Life is full of surprises. Some are a breath of fresh air while others take our breath away. The natural human instinct is to avoid suffering or sorrow. Yet, sometimes the unexpected grabs hold until we learn something new or complete a particular season of live. Blessings in Blogs: Living Effectively is a wonderful resource for personal guidance and small groups. Wrapped in the Word of God, this book is filled with 50 Bible-based life applications - inspirationals that serve as a reminder to look to Christ before, during, and after those urgencies and uncertainties of life. Special Feature: Explore a 3-step method called "Using the Upside of the Brain," a unique way of seeing, understanding, and overcoming any situation from a spiritual perspective. Special Supplement: Are you ready to walk in the life you were originally designed to live? Begin your new journey with the " Guide to Propel Your Purpose "

Competition in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity is of increasing interest to policy makers as well as to buyers and sellers of power. The use of competition as a social policy tool to benefit consumers carries the necessity of preserving competition when it is threatened by mergers or other structural changes. The work explains central principles of antitrust economics and applies them to mergers in the electric power industry. This work focuses on mergers, but the economic principles explained here will be useful in analyzing many important issues flowing from growth of competition in electric power. For example, proper definition of markets and analysis of market power will be useful in decisions on whether to continue regulation.

"The Economics of a Disaster" represents a major contribution to the understanding of the economics of liability and damages. It is based on the assumption that if people know they can be held responsible for some or all of the costs or damages sustained in an environmental accident, they will change their behavior to make the accident less likely to occur or to reduce the damages should it occur. The work develops a framework to examine and measure changes in market conditions after a disaster, showing the kinds of information that need to be collected and analyzed. Based on the Exxon Valdez case, this work provides an interesting framework for practitioners, specialists, and scholars in the fields of business, economics, law, and environmental studies.

From the end of Pontiac's War in 1763 through the War of 1812, fear - even paranoia - drove Anglo-American Indian policies. In Red Dreams, White Nightmares, Robert M. Owens views conflicts between whites and Natives in this era - invariably treated as discrete, regional affairs - as the inextricably related struggles they were. As this book makes clear, the Indian wars north of the Ohio River make sense only within the context of Indians' efforts to recruit their southern cousins to their cause. The massive threat such alliances posed, recognized by contemporary whites from all walks of life, prompted a terror that proved a major factor in the formulation of Indian and military policy in North America. Indian unity, especially in the form of military alliance, was the most consistent, universal fear of Anglo-Americans in the late colonial, Revolutionary, and early national periods. This fear was so pervasive - and so useful for unifying whites - that Americans exploited it long after the threat of a general Indian alliance had passed. As the nineteenth century wore on, and as slavery became more widespread and crucial to the American South, fears shifted to Indian alliances with former slaves, and eventually to slave rebellion in general. The growing American nation needed and utilized a rhetorical threat from the other to justify the uglier aspects of empire building - a phenomenon that Owens tracks through a vast array of primary sources. Drawing on eighteen different archives, covering four nations and eleven states, and on more than six-dozen period newspapers - and incorporating the views of British and Spanish authorities as well as their American rivals - Red Dreams, White Nightmares is the most comprehensive account ever written of how fear, oftentimes resulting in ""Indian-hating,"" directly influenced national policy in early America.

(Limelight). For well over twenty years, M. Owen Lee has been offering intermission talks during the Saturday afternoon Texaco Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, which now reach countries on six continents. In this book, Father Lee covers various operas of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and Richard Strauss, as well as a selection of French operas, including Faust, Carmen and Les Contes d'Hoffman. In all, his repertory contains 23 operatic masterworks, to all of which he brings insight, learning and the most infectious enthusiasm. "One just cannot get enough of Father Lee's] brilliant, stimulating, thought-provoking insights...I feel there is no one more knowledgeable or qualified in the entire field of opera commentary. No one." The Opera Quarterly

There's a new breed of terrorist living in America.He's a nationalized citizen educated at a prestigious university, trained by a high-tech corporation, and all the while he's been biding his time, building his army, waiting to strike. When he sets his diabolical plans in motion, there's only one man and one organization that can stop him.Jason Talbot is the leader of Strike Squad Alpha, an elite fighting force in the Terrorism Prevention Agency (TEPA), a secret organization within the Department of Homeland Security. He is authorized to operate outside the law to put a stop to terrorist attacks before they occur. But now he faces his greatest challenge. From a hijacked oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea, to a castle in the woods of Northern Virginia, to an abandoned missile base in Washington State, Jason Talbot, aided by the capable Sarah Ruger of the NTSB, races to stop a modern-day Armageddon.'"Engineering Evil" grips you from the beginning and will not let you go! This author knows his way around the guarded world of special operations. You will not be disappointed!"-Lieutenant Colonel Storm Savage, U.S. Army

(Amadeus). In this volume, Father M. Owen Lee writes for the 21st-century operagoer, briskly and stylishly telling the stories of 100 of the world's greatest music dramas from Aida to Die Zauberflote . The stories told in music by Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Strauss are brought to life here with wit, insight and boundless enthusiasm. When compiling and composing this pocket-sized handbook, Fr. Lee considered the unique needs of the modern operagoer. Contemporary text-translating services have made pure synopses somewhat redundant. Fr. Lee, therefore, has focused his commentaries less on the comings and goings of plot than on subtext, motivation and background information. He also suggests his single favorite recording for each of the 100 operas discussed. In all, he has written a guide that will prove invaluable to the opera novice and useful even for the aficionado.

Program Evaluation 3rd edition has the hallmarks of thoroughness, insight and fluency of other editions but brings us up to date with a map of the evaluation territory new travelers will find invaluable.'Professor Murray Saunders, UK and European Evaluation Societies John Owen's Program Evaluation helps practitioners clarify distinctions between what we evaluate, the various motivations for conducting evaluation, and the approaches attendant to each. Timely evaluation examples liberally sprinkled throughout this book make it exceptionally useful and helpful to practitioners. I highly recommend Program Evaluation.'Professor Marvin Alkin, UCLA Graduate School of Education + Information StudiesEveryone involved with policy and program development and delivery is being asked to plan more carefully, reflect more critically and justify their decisions. The key to this is evaluation. Program Evaluation offers a conceptual yet straightforward and practical overview of the evaluation process for both beginners and experienced practitioners. It shows evaluators how to identify appropriate forms, approaches and methods, using an original framework. John Owen examines the contributions of evaluation to program provision, and offers proven techniques for involving stakeholders in the planning process and for disseminating the evaluation findings.This third edition has been thoroughly revised to incorporate recent research on evaluation and new examples of good practice. It includes sections of management of evaluation, negotiating evaluation plans, program logic and ex ante evaluation, evidence based practice, performance management and accountability.With international examples from a range of health, education, welfare, community and other settings, Program Evaluation is an essential reference for anyone involved in evaluation in both the public and private sectors.

This volume expands upon the previous edition with current, detailed protocols for investigating membranes and their component lipids in artificial membranes, cells, and in silico. Chapters focus on properties of the component lipids, membranes and their biophysical properties, fluorescent probes for studying membranes, sample preparation, physical techniques to study membrane composition, properties , and function, behavior of cholesterol within a bilayer and examination of cholesterol-dependent phase separation. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Methods in Membrane Lipids, Second Edition seeks to aid scientist in further study into membrane lipids.

Organic semiconductors offer unique characteristics which have prompted the application of organic semiconductors and their devices in physical, chemical, and biological sensors. This book covers this emerging field by discussing both optically- and electrically-based sensor concepts. Novel transducers based on organic light-emitting diodes and organic thin-film transistors, as well as systems-on-a-chip architectures are presented. Functionalization techniques are also outlined.

'Indian Wars' and the Struggle for Eastern North America, 1763-1842 examines the contest between Native Americans and Anglo-Americans for control of the lands east of the Mississippi River, through the lens of native attempts to form pan-Indian unions, and Anglo-Americans' attempts to thwart them. The story begins in the wake of the Seven Years' War and ends with the period of Indian Removal and the conclusion of the Second Seminole War in 1842. Anglo-Americans had feared multi-tribal coalitions since the 1670s and would continue to do so into the early nineteenth century, long after there was a credible threat, due to the fear of slave rebels joining the Indians. By focusing on the military and diplomatic history of the topic, the work allows for a broad understanding of American Indians and frontier history, serving as a gateway to the study of Native American history. This concise and accessible text will appeal to a broad intersection of students in ethnic studies, history, and anthropology.

If you've ever been lucky enough to experience the Public School System in suburban America, then you will empathize with Marty Mason and delight at his teenage experiences in town of Kappaqua Falls. While most people never have the opportunity to use what they learned in High School, Marty leverages the teachings from his classes in real time to outwit and defeat several abusive bullies. His victory celebration is short lived as he is brought before the ruthless Principal of the school and subjected to a ground-breaking behavior modification treatment. Military high technology has invaded the high school, and Marty is the unsuspecting first test subject of a strange new supercomputer-driven brain stimulation system. "FIRST CHANCE" provides exciting, page-turning entertainment from the first page until the last.

His FIRST CHANCE May be his LAST From the sleepy city of Merida, Mexico to the Castle of Kukulcan at the Mayan ruins of Chichen-Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula, to the quaint town of Kappaqua Falls, New York, FIRST CHANCE provides an entertaining and suspenseful ride. First time author Mark Owen paints a visually compelling tale of a teenager caught in the American Public School system, struggling against his oppressors: Man and Machine.

This volume offers the first comprehensive treatment of how the five canonical Greek novels represent slaves and slavery. In each novel, one or both elite protagonists are enslaved, and Owens explores the significance of the genre's regular social degradation of these members of the elite. Reading the novels in the context of social attitudes and stereotypes about slaves, Owens argues for an ideological division within the genre: the earlier novelists, Xenophon of Ephesus and Chariton, challenge and undermine elite stereotypes; the three later novelists, Longus, Achilles Tatius, and Heliodorus, affirm them. The critique of elite thinking about slavery in Xenophon and Chariton opens the possibility that these earlier authors and their readers included literate ex-slaves. The interests and needs of these authors and their readers shaped the emerging genre and not only made the protagonists' slavery a key motif but also made slavery itself a theme that helped define the genre. The Representation of Slavery in the Greek Novel will be of interest not only to students of the ancient novel but also to anyone working on slavery in the ancient world.

'Indian Wars' and the Struggle for Eastern North America, 1763-1842 examines the contest between Native Americans and Anglo-Americans for control of the lands east of the Mississippi River, through the lens of native attempts to form pan-Indian unions, and Anglo-Americans' attempts to thwart them. The story begins in the wake of the Seven Years' War and ends with the period of Indian Removal and the conclusion of the Second Seminole War in 1842. Anglo-Americans had feared multi-tribal coalitions since the 1670s and would continue to do so into the early nineteenth century, long after there was a credible threat, due to the fear of slave rebels joining the Indians. By focusing on the military and diplomatic history of the topic, the work allows for a broad understanding of American Indians and frontier history, serving as a gateway to the study of Native American history. This concise and accessible text will appeal to a broad intersection of students in ethnic studies, history, and anthropology.

(Limelight). Commentary on and a concise, lucid interpretation of the opera world's most complex masterwork, expanded from the author's popular intermission talks during Met Opera broadcasts. "Anyone, whether knowledgeable or not, will profit by reading it..." Opera Quarterly

Program Evaluation 3rd edition has the hallmarks of thoroughness, insight and fluency of other editions but brings us up to date with a map of the evaluation territory new travelers will find invaluable.' Professor Murray Saunders, UK and European Evaluation Societies John Owen's Program Evaluation helps practitioners clarify distinctions between what we evaluate, the various motivations for conducting evaluation, and the approaches attendant to each. Timely evaluation examples liberally sprinkled throughout this book make it exceptionally useful and helpful to practitioners. I highly recommend Program Evaluation.' Professor Marvin Alkin, UCLA Graduate School of Education + Information Studies Everyone involved with policy and program development and delivery is being asked to plan more carefully, reflect more critically and justify their decisions. The key to this is evaluation. Program Evaluation offers a conceptual yet straightforward and practical overview of the evaluation process for both beginners and experienced practitioners. It shows evaluators how to identify appropriate forms, approaches and methods, using an original framework. John Owen examines the contributions of evaluation to program provision, and offers proven techniques for involving stakeholders in the planning process and for disseminating the evaluation findings. This third edition has been thoroughly revised to incorporate recent research on evaluation and new examples of good practice. It includes sections of management of evaluation, negotiating evaluation plans, program logic and ex ante evaluation, evidence based practice, performance management and accountability. With international examples from a range of health, education, welfare, community and other settings, Program Evaluation is an essential reference for anyone involved in evaluation in both the public and private sectors.

All of us are confronted by death at various times in our lives. Some bereavements are particularly devastating - it may be we are very close to the one who has died, or death has come suddenly, unnaturally or even violently. This anthology of quotations is divided into two sections. The first contains material on the Bible's teaching on life after death; the concept of the soul; the need to face the truth of our own mortality; living to the full; untimely death; suicide; death as the result of disaster and of war. The second focuses on solace in grief; the comfort of Christ; our hope of life in heaven; being reunited with those we love, and the great communion of saints. Each chapter has its own introduction and ends with a selection of prayers.

Father Owen Lee is to opera what Chesterton's Father Brown was to crime detection. For 20 years he has been a beloved presence on the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday afternoon Chevron-Texaco broadcasts as an always-knowledgeable guest on Opera Quiz and as an ever-insightful commentator on operatic stories, music and themes. A classics professor in his "day job," Father Lee is the author of 14 books, mostly on opera. A Book of Hours is a departure for Father Lee: a personal memoir, cast in the form of a secular breviary, that recreates a year Father Lee spent teaching at an American college campus in Rome over a quarter century ago. The book draws together in an intricate web of refracting relationships the three great loves of Father Lee's life: opera, literature and his life and work as a priest. A Eurail pass allowed him to visit all the great opera houses of Europe, which in turn reflected on his teaching in the classroom during the week: Homer and Virgil, Whitman and Rilke. And all of this is set in the context of a personal crisis--impending hearing loss, theological doubts and the celibate's inevitable regret, at age forty, that he cannot share his remaining years with children of his own. In this inspiring and beautifully crafted book, Father Lee shows us how religious faith and a deeply humanistic culture need never be enemies, but rather can be a source of mutual enrichment.

A convenient, single-volume vocabulary reference for Pars I of the Lingua Latina per se illustrata series. This Latin-to-English glossary includes all of the vocabulary contained in "Familia Romana," "Colloquia Personarum," "Fabulae Syrae," "Fabellae Latinae," and "College Companion." Includes 2,435 words with their English equivalents.

This volume expands upon the previous edition with current, detailed protocols for investigating membranes and their component lipids in artificial membranes, cells, and in silico. Chapters focus on properties of the component lipids, membranes and their biophysical properties, fluorescent probes for studying membranes, sample preparation, physical techniques to study membrane composition, properties , and function, behavior of cholesterol within a bilayer and examination of cholesterol-dependent phase separation. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Methods in Membrane Lipids, Second Edition seeks to aid scientist in further study into membrane lipids.

The German cockroach is considered to be the most significant insect pest of homes in many countries of the world. This book provides updated information about the biology and behaviour of this pest including taxonomy and distribution, morphology, and genetics. Effective strategies and the use of technology to control the pest are considered. There are more than 1,200 cited references which make this a comprehensive reference book.

While the importance of the prefrontal cortex for "higher-order" cognitive functions is largely undisputed, no consensus has been reached regarding precise specifications of these functions. For example, although some degree of regional specialization within the frontal lobe seems inevitable, by and large, most attempts to map specific cognitive functions onto neuroanatomical and/or cytoarchitectonic subdivisions have been disappointing. Although a high degree of functional specialization probably exists within the frontal cortex, it seems increasingly likely that the structural organization of this system does not relate, in any straightforward way, to contemporary models of cognition.

Political Islam has often been compared to ideological movements of the past such as fascism or Christian theocracy. But are such analogies valid? How should the Western world today respond to the challenges of political Islam? Taking an original approach to answer this question, Confronting Political Islam compares Islamism's struggle with secularism to other prolonged ideological clashes in Western history. By examining the past conflicts that have torn Europe and the Americas--and how they have been supported by underground networks, fomented radicalism and revolution, and triggered foreign interventions and international conflicts--John Owen draws six major lessons to demonstrate that much of what we think about political Islam is wrong. Owen focuses on the origins and dynamics of twentieth-century struggles among Communism, Fascism, and liberal democracy; the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century contests between monarchism and republicanism; and the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century wars of religion between Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and others. Owen then applies principles learned from the successes and mistakes of governments during these conflicts to the contemporary debates embroiling the Middle East. He concludes that ideological struggles last longer than most people presume; ideologies are not monolithic; foreign interventions are the norm; a state may be both rational and ideological; an ideology wins when states that exemplify it outperform other states across a range of measures; and the ideology that wins may be a surprise. Looking at the history of the Western world itself and the fraught questions over how societies should be ordered, Confronting Political Islam upends some of the conventional wisdom about the current upheavals in the Muslim world.

Organic semiconductors offer unique characteristics which have prompted the application of organic semiconductors and their devices in physical, chemical, and biological sensors. This book covers this emerging field by discussing both optically- and electrically-based sensor concepts. Novel transducers based on organic light-emitting diodes and organic thin-film transistors, as well as systems-on-a-chip architectures are presented. Functionalization techniques are also outlined.