Product Description

During the course of any sporting event, critical cognitive and physical tasks are performed within a dynamic, complex, collaborative system comprising multiple humans and artifacts, under pressurized, complex, and rapidly changing conditions. Highly skilled, well-trained individuals walk a fine line between task success and failure, with only slightly inadequate task execution leading to the latter. Promoting cross-disciplinary interaction between the human factors and sports science disciplines, Human Factors Methods and Sports Science: A Practical Guide provides practical guidance on a range of methods for describing, representing, and evaluating human, team, and system performance in sports domains.

Traditionally, the application of human factors and ergonomics methods in sports has focused on the biomechanical, physiological, environmental, and equipment-related aspects of sports performance. However, various human factors methods, applied historically in the complex safety critical domains, are suited to describing and understanding sports performance. This book delineates the similarities in the concepts requiring investigation within sports and the more typical human factors domains. The book’s focus on cognitive and social human factors methods rather than mainly on the application of physiological ergonomics approaches sets it apart from other books in either field. It covers eight categories of human factor methods: data collection, task analysis, cognitive task analysis, human error identification, situation awareness measurement, workload measurement, team performance assessment, and interface evaluation methods.

Constructed so that each chapter can be read non-linearly and independently from one another, the book provides an introduction and overview to each Human Factors topic area, and of each method discussed, along with practical guidance on how to apply them. It also includes detailed descriptions of the different methods, example applications, and theoretical rationale. This allows the concepts to be easily found and digested, and the appropriate method to be easily selected and applied.

Product Description
Replete with the coming of age insights and leadership lessons that have made books like Platoon Leader perennial favorites, Jungle Dragoon delivers an exciting story of living on the edge, living in battle. ... Read more

Product Description
Remember Little Bighorn, maintains the momentum of this award-winning National Geographic series, which continues to set new standards in nonfiction history books for middle-grade students.

Author Paul Robert Walker draws on scores of eyewitness accounts of the Battle of the Little Bighorn from Indians, soldiers, and scouts, measuring their testimony against the archaeological evidence to separate fact from fiction. From this wide kaleidoscope of testimony, the author focuses his narrative into an objective and balanced account of one of the most contentious chapters of American history.

Covering the core curriculum topics of Westward Expansion and the Indian Wars, Walker's text is a vivid and timely historical narrative to mark the 130th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 2006.

Readers first learn about events preceding the fighting, including the discovery of gold on Indian land in the Black Hills, the refusal by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other Indian leaders to obey a government order to live on the Great Sioux Reservation, and the subsequent battle in Rosebud Valley.The narrative evolves to the three major clashes known collectively as the Battle of the Little Bighorn: the attack by Major Reno on Sitting Bull's village, the "Custer Massacre" in which Crazy Horse and more than a thousand warriors wipe out George Armstrong Custer and his immediate command, and the final battle on Reno Hill, which culminates in the victorious Sioux and Cheyenne setting fire to the grass and moving up the river.

The afterword explains how the greatest Indian victory only hastened their final defeat, as news of Custer's fate enflamed public opinion and led Congress to give control of all Sioux agencies to the Army. Readers learn how Sioux rations were cut off until native claims to the Black Hills and Montana hunting grounds were renounced.

In the finest National Geographic tradition, the book illuminates this controversial period in American history with extensive use of primary sources. Some 50 archival images are included, several by Native Americans, plus a map showing troop and Indian movement. Remember Little Bighorn also features a comprehensive time line of Indian Wars, web sites, student-friendly resources, and a quick-reference index that make it an ideal source for writing reports. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Remember Little Bighorn: Indians, Soldiers, and Scouts Tell Their Stories
A differing view of the Battle of Little Bighorn using period works to contrast differing views.Excellent read.

Long Overdue Children's Book About the Battle of the Little Bighorn
It is a common held belief that writing a children's book is easy. In actual fact, it is one of the most complex forms of writing. Tracey E. Dils in her book, You Can Write Children's Books states, "Because of the special nature of this audience...most writers find that writing for children is as challenging or more challenging than writing for other audiences." What could be more challenging than writing on the subject of the Battle of the Little Bighorn for children?

A young reader's book about the battle is long overdue, so it appears that National Geographic has filled that gap with Paul Walker's Remember Little Bighorn. It also includes a thought-provoking introduction by the battlefields' chief historian, John Doerner.

Books like these have an opportunity to capture a child's imagination, stoke the fires of passion, and lead to further reading. That's exactly what happened to me when I was 14. I checked out of my school library Frazier Hunt's I Fought With Custer. Although not a children's book, it was a book that got me hooked on this story. Hunt related the battle through survivor Charles Windolph, and told a dramatic story of the struggle between life and death. I still remember how I felt when Reno's soldiers were retreating across the Little Bighorn; I quickly realized that fighting Indians was nothing like in the movies.

I believe that Remember Little Bighorn will inspire young readers, like Hunt's book, to read further on this subject. Remember Little Bighorn is written for ages 10 and up. It's amazing how well Walker has taken such a huge and complex story as the Battle of the Little Bighorn and sculpted it into a short, precise narrative. Walker understands the most important points, and none of his chosen topics space is wasted. There is plenty of drama mostly told through soldier and Indian accounts. There is no sensationalism here; young readers are more sophisticated than we realize.

Most importantly, Walker succeeds where many adult books fail; he masters his subject in just 61 short pages, while some authors can't even come close with 610. You'll discover an honest portrayal of George Armstrong Custer and the U. S. Army, as well as Plains Indian life. No officer becomes a scapegoat for failure, and there is not just one warrior who saves the day. What your young reader will experience is gritty warfare between human beings who became sadly wrapped up in a lost cause.

Although there are minor errors such as the warriors leaving Reno's fight to challenge Custer by charging south instead of north, the errors are very few. Instead, we enjoy a powerful narrative that I'm confident will inspire your child or grandchild to ask further questions.

The book is packed with exceptional graphics (could we expect less from National Geographic), high quality photographs (many provided by Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield member Glen Swanson), and easy to follow colorful maps. You'll find Indian drawings of the battle, Martin Pate paintings, Private Windolph's Medal of Honor, and many photos of the participants from both sides.

The Epilogue includes a detailed "Time Line of Battles for Indian Land" that I predict you will use as a reference for your own future study. This time line is divided into three segments; 1.) "Selected Battles, Treaties, and Other Key Events 1607-1789", 2.) 1790-1849, and 3.) 1850-1890. There is a high-level time line for the Battle of the Little Bighorn as well.

Also included is a short but superb bibliography that will make your job a lot easier when your young reader asks what other books are available to investigate. Finally, there is a selected postscript for the principal players quoted in the book.

Remember Little Bighorn is a perfect addition to the plethora of books about the battle, though its flaws are minor and finally immaterial, its ability to capture the passion of young readers far surpasses earlier children's books on the same subject.

Note: Remember Little Bighorn: Indians, Soldiers, and Scouts Tell Their Stories is part of the "Remember" series produced by National Geographic. Other titles include: Remember Pearl Harbor: Japanese And American Survivors Tell Their Stories, Remember D-Day: Both Sides Tell Their Stories, and Remember World War II: Kids Who Survived Tell Their Stories.

You can read an interview with the author at the Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield website. ... Read more

Product Description

Whether used for aviation, manufacturing, oil and gas extraction, energy distribution, nuclear or fossil fuel power generation, surveillance or security, all control rooms share two common features. The people operating them are often remote from the processes that they are monitoring and controlling and the operations work 24/7. The twin demands of remote and continuous operation place special considerations on the design of central control rooms. Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Central Control Room Operations provides an analysis of Human Factors and Ergonomics in this complex area and the implications for control room staff. This information contained within this book can then be used to design, assessed and evaluate control rooms.

Taking an integrated approach to Human Factors and Ergonomics in the control room environment, the book presents fourteen human factors topics: competencies, training, procedures, communications, workload, automation, supervision, shift patterns, control room layout, SCADA interfaces, alarms, control room environment, human error, and safety culture. Although there are many resources available on each of these topics, this book the information together under one cover with a focus on central control room operations. Each chapter is self-contained and can be read in any order, as the information is required.

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent tome concerning the subject
This book covers the subject of human factors in central control room operations quite well.I have found it amusing to contrast the ideas with the control rooms I have seen.

Invaluable reference that can be used for the design, assessment, evaluation an operations of NOCs and SOCs
In aviation today, technically advanced airplanes present a unique paradox. Technically advanced airplanes, in theory, have more available safety, and the outcome should be that there are fewer accidents. But without proper training for their pilots, they could be less safe than airplanes with less available safety. The FAA found that without proper training for the pilots who fly them, technically advanced airplanes don't advance safety at all. The reason is that technically advanced airplanes present challenges that under-prepared pilots might not be equipped to handle.

In the IT world, staff members are often expected to install, configure, maintain and support technically advanced software. Companies often buy huge infrastructure software, such as CRM, ERP, PKI, identify management, intrusion detection and more, without first understanding how to make them work in their complex environment. Management often is oblivious to the fact that just because they can buy and install the software that it will not work on its own. The reason why so many large software deployments fail miserably is that the IT staff often doesn't have the proper training, support and assistance that they need.

Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Central Control Room Operations is a fantastic book that shows what it takes to ensure support staff work and operate together, in a formal and efficient manner. The book integrates the topics of human factors and ergonomics to create an incredibly valuable tome. The book details the interactions between people and their working environment, and shows in depth how the work environment can and must be designed to reduce errors, improve performance, improve the quality of work, and increase the work satisfaction of the workers themselves.

While the book was written primarily for control room settings, it is relevant for those in IT if they have any involvement in remote support, security operation centers (SOC) and network operation centers (NOC).

While the book is of value to anyone involved in operation, those who will find the most value are those charged with the management and operations or large groups or operations. If they have management support to deploy the formal methods detailed in the book, they will find that they can create significantly higher levels of customer and end-user satisfaction.

The authors note that all SOC and NOC's have a common feature in that the people operating them are often remote from the processes that they are monitoring and controlling, and the operations function on a 24/7 basis. The many demands of remote and continuous operation place special considerations on the design of the SOC and NOC. The output of the book is that it can be used to effectively to design these operating centers.

The books presents a comprehensive and all-inclusive on the topic of human factors on the following 14 topics: competencies, training, procedures, communications, workload, automation, supervision, shift patterns, control room layout, SCADA interfaces, alarms, control room environment, human error, and safety culture. Each chapter includes extensive diagrams and flowcharts to show how the processes develop.

The book also provides a highly analytical approach to each topic. It details the required processes and procedures necessary to make each subject area work. The book is not only based on the four author's expertise; they quote heavily from other experts and their research.

Chapter 2 opens with the observation that the safe and efficient operation of operating centers and control rooms is dependent upon the competence of the operators working within them. It details how to create competence assessments to ensure that staff is capable of carrying out their tasks safely and efficiently by assessing their skills and knowledge. The authors stress that it is not acceptable for organizations to assume that their staff are competent based on only their exposure to training and experience. They suggest that organizations create a program to determine those competence levels.

Chapter 3 goes into detail about how to create effective training programs to ensure worker competence. The benefit of a trained worked is that they can yield higher productivity and provide better service. Well-trained workers often have better morale and produce less errors. The chapter details the importance of a training needs analysis to properly determine what needs to be in the curriculum.

Chapter 4 is on procedures and is particularly important to those working in a SOC or NOC. If consistent and repeatable procedures are created, staff can provide much a more effective and dependable levels of service. Even with the benefits of well crafted procedures, its development process is a complex one involving the identification of all of the tasks that require procedures, a judgment on the level of assistance required, identification of the type or format of procedure required, writing and reviewing the procedures, and obtaining approval for them.

The importance of procedures is underscored when the book notes research that 70% of accidents and incidents within the nuclear power companies occurred when workers failed to properly follow procedures. In the petrochemical industry, 27% of incidents were caused by situations for which there were inadequate or no procedures available.

The percentage of failed IT projects and large software rollout catastrophes is both staggering and appalling. No other sector but IT would tolerate such failures. A book like as Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Central Control Room Operations goes a long way to stop that. The book is a rare one in that it both provides all of the factors involved in the problem at hand, and then provides all of the details needed to obviate those problems.
... Read more

Product Description
Recounts the famous Johnstown flood of 1889, which literally tore the clothes off people's backs, and explains why it happened and how it could have been prevented. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

great book!
This book is a great book with pictures and exitement! its about
a flood that nobody thought would happen lot of people survive but unfortunately others did not get the messege have fun reading -sindy

Johstown flood
I think that this is a very good story for anyone who wants to learn about the world around them. Although this story is very sad because thousands of people die. This story takes place in Johnstown,Pennsylvainia. So read this book, Read to Believe it: Head for the Hills; a miracules story of survival by Paul Robert,Gonzalez Vincente.

Head for the Hills
I liked this book because it was a true story. It happened in Johnstown,Pennsylvania on the day after Memorial Day in 1889. It was one of the worst floods anyone has ever experienced. I also liked this book because it had a lot of action unlike some other books I've read. For example, everybody was yelling and running because of the 20,000,000 tons of water that came from Lake Conemaugh after the dam broke. Eveything happened so quickly. It took less then 10 minutes from start to finish.

Head for the Hills
I would recommend this book to a friend because it tells about the history of one of the biggest floods. It happened in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on May 31,1889. More then 2,000 people died.

Head for the Hills!
I liked this book because it was historical and true. It was about the biggest flood in the United States history. It happened on Merch 31,1889.
I also liked the book because something nice came out of something sad. The sad thing is that 2,209 people died. The good thing is that the people of nearby Pittsburg helped Johnstown. From all over Pittsbrug they loaded up a train with supplies of blankets, canned food, fresh water, and other goods for the people left in Johnstown. ... Read more

Product Description
Encompassing folk traditions ranging from Europe to the Middle East, Africa, Hawaii, and the Pacific Northwest, a collection of seven folktales about giants includes ""The Giant Who Had No Heart"" and ""Kana and the Stretching Wonder,"" among others. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941,prisoner of war camps were being planned and developed in the United States. The U.S. Army was faced with the difficult assignment of finding locations for such camps, constructing the buildings, staffing the sites, and establishing military policies that followed the strictures of the Geneva Convention. Many of the POW camps were located in Texas, some the result of active campaigning by citizens to have camps built nearby for economic reasons.

This analysis of the Texas camps not only describes the logistics of holding thousands of captured German (and some Japanese and Italian) soldiers until World War II's end, but also offers an evaluation of the army's role in carrying out their assignment. The author has extensively considered all facets of the POW program in Texas: how camps were selected and constructed, how prisoners were treated, what routine camp life was like, what problems arose with pro-Nazi prisoners, and how civilians reacted to having 50,000 enemy prisoners in their state. ... Read more

Product Description
mythologies draws on myriad sources and cultures to profile such beings as Japan's brave one-inch-high Issun Boshi, Hawaii's hard-working Menehune, and Ireland's crafty leprechaun. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good thinking
Remember the stories your parents told you about black experiences, then this is the book for you.

A Nice Collection of Short Stories!
Langston Hughes provides an introduction into this selected anthology of short stories by prominent African American writers like Langston Hughes' himself with his classic short story, "Thank You, Mam." We also have a short story by poet Gwendolyn Brooks and dancer/choreographer Katherine Dunham. There are the traditional authors like Zora Neale Huston, James Baldwin, Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ralph Ellison, Ernest J. Gaines, Jean Toomer, and Richard Wright only to name a few. It's still a great anthology of assorted stories about African American life in America from the South to Chicago and New York.

The Best of The Best
This book is a collection of short stories that was put together by the great Harlem Renaissance writer, Langston Hughes. Some authors whose works are also featured in the book are Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker. These stories are fun to read and they speak about the current issues that Black America was facing during the time period. This book is for anyone who is trying to better understand black thought during the 20th century.

"The Best Short Stories by Black Writers" is a #1 classic!
This book is an excellent example of reality. In each short story, there is some kind of relivance of growing up in a nation filled with crime, love, kindenss, hardships, and friendships. The writers express themselvesso wonderfully, vivid pictures of the events are played in my head. Itkeeps middle-school children very attentive, mainly because they can easilyrelate to the troubles of growing up today. Teens can feel a sense ofcomfort in this book because they know they are not alone. This bookcontains collections by some of the best authors in the world. It reallymakes the african-american culture shine to where all cultures will enjoy! ... Read more

Product Description

When the medievals spoke of "last things" they were sometimes referring to events, such as the millennium or the appearance of the Antichrist, that would come to all of humanity or at the end of time. But they also meant the last things that would come to each individual separately—not just the place, Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory, to which their souls would go but also the accounting, the calling to reckoning, that would come at the end of life. At different periods in the Middle Ages one or the other of these sorts of "last things" tended to be dominant, but both coexisted throughout.

In Last Things, Caroline Walker Bynum and Paul Freedman bring together eleven essays that focus on the competing eschatologies of the Middle Ages and on the ways in which they expose different sensibilities, different theories of the human person, and very different understandings of the body, of time, of the end. Exploring such themes as the significance of dying and the afterlife, apocalyptic time, and the eschatological imagination, each essay in the volume enriches our understanding of the eschatological awarenesses of the European Middle Ages.

Product Description
The thirteen studies in this volume explore critical problems in Fatimid history and historiography, many specifically focused on the content of doctrinal writings produced by the Ismaili supporters and agents of this caliphate who worked on behalf of the dynasty both within the empire and outside. Several concern issues in disputes that separated the various factions of Medieval Islam and served to distinguish the Ismailis from the rest, often branding the Fatimids with the charge of heterodoxy. Others deal with the consequence of Shiite rule over a largely non-Shiite populace. Yet others involve the relationship between religious ideology and the administration of government.Among the themes featured in this collection there are separate investigations of institutions of learning, of succession to the imamate, the da'wa, the judiciary, relations with the Byzantines and with the Abbasids, and works on heresiography, doctrines of time and the accusation that the Ismailis upheld the metempsychosis of the human soul. The latter topics help to situate the Ismailis, and hence the Fatimids, within the broader context of Islamic thought. ... Read more

Product Description

A land of stunning scenery and startling contrasts, of deep canyons, jagged mountains, and blistering deserts, the Southwest is the most colorful of regions, geographically and historically. It contains more national parks and monuments than any other area of the United States, a measure of its extraordinary beauty and the equally extraordinary efforts to preserve it.

Paul Robert Walker’s ambitious chronological history gives readers a powerful sense of this unique region and the people—Indian, Hispanic, and Anglo—whose stories are etched into the earth. From Spanish invaders and their missions, the Santa Fe Trail, the Texas Revolution and the Mexican War, to Indian battles, gunslingers, land grabs, modern border issues, and nuclear research, Walker expertly assembles the story of the Southwest. In compelling prose, he evokes, as never before, the spirit of this corner of American from the ancient Pueblo and Hopi cultures to the New Southwest and the pressures the region faces from growth and scarcity of resources.

Illustrated with contemporary photographs of landscapes from New Mexico, Arizona, and California, to Utah, Colorado, and Texas by acclaimed photographer George H.H. Huey, The Southwest captures all the magic of this awe-inspiring land.

Customer Reviews (1)

A STUNNING PICTORIAL CHRONOLOGY
As we are reminded in this stunning pictorial chronology thereis little on our shores to rival the grand beauty and dramatic history of the Southwest. Photographer George H. H. Huey illustrates the volume with contemporary photos of landscapes from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Utah.

Presenting the stories of this region and its peoples - Indian, Hispanic and Anglo - the author begins with the Clovis people, who can be traced back some 13,000 years, and then he moves on to the Pueblo and Hopi tribes who found homes on in the mesas of Arizona.

Spanish and French missionaries and explorers also play a role in the area's rich cultural background.Among the first missionaries to pioneeer the Southwest were Eusebio Kino and Junipero Serra who traveled to California to convert the native peoples and claim land for the Spanish king.Expeditions from France were largely focused on Texas.

Perhaps most impressive of all is the recounting of William Becknell's forging of the Santa Fe Trail.

Walker brings the area to the present with nuclear research, contemporary border issues, unparalleled growth, and diminishing resources.

Both fascinating and edifying, "Gold, God & Grandeur" will be of interest to all Southwesterners.

- Gail Cooke ... Read more

Product Description
The seven mysterious creatures presented in this collection of stories have been described by scientists who search for hidden animals and by people who claim to have seen these "monsters". Engaging stories are accompanied by full-color and sepia illustrations and each story ends with current scientific research and speculation about each creature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Couldn't help myself
My 2nd grader grandson checked this out from his library and began reading me one of the stories while we were driving.We talked about the book and his opinion of it.He loved it! and I liked the story that he had read.Our library didn't have anything like it so I couldn't help myself...I bought it!NOTE:It is out of print.

Entertaining and educational
My nine-year-old son loves this book.He says, "I like it because you can learn about monsters from different countries.It has real information that scientists have found." I am buying it because wechecked it out of the library and he wanted to re-type all of the storiesso he could read them over and over again. ... Read more

Product Description
Having an accurate understanding of what is going on is a key commodity for teams working within military systems. 'Situation awareness' (SA) is the term that is used within human factors circles to describe the level of awareness that operators have of the situation that they are engaged in; it focuses on how operators develop and maintain a sufficient understanding of 'what is going on' in order to achieve success in task performance. Over the past two decades, the construct has become a fundamental theme within the areas of system design and evaluation and has received considerable attention from the human factors research community. Despite this, there is still considerable debate over how SA operates in complex collaborative systems and how SA achievement and maintenance is best supported through system, procedure and interface design. This book focuses on the recently developed concept of distributed situation awareness, which takes a systems perspective on the concept and moves the focus on situation awareness out of the heads of individual operators and on to the overall joint cognitive system consisting of human and technological agents.Situation awareness is viewed as an emergent property of collaborative systems, something that resides in the interaction between elements of the system and not in the heads of individual operators working in that system. The first part of the book presents a comprehensive review and critique of existing SA theory and measurement approaches, following which a novel model for complex collaborative systems, the distributed SA model, and a new modelling procedure, the propositional network approach, are outlined and demonstrated. The next part focuses on real-world applications of the model and modelling procedure, and presents four case studies undertaken in the land warfare, multinational warfare and energy distribution domains. Each case study is described in terms of the domain in question, the methodology employed, and the findings derived in relation to situation awareness theory. The third and final part of the book then concentrates on theoretical development, and uses the academic literature and the findings from the case study applications to validate and extend the distributed SA model described at the beginning of the book.In closing, the utility of the distributed SA model and modeling procedure are outlined and a series of initial guidelines for supporting distributed SA through system design are articulated. ... Read more

Product Description

This wonderful collection of true tales by a noted storyteller presents a lively, historically accurate, and often surprising picture of America’s Wild West. Period images and vivid quotes draw readers into each meticulously researched tale. Kids set out with Lewis and Clark in search of a route to the Pacific; join Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding, the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains; ride with the Pony Express; shoot it out with the Earps and the Clantons; head north to strike it rich in the Klondike; and share all kinds of other exciting adventures as Americans push westward. Arranged chronologically, the unfolding tales give readers a highly entertaining history of the American West.

Product Description
Approved by SPRITO, this text is fully revised throughout to reflect the latest thinking and practice, and is based upon the National Occupational Standards. ... Read more