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Books: Text Books: Materials Science Engineering
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Scienceby Atul Gawande List Price: $13.00 Available from Amazon $10.01 On 7-21-2006 
See Item's Page Product Review Gently dismantling the myth of medical infallibility, Dr. Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is essential reading for anyone involved in medicine--on either end of the stethoscope. medical professionals make mistakes, learn on the job, and improvise much of their technique and self-confidence. Gawande's tales are humane and passionate reminders that doctors are people, too. His prose is thoughtful and deeply engaging, shifting from sometimes painful stories of suffering patients (including his own child) to intriguing suggestions for improving medicine with the same care he expresses in the surgical theater. Some of his ideas will make health care providers nervous or even angry, but his disarming style, confessional tone, and thoughtful arguments should win over most readers. Complications is a book with heart and an excellent bedside manner, celebrating rather than berating doctors for being merely human. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly Medicine reveals itself as a fascinatingly complex and "fundamentally human endeavor" in this distinguished debut essay collection by a surgical resident and staff writer for the New Yorker. Gawande, a former Rhodes scholar and Harvard medical School graduate, illuminates "the moments in which medicine actually happens," and describes his profession as an "enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line." Gawande's background in philosophy and ethics is evident throughout these pieces, which range from edgy accounts of medical traumas to sobering analyses of doctors' anxieties and burnout. With humor, sensitivity and critical intelligence, he explores the pros and cons of new technologies, including a controversial factory model for routine surgeries that delivers superior success rates while dramatically cutting costs. He also describes treatment of such challenging conditions as morbid obesity, chronic pain and necrotizing fasciitis the often-fatal condition caused by dreaded "flesh-eating bacteria" and probes the agonizing process by which physicians balance knowledge and intuition to make seemingly impossible decisions. What draws practitioners to this challenging profession, he concludes, is the promise of "the alterable moment the fragile but crystalline opportunity for one's know-how, ability or just gut instinct to change the course of another's life for the better." These exquisitely crafted essays, in which medical subjects segue into explorations of much larger themes, place Gawande among the best in the field. National author tour. Copyright 2002 Cahners business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. |
Civil PE Sample Examinationby Michael R. Lindeburg List Price: $60.00 Available from Amazon $37.80 On 7-21-2006 
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Benchmarks for Science Literacy (Benchmarks for Science Literacy, Project 2061)by American Association for the Advancement of Science Available from Amazon $29.95 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page From Library Journal Benchmarks is a companion volume to the acclaimed Science for All Americans (Oxford Univ. Pr., 1990), which told us what it means to be science-literate. Intended for educators at levels K-12, Science told "what" while Benchmarks tells "how." The result of a four-year, grass-roots project developed by six teams of educators across the United States, Benchmarks is not an actual curriculum but a "tool" for teachers to use in designing curriculum that fits local needs, calls upon their imagination, and meets the grade-level standards set in Science. It is anticipated that, as a "developing product," Benchmarks will always be changing. This first printing guides teachers in meeting "thresholds" in achieving the important goal of creating science-literate adults, who can think "critically and independently" in this increasingly complex world. Essential for all school libraries. - Diane M. Fortner, Univ. of California Lib., Berkeley Copyright 1993 Reed business Information, Inc. Book Description Published to glowing praise in 1990, Science for All Americans defined the science-literate American--describing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes all students should retain from their learning experience--and offered a series of recommendations for reforming our system of education in science, mathematics, and technology. Benchmarks for Science Literacy takes this one step further. Created in close consultation with a cross-section of American teachers, administrators, and scientists, Benchmarks elaborates on the recommendations to provide guidelines for what all students should know and be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology by the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12. These grade levels offer reasonable checkpoints for student progress toward science literacy, but do not suggest a rigid formula for teaching. Benchmarks is not a proposed curriculum, nor is it a plan for one: it is a tool educators can use as they design curricula that fit their student's needs and meet the goals first outlined in Science for All Americans. Far from pressing for a single educational program, Project 2061 advocates a reform strategy that will lead to more curriculum diversity than is common today. IBenchmarks emerged from the work of six diverse school-district teams who were asked to rethink the K-12 curriculum and outline alternative ways of achieving science literacy for all students. These teams based their work on published research and the continuing advice of prominent educators, as well as their own teaching experience. Focusing on the understanding and interconnection of key concepts rather than rote memorization of terms and isolated facts, Benchmarks advocates building a lasting understanding of science and related fields. In a culture increasingly pervaded by science, mathematics, and technology, science literacy require habits of mind that will enable citizens to understand the world around them, make some sense of new technologies as they emerge and grow, and deal sensibly with problems that involve evidence, numbers, patterns, logical arguments, and technology--as well as the relationship of these disciplines to the arts, humanities, and vocational sciences--making science literacy relevant to all students, regardless of their career paths. If Americans are to participate in a world shaped by modern science and mathematics, a world where technological know-how will offer the keys to economic and political stability in the twenty-first century, education in these areas must become one of the nation's highest priorities. Together with Science for All Americans, Benchmarks for Science Literacy offers a bold new agenda for the future of science education in this country, one that is certain to prepare our children for life in the twenty-first century. |
Fundamentals of Ceramics (Series in Materials Science and Engineering)by M.W BARSOUM Available from Amazon $55.00 On 7-21-2006 
See Item's Page Product Review We have been using this text for our juniors ever since its first publication. While the focus of the text is ceramics, the treatment of the kinetics of materials process is highly understandable and easily applied to other materials systems. It is an excellent introduction to mass transport and phase transformations in materials. - Professor Lisa C. Klein, Ceramic and Materials Engineering, Rutgers, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA Updated and improved, this revised edition present readers with an exceptionally clear and comprehensive introduction to ceramic science. |
Handbook of Energy Engineering (5th Edition)by Thumann Available from Amazon $139.95 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page Book Description This comprehensive reference guides readers step-by-step in applying the principles of energy engineering and management to the design of electrical, HVAC, utility, process, and building systems for both new and retrofit projects. Detailed presentations cover electrical system optimization, lighting and lighting controls, thermal storage, cogeneration, HVAC system optimization, HVAC and building controls, and computer technologies. The fifth edition includes a new chapter covering codes, standards, and legislation, as well as a new chapter on compressed air systems. The text is thoroughly illustrated with tables, graphs, diagrams, and sample problems with worked-out solutions. Book Info (The Fairmont Press, Inc.) Comprehensive reference of energy engineering, offering a chapter on codes, standards and legislation and a chapter on compressed air. Guides the reader through the application of principles of energy engineering in the design of HVAC, electrical, utility, process and building systems. DLC: Power resources--Handbooks, manuals, etc. |
Introduction To Composite Materials Design (Materials Science and Engineering Series)by Barbero Available from Amazon $84.95 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page Book Description Emphasizes the practicality of design, not only through numerical examples, but also through explanations of the material. Provides the main tools used for preliminary design of composites, and covers all design aspects. DLC: Composite materials - Mechanical properties. Book Info Emphasizes the practicality of design, not only through numerical examples, but also through explanations of the material. Provides the main tools used for preliminary design of composites, & covers all design aspects. DLC: Composite materials - Mechanical properties. |
Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World Revisedby Margaret J. Wheatley List Price: $19.95 Available from Amazon $12.97 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page Product Review When Margaret J. Wheatley's Leadership and the New Science was initially published in 1992, it outlined an unquestionably unique but extremely challenging view of change, leadership, and the structure of groups. Many readers immediately embraced its cutting-edge perspective, but others just could not understand how the complicated scientific tenets it described could be used to reshape institutions. Now Wheatley, an organizational specialist who has since coauthored A Simpler Way, updates the original by including additional material (such as an epilogue addressing her personal experiences during the past decade) and reconstructing some of her more challenging concepts. The result is a much clearer work that first explores the implications of quantum physics on organizational practice, then investigates ways that biology and chemistry affect living systems, and finally focuses on chaos theory, the creation of a new order, and the manner that scientific principles affect leadership. "Our old ways of relating to each other don't support us any longer," she writes. "It is up to us to journey forth in search of new practices and new ideas that will enable us to create lives and organizations worthy of human habitation." --Howard Rothman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From AudioFile In this revised edition of her 1992 book, Wheatley provides an overview of some dramatic changes in scientific thought, such as chaos theory and quantum physics, and then applies those theories to organizations. What kind of organizations? Organizations of all sizes and shapes and business. Wheatley reads her work competently, in a controlled, even voice. Her straightforward presentation offers few distractions and is easy listening. She integrates the theoretical with a range of practical examples from many of the organizations she has worked with. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. |
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrongby James W. Loewen List Price: $16.00 Available from Amazon $10.08 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page From Publishers Weekly Sociology professor Loewen lambastes history textbooks as both too inaccurate and too bland to engage students. Copyright 1996 Reed business Information, Inc. From Booklist When textbook gaffes make news, as with the tome that explained that the Korean War ended when Truman dropped the atom bomb, the expeditious remedy would be to fire the editor. Loewen would rather hire a new team of authors bent on the pursuit of context instead of factoids. In Loewen's ideal text, events and people illuminating the multicultural holy trinity of race, gender, and social class would predominate over the fixation on heroes and acts of government. Such is the mood adopted throughout this critique of 12 American history texts in current use. Vetting 10 topics they commonly address--from the Pilgrims to the Vietnam War--Loewen bewails a long train of alleged omissions and distortions. To account for the deplorable situation, he offers this quasi-Marxist explanation: "Perhaps we are all dupes, manipulated by elite white male capitalists who orchestrate how history is written as part of their scheme to perpetuate their own power and privilege at the expense of the rest of us." Certainly students' appalling ignorance of history is troublesome, and broken families and excessive TV viewing are at least the equals of white male conspirators as the cause. However, libraries located where dissatisfaction with textbooks exists should be interested in Loewen's critique. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. |
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