Image processing algorithms based on the mammalian visual cortex are powerful tools for extraction information and manipulating images. This book reviews the neural theory and translates them into digital models. Applications are given in areas of image recognition, foveation, image fusion and information extraction.The third edition reflects renewed international interest in pulse image processing with updated sections presenting several newly developed applications. This edition a...

This book reveals glimpses of how the quantum physics of atoms and molecules influences, and even controls, the way our cells function and how we and our fellow animals interact with our environment. Simply put, how birds fly and why grass grows.Certainly, biochemistry and molecular biology are the foundations for the biology of living cells, but there is more—quantum coherence and entanglement influencing the functioning of proteins and enzymes, and strictly speaking, without the ...

International statistical comparisons of nations have become commonplace in the contemporary landscape of education policy and social science. This book discusses the emergence of these international comparisons as a particular style of reasoning about education, society and science. By examining how international educational assessments have come to dominate much of contemporary policymaking concerning school system performance, the authors provide concrete case studies highlighting the p...

This book represents a set of critical analyses of educational reforms where issues of transnational governance are of vital concern. It focuses on different aspects of, and practices in educational reform-making, and in particular on governing techniques and the working of new agencies such as supranational and multinational organizations. In addition, the book examines contemporary issues of immigration/immigrants in the politics of schooling, by reflecting on matters of migration, and p...

MATLAB for Neuroscientists serves as the only complete study manual and teaching resource for MATLAB, the globally accepted standard for scientific computing, in the neurosciences and psychology. This unique introduction can be used to learn the entire empirical and experimental process (including stimulus generation, experimental control, data collection, data analysis, modeling, and more), and the 2nd Edition continues to ensure that a wide variety of computational problems can be addres...

Media matters. From encouraging charitable donations and delivering public health messages to promoting democratic participation and state accountability, the media can play a crucial role in development. Yet the influence of the media is not always welcome. It can also be used as a mechanism of surveillance and control or to disseminate hate speech and propaganda.How then should we respond to the growing importance of the media - including journalism, radio, television, community ...

Handbook of Neuroevolution Through Erlang presents both the theory behind, and the methodology of, developing a neuroevolutionary-based computational intelligence system using Erlang. With a foreword written by Joe Armstrong, this handbook offers an extensive tutorial for creating a state of the art Topology and Weight Evolving Artificial Neural Network (TWEANN) platform. In a step-by-step format, the reader is guided from a single simulated neuron to a complete system. By followi...

Political journalism is often under fire. Conventional wisdom and much scholarly research suggest that journalists are cynics and political pundits. Political news is void of substance and overly focused on strategy and persons. Citizens do not learn from the news, are politically cynical, and are dissatisfied with the media. This book challenges these assumptions, which are often based on single-country studies with limited empirical observations about the relation between news production...

The widespread use of the measurement of educational outcomes in order to compare the performance of education within and across countries seems to express a real concern for the quality of education. This book argues that the focus on the measurement of educational outcomes has actually displaced questions about educational purpose. Biesta explores why the question as to what constitutes good education has become so much more difficult to ask and shows why this has been detrimental for th...

A cookbook of algorithms for common image processing applicationsThanks to advances in computer hardware and software, algorithms have been developed that support sophisticated image processing without requiring an extensive background in mathematics. This bestselling book has been fully updated with the newest of these, including 2D vision methods in content-based searches and the use of graphics cards as image processing computational aids. It’s an ideal referenc...

A multidisciplinary analysis of the role of values and virtue in public administration, this book calls for a rediscovery of virtue. It explores ways of enabling the public sector to balance the values that are presently dominant with classic values such as accountability, representation, equality, neutrality, transparency and the public interest.

Deliberative democracy is now an influential approach to the study of democracy and political behaviour. Its key proposition is that, in politics, it is not only power that counts, but good discussions and arguments too. This book examines the interplay between the normative and empirical aspects of the deliberative model of democracy. Jürg Steiner presents the main normative controversies in the literature on deliberation, including self-interest, civility and truthfulness. He then summar...