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Book reviews for "Roberts,_Richard_W." sorted by average review score:

Birding By Ear: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides(R))
Published in Audio Cassette by Houghton Mifflin Co (04 April, 2002)
Authors: Richard K. Walton and Robert W. Lawson
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Great learning tool for birders....
If you wish to broaden your bird-identification skills and gain an advantage in telling birds apart by song, this audio guide is perfect for you.

The birds in this guide are grouped together based on the similarities of their calls, as well as habitat preferences. By doing this, the authors of this guide have allowed the learner to compare similar sounding species likely to be confuse in the field.

Richard Walton's clear voice introduces each species and walks the listener through the various groupings. Throughout, he points out key characteristics of each bird call to enhance the listener's learning experince. The birds featured in each group on this three disc set include many familar eastern North American species. The eastern woodpeckers, several confusing sparrow species, buetos, tanagers and several other neotropical migrants are featured on the first disc. The second features several owl species and a variety of flycatchers among others. The third CD is comprised mostly of neotropical songbirds and a few odds and ends species: common eastern warblers, thrushes, plus American bittern. The third disc also includes a several groupings of birds that allows the listener's to test their bird vocalization identification skills.

Along with the CDs, a complementry booklet with surprisingly good black-and-white illistrations is included. This helps the birder make visual assocations with the species they are hearing. Room is provided on each page for the listener to take notes on the various bird vocalizations. Page numbers for locating the birds on the plates in the PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS: EASTERN/CENTRAL REGION are also provided in the booklet.

Overall, this three-CD set serves as a nice introduction/learning tool to the voices of Eastern North America's birds. It allows the learner to broaden his or her bird identifiaction skills. It is especially useful for beginners, but experienced enthusiats may also find the guide highly useful in comparing bird calls. A great buy.

Excellent bird song guide
By grouping bird song according to characteristics, this clear guide makes it easier to learn and be able to identify bird song. The method of grouping similar types of songs on the CD, along with the brief, written guide enclosed, enables you to locate and identify birds you hear in the field much more easily than guides that simply list songs in order of the species' appearance in bird guides. Songs and calls are both included, as well as variations, which is very helpful as birds have "dialects" and variations in song patterns just like people of different areas have.

Repetition & field work are the key to this CD.
When I first received this CD I was disappointed & overwhelmed. I thought, how could I possibly learn any of these bird calls (I'm 50 years old). It seemed like a monumental task. Well, I kept listening over and over (thinking the mnemonics were silly) and low and behold things started to click. I made a few forays into the field and was very excited when I heard bird calls and the mnemonics made sense. I still get excited when I'm able to identify a bird by song or call. I even find myself doing it on TV commercials. This CD isn't any good if you don't include field work with it. Practice, practice, practice and one day you will be out in the field and hear a bird and know exactly what you are looking for. This CD has made me a much better birder.


Functional Assessment and Program Development for Problem Behavior: A Practical Handbook
Published in Paperback by Wadsworth Publishing (28 October, 1996)
Authors: Robert E. O'Neill, Robert H. Horner, Richard W. Albin, Keith Storey, and Jeffrey R. Sprague
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Great resource to address behavior problems
This book is a fabulous resource for anyone working with children or adults who display inappropriate behaviors. Special Education teachers, administrators, Behavior Specialists, Counselors, Psychologists and people providing direct care will benefit from the hands-on tool. The book gives sample Behavioral Support Plans (Behavior Management Plans) derived from an excellent Functional Assessment Interview (FAI) tool. Readers will learn how to target the problem behavior and provide measurable objectives to address the behavior. A "must have" for anyone providing support to students or adults with behaviors and/or MR/DD.

Thorough; Easy to both read and implement.
I use this text in my college course on "Behavioral Assessment and Positive Behavior Support" for beginning special education teachers. It breaks down the process of completing a Functional Assessment and Functional Analysis in an easy-to-understand manner. The examples and the forms included are extremely helpful for all levels of behavioral intervention.

AWESOME!!! The most complete yet practical guide!
As my school district has been learning how to conduct functional behavior assessments, this is the book we keep passing around and referring to. It is practical, useful and the information is research based.


American Aquarium Fishes (W.L. Moody, Jr., Natural History Series, No 28)
Published in Hardcover by Texas A&M University Press (2000)
Authors: Robert J. Goldstein, Rodney W. Harper, and Richard Edwards
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The depth and detail and the vivid photos are impressive
This comprehensive reference volume will appeal to both specialty and general-interest libraries: American Aquarium Fishes provides over 118 color and over 200 black and white photos of various species of aquarium fish, providing detailed discussions on where to find native fishes, how to collect and transport them around the globe, and regional rules of collecting. The depth and detail and the vivid photos are impressive.

The best reference to date!
It's about time that a talented group of aquarium hobbyist (who are also biologists I believe) got together to write a book that the layman can understand and appreciate. You will not find convuluted passages common in the scientific literature. Each species account is well written and contains the information that the hobbyist wants.

Goldstein, Harper, and Edwards are well known hobbyist and if there are any real experts in the field, it's these guys.

This is an all around great reference for the North American native fish hobbyist.


Principles and Practice of Endocrinology and Metabolism
Published in Hardcover by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Publishers (15 April, 2001)
Authors: Kenneth L. Becker, John P. Bilezikian, William J. Bremner, Wellington Hung, C. Ronald Kahn, D. Lynn Loriaux, Eric S. Nylen, Robert W. Rebar, Gary L. Robertson, and Richard H., Jr Snider
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Becker's Endo
Quite good in reviewing the basic pathophysiology of endocrine disorders.
This book is becoming the standard for fellows in endocrinology.

Concise Endocrinology Textbook
This textbook is very user friendly. I prefer this text over the William's textbook of Endocrinology. Very well organized with many good illustrations and tables. Has appendix of endocrine testing as well as common drugs used in endocrinology. Highly reccomended.


Principles of Gene Manipulation
Published in Paperback by Blackwell Publishers (2002)
Authors: Sandy B. Primrose, Richard M. Twyman, and Robert W. Old
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Excellent overview of a very exciting field
Certainly one of the most exciting developments in the last quarter century, genetic engineering is also one of the most controversial, and discussions of it are typically accompanied by vehemence and exaggerations. An objective study of genetic engineering is thus mandatory for everyone in the 21st century. This book is one of the best treatments of genetic engineering that I have read, and I am speaking not as a biologist but as someone actively involved in bioinformatics and computational biology. The explanations of the techniques of genetic engineering are excellent and the reader with a fairly good background in biochemistry should have no problem following the presentation. Readers without such a background will find the reading a little more demanding. One can only admire the ingenuity of the many researchers and technicians who have developed these techniques. The only thing missing in the book are exercises at the end of each chapter to test the readers understanding of the relevant concepts.

The last five chapters of the book are the most interesting ,for it is in these chapters that the authors discuss the genetic manipulation of animals, transgenic strategies, and biotechnology. We are all priveleged to be witnessing the development of new breeds of plants and animals, and hopefully this trend will continue in the 21st century. The impact of genetic engineering for medicine and agriculture will be immense, but even more mundance activities such as gardening and horticulture will be even more interesting with the development of new kinds of plants via transgenic strategies. In addition, genetic engineering is finding applications to areas outside of biology. It was recently reported that genetically engineered viruses are being used to assist in the development of quantum dots in microelectronics.

Some of the features of the book I found particularly helpful or interesting were: 1. The numerous diagrams employed in the book that tie concepts together or give flow charts for laboratory procedures. 2. The discussion on the physics of gel electrophoresis. Apparently the dynamics of stained molecules undergoing electrophoresis is poorly understood. 3. The historical and anecdotal information that the authors include at various places in the book. 4. The discussion on optimizing translation. The degeneracy of the genetic code might lead one to believe that the choice of codons by genes is essentially a random process. The authors argue this is not the case and give excellent references for further reading on this. Apparently protein translation is a tight scheme, and again, this is surprising given the degeneracy of the genetic code. 5. The box on express sequence tags. The most interesting part of this discussion was on the legal issues involving the patenting of ESTs. The patent applications were rejected because ESTs were viewed as incomplete sequences. This rejection might serve as a precedent to future attempts to patent genes or complete genomes. Will some of these patents be rejected on the grounds that genes do not completely determine the protein(s) or phenotype(s)? Whatever the outcome, the legal profession in the 21st century will have to deal with information-theoretic criteria when addressing patent issues in genetic engineering. 6. The listing of the Internet tools available for gene sequencing and protein structure. 7. The discussion on the quantitative effect of sequence accuracy on gene accuracy, assuming the random occurence of sequencing errors. The diagram shown of average sequence-error rate versus the fraction of error-free genes shows clearly the importance of robust and precise sequence-similarity search algorithms. Interestingly, the authors argue that, in spite of the success of statistical methods in these algorithms, the use of these methods will decrease as new sequences are accumulated and sequence conservation is used as the criterion for gene identification. They do however state that these methods will still remain useful for localizing frame shifts and for the choice of the initiation codon. 8. The box on the modes of replication of circular DNA molecules. The biophysicist reader will appreciate the discussion on the two types of replication: by theta-like structures or the rolling-circle type of mechanism. 9. The discussion on applications of transgenic mice, position effects, and transgene silencing. The authors discussion of the efficacy of transgenic strategies in mice progeny is fascinating in that some mice progeny has expression that was very different from that of the parents, or even absent. The authors give a brief discussion of boundary elements and matrix attachment regions with references for further reading. 10. The short discussion on transgenic fish. 11. The box on control of transgene expression in plants. 12. The discussion on the use of immunosuppressant drugs as chemical inducers of dimerization. The side effects of these drugs has prompted research into finding transgene induction strategies that do not have these side-effects. 13. The discussion on post-translational inducible protein activity. 13. The discussion on visible marker genes, especially the discussion on green flourescent protein. 15. The discussion on the use of antisense RNA to regulate gene expression in prokaryotes. 16. The discussion on the use of cosuppression in increasing the amount of pigment synthesized by petunia flowers. The application of transgenic strategies to horticulture is indeed exciting and one that will hopefully result in new varieties of houseplants and garden fruits and vegetables. 17. The discussion on the role of functional genomics. 18. Transgenic animals and plants as bioreactors: Tracy and her progeny in producing AAT. 19. Xenotransplantation. This is no doubt one of the most controversial techniques used in genetic engineering today.

Genetic manipulation
We are looking for information about genetic manipulatio


Geology Underfoot in Central Nevada (Yes, Geology Underfoot)
Published in Paperback by Mountain Press Publishing Company (2003)
Authors: Richard L. Orndorff, Robert W. Wieder, and Harry F. Filkorn
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Author's review
We wrote this book to let people know about a place we know well, a vast and beautiful landscape that lies hidden behind the clanging slot machines and roulette wheels that people associate with Nevada. This is a dynamic landscape created by glaciers, vast lakes, desert winds, and explosive volcanism. We lead you to active faults that have produced violent earthquakes, hot springs where steam escapes from far below, ghost towns where men once toiled for gold, and 10,000-year-old petroglyphs left behind by ancient inhabitants. We'd like to invite you on a trip that may change your mind about Nevada; we'll be your guides, but the land itself is the storyteller.


Let There Be Laughter: Living, Lifting, and Laughing As a Person of God
Published in Paperback by Concordia Publishing House (1999)
Authors: Robert D. Bimler and Richard W. Bimler
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Healthy Reading!
This is highly recommended by Wheat Ridge Ministries


More Birding by Ear Eastern and Central North America : A Guide to Bird-song Identification
Published in Audio CD by Houghton Mifflin Audio (2000)
Authors: Richard K. Walton and Robert W. Lawson
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Highly useful follow-up to BIRDING BY EAR
The second installment of the "By Ear" series is even more impressive than the previous guide. MORE BIRDING BY EAR has more wood warblers, sandpipers, and terns than BIRDING BY EAR and features the songs and calls of many of the most sought after bird species in Eastern/Central North America.

Once again, Richard Walton introduces each species and takes the listener through the various groupings. The birds are grouped based on habitat and the similarities of their calls. Walton points out key characteristics of each bird call to enhance the listener's learning experince. The handles he suggests for identifying each call are enormously helpful and enhance the listern's experience.

The birds featured on these discs are some of the rarer, hard to find species that can often only be identified by song. Rails, Empidonax flycatchers, cuckoos, kinglets, and a variety of waterbirds are inlcuded on the first disc. The second features around two-dozen warbler species (including the infamous waterthrushes) plus several of the less familar sparrows such as the Bachman's and Grasshopper. The third CD is comprised mostly of shorebirds, and finishes with habiat groups from such birding hotspots as Cape May. These groupings allow the listener to test his or her bird call identification skills. Sprinkled throughout the guide are species calls that tie up loose ends left by the previous discs; common loon, brown creeper, osprey, saw-whet owl, fish crow and blue-headed vireo are just a sample of the variety of species you'll find on this three disc set.

Along with the CDs, a complementry booklet with surprisingly good black-and-white illistrations is included. This helps the listener make visual assocations with the species they are hearing. Room is provided on each page for the listener to take notes on the various bird vocalizations. Page numbers for locating the birds on the plates in the PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS: EASTERN/CENTRAL REGION are also provided in the booklet.

MORE BIRDING BY EAR is great learning tool for experienced and novice birders alike. The rails and shorebird sections are very helpful. The second disc is packed with warblers. The authors have done a superb job at covering close to all the birds found in Eastern North America. Between this disc set and the previous one, listeners should be able to learn enough to identifiy most of the birds they can hear while birding in the East. Another great buy.


More Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central (Peterson Field Guides)
Published in Paperback by Houghton Mifflin Co (1999)
Authors: Richard K. Walton, Robert W. Lawson, and Roger Tory Peterson
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Richard K. Walton, author
Most birdsong CDs/tapes are lengthy "lists" of birdsongs. The "Birding by Ear" series is a unique tutorial that teaches you to recognise and recall birdsongs. If you want to learn to identify birds by their songs and calls this is the product for you! "More Birding by Ear" includes many of the Eastern warblers as well as shorebirds, flycatchers, rails and other groups.


Critical Assembly : A Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945
Published in Paperback by Cambridge University Press (2003)
Authors: Lillian Hoddeson, Paul W. Henriksen, Roger A. Meade, Catherine L. Westfall, Gordon Baym, Richard Hewlett, Alison Kerr, Robert Penneman, Leslie Redman, and Robert Seidel
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The best technical history of the Manhattan Project.
The other review nicely describe this gem, but makes it sound like something only a scientist could understand. I'd just like to add that any intelligent person will have no trouble following this lucid account of the first two years of Los Alamos.

The Greatest Technical Achievement of the 20th Century
This book is THRILLING in the scope and depth of its description of HOW the bomb was made. This was a unique historical event in that the best brains in the world, stimulated by a sense of extreem urgency and given, in effect, unlimited physical and financial resources accomplished in the space of three years somthing that in the 1930's was considered as Science Fiction.

The book is highly readable and understandable by non technical people. This book is proof that "once upon a time" we did things "Right the First Time" in this country. An outstanding historical and technical account of the "ultimate" invention.

Story of one of the most complex projects ever undertaken
Very well written and does not overwhelm the reader with technical minutia. This is an excellent companion to Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb and will please any student of the history of science.


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