Michael J. Roberts – författare

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has sponsored a programme of intensive research into the primary productivity of grass ecosystems in both the tropics and subtropics, resulting in this book. It therefore represents the first internationally integrated study of bio-productivity since the International Biological Programme (IBP) of the early 1970s. The large international team of scientists sponsored by UNEP identified five different grassland ecosystems, determining their levels of productivity as well as the effect of climatic variation on primary production and photosynthesis. The methods and results described indicate a three to ten-fold increase in estimates of productivity from the IBP figures, raising implications for a number of important questions such as: the understanding of how carbon is cycled, the environmental impact of removing grasslands, assessment of these ecosystems as genetic resources of productive grasses, assessing the impact of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and establishing ground truth data for remote sensing of grassland productivity.This book provides a comprehensive assessment of an extremely important but under-researched biome. It should be of interest to a wide range of environmental scientists, including ecologists, atmospheric scientists, biogeographers, and environmental physiologists.

Using an innovative framework, this reader examines the most important and influential writings on modern class relations. Uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines scholarship from political economy, social history, and cultural studiesBrings together more than 50 selections rich in theory and empirical detail that span the working, middle, and capitalist classesAnalyzes class within the larger context of labor, particularly as it relates to conflicts over and about workProvides insight into the current crisis in the global capitalist system, including the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the explosion of Arab Spring, and the emergence of class conflict in China

Using an innovative framework, this reader examines the most important and influential writings on modern class relations. Uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines scholarship from political economy, social history, and cultural studiesBrings together more than 50 selections rich in theory and empirical detail that span the working, middle, and capitalist classesAnalyzes class within the larger context of labor, particularly as it relates to conflicts over and about workProvides insight into the current crisis in the global capitalist system, including the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the explosion of Arab Spring, and the emergence of class conflict in China

In The Jeweled Style, Michael Roberts offers a new approach to the Latin poetry of late antiquity, one centering on an aesthetic quality common to both the literature and the art of the period—the polychrome patterning of words and phrases or of colors and shapes. In Roberts's view, the writer or artist of this period works as a jeweler, carefully setting compositional units in a geometric framework, consistently demonstrating a preference for effects of patterning over realistic representation, and for a unity situated at a higher level than the literal, historical sequence of the narrative.Roberts's introductory chapter is followed by an anthology of representative narrative and descriptive poetry from the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. Next, Roberts traces the use of "jewels" as a literary metaphor from the first century A.D. to late antiquity. He then compares the works of late antique literature to wall and floor mosaics, ivory diptychs, Christian sarcophagi, and contemporary styles of dress. Emphasizing that the poetry of this period is not uniform, he differentiates the main genres of Christian narrative poetry—biblical and hagiographical epic—from secular examples of the jeweled style, such as the poetry of Ausonius and Sidonius. Roberts concludes by examining the influence of late antique aesthetics on the medieval poetics of Matthew of Vendôme and Geoffrey of Vinsauf.Elegantly written and augmented by twenty-three illustration, The Jeweled Style will be welcomed by many readers, including Latinists and other classicists, medievalists and Renaissance scholars specializing in literature, Byzantinists, and art historians.

In The Jeweled Style, Michael Roberts offers a new approach to the Latin poetry of late antiquity, one centering on an aesthetic quality common to both the literature and the art of the period—the polychrome patterning of words and phrases or of colors and shapes. In Roberts's view, the writer or artist of this period works as a jeweler, carefully setting compositional units in a geometric framework, consistently demonstrating a preference for effects of patterning over realistic representation, and for a unity situated at a higher level than the literal, historical sequence of the narrative.Roberts's introductory chapter is followed by an anthology of representative narrative and descriptive poetry from the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. Next, Roberts traces the use of "jewels" as a literary metaphor from the first century A.D. to late antiquity. He then compares the works of late antique literature to wall and floor mosaics, ivory diptychs, Christian sarcophagi, and contemporary styles of dress. Emphasizing that the poetry of this period is not uniform, he differentiates the main genres of Christian narrative poetry—biblical and hagiographical epic—from secular examples of the jeweled style, such as the poetry of Ausonius and Sidonius. Roberts concludes by examining the influence of late antique aesthetics on the medieval poetics of Matthew of Vendôme and Geoffrey of Vinsauf.Elegantly written and augmented by twenty-three illustration, The Jeweled Style will be welcomed by many readers, including Latinists and other classicists, medievalists and Renaissance scholars specializing in literature, Byzantinists, and art historians.

Spiders are the most obvious group of animals - they share with us our houses and gardens. They also have some of the most fascinating colours, behaviour and biology. This book is designed to aid identification of these animals, without using any complicated keys or equipment. Each of the 450 species covered is illustrated in colour, with paintings of all the common colour variations and differences between the sexes, and described in detail in the text. The general features of each family are also described, with information on courtship, hunting and web-making behaviour. A key to spiders' webs is also included in the introduction. Each species has illustrations of its genitalia - to allow conclusive identification of the species.

As entrepreneurs fuel the economy with start-ups, job creation, innovation, and new technologies, the need to understand the evolving field of entrepreneurship continues to grow. Covering every phase of the entrepreneurial venture, from the basic concepts to emerging issues, this collection of readings by leading academics and practitioners is designed to serve as a handbook for entrepreneurs, as well as for teachers and students of the entrepreneurial process. Newly updated with timely material, professors will find this second edition invaluable for the richness of the cases and the accompanying questions designed to facilitate discussion.