Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest surviving botanic garden in Britain and has occupied its site in central Oxford since 1621. Conceived as a place to grow medicinal plants, born in the turmoil of civil war and nurtured during the restoration of the monarchy, the garden has, unsurprisingly, a curious past. By tracing the work and priorities of each of the garden's keepers, this book explores its importance as one of the world's oldest scientific plant collections. It tells the story of the planting of the garden by its first keeper, Jacob Bobart, and his son, together with how they changed the garden to suit their own needs. The story develops during the eighteenth century as the garden grew exotic plants under glass and acquired a fine succulent collection but then experienced a downturn under the stewardship of the eccentric Professor Humphrey Sibthorp (famous for giving just one lecture in thirty-seven years). Finally, the narrative throws light on the partnership of gardener William Baxter and academic Charles Daubeny in the early nineteenth century, which gave the garden its glasshouses and ponds and contributed to its survival to the present day. This generously illustrated book is the first history of the garden and arboretum for more than a century and provides an essential introduction to one of Oxford's much-loved haunts.

A revelatory tale of how the human brain develops, from conception to birth and beyond By the time a baby is born, its brain is equipped with billions of intricately crafted neurons wired together through trillions of interconnections to form a compact and breathtakingly efficient supercomputer. Zero to Birth takes you on an extraordinary journey to the very edge of creation, from the moment of an egg's fertilization through each step of a human brain's development in the womb-and even a little beyond. As pioneering experimental neurobiologist W. A. Harris guides you through the process of how the brain is built, he takes up the biggest questions that scientists have asked about the developing brain, describing many of the thrilling discoveries that were foundational to our current understanding. He weaves in a remarkable evolutionary story that begins billions of years ago in the Proterozoic eon, when multicellular animals first emerged from single-cell organisms, and reveals how the growth of a fetal brain over nine months reflects the brain's evolution through the ages. Our brains have much in common with those of other animals, and Harris offers an illuminating look at how comparative animal studies have been crucial to understanding what makes a human brain human. An unforgettable chronicle of one of nature's greatest achievements, Zero to Birth describes how the brain's incredible feat of orchestrated growth ensures that every brain is unique, and how breakthroughs at the frontiers of science are helping us to decode many traits that only reveal themselves later in life.

'It's a wonderful institution and the training is amazing.' SAM HEUGHAN 'I can honestly say, no word of a lie, that the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland changed my life.' JACKIE KAY For 175 years, a Glasgow institution has been teaching the performing arts to students who have become some of the world's most distinguished artists. This celebratory history raises the curtain on the inner life of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Peek into the bustling backstage world of Scotland's national conservatoire, feast your eyes on never-before-seen archival material and bask in dazzling production photography that captures the creative effervescence of its students. Ncuti Gatwa, Richard Madden, Karen Cargill, Alan Cumming, Maggie Kinloch and many other alumni take to the spotlight to share what the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has meant to them. Raising the Curtain reveals the past, illuminates the present and invites you to look to the future of this world-class performing arts institution.

Since 1621, and the foundation of the Oxford Botanic Garden, Oxford has built up an outstanding collection of plant specimens, botanical illustrations and rare books on plant classification, collecting and plant biology. These archives, and the living plants in the Garden, are integral to the study of botany in the University. This book profiles the botanists and collections which have helped to transform our understanding of the biology of plants over the past four centuries, focusing on plant classification, experimental botany, building botanical collections, agriculture and forestry and botanical education. Highlights include a selection of Ferdinand Bauer's renowned illustrations for Flora Graeca - an extraordinarily lavish and detailed eighteenth-century botanical publication of plants found in the Eastern Mediterranean - and rare plant specimens from the herbaria, such as Fairchild's Mule (the first artificially created hybrid plant). Together with seventeenth-century herbals, elegant garden plans, plant models and fossil slides, these items from the archives all help to tell the story of botanical science in Oxford and the intrepid botanists who devoted themselves to the essential study of plants.

An effective blend of carefully explained theory and practical applications, this text imparts the fundamentals of both information theory and data compression. Although the two topics are related, this unique text allows either topic to be presented independently, and it was specifically designed so that the data compression section requires no prior knowledge of information theory. The treatment of information theory, while theoretical and abstract, is quite elementary, making this text less daunting than many others. After presenting the fundamental definitions and results of the theory, the authors then apply the theory to memoryless, discrete channels with zeroth-order, one-state sources. The chapters on data compression acquaint students with a myriad of lossless compression methods and then introduce two lossy compression methods. Students emerge from this study competent in a wide range of techniques. The authors' presentation is highly practical but includes some important proofs, either in the text or in the exercises, so instructors can, if they choose, place more emphasis on the mathematics. Introduction to Information Theory and Data Compression, Second Edition is ideally suited for an upper-level or graduate course for students in mathematics, engineering, and computer science. Features: Expanded discussion of the historical and theoretical basis of information theory that builds a firm, intuitive grasp of the subject Reorganization of theoretical results along with new exercises, ranging from the routine to the more difficult, that reinforce students' ability to apply the definitions and results in specific situations. Simplified treatment of the algorithm(s) of Gallager and Knuth Discussion of the information rate of a code and the trade-off between error correction and information rate Treatment of probabilistic finite state source automata, including basic resul

Any effective response to an uncertain future will require independently thinking individuals working together. Human ideas and actions have led to unprecedented changes in the relationships among humans, and between humans and the Earth. Changes in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the energy we use are evidence of Nature - which has no special interest in sustaining human life - looking out for itself. Even the evolutionary context for humans has altered. Evolutionary pressures from the digital communication revolution have been added to those from natural systems. For humans to meet these challenges requires social re-organisation that is neither simple nor easy. Independent Thinking in an Uncertain World explores workable, field-tested strategies from the frontiers of creating a viable future for humans on Earth. Based on research results from hundreds of social learning workshops with communities worldwide, many of them part of Australian National University's Local Sustainability Project, authors with diverse interests explore the gap between open-minded individual thinking and closed socially defined knowledges. The multiple dimensions of individual, social and biophysical ways of thinking are combined in ways that allow open-minded individuals to learn from one another.

Pressures for transformational change have become a regular feature of most fields of human endeavour. Master-thinkers and visionaries alike have reframed existing divisions as connecting relationships, bringing together as dynamic systems the supposed opposites of parts and wholes, stability and change, individuals and society, and rational and creative thinking. This reframing of opposites as interconnected wholes has led to realisation of the power of a collective mind. This book offers ways and means of creating the synergies that are crucial in influencing a desired transformational change towards a just and sustainable future. It describes how and why our current decision-making on any complex issue is marked by clashes between the different interests involved. More optimistically, the book pursues a mode of thinking that brings together government, specialised and community interests at the local, regional and personal scales in a collective transformation process. Practical examples signal the emergence of a new knowledge tradition that promises to be as powerful as the scientific enlightenment. Written in accessible language, this book will be insightful reading for anyone struggling with transformational change, especially researchers, students and professionals in the fields of administration, governance, environmental management, international development, politics, public health, public law, sociology, and community development

'It's a wonderful institution and the training is amazing.' SAM HEUGHAN 'I can honestly say, no word of a lie, that the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland changed my life.' JACKIE KAY For 175 years, a Glasgow institution has been teaching the performing arts to students who have become some of the world's most distinguished artists. This celebratory history raises the curtain on the inner life of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Peek into the bustling backstage world of Scotland's national conservatoire, feast your eyes on never-before-seen archival material and bask in dazzling production photography that captures the creative effervescence of its students. Ncuti Gatwa, Richard Madden, Karen Cargill, Alan Cumming, Maggie Kinloch and many other alumni take to the spotlight to share what the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has meant to them. Raising the Curtain reveals the past, illuminates the present and invites you to look to the future of this world-class performing arts institution.

Does belief in God yield the best understanding of value? Can we provide transcendental support for key moral concepts? Does evolutionary theory undermine or support religious moralities? Is divine forgiveness unjust? Can a wholly good God understand evil? Should philosophy of religion proceed in a faith-neutral way? Public and academic concerns regarding religion and morality are proliferating as people wonder about the possibility of moral reassurance, and the ability of religion to provide it, and about the future of religion and the relation between religious faiths. This book addresses current thinking on such matters, with particular focus on the relationship between moral values and doctrines of the divine. Leading scholars in the field test the scope of philosophy of religion, and engage with the possibilities and difficulties of attempting trans-faith philosophy. Chapters also relate to a number of cross-disciplinary contemporary debates: on evolution and ethics; politics, justice and forgiveness; and the relation between reason and emotions. Another set of chapters tests the coherence of Anselmian theism and concepts of an Omni-God in relation to divine knowledge and goodness. This book will be of interest to scholars and undergraduates in philosophy of religion, as well as moral philosophers, philosophers of science, theologians, and those working in theology and science.

Does belief in God yield the best understanding of value? Can we provide transcendental support for key moral concepts? Does evolutionary theory undermine or support religious moralities? Is divine forgiveness unjust? Can a wholly good God understand evil? Should philosophy of religion proceed in a faith-neutral way? Public and academic concerns regarding religion and morality are proliferating as people wonder about the possibility of moral reassurance, and the ability of religion to provide it, and about the future of religion and the relation between religious faiths. This book addresses current thinking on such matters, with particular focus on the relationship between moral values and doctrines of the divine. Leading scholars in the field test the scope of philosophy of religion, and engage with the possibilities and difficulties of attempting trans-faith philosophy. Chapters also relate to a number of cross-disciplinary contemporary debates: on evolution and ethics; politics, justice and forgiveness; and the relation between reason and emotions. Another set of chapters tests the coherence of Anselmian theism and concepts of an Omni-God in relation to divine knowledge and goodness. This book will be of interest to scholars and undergraduates in philosophy of religion, as well as moral philosophers, philosophers of science, theologians, and those working in theology and science.

What tensions arise between philosophy of religion and theology? What strengths and weaknesses of analytical methods emerge in relation to strongly confessional philosophical theologies, or to Continental philosophies? Faith and Philosophical Analysis evaluates how well philosophy of religion serves in understanding religious faith. Figures who rarely share the space of the same book - leading exponents of analytic philosophy of religion and those who question its legacy - are drawn together in this book, with their disagreements harnessed to positive effect. Figures such as Richard Swinburne and Basil Mitchell reflect on their life-long projects from a perspective which has not previously been seen in print. A wide range of approaches found in contemporary philosophy of religion are explored, including: reformed epistemology, 'traditional' metaphysical theory building, feminist methodologies, Wittgensteinian approaches, and American pragmatism. Considering the trends in philosophy of religion as they are interacting across continents, looking particularly at philosophical influences in North America, Britain, and Continental Europe, this book will appeal to students, scholars and general readers with an interest in philosophy of religion, theology, or analytical philosophy.

What tensions arise between philosophy of religion and theology? What strengths and weaknesses of analytical methods emerge in relation to strongly confessional philosophical theologies, or to Continental philosophies? Faith and Philosophical Analysis evaluates how well philosophy of religion serves in understanding religious faith. Figures who rarely share the space of the same book - leading exponents of analytic philosophy of religion and those who question its legacy - are drawn together in this book, with their disagreements harnessed to positive effect. Figures such as Richard Swinburne and Basil Mitchell reflect on their life-long projects from a perspective which has not previously been seen in print. A wide range of approaches found in contemporary philosophy of religion are explored, including: reformed epistemology, 'traditional' metaphysical theory building, feminist methodologies, Wittgensteinian approaches, and American pragmatism. Considering the trends in philosophy of religion as they are interacting across continents, looking particularly at philosophical influences in North America, Britain, and Continental Europe, this book will appeal to students, scholars and general readers with an interest in philosophy of religion, theology, or analytical philosophy.

An effective blend of carefully explained theory and practical applications, this text imparts the fundamentals of both information theory and data compression. Although the two topics are related, this unique text allows either topic to be presented independently, and it was specifically designed so that the data compression section requires no prior knowledge of information theory.

The treatment of information theory, while theoretical and abstract, is quite elementary, making this text less daunting than many others. After presenting the fundamental definitions and results of the theory, the authors then apply the theory to memoryless, discrete channels with zeroth-order, one-state sources.

The chapters on data compression acquaint students with a myriad of lossless compression methods and then introduce two lossy compression methods. Students emerge from this study competent in a wide range of techniques. The authors' presentation is highly practical but includes some important proofs, either in the text or in the exercises, so instructors can, if they choose, place more emphasis on the mathematics.

Introduction to Information Theory and Data Compression, Second Edition is ideally suited for an upper-level or graduate course for students in mathematics, engineering, and computer science.

With more than 7 million copies sold, and a spot on the New York Times Bestseller list, this pioneering self-help guide transformed the lives of countless readers.
"Harris has stripped away the technical language of psychoanalysis and presents with lucid logic a way to self-understanding and change."--"The Los Angeles Times "

Are you okay? That's probably the most important question anyone will ever answer, and Dr. Thomas Harris's groundbreaking bestseller helped millions respond in the affirmative. Using Transactional Analysis, which confronts the individual with the fact that he or she is responsible for what happens in the future, Dr. Harris explained how to distinguish the three active elements that make up everyone's personality (Parent, Adult, and Child), as well as the four life positions underlying people's actions. Best of all, his theories are presented in wonderfully easy-to-understand language, and there's practical advice on how to change harmful behavior. Anyone can lead a happier, more effective life and better understand friends and family.

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the entire career of one of Britain's greatest men of letters. It sets in biographical and historical context all of Hume's works, from A Treatise of Human Nature to The History of England, bringing to light the major influences on the course of Hume's intellectual development, and paying careful attention to the differences between the wide variety of literary genres with which Hume experimented. The major events in Hume's life are fully described, but the main focus is on Hume's intentions as a philosophical analyst of human nature, politics, commerce, English history, and religion. Careful attention is paid to Hume's intellectual relations with his contemporaries. The goal is to reveal Hume as a man intensely concerned with the realization of an ideal of open-minded, objective, rigorous, dispassionate dialogue about all the principal questions faced by his age.

Nonconventional and Vernacular Construction Materials: Characterisation, Properties and Applications provides a comprehensive repository of information on materials science and the modern structural engineering application of ancient, vernacular, and nonconventional building materials, with leading experts contributing chapters that focus on current applications and the engineering of these construction materials. Opening with a historic retrospective of nonconventional materials, Part One includes a review of vernacular construction and a discussion of the future directions for nonconventional and vernacular materials research and applications. Chapters in Part Two focus on natural fibers, including their application in cementitious composites, non-cementitious composites, and strawbale construction. In Part Three, chapters cover the use of industrial by-products and natural ashes in cement mortar and concrete, and construction using soil-cement blocks, clay-based materials, adobe and earthen materials, and ancient stone masonry. Timber, bamboo, and paper construction materials are investigated in the final section of the book.

Questions about how to negotiate belief and non-belief in social and public spheres are attracting an increasing amount of attention from academics in a range of disciplines, and from concerned members of the public. This volume addresses the emergence of ‘new atheism’ and the developing ‘spiritual but not religious’ phenomenon. Avoiding simplistic accounts of atheism, and of religious belief, it provides readers with insight into a wide range of nuances within theism and atheism, as well as spiritual practice and faith. The chapters by an international panel of contributors focus on topics such as: a typology or cartography of atheisms and agnosticism; contrasting types of atheism within Christianity and Buddhism; questions about cognitive and doxastic stances in atheisms; theist rejections of and atheist embracing of ‘God’; and atheist aesthetics. Reaching beyond the Christian tradition, the book will be of particular interest to scholars of the philosophy of religion, as well as religious studies and theology more generally.

This beautifully illustrated book examines the changing role of the garden in Britain from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. Beginning in a world where gardens had long been associated with Paradise, the author charts the influence of the Renaissance belief in direct observation of nature on the development of gardens. He examines the rise of gardens as laboratories for scientific investigation and storehouses for an ever increasing range of novelty plants. While the botanic gardens of early modern Europe had largely been a means of supplying surgeons with medicine, by the seventeenth and eighteenth century the interest in gardens had spread to all levels of society. Gardens became a tapestry of many diverse botanical histories: some plants were native, some were introduced and others evolved in the garden. This book looks at the reasons behind the explosion of interest in plants and the way in which the basic pattern of plant diversity was mapped. It shows how the garden became a symbol of human interactions within the botanical world. A showcase for rarely-seen botanical illustrations from the Bodleian Libraries and herbaria, which are among the best in the world, this is a fascinating book for plant enthusiasts and gardeners as well as anyone interested in biodiversity and conservation.

Any effective response to an uncertain future will require independently thinking individuals working together. Human ideas and actions have led to unprecedented changes in the relationships among humans, and between humans and the Earth. Changes in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the energy we use are evidence of Nature - which has no special interest in sustaining human life - looking out for itself. Even the evolutionary context for humans has altered. Evolutionary pressures from the digital communication revolution have been added to those from natural systems. For humans to meet these challenges requires social re-organisation that is neither simple nor easy. Independent Thinking in an Uncertain World explores workable, field-tested strategies from the frontiers of creating a viable future for humans on Earth. Based on research results from hundreds of social learning workshops with communities worldwide, many of them part of Australian National University's Local Sustainability Project, authors with diverse interests explore the gap between open-minded individual thinking and closed socially defined knowledges. The multiple dimensions of individual, social and biophysical ways of thinking are combined in ways that allow open-minded individuals to learn from one another.

David Hume, philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist, was one of the great figures of the European Enlightenment. Unlike some of his famous contemporaries, however, he was not dogmatically committed to idealised conceptions of reason, liberty, and progress. Instead, Hume was a sceptic whose arguments questioned the reach and authority of human rationality, and who put the rivalrous passions of commercial life at the centre of his theory of human nature. He believed that the modern world was in many ways superior to the ancient world, but was acutely conscious of the threats to peace and progress posed by bigotry, factionalism, and imperialism. Today Hume's works continue to speak to us powerfully in an age of instability and uncertainty. This Very Short Introduction presents a balanced account of Hume's thought, giving equal attention to his work on human nature, morality, politics, and religion. Weaving together biography, the historical context, and a thoughtful exposition of Hume's arguments, James A. Harris offers a compelling picture of a thinker who had no disciples and formed no school, but whom no one in his own time was able to ignore, and who has since become central to modern philosophy's understanding of itself. Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

In this short book, the authors discuss three types of problems from combinatorial geometry: Borsuk's partition problem, covering convex bodies by smaller homothetic bodies, and the illumination problem. They show how closely related these problems are to each other. The presentation is elementary, with no more than high-school mathematics and an interest in geometry required to follow the arguments. Most of the discussion is restricted to two- and three-dimensional Euclidean space, though sometimes more general results and problems are given. Thus even the mathematically unsophisticated reader can grasp some of the results of a branch of twentieth-century mathematics that has applications in such disciplines as mathematical programming, operations research and theoretical computer science. At the end of the book the authors have collected together a set of unsolved and partially solved problems that a sixth-form student should be able to understand and even attempt to solve.

A study of the survival of primal Celtic shamanism in later folk-traditions of Gaelic speaking peoples. This is an insightful and intelligent academic study that brings together areas of study not normally combined in an accessible style.

Schnell und einfach interaktive Webseiten programmieren: Andy Harris zeigt Ihnen alles, was Sie A1/4ber JavaScript wissen mA1/4ssen, um dieses Ziel zu erreichen. ZunAchst erlernen Sie die Grundlagen der Programmierung und erfahren dann, wie Sie Ihre HTML-Elemente mit JavaScript verAndern und animieren. Auch die Themen Ajax und jQuery werden ausfA1/4hrlich behandelt. HTML- und CSS-Kenntnisse sind fA1/4r die LektA1/4re von Nutzen, Programmierkenntnisse benAtigen Sie jedoch nicht. Mit den vielen verstAndlichen Beispielen finden sich auch AnfAnger schnell zurecht, so dass Sie schon bald attraktive Webseiten entwickeln werden!

What does it mean to be white? When you encounter people from other races or ethnicities, you may become suddenly aware that being white means something. Those from other backgrounds may respond to you differently or suspiciously. You may feel ambivalence about your identity as a white person. Or you may feel frustrated when a friend of another ethnicity shakes his head and says, "You just don't get it because you're white." So, what does it mean to be white? How can you overcome the mistakes of the past? How can you build authentic relationships with people from other races and ethnicities? In this groundbreaking book, Paula Harris and Doug Schaupp present a Christian model of what it means to be white. They wrestle through the history of how those in the majority have oppressed minority cultures, but they also show that whites also have a cultural and ethnic identity with its own distinctive traits and contributions. They demonstrate that white people have a key role to play in the work of racial reconciliation and the forging of a more just society. Filled with real-life stories, life-transforming insights and practical guidance, this book is for you if you are aware of racial inequality but have wondered, So what do I do? Discover here a vision for just communities where whites can partner with and empower those of other ethnicities.

Pressures for transformational change have become a regular feature of most fields of human endeavour. Master-thinkers and visionaries alike have reframed existing divisions as connecting relationships, bringing together as dynamic systems the supposed opposites of parts and wholes, stability and change, individuals and society, and rational and creative thinking. This reframing of opposites as interconnected wholes has led to realisation of the power of a collective mind.
This book offers ways and means of creating the synergies that are crucial in influencing a desired transformational change towards a just and sustainable future. It describes how and why our current decision-making on any complex issue is marked by clashes between the different interests involved. More optimistically, the book pursues a mode of thinking that brings together government, specialised and community interests at the local, regional and personal scales in a collective transformation process. Practical examples signal the emergence of a new knowledge tradition that promises to be as powerful as the scientific enlightenment.
Written in accessible language, this book will be insightful reading for anyone struggling with transformational change, especially researchers, students and professionals in the fields of administration, governance, environmental management, international development, politics, public health, public law, sociology, and community development