A principal aim of computer graphics is to generate images that look as real as photographs. Realistic computer graphics imagery has however proven to be quite challenging to produce, since the appearance of materials arises from complicated physical processes that are difficult to analytically model and simulate, and image-based modeling of real material samples is often impractical due to the high-dimensional space of appearance data that needs to be acquired.This book presents a...

This volume assembles no less than 40 stories set in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Ranging from Lovecraft's own tales (including classics such as the novel At the Mountains of Madness, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," and "The Colour Out of Space") to works by his friends and contemporaries (Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, and Robert Bloch), to later followers (Henry Kuttner, Lin Carter, Brian McNaughton), and contemporary afficianados (Brian Stableford, Mark McLau...

Channel coding lies at the heart of digital communication and data storage. Fully updated, including a new chapter on polar codes, this detailed introduction describes the core theory of channel coding, decoding algorithms, implementation details, and performance analyses. This new edition includes over 50 new end-of-chapter problems and new figures and worked examples throughout. The authors emphasize the practical approach and present clear information on modern channel codes, including ...

There is widespread concern in all English speaking countries at the rapid decline in study of languages. The promise of 'languages for all' in the UK and North America in the 1970s marked a shift from languages as élite subjects for the privileged few, but this promise has not been fulfilled. This book explores the reasons for and solutions to this decline. More importantly, it looks at how these trends have been reversed in successful school programs and the implications of this for lang...

Daniel knows it would be dangerous if anyone found out about his tiny twin brother. But when his sister accidentally posts a video of Pablo on her blog, Daniel is catapulted to instant stardom. Everyone is wowed by his special-effects skills—because there couldn’t actually be a miniature boy dancing on camera, could there? Daniel’s fear of Pablo being discovered is soon overshadowed by the lure of superstardom. Everyone is thrilled for him—except Pablo. Pablo can’t help but be jealous—afte...

Daniel Funk can shrink to the size of the fourth toe on his left foot. But that's not his only skill. Daniel and his best friend, Vu, are entering the school diorama contest with a model of King Tut's tomb. If they win, they get tickets to a Lakers game. If they lose, they'll never hear the end of it from Vince the Pizza Prince, the most obnoxious guy in school.But Daniel has a secret weapon: his miniature twin brother, Pablo. Pablo has disguised himself as a mummy and is hitching ...

Now that Daniel Funk has finally figured out what makes him shrink to the size of his fourth toe, he and his tiny twin brother, Pablo, can go on all sorts of mini adventures. They make a list of fun things they can do when they’re small: snowboarding down an ice cream sundae, trampolining on a marshmallow, and more. When the Science Club has a model-rocket launch, they have a great idea: They’ll launch themselves for the rocket ride. But when Daniel’s rocket crash-lands in the La Brea tar ...

Winner of the 2012 Cundill Prize in HistoryA gripping account of China’s nineteenth-century Taiping Rebellion, one of the largest civil wars in history. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom brims with unforgettable characters and vivid re-creations of massive and often gruesome battles—a sweeping yet intimate portrait of the conflict that shaped the fate of modern China.The story begins in the early 1850s, the waning years of the Qing dynasty, when word spread of a major revoluti...

You know how your stomach growlswhen you're really hungry?That's how it started,except the growling wasn't comingfrom my stomach.It was coming from behind my eyeballs...."Help!" I screamed.But my voice wasn't normal either.It was the voice of a small person.A very very very small person.Meet Daniel Funk, a regular guy who's stuck living in a house full of girls. Why couldn't he have a brother instead of all tho...

This book contains expanded versions of the talks given at the conference held in honour of professor Ky Fan in California in 1985, as well as papers on nonlinear and convex analysis as contributions to Ky Fan. It also includes a list of publications by Ky Fan.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Visual Computing, ISVC 2018, held in Las Vegas, NV, USA in November 2018.The total of 66 papers presented in this volume was carefully reviewed and selected from 91 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections named: ST: computational bioimaging; computer graphics; visual surveillance; pattern recognition; vitrual reality; deep learning; motion and tracking; visualization; object dete...