An edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of Every Line of You - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder meets virtual reality ... 'A pacy, intelligent novel that will have readers racing to get to the final page.' THE BOOKSELLER 'A pixelated whirlwind of a ride through the darkest secrets of the human mind, explored through the lens of virtual reality gaming!' LEE NEWBERY, AUTHOR OF THE LAST FIREFOX Lola's been selected to play a new virtual reality game - Better Than Life. In her game, she's loved. Is beautiful. Can do whatever she wants. But she quickly breaks the one rule: not to recreate people or places from real life. She recreates her house and a boy she fancies. Soon she's skipping school to play. But Lola has secrets - dark ones that begin to surface inside her game - and the more she tries to fix her problems, the more she overlooks a much bigger threat ... An original, high-concept psychological thriller - Holly Jackson meets VR horror Set in an exclusive boarding school, this rollercoaster ride of a story involves an unreliable narrator,immersive gaming, a dark secret and a huge twist Perfect for fans of Cynthia Murphy and Kathryn Foxfield PRAISE FOR EVERY LINE OF YOU: 'What a debut. So tense - and it didn't lead where I thought it was going.' SUE WALLMAN, author of YOUR TURN TO DIE 'Frankenstein meets Heathers. Bonnie and Clyde for the digital age, Every Line of You is a gripping thriller about the power of AI and a fresh twist on the intensity of first love.' AMY MCCAW, author of MINA AND THE UNDEAD

Each Student Book and ActiveBook have has clearly laid out pages with a range of supportive features to aid learning and teaching: Getting to know your unit sections ensure learners understand the grading criteria and unit requirements. Getting ready for Assessment sections focus on preparation for external assessment with guidance for learners on what to expect. Hints and tips will help them prepare for assessment and sample answers are provided for a range of question types including, short and long answer questions, all with a supporting commentary. Learners can also prepare for internal assessment using this feature. A case study of a learner completing the internal assessment for that unit covering 'How I got started', 'How I brought it all together' and 'What I got from the experience'. Pause Point feature provide opportunities for learners to self-evaluate their learning at regular intervals. Each Pause Point point feature gives learners a Hint or Extend option to either revisit and reinforce the topic or to encourage independent research or study skills. Case Study and Theory into Practice features enable development of problem-solving skills and place the theory into real life situations learners could encounter. Assessment Activity/Practice provide scaffolded assessment practice activities that help prepare learners for assessment. Within each assessment practice activity, a Plan, Do and Review section supports learners' formative assessment by making sure they fully understand what they are being asked to do, what their goals are and how to evaluate the task and consider how they could improve. Dedicated Think Future pages provide case studies from the industry, with a focus on aspects of skills development that can be put into practice in a real work environment and further study.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Woodrow Barfield and Ugo Pagallo present a succinct introduction to the legal issues related to the design and use of artificial intelligence (AI). Exploring human rights, constitutional law, data protection, criminal law, tort law, and intellectual property law, they consider the laws of a number of jurisdictions including the US, the European Union, Japan, and China, making reference to case law and statutes. Key features include: a critical insight into human rights and constitutional law issues which may be affected by the use of AI discussion of the concept of legal personhood and how the law might respond as AI evolves in intelligence an introduction to current laws and statutes which apply to AI and an identification of the areas where future challenges to the law may arise. This Advanced Introduction is ideal for law and social science students with an interest in how the law applies to AI. It also provides a useful entry point for legal practitioners seeking an understanding of this emerging field.

The only official, comprehensive reference guide to the CISSP Thoroughly updated for 2021 and beyond, this is the authoritative common body of knowledge (CBK) from (ISC)2 for information security professionals charged with designing, engineering, implementing, and managing the overall information security program to protect organizations from increasingly sophisticated attacks. Vendor neutral and backed by (ISC)2, the CISSP credential meets the stringent requirements of ISO/IEC Standard 17024. This CBK covers the current eight domains of CISSP with the necessary depth to apply them to the daily practice of information security. Revised and updated by a team of subject matter experts, this comprehensive reference covers all of the more than 300 CISSP objectives and sub-objectives in a structured format with: Common and good practices for each objective Common vocabulary and definitions References to widely accepted computing standards Highlights of successful approaches through case studies Whether you've earned your CISSP credential or are looking for a valuable resource to help advance your security career, this comprehensive guide offers everything you need to apply the knowledge of the most recognized body of influence in information security.

Revitalize your architectural visualizations by bringing new levels of realism to your day and night interior scenes. This book features full-color, step-by-step tutorials to develop a firm understanding of the processes and techniques involved in creating jaw-dropping 3d visualizations for top marketing agencies. This second volume includes day and night lighting of an atrium scene using seasoned tools and techniques to deploy V-Ray 5 and 3ds Max 2020. It has never been quicker and easier to create the industry's top-of-the-range 3d marketing visuals. The book starts with an overview of the best techniques to approach clients via emails, calls, meetings, and social media. There are also key insights into the best practices of handling projects, pricing, contracts, invoices, pre-production, production, post-production, etc. The subsequent step takes users through the installation of V-Ray 5 and the process of accessing the V-Ray Material browser dialog. Throughout the book, users are taken through VRayMtl functions such as Diffuse, Roughness, Reflect, Glossiness, Metalness, Refract, IOR, Abbe number, Fog color, Translucency, BRDF, Coat, Sheen and Bump. Users will also learn how to use procedural maps such as VRayBitmap, VRayTriplanarTex, Bricks, Metals, Carpaint, VRayDisplacementMod, VRayUVWRandomizer, VRayMultiSubTex, VRayPointCloudColor, VRayDirt, VRayAerialPersepective, VRayLightMtl, VRayMtlWrapper, VRayOverrideMtl, VRay2SidedMtl, VRayBlendMtl and VRayEdgesTex. Users will have a rare insight into all functionalities of a V-Ray camera, VRayLight objects, Render settings, Frame buffer, Global switches, IPR options, Bucket and Progressive image samplers, Image filters, Global DMC, Color mapping, Brute force GI, Light cache, Color management, Distributed rendering, Render elements, V-Ray image file format, VFB History settings, VFB Lens Effects, LightMix, Film tonemap, Hue/Saturation, Lookup Table and much more. Finally, users will embark on the amazing journey of utilizing the previous chapters to create eye-catching 3d marketing visuals through the meticulous process of pre-production, production and post-production of both day and night scenes/lighting. The tips and tricks section will extensively cover key sections about Verified views for planning applications, Parametric modeling with AdvArray, anima (R), project manager plug-in, Verge3d, Webrotate 360, Accucities 3d city models and much more.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and the Internet of Things are facing tremendous advances both in terms of energy-efficiency as well as in the number of available applications. Consequently, there are challenges that need to be tackled for the future generation of WSNs. After giving an overview of the WSN protocols and IEEE 802.15.4 standard, this book proposes IEEE 802.15.4 Medium Access Control (MAC) sub-layer performance enhancements by employing not only RTS/CTS combined with packet concatenation but also scheduled channel poling (MC-SCP). Results have shown that the use of the RTS/CTS mechanism improves channel efficiency by decreasing the deferral time before transmitting a data packet. Furthermore, the Sensor Block Acknowledgment MAC (SBACK-MAC) protocol enables more efficiency as it allows the aggregation of several acknowledgement responses in one special Block Acknowledgment (BACK) Response packet. The throughput and delay performance have been mathematically derived under both ideal conditions (a channel environment with no transmission errors) and non-ideal conditions (with transmission errors). Simulation results successfully validate the proposed analytical models. This research reveals the importance of an appropriate design for the MAC sub-layer protocol for the desired WSN application. Depending on the mission of the WSN application, different protocols are required. Therefore, the overall performance of a WSN application certainly depends on the development and application of suitable e.g., MAC, network layer protocols.

An addictive thriller from the most sensational new voice in YA fiction. When sixteen-year-old Asha Kennedy discovers her older sister Maya's dead body in their home, her world falls apart. Desperate for answers, and to stay out of the hands of the social services she grew up in, Asha turns to her hacker friends for help. Her search leads her to Zu Tech, the hit games studio where Maya was a lead coder. As Asha begins to unravel the riddle of her death, she realises that the only way to uncover the truth is from the inside. Asha ghosts her old life and infiltrates a Zu Tech eSport tournament as they launch 'SHACKLE', the revolutionary Virtual Reality video game Maya was working on - and which hides a monstrous secret... Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder A guaranteed page turner full of heart, tension and twists you won't see coming! The first book in a major new YA series

This provocative book investigates the relationship between law and artificial intelligence (AI) governance, and the need for new and innovative approaches to regulating AI and big data in ways that go beyond market concerns alone and look to sustainability and social good. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the contributors demonstrate the interplay between various research methods, and policy motivations, to show that law-based regulation and governance of AI is vital to efforts at ensuring justice, trust in administrative and contractual processes, and inclusive social cohesion in our increasingly technologically-driven societies. The book provides valuable insights on the new challenges posed by a rapid reliance on AI and big data, from data protection regimes around sensitive personal data, to blockchain and smart contracts, platform data reuse, IP rights and limitations, and many other crucial concerns for law's interventions. The book also engages with concerns about the 'surveillance society', for example regarding contact tracing technology used during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analytical approach provided will make this an excellent resource for scholars and educators, legal practitioners (from constitutional law to contract law) and policy makers within regulation and governance. The empirical case studies will also be of great interest to scholars of technology law and public policy. The regulatory community will find this collection offers an influential case for law's relevance in giving institutional enforceability to ethics and principled design.

During the past decade there has been an explosion in computation and information technology. With it have come vast amounts of data in a variety of fields such as medicine, biology, finance, and marketing. The challenge of understanding these data has led to the development of new tools in the field of statistics, and spawned new areas such as data mining, machine learning, and bioinformatics. Many of these tools have common underpinnings but are often expressed with different terminology. This book describes the important ideas in these areas in a common conceptual framework. While the approach is statistical, the emphasis is on concepts rather than mathematics. Many examples are given, with a liberal use of color graphics. It is a valuable resource for statisticians and anyone interested in data mining in science or industry. The book's coverage is broad, from supervised learning (prediction) to unsupervised learning. The many topics include neural networks, support vector machines, classification trees and boosting---the first comprehensive treatment of this topic in any book.

This major new edition features many topics not covered in the original, including graphical models, random forests, ensemble methods, least angle regression & path algorithms for the lasso, non-negative matrix factorization, and spectral clustering. There is also a chapter on methods for wide'' data (p bigger than n), including multiple testing and false discovery rates.

Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, and Jerome Friedman are professors of statistics at Stanford University. They are prominent researchers in this area: Hastie and Tibshirani developed generalized additive models and wrote a popular book of that title. Hastie co-developed much of the statistical modeling software and environment in R/S-PLUS and invented principal curves and surfaces. Tibshirani proposed the lasso and is co-author of the very successful An Introduction to the Bootstrap. Friedman is the co-inventor of many data-mining tools including CART, MARS, projection pursuit and gradient boosting.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Providing a comprehensive overview of the current and future uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, this Advanced Introduction discusses the issues surrounding the implementation, governance, impacts and risks of utilising AI in health organizations Key Features: Advises healthcare executives on how to effectively leverage AI to advance their strategies and plans and support digital transformation Discusses AI governance, change management, workforce management and the organization of AI experimentation and implementation Analyzes AI technologies in healthcare and their impacts on patient care, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, population health, and healthcare operations Provides risk mitigation approaches to address potential AI algorithm problems, liability and regulation Essential reading for policymakers, clinical executives and consultants in healthcare, this Advanced Introduction explores how to successfully integrate AI into healthcare organizations and will also prove invaluable to students and scholars interested in technological innovations in healthcare.

Data is humanity's most important new resource. It has the capacity to provide insight into every aspect of our lives, the planet and the universe at large; it changes not only what we know but also how we know it. Exploiting the value of data could improve our existence as much as - if not more than - previous technological revolutions. Yet data without empathy is useless. There is a tendency in data science to forget about the human needs and feelings of the people who make up the data, the people who work with the data, and those expected to understand the results. Without empathy, this precious resource is at best underused, at worst misused. Data: A Guide to Humans will help you understand how to properly exploit data, why this is so important, and how companies and governments are currently using data. It makes a compelling case for empathy as the crucial factor in elevating our understanding of data to something which can make a lasting and essential contribution to your business, your life and maybe even the world.

Gillenson's new edition of "Fundamentals of Database Management Systems" provides concise coverage of the fundamental topics necessary for a deep understanding of the basics. In this issue, there is more emphasis on a practical approach, with new "your turn" boxes and much more coverage in a separate supplement on how to implement databases with Access.

In every chapter, the author covers concepts first, then show how they're implemented in continuing case(s.) "Your Turn" boxes appear several times throughout the chapter to apply concepts to projects. And "Concepts in Action" boxes contain examples of concepts used in practice. This pedagogy is easily demonstrable and the text also includes more hands-on exercises and projects and a standard diagramming style for the data modeling diagrams. Furthermore, revised and updated content and organization includes more coverage on database control issues, earlier coverage of SQL, and new coverage on data quality issues.

Get digital prints that look better than film, create amazing photo and video DVDs, and even learn to use your camera phone to its maximum potential with this non-technical, easy-to-understand guide

Imagine displaying your photos on your television in big-screen glory, set to your favorite music. Imagine digitizing your old home movies, editing out unwanted parts, and sharing them on DVDs. And imagine sharing photos and movies of your child's first steps moments after they happen -- online, over the cell phone, or even on an electronic picture frame half a world away.

With today's technology, all that is possible -- and more! "Going Digital" will arm you with the tools and techniques you need to share your digital memories with friends and family -- online and offline, on the computer, and in the living room. Written in down-to-earth language for people with all levels of technological knowledge, it's a user-friendly guide that will change your life -- and your family's.

This timely book provides an extensive overview and analysis of the law and regulation as it applies to the technology and uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It examines the human and ethical concerns associated with the technology, the history of AI and AI in commercial contexts. Written by outstanding lawyers, technologists and other professionals, this book will help readers acquire an understanding of the taxonomy of AI, the legal rules that apply to AI and the way AI has been utilised in various commercial contexts. Key features include: explanation of the technology and practical legal issues relating to the use of AI exploration of AI in the traditional legal categories; including contract and tort law chapters written by procurement, legaltech, algorithm auditing and other professionals use cases from the main industries utilising the technology, such as financial services, real estate and insurance. Artificial Intelligence will help to further readers' engagement with AI and enable them to ask themselves the right questions while doing so. It will prove a crucial reference point for all lawyers, policy makers and academics with an interest in the interaction between law and AI, and to any lawyer with clients that use or consider using AI in their business.

Introduction to Computational Engineering with MATLAB (R) aims to teach readers how to use MATLAB programming to solve numerical engineering problems. The book focuses on computational engineering with the objective of helping engineering students improve their numerical problem-solving skills. The book cuts a middle path between undergraduate texts that simply focus on programming and advanced mathematical texts that skip over foundational concepts, feature cryptic mathematical expressions, and do not provide sufficient support for novices. Although this book covers some advanced topics, readers do not need prior computer programming experience or an advanced mathematical background. Instead, the focus is on learning how to leverage the computer and software environment to do the hard work. The problem areas discussed are related to data-driven engineering, statistics, linear algebra, and numerical methods. Some example problems discussed touch on robotics, control systems, and machine learning. Features: Demonstrates through algorithms and code segments how numeric problems are solved with only a few lines of MATLAB code Quickly teaches students the basics and gets them started programming interesting problems as soon as possible No prior computer programming experience or advanced math skills required Suitable for students at undergraduate level who have prior knowledge of college algebra, trigonometry, and are enrolled in Calculus I MATLAB script files, functions, and datasets used in examples are available for download from http://www.routledge.com/9781032221410.

Introduction to Computational Engineering with MATLAB (R) aims to teach readers how to use MATLAB programming to solve numerical engineering problems. The book focuses on computational engineering with the objective of helping engineering students improve their numerical problem-solving skills. The book cuts a middle path between undergraduate texts that simply focus on programming and advanced mathematical texts that skip over foundational concepts, feature cryptic mathematical expressions, and do not provide sufficient support for novices. Although this book covers some advanced topics, readers do not need prior computer programming experience or an advanced mathematical background. Instead, the focus is on learning how to leverage the computer and software environment to do the hard work. The problem areas discussed are related to data-driven engineering, statistics, linear algebra, and numerical methods. Some example problems discussed touch on robotics, control systems, and machine learning. Features: Demonstrates through algorithms and code segments how numeric problems are solved with only a few lines of MATLAB code Quickly teaches students the basics and gets them started programming interesting problems as soon as possible No prior computer programming experience or advanced math skills required Suitable for students at undergraduate level who have prior knowledge of college algebra, trigonometry, and are enrolled in Calculus I MATLAB script files, functions, and datasets used in examples are available for download from http://www.routledge.com/9781032221410.

Introduction to Information Systems, 9th Edition delivers an essential resource for undergraduate business majors seeking ways to harness information technology systems to succeed in their current or future jobs. The book assists readers in developing a foundational understanding of information systems and technology and apply it to common business problems. This International Adaptation covers applications of the latest technologies with the addition of new cases from Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia, and Asia-Pacific countries. It focuses on global business environment for students to understand the norms of using technology while operating on online platforms for exploring new avenues in different geographical locations. The book includes real business scenarios of how latest technologies such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, and IoT are perceived and adopted across countries. New cases highlight key technology issues faced by organizations such as designing and implementing IT security policies, dealing with ethical dilemma of securing customer data, moving IT infrastructure to cloud, and identifying how AI can be used to improve the efficiency of business operations.

An Introduction to Statistical Learning provides an accessible overview of the field of statistical learning, an essential toolset for making sense of the vast and complex data sets that have emerged in fields ranging from biology to finance to marketing to astrophysics in the past twenty years. This book presents some of the most important modeling and prediction techniques, along with relevant applications. Topics include linear regression, classification, resampling methods, shrinkage approaches, tree-based methods, support vector machines, clustering, deep learning, survival analysis, multiple testing, and more. Color graphics and real-world examples are used to illustrate the methods presented. Since the goal of this textbook is to facilitate the use of these statistical learning techniques by practitioners in science, industry, and other fields, each chapter contains a tutorial on implementing the analyses and methods presented in R, an extremely popular open source statistical software platform. Two of the authors co-wrote The Elements of Statistical Learning (Hastie, Tibshirani and Friedman, 2nd edition 2009), a popular reference book for statistics and machine learning researchers. An Introduction to Statistical Learning covers many of the same topics, but at a level accessible to a much broader audience. This book is targeted at statisticians and non-statisticians alike who wish to use cutting-edge statistical learning techniques to analyze their data. The text assumes only a previous course in linear regression and no knowledge of matrix algebra. This Second Edition features new chapters on deep learning, survival analysis, and multiple testing, as well as expanded treatments of naive Bayes, generalized linear models, Bayesian additive regression trees, and matrix completion. R code has been updated throughout to ensure compatibility.

In The Political Economy and Feasibility of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies Spencer J. Pack brings his authority as a scholar and advisor to this study of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from the perspective of the history of economic thought. Major theorists analyzed in depth include Aristotle, Smith, Law, Marx, Keynes, Rothbard and Hayek, and the book draws extensively upon the ideas of Schumpeter, Galbraith and Sraffa. The book argues for reconceptualization of the basic microeconomic categories into rental, sale and financial asset prices along with a reconsideration of Keynes' general theory to his special theory and Rothbard's relationship to Rousseau. The author posits that intense theoretical and practical struggles will continue over who should control the quantity of money, the cause of the capitalist economy's instability, and who or what is more dangerous: concentrated centers of private wealth and private enterprises or the contemporary state. He concludes that in terms of the quality of money, the cryptocurrency community is probably correct, with new forms of money potentially being better than sovereign fiat currency. The book's relevance will appeal to members of the history of economic thought community, economic theorists, and political science and political theory scholars as well as to policy makers and members of the cryptocurrency community.

Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovatorsis Walter Isaacson's story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and a guide to how innovation really works. What talents allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their disruptive ideas into realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail? In his exciting saga, Isaacson begins with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He then explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee and Larry Page. This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so creative. It's also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative. For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity and teamwork, this book shows how they actually happen.

Written based on the author's own notes compiled over 18 years This manual is a learning tool focusing exclusively on the work of animators. explains the principles of physics applicable to any motion