Polly, Stubby & Al


Book Description

Polly a multicolored talking parrot and Stubby a bowlegged English bulldog are joined, as family pets, by an injured wild crow that is healed and tamed by Mama Sara. The crow is named Al. Over the next few months, the pets create hilarious and daily entertainment as Al learns to talk. He becomes an entertaining and mischievous pet. Al is always up to some sort of mischief, and causing problems in the neighborhood. Then one sunny day, while flying in the sky, Al is caught in a sudden storm. The sky turns black, bolts of lightning are flashing, there’s strong winds and heavy rain. Over and over Al desperately calls for help. However, the family can only helplessly watch as Al is tossed in the winds and is blown toward the dense forest. Does Al survive? Do they ever see their pet crow again?




STILETTOED


Book Description

A woman is found strangled, floating in the swimming pool of Jeffery Rhineman’s fashionable Ft. Lauderdale estate. Private detective Jake Wayde is hired to find the killer. Jeffery Rhineman, a man, known to Wayde from a previous murder case, is attempting to sell a deadly formula invented by his late father, the famous chemist Dr. Frederick Rhineman. Reneging on the deals, he’d made to supply the formula, Iranian and Palestinian operatives pursue him and Jeffery goes into hiding. A trail of murders sets Wayde on a path to learn his new particular situation’s connected to the earlier case involving Jeffery.




Blindsight


Book Description

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Encyclopedia of Soil Science


Book Description

New and Improved Global Edition: Three-Volume Set A ready reference addressing a multitude of soil and soil management concerns, the highly anticipated and widely expanded third edition of Encyclopedia of Soil Science now spans three volumes and covers ground on a global scale. A definitive guide designed for both coursework and self-study, this latest version describes every branch of soil science and delves into trans-disciplinary issues that focus on inter-connectivity or the nexus approach. For Soil Scientists, Crop Scientists, Plant Scientists and More A host of contributors from around the world weigh in on underlying themes relevant to natural and agricultural ecosystems. Factoring in a rapidly changing climate and a vastly growing population, they sound off on topics that include soil degradation, climate change, soil carbon sequestration, food and nutritional security, hidden hunger, water quality, non-point source pollution, micronutrients, and elemental transformations. New in the Third Edition: Contains over 600 entries Offers global geographical and thematic coverage Entries peer reviewed by subject experts Addresses current issues of global significance Encyclopedia of Soil Science, Third Edition: Three Volume Set expertly explains the science of soil and describes the material in terms that are easily accessible to researchers, students, academicians, policy makers, and laymen alike. Also Available Online This Taylor & Francis encyclopedia is also available through online subscription, offering a variety of extra benefits for researchers, students, and librarians, including: Citation tracking and alerts Active reference linking Saved searches and marked lists HTML and PDF format options Contact Taylor and Francis for more information or to inquire about subscription options and print/online combination packages. US: (Tel) 1.888.318.2367; (E-mail) [email protected] International: (Tel) +44 (0) 20 7017 6062; (E-mail) [email protected]







Dendritic spines: from shape to function


Book Description

One fundamental requisite for a comprehensive view on brain function and cognition is the understanding of the neuronal network activity of the brain. Neurons are organized into complex networks, interconnected through synapses. The main sites for excitatory synapses in the brain are thin protrusions called dendritic spines that emerge from dendrites. Dendritic spines have a distinct morphology with a specific molecular organization. They are considered as subcellular compartments that constrain diffusion and influence signal processing by the neuron and, hence, spines are functional integrative units for which morphology and function are tightly coupled. The density of spines along the dendrite reflects the levels of connectivity within the neuronal network. Furthermore, the relevance of studying dendritic spines is emphasized by the observation that their morphology changes with synaptic plasticity and is altered in many psychiatric disorders. The present Research Topic deals with some of the most recent findings concerning dendritic spine structure and function, showing that, in order to understand how brain neuronal activity operates, these two factors should be regarded as being intrinsically linked.




Wide Awake


Book Description







Index Medicus


Book Description

Vols. for 1963- include as pt. 2 of the Jan. issue: Medical subject headings.




The Epworth Herald


Book Description