The Last Mile

A gripping thriller from David Baldacci, The Last Mile is perfect for fans of Lee Child and James Patterson. Memories can be a real killer. Melvin Mars awaits his fate on Death Row. He was one of America's most promising football stars until, aged twenty, he was arrested and convicted for the murder of his parents just as he was due to begin a very lucrative contract with the NFL. When Amos Decker, newly appointed special agent with the FBI, hears the news that Melvin was saved in the final seconds before his execution because someone has confessed to the killings, he persuades his boss to allow him to carry out an investigation into the Mars murders. There are facts about the case which don't add up, and as the investigation deepens, Decker and his team uncover layer upon layer of lies and deception which are rooted at a time in American history which most would rather forget, but some seem keen to remember. There is someone out there with a lot to hide, and a secret that everyone is looking for. A race against time ensues because, when revealed, that information threatens to tear apart the corridors of power at the very highest level. The case proves to be life-changing for both Mars and Decker in ways that neither could ever have imagined. The Last Mile is the second in the Amos Decker series, following Memory Man. Continue the investigative thrillers with The Fix.

Most organizations spend much of their effort on the start of the value creation process: namely, creating a strategy, developing new products or services, and analyzing the market. They pay a lot less attention to the end: the crucial “last mile” where consumers come to their website, store, or sales representatives and make a choice. In The Last Mile, Dilip Soman shows how to use insights from behavioral science in order to close that gap. Beginning with an introduction to the last mile problem and the concept of choice architecture, the book takes a deep dive into the psychology of choice, money, and time. It explains how to construct behavioral experiments and understand the data on preferences that they provide. Finally, it provides a range of practical tools with which to overcome common last mile difficulties. The Last Mile helps lay readers not only to understand behavioral science, but to apply its lessons to their own organizations’ last mile problems, whether they work in business, government, or the nonprofit sector. Appealing to anyone who was fascinated by Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s Nudge, or Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow but was not sure how those insights could be practically applied, The Last Mile is full of solid, concrete advice on how to put the lessons of behavioral science to work.

The New York Times bestselling author pairs a woman in search of her family's truth with a hard-hitting professional treasure hunter in this taut and thrilling new book. As an unknown assailant stalks them across the treacherous Superstition Mountains in Arizona, they race to follow their treasure map’s directions to a hidden trove of gold, but will they survive the danger long enough to reach their prize? “The plot’s heart-stopping twists will keep readers breathless until the final page.” —Publishers Weekly When Abigail Holland awakes to the sound of a nighttime intruder in her rambling Denver Victorian, she knows exactly what the black shrouded figure is after—the map she recently inherited from her grandfather. Whoever he is, the man who grapples with her, then escapes, is willing to kill for the location of a treasure King Farrell hunted for more than ten years. The Devil’s Gold has claimed hundreds of lives, and it was her grandfather’s obsession. With a killer pursuing her and her own family not to be trusted, Abby decides to take up the search herself. But she’ll need help to do it, and there’s no one better than renowned explorer and treasure hunter Gage Logan. Despite the instant chemistry between them, Gage is reluctant. Innocent people have been hurt on his watch before. But when Abby shows him a genuine gold ingot she found with the map, his curiosity is piqued. Before long they’re heading into the flash floods and brutal winds of the Superstition Mountains, straight into a passionate entanglement—and the dark heart of danger.

The photo book contains approximately 150 pictures documenting Barbara McQueen's three-and-a-half year relationship with the movie icon, which includes candid shots from 1977 to 1980 - McQueen's years out of the spotlight. It chronicles Barbara's early history and modeling career; her years with McQueen at Trancas Beach and Santa Paula as well as behind-the-scene photos on the sets of Tom Horn and The Hunter. Marshall Terrill, veteran reporter for The Chandler (Ariz.) Connetion and author of another best-selling Steve McQueen title, said the photo book is written in passage form, weaving Barbara McQueen's personal history, her relationship with her famous husband and the stories behind the hundreds of candid pictures she took. It includes a special foreword by Pat Johnson, McQueen's close friend and karate instructor.

Viewed from a global scale, steady progress has been made in reducing extreme poverty—defined by the $1.25-a-day poverty line—over the past three decades. This success has sparked renewed enthusiasm about the possibility of eradicating extreme poverty within a generation. However, progress is expected to become more difficult, and slower, over time. This book will examine three central changes that need to be overcome in traveling the last mile: breaking cycles of conflict, supporting inclusive growth, and managing shocks and risks. By uncovering new evidence and identifying new ideas and solutions for spurring peace, jobs, and resilience in poor countries, The Last Mile in Ending Extreme Poverty will outline an agenda to inform poverty reduction strategies for governments, donors, charities, and foundations around the world. Contents Part I: Peace: Breaking the Cycle of Conflict External finance for state and peace building, Marcus Manuel and Alistair McKechnie, Overseas Development Institute Reforming international cooperation to improve the sustainability of peace, Bruce Jones, Brookings and New York University Bridging state and local communities through livelihood improvements, Ryutaro Murotani, JICA, and Yoichi Mine, JICA-RI and Doshisha University Postconflict trajectories and the potential for poverty reduction, Gary Milante, SIPRI Part II: Jobs: Supporting Inclusive Growth Structural change and Africa's poverty puzzle, John Page, Brookings Public goods for private jobs: lessons from the Pacific, Shane Evans, Michael Carnahan and Alice Steele, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of Australia Strategies for inclusive development in agrarian Sub-Saharan countries, Akio Hosono, JICA-RI The role of agriculture in poverty reduction, John McArthur, Brookings, UN Foundation, and Fung Global Institute Part III: Resilience: Managing Shocks and Risks Environmental stress and conflict, Stephen Smith, George Washington University and Brookings Toward community resilience: The role of social capital after disasters, Go Shimada, JICA-RI Social protection and the end of extreme poverty, Raj Desai, Georgetown University and Brookings

The Last Mile Home is an unforgettable story of the power of enduring love from Australia's favourite storyteller with new novel Before the Storm out now. It is 1953 in a small Australian country town, a time of post-war prosperity and hope. The Holtens are wealthy, yet austere, graziers who have lived on the land for generations. The McBrides are a large and loving shearer's family who are new arrivals to the district. When the McBrides eldest daughter falls in love with the Holtens only son and heir, it seems impossible that they can have a future together. As conflict and tragedy confront them, it is only with great determination that their love can survive.

Broadband Last Mile: Access Technologies for Multimedia Communications provides in-depth treatments of access technologies and the applications that rely upon them or support them. It examines innovations and enhancements along multiple dimensions in access, with the overarching goal of ensuring that the last mile is not the weak link in the broadband chain. Written by experts from the academic and commercial segments of the field, the book's self-contained sections address topics related to the disciplines of communications, networking, computing, and signal processing. The core of this treatment contains contemporary reviews of broadband pipes in the classes of copper, cable, fiber, wireless, and satellite. It emphasizes the coexistence of these classes within a network, the importance of optical communications for unprecedented bandwidth, and the flexibility and mobility provided by wireless. The book also includes perspective on the increasingly important topic of network management, providing insights that are true regardless of the nature of the pipe. The text concludes with a discussion of newly emerging applications and broadband services. This book offers an all-in-one treatment of the physical pipes and network architectures that make rich and increasingly personalized applications possible. It serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners working in the increasingly pervasive field of broadband.

During his lifetime, Steve McQueen embodied the rebel image. Rough around the edges, driven with a passion not found in ordinary men, he was at once a loner and a leader. When McQueen arrived in Hollywood, even the biggest names had to learn fast that McQueen s hard edge was no mere act, and before long then troubled street kid from Indianapolis was among the highest-paid movie stars in the world. The man many called crazy , who raced motorcycles and lived every day as if it were his last, was also deeply respected by his fellow artists. Edward G. Robinson, Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman, among others, ranked him among the best actors in film history. Steve McQueen was an original and a natural. Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel chronicles the life and times of a man whose power both on- and off-camera is legendary. From the list of his female friends to the love of his life, actress Ali McGraw, McQueen seemed to have it all. Marshall Terrill relates vivid, first-hand acco

A growing body of research suggests that the quantity and quality of structural inputs of education and healthcare services such as infrastructure, classroom and medical supplies, and even teacher and medical training are largely irrelevant if teachers and healthcare providers do not exert the requisite effort to translate these inputs into effective teaching and medical service. To exert adquate effort, providers must feel they are accountable for the quality of service they provide. Yet a sense of accountability among providers does not necessarily occur naturally, often requiring mechanisms to monitor and incentivize provider effort. The literature on improving provider accountability has under-emphasized the role of monitoring practices by school principals and chief medical officers. This study begins to fill this gap by investigating the role of within-facility accountability mechanisms in the education and health sectors of Jordan. To do this, an analysis of existing and original data from these sectors was conducted in which the association of within-facility monitoring and provider effort was quantified. The results indicate that within-facility monitoring is underutilized in both sectors and is a consistent predictor of higher provider effort.

Katie Ashley, the New York Times bestselling author of Redemption Road and Vicious Cycle, returns to the dangerous and seductive world of the Hells Raiders motorcycle club…. After her father was murdered in the line of duty, ATF agent Samantha Vargas is determined to take down the scumbags of the drug trade. When her partner takes on a case to infiltrate the Hells Raiders MC, Samantha agrees to go undercover as his old lady but is surprised to find herself drawn to the very man she is investigating. Benjamin “Bishop” Malloy has worked hard to carve a place for himself both in and out of the MC world. Working days as a mechanic, he spends his nights rebuilding motorcycles with the hope of one day owning his own shop. After taking one of the club’s new hang-arounds under his wing, Bishop is conflicted over his growing attraction for the man’s girlfriend. Even though she’s determined to bring down the Raiders, Samantha discovers their world isn’t as black-and-white as she thought. And as the stakes grow higher, she’s in danger of losing more than her heart.

The first in the Amos Decker series, Memory Man is an astounding novel from blockbuster author David Baldacci, where an extraordinary man races to hunt down a terrible killer. Amos Decker would forever remember all three of their violent deaths in the most paralyzing shade of blue. It would cut into him at unpredictable moments, like a gutting knife made of colored light. He would never be free from it. When Amos Decker returned home eighteen months ago to find the bodies of his wife and only daughter, he didn't think he could carry on living. Overwhelmed with grief, he saw his life spiral out of control, losing his job as a detective, his house and his self-respect. But when his former partner in the police, Mary Lancaster, visits to tell him that someone has confessed to the murder of his family, he knows he owes it to his wife and child to seek justice for them. As Decker comes to terms with the news, tragedy strikes at the local school. Thirteen teenagers are gunned down, and the killer is at large. Following the serious brain injury Amos suffered as a professional footballer, he gained a remarkable gift – and the police believe that this unusual skill will assist in the hunt for the killer. Amos must endure the memories he would rather forget, and when new evidence links the murders, he is left with only one option. Memory Man will stay with you long after the turn of the final page. The series continues with The Last Mile.

Introducing a remarkable new character from #1 New York Times bestselling writer David Baldacci: Atlee Pine, an FBI agent with special skills assigned to the remote wilds of the southwestern United States who must confront a new threat . . . and an old nightmare. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a tiger by its toe. It's seared into Atlee Pine's memory: the kidnapper's chilling rhyme as he chose between six-year-old Atlee and her twin sister, Mercy. Mercy was taken. Atlee was spared. She never saw Mercy again. Three decades after that terrifying night, Atlee Pine works for the FBI. She's the lone agent assigned to the Shattered Rock, Arizona resident agency, which is responsible for protecting the Grand Canyon. So when one of the Grand Canyon's mules is found stabbed to death at the bottom of the canyon-and its rider missing-Pine is called in to investigate. It soon seems clear the lost tourist had something more clandestine than sightseeing in mind. But just as Pine begins to put together clues pointing to a terrifying plot, she's abruptly called off the case. If she disobeys direct orders by continuing to search for the missing man, it will mean the end of her career. But unless Pine keeps working the case and discovers the truth, it could spell the very end of democracy in America as we know it... "Love it!" --Lisa Gardner"Atlee Pine is unforgettable." --James Patterson "David Baldacci's best yet." --Lisa Scottoline "Heart-poundingly suspenseful." --Scott Turow "A stunning debut." --Douglas Preston "A perfect blend of action, secrets, and conspiracies." --Steve Berry "Baldacci is at the top of his game." --Kathy Reichs

Large catastrophic events, or rare acute events, may cause situations in which a local jurisdiction's medicines and medical supplies are not sufficient to provide care to the population it serves. In these cases of natural or engineered disasters, such as a terrorist attack, influenza pandemic, or earthquake, state or local authorities can request that the federal government provide assets from the Strategic National Stockpile to augment the state and local jurisdictions' resources. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is the nation's repository of antibiotics, chemical antidotes, antitoxins, vaccines, antiviral drugs, and other medical materiel designed to supplement and resupply state and local public health agencies in the event of an emergency. The materiel is intended to support national health security and is managed by the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response's (OPHPR's) Division of Strategic National Stockpile (DSNS). The stated mission of the SNS is to prepare and support partners and provide the right resources at the right time to secure the nation's health. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a two-day public workshop to explore opportunities to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainable methods used by the CDC's SNS to distribute medical countermeasures and other supplies during disasters and other public health emergencies, especially those which result in disruption of physical infrastructure such as the electrical grid, central roadways, bridges, and tunnels within the impacted community. Participants explored relevant distribution lessons learned from other federal agency stockpiles and the private sector as well as opportunities to develop public-private collaborations in the purchase, warehousing, management, and distribution of medical countermeasures. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The disruption of store retail by online shopping has only just begun. Few retailers are ready for the changes ahead.Some customers shop in stores because they love to, but mostly they do it because there is no convenient alternative. This situation is changing. Technology which enables customers to make smart digital decisions and a wave of innovation in logistics are combining to solve the challenge of "retail's last mile": how to profitably and conveniently sell products to customers shopping from home. Online retail expert Jonathan Reeve forecasts that last-mile innovations will see shopping online overtake shopping in stores within 20 years. Few players have grasped the extent to which their business models and mindsets need to shift. The Amazons of this world have blazed the trail and a small number of retailers are keeping up. Most are well behind and have underestimated the threat. Reeve urges us to get ready before it's too late.

Star FBI detective Amos Decker and his colleague Alex Jamison must solve four increasingly bizarre murders in a dying rust belt town--and the closer they come to the truth, the deadlier it gets in this rapid-fire #1 New York Times bestseller. Something sinister is going on in Baronville. The rust belt town has seen four bizarre murders in the space of two weeks. Cryptic clues left at the scenes--obscure bible verses, odd symbols--have the police stumped. Amos Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are in Baronville visiting Alex's sister and her family. It's a bleak place: a former mill and mining town with a crumbling economy and rampant opioid addiction. Decker has only been there a few hours when he stumbles on a horrific double murder scene. Then the next killing hits sickeningly close to home. And with the lives of people he cares about suddenly hanging in the balance, Decker begins to realize that the recent string of deaths may be only one small piece of a much larger scheme--with consequences that will reach far beyond Baronville. Decker, with his singular talents, may be the only one who can crack this bizarre case. Only this time--when one mistake could cost him everything--Decker finds that his previously infallible memory may not be so trustworthy after all...

City distribution plays a key role in supporting urban lifestyles, helping to serve and retain industrial and trading activities, and contributing to the competitiveness of regional industry. This book aims to improve knowledge in this area by recognizing and evaluating the problems within the urban freight transport system.

This volume of three books presents recent advances in modelling, planning and evaluating city logistics for sustainable and liveable cities based on the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems). It highlights modelling the behaviour of stakeholders who are involved in city logistics as well as planning and managing policy measures of city logistics including cooperative freight transport systems in public-private partnerships. Case studies of implementing and evaluating city logistics measures in terms of economic, social and environmental benefits from major cities around the world are also given.

This book applies an established analytical framework for health sector reform (Getting Health Reform Right, Oxford, 2004) to the performance problems of the pharmaceutical sector. The book is divided into three sections. The first section presents the basic ideas for analysis. It begins by insisting that reform start with a clear understanding of the performance deficiencies of the current system. Like all priority setting in the public sector, this 'definition of the problem' involves both ethical choices and political processes. Early chapters explain the foundations of these ideas and apply them to the pharmaceutical sector. The relationship of ultimate outcomes (like health status or risk protection) to classic health systems concepts like efficiency, access and quality is also explored. The last chapter in the first part is devoted to 'diagnosis'—explaining how to move from the definition of a problem to an understanding of how the functioning of the system produces the undesirable outcomes in question. The second part of the book devotes one chapter to each of five 'control knobs': finance, payment, organization, regulation and persuasion. These are sets of potential interventions that governments can use to improve pharmaceutical sector performance. Each chapter presents basic concepts and discusses examples of reform options. Throughout we provide 'conditional guidance'—avoiding the approach of a 'one size fits all' model of 'best practices' in these five arenas for reform. Instead we stress the need for local knowledge of political systems, administrative capacities, community values and market conditions in order to design pharmaceutical sector policies appropriate to a country’s particular circumstances. The last part of the book is a set of teaching cases. Each is preceded by questions and is followed by a brief note on the lessons to be learned. The goal is to help readers develop the skills they need to deal effectively with pharmaceutical sector reform problems in their own countries.

In a stunning follow-up to her National Book Award–longlisted novel All the Wind in the World, Samantha Mabry weaves a magical, romantic, own-voices novel about three sisters shadowed by guilt and grief over the loss of their oldest sister, who still haunts their house.

Integrated analysis of the technologies, markets, and business of Residential Broadband In thirty years, the worldwide market for high-speed information services to the home will reach SI trillion. This book explains how and why. Beginning with tutorials and a few touches of history to position residential broadband today, this essential guide examines how competing technologies will struggle for supremacy in a chaotic market. It stakes out the battles between ADSL and cable modems, IP and ATM, telephone companies and CATV companies, televisions and personal computers, and professional applications and consumer applications. It does so with reverence for none-some will win and some will lose as the market emerges over the next decade or so. Our guide is kim Maxwell, an entrepreneur and executive who has spent twenty-five years inventing ways to make communications technologies and markets fit together. His analysis takes some surprising turns: * The Internet will not be the dominant network for residential broadband. * Despite its current power, IP may over time give way to ATM for residential broadband. * Cable modems have the early lead, but the DSL tortoise will catch up. * Fiber to the Home and the Information Superhighway are at least fifteen years away and depend upon HDTV. * Despite regulatory intentions, residential networking will return to a monopoly within thirty years. * Computers and televisions will not converge. * Ethernet will dominate home networking. * Video-on-demand will not be a viable market for at least five years. * In the long run. Consumer applications such as shopping and entertainment will dominate the more near-term applications for Internet access and telecommuting. * But, the market can only begin with the personal computer and its natural applications-Internet access and telecommuting.