - qualities which are manifested in this volume. Employing the copious legal records kept by the English Crown, one essay reveals the thinking behind exceptions to pardons sold by successive kings, while another, using clerical taxation returns, adds colour to contemporary criticism of friars for betraying their vows of poverty. Case studies of the registers of two hospitals, one in London the other in Canterbury, lead to insights into the relations of their administrators with civic and spiritual authorities. A textual dissection of the epilogues in William Caxton's early printed works focuses on the universal desire for commemoration. Other essays about royal livery collars and the English coinage are nourished by material remains, and where contemporary records fail to survive, as in the listing of burials in parish churches, notes kept by sixteenth-century heralds and antiquaries provide clues for novel identifications. The book-ends are exemplars of the historian's craft: the one, taking as its starting point the will of Ralph, Lord Cromwell, explores in forensic detail how his executors coped with their enormous task in a time of civil war; the other,by examining research into the economy of fifteenth-century England undertaken since the 1880s, provides an over-view which scholars of the period will find invaluable. Contributors: Martin Allen, Christopher Dyer, David Harry, Susanne Jenks, Maureen Jurkowski, Simon Payling, Euan Roger, Christian Steer, Sheila Sweetinburgh, Matthew Ward.

All too often, urban studies scholars have approached transnationalism as a zero-sum game in which localities, regionalities, and nationalities are suppressed in favor of a globalized set of identities. At least in the German case, however, globalization has if anything reinvigorated localism, with local and regional identities exhibiting far more continuity than the multiply disrupted national space. As this marvelously varied collection demonstrates, the urban environment has become a site of "translocal" re-territorialization in which actors do not entrench themselves in opposition to globalization, but practice a dialectical adaptation. Bringing together scholars from anthropology, architecture, cultural studies, history, and urban planning, this volume offers empirically and theoretically rich essays to help deflate myths about the presumed dissolution of the urban environment's multiple particularities. Together they conceptually reconfigure the German city to reveal a transnational set of processes intermingled within the local, regional, and national spheres.

From small start-ups to giant multinationals, from the Mom-and-Pop owned barber shop to Ford, family owned businesses continue to dominate the world economy. Regardless of size, running a successful family firm presents unique challenges, and many fail to survive the transition to the next generation. Here is a practical, comprehensive guide to ensuring success through effective strategic planning. The authors provide a wealth of tested, easy-to-follow tools and techniques for mastering strategic planning for family-owned firms. Filled with real world examples, case studies, checklists, and planning worksheets, the book shows how to deal with a host of emerging challenges--from new technologies and globalizing marketings--by integrating family values and dynamics into sound planning and management.

This collection of conceptual work and empirical research proposes a multi-dimension framework to describe family business systems and brings new insights to families in the work place.This book is a selection of papers created by contributors for the IESE Business School International Family Owned Business Conference, 2008. It offers a theory of family history and demographic factors that drive the resolution of the issue. It includes conceptual work and empirical study, looking at both theory and practice.Governing a large family of shareholders raises many challenging issues. This collection of conceptual work and empirical research proposes a multi-dimension framework to describe family business systems and brings new insights to families on how they can transfer important values to the next generation of staff.

Netter's Integrated Musculoskeletal System is an innovative new text that brings together basic science material from several domains, providing a solid foundation prior to delving into topics of increasing complexity and clinical importance -all highlighted by superb Netter illustrations throughout. Initial chapters give a general overview of the human body, while the remaining chapters examine all facets of the musculoskeletal system, the injuries that affect it at the macroscopic and microscopic levels, and the process of development. As the scientific content becomes more complex, the clinical correlations become more specific. This progressively constructed narrative guides readers efficiently and effectively through the intricacies of the musculoskeletal system in a way that is easy to understand and remember-all in a single, time-saving resource for busy students. Takes an integrated approach including gross anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, neuroscience, histology, and other relevant sciences to better help readers understand the musculoskeletal system. Presents essential content in an easy-to-understand manner, puts it in context, and then elaborates on it with more detail-making connections between content areas and reducing the need for multiple study resources. Features clinical correlations boxes throughout; includes an appendix of commonly-used eponyms to help readers communicate across disciplines and an appendix of Latin/Greek/Arabic roots for anatomical terms. Designed to be used effectively in longitudinally-designed, integrated curricula-for a wide range of health-science students-with carefully organized, concise reading assignments and discrete areas of study for each lesson. Enhanced eBook version included with purchase. Your enhanced eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references from the book on a variety of devices.

First full examination of the medieval livery collar, form, function, and significance. The livery collar had a pervasive presence in late-medieval England. Worn about the neck to denote service to a lord, references to the collar abound in government records, contemporary chronicles and correspondence, and many depictions of the collar can be found in illuminated manuscripts and on church monuments. From the fifteenth century the collar was regarded as a powerful symbol of royal power, the artefact associating the recipient with the king; italso played a significant function in the construction and articulation of political and other group identities during the period. This first book-length study of the livery collar examines its cultural and political significance from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, in particular between 1450 and 1500, the period associated with the Wars of the Roses. It explores the principal meanings bestowed on the collar, considers the itemin its various political contexts, and places the collar within the sphere of medieval identity construction. It also investigates the motives which lay behind its distribution, shedding new light on the nature and understanding of royal power at the time.

This lucid account of Russian and Soviet history presents major trends and events from Kievan Rus' to Vladimir Putin's presidency in the twenty-first century. Directly addressing controversial topics, this book looks at issues such as the impact of the Mongol conquest, the paradoxes of Peter the Great, the "inevitability" of the 1917 Revolution, the Stalinist terror, and the Gorbachev reform effort. This new ninth edition has been updated to include a discussion of Russian participation in the War in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, Russia's role in the Syrian civil war, the rise of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin's confirmation as "president for life," recent Russian relations with the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union as well as contemporary social and cultural trends. Distinguished by its brevity and supplemented with substantially updated suggested readings that feature new scholarship on Russia and a thoroughly updated index, this essential text provides balanced coverage of all periods of Russian history and incorporates economic, social, and cultural developments as well as politics and foreign policy. Suitable for undergraduates as well as the general reader with an interest in Russia, this text is a concise, single volume on one of the world's most significant lands.

In this book, Alan Ward has collected contributions from education, psychology, law, political science, religion, literature, and poetry in order to examine the life and mind of a community in crisis. Much has been written about the causes of conflict in Northern Ireland. Little has been said on the conflict's impact on the community. This book fills the gap by addressing not only the way violence affects daily life by also it's influence on art and culture.

Film noir has always been associated with urban landscapes, and no two cities have been represented more prominently in these films than New York and Los Angeles. In noir and neo-noir films since the 1940s, both cities are ominous locales where ruthless ambition, destructive impulses, and dashed hopes are played out against backdrops indifferent to human dramas. In Urban Noir: New York and Los Angeles in Shadow and Light, James J. Ward and Cynthia J. Miller have brought together essays by an international group of scholars that examine the dark appeal of these two cities. The essays in this volume explore aspects of the noir and neo-noir cityscape that have been relatively unexamined, including the role of sound and movement through space, the distinctive character of certain neighborhoods and locales, and the importance of individual moments in time. Among the films discussed in this book are classic noirs Double Indemnity (1944), He Walked by Night (1948), and Criss Cross (1949), as well as neo-noirs such as Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Klute (1971), Taxi Driver (1976), Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), Cruising (1980), Alphabet City (1984), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Drive (2011), Rampart (2011), and Nightcrawler (2014). Uniting these essays is a thematic orientation toward darkness, whether interpreted in atmospheric and architectural terms, in social and psychological terms, or in terms of disruptive change, economic dislocation, and real or perceived existential threats. Offering multiple new perspectives on a wide range of films, Urban Noir will be of interest to scholars of film, media, politics, sociology, history, and popular culture.

Volume 19, entitled Essential Metals in Medicine: Therapeutic Use and Toxicity of Metal Ions in the Clinic of the series Metal Ions in Life Sciences centers on the role of metal ions in clinical medicine. Metal ions are tightly regulated in human health: while essential to life, they can be toxic as well. Following an introductory chapter briefly discussing several important metal-related drugs and diseases and a chapter about drug development, the focus is fi rst on iron: its essentiality for pathogens and humans as well as its toxicity. Chelation therapy is addressed in the context of thalassemia, its relationship to neurodegenerative diseases and also the risks connected with iron administration are pointed out. A subject of intense debate is the essentiality of chromium and vanadium. For example, chromium(III) compounds are taken as a nutritional supplement by athletes and bodybuilders; in contrast, chromate, Cr(VI), is toxic and a carcinogen for humans. The benefi cial and toxic effects of manganese, cobalt, and copper on humans are discussed. The need for antiparasitic agents is emphasized as well as the clinical aspects of metal-containing antidotes for cyanide poisoning. In addition to the essential and possibly essential ones, also other metal ions play important roles in human health, causing harm (like the metalloid arsenic, lead or cadmium) or being used in diagnosis or treatment of human diseases, like gadolinium, gallium, lithium, gold, silver or platinum. The impact of this vibrant research area on metals in the clinic is provided in 14 stimulating chapters, written by internationally recognized experts from the Americas, Europe and China, and is manifested by approximately 2000 references, and about 90 illustrations and tables. Essential Metals in Medicine: Therapeutic Use and Toxicity of Metal Ions in the Clinic is an essential resource for scientists working in the wide range from pharmacology, enzymology, material sciences, analytical, organic, and inorganic biochemistry all the way through to medicine ... not forgetting that it also provides excellent information for teaching.

John L. Ward, a leading world expert on family business, offers the best practices of the most successful and long-lasting families in business, including Ford Motors, Marriott Hotels, Levi-Strauss, and the "New York Times." He provides a framework of five insights and four principles in which to position his fifty "lessons learned" for family business longevity. This is a comprehensive book on sustaining family businesses that contains international examples, cases, essential tools, and checklists of best practices; a how-to every entrepreneur should have.

Out in the Rural is the unlikely story of the Tufts-Delta Health Center, which in 1966 opened in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, to become the first rural community health center in the United States. Its goal was simple: to provide health care and outreach to the region's thousands of rural poor, most of them black sharecroppers who had lived without any medical resources for generations. In Out in the Rural, historian Thomas J. Ward explores the health center's story alongside the remarkable life of its founder, Dr. H. Jack Geiger. A former teenage runaway, through a serendipitous turn of events he was befriended and taken in by the actor and Harlem Renaissance icon Canada Lee. Lee would later loan Geiger money for college, and after stints as a journalist and Merchant Marine, Geiger attended medical school and became a physician. Geiger's personal history brings a profound human element to what was accomplished deep in the Mississippi Delta. In addition to providing medical care, the staff of the Tufts-Delta Health Center worked upstream to address the fundamental determinants of health-factors such as education, poverty, nutrition, and the environment-and ask the question, "What does it take to stay healthy?" Equal parts social history and personal history, Out in the Rural is a story of both community health and of a stranger's kindness and determination to bring health care to areas out of reach.