Jpec 9 1 2013

This is the ninth volume of papers in the Journal of Practical Ecology & Conservation series. There is a range of topics covered in this issue from monitoring upland vegetation to the ecology of the New Zealand Walking Bat and the case for using wood-fuel as a means of sustainably managing moorlands and heaths. The editorial paper looks at grazing regimes and the impact of cultural severance on managing wooded landscapes.

GIMP is a free alternative to Adobe Photoshop with tons of professional-grade features. But with so many powerful tools and menu options, GIMP can be difficult to master. Whether you're struggling to get started or trying to master some of GIMP's more complex features, you'll find the answers you're looking for in The Book of GIMP. The tutorials in the first half of the book walk you through essential GIMP skills, like resizing and cropping images, touching up spots and scratches, and customizing your work area. Illustrated, step-by-step instructions show you how to: –Improve the lighting and composition of images –Remove distortions and noise to make old and damaged photos look like new –Create stunning panoramas and digital collages using a series of photos –Make, edit, and export custom textures, logos, and animated GIFs –Work with selections, channels, and masks to edit images like a pro –Create colorful digital art, layer by layer The book's second half offers a comprehensive reference to GIMP's many features, including color balancing, masks, filters, and plug-ins. You'll find tools described in unparalleled detail, with coverage of nearly every option and parameter. With illustrated tutorials and detailed references, The Book of GIMP is sure to become your one-stop guide to just about everything GIMP.

Since not all graphic formats are of equal complexity, author John Miano does not simply choose a number of file formats and devote a chapter to each one. Instead, he offers additional coverage for the more complex image file formats like PNG (a new standard) and JPEG, while providing all information necessary to use the simpler file formats. While including the well-documented BMP, XBM, and GIF formats for completeness, along with some of their less-covered features, this book gives the most space to the more intricate PNG and JPEG, from basic concepts to creating and reading actual files. Among its highlights, this book covers: -- JPEG Huffman coding, including decoding sequential mode JPEG images and creating sequential JPEG files-- Optimizing the DCT-- Portable Network Graphics format (PNG), including decompressing PNG image data and creating PNG files-- Windows BMP, XBM, and GIF

Problems of climate change, biodiversity and air pollution are clearly growing globally, but more particularly in Asia because of its economic importance and richness in nature. The increasing interest in environmental and resource economics applied in regions of Asia will make this book an outstanding resource to the existing literature, particularly in the fields of environmental and resource economics and the integration of applied content in traditional and agricultural development. At present there is no single handbook or text on the state of current knowledge in environmental economics in Asia or one which offers a comprehensive guide to students and academics on the subjects of environmental economics research. This book will help to fill the gap in the existing literature.

This multi-contributor, international volume synthesizes contributions from the world's leading soil scientists and ecologists, describing cutting-edge research that provides a basis for the maintenance of soil health and sustainability. The book covers these advances from a unique perspective of examining the ecosystem services produced by soil biota across different scales - from biotic interactions at microscales to communities functioning at regional and global scales. The book leads the user towards an understanding of how the sustainability of soils, biodiversity, and ecosystem services can be maintained and how humans, other animals, and ecosystems are dependent on living soils and ecosystem services. This is a valuable reference book for academic libraries and professional ecologists worldwide as a statement of progress in the broad field of soil ecology. It will also be of interest to both upper level undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in soil ecology, as well as academic researchers and professionals in the field requiring an authoritative, balanced, and up-to-date overview of this fast expanding topic.

This unique book is intended for all health professionals caring for older people with diabetes such as specialist and general nurses, doctors, primary care practioners and dieteticians. Although there is an increasing body of work about personalised care, no publications were identified that encompass the focus and scope of the proposed book. The global population is ageing and increasing age is a key risk factor for diabetes. Older people with diabetes are often vulnerable, have complex care needs and often have cognitive changes, which makes personalising care challenging for health professionals. Thus, this is an internationally relevant book filling a gap in the current literature. This is a practical and updated book that will use an engaging and easy to read narrative style. It challenges readers to reflect in and on their practice. It encompasses people with diabetes’ and authors’ stories, which are known to have a special interest to readers, make it easier to apply the information to practice, enhance learning, and hence the relevance and value of the book. It is relevant to advocacy organisations as well as managers and service planners. Researchers and scientists may find relevant information on grant and ethics applications, research protocols, plain language statements for potential participants and operationalising research protocols.

Memoirs of Black Entomologists: Reflections on Childhood, University, and Career Experiences brings together 20 black entomologists from the U.S. and around the world to share the stories of what drew them to the field, along with advice for black and minority students looking for a rewarding career in the entomological sciences.