Virtual worlds are persistent online computer-generated environments where people can interact, whether for work or play, in a manner comparable to the real world. The most popular current example is World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online game with eleven million subscribers. However, other virtual worlds, notably Second Life, are not...

• Utilizes historical examples to illustrate individual theories throughout
• Includes an analysis of theories of civil wars...

Simplicity in nature is the ultimate sophistication. The world's magnificence has been enriched by the inner drive of instincts, the profound drive of our everyday life. Instinct is an inherited behavior that responds to environmental stimuli. Instinctive computing is a computational simulation of biological and cognitive instincts, which...

For a long time, human beings have dreamed of a virtual world where it is possible to interact with synthetic entities as if they were real. It has been shown that the ability to touch virtual objects increases the sense of presence in virtual environments. This book provides an authoritative overview of state-of-theart haptic rendering...

Rendering High Dynamic Range (HDR) scenes on media with limited dynamic range began in the Renaissance whereby painters, then photographers, learned to use low-range spatial techniques to synthesize appearances, rather than to reproduce accurately the light from scenes. The Art and Science of HDR Imaging presents a unique scientific...

This is the story of a few human genes and how we discovered what these genes do. We each have around 25,000 genes, but the genes in this story are those that vary the most from person to person. These genes--called compatibility genes--are, in effect, a molecular signature that distinguishes each of us as individuals. Davis tells the...

While the sequence of the human genome sequence has hit the headlines, extensive exploitation of this for practical applications is still to come. Genomic and post-genomic technologies applied to viral and bacterial pathogens, which are almost equally important from a scientific perspective, have the potential to be translated into useful...