Value-creation in Middle Market Private Equity by John A. Lanier holistically examines the ecosystem relationships between middle market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Small business is the job creating engine in the US economy, and consequently is a prime target market for private equity investment. Indeed, private equity backs over six of each 100 private sector jobs. Both the small businesses in which private equity firms invest, and the private equity firms making the investments, face inter- and intra-company fiduciary leadership challenges while implementing formulated strategy. The architecture of each private equity firm-portfolio company relationship must be uniquely crafted to capitalize on the projected return on investment that is memorialized in the investment thesis. Given the leveraged capital structure of portfolio companies, the cost of a misstep is problematic. Individual private equity professionals are typically members of multiple investment teams for the firm. Not only may each investment team have its own unique leadership style, but its diverse members have to assimilate styles for each team in which they participate relative to a specific portfolio company. Acquisitions and their subsequent integrations add exponential complexity for both private equity investment and portfolio company leadership teams; indeed, cultural integration ranks among the most chronic acquisition obstacles. Accordingly, the stakeholders of private equity transactions do well to embrace leadership best practices in applying value-creation toolbox best practices. The perspectives of both the private equity investment team and the portfolio company leadership team are within the scope of these chapters.

Jaron Lanier is the father of virtual reality and one of the world's most brilliant thinkers. "Who Owns the Future?" is his visionary reckoning with the most urgent economic and social trend of our age: the poisonous concentration of money and power in our digital networks.
Lanier has predicted how technology will transform our humanity for decades, and his insight has never been more urgently needed. He shows how Siren Servers, which exploit big data and the free sharing of information, led our economy into recession, imperiled personal privacy, and hollowed out the middle class. The networks that define our world--including social media, financial institutions, and intelligence agencies--now threaten to destroy it.
But there is an alternative. In this provocative, poetic, and deeply humane book, Lanier charts a path toward a brighter future: an information economy that rewards ordinary people for what they do and share on the web.

In the fourth edition of Essential Criminology, authors Mark M. Lanier, Stuart Henry, and Desire .M. Anastasia build upon this best-selling critical review of criminology, which has become essential reading for students of criminology in the 21st century.Designed as an alternative to overly comprehensive, lengthy, and expensive introductory texts, Essential Criminology is, as its title implies, a concise overview of the field. The book guides students through the various definitions of crime and the different ways crime is measured. It then covers the major theories of crime, from individual-level, classical, and rational choice to biological, psychological, social learning, social control, and interactionist perspectives. In this latest edition, the authors explore the kind of criminology that is needed for the globally interdependent twenty-first century. With cutting-edge updates, illustrative real-world examples, and new study tools for students, this text is a necessity for both undergraduate and graduate courses in criminology.

Whether you're a novice compositor or a well-versed one moving over from After Effects or Shake, this is THE book for you to learn the ins and outs of the powerful compositing software, Nuke. In addition to covering all of the menus, buttons, and other software-specific topics, it also offers critical lessons in compositing theory, including working in 2.5D and stereoscopic 3D. Through a tutorial-based approach, augmented by video footage and image files provided on the downloadable resources, this book will have you up and running in Nuke in just hours. The book features over 300 4-color images, industry insider sidebars, as well as an entire chapter dedicated to real-world Nuke case studies. The downloadable resources files are available at http://www.focalpress.com/books/details/9780240820354/.

This casebook is intended to support professionals who are working in a variety of contexts to use classroom-based assessment more effectively to support teacher learning and teaching change, and to enhance the opportunities for all students to develop mathematical power. It grows out of a collaboration of mathematics teachers and teacher educators, and mathematicians, to better understand the role of assessment as an ongoing activity to help teachers reshape their own teaching practices. At the heart of each case is using assessment to make sense of what students understand and what they are confused about, deciding what counts as evidence of that understanding, and using the analysis to consider what the teacher's next instructional moves might be. All of the cases in this volume are built around actual episodes from mathematics classrooms. Intended as decision-making exercises, they present the raw data of classroom events in a straightforward way and are designed to stimulate analysis and reflection; provoke various and sometimes conflicting interpretations of an event; bring to the fore deeply held beliefs of beginning and experienced teachers so they can be reconsidered; and engage professionals in pedagogical problem solving in the context of complex classroom settings. This volume reflects the growing interest in cases as a pedagogical tool in teacher professional development. The cases are organized to take up key themes of the NCTM Professional Teaching Standards in ways that will assist and support teachers, teacher educators, and curriculum and staff development specialists in learning to assess and in linking assessment with curriculum, teaching, and learning. Although each case contains many ideas for linking assessment with curriculum and instruction, the most powerful use of these materials resides in their design intended to foster conversations among groups of professional colleagues. The editors' field-testing of the cases--in

Whether you're a novice compositor or a well-versed one moving over from After Effects or Shake, this is THE book for you to learn the ins and outs of the powerful compositing software, Nuke. In addition to covering all of the menus, buttons, and other software-specific topics, it also offers critical lessons in compositing theory, including working in 2.5D and stereoscopic 3D. Through a tutorial-based approach, augmented by video footage and image files provided on the downloadable resources, this book will have you up and running in Nuke in just hours. The book features over 300 4-color images, industry insider sidebars, as well as an entire chapter dedicated to real-world Nuke case studies. The downloadable resources files are available at http://www.focalpress.com/books/details/9780240820354/.

Create vibrant visual effects with Adobe After Effects. Gain the tips, tricks, and applied knowledge you need to carry out essential visual effects tasks and bring your digital compositing to the next level. In Compositing Visual Effects in After Effects, industry veteran Lee Lanier covers all the common After Effects techniques any serious visual effects artist needs to know, combining the latest, professionally-vetted studio practices and workflows with multi-chapter projects and hands-on lessons. Engaging, full-color tutorials cover: Altering resolutions and frame rates Channel and color space manipulation Rotoscoping and masking Matchmoving and motion tracking Keying green screen Working in the 3D environment and integrating 3D render passes Particle simulation Color grading and distressing Expressions and project management The companion website (www.focalpress.com/cw/lanier) features video image sequences, 3D renders, matte paintings, and other tutorial materials, allowing you to immediately apply the techniques taught in the book.

Aesthetic 3D Lighting: History, Theory, and Application delves into the history, the theory, and the practical and aesthetic application of lighting in the fine arts and 3D animation. In this book, animation industry veteran and lighting expert Lee Lanier examines the importance of lighting and its ability to communicate information to the viewer. Lee examines the history of lighting as applied to the fine arts, film, photography, and 3D animation. He discusses the use of light color, light location and direction, and light shadow types to recreate specific locations and to generate moods. He includes guides for successful lighting in 3D animation. Software-agnostic examples lead you through useful 3D lighting set-ups. Chapter-long case studies step you through more complex 3D lighting projects in Autodesk Maya. An accompanying eResource (www.routledge.com/9781138737570) features 3D model files, scene files, and texture bitmaps, allowing you to practice the discussed techniques in Autodesk Maya and many other 3D programs. The lighting techniques covered in this book include: History of lighting as used in the fine arts The scientific mechanisms of light Light types and light application in 3D programs Light qualities including shadows variations Basic and advanced 3D lighting approaches 1-, 2-, 3-point, naturalistic, and stylistic lighting techniques Replication of real-world lighting scenarios and locations Overview of advanced 3D lighting and rendering systems

This casebook is intended to support professionals who are working in a variety of contexts to use classroom-based assessment more effectively to support teacher learning and teaching change, and to enhance the opportunities for all students to develop mathematical power. It grows out of a collaboration of mathematics teachers and teacher educators, and mathematicians, to better understand the role of assessment as an ongoing activity to help teachers reshape their own teaching practices. At the heart of each case is using assessment to make sense of what students understand and what they are confused about, deciding what counts as evidence of that understanding, and using the analysis to consider what the teacher's next instructional moves might be.
All of the cases in this volume are built around actual episodes from mathematics classrooms. Intended as decision-making exercises, they present the raw data of classroom events in a straightforward way and are designed to stimulate analysis and reflection; provoke various and sometimes conflicting interpretations of an event; bring to the fore deeply held beliefs of beginning and experienced teachers so they can be reconsidered; and engage professionals in pedagogical problem solving in the context of complex classroom settings.
This volume reflects the growing interest in cases as a pedagogical tool in teacher professional development. The cases are organized to take up key themes of the NCTM Professional Teaching Standards in ways that will assist and support teachers, teacher educators, and curriculum and staff development specialists in learning to assess and in linking assessment with curriculum, teaching, and learning. Although each case contains many ideas for linking assessment with curriculum and instruction, the most powerful use of these materials resides in their design intended to foster conversations among groups of professional colleagues. The editors' field-testing of the cases--in initial teacher certification courses and in in-service workshops--has shown that they prompt engaging and demanding analysis through a variety of analytic lenses.
A videotape containing vignettes for four of the cases in the "Casebook" is available with this book. Transcriptions of the video vignettes are printed in the case materials in the book. Course instructors and professional development facilitators will need both the "Casebook" and the videotape and should order the Casebook/Video set. The video can also be ordered separately.

The occurrence of HIV/AIDS has dramatically affected every aspect of justice systems worldwide. Legal, law enforcement and custody issues abound. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of these issues as well as strategies and solutions.

Your one-stop guide to creating mind-blowing visual effects in Autodesk Maya. Full-color, step-by-step tutorials detail industry-staple visual effects techniques such as fur and hair growth, fire and water simulation, soft and hard body dynamics, cloth construction, and so much more. Maya guru Lee Lanier starts you off with the basics and then moves into more advanced tehcniques such as creature animation, patch modeling, effects scripting, render pass set-up, and others. The companion website features a treasure trove of project files, image sequences, texture bitmaps, and model FBXs, allowing you to immediately apply the techniques learned in the book.

In Advanced Visual Effects Compositing: Techniques for Working with Problematic Footage, learn to tackle difficult visual effect composites in layer-based and node-based compositing programs. In this book, industry veteran and compositing expert Lee Lanier offers tips, tricks, techniques, and workflows for difficult visual effects shots, including poorly shot green screen, moving shots with no visible motion tracking marks, shots requiring three-dimensional (3D) elements that lack 3D renders, poor-quality stock footage, and incorrectly lit shots. Lanier details the common problems of visual effects shots and offers practical solutions using examples from Adobe After Effects and Blackmagic Design Fusion. An accompanying eResource (www.routledge.com/9781138668348) features video image sequences, 3D renders, and other tutorial materials, allowing you to practice the discussed techniques. The visual effects challenges covered in this book include: Chroma keying Motion tracking Relighting in the composite Repairing plates Replicating damage Adding depth with 2.5D Working with stock footage

Create complex composites with Blackmagic Fusion. Learn the basics of node-based compositing and get up to speed quickly so you can undertake your own compositing projects. In Digital Compositing with Blackmagic Fusion: Essential Techniques, industry veteran Lee Lanier covers the most important components, tools, and workflows any serious compositor needs to know. Practice your knowledge and skill as you read the book with the included mini-tutorials and longer chapter tutorials. An accompanying eResource features video image sequences, 3D renders, and other tutorial materials, allowing you to immediately practice the discussed techniques. Critical topics in this book include: Tool / Node networks Color space and color channels Transformations Masking and rotoscoping Keyframing and animation splines Green screen keying The Fusion 3D environment Color grading and color manipulation Filter tools Motion tracking Particle simulation Stereoscopic workflow

Create complex composites with Blackmagic Fusion. Learn the basics of node-based compositing and get up to speed quickly so you can undertake your own compositing projects. In Digital Compositing with Blackmagic Fusion: Essential Techniques, industry veteran Lee Lanier covers the most important components, tools, and workflows any serious compositor needs to know. Practice your knowledge and skill as you read the book with the included mini-tutorials and longer chapter tutorials. An accompanying eResource features video image sequences, 3D renders, and other tutorial materials, allowing you to immediately practice the discussed techniques. Critical topics in this book include: Tool / Node networks Color space and color channels Transformations Masking and rotoscoping Keyframing and animation splines Green screen keying The Fusion 3D environment Color grading and color manipulation Filter tools Motion tracking Particle simulation Stereoscopic workflow

Create vibrant visual effects with Adobe After Effects. Gain the tips, tricks, and applied knowledge you need to carry out essential visual effects tasks and bring your digital compositing to the next level. In Compositing Visual Effects in After Effects, industry veteran Lee Lanier covers all the common After Effects techniques any serious visual effects artist needs to know, combining the latest, professionally-vetted studio practices and workflows with multi-chapter projects and hands-on lessons. Engaging, full-color tutorials cover: Altering resolutions and frame rates Channel and color space manipulation Rotoscoping and masking Matchmoving and motion tracking Keying green screen Working in the 3D environment and integrating 3D render passes Particle simulation Color grading and distressing Expressions and project management The companion website (www.focalpress.com/cw/lanier) features video image sequences, 3D renders, matte paintings, and other tutorial materials, allowing you to immediately apply the techniques taught in the book.

Collection of the best scholarly essays from the 2020 Southeastern Renaissance Conference plus essays submitted directly to the journal. Topics run from the epic to influence studies to the perennial problem of love and beyond. Renaissance Papers 2020 features essays from the conference held virtually at Mercer University, as well as essays submitted directly to the journal. The volume opens with an essay that discusses the "ultimate story," the epic, and argues, pointing to the Henriad and The Faerie Queen, that some of the most ambitious remain unfinished; an essay on "just war" and Henry V follows, suggesting why such epic inconclusion may not be such a bad thing. A trio of influence studies investigate post-Marian virginity, Miltonic environmentalism, and cross-dressing knights. Three essays then interrogate the perennial problem of love: in popular ballads, in Hero and Leander, and in The Rape of Lucrece. An essay argues counterintuitively for Amelia Lanyer and Margaret Cavendish as exemplars of the Cavalier Ideal of the Bonum Vitae; it is followed by an equally provocative reconsideration of the role of Claudio D'Arezzo's rhetorical works for Sicilian national identity. The last essay analyzes the formal signatures of three sixteenth-century queens and how they sought to represent themselves on the public stage.

Value-creation in Middle Market Private Equity by John A. Lanier holistically examines the ecosystem relationships between middle market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Small business is the job creating engine in the US economy, and consequently is a prime target market for private equity investment. Indeed, private equity backs over six of each 100 private sector jobs. Both the small businesses in which private equity firms invest, and the private equity firms making the investments, face inter- and intra-company fiduciary leadership challenges while implementing formulated strategy. The architecture of each private equity firm-portfolio company relationship must be uniquely crafted to capitalize on the projected return on investment that is memorialized in the investment thesis. Given the leveraged capital structure of portfolio companies, the cost of a misstep is problematic. Individual private equity professionals are typically members of multiple investment teams for the firm. Not only may each investment team have its own unique leadership style, but its diverse members have to assimilate styles for each team in which they participate relative to a specific portfolio company. Acquisitions and their subsequent integrations add exponential complexity for both private equity investment and portfolio company leadership teams; indeed, cultural integration ranks among the most chronic acquisition obstacles. Accordingly, the stakeholders of private equity transactions do well to embrace leadership best practices in applying value-creation toolbox best practices. The perspectives of both the private equity investment team and the portfolio company leadership team are within the scope of these chapters.

As a kid, Randy Lanier dreamed of achieving four-wheel glory at the Indianapolis 500, but knew he'd never be able to afford the most expensive sport on earth. That all changed when he bought a speedboat and began smuggling pot from the Bahamas. Fueled by what would become a historically massive smuggling operation, he started racing cars and became an overnight sensation. For Randy and his teammates, money was no object, and bigger hauls meant faster cars. At every event they attended, they were behind the wheel of the best machinery, flaunting their secret in front of huge crowds and live television cameras. But no matter how fast they drove, they couldn't outrun the law. As Randy came ever closer to reaching his dream of high-speed glory, one of the biggest drug scandals ever to hit the professional sports world was about to unfold. Set in the 1980s Florida of Miami Vice, this is the unbelievable, unforgettable, unparalleled story of an ordinary guy whose attempts to become famous doing the thing he wanted most-become a world class race car driver-devolved into a you-can't-make-this-up tale of one of the biggest crime rings and drug scandals of the 1980s. Now, with the help of New York Times bestselling author A.J. Baime, Randy tells the whole truth for the first time ever, a gripping narrative unlike any other, a sports story for the ages, and shocking a true crime epic.

In the courtroom, lawyers depend on rules of evidence to make their arguments. A case is made by establishing certain facts from which proof can be determined. But what happens when the truth seems to be a matter of faith? Can the legal mind discern the validity of one's belief or unbelief? Nationally recognized trial lawyer Mark Lanier turns his analytical mind to the arguments for atheism and agnosticism. With critical thinking and precision of thought, he examines the rationales made for unbelief and assesses them on their own terms, finding points of strength and weakness in their logic and coherence. He considers whether atheistic frameworks give satisfactory and consistent explanatory answers for understanding human existence and the world around us. He cross-examines the strongest arguments of prominent atheists and also interrogates the questions of agnostics as to whether God is knowable. Through his evenhanded, levelheaded approach, Lanier challenges us all to decide for ourselves what we believe.

In the fourth edition of "Essential Criminology," authors Mark M. Lanier, Stuart Henry, and Desire J.M. Anastasia build upon this best-selling critical review of criminology, which has become essential reading for students of criminology in the 21st century.
Designed as an alternative to overly comprehensive, lengthy, and expensive introductory texts, "Essential Criminology" is, as its title implies, a concise overview of the field. The book guides students through the various definitions of crime and the different ways crime is measured. It then covers the major theories of crime, from individual-level, classical, and rational choice to biological, psychological, social learning, social control, and interactionist perspectives. In this latest edition, the authors explore the kind of criminology that is needed for the globally interdependent twenty-first century. With cutting-edge updates, illustrative real-world examples, and new study tools for students, this text is a necessity for both undergraduate and graduate courses in criminology.

Revolutionary ideas on how to use markets to bring about fairness and prosperity for all Many blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking-and pretty much all conventional thinking about markets, both for and against-on its head. The book reveals bold new ways to organize markets for the good of everyone. It shows how the emancipatory force of genuinely open, free, and competitive markets can reawaken the dormant nineteenth-century spirit of liberal reform and lead to greater equality, prosperity, and cooperation. Eric Posner and Glen Weyl demonstrate why private property is inherently monopolistic, and how we would all be better off if private ownership were converted into a public auction for public benefit. They show how the principle of one person, one vote inhibits democracy, suggesting instead an ingenious way for voters to effectively influence the issues that matter most to them. They argue that every citizen of a host country should benefit from immigration-not just migrants and their capitalist employers. They propose leveraging antitrust laws to liberate markets from the grip of institutional investors and creating a data labor movement to force digital monopolies to compensate people for their electronic data. Only by radically expanding the scope of markets can we reduce inequality, restore robust economic growth, and resolve political conflicts. But to do that, we must replace our most sacred institutions with truly free and open competition-Radical Markets shows how.