Perception by Anil Pathak

Since each individual’s perception is unique, we might encounter communication difficulties when two individuals attribute different meanings to the same utterance, event, or transaction. This book provides practical examples of Perceptual Errors and provides concrete advice to eliminate perceptual blocks in everyday communication.

Communication is a two-way process. In this process, both the sender and the receiver are responsible to create and share meaning. This process can be interrupted if there is a wide gap between the perception of the receiver and that of the sender. Problems may arise when the senders or receivers simply accept their initial perception or understanding of the message. Since each individual’s perception is unique, we might encounter communication difficulties when two individuals attribute different meanings to the same utterance, event, or transaction. It is therefore necessary to be aware when our perceptions are not truthful. This book provides practical examples of Perceptual Errors and provides concrete advice to eliminate perceptual blocks in everyday communication.

About Anil Pathak

Anil Pathak has taught Communication courses in universities in India, Bahrain, Singapore, and Brunei for over three decades. He has a doctorate in communication skills development, and is the author of ‘Communication Fundamentals’, ‘Communication and Leadership’, and ‘Eight Steps to Flexible Learning’.

Read Anil Pathak's Smashwords Interview

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Software Design Principles by Ludwin Barbin

This book is a compilation of software design principles. Knowing and applying the principles – when, where, how to use – will result to a maintainable, easy to understand, easy to extend, and overall high quality software.

This book is a compilation of software design principles. Knowing these principles and applying them will allow you to develop a better quality software.



Think of the principles as the pillars of a building. They are the support structures that hold the building together and keep it from crumbling down. They serve as guiding posts for other elements, and provide balance and stability.



You will learn the fundamental principles such as Separation of Concern, Low Coupling and High Cohesion, Information Hiding. It also covers principles on higher-level (architectural) and low-level (design and programmatic).



Many of the design principles relate to object-oriented software paradigm. They have been abbreviated and coined for easy remembering, examples include IoC (Inversion of Control), DI (Dependency Injection), LoD (Law of Demeter), Hollywood Principle, Tell don’t Ask, Don’t talk to strangers, etc…



There are also popular groupings such as GRASP (General Responsibility Assignment Software Patterns) principles and SOLID (stands for each letter of the principles included) principles. A whole section of this book is dedicated for Agile development principles.



This is a short and concise book. It’s an easy read. I’m sure you can finish this book on a weekend. You can use it both as a tutorial and reference.



In a software development project, awareness of these principles promotes better communication among team members. Knowing and applying them – when, where, how to use – will result to a maintainable, easy to understand, easy to extend, and overall high quality software.

About Ludwin Barbin

• 18 years of hands-on experience in software development

• Software Architect for LunareSoft IT Consulting Services

• Based in Vancouver, Canada

• Certified Java Programmer

• Certified Web Component Developer

• Certified Java Enterprise Architect

• BS Computer Science, MBA

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Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology by Brandon Sanderson

From the Hugo Award-winning hosts of the Writing Excuses writing advice show comes a collection of all-new stories of the fantastic, with beautiful illustrations and a behind-the-scenes look at each story’s creation. Come for the stories by award-winning authors; stay for the peek behind the creative curtain.

From the Hugo Award-winning hosts of the Writing Excuses writing advice show comes a collection of all-new stories of the fantastic, with beautiful illustrations and a behind-the-scenes look at each story’s creation.



Brandon Sanderson’s “Sixth of the Dusk,” set in his Cosmere universe shared by the Mistborn books and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive, showcases a society on the brink of technological change. On the deadly island of Patji, where predators can sense the thoughts of their prey, a lone trapper discovers that the island is not the only thing out to kill him.



Mary Robinette Kowal’s “A Fire in the Heavens” is a powerful tale of a refugee seeking to the near-mythical homeland her oppressed people left centuries ago. When Katin discovers the role the “eternal moon” occupies in the Center Kingdom, and the nature of the society under its constant light, she may find enemies and friends in unexpected places.



Dan Wells’s “I.E.Demon” features an Afghanistan field test of a piece of technology that is supposed to handle improvised explosive devices. Or so the engineers have told the EOD team that will be testing it; exactly what it does and how it does it are need-to-know, and the grunts don’t need to know. Until suddenly the need arises.



Howard Tayler’s “An Honest Death” stars the security team for the CEO of a biotech firm about to release the cure for old age. When an intruder appears and then vanishes from the CEO’s office, the bodyguards must discover why he is lying to them about his reason for pressing the panic button.



For years the hosts of Writing Excuses have been offering tips on brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, and revision, and now they offer an exhaustive look at the entire process. Not only does Shadows Beneath have four beautifully illustrated fantastic works of fiction, but it also includes transcripts of brainstorming and workshopping sessions, early drafts of the stories, essays about the stories’ creation, and details of all the edits made between the first and final drafts.



Come for the stories by award-winning authors; stay for the peek behind the creative curtain.

About Brandon Sanderson

I write stories of the fantastic: fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers. My most popular series are the Mistborn books and the Stormlight Archive (set on different planets of the Cosmere), and the Reckoners trilogy beginning with Steelheart.

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Science Surprises: Exploring the Nature of Science by Lawrence Flammer

A text supplement for students in any grade 7-10 science class, it is used with several freely available interactive lessons for a unit on the nature of science (NoS). The unit addresses many of the common misconceptions about NoS. It satisfies virtually all the latest NoS standards (in NGSS, CCSS). It includes strategies for critical and skeptical thinking. Teacher's Guide is also available.

Secondary Science Teachers: If you're looking for a unit to teach the nature of science (NoS), with lessons for practicing critical and skeptical thinking, this is it. This new text supplement is intended for students in any science class, grades 7-10. It can replace the usual first chapter in most secondary science textbooks with an updated and more accurate treatment of how science works, what it can and cannot do, and why it's so effective for increasing our understanding of the natural world. It particularly addresses the many misconceptions about NoS. It also satisfies virtually all of the new NOS science standards (in NGSS and CCSS). The booklet is part of an intensive introductory unit, using a collection of engaging interactive lessons freely available for download from the author's web site. There is also a Teacher's Guide to help do this most effectively, with the URLs for getting the lessons, unit plans, worksheets and other ancillary materials. If this sounds like something you want for your students, get this textbook, read it, then request the Teacher's Guide from the author, currently at no charge.

About Lawrence Flammer

With an MS in zoology, I taught high school biology for 38 years, "retired" in 1997. I also taught earth science, physical science, life science and computer programming. In 1998, I developed a website for the ENSI program (Evolution and Nature of Science Institute). The site provides classroom-tested interactive lessons on the nature of science and evolution (including geological age dating). These lessons are freely available for download. The site continues to be very popular, with upwards of 2,000 hits per month, and more than 600 teachers on the ENSI listserves. Its lessons are used in many undergraduate classes and increasingly in AP Biology classes. The textbook "Science Surprises" evolved out of a text supplement I developed for teaching the nature of science in the 1960s. I have also enjoyed mentoring new science teachers, both directly and online (with the eMSS program out of UC Santa Cruz New Teacher Center).



I have published a few articles on teaching evolution and the nature of science:

“The Evolution Solution” in the ABT's American Biology Teacher in March, 2006. You can access it easily at http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/evo-solution.html . The article details the approach to teaching evolution that I used for most of my teaching years.



"Chromosome Connections: Compelling Clues to Common Ancestry" in the ABT's American Biology Teacher in February, 2013, available at http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/ABT.ChromConn.2013.pdf . Using tangible features of chromosomes to reveal different lines of evidence of human ancestry.



"Patterns in Time" in NSTA's Science Scope in February, 2011, available at

http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/pat.time.article.pdf . Engaging lessons for developing a personal time sense for deep time, and the patterns of emergence for the major classes of vertebrates over tens of millions of years.

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Breaking Up with Barrett by Katy Regnery

When business partners suggest that a fiancee might soften Barrett English's image over business dinners, he approaches the gardener's daughter, Emily Edwards, for the "job" of fiancee. And while love wasn't necessarily on Barrett's radar, he begins to realize that Emily always has been. But will his take-no-prisoners boardroom tactics work on the heart of the woman he loves?

Breaking Up with Barrett is the first of five books about the Philadelphia-based, wildly-handsome English brothers who are all on the look-out for love.



(Except Alex. He's a womanizing manwhore. And maybe Stratton, because he's wicked hot, but super awkward around girls.)



Barrett English, aka "the Shark," is the fair-haired, first-born of the English brothers, and the CEO of the oldest, most prestigious investment banking firm in Philadelphia. He rules the boardroom with an iron fist, refusing to take no for an answer and always getting his way.



Emily Edwards, a first-year doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, grew up in the gatehouse on the outskirts of Barrett's childhood estate. The daughter of his family's gardener and housekeeper, she was always looking through the window of privilege, but forced to remember her place at the very periphery of the kingdom.



When business partners suggest that a fiancee might soften Barrett's image over business dinners, he approaches Emily for the "job" of fiancee. And while love wasn't necessarily on Barrett's radar, he begins to realize that Emily always has been. But will his take-no-prisoners boardroom tactics work on the heart of the woman he loves?



_________



*All books in The English Brothers series are 50,000 words/200-pages long. The RWA classifies this length as "Short Contemporary Romance."



THE ENGLISH BROTHERS



Breaking Up with Barrett, The English Brothers, Book #1

(available 7.22.14)



Falling for Fitz, The English Brothers, Book #2

(available 7.29.14)



Anyone but Alex, The English Brothers, Book #3

Seduced by Stratton, The English Brothers, Book #4

Wild about Weston, The English Brothers, Book #5

About Katy Regnery

KATY REGNERY, Amazon best-selling author, has always loved telling a good story, and credits her mother with making funny, heartwarming tales come alive throughout her childhood. A lifelong devotee of all romance writing, from Edwardian to present-day, it was just a matter of time before Katy tried her hand at writing a love story of her own.



As it turned out, one love story turned into a series of six Heart of Montana romances, following the love lives of the Yellowstone-based Lindstrom siblings. When Katy’s fans asked her to turn up the heat, she cheerfully started her Enchanted Places series, which offers steamier romance to her readers. Katy is also proud to offer a stand-alone romance, The Vixen and the Vet, just in time for Fourth of July, 2014.



Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, and two dogs create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories of all are the messy and unexpected ones.

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The Donors’ Dilemma: Emergence, Convergence and the Future of Foreign Aid by Global Policy

As poverty declines, what if the remaining pockets of poverty are increasingly focused in countries where aid is already on the way to becoming irrelevant as domestic resources grow - such as some middle income countries - or in countries which cannot absorb aid easily and quickly – meaning many fragile states? This is the question addressed by contributors to Global Policy’s first e-book.

As poverty declines, what if the remaining pockets of poverty are increasingly focused in countries where aid is already on the way to becoming irrelevant as domestic resources grow - such as some middle income countries - or in countries which cannot absorb aid easily and quickly – meaning many fragile states?



This is the question addressed by contributors to Global Policy’s first e-book entitled ‘The Donors’ Dilemma: Emergence, Convergence and the Future of Aid', guest edited by Dr Andy Sumner, Co-Director, King’s International Development Institute, King’s College London, and Tom Kirk, Researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science.



INTRODUCTION



Andy Sumner - The Donors’ Dilemma: Emergence, Convergence and the Future of Foreign Aid



SECTION I - NEW APPROACHES: FROM TRADITIONAL AID TO GLOBAL PUBLIC GOODS



1. Nancy Birdsall - The Future of Aid: 2030 ODA No More



2. Myles Wickstead - The Future of Aid and Beyond



3. Jonathan Glennie - A Manifesto for International Public Finance in the 21st Century



4. Inge Kaul - Time to Think in Terms of Global Public Policy



5. José Antonio Alonso - From ODA to a Global Development Policy



6. David Ritter and Jessica Panegyres - Climate Change and the Future of Aid



7. Asuncion Lera St. Clair - Transforming Development Aid



SECTION II - NEW OBJECTIVES: FROM POVERTY REDUCTION TO EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT



8. Erik Solheim - The Age of Equality



9. Duncan Green - Shifting the Focus to Knowledge, Inequality and Universal Challenges



10. Ravi Kanbur - Resetting IDA’s Graduation Policy



11. Tony Addison and Finn Tarp - Aid and Growth in Africa



12. Vivan Sharan - Traditional Aid Has No Future: Markets and India’s Lines of Credit



13. Jason Hickel- Aid in Reverse: How Poor Countries Develop Rich



SECTION III - NEW MOTIVATIONS: FROM POST-COLONIAL CHARITY TO DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION AS FAIRER GLOBAL GOVERNANCE



14. David Held and Kyle McNally - Globalisation and Development



15. Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah - From Charity to Social Justice



16. Thomas Pogge - Addressing the Structural Roots of Persistent Underdevelopment



17. John Podesta - Beyond Zero Sum



18. Linah K. Mohohlo - A Change in Mindset is needed if Aid is to Remain Relevant



19. Karl Muth - Aid Circa 2032: Three Players, No Winners



SECTION IV - NEW WAYS OF WORKING: FROM ALLOCATING MONEY TO WORKING CATALYTICALLY



20. Simon Maxwell - What is the future of International Development?



21. Ben Ramalingam - Aid on the Edge of Chaos: Rethinking international cooperation in a complex world



22. Edward R. Carr - The Future is Already Being Fed



23. Shanta Devarajan - Aid as Disruption



24. Andy Sumner – Did global poverty just fall a lot, quite a bit or not at all?



CONCLUSION



25. Andy Sumner and Tom Kirk - The Donors’ Dilemma: A wrap up of the debate

About Global Policy

Global Policy is an innovative and interdisciplinary journal bringing together world class academics and leading practitioners to analyse both public and private solutions to global problems and issues. It focuses on understanding globally relevant risks and collective action problems; policy challenges that have global impact; and competing and converging discourses about global risks and policy responses. It also includes case studies of policy with clear lessons for other countries and regions; how policy responses, politics and institutions interrelate at the global level; and the conceptual, theoretical and methodological innovations needed to explain and develop policy in these areas.



Global Policy will be invaluable to those working in economics, global politics, government, international law, international relations, international political economy, and many other disciplines that contribute to developing global policy. The journal is also designed to inform and engage senior policymakers, private and public corporations, non-governmental organisations, and international bodies. The overall objective is to stimulate deep policy learning, relevant for the academy and for governments and key non-governmental players.



Global Policy's Editorial Board comprises a distinguished panel of academics who are supported by an International Advisory Board and a Practitioners' Advisory Board of experts from around the world to ensure the focus remains on pressing and relevant global issues. Global Policy is based at Durham University

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6 Weeks to Better Adrenal Health and Fat Loss by Jodelle Fitzwater

A 6-week plan designed to provide you quick, tasty, easy-to-throw together meals that will keep you calm under stress, help improve sleep, give you more energy, and create a body that burns fat for energy everyday! You can eat to beat stress, rather than starve yourself to lose fat, and this plan will show you how!

Do you suffer from fat around your middle that won't budge? Do you cry at the drop of a hat, sometimes for no reason? Do you have sleep issues, or trouble relaxing? Do you feel like your life is one struggle after another. You are not alone. Stress is one of the biggest epidemics affecting our nation, and one of the leading causes of fat loss that won't budge. While many of our life stressors are beyond our control, we can choose what we put into our body, and choose things that help us deal with those stressors in a more calm, manageable way. Doing so, will help us not only feel better, sleep better, and actually be better equipped everyday, but it will also help us lose that stubborn fat we can't seem to get rid of now matter how hard we starve ourselves or exercise. This plan is about working with your body, rather than against it. The foods and meal plan here are easy to follow, quick to prepare, satisfying to the pallet, and calming to he brain and body. Dive into this 6 week plan and by the end of it, you will feel like a new person inside, and look like a new improved you outside!

About Jodelle Fitzwater

"Hi, my name is Jodelle Fitzwater and I'm an ACSM certified Personal trainer, Certified Nutrition Coach & Certified Food Psychology Coach, e-RYT 200, Pilates Instructor, TRX Instructor, PaddleFit Instructor and BiC SUP Midwest Ambassador. My goal is to help you reach your goals, whatever they may be. I love to help people learn how to lead healthier lives inside and out. I have a desire to help people. I live to serve. And there was no better way to do that than to live a life of love and give 100% pure love into everything she worked at and to everyone that my Creator brought into my life. I also came to the realization that I couldn't live without movement and water and decided I must be a mermaid. I have Bic SUP 10'foot 6 stand up paddle surf board that gets me a great total body workout out on the water, and I'd love to introduce you to it and many other forms of fitness and nutrition as well!"

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Star's Reach by John Michael Greer

More than four centuries have passed since industrial civilization collapsed under the self-inflicted blows of climate change and resource depletion. Now, in the ruins of a city, a young man mining metal risks his life for a priceless clue. Thus begins a quest for a place out of legend where human beings might once have communicated with distant worlds -- a place called Star's Reach.

More than four centuries have passed since industrial civilization stumbled to its ruin under the self-inflicted blows of climate change and resource depletion. Now, in the ruins of a deserted city, a young man mining metal risks his life to win a priceless clue. That discovery will send him and an unlikely band of seekers on a quest for a place out of legend where human beings might once have communicated with distant worlds -- a place called Star's Reach.

About John Michael Greer

John Michael Greer is the author of more than thirty books, including four books on peak oil and one science fiction novel, The Fires of Shalsha, as well as the weekly peak oil blog The Archdruid Report. A native of the Pacific Northwest, he now lives in an old red brick mill town in the north central Appalachians with his wife Sara.

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