Introduction To Environmental Biophysics

Book Description

This book describes the physical microenvironment of living organisms. It presents a simplified discussion of heat and mass transfer models and applies them to exchange processes between organisms and their surroundings. Emphasis is placed on teaching the student how to calculate actual transfer rates, rather than just studying the principles involved. Numerous examples are provided to illustrate many of the principles, and problems are included at the end of each chapter to help the student develop skills in using the equations and to gain an understanding of modern environmental biophysics. The book is an engineering approach to environmental biology.

Customer Reviews:

A dense book for a complex topic.......2005-10-03

Campbell is thorough in his approach to biophysical analysis of multiple environmental scenarios. As a text book, it is fairly dense and provides hints on how to solve specific problems throughout the text. However, finding those hints is sometimes fairly tricky. The equations presented are the latest version of the equations, but some may produce skewed answers in extreme condtions. Living in interior Alaska, some of Campbell's formulas and tables just don't cut it for winter and high-latitude conditions. All in all a solid book though, despite it's initial density and sometimes insufficient clarity.

excellent and unique update in the subject.......2000-06-28

This text is an excellent companion for anybody dealing with transfers of energy and water in the biosphere, particularly at the plant-canopy level. Badly needed since the only comparable textbook is Monteith & Unsworth - a little outdated and more physically based than this one, which is more bio-oriented and includes current remote sensing use. Excellent reference, and well organized course textbook. There are some mistakes but I know of a second edition appearing this year which will correct them.

An Introduction to Environmental Biophysics

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An Introduction to Environmental Biophysics

Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 3540902287

Book Description

This profusely illustrated field guide covers the 31 species of orchids that grow wild in California. The first book on California's native orchids, it will be a valuable resource for professionals and hobbyists alike. The Wild Orchids of California is an impressive extension of Ronald A. Coleman's wide fieldwork, literature review, and herbarium research. Written in a clear narrative style, Coleman's species accounts describe the plants and flowers, their habitats, distribution, pollinators, and blooming season.

Book Description

Kraków, a city of proud traditions and rich history, is unveiled in this comprehensive guide by one of its own citizens. Explore labyrinthine salt mines, marvel at religious icons and relax in medieval cellar bars with this book as your indispensable companion.

13 detailed maps including full colour city maps
essential information to get you around Kraków
background to the symbolism and magic of the Wawel Castle
maps and details of excursions to national parks
notes on the Schindler's List movie trail

Customer Reviews:

Another User Unfriendly Lonely Planet Guide.......2000-04-04

Despite having numerous bad experiences using Lonely Planet guides in the past (India, Nepal, Colombia etc.), I was recently forced to buy the LP guide on Krakow. I had previously promised myself that I would never again waste my money on a L.P. guide. However, due to the absence of any other guides for Krakow, I was forced to break down and buy this "guide".

I believe that L.P.'s popularity is based on the fact that they have a virtual monopoly on guides for some obscure travel destinations and they have no incentive to improve. I doubt that many travellers rely on LP guides for travel in France, since so many better options are availible. However, if you are travelling to an exotic travel destination, you are stuck with LP.

In any event, the Krakow guide confirmed my negative view of L.P. guides. As usual, the history portion of the guide was very informative and made great reading during my train trip from Prague to Krakow.

However, upon arrival the flaws of the L.P. format became painfully apparent. The font was (as usual) tiny and required a magnifying glass to read. The information regarding sights was overdone for minor sights and woefully lacking for important ones.

For example the portion of the guide dealing with Wawel Castle (one of the top sights in Krakow) was completely unorganized and indecipherable. The cathedral had many things in it which looked interesting but were not commented on in the guidebook. After whetting my appetite to check out the famous Wawel Chokra, the guide did not give information as to locating the thing. Ultimatly, I tagged on to a tour group to get the information which should have been contained in the guide!

Another weak point are the lousy maps. They do not conform with reality and are utterly useless. The maps are located in the back of the book. As a result, in order to use the maps, the user has to flip back and forth between the maps and the sections regarding the location you are trying to track down. This is irritating when you are walking along trying to find something.

The main maps contain a polyglot of information which mixes hotels, restaurants and sights in no apparent order. Would it be too much to ask to have some kind of practical organization? Would it not make sense to put a map in each section with a simple key to the locales discussed? Say what you will about Frommer's, they do maps well! L.P. just gets you lost! I just don't see the adventure into complicating a trip with needless frustration caused by getting lost, especially in a simply laid out city such as Krakow.

In it's defense, the guide did give good recommendations regarding hotels and restaurants and was well done in the Auschwitz section.

If you need a usable guide to get around Krakow, my recomendation would be to buy one of the $1 maps which are sold in the bookstores which surround the Cloth Hall. I did just that after retiring this guide after I wasted a day with it. L.P. serves a good function by filling guidebook gaps with less common travel destinations. However, they need to realize that organization and ease of use are as important as the information contained in the guide. They continue to produce guides which are unwieldy and poorly organized.

Book Description

Slow Cures and Bad Philosophers uses insights from the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein to rethink bioethics. Although Wittgenstein produced little formal writing on ethics, this volume shows that, in fact, ethical issues permeate the entirety of his work. The scholars whom Carl Elliott has assembled in this volume pay particular attention to Wittgenstein’s concern with the thick context of moral problems, his suspicion of theory, and his belief in description as the real aim of philosophy. Their aim is not to examine Wittgenstein’s personal moral convictions but rather to explore how a deep engagement with his work can illuminate some of the problems that medicine and biological science present.
As Elliott explains in his introduction, Wittgenstein’s philosophy runs against the grain of most contemporary bioethics scholarship, which all too often ignores the context in which moral problems are situated and pays little attention to narrative, ethnography, and clinical case studies in rendering bioethical judgments. Such anonymous, impersonal, rule-writing directives in which health care workers are advised how to behave is what this volume intends to counteract. Instead, contributors stress the value of focusing on the concrete particulars of moral problems and write in the spirit of Wittgenstein’s belief that philosophy should be useful. Specific topics include the concept of “good dying,” the nature of clinical decision making, the treatment of neurologically damaged patients, the moral treatment of animals, and the challenges of moral particularism.
Inspired by a philosopher who deplored “professional philosophy,” this work brings some startling insights and clarifications to contemporary ethical problems posed by the realities of modern medicine.

Contributors. Larry Churchill, David DeGrazia, Cora Diamond, James Edwards, Carl Elliott, Grant Gillett, Paul Johnston, Margaret Olivia Little, James Lindemann Nelson, Knut Erik Tranoy

Book Description

This comprehensive textbook/reference focuses on the mathematical techniques and solution methodologies required to establish the foundations of anisotropic elasticity and provides the theoretical background for composite material analysis. Specific attention is devoted to the potential of modern symbolic computational tools to support highly complex analytical solutions and their contribution to the rigor, analytical uniformity and exactness of the derivation.

Key features:

* Refreshes and modernizes classical mathematical methods encountered in the theory of anisotropic elasticity

* Reviews basic and advanced steps of general analytical solutions, including the initial assumptions and selection of an adequate analytical course

* Demonstrates the potential of symbolic computational tools to support the development of analytical solutions and to verify their exactness

* Examines the physical interpretation of exact and approximate mathematical solutions and provides important insight into the involved phenomena

* Provides state-of-the-art solutions for a wide range of cases, including non-homogeneous and thin-walled configurations

* Includes a CD with the symbolic codes (MAPLE; Versions 8 and 9) for the solutions presented that may be activated to create numerous additional examples containing detailed expressions and graphics

Analytical Methods in Anisotropic Elasticity will appeal to a broad audience involved in mathematical modeling, all of whom must have good mathematical skills: graduate students and professors in courses on elasticity and solid-mechanics labs/seminars, applied mathematicians and numerical analysts, scientists and researchers. Engineers involved in aeronautical and space, maritime and mechanical design of composite material structures will find this an excellent hands-on reference text as well. All will benefit from the classical and advanced solutions that are derived and presented using symbolic computational techniques.

Engineering Dynamics, Volume 1, Theory of Elasticity, Analytical & Experimental Methods (Engineering Dynamics, Volume 1)

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Engineering Dynamics, Volume 1, Theory of Elasticity, Analytical & Experimental Methods (Engineering Dynamics, Volume 1)
C. B. & Grammel, R. Biezeno
Manufacturer: Blackie and Son
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KIJ4RW

Contact Problems in Elasticity : A Study of Variational Inequalities and Finite Element Methods (SIAM Studies in Applied and Numerical Methematics) (Siam Studies in Applied Mathematics)

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Contact Problems in Elasticity : A Study of Variational Inequalities and Finite Element Methods (SIAM Studies in Applied and Numerical Methematics) (Siam Studies in Applied Mathematics)
Noboru Kikuchi , and J. Tinsley Oden
Manufacturer: Soc for Industrial & Applied Math
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Acoustics & Sound | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Mechanics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

jp-unknown2 | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0898712025

Book Description

The contact of one deformable body with another lies at the heart of almost every mechanical structure. Here, in a comprehensive treatment, two of the field's leading researchers present a systematic approach to contact problems. Using variational formulations, Kikuchi and Oden derive a multitude of new results, both for classical problems and for nonlinear problems involving large deflections and buckling of thin plates with unilateral supports, dry friction with nonclassical laws, large elastic and elastoplastic deformations with frictional contact, dynamic contacts with dynamic frictional effects, and rolling contacts. This method exposes properties of solutions obscured by classical methods, and it provides a basis for the development of powerful numerical schemes.

Engineering Dynamics. Vol I: Theory of Elasticity: Analytical and Experimental Methods

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Engineering Dynamics. Vol I: Theory of Elasticity: Analytical and Experimental Methods
C. B. and Grammel, R. (M. L. Meyer, Translator) Biezeno
Manufacturer: Blackie
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000R0DAAU

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A blend of literature and economics

The Not-so-Dismal Science

Classic economic drama, poetry, and prose

The Literary Book of Economics: Including Readings from Literature and Drama on Economic Concepts, Issues, and Themes

Manufacturer: Intercollegiate Studies Inst
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1932236023

Book Description

The Literary Book of Economics is one of the most innovative approaches to economic education and literacy ever published. As empirical research has demonstrated, economics is taught more effectively when integrated into other fields, and is perhaps particularly effective when coupled with the classic literary works of Western culture, which allows great authors to use their erudition to convey economic concepts and topics too often treated only theoretically. Teachers and students of literature and economics have much to gain by studying economic topics and concepts in this way. Including helpful commentary from Professor Watts, The Literary Book of Economics is a refreshing treatment of the "dismal science," presenting a cogent explication of free-market theory.

Customer Reviews:

A blend of literature and economics.......2006-04-20

College-level collections strong on either literature or economics will welcome a blend of the two by an economist whose purpose is to blend economic education with literacy. Economics are best absorbed when blended with other disciplines, studies show: and Watts shows how to achieve this, using over seventy selections from classic and modern writings to link over twenty major economic concepts to themes and modern times. A unique, cross-disciplinary approach.

The Not-so-Dismal Science.......2005-01-10

Marx may have said that history is economics in action, but this book shows us that great works of literature can show us economics in action, too.

Michael Watts, Professor of Economics at Purdue Univ., has pulled together 78 short excepts from classic and not-so-classic literature that involve economic topics. Those topics include money, unemployment, income inequality, division of labor, unions, supply and demand, cost-benefit analysis, property, scarcity and others. The excerpts range from the classic (Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice") to the modern ("The Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger). There's a wide spectrum of other authors, too, such as Emerson, Steinbeck, Dickens, Ben Franklin, Ayn Rand, Orwell, Vonnegut, Goethe, and others.

Some of the chapters reframe known works into an economic context - i.e. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is reframed as a lesson about opportunity cost. Other selections illuminate (and sometimes satirize!) some basic economic principles. In other excerpts, economic factors influence the characters and drive the plot forward. In just a few others, the economic element is more tangential or incidental.

Overall, though, this is an interesting collection; I haven't seen anything else like it. It's a great reference book, and the sections & selections can be read indepenently. The collection is perfect for anyone who would like to push aside their supply-and-demand graphs or dry textbooks to instead read memorable stories about real people, stories that will also deepen one's understanding of economics. It's also great for anyone needing a gentle introduction to basic economic principles (though I should say that the book isn't a substitute for a more expository text in basic economics or finance). Recommended.

Classic economic drama, poetry, and prose.......2003-10-19

Compiled, edited, and with an informative commentary by Michael Watts (Director of the Center for Economic Education and Professor of Economics at Purdue University), The Literary Book Of Economics is comprised of seventy-eight selections from classic drama, poetry, and prose written by thinking men and women through centuries of history, all chosen for the particular vibrancy of expression that they give to twenty crucial economic concepts and themes. The citations range from William Shakespeare and Benjamin Franklin, to Ayn Rand, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut and much others, each of whom contribute to a deeper understanding of market principles through literature. The Literary Book Of Economics is a unique and highly recommended addition to Economic Studies reading lists and library reference collections.

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