Groundbreaking research based on a national database of over 200,000 churches shows that the overall United States population is growing faster than the church. The director of the American Church Research Project, Dave Olson, has worked to analyze church attendance, showing that it is virtually unchanged from fifteen years ago while our population has grown by fifty-two million people.What does this mean for you, your church, and the future of Christianity in North America? The American C...

Jerome Bruner is the vanguard of “the cognitive revolution” in psychology and the predominant spokesman for the role of culture and education in the making of the modern mind. In this text Olson encourages the reader to think about children as Bruner did, not as bundles of traits and dispositions to be diagnosed and remediated, but as thoughtful, keenly interested, agentive persons who are willing and indeed able to play an important role in their own learning and development.Throu...

This novel approach to tennis stroking is easy to apply to any level, but especially beginners, and gives immediate results. Bad habits are automatically corrected by the influence of the other hand upon your hitting arm. It works for both sides, forehand and backhand and volleys too. After reading and applying this book, you might not need another tennis lesson for the rest of your life. You might want to give a few 'Brace' lessons to friends and family, though, when you see what it can d...

This book provides an overview of data mining methods demonstrated by software. Knowledge management involves application of human knowledge (epistemology) with the technological advances of our current society (computer systems) and big data, both in terms of collecting data and in analyzing it. We see three types of analytic tools. Descriptive analytics focus on reports of what has happened. Predictive analytics extend statistical and/or artificial intelligence to provide forecasting cap...

The rapid growth in computer technology provides supply chain managers with valuable tools to better coordinate and control their operations. This book seeks to describe systems available to give supply chains information system support, demonstrating key tasks with demonstrated analytic techniques. This second edition provides you with newer cases to demonstrate concepts that will allow to better manage your supply chain management position in one of the fastest growing fields in our econ...

Information Systems Project Management addresses project management in the context of information systems. It deals with general project management principles, with focus on the special characteristics of information systems. It is based on an earlier text, but shortened to focus on essential project management elements.This updated version presents various statistics indicating endemic problems in completing information system projects on time, within budget, at designed functionality. Wh...

Data mining has become the fastest growing topic of interest in business programs in the past decade. This book is intended to describe the benefits of data mining in business, the process and typical business applications, the workings of basic data mining models, and demonstrate each with widely available free software. The book focuses on demonstrating common business data mining applications. It provides exposure to the data mining process, to include problem identification, data manag...

This book reviews forecasting data mining models, from basic tools for stable data through causal models, to more advanced models using trends and cycles. These models are demonstrated on the basis of business-related data, including stock indices, crude oil prices, and the price of gold. The book’s main approach is above all descriptive, seeking to explain how the methods concretely work; as such, it includes selected citations, but does not go into deep scholarly reference. The data sets...

Supply chain operations face many risks, including political, environmental, and economic. The past five years have seen major challenges, from pandemic, impacts of global warming, wars, and tariff impositions. In this rapidly changing world, risks appear in every aspect of operations. This book presents data mining and analytics tools with R programming as well as a brief presentation of Monte Carlo simulation that can be used to anticipate and manage these risks. RStudio software and R p...

The chapters collected in this volume represent the "state-of-the-art" of research on the development of intentional action and intentional understanding--topics that are at the intersection of current research on imitation, early understanding of mental states, goal-directed behavior in nonhuman animals, executive function, language acquisition, and narrative understanding, to name just a few of the relevant foci. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate that intentionality is a key iss...

We sit at the doorstep of multiple revolutions in robotic, genetic, information, and communication technologies, whose powerful interactions promise social and environmental transformations we are only beginning to understand. How can we anticipate their impacts and ensure that these new technologies help move us in a more sustainable direction?Environmentalism and the Technologies of Tomorrow is a collection of essays by leading scientists, technologists, and thinkers that examine...

The Cretaceous Birds of New Jersey is a groundbreaking anthology that navigates the verdant tapestry of avian evolution during the Cretaceous period through a collection of scholarly essays and studies. This collection is a testament to the rich fossil record of New Jersey, revealing an awe-inspiring array of bird species that flourished millions of years ago. Readers are invited to explore the dynamic intersection of paleontology and ornithology, where each piece contributes to the vigor ...