We live in a world of abundance and prosperity. Technology has brought us closer and keeps us more connected than ever before. Medical advances protect and heal us. And yet, so many of us trudge through life feeling heavy, empty, stressed, and alone.The answer to this paradox can be found in the evolutionary biology of our brains, which are hardwired for fear. Over millions of years, our brains have evolved to keep our bodies safe and secure, continuously scanning the environment f...

This book shows how machine learning can detect moving objects in a digital video stream. The authors present different background subtraction approaches, foreground segmentation, and object tracking approaches to accomplish this. They also propose an algorithm that considers a multimodal background subtraction approach that can handle a dynamic background and different constraints. The authors show how the proposed algorithm is able to detect and track 2D & 3D objects in monocular sequenc...

Rewire your brain for happiness!We live in a world of abundance and prosperity, yet so many of us trudge through life feeling heavy, empty, stressed, and alone. The answer to this paradox can be found in the evolutionary biology of our brains. Over millions of years, our brains have evolved to keep our bodies safe and secure and hardwired for fear. In today's highly volatile, uncertain times, while there are little to no physical threats, the fight-or-flight respon...

This book introduces advanced and hybrid compression techniques specifically used for medical images. The book discusses conventional compression and compressive sensing (CS) theory based approaches that are designed and implemented using various image transforms, such as: Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and greedy based recovery algorithm. The authors show how these techniques provi...

This book provides basic theories and implementations using SCILAB open-source software for digital images. The book simplifies image processing theories and well as implementation of image processing algorithms, making it accessible to those with basic knowledge of image processing. This book includes many SCILAB programs at the end of each theory, which help in understanding concepts. The book includes more than sixty SCILAB programs of the image processing theory. In the appendix, reade...

The collaborative orco-management of natural resources - whether between states and local communities or amongst and within communities themselves - is a process of collective understanding and actions to bring about negotiated agreements on roles, rights and responsibilities for decentralized governance of natural resources. At heart, co-management is about sharing power, one of the most difficult but rewarding experiences in personal and social life.The book is designed for profe...

The Full Value of Parks is the first comprehensive look at the values associated with parks and other kinds of protected areas. Much has been written about the importance of parks to the tourism industry, yet the reasons why people care deeply about them usually have little or nothing to do with money. Instead, people value parks as sacred sanctuaries and places of spiritual self-discovery, as settings of breathtaking beauty, as venues of scientific inquiry, as destinations for much-needed...

Understanding Biodiversity comes as a wake-up call at a time when the predatory practices of our 'modern' civilization have transformed nature into an exploitable resource, opened up our plant and animal life to endless expropriation and eroded the biodiversity that has made our life on earth possible. This tract forces us to confront basic issues: the need to conserve biodiversity, the conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitats, our protectionist policies which have more often endange...

This handbook, produced by world renowned experts from the World Conservation Union (IUCN), spans the full terrain of protected area management and is the international benchmark for the field. The book employs dozens of detailed international cases studies, hundreds of concise topical snapshots, maps, tables, illustrations and a colour plate section, as well as evaluation tools, checklists and numerous appendices to cover all aspects of park management from biodiversity to natural heritag...

This book presents an approach to postmortem human identification using dental image processing based on dental features and characteristics, and provides information on various identification systems based on dental features using image processing operations. The book also provides information on a novel human identification approach that uses Infinite Symmetric Exponential Filter (ISEF) based edge detection and contouring algorithms.Provides complete details on dental i...

Today, over 3,000 protected areas around the world contribute to the protection of biodiversity, peaceful relations between neighbouring countries, and the well-being of people living in and around the protected environs. Historical and geo-political constraints are disappearing in a new spirit of collaboration to address common issues confronting ecosystems, species, and communities. Managing across boundaries is seen as the only way to ensure the long-term viability of ecological systems...

This groundbreaking volume is the first comprehensive, critical examination of the rise of protected areas and their current social and economic position in our world. It examines the social impacts of protected areas, the conflicts that surround them, the alternatives to them and the conceptual categories they impose.The book explores key debates on devolution, participation and democracy; the role and uniqueness of indigenous peoples and other local communities; institutions and ...