Recent advances in statistical approaches called phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) have provided paleontologists with a powerful set of analytical tools for investigating evolutionary tempo and mode in fossil lineages. However, attempts to integrate PCMs with fossil data often present workers with practical challenges or unfamiliar literature. This Element presents guides to the theory behind and the application of PCMs with fossil taxa. Based on an empirical dataset of Paleozoic cri...

A collection of full-cast dramatisations and readings from the bestselling author‘There’s nobody like Binchy for warming the cockles’ TimesMaeve Binchy was one of Britain’s best-loved storytellers and this compilation of her finest fiction, as heard on BBC Radio, demonstrates all the warmth, wit and compassion that made her so popular.Firefly Summer is a moving, humorous novel about a sleepy Irish town facing monumental change, dramatised in six parts with a full ca...

A BBC Radio collection of dramatisations and readings of Maeve Binchy’s sparkling storiesIrish writer Maeve Binchy was one the best-loved and most successful authors of her time. Her bestselling books sold over 40 million copies worldwide, and were translated into 37 languages. This comprehensive anthology of her finest fiction, as heard on BBC Radio, demonstrates all the warmth, wit and compassion that made her so popular.It opens with Firefly ...

Networking can be seen as a daunting and intimidating task, yet interpersonal relationships remain at the heart of success for career and business development. In straightforward and simple terms, this book offers a practical approach to developing this core skill. Including chapters on assessing your networks, developing your personal brand, the softer skills of networking, using social media and making networking part of your everyday life, 21st Century Networking is filled with...

David Soul ('Starsky and Hutch') narrates and Simon Day ('The Fast Show') stars in this fantastical BBC Radio 4 comedy series looking at the most entertaining apocalypses on parallel Earths. Originally broadcast from 15 December 2010 - 19 January 2011. We all worry about the end of the world, as economists and environmentalists speak in apocalyptic terms everyday. 'iGod' says that trying to predict the end of the world is as pointless as moisturising an elephant's elbow. In each episode, a...

In this book we have tried to bring together in a logical and understandable way all the basic statistical elements which affect field trials, their planning, implementation and interpretation. The book is designed to be suitable for Field Trials Specialists, Project Managers who may be interpreting results and students who may be taking their first opportunity to get involved in this type of experimentation.

Ecological Models and Data in R is the first truly practical introduction to modern statistical methods for ecology. In step-by-step detail, the book teaches ecology graduate students and researchers everything they need to know in order to use maximum likelihood, information-theoretic, and Bayesian techniques to analyze their own data using the programming language R. Drawing on extensive experience teaching these techniques to graduate students in ecology, Benjamin Bolker shows ...

An overarching framework for comparing and steering complex adaptive systems is developed through understanding the mechanisms that generate their intricate signal/boundary hierarchies.Complex adaptive systems (cas), including ecosystems, governments, biological cells, and markets, are characterized by intricate hierarchical arrangements of boundaries and signals. In ecosystems, for example, niches act as semi-permeable boundaries, and smells and visual patterns se...

Bayesian statistics has exploded into biology and its sub-disciplines, such as ecology, over the past decade. The free software program WinBUGS, and its open-source sister OpenBugs, is currently the only flexible and general-purpose program available with which the average ecologist can conduct standard and non-standard Bayesian statistics. - Comprehensive and richly commented examples illustrate a wide range of models that are most relevant to the research of a modern population ecologist...

Mutualistic interactions among plants and animals have played a paramount role in shaping biodiversity. Yet the majority of studies on mutualistic interactions have involved only a few species, as opposed to broader mutual connections between communities of organisms. Mutualistic Networks is the first book to comprehensively explore this burgeoning field. Integrating different approaches, from the statistical description of network structures to the development of new analytical f...

This book provides a first synthetic view of an emerging area of ecology and biogeography, linking individual- and population-level processes to geographic distributions and biodiversity patterns. Problems in evolutionary ecology, macroecology, and biogeography are illuminated by this integrative view. The book focuses on correlative approaches known as ecological niche modeling, species distribution modeling, or habitat suitability modeling, which use associations between known occurrence...

Recent advances suggest that the concept of information might hold the key to unravelling the mystery of life's nature and origin. Fresh insights from a broad and authoritative range of articulate and respected experts focus on the transition from matter to life, and hence reconcile the deep conceptual schism between the way we describe physical and biological systems. A unique cross-disciplinary perspective, drawing on expertise from philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics, and cognitive ...