Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language

Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language, Fourth Edition
by William Leffler

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Book Description
William LefflerÂ’s Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language, Fourth Edition is designed to give the reader an overview of key refining topics by using relevant analogies, easy-to-understand graphs, formulas, and illustrations. New to this edition is important information on the nature of crude oil and raw materials and a comprehensive discussion on what sets crude oil and oil products price differentials. Also new is a chapter on lubricants as well as the latest technologies employed by refiners. Each chapter was carefully written in nontechnical language to give the reader a basic understanding of the refining industry. The book can be used for self-study, as a classroom textbook, or as a quick reference.

Biochemistry

Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry (Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews Series)
by Richard A. Harvey PhD, Denise R. Ferrier

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Book Description
Thoroughly updated for its Fifth Edition, Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry enables students to quickly review and assimilate large amounts of complex information by utilizing powerful visual resources that deliver the focus and clarification needed to master difficult biochemical concepts. Its signature outline format, full-color illustrations, end-of-chapter summaries, and USMLE-style review questions make it one of the most user-friendly books in the field. New features include expanded coverage of molecular biology.

A companion website offers fully searchable online text and additional USMLE-style questions for students and an image bank for faculty.

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012

Get the Essentials on Autodesk's fastest-growing software package!

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 Essentials (Autodesk Official Training Guide: Essential)
by Phil Read, Eddy Krygiel, James Vandezande

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Book Description
The new Essentials series from Sybex helps you quickly learn and use Autodesk software. This beautiful, task-based, full-color Autodesk Official Training Guide thoroughly covers the fundamentals of Revit Architecture, teaching readers what they need to become quickly productive with this popular building information modeling (BIM) architectural design software.

By following the book's clear explanations, practical tutorials, and step-by-step exercises, you'll cover all the essentials of a typical design workflow. Topics include how to best use the interface, creating floor plans, adding walls and curtain walls, generating color fill plans, preparing documentation, as well as annotating, collaborating, and more. This four-color Essentials guide provides you with the fast and thorough grounding you need in Revit Architecture.

• Covers Revit Architecture 2012 fundamentals, so you become quickly productive with the software
• Prepares you for the Revit Architecture Associate and Professional certification exams
• Uses straightforward explanations and real-world, hands-on exercises and tutorials to teach the software's core features and functions
• Helps you quickly develop the skills needed throughout a project, whether you're a beginner or a more experienced user brushing up on the basics

Go from concepts to complete construction documents with this essential, full-color guide.

Wood Architecture from Tierra del Fuego to North Cape

Modern wood architecture from Tierra del Fuego to North Cape

Wood Architecture Now!
Philip Jodidio

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Book Description
Wood is renewable and sustainable, solid and attractive. Wood can be bent and shaped to the most modern of designs. It is the material of the moment for contemporary architecture and this new volume allows readers to get a glimpse of the most exciting and dynamic new uses of wood in architecture from all over the world. Like earthen architecture, the use of wood is almost as ancient as building itself. The columns of Greek temples are stylized trees. Today’s wooden buildings do all kinds of surprising things, and most of all, they are as “green” as they come.

Featured architects and practices include:
70F, A1Architects, AldingerArchitekten, Atelier Masuda, Auer+Weber+Assoziierte, Pieta-Linda Auttila, Shigeru Ban, Beals-Lyon Arquitectos / Christian Beals, Bernardes + Jacobsen, BETON, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Enrique Browne, Bernard Bühler, Marco Casagrande, José Cruz Ovalle, dECOi Architects, dmvA, dRN Architects, Dumay + Fones + Vergara, Piet Hein Eek, ETH-Studio Monte Rosa / Bearth & Deplazes, Edouard François, General Design, Seppo Häkli, Yosuke Inoue, IROJE KHM Architects, Jackson Clements Burrows, Emma Johansson and Timo Leiviskä, Kauffmann Theilig & Partner, Mathias Klotz, Marcio Kogan, Kirsi Korhonen and Mika Penttinen, Nic Lehoux and Jacqueline Darjes, Niall McLaughlin Architects, Andreas Meck, Beatriz Meyer, Ken Sungjin Min, Murman Arkitekter, Rolf Carl Nimmrichter, Valerio Olgiati, Onix, PUSHAK, Room 11, Hans-Jörg Ruch, SARC Architects, Rodrigo Sheward, Simas and Grinspum, Studio Weave, Tezuka Architects, Turnbull Griffin Haesloop, Wingårdhs

The Architecture of Donald Wexler

Steel and Shade: The Architecture of Donald Wexler
by Lauren Weiss Bricker, Sidney Williams, Bernard Perlin, Donald Wexler

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Book Description
The first monograph one of the most influential and famous architects to leave his mark on modern and midcentury architecture.

About the Author
Donald Wexler: Born in South Dakota in 1926, Donald Wexlerremains one of the most influential and famous architects to leave his mark on modern and midcentury architecture in the Palm Springs area. Wexler’s practice began with the design of prefabricated houses and portable classrooms constructed of light gauge steel. The extremes of the desert climate forced Wexler to develop a sustainable architecture, which was not only successful functionally, but achieved a timeless aesthetic appeal. He pioneered commercial and residential construction using steel and prefabrication. He applied his groundbreaking techniques and unique style to projects for clients such as Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, the Alexander Construction Company and Walt Disney World Resort. During his career he designed numerous houses and condominium complexes, as well as banks, office parks, and schools. He still resides in Palm Springs.

Lauren Weiss Bricker: Lauren Weiss Bricker, PhD, is professor of architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and Director of the Archives-Special Collections in the College of Environmental Design.

Sidney Williams: Sidney Williams is curator of architecture and design at the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Bernard Perlin: Bernard Perlin was working for a Los Angeles steel company, Calcor Corps., and knew about Wexler's steel schools. He approached him in 1958 with another idea the company was developing - steel houses. "I came by with as big a sample of a wall system as I could carry," Perlin remembers. The system used light-gauge structural steel and prefabricated panels and roofing. U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel helped fund the project, hoping to develop new markets for their products. In the early 1960s, for the developers George and Robert Alexander, Wexler and his engineer, Bernard Perlin, designed a neighborhood of 38 flat- or folded-roofed all-steel homes at the edge of Palm Springs. Seven were built, and seven remain, a monument to a time that dreamed of steel, and pleasant places to live. They began by building a house for Perlin, on a hillside site in Los Angeles that today overlooks the Getty Museum. "For my house, I even went beyond overboard," he says. "The insides of the walls are steel. There's nothing that's not steel in our house other than the cabinets." Perlin still lives there. "It's relatively maintenance free," he says. "I painted it twice."

Interiors by Matthew Patrick Smyth

Living Traditions: Interiors by Matthew Patrick Smyth
by Matthew Patrick Smyth

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Book Description
Classic style and impeccable attention to detail are hallmarks of the work of interior designer Matthew Patrick Smyth. His comfortable, timeless rooms are tailored to fit his clients’ personalities and lifestyles, whether they are dynamic young couples with children or cultured art collectors. Smyth masterfully blends contemporary pieces with antiques to endow each space with a sense of solidity and history while maintaining a completely fresh, modern sensibility.

Smyth credits his mentor David Easton for teaching him how to see the intrinsic value of any given piece and to successfully mix furnishings with similar lines, materials, and forms even when they are products of different centuries. Easton also embedded in Smyth a love for travel—leading to the designer’s devotion to all things French that permeates his work. Smyth opened his own firm in New York in 1987 and now works with clients around the globe. His designs—characterized by refined, flawless interior architecture—are seen in grand Shelter Island mansions, classically proportioned San Francisco townhouses, and demure Parisian pied-à-terres alike.

In this lavishly illustrated volume, Smyth reveals his own design tips, rules, and approaches to meeting challenges offered by uniquely shaped spaces. He focuses on editing collections to better showcase individual works, the personal nature of color selection, adding or restoring historical references, and finishing a space off with glorious, often unexpected fabrics and trims. Over two hundred color photographs showcase a wide variety of styles, from a nature-infused Aspen vacation home to the quintessential Upper East Side apartment to a London flat that smoothly blends its owner’s inherited collection of Renaissance art with fine Indian pieces.

About the Author
Matthew Patrick Smyth opened his eponymous interior design firm in New York City in 1987, after working with David Easton for many years. He designs a collection of fabrics for F. Schumacher and a line of rugs for Patterson, Flynn & Martin. His work is featured regularly in Elle Decor, House Beautiful, House & Garden, Traditional Home, and the New York Times.

Art of Creating Elegant and Inspired Interior

Charlotte Moss Decorates: The Art of Creating Elegant and Inspired Rooms
by Charlotte Moss

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Book Description
The interior designer’s singular vision revealed through an extraordinary collection of her acclaimed rooms. With her inimitable flair for style, Charlotte Moss has led a celebrated career in the interior design world. Recently honored with Elle Decor’s Vision Award, Moss’s design philosophy of "couture living" describes her preference for gracefully curated spaces in which one is meant to live, enjoy, and entertain.

Charlotte Moss Decorates affords the reader a glimpse into the methods behind her magic. For each of the rooms featured—from a sumptuous Directoire-style bedroom inspired by the incomparable Pauline de Rothschild to a gentlemen’s billiard room with rich details and a smart tailored feel—Moss breaks down the various stages of her design process, revealing her inspiration and storyboards, as well as sketches and notes she develops for every project. In each chapter, she offers the reader quick "doses" of decorating advice with her signature "Why Not?" decorating maxims. The book also includes Moss’s recommendations for her favorite flowers and fragrances for the final flourish in creating the perfect room. Her interiors, with a nod to both the historical elegance of the past and the modern necessities of today (comfort and livability), are truly sublime spaces. With over 200 sumptuous photographs, Moss graciously invites the reader to be engaged, inspired, and "ready to decorate."

About the Author
Charlotte Moss is a renowned interior designer and author. A trusted voice on design and style, she has authored six books, lectures frequently about her design philosophies, is featured in design and shelter magazines worldwide, and has appeared on national television and radio.

City & Country Residences in Architecture Design

New Traditional Architecture: Ferguson & Shamamian Architects: City and Country Residences
by Mark Ferguson, Oscar Shamamian, Richard Guy Wilson

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Book Description
These exceptional houses—distinguished by their classical style and artistic integrity represent the highest level of design and craftsmanship, fashioned for historic taste. A return to classicism and traditional styles has been widely observed in the world of architecture and design, and the houses in this volume represent the finest examples of new design based on historical precedents. These stunning residences are graced with regional character, impeccable craftsmanship, and classic beauty. Collaborating with leading landscape designers, decorators, and artisans, architects Mark Ferguson and Oscar Shamamian have produced homes that whether country estates, suburban houses, or city apartments are exquisite examples of timeless design for those who are inspired by historic styles.

With lush photography capturing the allure of these of exteriors, interiors, and details as well as original drawings and plans, the book will appeal to architects, interior designers, and homeowners with an eye for fine design and anyone wishing to be inspired by the poetry of history. Recognized by Architectural Digest in 2010 as being among the most important and influential architecture firms at work today, this beautifully illustrated volume presents Ferguson & Shamamian's finest work, including new houses, apartments, alterations and additions, and unbuilt design plans. Each of the nineteen homes featured in the book will be presented in detail, with full color photography and project descriptions written by the architects themselves. Eleven unbuilt projects will be represented by drawings, and eleven alterations and additions will be included in an appendix.

Review
“With their unerring sense of scale and modern take on textbook styles, AD100 architects Mark Ferguson and Oscar Shamamian easily rank among today’s finest designers. Highlights from the pair’s portfolio fill the recently released book…” ~Architectural Digest

“I’m thrilled to say that many of their designs are now beautifully presented for the enjoyment of all in the soon to be released Rizzoli book, New Traditional Architecture Ferguson & Shamamian Architects.” ~whatisjameswearing.com

About the Author
Mark Ferguson and Oscar Shamamian are partners in the New York–based Ferguson & Shamamian Architects LLP. Their work has been widely published in books and magazines, including Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, House Beautiful, House & Garden, and Town & Country. The firm has received numerous awards and was most recently honored with the prestigious 2003 Arthur Ross Award for Architecture from the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America. Richard Guy Wilson is chair of the Department of Architectural History at the University of Virginia.

Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments

TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
by Douglas R Conant, Mette Norgaard

Book Review
“Great books on leadership can be inspirational or instructive in a highly practical way. TouchPoints is both, and enormously entertaining, to boot. If you aspire to have a highly positive impact on any kind of organization – whether it’s big or small, private or public – you must read this book.” — Jeffrey E. Garten Professor and former dean, Yale School of Management

“TouchPoints is a vivid reminder that leadership is a 24/7 role. Every human contact is an opportunity for leadership. This book is required reading for current and aspiring leaders. It will make you rethink how to approach the most demanding role of the CEO.” — Carlos Gutierrez, Former Secretary of Commerce and Former Chairman and CEO, Kellogg Company

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Book Description
A fresh, effective, and enduring way to lead—starting with your next interaction.

Most leaders feel the inevitable interruptions in their jam-packed days are troublesome. But in TouchPoints, Conant and Norgaard argue that these—and every point of contact with other people—are overlooked opportunities for leaders to increase their impact and promote their organization's strategy and values. Through previously untold stories from Conant's tenure as CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Norgaard's vast consulting experience, the authors show that a leader's impact and legacy are built through hundreds, even thousands, of interactive moments in time. The good news is that anyone can develop "TouchPoint" mastery by focusing on three essential components: head, heart, and hands.

TouchPoints speaks to the theory and craft of leadership, promoting a balanced presence of rational, authentic, active, and wise leadership practices. Leadership mastery in the smallest and otherwise ordinary moments can transform aimless activity in individuals and entropy in organizations into focused energy—one magical moment at a time.

About the Author
Douglas Conant is president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company. Under his leadership, Campbell reversed a precipitous decline in market value and employee engagement, improving its financial profile, enhancing its diversity and inclusion practices and raising its corporate social responsibility profile. Previously Conant held management positions at Kraft and General Mills, and was president of the Nabisco Foods Company.

Mette Norgaard is an expert on strategic leadership and learning. She advises executive teams around the world on how to create distinct learning solutions that advance their companies' strategies. She has worked with senior-level leaders from Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, GE Capital, Nucor Corp., Estée Lauder, Harley-Davidson, the U.S. Navy, and Pfizer. Previously Norgaard was a consultant for FranklinCovey Co.

Building Loyal & Sticky Relationships in Business

Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty
by Patrick Lencioni

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Book Description
Another extraordinary business fable from the New York Times bestselling author Patrick Lencioni

• Offers a key resource for gaining competitive advantage in tough times
• Shows why the quality of vulnerability is so important in business
• Includes ideas for inspiring customer and client loyalty
• Written by the highly successful consultant and business writer Patrick Lencioni

This new book in the popular Lencioni series shows what it takes to gain a real and lasting competitive edge.

Review
"I've experienced the 'naked' approach firsthand and can say withconfidence that this book will transform the way we view client service. I wish every one of my vendors would read it and follow its advice." — J. Miles Reiter, chairman and CEO, Driscoll's

"Lencioni has written the definitive primer on how to build relationships in business (and in life) that are at once authentic, fruitful, and lasting. Getting Naked is a must-read." — Andy Lorenzen, senior manager, organizational talent strategy, Chick-fil-A, Inc.,

"Lencioni's message on vulnerability really hits home. I can't imagine a service provider who wouldn't benefit greatly from the lessons in this insightful book." — Tony Bingham, president and CEO, American Society for Training & Development (ASTD)

"I couldn't put it down. Another page-turner with a quietly powerful message from Lencioni." — Mike Faith, president and CEO, Headsets.com, Inc.

"Put your feet up, check your ego at the door, and read Getting Naked. It's such an enjoyable read, you may finish the book in one sitting, but you will remember its message forever." — Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and Helping People Win at Work

About the Author
Patrick Lencioni is a New York Times best-selling business author of eight books including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. As president and founder of The Table Group, Pat has consulted to CEOs and leadership teams in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies and start-ups to churches and non-profits. In addition to his books, Pat and his work have been featured in publications like Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, BusinessWeek, and USA Today.

Leadership Lessons for Creating a World Class Customer Experience

Apply the lessons Michelli spells out in Prescription for Excellence to create a system that ensures that your people take business personally, day in and day out.

Prescription for Excellence: Leadership Lessons for Creating a World Class Customer Experience from UCLA Health System
Joseph Michelli

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Book Description
Joseph Michelli, author of The Starbucks Experience and The New Gold Standard, is among the world’s top authorities on the principles of creating an organizational culture dedicated to service excellence. In these bestselling books, he examines how leading service companies dominate their respective industries with innovative customer experience strategies.

Now, Michelli turns his attention to one of the most complex, controversial, and critical industries -- healthcare.

In Prescription for Excellence, Michelli provides an inside look at an organization that has become the envy of its industry and explains how you can dominate your own industry by using the same approach.

UCLA Health System is revered worldwide for its top-tier patient/customer care. Great physicians, nurses, researchers, and staff are only part of the equation; UCLA’s overall success is a result of organization-wide collaboration that is driven by leaders with a shared vision of unyielding excellence. Michelli breaks down UCLA’s approach into five simple principles:

• Commit to Care
• Leave No Room for Error
• Make the Best Better
• Create the Future
• Service Serves Us

From administrative offices to operating rooms to research centers, continued adherence to these five principles has guided UCLA to financial strength, social significance, and sustainability.

The best part is that these principles translate to any industry, so you, too, can achieve similar goals. Michelli gives you the tools to adapt UCLA’s ideas, systems, and leadership principles into your own best practices. Whether it is a healthcare organization, a financial institution, or a neighborhood hair salon, good business begins and ends with customer connection. When all workers in an organization focus on providing quality care for those they serve, success inevitably follows.

About the Author
Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., is the bestselling author of The Starbucks Experience, The New Gold Standard, and The Zappos Experience. He is an internationally sought-after speaker and organizational consultant who has been featured on The Glenn Beck Show and CNBC’s On the Money.

A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
by Tony Hsieh

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Book Description
The visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success.

Pay new employees $2000 to quit. Make customer service the entire company, not just a department. Focus on company culture as the #1 priority. Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business. Help employees grow both personally and professionally. Seek to change the world. Oh, and make money too.

Sound crazy? It's all standard operating procedure at Zappos.com, the online retailer that's doing over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales every year.

In 1999, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an adviser and investor, and eventually became CEO.

In 2009, Zappos was listed as one of Fortune magazine's top 25 companies to work for, and was acquired by Amazon later that year in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

In his first book, Tony shares the different business lessons he learned in life, from a lemonade stand and pizza business through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more. Ultimately, he shows how using happiness as a framework can produce profits, passion, and purpose both in business and in life. (edited by author)

Review
"Tony is a wise guy. Sincerely. He's one of the wisest and most thoughtful business leaders of the modern age." (Chip Conley, Founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and Author, PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow)

"This book could start a revolution!" (Marshall Goldsmith, author of MOJO: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It)

"This book illustrates so many of Zappos' core values: it's open and honest, passionate and humble, fun and a little weird. Even if you don't care about business, technology, or shoes, you'll be drawn in by this American tale of how hard work, laziness, talent and failure blend together to create an extraordinary life." (Jonathon Haidt, author of THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom)

About the Author
Tony Hsieh became involved with Zappos as an advisor and investor in 1999, about two months after the company was founded. He eventually joined Zappos full time in 2000.

Under his leadership, Zappos has grown gross merchandise sales from $1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008 by focusing relentlessly on customer service.

Elements of Quantity Surveying

Willis's Elements of Quantity Surveying
by Sandra Lee, William Trench, & Andrew Willis

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Book Description
Willis’s Elements of Quantity Surveying has become a standard text in the teaching of building measurement – a core part of the curriculum for quantity surveyors. Particularly in the latter editions it has eclipsed the other books on building measurement, partly because of the heritage, but mostly because of the logical approach and copious use of examples to guide the student.

The new 11th edition has been fully updated to recognise the introduction of the New Rules of Measurement (NRM) by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which reflect the way the modern QS works and provide a standard set of measurement rules that are understandable by all those involved in a construction project.

Features:

• First published in 1935, has been used by many generations of quantity surveyors and lecturers
• New edition fully updated to include the RICS new rules of measurement (NRM)
• Many examples updated to reflect current QS practice
• Revisers have extensive experience of teaching the subject through College of Estate Management courses

About the authors
Sandra Lee is an Associate with Davis Langdon LLP in Abu Dhabi, UAE and an Associate Tutor for the College of Estate Management, Reading.

Bill Trench is an Associate Tutor for the College of Estate Management, Reading.

Andrew Willis is Regional Managing Director at Franklin and Andrews, London.