Practitioners Books

This pediatric review guide was a great study tool, especially the questions at the end of each chapter. The questions were similiar to many of the questions on the board exam which I took in June 2008.

While the book had helpful information throughout the chapters, the questions were not as helpful. The questions were wordy (and the test is NOT that wordy) and I found at least one mistake in every section. The mistakes either had the wrong answer printed or it contradicted what was stated in the chapter. I did really enjoy the fact that this book provided explainations to each question which helped me work through my mistakes (and find theirs).

Overall, the book was helpful in some ways, but I ended up using another book towards the end because of frustration with the questions. The chapter information was quite helpful.

I think this is a helpful guide, although some of the rationales for the answers were not always clear and could be interpreted very differently. There were also some contradictions and typo os that I found. One specifically states on one page that keflex may not be given to any child under one month, then in an answer to a question in the same chapter state you may give keflex to a 3 week old. I would like to contact the authors or editors to alert them to at least 10 errors I found.

Definitely worth purchasing as a PNP certification review book and as a general pediatric review book. Text is divided into systems and includes an excellent outline as an overview for each chapter. In addition, this book addresses growth and development, safety, parenting, genetics, health promotion, common pediatric illness, and numerous other issues. Includes clearly written and useful tables and charts. Easy to use, organized, well-written questions. Answers to questions,with rationales, are immediately following the questions, so there is no need to search through the book to find the answer sections! Compared with other certification review books, this one is clearly superior in its organization, coverage of current issues, outlines for each chapter, visual displays, and clarity.

I found the other review talking about editorial needs did not refer to the newest edition. This book offers important and practical information for the Reiki practitioner.

Jarrell clearly knows his subject.This book has almost everything (except sacred symbols)one would need. It makes an excellent reference. I, myself, having met and learned my Reiki from David Jarrell cannot speak more highly of anyone than I would of him. He embodies his work and is a patient teacher. His book conveys his confidence in what he understands Reiki to be. A "must-have" for all those who aspire to understand Reiki and incorporate it into their lives.

I think it's funny that the review from the former editor, which complains about errors, happens to misspell the author's name.

Jerrell's book contains interesting and original information, but, as a former editor, I find too many errors reduce confidence in the content. Index points to the wrong pages, illustrations are mislabeled or missing, and there are some content errors. I hope Jerrell produces a new, revised and corrected edition.

This book is an essential book for the intelligence operative, the fiction writer or anybody interested in the vital topic of terrorist operations. The author breaks the book down into understandable sections so that the reader can gain a comprehensive understanding of terrorism and terrorists. Afterward, you will understand weapons, cell organization, motivation, profiles and various active terrorist groups.

The author is one of the "experts" that didn't manage to recognize the terrorists of 9/11. And now he wants to get paid for a story on "recognizing terrorists".

There are two types of writers about terrorism, experts such as Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson who write from a distance and others that write graphic tales of first-hand from the trenches war stories. Terrorist Recognition Handbook: A Practitioner's Manual for Predicting and Identifying Terrorist Activities, is unique in that author Malcolm Nance is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. intelligence community and writes from a first hand-perspective, but with the organization and methodology of writers such as Pipes and Emerson. Those combined traits make the book extraordinarily valuable and perhaps the definitive text on terrorist recognition.

The main theme of the book, as detailed in chapter 1 is critical awareness. The book notes that criminal investigators spend years studying criminal behavior to better understand and counter crime. Nance writes that the field of terrorism is no different as it is a specialized subject that requires serious study and requires that those in the front line of defense be as knowledgeable as possible.

In a later chapter, Nance gives the Iraq war as an example of a group of leaders that were not as knowledgeable as possible and ignored the advice of those that were as knowledgeable as possible. Had the Bush administration consulted Nance, a trillion dollars and thousands of lives could have been saved in the Iraq debacle.

The book is divided into 5 sections comprising 21 heavily-detailed chapters. Each chapter is a progression in detailing, understanding and identifying terrorists. In chapter after chapter, the book details every aspect of terrorism and indentifies all of the various elements. The various aspects of different guns, explosives, and other elements are described and categorized in detail.

In the section on suicide bombers, an important point the book makes is that contrary to popular belief, suicide bombers are rarely insane. They are most often intelligent, rational individuals with beliefs that those in the West finds difficult to comprehend. Nance does not for a second rationalize the actions of such groups and individuals. But notes that it is critical to understand why they do it in order to prevent future attacks.

Chapter 8 is quite valuable in that it provides a comprehensive overview of how terrorist cells operate and are organized. While the cell is the fundamental unit of a terrorist group; cell operations and their members are the least understood part of terrorism. Their operations are always secret and never seen, until they attack. The chapter details the many types of terrorist cells, operative membership pools, and how cells and leadership communicate.

Chapter 19 is a fascinating primer on al-Qaeda and the global extremist insurgency. The chapter details how al-Qaeda divides its enemies into two categories: Far Enemies and Near Enemies. The terms are taken from the Islamic concept of the community and those who oppose it. While the far enemies of al-Qaeda are the USA, Australia, UK, Europe and Israel, the near enemies are those Moslem's or nations that al-Qaeda sees as corrupted governments or apostate rules. These include the governments of over 20 countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bangladesh, India and many more comprising billions of people.

While the post-9/11 attacks from coalition forces have indeed hurt al-Qaeda and killed many of its top leaders, Nance notes that al-Qaeda now acts a terror strategy consultancy. This transformation of al-Qaeda is in response to the loss of its base of operations in Afghanistan and the displacement of its leadership to the Pakistani border. The most significant changes were a shift of operational responsibility from the regional terror commanders, who executed a long awaited plan for jihad operations, to a more radical and difficult to detect posture: jihadist who were self-starting and worked independently from al-Qaeda.

The most significant changes al-Qaeda's structure occurred when it was able to co-opt the Jordanian Salafist group Tawhed Wal Jihad and organize the foreign fighters into Iraq into al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI changed the structure of the military committee's roles dramatically and Iraq would become the cornerstone of al-Qaeda's global operations. Much of the invasion of Iraq was premised on a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. There was never such a link, but the war turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy, as al-Qaeda is now a mainstay in Iraq.

The book writes that it is important to note that contrary to popular belief, al-Qaeda is not a single terrorist group, rather a collection of like-minded organizations that cooperate and receive funds, advice and orders from Osama bin Laden and his supporters. al-Qaeda has transformed itself from a physical chain of terrorist training camps to a virtual network that uses the Internet to create a network centric information and advisory body. Nance therefore notes that al-Qaeda has transformed itself from a global terrorism operation into a terrorism management consultancy. The 6 main aspects of this consultancy are that al-Qaeda: provides inspiration, contributes finances, shares collective knowledge, provides weapons resource and contacts, accepts responsibility and releases video propaganda.

Besides a few minor historical errors, some grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and not a lot of details about cyber-based terrorism, Terrorist Recognition Handbook: A Practitioner's Manual for Predicting and Identifying Terrorist Activities is a most important book in that it avoids all of the hype, politics and bias that come along with such titles, and simply focuses on its task at hand, to be a field guide for anti-terrorist and counter-terrorist professionals to use to prevent attacks.

Such a title is sorely needed by groups such as the TSA, who still think that anti-terrorism means having people remove their shoes at airports. The book notes that the European approach of guarded vigilance via a sustained level of anti-terrorism readiness and awareness is a much better concept than the US approach of spiking to heightened alert levels.

The Terrorist Recognition Handbook is a must-read for anyone tasked with or interested in anti-terrorism activities. One would hope that every TSA and Homeland Security manager and employee get a copy of this monumental reference. It would change the face of TSA and the Department of Homeland Security, and might perhaps really enable them to identify terrorists, and not simply require the elderly to take off their support shoes at airport checkpoints.

The attacks of 9/11 have put America into the awareness of terrorists within its borders more than ever. "Terrorist Recognition Handbook: A Practitioner's Manual for Predicting and Identifying Terrorist Activities" is a manual for those in charge of tracking down these criminals. Covering the origins of terrorists and what makes them do what they do, "Terrorist Recognition Handbook" offers an examination of common and uncommon terrorist tactics - and how to identify an attack before it happens. Presented in an easy to use handbook format, "Terrorist Recognition Handbook: A Practitioner's Manual for Predicting and Identifying Terrorist Activities" is highly recommended for those in charge of security and community library military collections.

I would recommend many texts written on hearing aids for consumers and health care personnel far more than this one. While certainly a practical manual for dispensers, this is not a book meant for audiology students or medical professionals (try Harvey Dillon's Hearing Aids or the Valente series instead). A well-written introduction to the topic, but not grounded fully in medical and scientific research to be a primary text or reference for audiologists.

"This is an easy, informative read. I recommend it to my senior patients who are concerned that trying to overcome a hearing loss will put them at risk of a bad purchase decision. Now they know what to expect from a hearing professional when they decide to purchase a hearing aid."

Collaboratively written by auditory prosthetics specialists and practitioners Paul Popp and Gregg Hacket, The Hearing Healthcare Practitioner's Handbook: A Guide To The Successful Treatment Of Hearing Loss With Auditory Prosthetics is a thorough, comprehensive presentation on virtually all forms of hearing loss and their treatment, from auditory rehabilitation to assistive listening devices and the laws that govern them. A wealth of solid, no-nonsense information marks this first-class reference, and strongly highly recommended for the hearing health care practitioner as well as the non-specialist general reader who has experienced hearing problems and wants to learn more about what causes them and what can be done.

same problem as lady below me, i bought it mainly for the cd description, so i am a little upset

The text has a very good diagnostic test (250 questions given in 2 parts)and a 250 question 'Mastery' test (same format), but the CD-ROM doesn't quite work right (the answer choices don't show until you pick one of the 'blank' spots or request the solution). I've emailed Barron's but haven't gotten it fixed yet. It is relatively inexpensive and I'm sure it will help on my boards.

nclex-pn review saunders 5th edition is an excellent book.do the practice test threw out the whole book you be sucessful.

The book arrived in excelent condition, the overseas delevery tim e fo Brazil was 1 month, as the book just arrived today I did not have time to study it. Douglas Gilson - Brazilian Professor of Simulation Models for Decisions ( Decision Sciences).

The last time I checked, Amazon and its online partner Borders sell more than 53,000 different books on the general subject of strategy. Presumably this number will continue to increase as organizations become more actively involved with formulating and then executing an effective strategy.

What we have here is one of the volumes which comprise a series produced by faculty members at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and on faculties elsewhere. In this instance, co-authored by Kellogg's Daniel Dranove and Sonia Marciano, Institute Fellow and Senior Lecturer at The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Harvard Business School.

I feel obligated to suggest at the outset that none of the volumes in this series is an "easy read." On the contrary, each requires but will generously reward a careful consideration of its contents which are carefully organized within nine chapters which range from "Getting Ready to Do Strategy" (with Samsung providing the illustrative example) to "Two Examples of Strategy in Action: Southwest Airlines and the Chicago Hospital Market." Case studies in and of themselves can be very informative. In this volume, the use of these three and others is especially effective as a means by which to illustrate both common business situations as well as the key points made in the article in which each case study is included.

Those who read this book are provided with an abundance of concepts, tools, and frameworks from which they can select those which are most appropriate and then, key point, make whatever modifications as may be necessary to accommodate the specific needs, interests, resources, and objectives of a given organization.

For whom will this volume be most valuable? There are several constituencies which include undergraduate and graduate students if business and their instructors as well as those who have recently earned a business degree and are now embarked on their career. Moreover, I think this book will be of substantial benefit to more experienced executives (regardless of the size or nature of their organization) who require -- and can handle -- a rigorous, at times daunting examination of how to formulate and then implement an effective strategy, and, how to obtain and then sustain support of it throughout the given enterprise. There are several reasons why such initiatives seldom succeed, among them being the inherent difficulty of charting an appropriate course and then remaining on it. Even the best of maps and Horatio Nelson at the helm cannot save a sinking ship.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Henry Mintzberg and co-authors' Strategy Safari, Lawrence Hrebiniak's Making Strategy Work, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble's 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators, and Alfred Marcus' Big Winners and Big Losers as well as The Strategy-Focused Organization.

This concise guide to strategy offers an excellent basic introduction to business strategy. David Dranove and Sonia Marciano not only outline their own benefits-minus-cost ("B - C") approach to strategy; they also usefully summarize the essentials of other widely accepted approaches, most notably that of Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter. They write lucidly, avoid academic jargon and stay focused on the essentials without burdening the reader with unnecessary detail. They illustrate their discussion with examples drawn from actual business successes and failures and two case studies, one from the airline industry and the other from the health-care industry. We recommend this book to beginning managers looking for a strategy primer. Experienced strategists can turn to it for a refresher course in fundamental business truths.

This book is a great review, really easy to read. Both women's health and nurse midwifery content is covered well.

This book was a big help in studying for the certification exam. The style of the questions and just the repetitive nature of the questions helped a lot. I passed on the first attempt.

I bought this from the publisher along with the audio tapes because a friend had a good experience using their Acute Care Nurse Practitioner review. The audio tapes are WAY outdated and frustrating (and in CASSETTE format?! I had to go buy a walkman to listen to them)...the instructor on them doesn't know what Plan B is. The purple workbook itself is great in that there is a comprehensive review of the majority of info you need to know in one place and has review questions at the end of each chapter. The bad: It was published in 2004 so 1. The STD tx guidelines are outdated, 2. The contraceptive information is outdated: they have info on Lunelle & Norplant, but no Plan B and nothing about the black box info on Orthoevra, and 3. The HRT guidelines are outdated. The ACNM's 2007 review book isn't out until next month so I'm glad I have this to study for my comp exams but my guess is I'll probably supplement my study materials for the boards with the ACNM book as I'm nervous I may be getting misinformation from this book in areas I'm not even aware of.

The Emergent Movement is an addiction to some, and the undermining of Christianity to others. In this artistic collection of various artists, pastors, authors - they give dialogue to the various aspects of living their understanding of the movment.

What I enjoyed most about this book, is the wrestling with the question - what does it mean, what does it look like, how can WE be the Body of Christ in this world?

To me, that is a great question that is often trumped by - How much money do we need? How can we grow bigger, faster? How can we maximize the one hour we get with our people?

For those who are "all in" - this will provide some priceless ideas and conversations that will help shape and challenge whatever is going through your mind regarding "being the Church."

For those of you who are skeptical - read it, because, it seems their arguments are moving away from the anti-modern church and instead asking the question - how can the Church return to being Missional verses a weekly gathering.

My only complaint is - for those who are NOT at all artistic, there are parts of this book that may appear "hokey." In our world - that is still more modern than post-modern (at least in Toledo, OH) there are many who just want to read and learn - drawing and journaling in a book is a distracting. I enjoy the drawings - but the whole thing felt too fabricated and the questions were not the ones I wanted to wrestle with...

Overall, great and interesting read. Not too over the top with "BE LIKE US" or "HATE MODERN" - but a genuine interest in wrestling with what it means to be missional!

Greg Russinger and Alex Field let us in on a conversation, a dialogue in mostly prose form. My only interaction with some of the voices within - Doug Pagitt, Spencer Burke, Dan Kimball, Anna Pelkey and others - has been a couple of face-to-face meetings and through their online presence. The proverbial fly-on-the-wall would have had a great seat in the midst of the questions and answers and then better questions that were flowing from the Soliton gatherings upon which this work was based. I proverbially envy that fly.

I admit that I was this close (picture my fingers making the little "this close" sign) to putting this book down when I got to the first page asking me to draw my thoughts. I didn't want to find a pen, didn't want to doodle while reading in my comfortable wingback by the fireplace, so I closed the book. Later, heading to bed, I took the book upstairs to keep reading on the post-doodle-your-thoughts page. On my nightstand was a crayon, and I made a leap of faith into a book that asks the reader to draw, to think, to pray, to stretch into new contortions of the way faith can work out in community with each other. I doodled, and entered into the conversation. Or rather, it left me wanting to be that proverbial fly again, wanting to join in those former chats or start some new ones here and now.

In reading Luke 7 and the story of the girl washing Jesus' feet with her hair as the leaders gawk and wonder what's going on, my mind was opened to the way I "see people" - "Do you see this woman?" is such a deep question: "In Jesus, we see the raw recognition of her human value come to the forefront and the rebellion of love challenge the systems of moral judgment that haunt the human heart, as well as confront church policy that unknowingly ousts the broken for fear that those with wealth would exit the doors" (p. 40). There are too many folks pointing the finger of judgment, saying that new movements and emerging ideas are lacking in biblical foundations. This book has made me once again look at favorite passages with new eyes, showing a certain depth that's going unnoticed, a certain love for the scriptural narrative that is wonderful on all kinds of levels. Instead of a lack of Bible, there's a love for the Bible that will not let us take it for granted.

Dialogue on missional prayer, pondering story and the visual aspects of learning and communicating, a wonderful chapter on movies and the impact of culture on the human story - and that's just halfway through the book. Covering topics much like a conversation would, chasing bunnies and coming back to a common thread, the book winds its way through to Dan Kimball's experience with stained glass, which speaks to my own journey, too: "I sat there in the chapel for a long time. As I did, I watched the sun come through the window, I saw the stories on the stained glass, and I examined my heart, putting it all into perspective... God chooses us as art, and in this sense we are all broken pieces of stained glass, and He has chosen us for this particular time" (p. 207). I think it resonates with me because I want my life to be more beautiful, a better story, more impacting on the lives of others around me. As a "practitioner", we can have this conversation, at least changing and challenging ourselves.

This book stretched me. The chapter on justice will leave you changed. Doug Pagitt's chapters are my favorite, he challenges the ideas you arrive with and leaves your bags packed with more interesting questions to wrestle with than you thought possible. The cover design, interior and artwork through out the book are nice as well. I hope this book is well marketed. It's a gem that shouldn't be missed.

The book was godd, but like alll the Validation/Verification books on the market... it never hits the points that are really needed to make 'your' process successful.

Although I did think that overall it is a good guide.

Este es un libro eminentemente práctico sobre "Ingeniería del Software".

A diferencia de otros libros, excesivamente llenos de ejemplos (normalmente de las malas prácticas), éste se centra en describir las diferentes aproximaciones para todas las etapas de desarrollo del software. Aunque se decanta por el modelo de desarrollo "Waterfall", explica otros modelos de desarrollo.

Un elemento a destacar de este libro es la calidad de los apéndices que incluyen numerosas plantillas de ejemplo para cada una de las etapas de desarrollo, y en especial para los procesos de inspección, y seguimiento de los errores.

Otro aspectos que se cubren éxito en este libro son los dedicados a la estimación de esfuerzos para la planificación, estimación de riesgo que en casi ningún libro de ingeniería del software ofrece alternativas tan interesantes como en este.

A modo de ejemplo, los apéndices que incluye son los siguientes:
- Inspection Roles and Responsibilities
- A Sample Inspection Process
- Inspection Process Forms
- Inspection Checklist
- Attributes of Good Requirements Specifications
- Sample Criteria for Selecting Modules for Code Inspection
- Sample Software Development Process Based on the Waterfall Model.
- Document Outlines
- Test Cases for the Triangle Program (example)
- Software Reliability Models.
- The Yellow Sticky Method
- Software Development Best Practices
- Software Quality Best Practices
- Project Postmortems
- Root-Cause Analysis

Finalmente el autor mantiene una página Web asociada al libro: http://www.swqual.com/index.html?Intro.
Especialmente interesantes es la newsletter mensual.

Carlos Ortega
2006-01-30

Bill Gates is famous for his yearly retreats where he takes
a pile of books and reads them. Maybe that's the one thing
today's managers should emulate. If you do, bring this book
along on your first sabatical.

This all new edition of the book (first published in 1997)
was even renamed to include its new, extended charter.
"Clearly management must take a leadership role in helping
the organization behave in a more predictable way. It is
for this reason that the title of the book has been changed
to include managers. [the book] includes specific actions
that managers can take to help organizations behave in a
more predictable manner."

Software development is a difficult disciple to master.
Even so, technical acumen is no guarantee of quality. "As
observed by Dr. Edwards Deming, 'The quality of a product
is directly related to the quality of the process used to
create it.'" Verification ("are we building the product
right?") and validation ("are we building the right product?")
are the first questions one must ask to begin the path
of process improvement. This book addresses those questions
and more.

The book is divided into four large sections. The first
three sections are brought forward from the previous
edition with some noticeable improvements. The new edition
is not just a rehash of the old stuff, however. Over 30 new
pages of appendices and an entire new section of the book
aimed at management with over 70 new pages have been added.
Other improvements are also evident including better formatting.
For example, the font selection and layout are much easier on
the eyes than in the previous edition.

If you own the first edition, this is a "must have" update.
If you don't own the first edition, consider this work an
SQA department "starter kit." It is well organized, well
annotated, and filled with practical artifacts such as
checklists for inspections, suggested document outlines,
and the like. This is stuff you can use.

Chapter 12 is specifically for the CEO and should be
required reading by anyone running a company with a
software development function. "Managers and executives
need to understand that having a predictable software
development process is vitally important to the long-term
success of their business." Rakitin shows how, then shows
what can be done. The prose is crisp and to-the-point.
Well done.

This book provides an excellent, coherant and up-to-date summary of the research in autism. There are chapters relating to diagnosis, etiology, treatment and working with families that truly synthesis the plethora of information available. These researchers have managed to use language that is useful to parents and practitioners to help them sift through recent information. If you work with children who have autism spectrum disorders this book is a "must read".

This is an interesting book - the main thing to know about is the variability of the chapters. Some are really excellent, others, at best, so-so. Although the book jacket says the authors are world leaders or some such this is only really true for a few of the authors - others you've never heard of. The chapters which are excellent are really good. The inconsistent chapters probably have to do with the fact that all authors are pulled from the same place - Am. Psychiatric Publishing is also not known for high quality!