IT Architectures and Middleware or Introduction to Group Work Practice

IT Architectures and Middleware: Strategies for Building Large, Integrated Systems

Author: Chris Britton

The challenges of designing, building, and maintaining large-scale, distributed enterprise systems are truly daunting. Written by and for IT professionals, IT Architectures and Middleware, Second Edition, will help you rise above the conflicts of new business objectives, new technologies, and vendor wars, allowing you to think clearly and productively about the particular challenges you face.

This book focuses on the essential principles and priorities of system design and emphasizes the new requirements emerging from the rise of e-commerce and distributed, integrated systems. It offers a concise overview of middleware technology alternatives and distributed systems. Numerous increasingly complex examples are incorporated throughout, and the book concludes with some short case studies.

Topics covered include:

• Middleware technology review


• Key principles of distributed systems: resiliency, performance and scalability, security, and systems management


• Information access requirements and data consistency


• Application integration design


• Recasting existing applications as services

In this new edition, with updates throughout, coverage has been expanded to include:

• Service-oriented architecture concepts


• Web services and .NET technology


• A more structured approach to system integration design

Booknews

Focuses on the principles and priorities of enterprise systems design, emphasizing the new requirements brought by e-commerce and distributed, integrated systems. Britton, who works for Unisys, discusses middleware technology alternatives, resiliency, performance and scalability, security, systems management, information access and accuracy, and creation of a new presentation layer for existing applications. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Internet Book Watch

IT Architecture And Middleware: Strategies For Building Large, Integrated Systems, presents the essential principles and priorities of system design, emphasizing the new requirements brought about by the rise of e-commerce and distributed, integrated systems. IT professional Christ Britton offers a concise overview of middleware technology alternatives and distributed systems as he covers such topics as information access requirements and data consistency, creation of a new presentation layer for existing applications, application integration, and component architectures. Carl Britton's IT Architecture And Middleware is a highly recommended addition to the growing body of information technology literature and IT architecture reference collections.

Table of Contents:

1	The problem	1
2	The emergence of standard middleware	17
3	Objects, components, and the Web	39
4	Web services	59
5	A technical summary of middleware	77
6	Using middleware to build distributed applications	99
7	Resiliency	123
8	Performance and scalability	143
9	Systems management	169
10	Security	187
11	Application design and IT architecture	205
12	Implementing business processes	223
13	Integration design	241
14	Information access and information accuracy	257
15	Changing and integrating applications	277
16	Building an IT architecture	297

New interesting textbook: Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian or The South Beach Diet Supercharged

Introduction to Group Work Practice

Author: Ronald W Toseland

An Introduction to Group Work Practice, 6/e

 

By: Ronald W. Toseland of the University at Albany, State University of New York

& Robert F. Rivas of Siena College

 

Basic Approach

The perfect text for preparing students to work with either treatment (ongoing) or task (special focus) groups, this newly revised edition offers the most up-to-date research available in the social work field.

An Introduction to Group Work Practice, Sixth Edition, continues to stress the importance of developing skills in group work and provides the most comprehensive information available on the market today. Students receive thorough preparation in areas that vary from treatment to organizational and community settings. The addition of new case studies, practice examples, and guiding principles adds to the ease and readability of this popular text.

Highlights of the New Edition 
• MyHelpingKit: A multimedia tool that contains Video Clips, Learning Objectives, Chapter Summaries, Flashcards, Research Navigator access, Cases, and more! (Available at no additional charge for students when value-packaged with a new textbook.  Please contact your local sales representative for details:www.ablongman.com/replocator ).
• New section on working with self-help groups.
• Expanded and updated research-based literature throughout that exposes students to more evidence-based practice and includes many examples from the authors' real life cases
• Contains many more short case examples throughout the text allowing students to see how content can be applied in practice settings, helping to reinforce chapter content.
• Greater focus on short-term psycho-educational groups.
• New techniques such as visualization and deep breathing have been added to the working stage of treatment groups.
• A new section on working with involuntary group members prepares students for leadership roles in groups with mandated clients in the beginning as well as the middle stages of group work.

What Your Colleagues are Saying

 

“I am very comfortable with the approach of this text. It feels very ordered and natural. I particularly like how the chapters move through the various phases of group work, beginning with more general information (group dynamics, leadership) and moving through the progressive stages of group development (planning, beginning, middle, and ending stages).”

 -- Matthew T. Theriot, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

“This text is an excellent one! There are several strengths including: a very structured approach to leading groups. The text includes both treatment/intervention groups and task groups, which is a plus! I really like the textboxes with bulleted summaries, and the short vignettes. I think that the authors have a very inviting writing style . . . which makes it a useful text to teach content.”

 — Nancy Kropf, Georgia State University

 

Booknews

The third edition includes a sharper focus on generalist practice and on typologies which illustrate group work practice (both treatment groups and task groups) at the micro, meso, and macro level. Additions include a new chapter on leadership and diversity, and new material on confidentiality, telephone and computer groups, dealing with conflict, and working with reluctant and involuntary group members. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.