Top Of The Order

Four sports-crazy 5th grade boys deal with family, school, and friendship issues against the backdrop of their baseball season. Jackson's parents are divorced and his mother has started dating. Gig's dad is in the National Guard and has been called up to serve in the Middle East. Isaac's dad wants him to go to a different middle school than all his friends. Diego is the new kid in school, a power-hitter who works with his family on the weekends and can't make every team practice. These four friends lead different lives, but on the baseball field, they're a strong team, the top of the order. In this crucial last year of elementary school, they're faced with preparing for middle school and dealing with a new member of their team—a girl! Acclaimed author John Coy takes readers into the hearts and minds of 5th grade boys, with plenty of baseball action that's sure to keep even the most reluctant readers turning the pages.

Large predators are among the most threatened species on the planet and ways of conserving them in the face of increasing human populations and associated resource requirements are becoming critical. This book draws upon the experiences of some of the world’s foremost large carnivore specialists to discuss the numerous issues associated reintroducing large predators back into their natural habitats. Reviews of internationally renowned reintroduction programs for wolves, European lynx and African wild dog reveal the successes and failures of these actions. Experts on tigers, snow leopards and jaguars contend that there are other conservation options of higher priority that will ensure their security in the long-term. Other experts discuss more theoretical aspects such as whether we know enough about these species to be able to predict their behavioural or ecological response to the reintroduction process. Social, economic, political and genetic considerations are also addressed.

There have been many anthologies devoted to our national pastime's greatest players, but here, at last, is one dedicated to those, for reasons far more personal than statsbased, we call our favorites. In Top of the Order twentyfive of today's premier sports journalists, cultural critics, novelists, and humorists (as well as a couple of former major leaguers) deliver memorable, neverbeforepublished odes to their favorite players, past or present. By turns uplifting, woeful, and hilarious, these essays define what it means to be beset by that strange, incurable condition known as baseball fandom. Featuring original essays by; Roger Kahn on Jackie Robinson, Buzz Bissinger on Albert Pujols, Jonathan Eig on Lou Gehrig, Neal Pollack on Greg Maddux, Laura Lippman on Brooks Robinson, Jeff Pearlman on Garry Templeton, Jim Bouton on Steve Dembowski, Pat Jordan on Tom Seaver, Michael Ian Black on Mookie Wilson, Matt Taibbi on Jim Rice, Steve Almond on Rickey Henderson, and many more.

The book describes the main findings of the EU-funded project IDIHOM (Industrialization of High-Order Methods – A Top-Down Approach). The goal of this project was the improvement, utilization and demonstration of innovative higher-order simulation capabilities for large-scale aerodynamic application challenges in the aircraft industry. The IDIHOM consortium consisted of 21 organizations, including aircraft manufacturers, software vendors, as well as the major European research establishments and several universities, all of them with proven expertise in the field of computational fluid dynamics. After a general introduction to the project, the book reports on new approaches for curved boundary-grid generation, high-order solution methods and visualization techniques. It summarizes the achievements, weaknesses and perspectives of the new simulation capabilities developed by the project partners for various industrial applications, and includes internal- and external-aerodynamic as well as multidisciplinary test cases.

Baseball "by The Book."

Contains the reports of state departments and officials for the preceding fiscal biennium.