The exciting second volume in Trish Moran's acclaimed young adult series exploring humanity, technology, and the problems of growing up in a dystopian future. Perfect for fans of The Giver and the Divergent trilogy. Since their successful fight to be recognised as equal to humans, the Labs - clones from the infamous research 'Centre' - are thriving in the real world, with many going into important jobs and fields of study. Many Labs are now in relationships with Non-Lab humans and, like Lab leader Abel and his girlfriend Ruby, expecting children. It soon becomes apparent that these children - the Hybrids - are equipped with super-human intelligence and skills beyond either Labs or Non-Labs. As the first generation of Hybrids start to grow up, the conflicts between their human and Lab genes and their places in the new world start to take hold, and things are complicated further when a militant group of rogue Labs, known as the Radicals, prove that they're willing to do anything in their quest to create the 'perfect' being - even at the price of human lives...

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Second International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, ICPRAI 2020, which took place in Zhongshan, China, in October 2020. The 49 full and 14 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers were organized in topical sections as follows: handwriting and text processing; features and classifiers; deep learning; computer vision and image processing; medical imaging and applications; and forensic studies and medical diagnosis.

This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of ancient Israel—from the creation account to setting the stage for the New Testament era. This edition has been thoroughly revised, but maintains its focus on Old Testament texts as well as ancient Near Eastern literary and archeological sources to highlight the important modern controversies surrounding this part of Scripture. The work provides an up-to-date, conservative, evangelical position on matters relating to ancient Israel’s history and is illustrated with over 600 figures, charts, and maps.

'Image Ethics in the Digital Age' brings together leading experts in the fields of journalism, media studies, & law to address the challenges presented by new technology & assess the implications for personal & societal values & behavior.

This handbook brings together a variety of approaches to the uses of big data in multiple fields, primarily science, medicine, and business. This single resource features contributions from researchers around the world from a variety of fields, where they share their findings and experience. This book is intended to help spur further innovation in big data. The research is presented in a way that allows readers, regardless of their field of study, to learn from how applications have proven successful and how similar applications could be used in their own field. Contributions stem from researchers in fields such as physics, biology, energy, healthcare, and business. The contributors also discuss important topics such as fraud detection, privacy implications, legal perspectives, and ethical handling of big data.

This two volume set (LNCS 8156 and 8157) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing, ICIAP 2013, held in Naples, Italy, in September 2013. The 162 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 354 submissions. The papers aim at highlighting the connection and synergies of image processing and analysis with pattern recognition and machine learning, human computer systems, biomedical imaging and applications, multimedia interaction and processing, 3D computer vision, and understanding objects and scene.

This is the first book to analyze how the technology to alter images and rapidly distribute them can be used for propaganda and to support deception operations. In the past, propagandists and those seeking to conduct deception operations used crude methods to alter images of real people, events and objects, which could usually be detected relatively easily. Today, however, computers allow propagandists to create any imaginable image, still or moving, with appropriate accompanying audio. Furthermore, it is becoming extremely difficult to detect that an image has been manipulated, and the Internet, television and global media make it possible to disseminate altered images around the world almost instantaneously. Given that the United States is the sole superpower, few, if any, adversaries will attempt to fight the US military conventionally on the battlefield. Therefore, adversaries will use propaganda and deception, especially altered images, in an attempt to level the battlefield or to win a war against the United States without even having to fight militarily. Propaganda and Information Warfare in the 21st Century will be of great interest to students of information war, propaganda, public diplomacy and security studies in general.