Focusing On Fundamentals

To succeed in today’s hypercompetitive economy, managers must master creating a productive work environment for employees while still making numbers. Tense, overextended workplaces force managers to choose between results and relationships. Executives set aggressive goals, so managers drive their teams to deliver, resulting in burnout. Or, employees seek connection and support, so managers focus on relationships and fail to make the numbers. However, managers need to achieve both. In Winning Well, managers will learn how to: Stamp out the corrosive win-at-all-costs mentality Focus on the game, not just the score Reinforce behaviors that produce results Sustain energy and momentum Be the leader people want to work for To prevent burnout and disengagement, while still achieving the necessary success for the company, managers must learn how to get their employees productive while creating an environment that makes them want to produce even more. Winning Well offers a quick, practical action plan for making the workplace productive, rewarding, and even fun.

Self-focusing has been an area of active scientific investigation for nearly 50 years. This book presents a comprehensive treatment of this topic and reviews both theoretical and experimental investigations of self-focusing. This book should be of interest to scientists and engineers working with lasers and their applications. From a practical point of view, self-focusing effects impose a limit on the power that can be transmitted through a material medium. Self-focusing also can reduce the threshold for the occurrence of other nonlinear optical processes. Self-focusing often leads to damage in optical materials and is a limiting factor in the design of high-power laser systems. But it can be harnessed for the design of useful devices such as optical power limiters and switches. At a formal level, the equations for self-focusing are equivalent to those describing Bose-Einstein condensates and certain aspects of plasma physics and hydrodynamics. There is thus a unifying theme between nonlinear optics and these other disciplines. One of the goals of this book is to connect the extensive early literature on self-focusing, filament-ation, self-trapping, and collapse with more recent studies aimed at issues such as self-focusing of fs pulses, white light generation, and the generation of filaments in air with lengths of more than 10 km. It also describes some modern advances in self-focusing theory including the influence of beam nonparaxiality on self-focusing collapse. This book consists of 24 chapters. Among them are three reprinted key landmark articles published earlier. It also contains the first publication of the 1964 paper that describes the first laboratory observation of self-focusing phenomena with photographic evidence.

From the author of the award-winning Moth Smoke comes a perspective on love, prejudice, and the war on terror that has never been seen in North American literature. At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with a suspicious, and possibly armed, American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting. . . Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by Underwood Samson, an elite firm that specializes in the “valuation” of companies ripe for acquisition. He thrives on the energy of New York and the intensity of his work, and his infatuation with regal Erica promises entrée into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore. For a time, it seems as though nothing will stand in the way of Changez’s meteoric rise to personal and professional success. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and perhaps even love. Elegant and compelling, Mohsin Hamid’s second novel is a devastating exploration of our divided and yet ultimately indivisible world. “Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services as a bridge.” —from The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Teachers are bombarded with advice about how to teach. The Fundamentals of Teaching cuts through the confusion by synthesising the key findings from education research and neuroscience to give an authoritative guide. It reveals how learning happens, which methods work best and how to improve any students’ learning. Using a tried-and-tested, Five-Step model for applying the methods effectively in the classroom, Mike Bell shows how you can improve learning and eliminate time-consuming, low-effect practices that increase stress and workload. He includes case studies from teachers working across different subjects and age groups which model practical strategies for: Prior Knowledge Presenting new material Setting challenging tasks Feedback and improvement Repetition and consolidation. This powerful resource is highly recommended for all teachers, school leaders and trainee teachers who want to benefit from the most effective methods in their classrooms.

Learn the fundamendamentals of shooting up close with this new addition to the Focus On series

Sharing your kitchen concoctions on your personal food blog has never been as popular as it is right now, but if you've ever had trouble getting your tasty temptations to look like pretty plates on camera, you know how difficult it can be to take amazing pictures of food. Matt Armendariz, of Mattbites food blog fame, shares his experiences and best practices for creating wonderful food photos in Focus On Food Photography for Bloggers. Written specifically for you the blogger, Matt discusses the ins and outs of equipment, lighting, composition, propping, sparking your inspiration, and getting creative, all with what you have on hand at home! Learn how to avoid common pitfalls with foods that are notoriously camera shy, how to successfully snap your dinner at a restaurant as well as on your kitchen table, and how to style your food with what you have in your cupboards. He also includes advice on post-processing, posting, and protecting your prized images. As well as on his blog, Matt's photography has been featured in The Skinny Bitch Cookbook, on Martha Stewart, Paula Deen's Best Dishes, and Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen, along with numerous food magazines and newspapers. Let this seasoned blogger give your food photography the boost it needs to really make your readers salivate!

Learn practical, yet powerful strategies for focusing! A perfect introduction that teaches individuals specific ways to become mindful and aware of internal and external distractions. Train Your Brain: Five FUNdaMENTALS for Focusing is: *A practical, yet powerful group of strategies that promote strategic thinking for lifelong learning! *The best resource for anyone desiring to deliberately focus their attention and stay actively engaged! *Provides a great springboard for understanding metacognition! *A must-have for parents, educators and anyone interested in improving their focusing abilities! Everyone is impacted by the "mass distractions" of the 21st century. This whimsical picture book guides readers through five unique fundamentals that are foundational building blocks to overcome daily distractions. Whether you are a child or an adult, every reader will benefit from explicitly learning the Five FUNdaMENTALS for Focusing!