Production and Cost Functions: Specification, Measurement and Applications

Why Didn't I Say That?! : What to Say and How to Say It
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Good books theorectically

Why Didn't I Say That?! : What to Say and How to Say It
Donald H. Weiss
Manufacturer: AMACOM/American Management Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Communications | Skills | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Say What You Mean, Get What You Want: A Businessperson's Guide to Direct Communication

Managing Your Mouth

How to Stay Cool, Calm & Collected When the Pressure's on: A Stress Control Plan for Businesspeople

Manage Your Time, Your Work, Yourself

How to Say It At Work: Putting Yourself Across with Power Words, Phrases, Body Language, and Communication Secrets

ASIN: 0814479375

Customer Reviews:

Good books theorectically .......2007-02-28

A good guiding book, but still it depends on actual situation.

I Didn't Know That: Or Why We Say the Things We Say

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I Didn't Know That: Or Why We Say the Things We Say
Karlen Evins
Manufacturer: K. Rose Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0963547402

Book Description

An entertaining and enlightening compilation of everyday words and expressions and their origins. Examples found in book include such phrases as: High on the Hog, Mad as a Hatter, In the Doghouse, Raining Cats and Dogs, Facing the Music, Letting the Cat out of the Bag, and many more.

I Didn't Know That: Or Why We Say the Things We Say Volume 1

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I Didn't Know That: Or Why We Say the Things We Say Volume 1
Karlen Evins
Manufacturer: K Rose Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VXLZDC

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Why Didn't I Say That?
Donald Carroll
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0671445820

Why didn't I say that?: The art of verbal self-defense

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This book deserves to be reprinted again and again

Why didn't I say that?: The art of verbal self-defense
Donald Carroll
Manufacturer: Watts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0531099237

Customer Reviews:

This book deserves to be reprinted again and again.......2005-02-23

Perfect idea, perfect execution - give readers a list of possible responses when confronted with a bore, a nag or other verbal bully. In short, as the author himself describes it, this is a guide to the "art of verbal self-defense". Designed for everyone who figures out what they SHOULD have said only AFTER a painful confrontation is long over, this book preps the reader so that the next time around the balance may shift.
Some of the responses are admittedly mean, off-putting or sarcastic - but then, if osmeone is equally offensive, perhaps a dose of the same medicine isn't always a bad idea.
This is a classic. Not for every reader, however...just the ones who don't like being verbally bullied.

Book Description

A handful of great landmark books in the scientific renaissance forever changed how we look at our place in the universe. The first of these was Nicolaus Copernicus' De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, Libri VI (Six books on the revolutions of the heavenly spheres). Published in 1543, the year of the Polish astronomer's death, De Revolutionibus gave a revolutionary new blueprint for the planetary system. The earth, instead of resting solidly in the center of the cosmos, was set awhirl, spinning on its axis every twenty-four hours and revolving around a distant, fixed sun. The new cosmology was not a clarion call from the stars, inevitable and proven by fresh Renaissance observations of the planets; instead it was something truly subtle and wonderful, a "theory pleasing to the mind." Chapter 10, with its famous sun-centered diagram of the planetary system, was intended to convince not by physical or astronomical "proof," but by aesthetics, by the beauty of the explanation. Clearly the persuasion would be in the eye of the beholder.

Each of Copernicus' arguments concerns the planets, those heavenly bodies that moved against the fixed patterns of the distant stars. He demonstrated that the principal complications in the planetary motions could be elegantly explained by attributing movement to the earth itself. From a geometric point of view, Copernicus' arguments were highly compelling, but to the great majority of his contemporaries, any claims for physical reality seemed ridiculous. If the earth were spinning daily on its axis, a stone thrown upward would surely land in another county. As the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe would say later in the sixteenth century, "The Copernican arrangement nowhere offends the principles of mathematics, but it casts the earth, a lazy, sluggish body unfit for motion, into a movement as fast as the aetherial torches [i.e., the stars themselves]."

Commentary by Owen Gingerich, searchable English translation and Latin live text.

Customer Reviews:

Copernicus's wonderful revolutions.......2000-07-28

Though some of his ideas or "philosophys" are extreemly out of date, it is a marvel to read the book that first experessed the "crazy" ideas that are now common knowledge for a 3rd Grader. I feel that anyone intent on studying philosophy, astronomy, mathamatics, or is just very intrested in the greatest works of all time should deffinitly read this book. Although sometimes hard to understand (Nicolaus is not the greatest writer) because of it's crypticness, it is a "must read."

The Copernican revolution;: Planetary astronomy in the development of Western thought

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Case Study of a Scientific Revolution
How a world-view changed
Outstanding Elucidation
Excellent discussion and detail
A fascinating book

The Copernican revolution;: Planetary astronomy in the development of Western thought
Thomas S Kuhn
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Cosmology | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
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Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700
The Construction of Modern Science: Mechanisms and Mechanics (Cambridge Studies in the History of Science)
Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo

ASIN: B00071F55C

Customer Reviews:

Case Study of a Scientific Revolution.......2007-02-16

"The Copernican Revolution" tells the epochal story of how the earth-centered cosmology of Ptolemy was replaced by the sun-centered cosmology of Copernicus and Kepler. The book is a classic. Kuhn understood how ideas influence each other and hang together in a system. He could write with equal erudition about observational astronomy, medieval theology, astrology, and Aristotelian physics.

"The Copernican Revolution" is a trove of historical and intellectual insights. Perhaps the main lesson is that scientific progress is not a simple matter of theory being adapted to observation. Multiple theories can account for the same observations, theories have complex non-observational bases of support, and extra-theoretical assumptions provided by "common sense" (such as the immobility of the earth) can be highly contingent products of a culture. Scientific progress is never guaranteed. Erroneous theories -- such as the theory placing the earth at the center of the universe -- can hold sway for centuries and generate a vast body of supporting evidence, only to fall out of sync with new observations and a new climate of opinion -- at which point they can hang on tenaciously, or collapse "suddenly" over the course of a generation or two. It all comes down to history.

Kuhn's great contribution to thought was to situate the history of science within the history of ideas -- he treated scientific theories as the products of cultures, institutions, and sheer accidents, not as deliverances of pure logic. "The Copernican Revolution" is fantastic and should be ready by anyone who enjoyed and learned from "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." It's become fashionable to bash Kuhn lately but his books have a secure place in the canon of history and philosophy of science. Six stars!

How a world-view changed.......2005-04-02

The Sun and the planets and all the stars revolve around the Earth, which is itself at the center of the universe. Beyond the sphere of the fixed stars is nothing; there is no void or matter or anything, as voids cannot exist in nature. All these celestial bodies that do exist revolve in nice perfect circles. All these statements were once common knowledge to anyone with a smattering of education, even though astronomers were known to make slight variations on the concepts of circular motion. But today every single one of these concepts is demolished, and only fools believe in the Earth centered universe. Why was there a change? It certainly wasn't because of a mass of new information. The old geocentric universe was rejected long before anyone put up satellites and space probes to go zipping around the solar system. Even the invention of the telescope only provided the final blow to the old system. It was a fundamental change in thinking that made up the subject of The Copernican Revolution, Thomas Kuhn's look at the break between ancient and modern thinking on the subject.

Copernicus himself made no observations. He worked only with acquired data and ancient texts. What system did he start out with? This is important, as we can't understand what changed without knowing what was. Kuhn traces the nature of the Ptolemaic system with diagrams but virtually no equations (until the technical appendix at the end) to give the reader an understanding of what sorts of phenomena caught the eyes of ancient astronomers. The Sun and Moon and stars move in their own peculiar manners, and the planets, the wandering stars, behaved in the most peculiar manner of all. The ancients developed rather sophisticated methods to track and predict these movements using their own location as a reasonable starting point. Yet Copernicus had the idea that this starting point was not properly speaking the actual center of the universe. He developed a Sun centered system that qualitatively explained many phenomena (such as retrograde motion of the planets, a notable improvement) without some of the mathematical oddities of the old system, but required so many of its own modifications for accuracy that the final system was no neater than the original.

Yet some astronomers preferred the new to the old. This was, all myth busting aside, still a dangerous idea to advocate in the midst of the Reformation. There was a subtle distinction between advocating a mathematical model and advocating a statement of physical reality. There were many reasons to reject Copernicus, and Kuhn covers them here. There are two main themes: the first is that ancient astronomy was bound up with ancient physics and with theology, and rejecting one introduced many awkward questions about the rest that intellectually honest scholars couldn't ignore. The second is political. Most people know something of the story of Galileo and his confrontations with the Inquisition. It didn't help him that he was arrogant, that he mocked powerful people he called friends, and that politically it was a bad time to make waves. This is also touched upon briefly in Kuhn, but the focus remains on the intellectual revolution, and there Galileo had much to contribute in his new observations. Ultimately, the revolution was as much about insight and vision as about calculations and observations.

Readers more familiar with Kuhn from his later The Structure of Scientific Revolutions will find some of his discussion taking a familiar tone. Indeed, the Copernican revolution fits well with that model; it was a revolutionary idea that marked a turning point in Western science, straddling both the ancient and modern viewpoints. For the reader who is willing to visualize the issues and absorb the history, Kuhn has provided the most succinct and clear explanation of Copernicus's contribution to the Western world likely to be found anywhere.

Outstanding Elucidation.......2003-09-30

This book, written before his Structures, is condensed, well written and, for me at any rate, highly entertaining. No one with a casual understanding of the history of astronomy can read this and not be surprised. Of special interest is the illumination of the fact that at the time Copernicus offered his Helio-centric cosmology there was no good, scientific reason for accepting it - it being a geometric inversion of the Ptolemaic system and thus inheriting exactly all of the Ptolemaic deficiencies. Kuhn explores the reason for the gradual shift to Copernicanism and the effects a moving earth had on other sciences.

Excellent discussion and detail.......2003-08-05

The author gives thorough discussion about what Copernican revolution really is, who were the key players and how each contributed to the overall progress. In addition, it provides many technical details about many systems that affect the revolution in one way or the other. However, I do not think that any necessary astronomical experience is necessary to read the book, but in order to understand the full picture it is necessary to understand the technical details. Overall, the book develops the idea very clearly and gives insights that give a good understanding of how scientific thought developed.

A fascinating book.......2001-01-04

This book is an excellent and entertaining book for a scientific reader and/or for a general reader who doesn't mind being challenged a bit by logical arguments. Don't let this discourage you, though, since the logical arguments are not too difficult and really need to be discussed for completeness sake. The historical background adds to the book in a way comparable to Carl Sagan's 'COSMOS' series or to 'The Mechanical Universe' series. This book should be required reading for all enlightened westerners. It's THAT good.

Mathematical Astronomy in Copernicus's De Revolutionibus: In Two Parts (Studies in the History of Mathematics and the Physical Sciences)

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Mathematical Astronomy in Copernicus's De Revolutionibus: In Two Parts (Studies in the History of Mathematics and the Physical Sciences)
N. M. Swerdlow , and O. Neugebauer
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0387909397

Tre saggi sulla cosmologia alla fine del Cinquecento (Lezioni della Scuola di studi superiori in Napoli)

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Tre saggi sulla cosmologia alla fine del Cinquecento (Lezioni della Scuola di studi superiori in Napoli)
Michel-Pierre Lerner
Manufacturer: Bibliopolis
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 8870882748

Copernico a Padova: Atti della Giornata copernicana nel 450 della pubblicazione del De revolutionibus orbium coelestium : Padova, 10 dicembre 1993

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Copernico a Padova: Atti della Giornata copernicana nel 450 della pubblicazione del De revolutionibus orbium coelestium : Padova, 10 dicembre 1993

Manufacturer: CLEUP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 8871783999

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De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
Copernicus
Manufacturer: EASTON PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VVWA7Y

DE REVOLUTIONIBUS ORBIUM COELESTIUM (ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE HEAVENLY SPHERES)

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DE REVOLUTIONIBUS ORBIUM COELESTIUM (ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE HEAVENLY SPHERES)

Manufacturer: Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000E31CZA

Georgii Joachimi Rhetici Narratio prima (Studia Copernicana)

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Georgii Joachimi Rhetici Narratio prima (Studia Copernicana)
Georg Joachim Rhaticus
Manufacturer: Ossolineum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 8304007649

Book Description

The purpose of this book is to bring together current scientific understanding of wetting behaviour that has been gained from theoretical models and quantitative experimental observations. The materials considered are liquid metals or inorganic glasses in contact with solid metals or ceramics at temperatures of 200-2000 ^oC.

Wetting has been a significant scientific concern for the last two centuries and reference will be made to classical work by nineteenth century scientists such as Dupré, Laplace and Young that was validated by observations of the behaviour of chemically inert ambient temperature systems.

In attempting to achieve the aims of the book, the text has been divided into ten Chapters that can be grouped into four stages of presentation. The first stage comprises two Chapters that review established and newly developed models for their relevance to wetting behaviour at high temperatures, including recent models that encompass the role of chemical reactions at the solid/liquid interfaces. Attention is paid both to equilibrium wetting behaviour (Chapter 1) and to the factors that control the approach to equilibrium (Chapter 2). Then follow Chapters concerned with experimental techniques for scientific measurement of the extent of wetting (Chapter 3) and with the surface energy data for both metals and non-metals that are essential for quantitative interpretation of wetting behaviour (Chapter 4). Descriptions of experimentally determined and quantified wetting behaviour are presented and interpreted in the third part comprising five Chapters dealing with the characteristics of metal/metal, metal/oxide, metal/non-oxide, metal/carbon and molten glass/solid systems. The book concludes with a Chapter commenting on the role of wetting behaviour in joining similar and dissimilar materials by liquid route techniques.

Customer Reviews:

Okay book for a niche subject.......2004-02-14

Wetting of materials at elevated temperatures is a niche subject that most engineers and scientists do not encounter. As such there is a dearth of appropriate texts. This text attempts to cover the subject with a mix of science, theory, and applications, with a handy list of references. It is a decent text; easy enough to read for the undergraduate engineering student, yet covers all the related topics.

Product Description

This volume chronicles the proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Contact Angle, Wettability and Adhesion held in Philadelphia, PA, June 2004.

The world of wettability is very wide and it plays a crucial role in many and varied technological areas ranging from microfluidics to biomedical to agriculture to welding. This volume contains a total of 31 papers covering many ramifications of contact angle, wettability and adhesion. All manuscripts were rigorously peer-reviewed and revised, and properly edited before inclusion in this book.

The topics covered include: fundamental aspects of contact line region; evaporative behavior of sessile drops; various factors influencing contact angle measurements; different kinds of contact angles; various ways to measure contact angles; contact angle hysteresis; contact angle measurements on various materials (smooth, rough, porous, heterogeneous); effect of electric field on contact angle (electrowetting); wetting and spreading on heterogeneous surfaces; factors influencing wetting/spreading phenomena; determination of solid surface free energy via contact angle measurements; application of AFM in determining solid surface tension at the nano-scale; ultralyophobic surfaces; surface modification and wettability; multiphase flow dynamics in porous media; thin film coatings for textile materials; bio-fouling resistant coatings; relationships between wetting and adhesion; and relevance/importance of wetting and surface energetics in technological applications, including cleaning of flooring materials, kinetics of oil removal from coating materials, cell adhesion, and mold compound- metal adhesion in semiconductor packaging.

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Modern Approaches to Wettability

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General & Reference | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

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ASIN: 0306439859

Book Description

Striking a balance between applied and theoretical research, this work details many of the uses of wettability and interprets experimental data from a variety of viewpoints, including the 'separation of forces' and the 'equation of state approaches.'

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Contact Angle Wettability and Adhesion
Robert F. Gould
Manufacturer: American Chemical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KB0WC0

Contact Angle, Wettability and Adhension

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Contact Angle, Wettability and Adhension
K. L. Mittal , and International Symposium on Contact Angle
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 9067643912

Book Description

This volume chronicles the proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Contact Angle, Wettability and Adhesion held in Providence, Rhode Island, May 20--23, 2002. This symposium was held to provide a forum to update and consolidate the research activity on this topic. The world of wettability is very wide as it plays an extremely important role in a legion of technological areas.

This volume contains a total of 25 papers covering myriad aspects of contact angle and wettability. All manuscripts were rigorously peer-reviewed and all were revised and properly edited before inclusion in this volume. This book is divided into three parts: General Papers; Contact Angle Measurements/Determination and Solid Surface Free Energy; and Wetting and Spreading: Fundamental and Applied Aspects.

The topics covered include: fundamental aspects of contact line region; effect of adsorbed vapor on liquid--solid adhesion; molecular origin of contact angles; various factors influencing contact angle measurements; different kinds of contact angles; various ways to measure contact angles; contact angle hysteresis; determination of solid surface free energies via contact angles; contact angle measurements on various materials (smooth, rough, porous, heterogeneous); factors influencing/dictating wetting and spreading phenomena; ultrahydrophobic polymer surfaces; switchable wettability; reactive wetting; wetting by nanocrystallites; dewetting; wetting of self-assembled monolayers; reversible wetting of structured surfaces; wetting in granular and porous media; relationship between wetting and adhesion; relevance/importance of wetting and surface energetics in technological applications, including food industry. This volume and its predecessors containing bountiful information will be of great interest and value to everyone interested in the contemporary R&D activity in the fascinating world of contact angles and wettability.

The information garnered in these volumes will hopefully serve as a fountainhead for new research ideas and applications.

Contact Angle, Wettability, and Adhesion
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Contact Angle, Wettability, and Adhesion
Frederick Fowkes
Manufacturer: American Chemical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GS071I

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Contact Angle, Wettability, and Adhesion: The Kendall Award Symposium Honoring William A. Zisman Sjponsored By the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry at the 144th Meeting of the American Chemical Society

Manufacturer: American Chemical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GTGLFS

Interaction of Liquids at Solid Substrates (Advances in Chemistry Series 87, Advances in Chemistry Series 87)
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Interaction of Liquids at Solid Substrates (Advances in Chemistry Series 87, Advances in Chemistry Series 87)

Manufacturer: American Chemical Society Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000E3E2Z2

Product Description

Based on smposia sponsored by the Division of Organic Coatings and Plastics Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.

Laser Modification of the Wettability Characteristics of Engineering Materials (Engineering Research)

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Laser Modification of the Wettability Characteristics of Engineering Materials (Engineering Research)
J. Lawrence , and Lin Li
Manufacturer: Professional Engineering Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Wettability (Surfactant Science)

Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General & Reference | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

Solutions & Colloids | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0824790464

Book Description

Presents current knowledge of intermolecular interactions, the dynamics of wetting and the importance of wettability phenomena in processes and products, detailing the considerations required for wettability in multicomponent systems. Underlying theory and experimental methods are described.

Book Description

This definitive source provides practicing professionals and students in the occupational, environmental, and public health and safety fields with the functional basics of biological monitoring. The author examines how environmental exposures to particular chemicals are related to concentrations of markers in body tissues and fluids. Biological Monitoring integrates the applied sciences of industrial/environmental hygiene, epidemiology, public health, occupational medicine, toxicology, biochemistry, and analytical chemistry with the basic sciences to interpret the connections between exposures and lifestyle/environmental influences, and their effects on humans. This comprehensive introduction provides dependable, detailed coverage of:

monitoring for harmful substances in the workplace
the benefits and limitations of testing for critical levels of toxic materials in bodily tissues and fluids
state-of-the-art developments in biological monitoring
a wide variety of toxic chemicals and selected physical agents
immunoassays
monitoring for HIV and AIDS
importance of exposure routes
the most up-to-date methods of health and medical surveillance
the interpretation of adduct concentrations
biological exposure indices
biological monitoring of pesticides
biological monitoring in the home and around hazardous waste sites
and much more

This essential, compelling guide is the only inclusive and thorough introduction available. Biological Monitoring's rigorous, accessible, interdisciplinary approach makes this an invaluable reference and text for industrial and environmental hygienists, physicians, pharmacists, nurses, epidemiologists, toxicologists, laboratory technicians, chemical engineers, science graduate students, and the environmentally concerned.

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Introduction to Environmental Virology
Gabriel Bitton
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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Microbiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Skinner's Drift: A Novel
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an authentic vivid picture of south africa

Very disappointing

A tale for all of us

An intriguing debut novel about the struggles of identity and finding a sense of home

Great read

Skinner's Drift: A Novel
Lisa Fugard
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0743273338

Book Description

Ten years after leaving South Africa, Eva van Rensburg returns to her dying father, a violent stuttering man whose terrible secret Eva has kept since she was a child, and to Skinner's Drift, the family farm, a tough stretch of land on the Limpopo River where jackals and leopards still roam.

In this beautiful, brave, and extraordinarily moving first novel, Lisa Fugard paints a haunting portrait of a young woman coming to terms with her family's violent past as her homeland, South Africa, confronts its own bloody history. Fugard moves with extraordinary agility between intimate and revelatory domestic scenes and the fiercely challenging land, "like the ravaged hide of some ancient beast." This is a powerful story from a stunning new writer.

Download Description

"Ten years after leaving South Africa, the country of her birth and the place where her mother died, Eva van Rensburg returns to her dying father, a violent man whose terrible secret Eva has kept since she was a child. In this beautiful first novel, Lisa Fugard paints a haunting portrait of a family careering toward disaster. She vividly describes the isolation of Eva's rebellious and lonely English mother; the desperation of her Afrikaner father as drought destroys his farm; the conflicts among the black farmworkers as the younger generation questions the loyalty and subservience of their elders; and the dangerous silence of a young girl who witnesses too much. Like Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee, Fugard has written a profoundly moving family drama, subtly set against the backdrop of a country in turmoil. She moves with extraordinary agility between intimate and revelatory domestic scenes and the fiercely challenging land. This is a powerful story from a stunning new writer.

Customer Reviews:

an authentic vivid picture of south africa.......2007-08-23

i cannot praise this book highly enough for the wonderful and powerful picture of south africa it draws. she manages to capture the essence of life on a south african farm, the people in the rural community, both farmers and labourers, the land itself, master servant relations, the apartheid era, the truth and reconciliation era, the experience of being an expat and returning to africa, drought, young boys on military service, and on and on. some of the scenes she creates are so very true to life, they hit me in the gut. the servants being forgotten by the roadside the day of funeral and waiting for hours in the sun, still expecting and hoping to be picked up by one of the baas's friends, driving around farm roads at night looking for animals, the careless gun accident, the freedom fighter hiding in the donga and being taken food by a fearful young black woman, fugard gets it all right somehow. if you want to experience south africa in all its beauty and strength and tragedy and pain, this is a great book to read.

Very disappointing.......2006-07-14

This book is very disappointing. The writing is not particularly good, only some of the characters are credible and the plot is weak. The ending is terribly disappointing - it just seemed to stop when she ran out of ideas. Don't bother. There are much better books to read.

A tale for all of us.......2006-06-15

I have spent much time in Africa, some of it on the banks of the Limpopo where much of this story takes place. Others have summarized the plot. I urge people to read this book for its insight into Africa, its poignant study of apartheid from both sides of skin color but also from the myriad sides of the emotions and feelings of those who were there. It is also a book about regret, mistakes, going home and not wanting to and about the way we all move towards dust. The treatment of love, physical, emotional, love of people, horses, dogs, animals and place are brilliantly rendered. I could smell the bush of Africa in these pages and feel the way in which the characters read each others emotions, not through the words spoken, but through faces, bodies and movement. A tour de force - well done Lisa.

An intriguing debut novel about the struggles of identity and finding a sense of home.......2006-03-09

In Lisa Fugard's debut novel, SKINNER'S DRIFT, a prodigal daughter returns to her father's farm in Africa for the first time in ten years. Eva van Rensburg fled not only the farm, but her country and her relationship with her father after her mother was accidentally shot and killed. For Eva, South Africa is a place of contradictions, and she must confront them and her relationship to her family and her history as her father's health fails and she is called home.

Skinner's Drift is Martin van Rensburg's farm along the Limpopo River, which forms the border with Botswana. The Afrikaner van Rensburg settles his English wife and their daughter there and begins to carve a life in the dusty hills. Eva feels isolated by her mother's Englishness and later by her father's intensity and violence. Martin is a man fiercely proud of his heritage and his land, humbled only by the stutter that slows his tongue. His wife Lorraine loves the farm at first but comes to resent its hold on her husband and the harsh conditions of life there. Eva and her father share a special bond until one night a hunt turns disastrous. She spends the rest of her time on Skinner's Drift trying to atone for her father's crime and eventually, when her mother dies, leaving her father, the farm, and South Africa for America.

When Eva returns, at her aunt's request, she believes she is coming home to bury her father. The political and social changes that had begun before she left have transformed South Africa into a place unfamiliar to her in some ways. It is 1997 and apartheid is over, but the damage on the culture and people remains. Still, the landscape and many of the faces welcome Eva home. When she finally visits Skinner's Drift she finds Lefu, an African farmhand employed by her father, still working the land and the bond she shares with him is still strong. However, he has learned of the secret she has been keeping all these years about what happened that night while hunting with her father, and he has shared it with his grandson Mpho.

Can Eva come to terms with her past, with her identity, and with the realities of her homeland? Can she forgive her father and herself? Will she begin to understand the depths of her mother's loneliness? Fugard's lovely novel centers on these questions. Although her literary devices are expected (flashbacks, diary entries, family secrets), they don't feel stale or contrived. Fugard's style is fresh and readable, and her characters are frustratingly real. The isolation and tension as well as the natural beauty of Skinner's Drift come alive with the author's descriptions.

Eva is not always an easy character to like. Her sadness and pain are obstacles, and she comes across as smug or uncaring at times. But this is in keeping with Fugard's realism, a realism not untouched by poetry and a romantic streak. By far the most notable characters are Lefu and his family, his daughter Nkele, and her son Mpho. They are an interesting parallel and contrast to the van Rensburgs.

SKINNER'S DRIFT is dramatic and immensely readable. While not wholly original in content, Fugard's style saves the book from being ordinary. Eva's shame and her confusion about home and identity are wonderfully set against the fraught background of South Africa in the 1980s. Fugard nicely captures the tensions of her very real setting as well as those inside her fictional characters.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

Great read.......2006-03-06

I enjoyed this book from the first page - terrific writing, character descriptions and totally engrossing. I especially liked the way the author went back and forth in time and gave the reading reflections from the narrator.

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