This brief, reader-friendly guide focuses on the kinds of persuasion employed by business people in their day-to-day work. It considers such factors... as organizational relationships and culture, and the context of every persuasive act of communication. KEY TOPICS Specific chapter topics cover developing your argument, checking your logic, analyzing your audience, motivating your audience, studying the organization, and considering the intercultural environment. For managers and assistant managers—and anyone responsible for a staff—who needs to communicate in a persuasive and compelling way.

Exploring how to effectively communicate with the media, this book offers readers a practical and concise guide to all aspects of media relations... while examining the media's pervasive presence and influence on business. This First Edition covers a plethora of topics including how to establish ongoing relationships with reporters, managing media relations during a crisis, preparing for interviews and identifying important media contacts, and how to differentiate between financial media and mainstream media. For professionals with a career in corporate communications, public relations, media and business relations, management communications, crisis management, and integrated marketing communications.

Medical billing is one of the fastest-growing employment opportunities in the United States today.  Insurance companies, medical offices, hospitals and... other health care providers are in great need of trained personnel to create medical claims.  This book will ensure learning the skills necessary to become a  successful medical claims biller.  It is presented in a comprehensive, yet user friendly way, following a logical learning format beginning with a broad base of information and then, step by step, following the course for creation of a medical claim.   This book teaches the skills necessary to become a well-rounded medical biller.  By completing this course of study with a satisfactory grade, the user will be granted a certificate and can have the opportunity to work towards an "Honors Certificate", which is even more valuable to a potential employer.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of medical image analysis. Practical in approach, the text is uniquely structured by potential applications.... Features: presents learning objectives, exercises and concluding remarks in each chapter, in addition to a glossary of abbreviations; describes a range of common imaging techniques, reconstruction techniques and image artefacts; discusses the archival and transfer of images, including the HL7 and DICOM standards; presents a selection of techniques for the enhancement of contrast and edges, for noise reduction and for edge-preserving smoothing; examines various feature detection and segmentation techniques, together with methods for computing a registration or normalisation transformation; explores object detection, as well as classification based on segment attributes such as shape and appearance; reviews the validation of an analysis method; includes appendices on Markov random field optimization, variational calculus and principal component analysis.

Stephen Van Evera greeted new graduate students at MIT with a commonsense introduction to qualitative methods in the social sciences. His helpful hints,... always warmly received, grew from a handful of memos to an underground classic primer. That primer evolved into a book of how-to information about graduate study, which is essential reading for graduate students and undergraduates in political science, sociology, anthropology, economics, and history - and for their advisers.-How should we frame, assess, and apply theories in the social sciences? "I am unpersuaded by the view that the prime rules of scientific method should differ between hard science and social science. Science is science."-A section on case studies shows novices the ropes.-Van Evera contends the realm of dissertations is often defined too narrowly "Making and testing theories are not the only games in town. . . . If everyone makes and tests theories but no one ever uses them, then what are they for?"-In "Helpful Hints on Writing a Political Science Ph.D. Dissertation," Van Evera focuses on presentation, and on broader issues of academic strategy and tactics.-Van Evera asks how political scientists should work together as a community. "All institutions and professions that face weak accountability need inner ethical rudders that define their obligations in order to stay on course."

Learn virtualization with the latest Microsoft software products! This innovative new text takes virtualization to the next level by showing how it is... used to build demonstration networks. The use of current technology, such as Windows Vista, Virtual PC 2007, Windows Server 2008, and Virtual Server 2005, guarantees that readers will be prepared for today's workplace. They will also learn to use VMRCplus, the alternate user interface for Virtual Server 2005. Extensive activities and exercises in each chapter provide ample opportunity for hands-on practice.

A detailed and extensively illustrated handbook. The colors, shapes and properties of minerals vary from the bland to the magnificent. Guide to... Minerals, Rocks and Fossils is a practical and authoritative handbook that is both comprehensive and easy to use. Each of the 600 specimens is shown in full color, sometimes in two or more forms. There are also drawings that show the structure of the crystalline specimens. It covers the basics like granite, as well as oddities like meteorites and tektites. Fossils include sponges, corals, arthropods, brachiopods, and fossil land plants. Each is described in detail, with notes on: color and transparency grain size hardness structure occurrence mineralogy distinguishing features habit cleavage texture alteration luster Mineral names, chemical formulae and structural data accord to international standards. This is a very complete, but attractive and useful volume in a respected series. (20050813)

Since it was first published in 1992, The Guide to Money & Investing has been the one of the most widely read primers on financial markets and... products. A favorite among novice and active investors, financial professionals, business schools, and students, the guide is both an introduction to and reliable resource for understanding the world of finance. Written from an investor’s perspective, in straight-forward language combined with engaging and often illuminating graphics, the guide clearly explains how the financial markets work, how capital is created, and how money constantly changes in value. It describes traditional financial products—stocks, bonds, and mutual funds—as well as ETFs, options, and futures contracts, and introduces alternatives such as hedge funds and forex. If you want to understand what you read or hear in the financial news every day and how what's happening affects your own investment portfolio, the Guide to Money & Investing is a must-read. Whether or not you work with a financial adviser, you’ll find that the guide is invaulable in thinking through your investment choices. The Guide to Money & Investing is easy to read but not dumbed-down, comprehensive but not mired in detail. You’ll enjoy the wit and humor, the colorful graphics, and the memorable explanations. If you have only one investment guide on your shelf or on your mobile, this is the one to have.Content includes topics on: Capital Markets, Market Regulation, Role of the SEC, Global Capital Markets, International Investing, The Federal Reserve System, Stock Markets, Evaluating Companies, Buying on Margin, Selling Short, Market Cycles, Fundamental and Technical Analysis, Clearance and Settlement, Securitization, Rating Bonds, Bond Prices, Buying and Selling Bonds, Indexes as Benchmarks, Index Mutual Funds, Exchange Traded Funds, Evaluating Mutual Funds, Fund performance, Mutual Fund Fees, International Funds, Options Trading, Options Strategies, Index Options, Researching Options, Futures: Derivative Products, Futures Contracts, Hedge Funds, Private Equity Investment, Real Estate Investment Trusts, Alternative Investments, and more.

Guide to Network Defense and Countermeasures, 2E is the second of two books that are required for Level One of the Security Certified Program (SCP).... This edition has been revised with updated content and maps clearly to the exam objectives for the current Security Certified Network Professional (SCNP) exam. Although the primary emphasis is on intrusion detection, the book also covers such essential practices as developing a security policy and then implementing that policy by performing Network Address Translation, setting up packet filtering, and installing proxy servers, firewalls, and virtual private networks.

Guide to Networking Essentials, Fifth Edition has been revised and provides a baseline level of knowledge for success in industry and preparation for... networking certifications, including the MCSA, MCSE, CNA and CCNA designations. This new edition has been updated to cover new industry topics such as Networked Attached Storage (NAS), Cable Installation and Management, as well as, Fixed and Mobile WiMAX. Written with a focus on networking operating systems, this book continues to provide up-to-date coverage of Microsoft Windows XP and Server 2003 technologies along with UNIX, Red Hat Linux, and Novell Netware operating systems.

GUIDE TO NETWORKING ESSENTIALS provides both the knowledge and hands-on skills necessary to work with network operating systems in a network... administration environment. By focusing on troubleshooting and not on an exam, this book offers a comprehensive introduction to Networking and to advances in software, wireless and network security. Labs are directly integrated in each chapter to allow for a hands-on experience in the classroom. Updated content reflects the latest networking technology and operating systems including Windows 7/Server 2008 and Linux. Proven pedagogy and comprehensive, non-exam-focused format provides a compelling introduction to network administration.

GUIDE TO NETWORK SECURITY is a wide-ranging new text that provides a detailed review of the network security field, including essential terminology, the... history of the discipline, and practical techniques to manage implementation of network security solutions. It begins with an overview of information, network, and web security, emphasizing the role of data communications and encryption. The authors then explore network perimeter defense technologies and methods, including access controls, firewalls, VPNs, and intrusion detection systems, as well as applied cryptography in public key infrastructure, wireless security, and web commerce. The final section covers additional topics relevant for information security practitioners, such as assessing network security, professional careers in the field, and contingency planning. Perfect for both aspiring and active IT professionals, GUIDE TO NETWORK SECURITY is an ideal resource for readers who want to help organizations protect critical information assets and secure their systems and networks, both by recognizing current threats and vulnerabilities, and by designing and developing the secure systems of the future.