Enclosed ecosystem experiments have gained in popularity as research tools in ecological science, particularly in the study of coastal aquatic environments. These systems provide scientists with a degree of experimental control that is not achievable through field experiments. Yet to date, techniques for systematically extrapolating results from small-scale experimental ecosystems to larger, deeper, more open, more biologically diverse, and more heterogeneous ecosystems in nature have not been well developed. Likewise, researchers have lacked methods for comparing and extrapolating information among natural ecosystems that differ in scale. Enclosed Experimental Ecosystems and Scale: Tools for Understanding and Managing Coastal Ecosystems provides scientists, managers, and policy makers with an introduction to what has been termed the "problem of scale", and presents information that will allow for improved design and interpretation of enclosed experimental aquatic ecosystems. The book integrates the results of a 10-year research project involving a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and students to explore scale-related questions in a variety of coastal habitats. Anticipating use as a reference, the book has been designed so that individual sections and individual pages can function as stand alone units.

State and local government fiscal systems have increasingly become vulnerable to economic changes. Over the past three decades, state and local deficits during economic recession have been larger and deeper each time. The impact of the Great Recession and its aftermath of feeble growth and lingering high unemployment has been dramatic both in scope and intensity. Before the crisis, long-term structural deficits were persistent for both individual governments and the entire sector as spending plans and patterns outpaced governments' revenue-generating capacity. The revenue systems of these governments eroded while the workloads and scope on the expenditure side of the state and local system budget continued to grow. This handbook evaluates the persistent problems in the fiscal systems of state and local governments and what can be done to solve them. It contains 35 chapters authored by 60 practitioners and academics who are renowned scholars in state and local finance. Each chapter provides a description of the discipline area, examines major developments in policy, practices and research, and opines on future prospects. The chapters are divided into four sections. Section I is a systematic discussion of the institutional, economic, and political framework that provides a background for understanding the structure and financial performance of the state and local sector. The chapters in Section II provide an overview of the various components of state and local revenue systems and how they reacted to the Great Recession. They analyze the diverse forms of taxes and charges in detail, prescribe remedies and alternatives, and examine the implications for future revenue performance. Chapters in Section III turn to spending, borrowing and financial management in the state and local sector. The focus is on the big six service delivery sectors: education, health care, human services, transportation, pensions, and housing. Section IV is a set of chapters that look ahead and speculate about how the state and local government sector's money-raising, spending, and service delivery structures will adjust to the new circumstances.

This book introduces the basic concepts necessary to understand Single Event phenomena which could cause random performance errors and catastrophic failures to electronics devices. As miniaturization of electronics components advances, electronics components are more susceptible in the radiation environment. The book includes a discussion of the radiation environments in space and in the atmosphere, radiation rate prediction depending on the orbit to allow electronics engineers to design and select radiation tolerant components and systems, and single event prediction.

Ergodic theory is a field that is lively on its own and also in its interactions with other branches of mathematics and science. In recent years the interchanges with harmonic analysis have been especially noticeable and productive in both directions. The 1993 Alexandria Conference explored many of these connections as they were developing. The three survey papers in this book describe the relationships of almost everywhere convergence (J. Rosenblatt and M. Wierdl), rigidity theory (R. Spatzier), and the theory of joinings (J.-P. Thouvenot). These papers present the background of each area of interaction, the most outstanding recent results, and the currently promising lines of research. They should form perfect starting points for anyone beginning research in one of these areas. The book also includes thirteen research papers that describe recent work related to the theme of the conference: several treat questions arising from the Furstenberg multiple recurrence theory, while the remainder discuss almost everywhere convergence and a variety of other topics in dynamics.

The author presents the fundamentals of the ergodic theory of point transformations and several advanced topics of intense research. The study of dynamical systems forms a vast and rapidly developing field even when considering only activity whose methods derive mainly from measure theory and functional analysis. Each of the basic aspects of ergodic theory--examples, convergence theorems, recurrence properties, and entropy--receives a basic and a specialized treatment. The author's accessible style and the profusion of exercises, references, summaries, and historical remarks make this a useful book for graduate students or self study.

It is 1923 and Montana is slipping into a state of decline and depression long before the rest of the country will follow suit. Drought and bootlegging are up and cattle and crops are down. Stowing her grief and insecurities neatly away in her luggage, with a hopeful heart, Jo Swenson boards a train on the Great Northern Railway, headed to a remote cattle ranch along the Northwestern edge of rugged Montana to seek out Leif Hawkins, the man advertising for a new ranch hand. She thinks her journey to the ranch is serendipitous, but after only one week of back-breaking labor, the boss arrives at the ranch and isn't pleased to find a woman inserted under his roof and into his solitude. Jo had traveled a thousand miles from home, and not one person, including her family, had guessed her true motivation for leaving the farm, but after two minutes in the room with her new boss, he starts digging at her vulnerable spot. Her past has left her bitter and cautious, so when she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him-a cold, solitary man who is burying secrets of his own-Jo is at a crossroads. The warning sentry of her heart and the compelling voice in her soul each fight for their path. During the long, hot summer filled with demanding work, riotous laughter, and solemn discovery, will Jo find the courage to become the woman she was always meant to be or will she discover once again that the worst pain is the pain she doesn't see coming-life stolen away without preamble, without preparation for mind or heart?

This book discusses the impact of recent advances in the theory of "scaling relationships" and identifies critical issues that must be considered if experimental results are used to understand the temporal and spatial scales of actual ecosystems.

The complexity of ecosystems complicates experimental design. How, for example, does a scientist draw boundaries when studying species effects and interactions? Once these boundaries are drawn, how does one treat factors external to that study? Will the failure to consider external factors affect one's ability to extrapolate information across temporal and spatial scales? This volume provides a compilation from a broad range of ecologists with extensive experimental research experience that addresses these and other questions of scaling relations.

This book discusses the impact of recent advances in the theory of "scaling relationships" and identifies critical issues that must be considered if experimental results are used to understand the temporal and spatial scales of actual ecosystems.

The complexity of ecosystems complicates experimental design. How, for example, does a scientist draw boundaries when studying species effects and interactions? Once these boundaries are drawn, how does one treat factors external to that study? Will the failure to consider external factors affect one's ability to extrapolate information across temporal and spatial scales? This volume provides a compilation from a broad range of ecologists with extensive experimental research experience that addresses these and other questions of scaling relations.