Basic Vision

Basic Vision

Why do things look blurry underwater? Why do people drive too fast in fog? How do you high-pass filter a cup of tea? What have mixer taps to do with colour vision? Basic Vision: An Introduction to Visual Perception demystifies the processes through which we see the world. Written by three authors with over 80 years of research and undergraduate teaching experience between them, it leads the reader step-by-step through the intricacies of visual processing, with full-colour illustrations on nearly every page. The writing style captures the excitement of recent research in neuroscience that has transformed our understanding of visual processing, but delivers it with a humour that keeps the reader enthused, rather than bemused. The book takes us through the various elements that come together as our perception of the world around us: the perception of size, colour, motion, and three-dimensional space. It illustrates the intricacy of the visual system, discussing its development during infancy, and revealing how the brain can get it wrong, either as a result of brain damage, through which the network of processes become compromised, or through illusion, where the brain compensates for mixed messages by seeing what it thinks should be there, rather than conveying the reality. The book also demonstrates the importance of contemporary techniques and methodology, and neuroscience-based techniques in particular, in driving forward our understanding of the visual system. Online Resource Centre The Online Resource Centre to accompany Basic Vision features: For registered adopters: Figures from the book available to download, to facilitate lecture preparation. Test bank of multiple choice questions – a readily available tool for either formative or summative assessment. A Journal Club, with questions to lead students through key research articles that relate to topics covered in the book. For students: Annotated web links, giving students ready access to these additional learning resources.

Basic Vision

An Introduction to Toxicology

An Introduction to Toxicology

This book provides a readable introduction to modern toxicology with a particular focus on the mechanisms underlying the induction of toxicity by foreign substances. Since bioactivation is central to many toxic syndromes, special interest is devoted to chemicals that undergo conversion to toxic metabolites that induce toxic effects as diverse as cancer, birth defects and organ injury. The molecular consequences accompanying damage to cellular DNA and proteins is explored together with the relevance of toxicological paradigms to human diseases caused by alcohol and tobacco. The discipline of toxicology has developed rapidly since the thalidomide disaster in the 1960s as scientists worldwide seek to understand the adverse health effects of human medicines, environmental pollutants, consumer chemicals and industrial reagents. An Introduction to Toxicology is intended to supplement the recommended reading list of undergraduate and graduate programs in toxicology and pharmacology as an enjoyable, accessible primer with illustrations that unpack the concepts being discussed in the text.

An Introduction to Toxicology

Conversation and Brain Damage

Conversation and Brain Damage

How do people with brain damage communicate? How does the partial or total loss of the ability to speak and use language fluently manifest itself in actual conversation? How are people with brain damage able to expand their cognitive ability through interaction with others – and how do these discursive activities in turn influence cognition? This groundbreaking collection of new articles examines the ways in which aphasia and other neurological deficits lead to language impairments that shape the production, reception and processing of language. Edited by noted linguistic anthropologist Charles Goodwin and with contributions from a wide range of international scholars, the articles provide a pragmatic and interactive perspective on the types of challenges that face aphasic speakers in any given act of communication. Conversation and Brain Damage will be invaluable to linguists, discourse analysts, linguistic and medical anthropologists, speech therapists, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, workers in mental health care and in public health, sociologists, and readers interested in the long-term implications of brain damage.

Conversation and Brain Damage

The Snowden Operation

The Snowden Operation

In his sensational new book, Economist senior editor Edward Lucas lays bare the navet, hypocrisy and sinister background surrounding Edward Snowden, the fugitive American intelligence contractor now living in Moscow. ‘The Snowden Operation’, demolishes Snowden’s claim to be a whistleblower. Drawing on 30 years’ experience observing the world of intelligence, Lucas depicts Snowden as at best reckless and nave, and at worst a saboteur. He stole far more secrets than were necessary to make his case and did so in a deliberately damaging matter. Any benefits to the public debate about issues such as meta-data and encryption are far outweighed by the damage done to the Wests security, diplomacy and economic interests.

The Snowden Operation

Topics in Modal Analysis II, Volume 6

Topics in Modal Analysis II, Volume 6

Topics in Modal Analysis II, Volume 6: Proceedings of the 30th IMAC, A Conference and Exposition on Structural Dynamics, 2012, is the sixth volume of six from the Conference and brings together 65 contributions to this important area of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on fundamental and applied aspects of Structural Dynamics, including papers on: Aerospace, Acoustics, Energy Harvesting, Shock and Vibration, Finite Element, Structural Health Monitoring, Biodynamics Experimental Techniques, Damage Detection, Rotating Machinery, Sports Equipment Dynamics, Aircraft/Aerospace.

Topics in Modal Analysis II, Volume 6

A Handbook of Applied Biopolymer Technology

A Handbook of Applied Biopolymer Technology

Scientists are conducting active research in different fields of engineering, science and technology by adopting the Green Chemistry Principles and methodologies to devise new processes, with a view to help protect and ultimately save the environment from further anthropogenic interruptions and damage. With this in mind, the book provides an up-to-date, coherently written and objectively presented set of chapters from eminent international researchers who are actively involved in academic and technological research in the synthesis, (bio)degradation, testing and applications of biodegradable polymers and biopolymers. This pool of the latest ideas, recent research and technological progress, together with a high level of thinking with a comprehensive perspective, makes the emerging field of biodegradable polymer science and engineering (or bio-based polymers) linked to environmental sustainability, the essence of this key publication. The handbook consists of chapters written and contributed by international experts from academia who are world leaders in research and technology in sustainability and biopolymer and biodegradable polymer synthesis, characterisation, testing and use. The book highlights the following areas: green polymers; biopolymers and bionanocomposites; biodegradable and injectable polymers; biodegradable polyesters; synthesis and physical properties; discovery and characterization of biopolymers; degradable bioelastomers, lactic acid based biodegradable polymers; enzymatic degradation of biodegradable polymers; biodegradation of polymers in the composting environment; recent development in biodegradable polymers; research and applications and biodegradable foams. The book is aimed at technical, research-orientated and marketing people in industry, universities and institutions. It will also be of value to the worldwide public interested in sustainability issues and biopolymer development as well as others interested in the practical means that are being used to reduce the environmental impacts of chemical processes and products, to further eco-efficiency, and to advance the utilization of renewable resources for a bio-based production and supplier chain. Readers will gain a comprehensive and consolidated overview of the immense potential and ongoing research in bio-based and biodegradable polymer science, engineering and technology to make the world greener.

A Handbook of Applied Biopolymer Technology

Increasing Seismic Safety by Combining Engineering Technologies and Seismological Data

Increasing Seismic Safety by Combining Engineering Technologies and Seismological Data

Too often the Earth’s surface acted as a divide between seismologists and engineers. Now it is becoming clear that the building behaviour largely depends on the seismic input and the buildings on their turn act as seismic sources, in an intricate interplay that non-linear phenomena make even more complex. These phenomena are often the cause of observed damage enhancement during past earthquakes. While research may pursue complex models to fully understand soil dynamics under seismic loading, we need also simple models valid on average, whose results can be easily transferred to end users. Under the title ‘Increasing Seismic Safety by Combining Engineering Technologies and Seismological Data’, we grouped several topics to be discussed together by engineers and seismologists: (1) Can we use ambient noise building and soil characterisation to extract useful information for engineers? (2) How we can tell apart a frequency decrease due to distributed damage, concentrated damage, time- varying building and soil behaviour? (3) Which is the role of transients in ambient noise analysis? (4) Can we quantify the influence of existing buildings on ground-motion recordings? (5) To which extent soil-building resonance is a cause of damage enhancement? (6) How to couple soil and building non-linear behaviour? On most questions there is an unanimous answer, but in some cases different views are present and the disagreement is faithfully reported.

Increasing Seismic Safety by Combining Engineering Technologies and Seismological Data