Test Equipment Books

This is an invaluable source on explaining how credit is granted or denied during the twelve case encounters of the CS. The book prepares the tested clinician along the various phases of each encounter, as follows:

1- Initial Differential Diagnosis:
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- Hypothesizing a triad of differential diagnosis on reading the encounter's fact sheet, at the door step.

- Starting from the fact sheet, the tested clinician should formulate a triad of differential diagnosis based on the chief complaint.

- There are 7 generic complaints: headache, cough, chest pain, abdominal pain, fatigue, depression, and fever.

- Those should lead to suggested differential diagnosis based on age, blood pressure, fever, and mode of onset.

- Before knocking on the encounter's door, the list of differential diagnosis must be determined.

2- Doctor-Patient Rapport:
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- Addressing the patient in various circumstances: calm, pain, anger, and disabled.

- Focusing on patient's narration, appearance, and feeling.

- Standardized responses to common patients' inquiries: request for medication, fear of death, seeking quick diagnosis,....

- Prelude to each transition, closing, and summarizing.

- Credit denial: main system of examination is not examined thoroughly, encounter sought explanation and never got it, encounter not covered before exam, examining through gown, encountered assured prematurely, or specific basic question was not asked.

3- Focused History of Present Illness:
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- No leading, only inquiring questions earn you credit.

- Paraphrasing and summarizing further ensures your correct gathering of info.

- From the triad of differential diagnosis, the history taking must center on sorting those out.

- History entails 8 specific items: site, intensity, quantity, quality, onset, radiation, aggravation, and association.

- The 8 items entail the present illness, family, lifestyle, and sexual history.

4- Focused Physical Exam:
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- Kaplan is great in describing the specific system for each differential diagnosis.

- Headache leads to neural and special senses exam.

- Fever leads to respiratory or digestive exam.

- Local pain leads to local exam (joint, heart, abdomen).

- Fatigue leads to endocrine and general inspection.

5- Closing:
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- Summing up your finding of history and exam.
- Sharing diagnosis and lab tests.
- Answering questions.

6- Patient's Note:
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- That turns to be a breeze since the differential diagnosis was established 15 minutes earlier.

- The history should cover the 8 specific items.

- The physical exam covers the specific systems in relation to the differential diagnosis.

- The lab tests should sort out the differential diagnosis.

Drawback:
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There is no list of common medical abbreviations. If you forgot what JVD or CVA is, you would not get quick help from Kaplan. It took me a while to figure out what GERD or EGD stand for.

[CVA:- Costo Vertebral Angle, EGD:- Esophago Gastro Duodenoscopy, GERD:- Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease, JVD:- Jugular Venous Distension]


Mohamed F. El-Hewie
Author of
Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training

A GREAT BOOK IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND MILITARY CONTRACTING...SHOWS HOW WE BUILT A PLAN EVEN THE AIR FORCE DIDN'T WANT! THIS BOOK IS VERY EDUCATIONAL...I USED IT EXTENSIVELY DURING MY INVESTIGATIVE WORK AS A JOURNALIST WHILE RESEARCHING FAULTY CONSTRUCTION METHODS USED ON THE PLANE...IT'S REALLY A BOOK WORTH READING.

This is a genuinely well thought out book concerning digital photography. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good grasp on all of the concepts surrounding Digital Cameras and image post-processing.

It's a good book, I'm doing first year photography at uni and this is one of the text's. it's writen in a way that is really easy to read and it covers everything really quite well.

Great for beginning photographers! It even talks about budget considerations. It gives all the basics you need to know. Easy to read and understand.

I am an amateur photographer, but this book really gave me a better understanding of not only the basics, but also some of the things that will help me take it to the next level. It also covers some of the business aspects as well, such as work flow, and attempts to make the connection here and there with cost and time. For the beginner, the book does a great job at explaining the basics. Although it tries to cover both point-and-shoot cameras as well as DSLR cameras, this book is definitely more for the DSLR user. I liked all the Photoshop lessons, tricks, and tips in this book. But if you're not using Photoshop then you might be a disappointed, especially if you're a beginner and do not intend to use anything but the editing software that came with your camera. There are huge sections of this book that talk about more advanced Photoshop editing that a beginner will not use. On the flip side, a professional will find most of this book to be basic material and just an interesting comparison to what other professionals do.

I'm teaching a beginning digital photography class and this book was the one being used by the college. I went with it. On first read, liked the book but as I tried to structure a methodical, logical class, I found the book to be frustrating. The book jumps from one topic to another, often with no thorough treatment of a subject. Topics are scattered through it. It often promises "we'll cover more on that later" without really covering it well later. The book can't be read by a beginner because terms are often used without being defined or taught. The book assumes you already know about photography. I found I could not assign much reading from the book until 1/2 way through the course when the students had finally been introduced to ISO, shutter speed, f/stops, depth of field, exposures, stops, white balance, etc.

The back 1/2 of the book focuses on Photoshop CS which was not the SW we used in the class. That part of the book was nearly useless for us.

For someone already familiar with photography, this book isn't bad at all. As a text for a class, I'd not recommend it.

I bought this book and saw the movie. The CD that came with it has movies and images to go along with the things you read. Great tool for learning any program she discusses.

Was looking for a book that was more advacned. This one is clear and she puts on great presentations. The book though could be more detailed and help with trouble shooting,

The book was not what I hoped for. She puts on good presentations, but the book just didn't come across as clearly to me.

I'm not exactly a novice at graphic development, but my skills are not exactly professional, either. This book is great for showing you how to do things in Photoshop (and ImageReady).

I do think the order of programs should be reversed in the title header; this is not really a Photoshop book. It's more of a "Photoshop for the web" book.

Highly recommend it.

Very good for Self paced learning materials.

I found the book to be a great introduction to new users of the Digital camera.
After you get past the 20 Techniques in the first 4 chapters, you will have learned the basics of Digital Photography. These include shutter speed,focal length, f-stop, exposure and histogram plus many other important Digital camera functions.
The remaining chapters include Techniques that will help not only new Digital camera users but also, those that might be considered more experienced. Features such as image handling, editing and printing are very helpful to all.
I found that all the Techniques in the book to be well presented and very easy to follow. I highly recommend this book.

This is a rather useless book most of the techniques are known even to amateurs. Its title is misleading you think you will get something about digital cameras and instead you get techniques that have already been given for analog camera.

This book was very useful when I first started using a digital camera. I was fairly new to photography and had very little knowledge of the subject. Not only did this book help me to expand on technique, it also gave me inspiration to learn more about photography in general. I am hooked. Not obsessed but certainly inspired. I still page through it from time to time, always getting a new perspective.

I have been using digital cameras for the past five years and film for the 30 years before that.

I found this book to be very informative and up-to-date. The advice varies from very basic to advanced, but each technique is thoroughly explained and the pictures are well reproduced and seem reasonably current. As with most books like this, the eye-glazing point is approached quite early, but regular re-reading seems to allow the advice to "take." I feel this was a worthwhile addition to my technical library.

From the title "50 Fast ... Techniques" I'd simply hoped for a collage of tips to quickly apply to different photo taking situations. Surprise! This is a comprehensive, clearly written and generously illustrated text designed to get the new digital photographer beyond "Auto" and on to understanding and using the settings and features of his camera.
The 20 Techniques in the first 4 Chapters build the foundation. Learn these first and you'll understand your camera and how to use its features and settings - including scene modes, shutter speed, f-stop, color balance, focal length, and the histogram - to control image quality features like exposure, sharpness, depth-of-field, and noise.
And you'll learn enough good photo basics to appreciate when and why which features are important.
It also goes well beyond the camera controls - covering composition, natural and flash lighting, tripods, and even care of memory cards and batteries.
Beyond those opening chapters, there's seemingly a Technique for every common photographic challenge - e.g. kids, portraits, pets, sports, nature, macro, waterfalls, stars and sky, landscapes, and panoramas. The illustrations are high quality, in color and well chosen; "tip boxes" highlight many special tidbits, and a 15 page index helps find everything.
Techniques even cover the oft neglected image handling challenges of digital photography - including editing, resizing and printing, sharing, organizing, and backing up. Although less complete and dated as software and services quickly evolve (this 2nd edition uses Photoshop Elements 3 and Elements 6 is out), these Techniques will get you started.
This book should get you started and be a great reference whenever you try something new.

What you have come to expect from ATK... Straight forward and filled with unpretentious info on food and products... I love it.

I have the 2007 edition and the 2008 is just as good. The recipes, product reviews and tips are great as always. Highly recommended for beginner (good shower gift)and experienced cooks alike.

I love this book, finally combined are the 2 things I love about food; the technology of what works and what doesn't work & seeing how it turns out. I love cooking, I dislike following recipes - I see them as more of a roadmap with me doing the driving. Food should be created using S.O.S. seasonal, organic and substainable (all when possible). I really like the way this book was presented.

After borrowing this book from a local library, I just had to purchase it. I have to admit that I am a tried and true Bon Apetit cook and usually don't stray, but I've tried MOST of the recipes in the book and boy are they easy to make and delicious. It has taken the guess work out of "What's for dinner?"
Special raves from the family were the 30 minute meat loaves, the slow cooker brisket and onions and those Chinese sticky ribs... I've made those 5 times since I purchased the book! YUMmmmm...
The greatest advantage of all of the recipes tried is that the items needed for each recipe are readily had from your local grocer and have been tested so you WON'T waste your time and more importantly, your hard-earned money.
If you are tired of trying to come up with wonderful ideas for dinner, look no more. It's right at your fingertips! Merry Street/Zenspiration Gardens www.Zen-opolis.com

My experience with ATK purchases is that all customers are automatically enrolled in an ATK book club and are given no opportunity to opt out this book mailing progam during the ordering process. After I placed an ATK order, I started receiving unordered and unwanted ATK books in the mail and billed for same. Involuntarily enrolling customers in their ATK book club seems like a rather shady practice for a supposedly reputable testing lab.

The book provides all information about Bluetooth in a Nutshell. Sometimes too many details, but in general a good read with a lot of useful hints.

I especially like the fact that it not only covers Bluetooth, in a level of detail I require, but gives well balanced coverage of the related technoligies. Too many books operate in isolation of their immediate enviroment.

I thought that this book started well. However, as the book moved on, more and more extraneous side material creeps into each chapter, while at the same time it becomes less and less detail oriented. The result is that more and more topics are introduced but not well explained. I would have greatly preferred if fewer side topics were discussed and more detail was focused on the central issues. I ended up spending the latter 2/3s of the book feeling glazed over. I still feel that this is the best Bluetooth book on the market, but that's because most of the other books are so terrible. No matter what book you buy, you will have to read the Bluetooth spec in its entirety. This book will at least give you a broad overview that the spec is so sorely missing, though that could have been done with far fewer pages.

Connect Without Cables is the best of the current books for developers and implementers who are making their way through the complexities of the specification for Bluetooth wireless technology. The authors take the us through the multiple levels from RF through real world applications in a consistent and insightful fashion. Additional sections help the reader understand the context of the technology and hint at its exciting potential in the marketplace.

I found this book to be much less of a walk through the specification and more of a view through the eyes of one who has actually implemented Bluetooth and knows where the trouble spots are. The reader is given insights into some of the real thorny issues, and even given suggestions on how to address them.

Although the subject matter is at some times quite dense, the authors do an excellent job, consistently introducing the topics in an overview, and always following with a good summary of the salient points in each section. Readers in the USA should be prepared for an occasional non-American term, phrase, or spelling which may not be listed in the text's extensive and otherwise quite useful glossary, reminding us that Bluetooth wireless technology is truly of global interest and potential impact.

FACTS: I counted about 1,9M characters in this book, about 1M in "BT demystified" and "BT Revealed". COMMENTS: the authors of this book have practiced BT. They tell you more than just what is in the standard: they explain what is missing or what is not clear in the standard. Chapters about security, qualification and implementation are really precious. They do not expose facts or figures, they explain why and how in simple words. CONCLUSION: We are not yet at the level of a "BT for dummies" because there's no sample application CD, but we are getting closer...

One of the most important books to prepare USMLE step 1, to start a month before the examination.

good for step 1 prep...good questions and explanations..but personally, i like First Aid Q and A better...

this book is such a good resource for quick review . it deliberately gathers all the you-need-to-know questions in one place despite a few questions in each chapter .if you want a good ,brief and hit-to-the-point compilation of questions ,do not hesitate to choose this one

Excellent choice if you want to get in shape for USMLE Step 1.It was very useful for me to review Kaplan lecture notes and answer questions from the book at the same time.Qbook helps to put the knowledge from lecture notes into proper places.Also it is not enough to be ready for the exam, but it is good starting point anyway.

much more affordable than q-bank questions online ... very worthwhile book for a good price

Este libro presenta un metodo de enseñanza increiblemente práctico y sencillo, el cual hace que sea sumamente útil para aquellos que si bien teniamos nociones no tan básicas de photoshop no teniamos claro el uso de todas las herramientas y su forma de interactuar entre ellas a la hora de facilitar el trabajo. Incluye interesantes observaciones sobre como trabajar las imagenes según sea internet o imprenta.

Lo único bajo del libro es el trabajo de imagenes para internet (lease imageReady) en el cual los autores se cayeron gráficamente hablando pues presentan gráficas y páginas casi infantiles y en deshuso.

Excelent book, if you are about to start using Adobe Photoshop you must have these book, it explains what you need to know to use the best program out there....... photoshop is not for Expert users, if you are an expert or if you know every basic use of these program, then you have to move to something more advanced...

I bought this book because many others have given it a good rating. But once I started using it, I just kept putting off doing the exercises. I feel that the exercises are hard to follow and that hampers my enthusiasm to do them. He does not explain WHY you are doing something. For example, he'll say hold Shift+Alt and move selection. I don't know why I'm holding down Shift+Alt until later, and even then he doesn't explain things clearly. I have had other software teaching books that are so much better written than this one is; for example the Lynda Weinman, Hands On Training series. Also, who wants to wade through tons of information to get to the point? I want to know what something does and how to do it. Then I take that information and apply it to my own projects. I am so dissapointed with my purchase of this (expensive) book.

It must be said that this is a very good tutorial. It's written in an easy to follow format, but beware! many of the tools necessary to complete the exercises have been disabled in the CD-ROM version that comes with it. Unless you already own your own, FULL WORKING Photoshop program (version 5 will do), you'll experience MANY frustrating, fruitless DAYS attempting to complete the tasks. One of the authors, Mr. Gary Kubicek, confirmed this for me. I feel somewhat cheated, like taking a car out for a test drive, and finding out on the road that many of the controls have been disabled. Sorry, you have to shell out big time if you really want to drive the full working model.

A fair tutorial, but a most disapointing experience.

You learn all the tools of Adobe Photoshop 5.5 in details. The book is full of examples. Lot's of examples, which is very helpful if you are a novice in Adobe Photoshop 5.5. You learn very fast. But I wouldn't say that this is the only book you'll ever need on Adobe Photoshop 5.5.

But it leaves the creativity to the reader. Also the weight of stock images is huge, more than needed. Almost all of the examples involve stock images (of course the CD-rom provides all the iamges mentioned). But if you are web designer, you would want a book, which gets more creative and advanced than this one, and gives you some tips on creating your own banners and nav bars. Of course, the title of the book doesn't mention that would cover this issues. But if did cover, would get my five stars. I admit, that I still learnt a lot from this book.

No, this is not the best book you will find. But for $4.00 used it's OK. Look for John Upton's books or books where he shares authorship. Unfortunately they are not cheap but truely the best if you want the best.

Cootie

For the beginning photographer, the use of their camera is a seemingly dark art and trying to find a book that will help to explain the bases of controlling photographic factors is nearly impossible. This book suceeds where so many other books fail and I can not recommend it highly enough. The explanations of control over factors such as aperture, shutter speed and film are concise and diagrams are numerous and extremely useful. If you buy only one book, let this be the one. By the way, although this book is written primarily for the SLR user, the information can easily be applied to digicams.

I found this book extremely valuable as a reference. I recently took a class at NYU and the teacher basically lifted most of the class notes out of this book. It is a slim book, so you can easily carry it around and refer to it if you forget something. I highly recommnend it for the person that is still getting to know their camera and yearns for more.

Are you interested in photography? Do you normally set your camera to "Program Mode" or one of those "Sports/Lanscape/whatever modes"? If you answered yes to the above two questions, then "Creative Camera Control" by Peter Laytin is a MUST READ. The book will quickly elevate your learning curve and allow you, the photographer, to be in control. In short, this book will answer questions you didn't know to ask, and thus, drive your desire to create. BUY IT; READ IT; JUST DO IT!

In a clear, concise, and memorable way, the author thoroughly covers many technical aspects of controlling the outcome of your photographs. I have gained a lot of facility with my camera and am no longer either intimidated by or indifferent to my f-stops and shutter speeds. The book is very detailed but not overwhelming or tedious. (It is, in fact, relatively short.) The illustrations and examples are useful. This has definitely been my most-used and most-referenced book on photography (and I have accumulated quite a few!). I've recommended it to several friends, and all of them have come back to me to tell me how great it is. Well worth the small investment!