David Stephenson – författare

This book is part of the Images of England series, which uses old photographs and archived images to show the history of various local areas in England, through their streets, shops, pubs, and people.

Illustrated with over 200 archive pictures, this collection evocatively captures the histories of Netham, Crews Hole, St George and Speedwell in east Bristol. Snapshots of everyday life, from weddings, charabanc outings, pubs, shops and schools combine with vistas of the industries upon which these communities relied, particularly the collieries and chemical works whose chimneys towered over this area of the city. This fascinating volume shows the great changes which have taken place in commerce, heavy industry, transport and residential areas.

Big Data is a big topic, based on simple principles. Guided by leading expert in the field, David Stephenson, you will be amazed at how you can transform your company, and significantly improve KPIs across a broad range of business units and applications.

Find out how an ecommerce company avoided two million product returns per year, how a newspaper saw triple-digit annual growth in digital subscriptions, how researchers in England learned to better detect pending cardiovascular problems, and how AI programs taught themselves to win games using techniques that even their human programmers didn’t understand, all thanks to big data. Find out also how one company realized it could swap a million dollar hardware system with a twenty thousand dollar replacement.

With simple and straightforward chapters that allow you to map examples onto your own business, Big Data Demystified will help you:

· Know which data is most useful to collect now and why it’s important to start collecting that data as soon as possible.

· Understand big data and data science and how they can help you reach your business goals and gain competitive advantage.

· Use big data to understand where you are now and how you can improve in the future.

· Understand factors in choosing a big data system, including whether to go with cloud-based solutions.

· Construct your big data team in a way that supports an effective strategy and helps make your business more data-driven.

BIG DATA MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE

“ Read this book! It is an essential guide to using data in a practical way that drives results." Ian McHenry, CEO Beyond Pricing “ This is the book we’ve been missing: big data explained without the complexity.” Marc Salomon, Professor in Decision Sciences and Dean at University of Amsterdam Business School " Big Data for the rest of us! I have never come across a book that is so full of practical advice, actionable examples and helpful explanations. Read this one book and start executing Big Data at your workplace tomorrow!" Tobias Wann CEO at @Leisure Group

First full-scale account of the medieval realm of Powys.Powys, extending over north-east and central Wales, was one of three great medieval Welsh polities, along with Gwynedd to the north and Deheubarth (south-west), occupying nearly a quarter of the country. However, it has been somewhat neglected by historians, who have tended to dismiss it as a satellite realm of England, and viewed its leaders as obstacles to the efforts of Gwynedd leaders to construct a principality of Wales.This book provides the first full, authoritative history of Powys in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It argues in particular that the Powysian rulers were dogged and resourceful survivors in the face of pressure from Welsh rivals and the problems ofinternal fragmentation; and that, paradoxically, co-operation with the English and intermarriage with marcher families underlay a desire to regain lands to the east lost in earlier centuries.Dr David Stephenson is anHonorary Research Fellow in the School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology, Bangor University.

After outlining conventional accounts of Wales in the High Middle Ages, this book moves to more radical approaches to its subject. Rather than discussing the emergence of the March of Wales from the usual perspective of the ‘intrusive’ marcher lords, for instance, it is considered from a Welsh standpoint explaining the lure of the March to Welsh princes and its contribution to the fall of the native principality of Wales. Analysis of the achievements of the princes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries focuses on the paradoxical process by which increasingly sophisticated political structures and a changing political culture supported an autonomous native principality, but also facilitated eventual assimilation of much of Wales into an English ‘empire’. The Edwardian conquest is examined and it is argued that, alongside the resultant hardship and oppression suffered by many, the rising class of Welsh administrators and community leaders who were essential to the governance of Wales enjoyed an age of opportunity. This is a book that introduces the reader to the celebrated and the less well-known men and women who shaped medieval Wales.

This is the first full-length study of a Welsh family of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries who were not drawn from the princely class. Though they were of obscure and modest origins, the patronage of great lords of the March - such as the Mortimers of Wigmore or the de Bohun earls of Hereford - helped them to become prominent in Wales and the March, and increasingly in England. They helped to bring down anyone opposed by their patrons - like Llywelyn, prince of Wales in the thirteenth century, or Edward II in the 1320s. In the process, they sometimes faced great danger but they contrived to prosper, and unusually for Welshmen one branch became Marcher lords themselves. Another was prominent in Welsh and English government, becoming diplomats and courtiers of English kings, and over some five generations many achieved knighthood. Their fascinating careers perhaps hint at a more open society than is sometimes envisaged.

This ground-breaking study explores the rise of a Welsh elite of administrators and military figures in the generations after the Edwardian Conquests of 1277–88. It shows how a ministerial aristocracy had developed in the Age of the Princes, before the Edwardian conquest threatened to impose English colonial administrations throughout the land. However, close documentary analysis reveals that Edward I (d.1307) emerged in his later life not as the vindictive conqueror of most accounts, but as a ruler dependent on Welsh support, ready to listen to and remedy Welsh grievances, and to encourage the revival of a Welsh governing class. In addition, the book includes the first detailed study of scores of members of that class throughout Wales in the first half of the fourteenth century. It concludes by exploring the mid-century crises that shook the Welsh establishment and set them on the road to the Glyn Dŵr rising of 1400.

The world's water resources are being tapped at an ever increasing rate, to the extent that sustainability and water quality are being compromised. This book provides accounts of the technology used for managing water resources to reduce risks. Besides controlling floods, overcoming droughts and reducing pollution, the reader will learn to plan and maintain hydraulic structures, and to appreciate the diverse demands on water, including those of the environment. The topics considered include hydrology and assessment of water resources; drought management and flood management tools; and the interaction between land use and water resources, including surface runoff, groundwater and water quality. The second half of the book focuses on water use, demand management and the infrastructure required to manage water. Consideration is also given to the tools needed for planning, including economics and computer modelling. This book is aimed at a postgraduate level, suitable for students in water engineering and science. It will also serve as a reference for practitioners concerned with water resources and water supply.