Baker Books

This is an excellect book. Although there really aren't a 501 direct suggestions, it feels like there is an endless amount of helpful advise which a wife and mother can use to make her husband and children feel even more loved then they already are.

When I was a Ph.D. student and had some problems finding suitable functions in order to study the multiloop scattering of strings, I found this rarity of a book. Although it was first published a long time ago (1897) it is probably one of the most complete works on complex functions of many variables and particularly on theta functions of many variables. In this book you can find some material that is not in any other book I know of, and the style makes it relatively easy to read.

It covers a large number of subjects, like Abel's theorem, abelian integrals of the first and second type, Riemann's theta functions, hyperelliptic (many variables) theta functions, radical and factorial functions, Jacobian functions, and degenerate abelian integrals.

I consider it a jewel among the books that cover the same subject, both for its completenes and its writing style.

To be truthful, I'm not an avid reader, but I was given this book by a friend. As an artist, the first thing that took my interest was the story centered around some paintings done by Rubens. However, the story proved to be much more than art. I read it in two days, I just couldn't put it down until the last page.

Not that C.H.Spurgeon needs my endorsement, but if you haven't read this you've missed a good one.

Activity-Based Costing and Activity-Based Management for Health Care by Baker

The editor and contributing authors are well qualified with rich backgrounds in finance and management. This book has 24 chapters that are both theoretical and practical. The first three chapters introduce activity-based costing and management and discuss how they work in health care. The benefits of activity based costing versus volume-based costing are identified as: "(1) more accurate costs of services delivered, (2) better discrimination between profitable and unprofitable services and service lines, (3) improved pricing and contracting strategies, (4) improved management decision-making capability, (5) greater ease of determining relevant costs, and (6) reduced nonvalue-added costs. (p. 27) The book gives a detailed step by step procedure for doing a time study. The importance of structural choices such as direct costs to be traced and indirect costs to be allocated is stressed for determining the organization's costing framework. Because ABC provides a mix-and-match menu of costs and their financial and operational interrelationships, it is important for management to determine that the ABM reporting depicts what the organization wants to measure and manage. The book relates quality measures, budgeting, standard setting, benchmarking , Pareto analysis, and clinical pathways to activity-based costing and management. Content is illustrated through case studies about family physicians, primecare, hospitals, home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, and a school-based health center. The final chapter is about the future for ABC/ABM in health care. There is a glossary and index. This book is appropriate for graduate students interested in financial and strategic management of health care organizations

The most in-depth look at the 1874 Adobe Walls post I have found, if you are interested in archaeology, and history of the buffalo hunters site, this is the book for you. The last 3/4 of the book deals with the arch. of the site. First quarter deals with the historical information. Photos of Billy Dixon, J. Wright Mooar, F. J. Leonard, and James N. Hanrahan (operator of the saloon at adobe walls) are included. Photos of many artifacts recovered during arch. excavations, include iron arrow points, grinding stones, iron tools, plate shards, buttons, etc. Great illustrations of the plan layout of the adobe walls site as it was in 1874, as determined by the arch. evidence, including perspective sketches of buildings, and the way each building was constructed. I have nothing but the highest praise for this book and commend the two authors for their publishing the book, as well as A&M press.

Oviedo University (Spain

I met the author a few months ago and promised I would buy and read the book and did. It is a fascinating revelation of relationshops we all experience and helps to view those relationships in canny categorization, but will take a little time and absoorption to incorporate into one's thinking. I have been using what I've learned from the book ever since encountering it.

Baker exemplifies the best and the worst qualities of the Victorian English explorer. He is completely fearless, self-deprecating, calm in a crisis, keenly sensitive to the beauties of nature, loyal to his friends and allies, uncompromising in his opposition to the slave trade. He is also cheerfully certain that the English way of doing things is superior to all others, both practically and morally. His racism is comprehensive and unapologetic. It is easier to get past this, however, than it is with his contemporaries Burton and Speke, because he a far better writer. The opening of the book did a superior job of explaining why the source of the Nile held such fascination for so many. His narrative is a page-turner, despite long periods when his search for the Albert N'Yanza was stalled, because of his eye for detail and ability to create drama from small incidents. The domestic by-play between the explorer and his young blond wife, who accompanied him throughout this sometimes hellish journey, is a continuing delight. All wonderfully larger than life and a great read.

I picked up this book and cannot put it down. What a great text! The reader will have to know their (High School) Algebra and Geometry. Have a Reference available if you have been away for some time.

After this book, you may be ready for Geometry of Curves (Chapman Hall/Crc Mathematics Series), followed by Plane Algebraic Curves (Student Mathematical Library, V. 15) and/or Introduction to Plane Algebraic Curves.

The former is more Analysis/Topology based and the latter Algebra. They are German texts, you will certainly need a strong foundation in Analysis and Abstract Algebra. Prepare well!

There are a host of books on AG - Those above are inexpensive, except Geometry of Curves (Chapman Hall/Crc Mathematics Series), light and quite prepratory for advanced study.

PJO