The Extended Specimen

The Extended Specimen highlights the research potential for ornithological specimens, and is meant to encourage ornithologists poised to initiate a renaissance in collections-based ornithological research. Contributors illustrate how collections and specimens are used in novel ways by adopting emerging new technologies and analytical techniques. Case studies use museum specimens and emerging and non-traditional types of specimens, which are developing new methods for making biological collections more accessible and "usable" for ornithological researchers. Published in collaboration with and on behalf of The American Ornithological Society, this volume in the highly-regarded Studies in Avian Biology series documents the power of ornithological collections to address key research questions of global importance.

The Extended Specimen highlights the research potential for ornithological specimens, and is meant to encourage ornithologists poised to initiate a renaissance in collections-based ornithological research. Contributors illustrate how collections and specimens are used in novel ways by adopting emerging new technologies and analytical techniques. Case studies use museum specimens and emerging and non-traditional types of specimens, which are developing new methods for making biological collections more accessible and "usable" for ornithological researchers. Published in collaboration with and on behalf of The American Ornithological Society, this volume in the highly-regarded Studies in Avian Biology series documents the power of ornithological collections to address key research questions of global importance.

As part of an increasing interest in radiation embrittlement for aging nuclear reactors, scientists gathered in New Orleans in January 1997 to consider the interests and capabilities of the scientific-testing community and of the commercial light-water-cooled power-reactor industry in terms of improving methods to characterize component integrity. The resulting 37 papers concentrate on the use of unique small and miniature specimens; nondestructive, nonintrusive, and in- situ test techniques for measuring mechanical and fracture properties; the application of tests to irradiation-induced embrittlement; and actual examples of tests to determine material integrity and to evaluate potential component life extension. They consider experimental, analytical, and computational aspects. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

As climate change continues to dominate the international environmental agenda, phenology – the study of the timing of recurring biological events – has received increasing research attention, leading to an emerging consensus that phenology can be viewed as an ‘early warning system’ for climate change impact. A multidisciplinary science involving many branches of ecology, geography and remote sensing, phenology to date has lacked a coherent methodological text. This new synthesis, including contributions from many of the world’s leading phenologists, therefore fills a critical gap in the current biological literature. Providing critiques of current methods, as well as detailing novel and emerging methodologies, the book, with its extensive suite of references, provides readers with an understanding of both the theoretical basis and the potential applications required to adopt and adapt new analytical and design methods. An invaluable source book for researchers and students in ecology and climate change science, the book also provides a useful reference for practitioners in a range of sectors, including human health, fisheries, forestry, agriculture and natural resource management.

Centuries of exploration and discovery have documented the diversity of life on Earth. Records of this biodiversity are, for the most part, distributed across varied and distinct natural history collections worldwide. This makes the task of extracting and mobilising the information within these collections an immense challenge.ÿÿIn this special issue of ZooKeys, 18 papers by 81 authors examine progress and prospects for mass digitising entire natural history collections. These papers provide a snapshot of activity, in what is a fast moving field that is seeing ever-increasing degrees of collaboration across disciplines and between collection-based institutions. Examples of research covered by these articles include a description to efforts digitise 30 million plant, invertebrate and vertebrate specimens at NCB Naturalis in the Netherlands; new scanning and telemicroscopy solutions to digitise the millions of pinned insect specimens held in the Australian National Insect Collection and its European and North American counterparts; citizen science projects being used to crowdsource the transcription of thousands of specimen labels and field notebooks; and new data portals providing central access to millions of biological specimens across Europe.ÿÿMany of these projects deal with the unique challenges associated with major collections that have built up over several centuries, with different communities of practices and different user communities. Despite many differences, standards for collection acquisition, preservation and documentation are broadly consistent, meaning that there is sufficient common ground to bring together the enormous amounts of data that are being exposed through mass digitisation efforts. These data will become the new frontier for natural history collection management and research in the next decade.

This book contains all the necessary information and advice for anyone wishing to obtain electron micrographs showing the most accurate ultrastructural detail in thin sections of any type of biological specimen. The guidelines for the choice of preparative methods are based on an extensive survey of current laboratory practice. For the first time, in a textbook of this kind, the molecular events occurring during fixation and embedding are analysed in detail. The reasons for choosing particular specimen preparation methods are explained and guidance is given on how to modify established techniques to suit individual requirements. All the practical methods advocated are clearly described, with accompanying tables and the results obtainable are illustrated with many electron micrographs. Portland Press Series: Practical Methods in Electron Microscopy, Volume 17, Audrey M. Glauert, Editor Originally published in 1999. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

For the first time, Darwin's notes and logs from his voyage are published. Included are analyses, pencil drawings, and technical notes.

Recent years have seen a growing tendency for social scientists to collect biological specimens such as blood, urine, and saliva as part of large-scale household surveys. By combining biological and social data, scientists are opening up new fields of inquiry and are able for the first time to address many new questions and connections. But including biospecimens in social surveys also adds a great deal of complexity and cost to the investigator's task. Along with the usual concerns about informed consent, privacy issues, and the best ways to collect, store, and share data, researchers now face a variety of issues that are much less familiar or that appear in a new light. In particular, collecting and storing human biological materials for use in social science research raises additional legal, ethical, and social issues, as well as practical issues related to the storage, retrieval, and sharing of data. For example, acquiring biological data and linking them to social science databases requires a more complex informed consent process, the development of a biorepository, the establishment of data sharing policies, and the creation of a process for deciding how the data are going to be shared and used for secondary analysis-all of which add cost to a survey and require additional time and attention from the investigators. These issues also are likely to be unfamiliar to social scientists who have not worked with biological specimens in the past. Adding to the attraction of collecting biospecimens but also to the complexity of sharing and protecting the data is the fact that this is an era of incredibly rapid gains in our understanding of complex biological and physiological phenomena. Thus the tradeoffs between the risks and opportunities of expanding access to research data are constantly changing. Conducting Biosocial Surveys offers findings and recommendations concerning the best approaches to the collection, storage, use, and sharing of biospecimens gathered in social science surveys and the digital representations of biological data derived therefrom. It is aimed at researchers interested in carrying out such surveys, their institutions, and their funding agencies.