Most Popular Books by Ruth Thomas

An engaging memoir, written as a tribute to the author''s Boston Terriers, and to the whole canine world. Echoing throughout the story is the theme, "animals, dogs in particular, are usually nicer than most people." This biography has a story line, but is primarily a series of anecdotes which will entertain readers with the personalities and antics of both the dogs and their human parents. The book is heartwarming, often humorous, occasionally hilarious, and regrettably sometimes heartbreaking. It is a love story which will appeal to Boston Terrier devotees, perhaps dog lovers in general, and possibly even cat lovers. It might also be enjoyed by readers who appreciate a simple, sweet, decent, funny, non-violent, entertaining story minus profanity and graphic sex. As a memorial to the Thomas family''s Bostons, a portion of any profits will be donated to the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the North Campus of the San Diego, California Humane Society. [from amazon]

My autobiography which includes 32+ years in the Philippines as a career cross-cultural worker, describe challenges and blessings of life and ministry in a third world country.

A series of carefully graded books for beginning readers.

This research focussed on applying cognitive theory to curricular decisions, instructional development and teaching practices. A rapidly changing society and growing complexity of life and work mean predicting the future is more difficult. For these reasons it will be important for people to be able to transfer what they already know to new problems and so create new independent learning.

Behavioral plasticity, the alteration of behavior in response to stimuli, is becoming increasingly important in the context of human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). The ability of an animal to behave plastically, and the magnitude of that response, is likely facilitated or constrained by the characteristics of its physical environment, the magnitude of the stressor, and the animal’s endogenous traits. Despite empirical research demonstrating that climatic changes are already impacting species’ behavior worldwide, there are relatively few studies that have compared the magnitude and causes of behavioral plasticity in response to increasing temperatures at different levels (i.e., population and individual) across species, especially in large mammals. Here, we quantify behavioral plasticity in response to variation in summer temperatures in 17 populations across 9 species of large mammals in the Rocky Mountains (USA). All study populations displayed behavioral plasticity in response to increasing temperatures, modifying aspects of their relative habitat selection (i.e., elevation, aspect, percent tree cover, potential for wetness) and movement characteristics (i.e., movement speed). We also demonstrate that individuals within each population display strong variation in their responses to warmer temperatures. For instance, there was strong bimodal distribution in how individuals responded to percent tree cover, where some individuals within a population selected areas with relatively higher levels of canopy cover as temperatures increased, while others did the opposite. We found evidence that differences in the physical environment (e.g., mean heterogeneity of the percent cover within individuals’ home ranges) explained variation in both mean population behavioral plasticity and mean variation in plasticity among individuals within each population, although our predictive power was much stronger for the latter compared to the former. Our results provide a novel understanding of the factors that facilitate or constrain the expression of behavioral plasticity, providing insight into the ecology and evolution of behavioral plasticity in large mammals. More specifically, this work describes the extent to which multiple populations and species of large mammals respond plastically to increasing temperatures. These results can assist wildlife managers in prioritizing the allocation of limited resources to the species most in need or the habitats that best facilitate plasticity in the face of rapid climate change.