Marine sediments provide the largest habitat on planet earth, yet knowledge of the structure and function of their flora and fauna continues to be poorly described in current textbooks. This concise, readable introduction to benthic ecology builds upon the strengths of the previous edition but has been thoroughly revised throughout to incorporate the new technologies and methods that have allowed a rapid and ongoing development of the field. It explores the relationship between community structure and function, and the selection of global examples ensures an international appeal and relevance. The economic value of marine sediments increases daily, reflected in the text with a new emphasis on pollution, climate change, conservation, and management.

This accessible textbook is suitable for both advanced undergraduate and graduate students who have had a general ecology course, but no further training in benthic ecology. It will also be of relevance and use to professional researchers and consultants in marine ecology and environmental science who seek a compact but comprehensive introduction to benthic ecology.

About the Author

John S. Gray was Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Oslo, Norway and did research on marine soft sediments for over 40 years. He is one of ISIs Highly-Cited Scientists in Plant and Animal Ecology. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Arts and Letters and a recipient of the Fridtjof Nansen prize for his research. In 2006 he was a co-recipient of the John Martin award of the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography. He did research in the Arctic, Antarctic, Great Barrier Reef, Vanuatu, Hong Kong, the East and West coasts of USA and the North Sea and Norwegian continental shelf. Sadly, John died in October 2007, just days after submitting his final manuscript. Michael Elliott is Professor of Estuarine and Coastal Sciences and the Director of the Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies (IECS) at the University of Hull, United Kingdom and has been researching estuarine and coastal science and management for 35 years. His research particularly relates to the influence of human activities on estuarine and marine ecology and the way in which society manages those activities. He has published widely on many aspects of these topics including the related text 'The Estuarine Ecosystem' (co-authored with Donald S McLusky). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology and President of the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association (ECSA)

Highlights from Sky & Telescope's Deep-Sky Wonders column display the independence of thought and devotion to craft that made writer "Scotty" Houston a favorite among readers for almost 50 years. Sky & Telescope magazine contributing editor Stephen James O'Meara has selected and arranged the best of Scotty's work into a year-round guide to the star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies that lure skygazers into their backyards on clear, dark nights. Scotty intersperses his engaging commentary with expert advice on becoming a more capable observer.

Everyday we face decisions that carry an element of risk and uncertainty. The ability to analyze, predict, and prepare for the level of risk entailed by these decisions is, therefore, one of the most constant and vital skills needed for analysts, scientists and managers.

Risk analysis can be defined as a systematic use of information to identify hazards, threats and opportunities, as well as their causes and consequences, and then express risk. In order to successfully develop such a systematic use of information, those analyzing the risk need to understand the fundamental concepts of risk analysis and be proficient in a variety of methods and techniques. Risk Analysis adopts a practical, predictive approach and guides the reader through a number of applications.

• Provides an accessible and concise guide to performing risk analysis in a wide variety of fields, with minimal prior knowledge required.
• Adopts a broad perspective on risk, with focus on predictions and highlighting uncertainties beyond expected values and probabilities, allowing a more flexible approach than traditional statistical analysis.
• Acknowledges that expected values and probabilities could produce poor predictions -   surprises may occur.  
• Emphasizes the planning and use of risk analyses, rather than just the risk analysis methods and techniques, including the statistical analysis tools.
• Features many real-life case studies from a variety of applications and practical industry problems, including areas such as security, business and economy, transport, oil & gas and ICT (Information and Communication Technology).
• Forms an ideal companion volume to Aven’s previous Wiley text Foundations of Risk Analysis.

Professor Aven’s previous book Foundations of Risk Analysis presented and discussed several risk analysis approaches and recommended a predictive approach. This new text expands upon this predictive approach, exploring further the risk analysis principles, concepts, methods and models in an applied format. This book provides a useful and practical guide to decision-making, aimed at professionals within the risk analysis and risk management field.

About the Author

Terje Aven is Professor of risk analysis and risk management at the University of Stavanger, and a Principle Researcher at the International Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS). Having worked in both industry and academia, he has participated in, and led, many safety and risk related projects, winning several awards for both research and teaching. He has published numerous papers in international journals, and has authored several books.

Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ is a must-buy book for any serious Excel developer.Excel is the industry standard for financial modelling, providing a number of ways for users to extend the functionality of their own add-ins, including VBA and C/C++. This is the only complete how-to guide and reference book for the creation of high performance add-ins for Excel in C and C++ for users in the finance industry. Steve Dalton explains how to apply Excel add-ins to financial applications with many examples given throughout the book. It also covers the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing add-ins for Excel in VBA versus C/C++, and provides comprehensive code, workbooks and example projects on the accompanying CD-ROM. The impact of Excel 2007’s multi-threaded workbook calculations and large grids on add-in development are fully explored. Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ features: 

• Extensive example codes in VBA, C and C++, explaining all the ways in which a developer can achieve their objectives.
• Example projects that demonstrate, from start to finish, the potential of Excel when powerful add-ins can be easily developed.
• Develops the readers understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing add-ins for Excel in VBA versus C/C++.
• A CD-ROM with several thousand lines of example code, numerous workbooks, and a number of complete example projects.

Veteran photographer Rob Sheppard finds that Lightroom 2 can give you back the control over color images that photographers once enjoyed in the traditional darkroom. Packed with secrets Rob has discovered and developed, this book shows you how Lightroom processes RAW and JPEG files non-destructively, how to navigate quickly through your photos in any module with Filmstrip, how you can optimize your photos easily with the adjustment brush and graduated filter tools, speedy and simple ways to process multiple images, and how to prepare images for print or online display.

Learn to breathe life into your images with Lightroom 2

Technology should complement talent. Veteran photographer Rob Sheppard finds that Lightroom 2 is perfectly designed for the photographer's needs, giving you back the control over color images that photographers once enjoyed in the traditional darkroom. From editing and organizing your images to processing and displaying photos, this book shares secrets Rob has discovered and developed. His insight will make Lightroom the most valuable tool at your disposal.

• Learn how Lightroom processes RAW and JPEG files non-destructively

• Discover the way Lightroom is designed for photographers and their workflow needs

• Improve your efficiency with the organizational features in the Library module

• Navigate quickly through your photos in any module with Filmstrip

• Learn how you can optimize your photos quickly with the adjustment brush and graduated filter tools

• Discover the keyboard shortcuts that will really save you time

• Process multiple images quickly and easily using Sync, Copy, and Paste

• Prepare images for the unique requirements of print or online display

About the Author

Rob Sheppard was editor of Outdoor Photographer for 12 years and today serves as its Editor-at-Large. More than ten years ago, he was instrumental in launching PCPhoto magazine. He is nationally recognized for his commitment to bringing professional photographers together with technology that benefits their craft. Rob's work has appeared in National Geographic, and he is the author of several books including Adobe Camera Raw For Digital Photographers Only, also published by Wiley.

The war in Iraq is not only controversial, it's also astronomically expensive. Now Rob Simpson answers the question many concerned Americans have been asking: Wasn't there some other way the government could have spent one trillion of our tax dollars?

What We Could Have Done with the Money presents 50 thought-provoking spending alternatives. With a trillion dollars, we could . . .

• Fix Social Security right now: Stop worrying. Stop debating. It's done. Over. Fixed.
• End homelessness in America: House 15 million homeless families, get a million kids out of foster care, and have change to spare!
• Give everyone in the world satellite TV: Can we have the revolution later? I'm watching CSI right now.
• Pay everyone in Iraq to be nice to each other: Hey! If someone tripled your salary for the next 20 years, wouldn't you behave?
• Go Green: Give 100 million car buyers a $10,000 subsidy on their hybrid.
• Or gold . . . : Pave every highway in America with gold leaf.
• Play ball! : Fly everyone in Iraq to America, put them up in a nice hotel for three days with all the extras, take them to a baseball game and fly them home . . . and have a lot leftover.
• Cure cancer: Double research spending for as long as it takes.

. . . not to mention paying all credit card debt, buying everyone in the world an iPod, building 75 million solar-powered homes, and 39 other revealing pipe dreams.

Shocking, thought-provoking, and incredibly entertaining, Simpson takes a hard look at the government's top priorities--both what they are and what they should be.

About the Author

Rob Simpson has been a music critic, a radio announcer, and a voiceover actor, but most of his working life has been spent as a political junkie, a smart-ass, and a creative director in the advertising industry. Mr. Simpson currently makes his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. He's been in love with his wife for thirty years.

Providing students as well as engineers and researchers with a must-have insight into the complexities of surface structure and behavior, this monograph extends beyond the usual introductory books, presenting concentrated knowledge on the surface science of metals, and connecting fundamentals with actual applications. Beginning with explanations of the intricacies of surfaces and their differences to bulk, it takes the reader through the vital steps towards macroscopic metallic components as well as surface nanostructuring. In so doing, it makes use of theory, experimental techniques, examples, and modeling to facilitate a firm understanding.

About the Author

Valim Levitin is Professor and the Head of an internationally renowned Research Group at the National Technical University in Ukraine. He obtained his Ph.D: from Ural State University in Sverdlovsk, Russia, in 1961 and after several positions as research engineer became Professor of Physics at the National Technical University of Ukraine in Zaporozhye. His research focuses on problems of atom vibrations in solids, work functions, the physical bases of creep and fatigue as well as X-ray and TEM studies of the fundamentals of materials strength. He holds 12 patents and has published more than 130 peer-reviewed articles and two books, most recently High Temperature Strain of Metals and Alloys, also with Wiley-VCH.

Stephan Loskutov is Professor of Physics at the National Technical University of Ukraine in Zaporozhye. He began his academic career in 1981 as Assistant Lecturer and became Assistant Professor at the NTU in 1993. He obtained his D.Sc. in metal physics from the Kurdyumov Institute of Metal Physics in Kiev in 2005. His research interests are focused on metal and alloy surfaces, materials fatigue and the computer simulation of crystals.

The only work available to treat the theory of turbulent flow with suspended particles, this book also includes a section on simulation methods, comparing the model results obtained with the PDF method to those obtained with other techniques, such as DNS, LES and RANS.

Written by experienced scientists with background in oil and gas processing, this book is applicable to a wide range of industries -- from the petrol industry and industrial chemistry to food and water processing.

About the Author

Emmanuil G. Sinaiski completed the Lomonossow-State University, Moscow, Russia, where he obtained his PhD in physics and mathematics. He received his Dr Eng. Sci. degree in petroleum engineering from Gubkin-State University of Oil&Gas, Moscow, Russia where he was later appointed to a full professorship. Professor Sinaiski has published numerous books and scientific articles, among them 'Separation of Multiphase, Multicomponent Systems' published in 2007 and `Statistical Microhydrodynamics? published in 2008 by Wiley-VCH. His fields of interest are applied mathematics, fluid mechanics, physicochemical hydrodynamics, chemical and petroleum engineering.

Leonid I. Zaichik studied thermophysics at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute and received his PhD in 1976. Thereafter he worked at the Krzhihanovsky Power Engineering Institute and the Institute for High Temperature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Since 2006 he is head of the Laboratory of Theoretical Hydrodynamics at the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. His scientific interests are mathematical modelling, turbulence, multiphase flows, aerosol mechanics, hydrodynamic stability, and combustion. He has written five books and over 300 papers.

Vladimir M. Alipchenkov studied nuclear physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and received his PhD in 1983. He then worked at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy and the Electrogorsk Research Center of Nuclear Plants Safety, Moscow, Russia. Since 2000 he is a leading researcher at the Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His areas of interest include multiphase flows, turbulence, and plasma physics. He has written two books and over 100 papers published in refereed journals.

This reference covers the wide and rapidly growing field of biocatalysis. It combines complementary expertise from such areas as microbiology, enzymology, molecular biology, structural biology and organic chemistry, this highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. With its special focus on progress and new developments towards environmentally beneficial reactions with high levels of selectivity for the production of key compound classes, this book will enlighten both chemists and biologists as to the advances and opportunities existing in enzyme catalysis.

About the Author

Wolf-Dieter Fessner obtained his PhD from the University of Freiburg, following which he carried out postdoctoral research at Harvard University under George Whitesides and at the University of Southern California with George Olah. Since 1998 he has been Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Technical University Darmstadt. His primary research interest is focused on the development of practical methods for enzymatic carbon-carbon bond formation and oligosaccharide synthesis, and on the interface between chemical and biological catalysis.

Thorleif Anthonsen is Professor of Organic Chemistry at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, in Trondheim. He has been a post doc/visiting scholar at Glasgow University, UK, at UCLA Los Angeles, at MIT Cambridge, USA, and at Cytel Corporation, San Diego. He has led the biocatalysis group at NTNU whose research focused on synthesis of enantiopure compounds directed towards production of chiral drugs. Professor Anthonsen's primary research interests are natural product chemistry, plant cell cultures for the production of chemicals, and biocatalysis in organic chemistry.

(Co)polymers obtained by ring-opening polymerization comprise a large portion of the engineering plastics industry and are used for preparation of many specialty materials, such as nylon 6 and propylene oxide.

Written by internationally acclaimed experts in their respective fields, this comprehensive, one-stop reference discusses monomers, methods, stereochemistry, industrial applications and more. All the main classes of monomers are discussed separately, together with their specificities regarding the ring-opening polymerization techniques, the mechanisms, the degree of control, the properties of the related polymers and their applications.
From the contents:

* Thermodynamics and kinetics of ring-opening polymerization
* General mechanisms
* Silicium containing polymers
* Sulfur-nitrogen-phosphorous containing polymers
* Polymerization of depsipeptides, cyclic urethanes and ureas
* Polyethers and polyoxazolines
* Polyamides
* Metathesis polymerization of olefins and polymerization of alkynes
* Polyesters from lactones, dilactones, and large lactones
* Polyanhydrides and polycarbonates
* Polymerization of cycloalkanes
* Metal-free catalysis in ROP
* Enzyme-mediated ROP

From general concepts to "green chemistry" methods -- here you will find all there is to know about this important reaction type.

About the Author

Philippe Dubois received his PhD degree from University of Liège. In 1997 he moved to University of Mons-Hainaut (UMH) where he obtained the chair of macromolecular chemistry and directed the Laboratory of Polymeric and Composite Materials. He has co-authored about 350 publications and is co-inventor of 40 patents. He co-edited 5 books. In 2007 he became Director of of The Center of Innovation and Research in Materials and Polymers (CIRMAP) at UMH. He is currently past-president of the Belgian Royal Chemical Society (president in 2006-2007) and scientific director of Materia Nova research center in Mons.

Olivier Coulembier received his PhD degree from University of Mons-Hainaut (Belgium) in 2005 and joined the University of Stanford (United States) for his postdoctoral research in 2006. He is currently Postdoral Researcher by Belgian F.N.R.S. in the Laboratory of Polymeric and Composite Materials (LPCM) of Professor Philippe Dubois at University of Mons-Hainaut. His main activities are focused on the (non)organometallic ring-opening polymerization of cyclic monomers. He has authored 20 scientific papers in international journals.

Jean-Marie Raquez works in the Laboratory of Polymeric and Composites Materials (Professor P. Dubois) at University of Mons-Hainaut (UMH) in Mons, Belgium. He has authored 12 scientific papers and 5 US patents in Materials Technology including macromolecular synthesis and reactive processing.

Written by a local health economics expert, each of the eight chapters in this timely handbook and ready reference describes the national healthcare system of a different industrialized country. In each case, the 4-5 specific policies with the highest impact on that respective country over the past 20-30 years are identified. In addition, the economic characteristics of each policy are described and, where possible, its success evaluated, discussing the current policy agenda. A final chapter summarizes and synthesizes the major points of the analysis. While the main focus is on economics, this guide is written in non-technical language for an audience of health policy decision makers or students of health policy, making it an invaluable contribution to the current debate surrounding the control of rising healthcare-related costs in the developed world.

About the Author

EDITORS John Rapoport Professor of Economics Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, Ma USA rapoport@mtholyoke.edu Philip Jacobs Institute of Health Economics Edmonton, Alberta Canada pjacobs@ihe.ca Egon Jonsson Institute of Health Economics Edmonton, Alberta Canada ejonsson@ihe.ca