Offers a comprehensive, accessible introduction to experimental design, field monitoring skills for plants and animals, data analysis, interpretation and reporting This user-friendly book presents field monitoring skills for both plants and animals, within the context of a research project. This text provides a single resource to take the reader all the way through from the planning stage, into the field, guiding through sampling, organism identification, computer-based data analysis and interpretation, and finally how to present the results to maximise the impact of the work. Logically structured throughout, and revised extensively in the second edition, the book concentrates on the techniques required to design a field-based ecological survey and shows how to execute an appropriate sampling regime. It evaluates appropriate sampling and analytical methods, identifying potential problems associated with various techniques and how to mitigate these. The second edition of this popular text has updated reference material and weblinks, increased the number of case studies by 50% to illustrate the use of specific techniques in the field, added over 20% more figures (including 8 colour plates), and made more extensive use of footnotes to provide extra details. Extensions to topics covered in the first edition include additional discussion of: ethical issues; statistical methods (sample size estimation, use of the statistical package R, mixed models); bioindicators, especially for freshwater pollution; seeds, fecundity and population dynamics including static and dynamic life tables; forestry techniques including tree coring and tree mortality calculations; the use of data repositories; writing for a journal and producing poster and oral presentations. In addition, the use of new and emerging technologies has been a particular focus, including mobile apps for environmental monitoring and identification; land cover and GIS; the use of drones including legal frameworks and codes of practice; molecular field techniques including DNA analysis in the field (including eDNA); photo-matching for identifying individuals; camera trapping; modern techniques for detecting and analysing bat echolocation calls; and data storage using the cloud. Divided into six distinct chapters, Practical Field Ecology, 2nd Edition begins at project inception with a chapter on planning—covering health and safety, along with guidance on how to ensure that the sampling and experimental design is suitable for subsequent statistical analysis. Following a chapter dealing with site characterisation and general aspects of species identification, subsequent chapters describe the techniques used to survey and census particular groups of organisms. The final chapters cover analysing, interpreting and presenting data, and writing up the research. Offers a readable and approachable integrated guide devoted to field-based research projects Takes students from the planning stage, into the field, and clearly guides them through organism identification in the laboratory and computer-based data analysis, interpretation and data presentation Includes a chapter on how to write project reports and present findings in a variety of formats to differing audiences Aimed at undergraduates taking courses in Ecology, Biology, Geography, and Environmental Science, Practical Field Ecology, 2nd Edition will also benefit postgraduates seeking to support their projects.
Using Statistics to Understand the Environment covers all the basic tests required for environmental practicals and projects and points the way to the more advanced techniques that may be needed in more complex research designs. Following an introduction to project design, the book covers methods to describe data, to examine differences between samples, and to identify relationships and associations between variables. Featuring: worked examples covering a wide range of environmental topics, drawings and icons, chapter summaries, a glossary of statistical terms and a further reading section, this book focuses on the needs of the researcher rather than on the mathematics behind the tests.
Hope in the Valley By: Penny Heggie Austin Tom and Ellen have both had their share of struggles, but from the moment they meet, they can’t help their strong attraction to each other. As their love grows, the world around them becomes more complicated with a past that won’t leave Tom alone. With the help of family, friends, each other, and God, Tom and Ellen will find the happiness for which they’ve been searching.
It's 1931 . . . and Kettle Farm is starting to feel like home, but Ruby is still desperately worried about her dad. He hasn't written for weeks, and nobody knows where he is. Will Dad ever come back to them? When nobody will give Ruby any answers, she sets out to find him herself . . . Follow Ruby on her adventure in the final of four exciting stories about a happy-go-lucky girl in a time of great change.
Hearts on Fire is the inspiring story of the Maryknoll Sisters, updated to mark the centenary of their founding in 1912. Through the voices of the Sisters themselves, Penny Lernoux draws a loving portrait of a community in constant transition and shows how in their process of growth and conversion they left an indelible mark on the church and the world.
An irresistibly sweeping saga of power, family politics, and passion—first in the Spoils of Time trilogy from the bestselling author. Celia Lytton is the beautiful and strong-willed daughter of wealthy aristocrats and she is used to getting her way. She moves through life making difficult and often dangerous decisions that affect herself and others—her husband, Oliver, and their children; the destitute Sylvia Miller, whose life is transformed by Celia’s intrusion; as well as Oliver’s daunting elder sister, who is not all she appears to be; and Sebastian Brooke, for whom Celia makes the most dangerous decision of all. Set against the tumultuous backdrop of London and New York in the First World War, No Angel is, as British Good Housekeeping wrote, “an absorbing page-turner, packed with believable characters and satisfyingly extreme villains, eccentrics, and manipulators.” Readers of Maeve Binchy, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Anita Shreve will fall in love with this epic, un-put-downable novel. “Through life and death, exuberance and sorrow, honor and disgrace, Vincenzi perfectly captures the intricacies of her characters and creates plots captivating enough to keep readers eyes’ glued to this long and hearty saga.” —Publishers Weekly “Packed with passion, pain, pace and palaver.” —Daily Mail Praise for Penny Vincenzi “The doyenne of the modern blockbuster.” —Glamour “Soap opera? You bet—but with her well-drawn characters and engaging style, Vincenzi keeps things humming.” —People “Nobody writes smart, page-turning commercial women’s fiction like Vincenzi.” —USA Today “Will draw you in against your better judgment and keep you awake reading all night.” —The Boston Globe
A Life Force in Life Science tells the extraordinary story of Ida Smedley MacLean. Clever and charismatic, Ida was born in Birmingham in1877 but went on to study chemistry at Cambridge at a time when women working within science was still controversial.
First in a new series! At the San Francisco Seafood Festival, someone is steamed enough to kill a cook.... When restaurant reviewer Darcy Burnett gets served a pink slip from the San Francisco Chronicle, she needs to come up with an alternative recipe for success quickly. Her feisty aunt Abby owns a tricked-out school bus, which she’s converted into a hip and happening food truck, and Darcy comes aboard as a part-timer while she develops a cookbook project based on recipes from food fests in the Bay Area. But she soon finds someone’s been trafficking in character assassination—literally—when a local chef turns up dead and her aunt is framed for the murder. The restaurant chef was an outspoken enemy of food trucks, and now Darcy wonders if one of the other vendors did him in. With her aunt’s business—and freedom—on the line, it’s up to Darcy to steer the murder investigation in the right direction and put the brakes on an out-of-control killer…. RECIPES INCLUDED!
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Named one of the most anticipated novels of the season by People, Associated Press, Time, Los Angeles Times, Parade, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more. From the #1 bestselling authors Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny comes a novel of unsurpassed thrills and incomparable insider expertise—State of Terror. After a tumultuous period in American politics, a new administration has just been sworn in, and to everyone’s surprise the president chooses a political enemy for the vital position of secretary of state. There is no love lost between the president of the United States and Ellen Adams, his new secretary of state. But it’s a canny move on the part of the president. With this appointment, he silences one of his harshest critics, since taking the job means Adams must step down as head of her multinational media conglomerate. As the new president addresses Congress for the first time, with Secretary Adams in attendance, Anahita Dahir, a young foreign service officer (FSO) on the Pakistan desk at the State Department, receives a baffling text from an anonymous source. Too late, she realizes the message was a hastily coded warning. What begins as a series of apparent terrorist attacks is revealed to be the beginning of an international chess game involving the volatile and Byzantine politics of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran; the race to develop nuclear weapons in the region; the Russian mob; a burgeoning rogue terrorist organization; and an American government set back on its heels in the international arena. As the horrifying scale of the threat becomes clear, Secretary Adams and her team realize it has been carefully planned to take advantage of four years of an American government out of touch with international affairs, out of practice with diplomacy, and out of power in the places where it counts the most. To defeat such an intricate, carefully constructed conspiracy, it will take the skills of a unique team: a passionate young FSO; a dedicated journalist; and a smart, determined, but as yet untested new secretary of state. State of Terror is a unique and utterly compelling international thriller cowritten by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 67th secretary of state, and Louise Penny, a multiple award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling novelist.
Food truck vendor Darcy Burnett unwraps a murder at the San Francisco Chocolate Festival in this mystery from the author of Death of a Crabby Cook… At this year’s chocolate festival, Darcy and her Aunt Abby hope to win the $10,000 prize in the chocolate contest with Aunt Abby’s taste sensation: the chocolate raspberry whoopee pie. A little friendly competition from Darcy’s sometime-beau Jake Miller, who plans to enter with his chocolate cream puff delight, only sweetens the deal. But things get sticky when one of the judges, Polly Montgomery, is taken out of commission—permanently. The suspects include every contestant with reason to believe Polly wasn’t too sweet on their sweets, including Aunt Abby’s high school friend. Now Darcy must pick through an assortment of secrets to catch a killer before someone else gets a bittersweet finish.
In this book the authors detail key psychological strategies, conversational gambits, what to wear/what not to wear, what food and drink to serve and even décor choices (yes!) to come out smiling in a series of increasingly important social situations – culminating in hosting your engagement party, if that’s what you’re after!
A comprehensive analysis of the astonishing changes that elevated the Chicago public school system from one of the worst in the nation to one of the most improved. How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools tells the story of the extraordinary thirty-year school reform effort that changed the landscape of public education in Chicago. Acclaimed educational researcher Anthony S. Bryk joins five coauthors directly involved in Chicago’s education reform efforts, Sharon Greenberg, Albert Bertani, Penny Sebring, Steven E. Tozer, and Timothy Knowles, to illuminate the many factors that led to this transformation of the Chicago Public Schools. Beginning in 1987, Bryk and colleagues lay out the civic context for reform, outlining the systemic challenges such as segregation, institutional racism, and income and resource disparities that reformers grappled with as well as the social conflicts they faced. Next, they describe how fundamental changes occurred at every level of schooling: enhancing classroom instruction; organizing more engaged and effective local school communities; strengthening the preparation, recruitment, and support of teachers and school leaders; and sustaining an ambitious evidence-based campaign to keep the public informed on the progress of key reform initiatives and the challenges still ahead. The power of this capacity building is validated by unprecedented increases in benchmarks such as graduation rates and college matriculation. This riveting account introduces key actors within the schools, city government, and business community, and the partnerships they forged. It also reveals the surprising yet essential role of Chicago's innovative information infrastructure in aligning disparate initiatives. In making clear how elements such as advocacy, civic capacity, improvement research, and strong democracy contributed to large-scale progress in the system's 600-plus schools, the book highlights the greater lessons that the Chicago story offers for system improvement overall.
“Gives readers more of what they’ve come to expect from Penny Vincenzi: a thoroughly enjoyable family saga with glamour, romance and drama to spare.” —Bookreporter A mysterious, tragic accident in the 1950s. An inexplicable suicide twenty years later. What was the strange link between the two—and Caroline Hunterton’s long-buried past? A secret which could not be kept forever, especially from her two daughters, Chloe and Fleur. Fate had separated the sisters in time and distance—but bound them in mutual hatred—until journalist Magnus Phillips decided to tell the story that would tear their lives apart. Moving from wartime Suffolk to 1950s Hollywood, from glitzy Madison Avenue to London’s theatrical aristocracy and the machinations of checkbook publishing, An Outrageous Affair explores the extraordinary, sometimes fatal, consequences of truth—sure to please Penny’s legions of readers. “Fans of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s multigenerational stories will likely flock to Vincenzi’s latest . . . the mystery will likely keep them turning the pages.” —Booklist “Vincenzi provides plenty of heat and intrigue.” —Publishers Weekly Praise for Penny Vincenzi “The doyenne of the modern blockbuster.” —Glamour “Soap opera? You bet—but with her well-drawn characters and engaging style, Vincenzi keeps things humming.” —People “Nobody writes smart, page-turning commercial women’s fiction like Vincenzi.” —USA Today “Will draw you in against your better judgment and keep you awake reading all night.” —The Boston Globe “Vincenzi does it again with another captivating and entertaining family saga that combines power, riches, lies, and greed . . . For fans of Barbara Taylor Bradford and Danielle Steel.” —Library Journal
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