Ecological Diversity and Its Measurement

Book Description

Ecological diversity, or the variety and abundance of species in different habitats, is one of the central themes of ecology. However, much of the existing literature on this subject is diffuse, often confusing and beset by unnecessarily complicated mathematics. This book aims to provide a succinct and clear summary of the relevant literature and a practical guide to the measurement of diversity. It discusses the methods of describing ecological diversity in conjunction with specific recommendations for the selection and interpretation of diversity measures. In addition the book considers the sampling problems often encountered in ecological censusing. The work concludes with a discussion of the empirical value of diversity measures. A special feature that makes the book particularly accessible to readers without great expertise in mathematics is the inclusion of worked examples of the main diversity measures and models. The book should appeal to students taking advanced courses in ecology and also to professionals working in conversation and related areas of applied ecology.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book, makes easy the use of diversity indexes.......1999-06-03

It is a well planed and designed book; it takes away the fuzz of calculating the diversity indexes. A new edition would be welcome, in order to include the advances in the subject. I strongly recommend this book. There is a spanish translation.

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Genus Coelomomyces

Manufacturer: Academic Press Inc.,U.S.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Mushrooms | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0121926508

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Specificity of the fungus coelomomyces iliensis dub., Dech. et Daneb. to the larvae of mosquitoes from the genus Culex =: Spetsifichnost' griba Coelomomyces ... et Daneb. K lichinkam komarov iz roda Culex
A. E Danebekov
Manufacturer: Muhammad Ali Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007BHUY6

Book Description

This collection of essays written by prestigious Washington scholars examines the role that geography and the diverse inhabitants of this frontier play in molding Washington's life, temperament, and politics.

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Student Interactive Workbook for Starr's Biology: Concepts and Applications, 6th
Cecie Starr
Manufacturer: Brooks Cole
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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Biology: Concepts and Applications (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac® 2-Semester, vMentor?-How Do I Prepare Printed Access Card BiologyNOW?)

Biology: Concepts and Applications (Paperbound with CD-ROM, How Do I Prepare/vMentor, and BiologyNow/InfoTrac)

Biology: Today and Tomorrow with Physiology (with ThomsonNOW?-How Do I Prepare/vMentor?, InfoTrac® 1-Semester, iLrn? Printed Access Card)

Biology: Concepts and Applications (Casebound with CD-ROM, How Do I Prepare/vMentor, and BiologyNow/InfoTrac) (Brooks/Cole Biology)

Essential Study Skills for Science Students

ASIN: 0534462294

Book Description

This student workbook invites and requires students' active participation, is organized to match sections in the text, and is very easy to use. Each chapter includes interactive exercises, self-quizzes, chapter objectives/review questions, media menu review questions, and integrating and applying key concepts questions and answers. As students write in their responses to the questions, their understanding increases.

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

In 1856, while trying to synthesize artificial quinine, 18-year-old chemistry student William Perkin instead produced a murky residue. Fifty years later, he described the event: he "was about to throw a certain residue away when I thought it might be interesting. The solution of it resulted in a strangely beautiful color." Perkin had stumbled across the world's first aniline dye, a color that became known as mauve.

"So what?" you might say. "A teenager invented a new color." As Simon Garfield admirably points out in Mauve, the color really did change the world. Before Perkin's discovery all the dyes and paints were colored by roots, leaves, insects, or, in the case of purple, mollusks. As a result, colors were inconsistent and unpredictably strong, often fading or washing out. Perkin found a dye that would always produce a uniform shade--and he pointed the way to other synthetic colors, thus revolutionizing the world of both dyemaking and fashion. Mauve became all the rage. Queen Victoria wore it to her daughter's wedding in 1858, and the highly influential Empress Eugénie decided the color matched her eyes. Soon, the streets of London erupted in what one wag called the "mauve measles."

Mauve had a much wider impact as well. By finding a commercial use for his discovery--much to the dismay of his teacher, the great August Hofmann, who believed there needed to be a separation between "pure" and "applied" science--Perkin inspired others to follow in his footsteps: "Ten years after Perkin's discovery of mauve, organic chemistry was perceived as being exciting, profitable, and of great practical use." The influx of bright young men all hoping to earn their fortunes through industrial applications of chemistry later brought significant advances in the fields of medicine, perfume, photography, and even explosives. Through it all, Garfield tells his story in clever, witty prose, turning this odd little tale into a very entertaining read. --Sunny Delaney

Book Description

Born of a laboratory accident, this odd shade of purple revolutionized fashion, industry, and the practice of science. Before 1856, the color in our lives--the reds, blues, and blacks of clothing, paint, and print--came from insects or mollusks, roots or leaves; and dyeing was painstaking and expensive. But in 1856 eighteen-year-old English chemist William Perkin accidentally discovered a way to mass-produce color in a factory. Working on a treatment for malaria in his London home laboratory, Perkin failed to produce artificial quinine. Instead he created a dark oily sludge that turned silk a beautiful light purple. Mauve became the most desirable shade in the fashion houses of Paris and London, but its importance extended far beyond ball gowns. It sparked new interest in industrial applications of chemistry research, which later brought about the development of explosives, perfume, photography, and modern medicine. With great wit, scientific savvy, and historical scope, Simon Garfield delivers a fascinating tale of how an accidental genius set in motion an extraordinary scientific achievement.

Customer Reviews:

Jumpy and lacking in chemical "substance".......2006-08-19

I found this book often interesting and often confusing. People entered and exited frequently, and the insertion of some modern information about color broke the continuity of the author's message. I wished for more descriptions of the chemistry involved, what the various chemical reactions did, and how other chemists adapted Perkin's synthetic route to create new dyes. But the most descriptive information comes from Perkin's patent application, which sounds so general as to provide little useful information. So, this book gets three stars because it provided an easy summer read, but it lacked in scientific substance.

Not as good as the title promised........2004-09-21

It could have been a great book. I'm always looking for good books about chemistry and chemists so I had high hopes for this one. The story of William Perkin discovering mauve as an 18-year-old student and then starting the synthetic dye industry in Britain is inspirational for chemistry students everywhere. However, the author races through the biography of Perkin in the first half of the book, barely hinting at his family or other aspects of the young man's life and personality. The second half of the book is all jumbled together: Perkin, fashion, natural dyes, World War II, malaria, etc. The author attempts to show that many different fields were affected by the synthesis of mauve from coal tar, but he really doesn't make a clear case for any of them, and the reader is left with a pile of disjointed factoids and unrelated characters. I was disappointed. It is still worth reading, for someone interested in the chemistry of color, but don't expect to be wowed.

Okay. But I really didn't get it........2003-07-04

I really wanted to like this book. And, yes, it has a fascinating tale to tell. But there was something lacking in the writing that me entirely unable to 'get' what the writer was trying to say. It IS an interesting story about the origins of dyes, about the effect of dyes on other industries, the industrial surge of technology of the age, and so on. But I couldn't ever quite figure out what made the chemical composition about this particular mauve so unique and important, and what about it was pushing the world into the future. I'm not usually this lost when I read, so, officially, I'm blaming the author! Sorry Simon.

origins of heterocyclic chemistry.......2002-07-23

This is a fantastic accounting of a too little glorified period in the development of organic chemistry. The story will be inspiring to anyone who has an interest in chemistry and/or business. The latter because the story demonstrates the importance of recognizing and capitalizing on an unexpected invention (vs. more target-oriented discovery).

Unlike, most other popular science-related books that this is likely to be lumped with, it is enjoyably written, well researched and full of fascinating facts.

Real chemistry.......2002-04-16

This book pushed so many of my buttons -- science history, painting, Victoriania, chains of coincidence and hidden causality -- that I had to love it. Best popular science book I've read in a while.

A diferent kind of reader might have been annoyed at the depth of detail, much of it trivia. I gobbled it up, though.

Average customer rating:

a great biography

Linus Pauling: A Man and His Science
Anthony Serafini
Manufacturer: Paragon House Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General & Reference | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0913729884

Book Description

Linus Pauling could be considered the American cowboy of science. His approach to the discipline evinces the same pioneering spirit that drove the early settlers to explore and conquer ever-widening frontiers.

Pauling has always been willing to take risks in proposing controversial new scientific theories: his ground-breaking work on sickle-cell anemia, the theory of anesthesia, chemical bonding, and his near-victory in the DNA race show the tremendous range of his professional talents and curiosity.

Pauling’s approach to life and his role as a public figure reflect the same brand of risk-taking and controversy. Active as a peace crusader and humanitarian, he has never hesitated to question the political or scientific establishments.

He engendered hostility among the scientists of the Manhattan project (developers of the atomic bomb), expressed opposition to 1943 wartime interment of Japanese-Americans, openly defended J. Robert Oppenheimer during the "Red Scare" period, and worked toward a nuclear test-ban treaty in the 1950s.

Anthony Serafini uses letters, documents, and interviews with Pauling’s contemporaries to take the reader through the many facets of Pauling’s life, including his student days, triumphs in chemistry, a 1962 Nobel Peace Prize, and more.

Customer Reviews:

a great biography.......2004-09-07

This is an excellent compendium of Pauling's life; detailing his major scientific contributions (smaller than is commonly supposed). It also deals with Pauling's shenaningans in destroying the careers of other scientists who disagreed with him. It is excellently written and thoroughly researched, though likely it will irritate the scientific community by exposing many of the sordid practices so common in "objective" science.

ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION - Volume 2, number 6 - November Nov - December Dec 1978: The Tryouts; Enumerators; Postage Stamps of Philo Tate; George Barr; First Star; As Chemist to Chemist; Man with the Eye; On the Q167 File; Last Master of Limericks

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ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION - Volume 2, number 6 - November Nov - December Dec 1978: The Tryouts; Enumerators; Postage Stamps of Philo Tate; George Barr; First Star; As Chemist to Chemist; Man with the Eye; On the Q167 File; Last Master of Limericks
George (editor) (Barry B. Longyear; E. E. Roberts; Martin Gardner; Ginger Kaderabek; J. P. Boyd; Isaac Asimov; Phyllis Eisenstein; John M. Ford; Garry R. Osgood; Edward Wellen; Jack Gaughan; Glen M. Bever; Bill Pronzini; Barry N. Malzberg) Scithers
Manufacturer: Davis Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Limericks & Humorous Verse | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000KN4TSG

Cereals Seventy Eight: Better Nutrition for the World's Millions

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Cereals Seventy Eight: Better Nutrition for the World's Millions

Manufacturer: Amer Assn of Cereal Chemists
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Harold Urey: The Man Who Explored from Earth to Moon

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Harold Urey: The Man Who Explored from Earth to Moon
Alvin. Silverstein
Manufacturer: Harpercollins Juvenile Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
ASIN: 0381997057

Man the chemist (Social history of science library)

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Man the chemist (Social history of science library)
Trevor Illtyd Williams
Manufacturer: Priory Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General & Reference | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

The Day the Water Treatment Man Came to Visit: A True Story. (Feature/Chronique).(marketing home water treatment systems)(Brief Article): An article from: Canadian Chemical News

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The Day the Water Treatment Man Came to Visit: A True Story. (Feature/Chronique).(marketing home water treatment systems)(Brief Article): An article from: Canadian Chemical News
Leslie Barton
Manufacturer: Chemical Institute of Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Canadian Chemical News, published by Chemical Institute of Canada on January 1, 2002. The length of the article is 925 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Day the Water Treatment Man Came to Visit: A True Story. (Feature/Chronique).(marketing home water treatment systems)(Brief Article)
Author: Leslie Barton
Publication: Canadian Chemical News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2002
Publisher: Chemical Institute of Canada
Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Page: 23(1)

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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A man with vision
W. C Oelke
Manufacturer: s.n.]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B000727266

Book Description

Soft biological tissues often undergo large (nearly) elastic deformations that can be analyzed using the nonlinear theory of elasticity. Because of the varied approaches to nonlinear elasticity in the literature, some aspects of the subject may be difficult to appreciate. This book attempts to clarify and unify those treatments, illustrating the advantages and disadvantages of each through various examples in the mechanics of soft tissues. Applications include muscle, arteries, the heart, and embryonic tissues.

Nonlinear Elasticity: Theory and Applications (London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series)

Average customer rating:

Starts great, ends only acceptable

Nonlinear Elasticity: Theory and Applications (London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Mechanics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0521796954

Book Description

This collection of papers by leading researchers in the field of finite, nonlinear elasticity concerns itself with the behavior of objects that deform when external forces or temperature gradients are applied. This process is extremely important in many industrial settings, such as aerospace and rubber industries. This book covers the various aspects of the subject comprehensively with careful explanations of the basic theories and individual chapters each covering a different research direction. The authors discuss the use of symbolic manipulation software as well as computer algorithm issues. The emphasis is placed firmly on covering modern, recent developments, rather than the very theoretical approach often found. The book will be an excellent reference for both beginners and specialists in engineering, applied mathematics and physics.

Customer Reviews:

Starts great, ends only acceptable.......2003-11-01

This is really a hard book, full of advanced jargon and only useful for upper graduate students and experts. Well, actually it's a bad point but this is not a problem about this book, it is about the developing science of nonlinear elasticity. I suppose the only problem of the book is its non-uniformity: it is written by 5 or more writers with different styles, backgrounds and even notations and symbols.
The book starts with a great review by Ogden on principles of nonlinear elasticity, but ends with some paper-like materials which should have been organized in the form of a book.

Mathematical Theory of Non-Linear Elasticity (Ellis Horwood Series in Mathematics and Its Applications)

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Mathematical Theory of Non-Linear Elasticity (Ellis Horwood Series in Mathematics and Its Applications)
Andrzej Hanyga , and R. W. Ogden
Manufacturer: Ellis Horwood Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Mechanics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0135637279

Book Description

This third volume of Michael Reynolds's extraordinary evocation of Hemingway's life finds the American writer in Paris in 1926 having just finished The Sun Also Rises, and follows him through the dissolution of his first marriage and the beginning of his second. We witness the emergence of the public image of Hemingway and his development into a mature and major literary talent. Most significantly, Reynolds reveals how the emerging Hemingway hero--tough, masculine, self-reliant--represented a radical break from figures in his earlier work, who are vulnerable, wounded survivors living precariously in a world in which they have little control. And he shows how this transition had its roots in Hemingway's own life, as he developed from a rootless and insecure expatriate into the forceful figure of myth, influenced by his father's suicide, his second marriage, and his return to America.

Customer Reviews:

Reynolds' great saga continues..........2005-10-14

Michael Reynolds achieved the Mt. Everest of biographies with this five-parter about the complex, self-contradictory, vain, politically problematic and always fascinating Hemingway. The book concentrates on that period between the publication of "The Sun Also Rises" and the completion of his first draft of "A Farewell to Arms" three years later. It takes us from Hemingway's drafty art studio in Paris where he lived during and after his divorce from Hadley and the embarking on his marriage with Pauline Pfeiffer.

The pressure's on when, after the publication of "Men Without Women" in 1927, Hemingway needs to follow up "Sun..." with another equally brilliant novel. He frets with an idea about a son's journey from America to Europe with his father, a spy-for-hire. But then drops the idea. He marries Pauline, travels around France and Spain, writes a couple of more great short stories before launching into his tale of a wounded American soldier's love affair with an English nurse during WWI. Hemingway went from Paris to Key West to Pigotte, AK (where Pauline went home to deliver their new baby) to Montana, back to Oak Park to deal with a terrible family tragedy and back to Europe, all as he composed "Farewell." What's so wonderful about Reynolds telling it is how emotionally caught up in these events you get--after all, Hem's wife delivered him a new son AND his Oak Park family collapsed and needed Hem to build it back up, both WHILE WRITING THIS BOOK--a heroic feat on Hem's part of artistic discipline. There are sections of Reynolds' book that left me in tears, especially his gorgeous closing sections where you really feel Hemingway has arrived at the threshold of myth--he's left his Oak Park boyhood and his young apprenticeship in Paris with Stein, Pound, etc. behind and come into his own--as a writer, a personality and a genius.

A beautiful, evocative, heartfelt tour de force.

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Hemingway: The American Homecoming
Michael S. Reynolds
Manufacturer: Blackwell Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0631184813

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Hemingway: The American Homecoming
Michael Reynolds
Manufacturer: Blackwell Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBQO7U

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