Rath Strongs Six Sigma Leadership Handbook or Microeconomics

Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook

Author: Rath Strong

Achieve unparalleled customer satisfaction and greater profitability with this essential handbook! Six Sigma is a proven and highly effective business initiative for improving customer satisfaction and increasing the efficiency of processes. Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook highlights the critical factors that make or break implementation, offers key best practices for getting it right the first time, and offers real-life examples and case studies that light the path to success. With Rath & Strong, you'll get an overview of the tools, methods, approaches, benefits, and risks that are associated with each element of the methodology.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Preface
	About the Company: Rath & Strong: A Distinguished History
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction
Ch. 1	What Is Six Sigma?	1
Ch. 2	Why Six Sigma?	15
	An Interview with William Quinn, Johnson & Johnson	25
Ch. 3	Six Sigma and Its Application in Different Industries and Functions	28
	An Interview with Dr. Joseph M. Juran	35
	An Interview with Robert W. Galvin, Motorola Inc	41
	An Interview with Dr. Mikel Harry, Six Sigma Academy, Inc	50
Ch. 4	Roles and Infrastructure	57
Ch. 5	The Nondelegable Role of Executives	84
	An Interview with Dave Cote, Honeywell International	105
	An Interview with Kenneth W. Freeman, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated	114
Ch. 6	Lean and Six Sigma	121
Ch. 7	Work-Out and Six Sigma	131
	An Interview with Mo Kang, Zurich Financial Services Ltd	138
Ch. 8	Organizational Culture and Six Sigma	141
	An Interview with Randy H. Zwirn, Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation	154
Ch. 9	The Customer Connection	169
	An Interview with Ruth Fattori, Conseco	186
Ch. 10	Process Improvement-DMAIC	196
	An Interview with Stephen J. Senkowski, Armstrong Building Products	211
Ch. 11	Design for Six Sigma	219
Ch. 12	Process Management	245
	An Interview with Timothy W. Hannemann, TRW Space & Electronics	261
Ch. 13	Managing with Dashboards	265
Ch. 14	Preparing for Six Sigma	276
Ch. 15	Launching Six Sigma	289
	An Interview with John C. Plant and Bryce Currie, TRW Automotive	302
Ch. 16	Cross-Cultural Aspects of Deploying Six Sigma	311
	An Interview with William Quinn, Johnson & Johnson	317
Ch. 17	Stabilizing, Extending and Integrating Six Sigma	328
Ch. 18	Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Six Sigma Deployment	349
Ch. 19	Change Management and Communications	357
Ch. 20	Black Belt Selection and Development	392
Ch. 21	Project Selection	406
Ch. 22	Project Reviews	428
	An Interview with Francois Zinger, ALSTOM	444
Ch. 23	Replicating Results and Managing Knowledge	450
Ch. 24	Measuring and Auditing Results	458
Ch. 25	Developing Change Leadership Capacity	478
App. A	Basic Six Sigma Concepts	487
App. B	Case Study: Six Sigma in Small and Medium Enterprises	496
App. C	DFSS Case Study	507
	Notes	540
	Index	547
	About the Contributors	559

Interesting book: Hypokalemia a Medical Dictionary Bibliography and Annotated Research Guide to Internet References or Mastoiditis a Medical Dictionary Bibliography and Annotated Research Guide to Internet References

Microeconomics: Principles and Applications with Xtra! CD-ROM and InfoTrac

Author: Robert Hall

Microeconomics: Principles and Applications provides a lively, rigorous introduction to basic economic theory and its applications. It has been carefully crafted in terms of both content and supporting pedagogy to keep readers focused on learning and applying the central ideas used in economic analysis. In-text Internet links and a dedicated Web site provide opportunities and exercises for readers to access and analyze additional real-world economic applications.

Booknews

Hall (economics, Stanford U.) and Lieberman's (economics, New York U.) introductory college text explains the basic principles of economics and how economists use them to understand the world. The updated second edition features an optional appendix on using consumer and producer surplus to gauge efficiency, and an entirely new final chapter, "Using All the Theory: The Microeconomics of Domestic Security." All data tables and figures have been updated, and answers to even-numbered problems and exercises are now included in the back of the book. The accompanying CD-ROM contains several additional online learning tools. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Globalization and World Society or Metropolitan Income Growth and Convergence

Globalization and World Society

Author: Tony Spybey

This book provides an accessible overview of the processes associated with globalization, examining the various institutions which emerged from these processes.

Table of Contents:

	List of Tables
	Acknowledgements
	Preface
	Introduction	1
1	The European Global View	15
2	Mass Society and the American Dream	36
3	The Citizen in the Nation-State System	53
4	The Producer-Consumer in the Global Economy	75
5	The Viewer in the Global Communication System	104
6	The Soldier in the World Order	120
7	Global Social Movements	137
	Conclusion: The Individual and the Global	151
	Bibliography	171
	Index	181

Interesting book: No Frills Vegetarian or Come Lo Que te Pida el Cuerpo

Metropolitan Income Growth and Convergence

Author: Roberto J J Cavazos

The Bruton Center for Development Studies is a part of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, and brings an interdisciplinary focus to the study of development. Located in a dynamic metropolitan area that is playing an increasing role in the emerging global economy, the Center recognizes the growing significance of information and technology in local, national and global development. Research conducted within the Center includes both theoretical and empirical investigations of regional housing markets; mobility and location choices of households and business; interaction of land use and transportation; relationships between spatial patterns of development and the dynamics of regional economies, and on the interaction of market forces and public policies in shaping development.

Managed Care and Public Health or Field Guide to Project Management

Managed Care and Public Health

Author: Paul K Halverson

This book analyzes the effect managed care is having on public health. Managed care has moved to the forefront in wellness, prevention and health promotion——areas that were once exclusively the domain of public health. The authors use case studies to explore the areas where public health and managed care can work together and the areas where they have to compete.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Bernard J. Turnock, MD, MPH(University of Illinois at Chicago)
Description: Managed care strategies continue to expand into all corners of the American healthcare delivery system. At the same time, public sector responsibilities for health and community public health practice are also undergoing major changes. This book presents an extensive examination of the issues and opportunities that exist along the many interfaces between public health and managed care in this rapidly changing environment.
Purpose: Through an examination of these interfaces, critical problems and issues that require action can be identified and opportunities for collaboration and synergy seized. Such information will be critical for those attempting to manage care as well as those working to promote and protect the public health.
Audience: Administrators, managers, professionals, and other officials from both the private and public sectors will benefit from the insights and lessons provided in this book. Students preparing for future roles in the health sector will also find the book valuable.
Features: The book's most unique feature is the comprehensive treatment of its subject. The editors and contributors are highly credible authorities; they provide a thorough and thoughtful examination of key issues. There is, however, some unevenness in the treatment of the various topics and a fair level of duplication of themes and information. The book includes a very interesting collection of case studies that supplements and complements the topic-oriented chapters.
Assessment: This is an important contribution to thefields of public health and health services administration. Rather than merely viewing the ever-changing health sector in terms of the new challenges and issues that face public health on the one hand and managed care on the other, this book also presents the many opportunities accompanying these changes. These are important lessons for those in both managed care and public health organizations; they make this book a necessary addition for health science libraries everywhere.

Book about: Herbal Teas for Health and Healing or Specs

Field Guide to Project Management

Author: David I Cleland

One of the best-known authorities on project management, David Cleland developed this new edition for professionals who need a dependable, on-the-job resource to answer questions and solve problems as they arise. Field Guide to Project Management is unmatched in its wealth of reliable information on project management systems and its concise and accessible format, also making it the perfect volume to read cover to cover for a unique, up-to-date survey of the field. Every aspect of project management is addressed with practical explanations and advice by a who’s-who roster of expert authors who cover planning techniques, concepts, paradigms, processes, tools, and techniques.

Table of Contents:

Sect. I	Project management	1
Ch. 1	Strategic planning	3
Ch. 2	The elements of project success	14
Ch. 3	Why project management?	28
Ch. 4	Implementing the project-management process	42
Sect. II	Project planning techniques	55
Ch. 5	Practical tools for project selection	57
Ch. 6	A comprehensive model of project management	71
Ch. 7	Another look at life cycles	88
Ch. 8	Putting together a work-breakdown structure	103
Ch. 9	Tools to achieve on-time performance	116
Ch. 10	Keeping the lid on project costs	143
Ch. 11	Calculating costs and keeping records for project contracts	159
Ch. 12	Developing winning proposals	180
Ch. 13	Techniques for managing project risk	202
Ch. 14	Building the foundation for project success - the statement of work	219
Sect. III	Project leadership	245
Ch. 15	The tasks of project leadership	247
Ch. 16	Making optimal use of the matrix organization	272
Ch. 17	How to motivate all stakeholders to work together	288
Ch. 18	Political strategies for projects and project managers	305
Ch. 19	The role of senior management on projects	313
Ch. 20	Building a high-performance project team	325
Ch. 21	Motivating in the project environment	343
Ch. 22	How to get the right message across	353
Ch. 23	Negotiating skills for project managers	368
Ch. 24	Integrating project-management skills for the future	379
Sect. IV	Project oversight	405
Ch. 25	How to monitor and evaluate projects	407
Ch. 26	Project-management software : a guideline for system selection and use	426
Ch. 27	Effective project-management information systems	448
Ch. 28	Total customer satisfaction	467
Ch. 29	Project evaluation at lucent technologies	481
Ch. 30	Project termination : the good, the bad, and the ugly	503
Ch. 31	Implementing earned-value project management in ten easy steps	521
Ch. 32	Legal considerations for project managers	540
Sect. V	Team management	559
Ch. 33	New ways to use project teams	561
Ch. 34	Energizing project teams	575
Ch. 35	Concurrent product-development teams	594
Ch. 36	Self-managed production teams	609

Cases in Management Accounting and Control Systems or The Export Marketing Imperative

Cases in Management Accounting and Control Systems

Author: William Rotch

Written to create a collection of teaching cases that are interesting, thought-provoking and relevant to contemporary business situations and decisions, this book advocates broadening and strengthening the management dimensions of management accounting and control courses—doing so without sacrificing essential accounting content. Challenging yet concise cases are presented in a manner that minimizes reader preparation requirements. Topics and materials demonstrate how costs, cost analysis, and planning and performance measurement can be useful to managers in making operating and strategic decisions. This edition includes cases intended to build a foundation of basic concepts like cost behaviors, standard costing, and relevant costs. It also includes cases intended to address more comprehensive and complex issues such as activity-based thinking, balanced scorecards, transfer pricing, the use of ROI versus Residual Income to measure performance, flexible budgeting, and revenue and expense variance analysis. For anyone in management accounting, cost accounting, strategic cost management, and/or management control systems professions.

Interesting textbook: Bait and Switch or One Billion Customers

The Export Marketing Imperative

Author: Michael R Czinkota

Increasing competition and mounting pressure to boost revenues leave limited growth options for some companies, prompting many to turn a hopeful eye toward international markets. A must-read for anyone interested in breaking into global markets, The Export Marketing Imperative walks readers through the entire exporting process—from beginning to end—offering a wealth of information with its comprehensive coverage of all facets of exporting, including pricing, channel management, marketing plans/strategies, financial environments, and more. An essential resource for entry- and mid-level managers involved in marketing and exporting.

Table of Contents:

1	The drive to internationalize	1
2	Building the knowledge base : research	13
3	Export modes	43
4	Export intermediaries	54
5	Financial management	64
6	The role of government in international trade	78
7	Export market choice and development	104
8	Product adjustments	116
9	Pricing	141
10	Export channel management	170
11	International transportation and logistics	202
12	Export communication and promotion strategy	216
13	The export marketing plan	238

Correspondence of Alfred Marshall Economist or Very Political Economy

Correspondence of Alfred Marshall, Economist: Volume 2, At the Summit, 1891-1902

Author: Alfred Marshall

This is the second of a three-volume work constituting a comprehensive, scholarly edition of the correspondence of the English economist, Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), one of the leading figures in the development of economics and the founder of the Cambridge School of Economics. The edition fills a long-standing gap in the history of economic thought with hitherto unpublished material. Students will find it a basic resource for understanding the development of economics and other social sciences in the period since
1870. In particular, it provides much new information about Marshall's views on economic, social and political issues, his struggles to promote the teaching of economics at the University of Cambridge, and his relations with colleagues in Cambridge and elsewhere. Marshall's letters are notable for their frankness and spontaneity.

Interesting textbook: South Beach Heart Health Revolution or The Kosher Gourmet

Very Political Economy: Peacebuilding and Foreign Aid in the West Bank and Gaza

Author: Rex Brynen

Well over $2 billion in international aid has flowed into the West Bank and Gaza since the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993. Some critics charge that the money has simply vanished into a “sink-hole” of corruption, swallowed up by a cumbersome bureaucracy run by the Palestinian Authority. Rex Brynen takes a different view, based on extensive research in the Middle East and donor countries that includes hundreds of candid interviews and wide access to previously inaccessible documentation. A Very Political Economy spares no political sensitivities in its dissection of the aid process, but also argues persuasively that without international assistance there would have been no Palestinian Authority left to negotiate with, and no peace process to revive.

Brynen first outlines the general challenges presented by international donor assistance. Within that framework, he then examines the underdeveloped economic condition of the West Bank and Gaza under Israeli occupation, the mobilization and coordination of donor assistance after Oslo, and the delivery and allocation of aid up to the late 1990s. Finally, Brynen compares the Palestinian experience with the record of foreign aid elsewhere and offers general insights into the complex relationship between foreign aid and peacebuilding.

Booknews

Some say that the over two billion dollars in international aid that has flowed into the West Bank and Gaza since the Oslo Accord was signed in 1993, has just seeped into the sands of corruption and cumbersome bureaucracy. Brynan (political science, McGill U.) argues that without that aid, there would have been no Palestinian Authority to negotiate with. He describes the underdeveloped economic condition of those areas under Israeli occupation, the mobilization and coordination of donor assistance, and the delivery and allocation of aid up to the late 1990s. Drawing from there and other examples, he considers the relationship between foreign aid and peacebuilding. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Financial Accounting or Basics

Financial Accounting: The Impact on Decision Makers

Author: Gary Porter

The Fourth Edition of Financial Accounting: The Impact on Decision Makers holds true to the original vision of teaching accounting from both the preparer and user perspective, but with an expanded focus on showing the learner a "Roadmap to Success." To lead one to a full understanding of the impact of financial statements on business decision-making, the authors use the financial statements from Winnebago Industries throughout. Relying on the text's trademark innovative pedagogy, instructors can prepare business majors and accounting majors alike for future business success.

Interesting book: Communist Manifesto and Other Writings or The Power of Full Engagement

Basics: Business Communication

Author: Patricia Merrier

The BASICS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION focuses on the business communication principles and their written applications. Short, concise content delivers a thorough approach, with clear-cut examples and exercises to reinforce learning.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	Preparing to Write	1
Ch. 2	Using the Principles of Business Writing	21
Ch. 3	Planning Business Messages	47
Ch. 4	Writing Directly	63
Ch. 5	Writing Indirectly	91
Ch. 6	Writing Employment Messages	133
Ch. 7	Putting It All Together	165
	Appendix A Message Format Guidelines	177
	Appendix B Editing Symbols	191
	Appendix C Frequently Confused/Misused Words	193
	Thoughtpoint Solutions	195
	Index	207

IT Architectures and Middleware or New England Girlhood

IT Architectures and Middleware: Strategies for Building Large, Integrated Systems

Author: Chris Britton

The challenges of designing, building, and maintaining large-scale, distributed enterprise systems are truly daunting. Written by and for IT professionals, IT Architectures and Middleware, Second Edition, will help you rise above the conflicts of new business objectives, new technologies, and vendor wars, allowing you to think clearly and productively about the particular challenges you face.

This book focuses on the essential principles and priorities of system design and emphasizes the new requirements emerging from the rise of e-commerce and distributed, integrated systems. It offers a concise overview of middleware technology alternatives and distributed systems. Numerous increasingly complex examples are incorporated throughout, and the book concludes with some short case studies.

Topics covered include:

• Middleware technology review


• Key principles of distributed systems: resiliency, performance and scalability, security, and systems management


• Information access requirements and data consistency


• Application integration design


• Recasting existing applications as services

In this new edition, with updates throughout, coverage has been expanded to include:

• Service-oriented architecture concepts


• Web services and .NET technology


• A more structured approach to system integration design

Booknews

Focuses on the principles and priorities of enterprise systems design, emphasizing the new requirements brought by e-commerce and distributed, integrated systems. Britton, who works for Unisys, discusses middleware technology alternatives, resiliency, performance and scalability, security, systems management, information access and accuracy, and creation of a new presentation layer for existing applications. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Internet Book Watch

IT Architecture And Middleware: Strategies For Building Large, Integrated Systems, presents the essential principles and priorities of system design, emphasizing the new requirements brought about by the rise of e-commerce and distributed, integrated systems. IT professional Christ Britton offers a concise overview of middleware technology alternatives and distributed systems as he covers such topics as information access requirements and data consistency, creation of a new presentation layer for existing applications, application integration, and component architectures. Carl Britton's IT Architecture And Middleware is a highly recommended addition to the growing body of information technology literature and IT architecture reference collections.

Table of Contents:

1	The problem	1
2	The emergence of standard middleware	17
3	Objects, components, and the Web	39
4	Web services	59
5	A technical summary of middleware	77
6	Using middleware to build distributed applications	99
7	Resiliency	123
8	Performance and scalability	143
9	Systems management	169
10	Security	187
11	Application design and IT architecture	205
12	Implementing business processes	223
13	Integration design	241
14	Information access and information accuracy	257
15	Changing and integrating applications	277
16	Building an IT architecture	297

Go to: Og Mandinos Great Trilogy or The Leadership Challenge

New England Girlhood: Outlined from Memory

Author: Lucy Larcom

Arriving in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1830s after the death of her shipmaster father, the eleven-year-old Lucy Larcom went to work in a textile mill to help her family make ends meet. Originally published in 1889, her autobiography offers glimpses of the early years of the American factory system as well as of the social influences on her development. It remains an important and illuminating document of the Industrial Revolution and nineteenth-century cultural history.

Transforming Economics or Africa at the Crossroads

Transforming Economics: Perspectives on the Critical Realist Project

Author: Paul Lewis

Economics has become polarized. On the one hand there is a body of economists who concern themselves with progressing their discipline via an increasing use of mathematical modeling. On the other hand, there are economists who believe passionately that in order for economics to be useful it needs to take account of its history, its impact on society and its real world applications.

The contributors to this book fix their scholarly glare on the heterodox section of economics, and in particular upon critical realist approaches to the subject. Experts from a variety of perspectives have come together in these pages to examine the impact and usefulness of critical realism in relation to the different spheres within economics.

Notable for its contributions from such distinguished figures as Clive Granger, Edward J. Nell and Peter J. Boettke - this book deserves to find a ready audience across the economics spectrum.

New interesting textbook: Almanac of Political Corruption Scandals and Dirty Politics or One Soldiers Story

Africa at the Crossroads: Between Regionalism and Globalization

Author: John Mukum Mbaku

Mbaku, Saxena, and their contributors examine the problems faced by Africa as it decides what to do to improve its ability to contribute to and benefit from the new globalization. Today, the continent stands at a crossroads; it must choose between joining the new global society and pursuing a process of internal self-reliance. The dilemma the continent faces is how to participate in and benefit from the new global economy as well as retain and also benefit from its emerging regional economic and political schemes.

Table of Contents:

	Tables
	Acknowledgments
	Acronyms
1	Africa at the crossroads	1
2	Africa at the crossroads of globalization	21
3	Globalization and popular disenchantment in Africa	49
4	A Tale of three images : globalization, marginalization, and the sovereignty of the African nation-state	93
5	Regionalism and regional cooperation in Africa : new century challenges and prospects	121
6	The new East African community : a defense and security organ as the missing link	147
7	The African union : Africa's giant step toward continental unity	163
8	Fighting poverty and deprivation in Africa : the continuing struggle	191
9	Internet connectivity and development in Africa : look before you "leapfrog"	211
10	Decentralization and privatization of infrastructure	233
11	Beyond rhetoric : peacekeeping in Africa in the new millennium	267
12	Cultural diversity, societal conflict, and sustainable peace in Africa : consociational democracy revisited	287
13	State repair and democratic development in Africa	315
14	Ethnicity, agonism of difference, and national imagining in postcolonial Africa	337
15	The struggle for stability in Nigeria's contemporary politics (1990-1999) and the lessons for the fourth republic	371
16	Imperialism and militarism in Africa : the political economy of French arms sales and military interventions, 1960-1980	387
	Selected biliography	429
	Index	443
	About the editors and contributors	461

Corporations and Other Business Associations or Equality of Opportunity

Corporations and Other Business Associations: Cases and Materials

Author: Charles R OKelley

With this extensive revision of their well—regarded casebook, authors O'Kelley and Thompson respond to the many changes in the world of business. Retaining its balance of legal theory, enlightening cases, and widely praised problems, CORPORATIONS AND OTHER BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS, Third Edition, incorporates new material and analyzes important developments in the field.

If you haven't already adopted this intelligent and straightforward casebook, you'll be pleased to discover its:

real—life focus on: close corporations, mergers/changes in control, and the relationship between corporations and outsiders

skillful blend of theory, cases, and problems

carefully edited and thoughtfully selected classic and contemporary cases

generous number of excellent problems ranked among the best for clarity and effectiveness

sophisticated — but not intimidating—writing style

flexible organization which makes it easily adaptable to various teaching methods

New material in CORPORATIONS AND OTHER BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS, Third Edition, includes:

discussion and problems on the "hot" new business entities: LLPs and LLCs

expanded treatment of agency law

new hypothetical problems that develop and build within a chapter

more emphasis on the applications of theory, presented in a more accessible style

An updated Teacher's Manual

If you want to expose your students to the realities of business today, this powerful set of teaching tools is an ideal choice.

Go to: Carmens Kitchen or Kitchen Confidential

Equality of Opportunity

Author: John E Roemer

John Roemer points out that there are two views of equality of opportunity that are widely held today. The first, which he calls the nondiscrimination principle, states that in the competition for positions in society, individuals should be judged only on attributes relevant to the performance of the duties of the position in question. Attributes such as race or sex should not be taken into account. The second states that society should do what it can to level the playing field among persons who compete for positions, especially during their formative years, so that all those who have the relevant potential attributes can be considered.

Common to both positions is that at some point the principle of equal opportunity holds individuals accountable for achievements of particular objectives, whether they be education, employment, health, or income. Roemer argues that there is consequently a "before" and an "after" in the notion of equality of opportunity: before the competition starts, opportunities must be equalized, by social intervention if need be; but after it begins, individuals are on their own. The different views of equal opportunity should be judged according to where they place the starting gate which separates "before" from "after." Roemer works out in a precise way how to determine the location of the starting gate in the different views.

Booknews

Roemer (economics, U. of California) sets forth a precise way to organize disparate views about equal opportunity. He employs philosophic and economic techniques to define a starting gate from which a society could proceed in order to translate views about personal accountability into social policy. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
1	Introduction	1
2	Circumstances, Types, and Autonomous Choice	5
3	Justifying the Proposal	13
4	A Formal Definition of Equality of Opportunity	25
5	Incentive Properties of the EOp Mechanism	33
6	Equality of Opportunity with Production	36
7	Equality of Opportunity for Welfare	38
8	Equality of Opportunity for Health	43
9	Education and Advantage	54
10	Equal-Opportunity Unemployment Insurance	62
11	The EOp Distribution of Educational Finance in the United States	74
12	The Scope and Extent of Equal Opportunity	84
13	To What Extent Should We Equalize Opportunities?	91
14	Affirmative Action	108
15	Concluding Remarks	114
	References	116
	Index	118

Global Unions or Business Organizations and Corporate Law

Global Unions?: Theory and Strategies of Organised Labour in the Global Political Economy

Author: Jeffrey Harrod

This collection examines the interaction between industrial relations and international relations in the global economy. The role of trade unions has changed significantly in the era of economic globalisation and this book analyses the key developments in union strategy on a local, national, regional and global level.

Table of Contents:

	List of illustrations
	Notes on contributors
	Series editors' preface
	Acknowledgements
	List of abbreviations
Pt. I	International political economy and organized labour: approaches and theories	1
1	Organized labour and the global political economy	3
2	Work, production and social relations: repositioning the firm in the international political economy	29
3	Towards an international political economy of labour	49
4	Internationalization, industrial relations theory and international relations	64
Pt. II	National and regional strategies	81
5	Organizing globally, organizing locally: union spatial strategy in a global economy	83
6	Trade unions, globalization and training: initiatives in Britain and Brazil	100
7	The international dimension of labour federation economic strategy in Canada and the United States 1947-2000	115
8	Unions, capitals and states: competing (inter)nationalisms in North American and European integration	130
9	International labour and regional integration in the Asia-Pacific	151
Pt. III	The global arena: unions and global dynamics	165
10	The constraints on labour internationalism: contradictions and prospects	167
11	Labour movement renewal in the era of globalization: union responses in the South	185
12	Peripheralizing labour: the ILO, WTO and the completion of the Bretton Woods project	204
13	The varied paths to minimum global labour standards	221
14	Labour as a global social force: past divisions and new tasks	235
	Bibliography	251
	Index	277

Interesting textbook: Istituzioni, cambiamento istituzionale e risultato economico

Business Organizations and Corporate Law

Author: Neal R Bevans

Business Organizations and Corporate Law is a book designed to provide reference for the training and practicing paralegal professional in the realm of business organizations. The unique perspective of this text was created specifically with the reader in mind and focuses on being accessible and paralegal centered. There is a strong emphasis on the role of the paralegal in helping to create different business organizations, and the focus is on building a strong foundation on theory followed up with reinforcing practical examples and applications. The text explores the basic concepts of business from sole proprietorships to corporations, and also addresses some of the more mystifying concepts such as shareholder agreements and business judgment rule. There are objectives at the beginning of each chapter to clarify the goal of the chapter, and important terms are bolded and defined upon first use in order to highlight legal terminology. Ethical blocks were created to encourage examination of ethical issues throughout the book, and there are many case excerpts included to lead to a more thorough exploration of business law issues. Not only are the various models of business organizations explored, but also the critical role played by the paralegal and the legal team in creating and maintaining those organizations. This along with a clear balance between theory and application as well as multiple learning tools, makes Business Organizations and Corporate Law the ideal reference.

Managerial Accounting or Farmers of the Golden Bean

Managerial Accounting

Author: Ronald W Hilton

Known for its balance of managerial accounting topics in a variety of business segments-manufacturing,retail,nonprofit and service-industry settings-and noted by for its lively presentation,this highly successful text provides thorough coverage of all major topics found in the managerial accounting course. Traditional managerial accounting material along with up-to-date and emerging topics are covered throughout using a step-by-step presentation punctuated with numerous graphs,tables,exhibits,and photographs. Each chapter of the text is built around a major,chapter-length illustration based on real-world companies are utilized throughout the text to demonstrate key points and highlight important concepts. Using these elements-a modern,interesting and clear presentation along with major chapter-length illustrations-author Ronald Hilton has also designed a modular text,one that allows instructors great flexibility in the ordering of topics and coverage.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
Pt. 1	Fundamentals and Cost Accumulation Systems	1
Ch. 1	Managerial Accounting: An Overview	3
Ch. 2	Basic Cost Terms and Concepts	29
Ch. 3	Job-Order Costing Systems	71
Ch. 4	Process Costing and Hybrid Product-Costing Systems	133
Ch. 5	Cost Management Systems for the New Manufacturing Environment	191
Pt. 2	Planning and Control Systems	261
Ch. 6	Cost Behavior and Estimation	263
Ch. 7	Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis	317
Ch. 8	Budgeting: Profit Planning and Control Systems	373
Ch. 9	Standard Costing and Performance Measures for the New Manufacturing Environment	445
Ch. 10	Flexible Budgets and Control of Overhead Costs	501
Ch. 11	Responsibility Accounting and Income Reporting	553
Ch. 12	Investment Centers and Transfer Pricing	603
Pt. 3	Using Accounting Information in Making Decisions	649
Ch. 13	Decision Making: Relevant Costs and Benefits	651
Ch. 14	Cost Analysis and Pricing Decisions	717
Ch. 15	Capital Expenditure Decisions: An Introduction	765
Ch. 16	Further Aspects of Capital Expenditure Decisions	811
Pt. 4	Selected Topics for Further Study	861
Ch. 17	Cost Allocation: A Closer Look	863
Ch. 18	Analyzing Financial Statements	895
Ch. 19	Preparing the Statement of Cash Flows	939
	Glossary	G-1
	Indexes	I-1

New interesting textbook: C Programming or Programming HD DVD and Blu Ray Disc

Farmers of the Golden Bean: Costa Rican Households, Global Coffee, and Fair Trade

Author: Deborah Sick

Sick explores contemporary issues of gender, empowerment, access to resources, and Fair Trade as she examines how Costa Rican coffee-producing households cope with the complexities of a globalizing world economy. Using a commodity approach, she integrates household, regional, and global processes. Farmers of the Golden Bean challenges previous assumptions about the nature of economic change and the sustainability of household producers in the global economy.

About the Author:
Deborah Sick is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Ottawa

Matrix Differential Calculus with Applications in Statistics and Econometrics or Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism 1890 1916

Matrix Differential Calculus with Applications in Statistics and Econometrics

Author: Jan R Magnus

Matrix Differential Calculus With Applications in Statistics and Econometrics Revised Edition Jan R. Magnus, CentER, Tilburg University, The Netherlands and Heinz Neudecker, Cesaro, Schagen, The Netherlands " .deals rigorously with many of the problems that have bedevilled the subject up to the present time." - Stephen Pollock, Econometric Theory "I continued to be pleasantly surprised by the variety and usefulness of its contents " - Isabella Verdinelli, Journal of the American Statistical Association Continuing the success of their first edition, Magnus and Neudecker present an exhaustive and self-contained revised text on matrix theory and matrix differential calculus. Matrix calculus has become an essential tool for quantitative methods in a large number of applications, ranging from social and behavioural sciences to econometrics. While the structure and successful elements of the first edition remain, this revised and updated edition contains many new examples and exercises.
* Contains the essentials of multivariable calculus with an emphasis on the use of differentials
* Many new examples and exercises
* Fulfils the need for a unified and self-contained treatment of matrix differential calculus
* Includes new developments in this field
Part I presents a concise, yet thorough overview of matrix algebra, while the second part develops the theory of differentials. The remaining Parts III to VI combine the theory and application of matrix differential calculus providing the practitioner and researcher with both a quick review and a detailed reference. Visit our web page wiley.com/

Interesting textbook: Introduction to Marketing or The Rich Get Richer

Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890-1916: The Market, the Law, and Politics

Author: Martin J Sklar

At the turn of the twentieth century American politics underwent a profound change, as both regulatory minimalism and statist command were rejected in favor of positive government engaged in both regulatory and distributive roles. Through a fresh examination of the judicial, legislative, and political aspects of the antitrust debates in the years from 1890-1916, Martin Sklar shows that the arguments did not arise simply because of competition versus combination, but because of the larger question of the proper relations between government and the market and between state and society.

Table of Contents:

Preface; List of abbreviations used in the footnotes;

1. Introduction: corporate capitalism and corporate liberalism;

Part I. The Market and the Law:
2. Metamorphosis in property and thought;
3. The corporate reconstruction and the antitrust law;

Part II. Politics:
4. The politics of antitrust;
5. Two progressive presidents;
6. Woodrow Wilson and the corporate-liberal ascendancy;
7. Conclusion: fathers and prophets; Bibliography; Index.

Engines of Enterprise or Beyond Self Interest

Engines of Enterprise: An Economic History of New England

Author: Peter Temin

New England's economy has a history as dramatic as any in the world. From an inauspicious beginning—as immigration ground to a halt in the eighteenth century—New England went on to lead the United States in its transformation from an agrarian to an industrial economy. And when the rest of the country caught up in the mid-twentieth century, New England reinvented itself as a leader in the complex economy of the information society.

Engines of Enterprise tells this dramatic story in a sequence of narrative essays written by preeminent historians and economists. These essays chart the changing fortunes of entrepreneurs and venturers, businessmen and inventors, and common folk toiling in fields, in factories, and in air-conditioned offices. The authors describe how, short of staple crops, colonial New Englanders turned to the sea and built an empire; and how the region became the earliest home of the textile industry as commercial fortunes underwrote new industries in the nineteenth century. They show us the region as it grew ahead of the rest of the country and as the rest of the United States caught up. And they trace the transformation of New England's products and exports from cotton textiles and machine tools to such intangible goods as education and software. Concluding short essays also put forward surprising but persuasive arguments—for instance, that slavery, while not prominent in colonial New England, was a critical part of the economy; and that the federal government played a crucial role in the development of the region's industrial skills.

Library Journal

The economy of New England experienced far-reaching changes over the centuries and led the way in the transformation of an American agrarian economy to a manufacturing powerhouse. This process of change is the subject of this well-knit collection of essays by economists and historians, edited by Temin (economics, MIT). The essays trace the fortunes of venture capitalists and investors in 18th-century New England, which, lacking staple crops to trade, made overseas ventures the foundation of the region's economy. In the early 19th century, Yankee ingenuity made New England the nation's leader in manufacturing, beginning with cotton textiles and machine tools. Eventually, other sections of the country forged ahead of New England in terms of factory output. Showing great ingenuity, however, New England reinvented itself as an important producer of less tangible but still valuable products and services, such as higher education and, in our own time, computer software. A scholarly work that effectively synthesizes much available information, this is recommended for the economic history collections of academic libraries.--Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

New interesting book: Tea or Literary Feast

Beyond Self-Interest

Author: Jane J Mansbridg

A dramatic transformation has begun in the way scholars think about human nature. Political scientists, psychologists, economists, and evolutionary biologists are beginning to reject the view that human affairs are shaped almost exclusively by self-interest—a view that came to dominate social science in the last three decades.

In Beyond Self-Interest, leading social scientists argue for a view of individuals behavior and social organization that takes into account the powerful motivations of duty, love, and malevolence. Economists who go beyond "economic man," psychologists who go beyond stimulus-response, evolutionary biologists who go beyond the "selfish gene," and political scientists who go beyond the quest for power come together in this provocative and important manifesto.

The essays trace, from the ancient Greeks to the present, the use of self-interest to explain political life. They investigate the differences between self-interest and the motivations of duty and love, showing how these motivations affect behavior in "prisoners' dilemma" interactions. They generate evolutionary models that explain how altruistic motivations escape extinction.

They suggest ways to model within one individual the separate motivations of public spirit and self-interest, investigate public spirit and self-interest, investigate public spirit in citizen and legislative behavior, and demonstrate that the view of democracy in existing Constitutional interpretations is not based on self-interest. They advance both human evil and mothering as alternatives to self-interest, this last in a penetrating feminist critique of the "contract" model of human interaction.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Part I - Introduction
1. The Rise and Fall of Self-Interest in the Explanation of Political Life
Jane J. Mansbridge
Part II - Dimensions of the Problem
2. Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory
Amartya K. Sen
3. Selfishness and Altruism
Jon Elster
4. Varieties of Altruism
Christopher Jencks
Part III - An Ecological Niche for Altruism
5. A Theory of Moral Sentiments
Robert H. Frank
6. Cooperation for the Benefit of Us—Not Me, or My Conscience
Robyn M. Dawes, Alphons J. C. van de Kragt, and John M. Orbell
7. Culture and Cooperation
Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson
8. On the Relation of Altruism and Self-Interest
Jane J. Mansbridge
Part IV - Citizens
9. Self-Interest in Americans' Political Opinions
David O. Sears and Carolyn L. Funk
10. Justice, Self-Interest, and the Legitimacy of Legal and Political Authority
Tom R. Tyler
Part V - Legislators
11. Deregulation and the Politics of Ideas in Congress
Paul J. Quirk
12. Congress and Public Spirit: A Commentary
Steven Kelman
Part VI - Constitutional Interpretation
13. Political Self-Interest in Constitutional Law
Cass R. Sunstein
Part VII - International Relations
14. Empathy and International Regimes
Robert O. Keohane
Part VIII - Modeling
15. Dual Utilities and Rational Choice
Howard Margolis
16. Expanding the Range of Formal Modeling
Jane J. Mansbridge
Part IX. Alternatives to Self-Interest, Malevolent and Benevolent
17. The Secret History ofSelf-Interest
Stephen Holmes
18. Mothering versus Contract
Virginia Held
Notes
Reference List
List of Contributors
Index

A Theory of Incentives in Regulation and Procurement or Applied Economics

A Theory of Incentives in Regulation and Procurement

Author: Jean Jacques Laffont

Honorable Mention in the category of Economics in the 1993 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc.

More then just a textbook, A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation will guide economists' research on regulation for years to come. It makes a difficult and large literature of the new regulatory economics accessible to the average graduate student, while offering insights into the theoretical ideas and stratagems not available elsewhere. Based on their pathbreaking work in the application of principal-agent theory to questions of regulation, Laffont and Tirole develop a synthetic approach, with a particular, though not exclusive, focus on the regulation of natural monopolies such as military contractors, utility companies, and transportation authorities.

The book's clear and logical organization begins with an introduction that summarizes regulatory practices, recounts the history of thought that led to the emergence of the new regulatory economics, sets up the basic structure of the model, and previews the economic questions tackled in the next seventeen chapters. The structure of the model developed in the introductory chapter remains the same throughout subsequent chapters, ensuring both stability and consistency. The concluding chapter discusses important areas for future work in regulatory economics.

Each chapter opens with a discussion of the economic issues, an informal description of the applicable model, and an overview of the results and intuition. It then develops the formal analysis, including sufficient explanations for those with little trainingin information economics or game theory. Bibliographic notes provide a historical perspective of developments in the area and a description of complementary research. Detailed proofs are given of all major conclusions, making the book valuable as a source of modern research techniques. There is a large set of review problems at the end of the book.

New interesting textbook: Reinventing Leadership or Strategic Management

Applied Economics: A Critical Realist Approach

Author: Paul Downward

This intriguing new book examines and analyses the role of critical realism in economics and specifically how this line of thought can be applied to the real world. With contributions from such varying commentators as Sheila Dow, Wendy Olsen and Fred Lee, this new book is unique in its approach and will be of great interest to both economic methodologists and those involved in applied economic studies.

Table of Contents:

	List of illustrations
	List of contributors
	Acknowledgements
1	Introduction	1
2	Critical realism and economics	12
3	Conceptualizing unemployment in a period of atypical employment: a critical realist approach	27
4	Critical realism, methodology and applied economics	51
5	Critical realism and formal modelling: incompatible bedfellows?	71
6	Seeking a role for empirical analysis in critical realist explanation	89
7	Critical realism and econometrics: interaction between philosophy and Post Keynesian practice	111
8	A pragmatic alliance between critical realism and simple non-parametric statistical techniques	129
9	Triangulation, time and the social objects of econometrics	153
10	Theory foundation and the methodological foundations of Post Keynesian economics	170
11	Questionnaires in realist research: a case study of rural small-scale industry in Ghana	197
12	Critical realism and applied work in economic history: some methodological implications	220
13	Critical realism and the political economy of the Euro	233
14	Presenting demi-regularities: the case of Post Keynesian pricing	247
15	From predictive to indicative statistics: explaining corporate borrowing	266
16	Transition in Eastern Europe: critical realism and qualitative insights	279
17	Conclusion	293
	Index	302

Business Climate Shifts or Chef Manager

Business Climate Shifts: Profiles of Change Makers

Author: Warner Burk

Business Climate Shifts: Profiles of Change Makers contains a wealth of CEO wisdom about how companies today can successfully manage change in response to rapidly changing business conditions. Includes a compelling overview of the factors and forces driving rapid and often "discontinuous" change in business today - e.g. globalization, the disruptive influence of new technologies, growing electronic connectivity among far flung financial markets, and the rise of e-business among others — and assesses the short and long-term significance of these trends for the long-term viability of companies in all industries. Among the "change makers" profiled in this book: Lord Colin Marshall, Chairman of British Airways; Robert Bauman, former CEO of SmithKline Beecham; Bill Henderson, U.S. Postmaster General; Jane Garvey, Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration; Fred Poses, President of AlliedSignal; Sir Richard Evans, Chairman of British Aerospace; and Errol Marshall, CEO of Shell South Africa, among others.

Features interviews with some of the most significant transformational leaders of our time
Foreword written by Warren Bennis
Contains in-depth analyses of what's required to ensure successful and sustainable transformation

Booknews

Burke (Teacher's College, Columbia U.) and William Trahant (partner with Pricewaterhouse-Coopers) reveal that today the craft of change leadership is as much a human art as it is a management science. They discuss how it requires imagination and emotional involvement on a leader's part as much as it does discipline and focus, and how it relies as much on a leader's personal openness to new learning as it does on enthusiastic employees. In the profiles of the authors' clients, the reader learns how leaders of major businesses such as British Airways, Allied Signal and SmithKline Beecham successfully transformed their enterprises. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

New interesting book: Occupational Safety and Health in the Emergency Services or Chinas Changing Political Landscape

Chef Manager

Author: Michael Baskett

This book gives new chefs in the modern hospitality industry the opportunity to learn detailed management and human relation skills necessary for competitive markets and diverse workplaces. It examines the role of chef as kitchen manager, team coach, and culinary innovator, while employing real work applications. Written on an easy-to-read level, with true-life culinary examples and applications of management theory, this book helps to redefine the role of chef as manager and businessperson. Chapter topics include the changing role of chef; new values in hospitality; the structure of kitchen organization; implementing TQM; personal management; the chef supervisor; managing diversity; the chef leader; defining leadership; team building; personal development; concept engineering; establishing operational standards; menu management; production management; the business of quality food service; and the future of information technologies. For chefs who are also managers–or considering expanding their culinary portfolios to include the people skills and management tools that Chef Manager puts on the proverbial table.

Booknews

Examines the managerial responsibilities of the modern executive chef and applies business management, human resource management, and quality management practices to food service hospitality. Concepts of Total Quality Management, such as strategic planning, quality control, concept engineering, and the controlled use of creativity and innovation, are explored from the professional chef's perspective. Chapters cover kitchen organization, personnel management, diversity, communication, team building, menu management, and the future of information technologies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	The changing role of chef	3
Ch. 2	New values in culinary leadership	36
Ch. 3	The structure of kitchen organization	63
Ch. 4	Foundations in quality	79
Ch. 5	W. Edwards Deming's fourteen quality points	90
Ch. 6	Joseph Juran's trilogy and the Pareto principle	106
Ch. 7	Discovering Philip Crosby's zero defects	117
Ch. 8	Kaoru Ishikawa and Armand Feigenbaum	126
Ch. 9	Implementing quality management programs	137
Ch. 10	Personnel management	151
Ch. 11	The chef supervisor	171
Ch. 12	Communication	176
Ch. 13	Managing diversity	190
Ch. 14	Defining leadership	201
Ch. 15	Team building	208
Ch. 16	Personal development	217
Ch. 17	Managing the modern workplace	233
Ch. 18	Concept engineering	242
Ch. 19	Establishing operational standards	253
Ch. 20	Menu management	264
Ch. 21	Production management	275
Ch. 22	A place for creativity	283
Ch. 23	The business of quality food service	291
Ch. 24	The future of information technologies	301

Macroeconomics for Developing Countries or The Business Side

Macroeconomics for Developing Countries

Author: Raghbendra Jha

This comprehensively revised and updated edition develops the themes contained in the first edition. Students and teachers who are familiar with the book will notice that half of the chapters are entirely new, with the other half having changed significantly to take into account the changes that have occurred in the global economy since the turn of the millennium.

New interesting textbook: Miglioramento di prestazione: Facendolo accada

The Business Side

Author: Robin McAllister

This book examines the law as it applies to desk top publishing and business issues such as setting up a desk top publishing operation for profitability and determining what to charge. A must for any desktop publisher.

Table of Contents:

Business Issues. Setting Up a DTP Operation for Profitability. Determining What to Charge. What Should the Client Get For Their Money? Keeping Track of TIme and Dollars. Sample Forms. Glossary.

Office 2000 Essentials or In the Realm of Pleasure

Office 2000 Essentials

Author: Robert Ferrett

The Essentials series is conceived as a 'learning system' that combines graphics, instructions, experience, reinforcement, and problem solving. It consists of modular lessons that are built around a series of numbered, step-by-step procedures that are clear, concise, and easy to review. Explanatory material is interwoven before each lesson and between the steps. For anyone interested in learning Microsoft Office 2000.

Booknews

New edition of a learn-by-doing guide that helps the student to grasp application-related concepts while expanding skills through hands-on tutorials. Modular lessons built around step-by-step procedures are interwoven with explicatory material. Icons match the Microsoft Office theme. Computer specialists Ferret and John Preston (both of Eastern Michigan U.) and Sally Preston (Washtenaw Community College) present five sections that cover basics, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook and Publisher. The included CD-ROM contains data files for use with the text. Wire spiral binding. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Book review: Communication Technologies or Entrepreneurial Economics

In the Realm of Pleasure: Von Sternberg, Dietrich, and Masochistic Aesthetic

Author: Gaylyn Studlar

In a major revision of feminist-psychoanalytic theories of film pleasure and sexual difference, Studlar's close textual analysis of the six Paramount films directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich probes the source of their visual and psychological complexity.

Borrowing from Gilles Deleuze's psychoanalytic-literary approach, Studlar shows how masochism extends beyond the clinical realm, into the arena of artistic form, language, and production of pleasure. The author's examination of the von Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations shows how these films, with the mother figure embodied in the alluring yet androgynous Dietrich, offer a key for understanding film's "masochistic aesthetic."

Studlar argues that masochism's broader significance to film study lies in the similarities between the structures of perversion and those of the cinematic apparatus, as a dream screen reviving archaic visual pleasures for both male and female spectators.

Booknews

Originally published by University of Illinois Press in 1988. Reprinted here unaugmented. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Foundations of Finance or Industrial Revolution in National Context

Foundations of Finance

Author: Arthur J Keown

This introduction to finance provides a conceptual understanding of the financial decision-making process — rather than just an introduction to the tools and techniques of finance — and focuses on the interrelationships among the topics covered. It explores the “big picture” and actual practice — i.e., financial decision making rooted in current financial theory and in the current state of world economic conditions. Chapter topics include financial markets and interest rates; understanding financial statements and cash flows; evaluating a firm's financial performance; financial forecasting, planning, and budgeting; the time value of money; valuation and characteristics of bonds and stocks; the meaning and measurement of risk and return; the cost of capital; dividend policy and internal financing; working-capital management; liquid asset management; and international business finance. For financial managers and others involved in corporate financial decisions — and for individuals interested in an education in finance, and the logic that drives it.

See also: Majoring in the Rest of Your Life or Money and Capital Markets

Industrial Revolution in National Context

Author: Mikulas Teich

The Industrial Revolution has been, and continues to be, the focus of massive historiographical as well as historical enquiry. This collection includes reappraisals by Phyllis Deane and by François Crouzet of their classic accounts of industrialization in Britain and in France, and more generally broaches the wider issue of "new approaches" that have been emerging for the understanding of the industrializing process in nations where it came somewhat later.

Table of Contents:

	Notes on contributors
	Acknowledgements
	General maps and graphs
	Introduction	1
1	The British Industrial Revolution	13
2	France	36
3	The Industrial Revolution in Belgium	64
4	Industrialization in The Netherlands	78
5	German industrialization	95
6	Switzerland	126
7	Italy in the longue duree: the return of an old first-comer	149
8	A latecomer: the modernization of the Spanish economy, 1800-1990	184
9	The Industrial Revolution in Sweden	201
10	Austria: industrialization in a multinational setting	226
11	The Industrial Revolution: Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia	247
12	Hungary: a semi-successful peripheral industrialization	265
13	The Industrial Revolution and the countries of South-eastern Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries	290
14	Industrial revolution in Russia	329
15	Revolutions and continuities in American development	350
16	The Industrial Revolution - an overview	371
	Index	389

Multimedia Communications or Wisdom from the Ancients

Multimedia Communications: Directions and Innovations

Author: Jerry D Ed Gibson

Preface

This book is a collection of invited chapters on multimedia communications contributed by experts in the field. We use the term multimedia communications to encompass the delivery of multiple media content such as text, graphics, voice, video, still images, and audio over communications networks to users. Note that several of these media types may be part of a particular interaction between (or among) users, and thus we are not simply considering networks that support different traffic types. We are specifically interested in applications that incorporate multiple media types to deliver the desired information. Example applications of interest include two-way, multipoint videoconferencing and one-way streaming of video and audio in conjunction with text or graphical data.
The topics covered in the book were carefully selected to provide critical background material on multimedia communications and to expose the reader to key aspects of the hottest areas in the field. Chapter 1, Multimedia Communications: Source Representations, Networks, and Applications, provides a context for the rest of the book, but each chapter is intended to stand alone and the chapters can be read in any order so that readers may get the necessary information as efficiently as possible. Among the topics discussed are wireline network technologies and services, compression standards, video-on-demand, IP telephony, wideband wireless data, IP over wireless, transcoding of multimedia content, and multicasting. It would be difficult to find a more timely collection of topics in a single volume anywhere.
The book is intended for beginners and experts alike, and the chapters are descriptivein nature, focused primarily on the presentation of results, insights, and key concepts, with a minimum of mathematical analyses and abstraction. The beginner will be able to get a good overview of the field and an introduction to fundamental ideas, while the expert will be able to discern very quickly what technologies are critical to current applications and what technologies will form the basis for future services and products.
The authors are chosen from both industry and academia in order to give the reader as clear a view of current practices and future directions as possible. In reading these chapters myself, I am amazed at how much content the authors have been able to include in so few pages. I am most appreciative of these authors and their efforts, and I want to thank Joel Claypool at Academic Press for his guidance and patience. I hope that each reader finds this book of great value.

Booknews

Experts from industry and academia overview current practices and future directions in the delivery of multiple media content over communications networks to users. Applications that incorporate multiple media types are specifically addressed, such as two-way, multipoint video conferencing and one-way streaming of video and audio. Chapters are descriptive in nature, focused on the presentation of results, insights, and key concepts, with a minimum of mathematical analyses and abstraction. Each chapter is intended to stand alone. Gibson is affiliated with the department of electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

Preface xv List of Contributors xvii Chapter 1: Multimedia Communications: Source Representations,
Networks, and Applications
1 Jerry D. Gibson
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Networks and Network Services 3
1.3 Multimedia Sources 6
1.4 Source and Destination Terminals 8
1.5 Applications of Multimedia Communications Networks 9

1.5.1 Video Streaming to Multiple Users 10

1.5.2 Videoconferencing 11
1.6 Conclusions 12
1.7 For Further Reading
12 Chapter 2: Future Telecommunication Networks: Traffic and Technologies
13 Leonid G. Kazovsky, Giok-Djan Khoe, and M. Oskar van Deventer
2.1 Key Technologies 14
2.2 Impact of Competition 16
2.3 Four Traffic Hypotheses 17

2.3.1 Hypothesis 1: Conventional Growth 17

2.3.2 Hypothesis 2: The Internet Age 18

2.3.3 Hypotheses 3 and 4: The Digital Video Age 18

2.3.4 HDTV in the United States 20

2.3.5 Traffic Attributes 20
2.4 Synergy: Future Projections 21
2.5 Summary and Conclusions 22
2.6 Bibliography
22 Chapter 3: Speech Coding Standards
25 Andreas S. Spanias

Abstract
25
3.1 Introduction 25
3.2 Speech Analysis-Synthesis and Linear Prediction 27

3.2.1 Long-Term Prediction (LTP) 29
3.3 Linear Prediction and Speech Coding Standards 29

3.3.1 Open-Loop Linear Prediction 29

3.3.2 Standards Based on Analysis-by-Synthesis


Linear Prediction 32
3.4 Standards Based on Subband and Transform Coders 39

3.4.1 The ITU G.722 Subband Coder 39

3.4.2 Sinusoidal Transform Coding 40

3.4.3 The Multiband Excitation Coder andthe


Inmarsat-M Standard 40
3.5 Summary and Emerging Standards 41
3.6 References
42 Chapter 4: Audio Coding Standards
45 Chi-Min Liu and Wen-Whei Chang
4.1 Introduction 45
4.2 ISO/MPEG Audio Coding Standards 45

4.2.1 MPEG-1 46

4.2.2 MPEG-2 48

4.2.3 MPEG-4 49
4.3 Other Audio Coding Standards 50

4.3.1 Philips PASC 50

4.3.2 Sony ATRAC 51

4.3.3 Dolby AC-3 52
4.4 Architectural Overview 53

4.4.1 Psychoacoustic Modeling 53

4.4.2 Time-Frequency Mapping 54

4.4.3 Quantization 54

4.4.4 Variable-Length Coding 56

4.4.5 Multichannel Correlation and Irrelevancy 57

4.4.6 Long-Term Correlation 57

4.4.7 Pre-echo Control 58

4.4.8 Bit Allocation 59
4.5 Conclusions 59
4.6 Definitions of Key Terms 59
4.7 References 60
4.8 Bibliography
60 Chapter 5: Still Image Compression Standards
61 Michael W. Hoffman and Khalid Sayood
5.1 Introduction 61
5.2 Lossy Compression 62

5.2.1 JPEG 62

5.2.2 JPEG2000 68
5.3 Lossless Compression 71

5.3.1 JPEG 71

5.3.2 JPEG-LS 71
5.4 Bilevel Image Compression 73

5.4.1 JBIG 73

5.4.2 JBIG2 78
5.5 Definitions of Key Terms 79
5.6 References 80
5.7 Bibliography
80 Chapter 6: Multimedia Conferencing Standards
81 David Lindbergh
6.1 Introduction 81
6.2 H.320 for ISDN Videoconferencing 82

6.2.1 The H.320 Standards Suite 83

6.2.2 Multiplex 84

6.2.3 System Control Protocol 84

6.2.4 Audio Coding 85

6.2.5 Video Coding 86

6.2.6 H.231 and H.243: Multipoint 87

6.2.7 H.233 and H.234: Encryption 89

6.2.8 H.331 Broadcast 89
6.3 H.320 Network Adaptation Standards: H.321 and H.322 89

6.3.1 H.321: Adaptation of H.320 to ATM and B-ISDN 90

6.3.2 H.322: Adaptation of H.320 to IsoEthernet 90
6.4 A New Generation: H.323, H.324, and H.310 90

6.4.1 H.245 Control Protocol 91

6.4.2 Audio and Video Codecs 91

6.4.3 H.323 for Packet Switched Networks 93

6.4.4 H.324 for Lot-Bit-Rate Circuit Switched Networks 96

6.4.5 H.310 for ATM and B-ISDN Networks 98
6.5 T.120 for Data Conferencing and Conference Control 98
6.6 Summary 98
6.7 References
99 Chapter 7: MPEG-1 and -2 Compression
101 Tom Lookabaugh
7.1 Introduction 101
7.2 The MPEG Model 101

7.2.1 Key Applications and Problems 102

7.2.2 Strategy for Standardization 102
7.3 MPEG Video 103

7.3.1 The Basic Algorithm 103

7.3.2 Temporal Prediction 106

7.3.3 Frequency Domain Decomposition 110

7.3.4 Quantization 111

7.3.5 Variable-Length Coding 112

7.3.6 Rate Control 113

7.3.7 Constrained Parameters, Levels, and Profiles 114
7.4 Summary
116 Chapter 8: MPEG-4 and MPEG-7
117 Jerry D. Gibson
8.1 Introduction 117
8.2 MPEG-4
118

8.2.1 MPEG-4 Systems Model 120

8.2.2 Natural Video Coding 124

8.2.3 Audio and Speech Coding 125
8.3 MPEG-7
127
8.4 Summary 128
8.5 References
128 Chapter 9: ATM Network Technology
129 Yoichi Maeda and Koichi Asatani
9.1 Introduction 129
9.2 Overview 130

9.2.1 Background 130

9.2.2 Basic ATM Concept 131

9.2.3 ATM Network Protocol Structure 131

9.2.4 International Standardization and


Recommendations 132
9.3 Physical Layer Specifications 133

9.3.1 Basic Characteristics of the



TC Sublayer 134

9.3.2 Interface Bit Rates 134
9.4 ATM Layer Specifications 134
9.5 ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL)

Specifications 135
9.6 Network Aspects of B-ISDN 135

9.6.1 Traffic Control 135

9.6.2 ATM Layer Performance 137

9.6.3 OAM Functions 138

9.6.4 Signaling Procedure 138

9.6.5 VB5 Interfaces 139
9.7 Other ATM Network Technologies 140

9.7.1 IP Over ATM 140

9.7.2 MPEG2 Over ATM 141
9.8 Concluding Remarks 141
9.9 Definitions of Key Terms 141
9.10 Bibliography 142
9.11 For Further Information
142 Chapter 10: ISDN
143 Koichi Asatani and Toshinori Tsuboi
10.1 Introduction 143

10.1.1 General Features of ISDN 143

10.1.2 Service Aspects of ISDN 144

10.1.3 Access Features 146
10.2 ISDN User-Network Interfaces 146

10.2.1 ISDN UNI Structure 146

10.2.2 Reference Configurations and


Reference Points 147

10.2.3 Interface Features 148
10.3 Layers 1, 2, and 3 Specifications of UNI 151

10.3.1 Layered Structure 151

10.3.2 Basic Interface Layer 1 151

10.3.3 Primary Rate Interface Layer 1 158

10.3.4 Layer 2 Specification 162

10.3.5 Layer 3 Specification 168
10.4 Access Transmission Line Systems 171

10.4.1 Outline of Transmission Line System 171

10.4.2 Metallic Transmission Line System


for Basic Access 172

10.4.3 Primary Rate Transmission System 176
10.5 References
177 Chapter 11: Video-on-Demand Broadcasting Protocols
179 Steven W. Carter, Darrell D. E. Long, and Jehan-Fran ois P ris
11.1 Introduction 179
11.2 Common Terms and Concepts 180
11.3 Staggered Broadcasting Protocols 180
11.4 Pyramid Broadcasting Protocols 181
11.5 Harmonic Broadcasting Protocols 184
11.6 Summary 186
11.7 Definitions of Key Terms 187
11.8 References 188
11.9 For Further Information
189 Chapter 12: Internet Telephony Technology and Standards Overview
191 Bernard S. Ku
12.1 Introduction 191
12.2 Internet Telephony Architecture Overview 192
12.3 Related Internet Telephony Standards 194

12.3.1 IETF 195

12.3.2 ETSI Telecommunications and Internet Protocol


Harmonization Over Networks (TIPHON) 195

12.3.3 ITU-T 196

12.3.4 T1S1 198
12.4 Current and Developing Internet Telephony Protocols 198

12.4.1 H.323 198

12.4.2 Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) 200

12.4.3 Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) 202

12.4.4 MEGACO/H.248 (H.GCP) 203
12.5 How Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Works 205

12.5.1 PSTN Gateways 205

12.5.2 VoIP Gatways 206

12.5.3 IPTel Gateways 207
12.6 Open Issues in Internet Telephony 209
12.7 IN/IP Integration 210

12.7.1 New Elements/Functions Required 211

12.7.2 Special Extensions Required 212

12.7.3 New IN/IP Interworking Interfaces 213

12.7.4 Information Flow for Click-to-Dial (CTD) Service 214
12.8 SS7/IP Integration 215

12.8.1 Transport of SS7 Over IP-Related Protocols 216

12.8.2 Interworking of SS7 with IP-Related Protocols 216

12.8.3 Future of IP/SS7 217
12.9 Concluding Remarks 217
12.10 Glossary 217
12.11 Definitions of Key Terms 218
12.12 Acknowledgments 219
12.13 Bibliography
219 Chapter 13: Wideband Wireless Packet Data Access
221 Justin Chuang, Leonard J. Cimini, Jr., and Nelson Sollenberger
13.1 Introduction 221

13.1.1 The Wireless Data Opportunity 221

13.1.2 Current Wireless Data Systems 222

13.1.3 Emerging and Future Wireless Data Options 223

13.1.4 Summary and Outline of the Chapter 225
13.2 Packet Data Access Using WCDMA 225

13.2.1 Variable-Rate Packet Data 225
13.3 Packet Data Access Using EDGE 228

13.3.1 Link Adaptation and Incremental Redundancy 229
13.4 Packet Data Access Using Wideband OFDM 232

13.4.1 Physical-Layer Techniques 232

13.4.2 Physical-Layer Solutions 232

13.4.3 Frequency Reuse and Spectral Efficiency 234

13.4.4 Dynamic Packet Assignment Protocol 235

13.4.5 Dynamic Packet Assignment Performance 235

13.4.6 Radio Link Resource Organization 236

13.4.7 Frame Structure for Dynamic Packet Assignment 239

13.4.8 Simulation Model 240

13.4.9 Simulation Peformance Results 241
13.5 Conclusions 244
13.6 References
244 Chapter 14: Internet Protocols Over Wireless Networks
247 George C. Polyzos and George Xylomenos

Abstract 247
14.1 Introduction 247
14.2 Internet Protocols and Wireless Links 248

14.2.1 Internet Transport Layer Protocols 248

14.2.2 Protocol Performance Over a Single


Wireless Link 249

14.2.3 Protocol Performance Over Multiple Links 251
14.3 Performance Enhancements for Internet Protocols 253

14.3.1 Approaches at the Transport Layer 253

14.3.2 Approaches Below the Transport Layer 254
14.4 The Future: Challenges and Opportunities 256

14.4.1 Wireless System Evolution 256

14.4.2 Goals for Protocol Evolution 257
14.5 Summary 258
14.6 References
258 Chapter 15: Transcoding of the InternetÕs Multimedia Content for Universal Access
261 Richard Han and John R. Smith
15.1 Introduction 261

15.1.1 Adapting to Bandwidth Heterogeneity 262

15.1.2 Adapting to Client Heterogeneity 265
15.2 End-to-End vs. Proxy-Based Transcoding Designs 266
15.3 Architecture of a Transcoding Proxy 271
15.4 To Transcode or Not to Transcode 274

15.4.1 A Store-and-Forward Image Transcoding Proxy 274

15.4.2 A Streamed Image Transcoding Proxy 277
15.5 Transcoding Policies for Selecting Content 280

15.5.1 Optimal Policies for Offline Pretranscoding 281

15.5.2 Policies for Real-Time Transcoding 284
15.6 A Sample Set of Transcoding Policies 289
15.7 Related Issues 291
15.8 Acknowledgments 293
15.9 References
293 Chapter 16: Multicasting: Issues and Networking Support
297 Upkar Varshney
16.1 Introduction 297
16.2 Multicasting Support 298
16.3 Multicasting in IP-Based Networks 299

16.3.1 Routing Protocols for IP Multicast 301

16.3.2 Multimedia Support and IP Multicasting 301

16.3.3 Multimedia Multicasting Applications on


the MBone 302
16.4 Multicasting in ATM Networks 302

16.4.1 Multicasting Schemes for ATM Networks 303
16.5 IP Multicasting Over ATM 305

16.5.1 Problems in RSVP Over ATM 305

16.5.2 IP Multicast Over ATM in VBNS 306
16.6 Reliable Multicast Transport Protocols 306
16.7 Multicasting in Wireless Networks 307

16.7.1 Issues in IP Multicasting Over Wireless 308

16.7.2 Multicast Support in Wireless ATM 308
16.8 Summary and the Future of Multicasting 308
16.9 Definitions of Key Terms 309
16.10 References 309
16.11 For Further Reading
310 Index
311

Go to: Communication by Design or Business Strategies for Information Technology Management

Wisdom from the Ancients: Enduring Business Lessons from Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and the Illustrious Leaders of Ancient Greece and Rome

Author: Thomas J J Figueira

Timeless business wisdom from the brilliant strategists of ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greece, the culture that brought us democracy, philosophy, comedy and tragedy, and the Olympic Games, and ancient Rome, best known for its military prowess, technological achievements, and imperial administration, are justly renowned for their contributions to Western civilization. Wisdom from the Ancients brings alive for today's managers the timeless insights of such larger-than-life figures as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Trajan, Pericles, and dozens of other colorful and enigmatic leaders. Through direct quotations of ancient texts, engaging commentary, and period art, the authors illuminate the strategies and tactics that have withstood the test of time-from leadership and delegation to managing conflict to effective and persuasive communication.