Download or read book Like the Glide of a Dragonfly written by Natalie Lehto and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2022-12-08 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “How do you breathe when the waves are so rough and the water crashes in your face? How do you breathe when big wave after big wave hits?” A rebellious teenager, Natalie Lehto is pretty much a good-time party girl, until the day she discovers she’s able to run twelve minutes at a stretch. From that intoxicating first achievement, Natalie goes on to become an endurance athlete, running marathons and finishing strong at wildly challenging events like Hawaii’s XTERRA triathlon. In 2013, Natalie’s got it all: two little girls, a great husband, a wide-ranging friend-group, her own fitness studio, and a loving and supportive extended family. And she’s about to top it all off by fulfilling a long-held dream, running the legendary Boston Marathon. But shortly after Natalie joyfully crosses the finish line with her whole family cheering her on, the horror of the marathon bombing decimates the experience. In the years to come, she will grapple with debilitating PTSD, as well as health issues, family tragedy, and loss, but through these challenges, she begins to develop a philosophy of life that keeps her motivated and determined to finish strong through whatever life throws at her. Recounted in an enormously relatable, frequently hilarious voice that nonetheless movingly conveys the oceans of fear and sorrow Natalie’s had to navigate, Like the Glide of a Dragonfly will entertain readers and inspire them in equal measure.

Download or read book Dragonflies and Damselflies a Natural History written by Dennis Paulson and published by . This book was released on 2019-01-26 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lavishly illustrated introduction to the world's dragonflies and damselflies Dragonflies and damselflies are often called birdwatchers' insects. Large, brightly colored, active in the daytime, and displaying complex and interesting behaviors, they have existed since the days of the dinosaurs, and they continue to flourish. Their ancestors were the biggest insects ever, and they still impress us with their size, the largest bigger than a small hummingbird. There are more than 6,000 odonate species known at present, and you need only visit any wetland on a warm summer day to be enthralled by their stunning colors and fascinating behavior. In this lavishly illustrated natural history, leading dragonfly expert Dennis Paulson offers a comprehensive, accessible, and appealing introduction to the world's dragonflies and damselflies. The book highlights the impressive skills and abilities of dragonflies and damselflies--superb fliers that can glide, hover, cruise, and capture prey on the wing. It also describes their arsenal of tactics to avoid predators, and their amazing sex life, including dazzling courtship displays, aerial mating, sperm displacement, mate guarding, and male mimicry. Dragonflies and Damselflies includes profiles of more than fifty of the most interesting and beautiful species from around the world. Learn about the Great Cascade Damsel, which breeds only at waterfalls, the mesmerizing flight of Blue-winged Helicopters, and how the larva of the Common Sanddragon can burrow into sand as efficiently as a mole. Combining expert text and excellent color photographs, this is a must-have guide to these remarkable insects. A lavishly illustrated, comprehensive, and accessible natural history that reveals the beauty and diversity of one of the world's oldest and most popular insect groups Offers a complete guide to the evolution, life cycles, biology, anatomy, behavior, and habitats of dragonflies and damselflies Introduces the 39 families of dragonflies and damselflies through exemplary species accounts Features tips on field observation and lab research, and information on threats and conservation

Download or read book Insects of North America written by David M. Phillips PhD and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insects of North America presents over 300 insect species of North America, including dominant species and insects most likely noticed. With information about distinguishing less common species from those that are more widespread, this guide is sure to please entomologists and more serious insect enthusiasts. Including many of the rare insects that make North America unique, this is a must-have for any insect lover. Look inside to find: Detailed yet user-friendly descriptions and full-color photos of over 300 insects Information on breeding season and interesting facts about each insect Natural history information for North America, broken out by region, including geography, geology, and climate Information on conservation and threats to insect species Insects arranged by family A glossary of entomological terms

Download or read book The Art of the Sonnet written by Stephen Burt and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Few poetic forms have found more uses than the sonnet in English, and none is now more recognizable. It is one of the longest-lived of verse forms, and one of the briefest. A mere fourteen lines, fashioned by intricate rhymes, it is, as Dante Gabriel Rossetti called it, "a moment's monument." From the Renaissance to the present, the sonnet has given poets a superb vehicle for private contemplation, introspection, and the expression of passionate feelings and thoughts." "The Art of the Sonnet collects one hundred exemplary sonnets of the English language (and a few sonnets in translation), representing highlights in the history of the sonnet, accompanied by short commentaries on each of the poems. The commentaries by Stephen Burt and David Mikics offer new perspectives and insights, and, taken together, demonstrate the enduring as well as changing nature of the sonnet. The authors serve as guides to some of the most-celebrated sonnets in English as well as less-well-known gems by nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets. Also included is a general introductory essay, in which the authors examine the sonnet form and its long and fascinating history, from its origin in medieval Sicily to its English appropriation in the sixteenth century to sonnet writing today in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other English-speaking parts of the world." --Book Jacket.

Download or read book Comparative Biomechanics written by Steven Vogel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic textbook on comparative biomechanics—revised and expanded Why do you switch from walking to running at a specific speed? Why do tall trees rarely blow over in high winds? And why does a spore ejected into air at seventy miles per hour travel only a fraction of an inch? Comparative Biomechanics is the first and only textbook that takes a comprehensive look at the mechanical aspects of life—covering animals and plants, structure and movement, and solids and fluids. An ideal entry point into the ways living creatures interact with their immediate physical world, this revised and updated edition examines how the forms and activities of animals and plants reflect the materials available to nature, considers rules for fluid flow and structural design, and explores how organisms contend with environmental forces. Drawing on physics and mechanical engineering, Steven Vogel looks at how animals swim and fly, modes of terrestrial locomotion, organism responses to winds and water currents, circulatory and suspension-feeding systems, and the relationship between size and mechanical design. He also investigates links between the properties of biological materials—such as spider silk, jellyfish jelly, and muscle—and their structural and functional roles. Early chapters and appendices introduce relevant physical variables for quantification, and problem sets are provided at the end of each chapter. Comparative Biomechanics is useful for physical scientists and engineers seeking a guide to state-of-the-art biomechanics. For a wider audience, the textbook establishes the basic biological context for applied areas—including ergonomics, orthopedics, mechanical prosthetics, kinesiology, sports medicine, and biomimetics—and provides materials for exhibit designers at science museums. Problem sets at the ends of chapters Appendices cover basic background information Updated and expanded documentation and materials Revised figures and text Increased coverage of friction, viscoelastic materials, surface tension, diverse modes of locomotion, and biomimetics

Download or read book Dragonfly Walk written by Katie Gilbert and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2019-09-27 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the unthinkable happening, the domino effect of different circumstances that resulted and how one person found another expression of life.. an expansion of understanding, compassion for others but for herself also. It is a book about finding parts of herself and others that she didn’t know existed, some dark but others light. A passage that has led her to understand that light and colour can be expressed more vividly if one is willing to look into the darkness. It is a story of strength, weakness, beauty, ugliness, community, friendship and isolation, sorrow and joy. But most of all this is a story about love, the authentic kind... the substance to all that is.

Download or read book Principles Of Insect Behaviour 2Nd Ed written by Awasthi, V.B. and published by Scientific Publishers. This book was released on 2013-06-03 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of writing this book has been to provide an account of the principles of insect behaviour for the post graduate students of Entomology and general Zoology of all the Universities and Research Institutions as well as to the research scholars engaged in the study of different aspects of Insect behaviour. It is also useful to general readers who have basic knowledge of Biology and have curiosity to know why the insects are vividly coloured, have peculiar shapes, produce sound and light; how they communicate and why bees and wasps sting when disturbed. Significance of insects in pollination of plants associated with the production of seeds, gains and fruits, the role of hormones, pheromones and other chemicals controlling various vital events of the insect behaviour has also been described. The importance of insect migration, control of insect pests by behavioural means has also been discussed. Thus, this book deals with almost all major aspects of insect behaviour. It is hoped that this book will be useful not only to the students of Entomology-Zoology and research scholars of insect behaviour, but also to naturalists who wish to know about some of the mysteries of these small creatures and their lifestyle.

Download or read book Computational Intelligence for Engineering Systems written by Ana Madureira and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computational Intelligence for Engineering Systems provides an overview and original analysis of new developments and advances in several areas of computational intelligence. Computational Intelligence have become the road-map for engineers to develop and analyze novel techniques to solve problems in basic sciences (such as physics, chemistry and biology) and engineering, environmental, life and social sciences. The contributions are written by international experts, who provide up-to-date aspects of the topics discussed and present recent, original insights into their own experience in these fields. The authors also include methods that apply to diverse fields such as manufacturing, tourism, power systems, computer science, robotics, chemistry, and biology. Topics include: Simulation and evolution of real and artificial life forms; Self-organization; Models of communication and social behaviors; Emergent collective behaviors and swarm intelligence; Adaptive, complex and biologically inspired systems; Power Systems ; Web-based Applications; Knowledge discovery; Intelligent Tutoring Systems ; Decision support Systems; Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

Download or read book If I Were a Dragonfly written by Charlee B. Finn and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2017-07-15 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dragonflies are really cool creatures. They can hover and do flips in the air. They can even fly backward. Some dragonflies can fly up to 20 miles per hour! In this book, readers will learn about a day in the life of a dragonfly from the perspective of one these amazing insects. Low-level text is perfect for young readers. Reading comprehension skills are promoted with a special Words to Know section. Colorful illustrations will keep readers of all ages turning the pages.

Download or read book Tasso the Turtle written by Ben Wolfson and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tasso was a turtle who was not comfortable in his shell. After talking to all his various friends of different species, he learned how to appreciate the beauty of his world, and theirs. A childrens story for all ages about accepting and appreciating who you are and those who are not like you.

Download or read book Evolution and Speciation in Animals written by T. J. Pandian and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-09-23 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book represents the first attempt to quantify environmental factors and life history traits that accelerate or decelerate species diversity in animals. About 15%, 8% and 77% of species are distributed in marine (70% of earth’s surface), freshwater (terra firma fosters more diversity. The harsh hadal, desert and elevated montane habitats restrict diversity to 0.5-4.2%. Costing more time and energy, osmotrophic and suspension modes of food acquisition limit diversity to Selfing hermaphrodites (0.9%), parthenogens ( Incidence of heterogamety is four-times more in males than in females. Hence, evolution is more a male-driven process. Egg size is determined by environmental factors, but lecithality is genetically fixed. In poikilotherms, sex is also determined by gene(s), but differentiation by environmental factors. The extra-ovarian vitellogenesis (> 96%), spermatozoan (81%) rather than spermatophore mechanism of sperm transfer, promiscuity and polygamy over monogamy, iteroparity (99.6%) over semelparity and internal fertilization (84%) are preferred, as they accelerate diversity. Body size and egg size determine fecundity. Indirect life cycle (82%) and incorporation of feeding larval stages accelerate diversity. Brooding and viviparity (6.4%) decelerate it. Parasitism extends life span and liberates fecundity from eutelism. Evolution is an ongoing process, and speciation and extinction are its unavoidable by-products. The in-built conservation mechanism of reviving life after a sleeping duration has been reduced from a few million years in microbial spores to a few thousand years in plant seeds and a few hundred years in dormant eggs in animals. Hence, animal conservation requires priority. The existence of temperature-resistant/insensitive individuals, strains and species shall flourish during the ongoing global warming and earth shall continue with such burgeoning species, hopefully inclusive of man.

Download or read book Systems Engineering written by Derek K. Hitchins and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-03-11 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book conceives, presents and exemplifies a contemporary, general systems methodology that is straightforward and accessible, providing guidance in practical application, as well as explaining concept and theory. The book is presented both as a text for students, with topic assignments, and as a reference for practitioners, through case studies. Utilizing recent research and developments in systems science, methods and tools, Hitchins has developed a unified systems methodology, employable when tackling virtually any problem, from the small technological, to the global socioeconomic. Founded in the powerful ‘systems approach’, Hitchins’ systems methodology brings together both soft and hard system scientific methods into one methodological framework. This can be applied when addressing complex problems, issues and situations, and for creating robust, provable solutions, resolutions and dissolutions to those problems – supposing such to exist. This book details and explores: the systems approach, using theory and method to reveal systems engineering as applied systems science, bridging the gulf between Problem and Solution Spaces; a ‘universal’ Systems Methodology (including an extensive view of systems engineering, embracing both soft and hard systems) which encompasses all five stages of Hitchins’ 5-layer Systems Engineering Model (artifact, project, enterprise, industry and socio-economy); case studies illustrating how the systems methodology may be used to address a diverse range of situations and issues, including conceiving a new defense capability, proposing a feasible way to tackle global warming, tackling enterprise interventions, how and why things can go wrong, and many more. Systems Engineering will give an immeasurable advantage to managers, practitioners and consultants in a wide range of organizations and fields including police, defense, procurement, communications, transport, management, electrical, electronic, aerospace, requirements, software and computer engineering. It is an essential reference for researchers seeking ‘systems enlightenment’, including graduate students who require a comprehensive reference text on the subject, and also government departments and systems engineering institutions

Download or read book The Wingless Crow written by Charles Fergus and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A collection of thirty-three essays on Pennsylvania wildlife, science, and country living"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Dragonflies of Texas written by John C. Abbott and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2015-03-15 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dragonflies and damselflies (together known as Odonata) are among the most remarkably distinctive insects in their appearance and biology, and they have become some of the most popular creatures sought by avocational naturalists. Texas hosts 160 species of dragonflies, nearly half of the 327 species known in North America, making the state a particularly good place to observe dragonflies in their natural habitats. Dragonflies of Texas is the definitive field guide to these insects. It covers all 160 species with in situ photographs and detailed anatomical images as needed. Each species is given a two-page spread that includes photographs of both sexes and known variations when possible, key features, a distribution map, identification, discussion of similar species, status in Texas, habitat, seasonality, and general comments. Many of the groups also have comparative plates that show anatomically distinctive characteristics. In addition to the species accounts, John Abbott discusses dragonfly anatomy, life history, conservation, names, and photography. He also provides information on species that may eventually be discovered in Texas, state and global conservation rankings, seasonality of all species in chronological order, and additional resources and publications on the identification of dragonflies.

Download or read book The Butterflies of North America written by James A. Scott and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1992-03-01 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illustrated field guide describes the biological and ecological world of butterflies

Download or read book Conservation of Dragonflies written by Michael J. Samways and published by CABI. This book was released on 2024-06-11 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dragonflies are among the most familiar and popular of all insects, deeply embedded in human cultural history. They are iconic and tell us much about the environments in which we and they live. Their conservation is an important part of biodiversity conservation. One modern dragonfly species is listed as extinct, with many others currently threatened. It is now essential to increase conservation efforts towards saving these threatened species, with strategies now available for doing this. Recovery of dragonfly populations goes hand in hand with improvements to both freshwater conditions and bank vegetation quality. In contrast, some other dragonfly species have benefitted greatly from human transformation of the landscape, with artificial ponds in particular, increasing the population levels of many species. In turn, climate change is seeing many geographical range shifts. Conservation of Dragonflies: Sentinels for Freshwater Conservation is for naturalists, citizen scientists, entomologists and conservation scientists, as well as practitioners and policy makers around the world.

Download or read book Regulation Digestion Nutrition Excretion written by G. A. Kerkut and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, seven of the chapters deal with feeding and diet, which is reasonable since insects consume an estimated l5-20% of all the world's planted crops. Many insects even have a specialized larval feeding stage that usually occupies a different ecological niche to the adult and so does not compete for the adult's food stock. Other chapters describe the means by which insects maintain their water balance, nitrogen balance and temperature balance under a range of conditions. These involve regulation by hormonal and behavioural systems that are also described here. The l4 chapters are all extensively illustrated and referenced and therefore provide excellent summaries of current knowledge. They will be of great value to entomologists, zoologists and biologists in general.