The community of natural enemies that inhabits agroecosystems is complex mainly due to multiple trophic interactions established among them and their target prey/hosts. Several factors can influence the efficiency of natural enemies as biological control agents, such as the occurrence of preferred food items, supplementary food resources, shelters, agricultural practices or landscapes. In this book, scientists present recent studies in regards to the identification, protection strategies and impacts of agricultural practices on important groups of natural enemies. This core focus includes specific studies on predatory species (e.g., mites, spiders, anthocorids, nabids, carabids, and coccinellids) as well as parasitoid species (hymenopterans). The different chapters present new approaches towards the conservation of natural enemies in agroecosystems, and discuss the effects of climate change and agricultural practices on biodiversity, life history and movement of natural enemies.

William Santos, author of Inspiration of The Heart, now brings you, Marriage: The Lost Covenant, at the same time, explores and explains marriage as the God-given foundation of human relationships and deepens and intensifies the mystery of marriage as a covenant. The author, William P. Santos, draws upon the wealth of promises, teachings, and admonitions focused on marriage that the Scriptures contain and adds to this the insights that arise from reflecting on the beleaguered condition and promising future of traditional marriage...

This thesis investigates the performance of the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). Representative VoIP traffic is submitted to a MANET and end-to-end delay and packet loss are observed. Node density, number of data streams and mobility are varied creating a full-factorial experimental design with 18 distinct scenarios. The MANET is simulated in OPNET and VoIP traffic is introduced using one source node to send traffic to random destinations throughout the network. Simulation results indicate delay is between 0.069 ms to 0.717 ms, which is significantly lower than the recommended 150 ms threshold for VoIP applications. Packet loss is between 0.32% and 9.97%, which is less than the 10% allowable packet loss for acceptable VoIP quality. Thus OLSR is a suitable routing protocol for MANETs running VoIP applications.

The federal government assumed control of the ailing Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) in 2008, two institutions that facilitate the flow of funding for home loans nationwide. The cost to taxpayers of that takeover, and the structural weaknesses that contributed to the institutions' financial problems, have prompted policymakers to consider various alternatives for the government's future role in the secondary (resale) market for residential mortgages. This book examines how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac evolved into the institutions they are today and the rationales that are often cited for federal involvement in the secondary mortgage market and the problems that existed with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the recent financial crisis.