International efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons—rest upon foundations provided by global treaties such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Over time, however, states have created a number of other mechanisms for organizing international cooperation to promote nonproliferation. Examples range from regional efforts to various worldwide export-control regim...

Willie Gavin, Crofter Man is a portrait of a crofting life in the bare and sometimes bitter landscape of Scotland's North-east lowlands. It is the closely reconstructed life of one man in particular, and beyond that, the wider story of a croft and its people, assembled from the family's folk memories. Willie Gavin's real identity has been blurred, but this is essentially a true story and is illustrated with a fascinating selection of period photographs. Through the eyes of Willie Gavin we ...

This book describes ‘whole onflow’ which is, at once, the emergence and becoming of the entirety of the world/universe and any actual, unique position whatsoever in it ‘now’. A physical plane and self-organizing process that owes its energy to the Big Bang; in our region, it now unfolding the infinitely complex and varied world we engage, contribute to and experience.There have been many academic ideas on the nature of emergence and becoming in the world, including ideas on the wor...

This book takes the reader through the process to plan, deliver, and follow-up a weeklong Lean Quality Improvement event, usually termed a ‘Rapid Improvement Event’ or ‘Rapid Process Improvement Workshop (RPIW).’ Drawing on the experience of conducting over 100 of these workshops, the book gives readers the information to plan and run their own event. It describes how RPIWs fit in to wider improvement processes and how the reader can maximize these processes in their own organization....

Organizations around the world are using Lean to redesign care and improve processes in a way that achieves and sustains meaningful results for patients, staff, physicians, and health systems. This book systematically describes how NHS Highland uses Lean principles and mindsets to improve safety, quality, access, and morale while reducing costs, and increasing capacity.Existing books often describe the gains obtained by using Lean methods, but often do not describe the underlying c...

A million readers bought The Undercover Economist to get the lowdown on how economics works on a small scale, in our everyday lives. Since then, economics has become big news. Crises, austerity, riots, bonuses - all are in the headlines all the time. But how does this large-scale economic world really work? What would happen if we cancelled everyone's debt? How do you create a job? Will the BRIC countries take over the world? Asking - among many other things -- what the future hol...

A provocative and lively exploration of the increasingly important world of macroeconomics, by the author of the bestselling The Undercover Economist.Thanks to the worldwide financial upheaval, economics is no longer a topic we can ignore. From politicians to hedge-fund managers to middle-class IRA holders, everyone must pay attention to how and why the global economy works the way it does.Enter Financial Times columnist and bestselling au...