The darkness is light enough: The field journal of a night naturalist

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A must-have book, especially for those who love badgers!

The darkness is light enough: The field journal of a night naturalist
Chris Ferris
Manufacturer: Ecco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Mammals | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0718126904

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A must-have book, especially for those who love badgers!.......1998-08-03

Chris Ferris (a nom de plume) is very possibly Britain's best naturalist writer. This book distills four years of her experience as observer and, eventually, protectress of the wildlife in the woods near her English country home.

As she becomes closer to the badgers, owls and foxes -- many of which develop an extraordinary trust in her -- Ferris also has several dangerous run-ins with badger-diggers and lampers, leading eventually to threats against her life.

Most memorable, however, are Ferris's vivid and detailed descriptions of the forest creatures for whom she has such tremendous fellow feeling -- especially the vulnerable badgers whose national champion she eventually becomes. The author's gentle humanity, her affection for these animals and her grief when they are harmed by predatory humankind, is palpable and very moving.

Written by the most courageous yet unassuming of heroines, and sensitively illustrated by artist William Geldart, "The Darkness ! is Light Enough" is simply the most touching, inspiring, AFFECTING wildlife diary I have ever read. Indeed, I've had to buy it several times, as I keep lending my own copy to others (and usually have trouble getting it back). It's hard to praise it too highly!

Book Description

Convinced that walking from Land's End to John o'Groats will be a pleasant way to spend the summer, Mark Moxon soon discovers that there's a lot more to crossing Britain than simply putting one foot in front of the other. In this entertaining and frequently hilarious book, Mark takes us on a journey not only of 1111 miles, but of the highs and lows of long-distance walking. 'I read the entire journey cover to cover in a couple of days. Totally fascinating, very amusing.' - Howard J 'I highly recommend that people read it from start to finish. It is a great tale!' - Peter K 'Thank you for being so enthusiastic about travelling and revealing your passion in such a constructive way!' - Jenny S 'A certain cure for a jaded outlook.' - Marilyn S 'You can't put it down.' - Frank W 'A great job!' - Kevin P

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A great read about a great hike!.......2007-02-13

In this classic work, Mark Moxon describes a classic walk in the hiking world - that from the southwestern tip of mainland England (Land's End)to the northeastern tip of mainland Scotland (John O'Groats), a distance of over 1100 miles through some of Britain's finest scenery. His book about his almost-90-day marathon is full of information that hikers will need to replicate this achievement - and also full of entertainment for non-hikers and hikers alike. Mark does not just walk - he relates to the task and his surroundings in a fresh and humorous way. Even his blisters and the duct-tape that eventually holds his boots together become entertainment as he shares with us what a hike like this really takes. The book is clearly organized, has many fine pictures and maps, and even has a companion website [...]. The website provides an opportunity through its "guestbook" to discuss the walk and related topics with Mark and other readers, and is a live and responsive venue for long-distance hikers and hiker-wannabees to gain extra advice, and share their own experiences. It also provides links to Mark's Google Earth map of the Land's End to John O'Groats route as seen from on-high. This book will make a fine reference work for this and other hikes, as well as a great gift for readers who enjoy reading about long-distance outdoor challenges from an armchair by the fire. It will also make a fitting and wholesome class text that will inspire many future adventurers.

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The Land's End to John O'Groats Walk
Andrew McCloy
Manufacturer: Cordee
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Walking | Hiking & Camping | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1871890594

A Walk Through Britain: Land's End to John O'Groats

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A Walk Through Britain: Land's End to John O'Groats
Roy H. Eardley
Manufacturer: Dorrance Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Walking | Hiking & Camping | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0805934847

Customer Reviews:

Excellent work.......2002-02-26

Looking for a fair representation of how the North American Indian tribes were affected by the intrusion of Europeans? My husband and I were, following an exchange with our 8-year-old after watching "Peter Pan", where she voiced hatred for Indians, but had no reasoning behind it. This book is unique in a variety of ways; it is a true story, from a woman's perspective, of how her life was changed after being captured by the Seneca tribe. It deals in an honest, forthright manner, reflecting Jemison's original fear and ultimate embracing of her inclusion into tribal life, and the many adavantages she found therein. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an discussion of the reality of Indians in North America, and the influence of European culture on it with their young child. Well written, nice illustrations, and at 32 pages, concise.

Book Description

The use of mathematical modeling techniques in biomedical research is playing an increasingly important role in the understanding of the pathophysiology of disease processes. This includes not only understanding mechanisms of physiological processes, but also diagnosis and treatment. In addition, its introduction in the study of genomics and proteomics is key in understanding the functional characteristics of gene expression and protein assembly and secretion. Finally, with the increasing complexity and associated cost of drug development, modeling techniques are being used to streamline the process. This book is designed to give the reader the mathematical and statistical information necessary to design tracer kinetic studies, to use noncompartmental methodologies and/or to develop multicompartmental models to interpret the data.
The book starts with a review of fundamentals of radioactive and stable isotope tracer kinetics and then proceeds with a description of the noncompartmental and multicompartmental modeling methodologies to study systems in the steady state. The focus is on understanding the basic assumptions inherent in the methodologies and the underlying mathematics and statistics, on discussing how to assess how `good' a model is and on giving some hints on how better to design kinetic studies, in order to increase the probability of a successful study and to ensure the maximal information content in the experimental data to be extracted. The book has an extensive section on parameter estimation, i.e., fitting models to data, first in general terms and then specifically related to noncompartmental and compartmental models. This is written from a basic point of view, and is intended to remove the mystery from the `black box' of computer optimization software. Finally, a special application often found in tracer kinetic analysis, precursor-product relationships, is discussed.
Throughout the book, the goal is to provide even the novice with sufficient background so that he/she can feel comfortable. A number of case studies, based upon real experimental data, are carried through the text. Other examples illustrate specific points. All data examples are provided on a floppy disk.

Tracer Kinetics in Biomedical Research From Data to Model

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Tracer Kinetics in Biomedical Research From Data to Model
Claudio/ Foster, David/ Toffolo, Gianna Cobelli
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSY96O

Book Description

This book deals with the adaptive numerical solution of parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) arising in many branches of applications. It illustrates the interlocking of numerical analysis, the design of an algorithm and the solution of practical problems. In particular, a combination of Rosenbrock-type one-step methods and multilevel finite elements is analysed. Implementation and efficiency issues are discussed. Special emphasis is put on the solution of real-life applications that arise in today's chemical industry, semiconductor-device fabrication and health care. The book is intended for graduate students and researchers who are either interested in the theoretical understanding of instationary PDE solvers or who want to develop computer codes for solving complex PDEs.

Hyperbolic Problems: Theory, Numerics, Applications: Eighth International Conference in Magdeburg, February/March 2000, Volume I (International Series of Numerical Mathematics)

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Hyperbolic Problems: Theory, Numerics, Applications: Eighth International Conference in Magdeburg, February/March 2000, Volume I (International Series of Numerical Mathematics)

Manufacturer: Birkhäuser Basel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3764367091

Book Description

Hyperbolic partial differential equations describe phenomena of material or wave transport in physics, biology and engineering, especially in the field of fluid mechanics. The mathematical theory of hyperbolic equations has recently made considerable progress. Accurate and efficient numerical schemes for computation have been and are being further developed. This two-volume set of conference proceedings contains about 100 refereed and carefully selected papers. The books are intended for researchers and graduate students in mathematics, science and engineering interested in the most recent results in theory and practice of hyperbolic problems. Applications touched in these proceedings concern one-phase and multiphase fluid flow, phase transitions, shallow water dynamics, elasticity, extended thermodynamics, electromagnetism, classical and relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, cosmology. Contributions to the abstract theory of hyperbolic systems deal with viscous and relaxation approximations, front tracking and wellposedness, stability of shock profiles and multi-shock patterns, traveling fronts for transport equations. Numerically oriented articles study finite difference, finite volume, and finite element schemes, adaptive, multiresolution, and artificial dissipation methods.

Numerical Analysis 2000 : Partial Differential Equations (Numerical Analysis 2000, V. 7)

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Numerical Analysis 2000 : Partial Differential Equations (Numerical Analysis 2000, V. 7)

Manufacturer: North Holland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

/homepage/sac/cam/na2000/index.html 7-Volume Set now available at special set price !

Over the second half of the 20th century the subject area loosely referred to as numerical analysis of partial differential equations (PDEs) has undergone unprecedented development. At its practical end, the vigorous growth and steady diversification of the field were stimulated by the demand for accurate and reliable tools for computational modelling in physical sciences and engineering, and by the rapid development of computer hardware and architecture. At the more theoretical end, the analytical insight into the underlying stability and accuracy properties of computational algorithms for PDEs was deepened by building upon recent progress in mathematical analysis and in the theory of PDEs.

To embark on a comprehensive review of the field of numerical analysis of partial differential equations within a single volume of this journal would have been an impossible task. Indeed, the 16 contributions included here, by some of the foremost world authorities in the subject, represent only a small sample of the major developments. We hope that these articles will, nevertheless, provide the reader with a stimulating glimpse into this diverse, exciting and important field.

The opening paper by Thomée reviews the history of numerical analysis of PDEs, starting with the 1928 paper by Courant, Friedrichs and Lewy on the solution of problems of mathematical physics by means of finite differences. This excellent survey takes the reader through the development of finite differences for elliptic problems from the 1930s, and the intense study of finite differences for general initial value problems during the 1950s and 1960s. The formulation of the concept of stability is explored in the Lax equivalence theorem and the Kreiss matrix lemmas. Reference is made to the introduction of the finite element method by structural engineers, and a description is given of the subsequent development and mathematical analysis of the finite element method with piecewise polynomial approximating functions. The penultimate section of Thomée's survey deals with `other classes of approximation methods', and this covers methods such as collocation methods, spectral methods, finite volume methods and boundary integral methods. The final section is devoted to numerical linear algebra for elliptic problems.

The next three papers, by Bialecki and Fairweather, Hesthaven and Gottlieb and Dahmen, describe, respectively, spline collocation methods, spectral methods and wavelet methods. The work by Bialecki and Fairweather is a comprehensive overview of orthogonal spline collocation from its first appearance to the latest mathematical developments and applications. The emphasis throughout is on problems in two space dimensions. The paper by Hesthaven and Gottlieb presents a review of Fourier and Chebyshev pseudospectral methods for the solution of hyperbolic PDEs. Particular emphasis is placed on the treatment of boundaries, stability of time discretisations, treatment of non-smooth solutions and multidomain techniques. The paper gives a clear view of the advances that have been made over the last decade in solving hyperbolic problems by means of spectral methods, but it shows that many critical issues remain open. The paper by Dahmen reviews the recent rapid growth in the use of wavelet methods for PDEs. The author focuses on the use of adaptivity, where significant successes have recently been achieved. He describes the potential weaknesses of wavelet methods as well as the perceived strengths, thus giving a balanced view that should encourage the study of wavelet methods.

Aspects of finite element methods and adaptivity are dealt with in the three papers by Cockburn, Rannacher and Suri. The paper by Cockburn is concerned with the development and analysis of discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element methods for hyperbolic problems. It reviews the key properties of DG methods for nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws from a novel viewpoint that stems from the observation that hyperbolic conservation laws are normally arrived at via model reduction, by elimination of dissipation terms. Rannacher's paper is a first-rate survey of duality-based a posteriori error estimation and mesh adaptivity for Galerkin finite element approximations of PDEs. The approach is illustrated for simple examples of linear and nonlinear PDEs, including also an optimal control problem. Several open questions are identified such as the efficient determination of the dual solution, especially in the presence of oscillatory solutions. The paper by Suri is a lucid overview of the relative merits of the hp and p versions of the finite element method over the h version. The work is presented in a non-technical manner by focusing on a class of problems concerned with linear elasticity posed on thin domains. This type of problem is of considerable practical interest and it generates a number of significant theoretical problems.

Iterative methods and multigrid techniques are reviewed in a paper by Silvester, Elman, Kay and Wathen, and in three papers by Stüben, Wesseling and Oosterlee and Xu. The paper by Silvester et al. outlines a new class of robust and efficient methods for solving linear algebraic systems that arise in the linearisation and operator splitting of the Navier-Stokes equations. A general preconditioning strategy is described that uses a multigrid V-cycle for the scalar convection-diffusion operator and a multigrid V-cycle for a pressure Poisson operator. This two-stage approach gives rise to a solver that is robust with respect to time-step-variation and for which the convergence rate is independent of the grid. The paper by Stüben gives a detailed overview of algebraic multigrid. This is a hierarchical and matrix-based approach to the solution of large, sparse, unstructured linear systems of equations. It may be applied to yield efficient solvers for elliptic PDEs discretised on unstructured grids. The author shows why this is likely to be an active and exciting area of research for several years in the new millennium. The paper by Wesseling and Oosterlee reviews geometric multigrid methods, with emphasis on applications in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The paper is not an introduction to multigrid: it is more appropriately described as a refresher paper for practitioners who have some basic knowledge of multigrid methods and CFD. The authors point out that textbook multigrid efficiency cannot yet be achieved for all CFD problems and that the demands of engineering applications are focusing research in interesting new directions. Semi-coarsening, adaptivity and generalisation to unstructured grids are becoming more important. The paper by Xu presents an overview of methods for solving linear algebraic systems based on subspace corrections. The method is motivated by a discussion of the local behaviour of high-frequency components in the solution of an elliptic problem. Of novel interest is the demonstration that the method of subspace corrections is closely related to von Neumann's method of alternating projections. This raises the question as to whether certain error estimates for alternating directions that are available in the literature may be used to derive convergence estimates for multigrid and/or domain decomposition methods.

Moving finite element methods and moving mesh methods are presented, respectively, in the papers by Baines and Huang and Russell. The paper by Baines reviews recent advances in Galerkin and least-squares methods for solving first- and second-order PDEs with moving nodes in multidimensions. The methods use unstructured meshes and they minimise the norm of the residual of the PDE over both the computed solution and the nodal positions. The relationship between the moving finite element method and L 2 least-squares methods is discussed. The paper also describes moving finite volume and discrete l 2 least-squares methods. Huang and Russell review a class of moving mesh algorithms based upon a moving mesh partial differential equation (MMPDE). The authors are leading players in this research area, and the paper is largely a review of their own work in developing viable MMPDEs and efficient solution strategies.

The remaining three papers in this special issue are by Budd and Piggott, Ewing and Wang and van der Houwen and Sommeijer. The paper by Budd and Piggott on geometric integration is a survey of adaptive methods and scaling invariance for discretisations of ordinary and partial differential equations. The authors have succeeded in presenting a readable account of material that combines abstract concepts and practical scientific computing. Geometric integration is a new and rapidly growing area which deals with the derivation of numerical methods for differential equations that incorporate qualitative information in their structure. Qualitative features that may be present in PDEs might include symmetries, asymptotics, invariants or orderings and the objective is to take these properties into account in deriving discretisations. The paper by Ewing and Wang gives a brief summary of numerical methods for advection-dominated PDEs. Models arising in porous medium fluid flow are presented to motivate the study of the advection-dominated flows. The numerical methods reviewed are applicable not only to porous medium flow problems but second-order PDEs with dominant hyperbolic behaviour in general. The paper by van der Houwen and Sommeijer deals with approximate factorisation for time-dependent PDEs. The paper begins with some historical notes and it proceeds to present various approximate factorisation techniques. The objective is to show that the linear system arising from linearisation and discretisation of the PDE may be solved more efficien...

Book Description

Aristophanes of Athens (ca. 446-386 BCE), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. He wrote at least forty plays, of which eleven have survived complete. In this new Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristophanes, Jeffrey Henderson presents a freshly edited Greek text and a lively, unexpurgated translation with full explanatory notes.

Three plays are in Volume II of the new edition. Socrates' "Thinkery" is at the center of Clouds, which spoofs untraditional techniques for educating young men. Wasps satirizes Athenian enthusiasm for jury service and the law courts as well as the city's susceptibility to demagogues. In Peace, a rollicking attack on war-makers, the farmer-hero makes his famous trip to heaven on a dung beetle to discuss the issues with Zeus.

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