Stationery and miscellaneous items

Book Synopsis“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) asks the questions children ask in this young readers adaptation of her best-selling Packing for Mars.

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Book SynopsisJonquil Lowe is an economist and author specializing in personal finance. With a background in stockbroking and then as head of money research at Which?, her career spans 40 years and around 30 books, the latest being The Good Retirement Guide, published by Kogan Page. She is Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance at the Open University, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments. Jonquil Lowe is based in Northampton, UK.

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Book SynopsisEmmet McLoughlin is Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Events Management at Cardiff Metropolitan University where he teaches research methods for undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is also a member of the Welsh Centre for Tourism Research (WCTR) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). Natasha Stait is Associate Lecturer in Business Management and Law and an Early Career Researcher at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She teaches research methods at the undergraduate level and undertakes dissertation and project supervision for MBA students.

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Book SynopsisPatrick Bangert is an experienced technology executive who has led AI and machine learning teams and programs for over two decades. He was named a Top 10 Influential Leader in AI and Big Data by CIOLook Magazine and is currently VP and Chief of AI at Occidental Petroleum. He was previously the SVP of AI for Samsung SDS, the founder of algorithmica technologies and the SVP of Data, Analytics, AI at Searce. He lives in San Francisco, CA.

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Book SynopsisHugues Séraphin is Associate Professor and Principal Lecturer for the Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management subject group at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Emma Delaney is an Associate Professor at the University of Surrey, UK, where she is the co-director for teaching and learning.Chris Smith is Senior Lecturer in Event Management at the University of Winchester, UK. Vanessa Gowreesunkar is Associate Professor in Tourism at the Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur, India.

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Book SynopsisMatt Bourn is Director of Communications for the Advertising Association and Ad Net Zero, based in London, UK. With 25 years' experience, previously he was Managing Director of Braben, working for companies such as Sky, Disney and Sony. He is co-author of Sustainable Advertising also published by Kogan Page. James Best, based in London, UK, is Chair of the Committees of Advertising Practice and of Credos. Previously he was Chair of the Advertising Association, President of the EACA, vice-chair of the History of Advertising Trust and Visiting Professor of Advertising at Richmond International University.

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Book SynopsisKamila Miller is a lecturer at Henley Business School, UK, teaching Sales and Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, and Digital Marketing. She also lectures at Oxford Brookes University on Marketing in a Digital World. She is also a CIM member and Communication Ambassador, actively organizing and participating in events.

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Book SynopsisAntonio Weiss is a Senior Partner at The PSC, the UK's longest-standing public service specialist consultancy. He has advised the Office for Artificial Intelligence, the UK Space Agency and NHS AI Lab, the Government Digital Service, and other pioneering organisations on AI adoption and digital transformation. He is an Affiliated Researcher at the University of Cambridge's Digital State programme and the co-founder of Thomas Clipper, which has featured in The Guardian, The Telegraph and GQ. He is based in London, UK.

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Book SynopsisJordan Morrow is known as the "Godfather of Data Literacy", having built one of the world's first data literacy programs. He is the founder and CEO of Bodhi Data and the Senior Vice President of Data and AI Transformation for AgileOne. He is the author of four other books: Be Data Literate, Be Data Driven, Be Data Analytical and Business 101 for the Data Professional all published by Kogan Page. He is based near Salt Lake City, UT.

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Book SynopsisJo Wiltshire is Senior Lecturer of Fashion Marketing at Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK, With over 15 years of industry experience, Jo has built a comprehensive career in fashion, specializing in visual merchandising, store design, brand management and visual communications. Catrin Cousins is Senior Lecturer of Fashion Marketing, with over 18 years of experience as a fashion buyer, bringing extensive industry knowledge to her teaching. Her expertise spans fashion buying, product development and brand management. She is based at Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK.

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Book SynopsisFocuses on how readers become involved in the lives of fictional characters, people they know do not exist. This book contributes to the field of evolutionary literary criticism. It draws on research in cognitive science to understand the mental processes underlying human social interactions without sacrificing solid literary criticism.Trade ReviewMind reading, a term oft-circulated within cognitive quarters, refers to the human capacity to infer and keep track of the intentional states of others... Vermule's main contention is that literature refines this skill and helps readers cultivate 'Machiavellian intelligence'-her name for the cognitive advantages that may have evolved in the context of an increasingly complex social order. -- Michelle Ty Qui Parle 2010 Wide-ranging and jaunty... Vermeule is a major voice in the effort to bring the insights of cognitive science (especially evolutionary psychology) to bear on topics in eighteenth-century literary studies... We arrive at a new and exciting take on the familiar terrain of the eighteenth-century novel. -- Jonathan Kramnick Studies in English Literature 2010Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. The Fictional among Us2. The Cognitive Dimension3. What Hails Us?4. The Literary Endowment: Five Mind-Reading TurnsFour OpeningsFree Indirect DiscourseMachiavellian NarrativesAttentionThe Drama of Differential Access to Social Information5. The Fantasy of Exposure and Narrative Development in Eighteenth-Century Britain6. God Novels7. Gossip and Literary Narratives8. What's the Matter with Miss Bates?9. Mind Blindness10. Postmodernism Reflects: J. M. Coetzee and the Eighteenth-Century NovelEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe story he tells reveals the opportunities and costs of cotton production for the Lower South and the United States.Trade ReviewSchoen has written an immensely important history of southern political economy, one that is destined to be prominent in future studies of the Old South. -- James L. Huston Civil War Book Review 2010 Schoen's chronological approach in five chapter develops his arguments and does a masterful job of keeping the focus on cotton, its politics, its exploitation of slaves, and ultimately the self-delusions of the cotton states vis-a-vis the world... An excellent book on all counts. Highly recommended. Choice 2010 A sophisticated, nuanced analysis of elite political-economic rhetoric in the antebellum South. -- Lawrence A. Peskin North Carolina Historical Review 2010 In sure-footed fashion, Brian Schoen guides the reader through overlooked issues in the oft-told account of southern secession. -- Frank J. Byrne Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 2010 Students of the causes of the Civil War should read The Fragile Fabric of Union. It is well written and extensively documented... The author brings the issues to life by illustrating how economic self interested colored the views of the South to the point that it was willing to sunder the Union and go to war. -- Stephen Donnelly Historical Journal of Massachusetts 2010 I found myself reading this book in light of current events. Schoen does a good job pointing out that legislative victors may rue their triumph, while losers may inadvertently reap benefits from loathed legislation... The book is clearly written. -- David G. Surdam Journal of Economic History 2010 Impressive... Adds an intriguing new dimension to ongoing debates about the nature of southern economic development, what motivated southern states to secede, why they seceded when they did, and ultimately what caused the Civil War. -- Beth English American Historical Review 2010 In this provocative book, he forces historians who have not done so already to discount 'Lost Cause' lore and pay greater attention to southerners who thought they could use their monopoly in raw cotton as leverage to advance the interests of their region in the larger world. -- Glenn C. Altschuler Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2010 An important contribution to the reinterpretation of plantation slavery and the origins of the U.S. Civil War... A lucidly written, richly researched, and convincing analysis of the global forces that shaped the politics of the southern slaveholders. -- Charles Post Journal of American History There is much to admire in Brian Schoen's ambitious new book... A remarkable scholarly debut that represents one of the most important studies of 'why the South fought' to be released in over a generation. -- Scott P. Marler Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 2009 Schoen's readable prose deserves a wide audience. His explanations of tariffs and other economic issues are clear, and he has admirable command of a wide range of political and economic subjects (both domestically and in foreign relations). This book will be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of any scholar of the antebellum era. -- Aaron W. Marrs Technology and Culture 2011 Schoen extends the transatlantic dimensions of this era; just as the politics of slavery were shaped by developments in the Caribbean and Europe, so too did the political economy of cotton stretch throughout the Atlantic world. This book should be read by all those interested in broadening their understanding of both the Atlantic world of the nineteenth century and the coming of the American Civil War. -- Ed Rugemer H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews Schoen challenges previous studies and underscores the impact of external global economics as a primary cause of the Civil War. This contention is likely to stir controversy and healthy debate. -- Michael Russert Civil War News 2010 Schoen's Fragile Fabric commendably sheds renewed light on the conflict's origins at the local, sectional, and transatlantic level. -- Marc-William Palen Southern Historian 2011Table of ContentsSeries Editor's ForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPrologue, 1781. The Threads of a Global Loom: Cotton, Slavery, and Union in an Interdependent Atlantic, 1789–1820Cotton, Empire, and NationThe Formation of a Transatlantic Cotton InterestCotton's "Revolution" and Its Limits2. Calculating the Cost of Union: Nationalism and Sectionalism in a Republican Era, 1796–1818The Cotton South and a Republican Coalition of "Equals""The Honor of Bearing It Best": Cotton, Commercial Warfare, and WarPeace Abroad, Dissension at Home: Republicans Active and Passive3. Protecting Slavery and Free Trade: The Political Economy of Cotton, 1818– 1833Panic and ProtectionCotton and a Harmonious Domestic and International Division of Labor"Unequal" Protection under the Law and Cotton's Minority Status4. Building Bridges to the West and the World: Empowerment and Anxiety in the Second Party System, 1834–1848Publishing the "Banns" of Marriage: The Search for Lower South Commercial AdvancementAmerican Proslavery Thought in the Age of British AbolitionThe Second Party System in the Cotton South5. An Unnatural Union: King Cotton and Lower South Secession, 1849– 1860Economic Advancement in an Age of Democratic AscendanceConverting Friends to Enemies and Enemies to Friends: The Search for Natural AlliesRealists Decide: Election and SecessionEpilogue, 1861NotesEssay on SourcesIndex

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Book SynopsisSuitable for anyone working with problems of linear and nonlinear least squares fitting, this book includes an overview of computational methods together with their properties and advantages. It also includes topics from statistical regression analysis that help readers to understand and evaluate the computed solutions.Trade ReviewLeast Square Data fitting with Applications is a book that will be of great practical use to anyone whose work involves the analysis of data and its modeling. It offers a great deal of information that can be a s valuable in the lecture theater as in the lab or office. Mathematics TodayTable of ContentsPrefaceSymbols and AcronymsChapter 1. The Linear Data Fitting Problem1.1. Parameter estimation, data approximation1.2. Formulation of the data fitting problem1.3. Maximum likelihood estimation1.4. The residuals and their properties1.5. Robust regressionChapter 2. The Linear Least Squares Problem2.1. Linear least squares problem formulation2.2. The QR factorization and its role2.3. Permuted QR factorizationChapter 3. Analysis of Least Squares Problems3.1. The pseudoinverse3.2. The singular value decomposition3.3. Generalized singular value decomposition3.4. Condition number and column scaling3.5. Perturbation analysisChapter 4. Direct Methods for Full-Rank Problems4.1. Normal equations4.2. LU factorization4.3. QR factorization4.4. Modifying least squares problems4.5. Iterative refinement4.6. Stability and condition number estimation4.7. Comparison of the methodsChapter 5. Direct Methods for Rank-Deficient Problems5.1. Numerical rank5.2. Peters-Wilkinson LU factorization5.3. QR factorization with column permutations5.4. UTV and VSV decompositions5.5. Bidiagonalization5.6. SVD computationsChapter 6. Methods for Large-Scale Problems6.1. Iterative versus direct methods6.2. Classical stationary methods6.3. Non-stationary methods, Krylov methods6.4. Practicalities: preconditioning and stopping criteria6.5. Block methodsChapter 7. Additional Topics in Least Squares7.1. Constrained linear least squares problems7.2. Missing data problems7.3. Total least squares (TLS)7.4. Convex optimization7.5. Compressed sensingChapter 8. Nonlinear Least Squares Problems8.1. Introduction8.2. Unconstrained problems8.3. Optimality conditions for constrained problems8.4. Separable nonlinear least squares problems8.5. Multiobjective optimizationChapter 9. Algorithms for Solving Nonlinear LSQ Problems9.1. Newton's method9.2. The Gauss-Newton method9.3. The Levenberg-Marquardt method9.4. Additional considerations and software9.5. Iteratively reweighted LSQ algorithms for robust data fitting problems9.6. Variable projection algorithm9.7. Block methods for large-scale problemsChapter 10. Ill-Conditioned Problems10.1. Characterization10.2. Regularization methods10.3. Parameter selection techniques10.4. Extensions of Tikhonov regularization10.5. Ill-conditioned NLLSQ problemsChapter 11. Linear Least Squares Applications11.1. Splines in approximation11.2. Global temperatures data fitting11.3. Geological surface modelingChapter 12. Nonlinear Least Squares Applications12.1. Neural networks training12.2. Response surfaces, surrogates or proxies12.3. Optimal design of a supersonic aircraft12.4. NMR spectroscopy12.5. Piezoelectric crystal identification12.6. Travel time inversion of seismic dataAppendix A: Sensitivity AnalysisA.1. Floating-point arithmeticA.2. Stability, conditioning and accuracyAppendix B: Linear Algebra BackgroundB.1. NormsB.2. Condition numberB.3. OrthogonalityB.4. Some additional matrix propertiesAppendix C: Advanced Calculus BackgroundC.1. Convergence ratesC.2. Multivariable calculusAppendix D: StatisticsD.1. DefinitionsD.2. Hypothesis testingReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisReaders will be delighted by the broad array of comic talent spotlighted in this book, and for those interested in comedy with substance, it will offer an alternative punchline.Trade ReviewThis is an incredibly valuable and worthwhile read, because it explores not only the remarkable influence comedy has, but it confronts the biases that can undermined great comics while allowing certain hacks to succeed... The value of charged humor cannot be overstated, especially these days, and neither can insightful tomes like this one. -- Glenn Dallas San Francisco Book Review Krefting (American Studies, Skidmore College) draws on experience working at stand-up, improv, and directing- plus, the jokes she includes are funny... This fresh, thoughtful investigation of the political dimensions in current American stand-up comedy is a must read for those interested in the comic. ChoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. The Laughscape of American Humor1. Making Connections: Building Cultural Citizenship through Charged Humor2. Twentieth-Century Stand-Up: A History of Charged Humor3. Laughing into the New Millennium4. When Women Perform Charged Humor: The (Gendered) Politics of Consumption5. Robin Tyler: Still "Working the Crowd"6. Micia Mosely: Humor out of the Mouths of Babes7. Hari Kondabolu: Performing in the Age of Modern-Day MinstrelsyConclusion. How to Avoid the Last LaughNotesCharged Comic CompendiumIndex

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Book SynopsisWith a new preface from Michael Nelson, editor of the Interpreting American Politics series, this award-winning book will be sought out by public policymakers eager to read a leading scholar's newest insights into the field.Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Foreword to the Updated EditionSeries Editor's Foreword to the First EditionPreface to the First EditionAcknowledgments to the First Edition1. Administrative Paradoxes2. Administrative Traditions3. Administrative Dilemmas4. Boundaries within the Bureaucracy5. Boundaries outside the Bureaucracy6. Administration and Governance7. Who Governs— and How?Epilogue. Governance at the BoundariesNotesIndex

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