This book is a collection of the latest applications of methods from soft computing and machine learning in image processing. It explores different areas ranging from image segmentation to the object recognition using complex approaches, and includes the theory of the methodologies used to provide an overview of the application of these tools in image processing. The material has been compiled from a scientific perspective, and the book is primarily intended for undergraduate and postgraduate science, engineering, and computational mathematics students. It can also be used for courses on artificial intelligence, advanced image processing, and computational intelligence, and is a valuable resource for researchers in the evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence and image processing communities.

In Vogue is a fascinating look at the history of the world's most influential magazine. The complete compendium is illustrated with hundreds of covers and archival interiors of past Vogue editions, featuring the work of some of the twentieth century's most respected artists, cover illustrators, and photographers-from Edward Steichen, Toni Frissell, and Erwin Blumenfeld to Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, Steven Klein, Bruce Webber, and Herb Ritts. In 1909, an entrepreneurial New Yorker named Conde Nast took charge of a struggling society journal and transformed it into the most glamorous fashion magazine of the twentieth century. In Vogue traces the history, development and influence of this media colossus-from its beginning as a social gazette in the late nineteenth century, to the exploration of modern fashion photography and new visuals in the mid-twentieth century, to its status as the top style magazine today. The book explains the makings of the magazine-from runways, to editorial meetings, to the pages of Vogue.The thoroughly researched story incorporates first-person accounts, interviews with editors and photographers, and excerpts from stories written in the magazine by many world-renowned writers, including Truman Capote, Aldous Huxley, Richard Burton, Federico Fellini, and Marcello Mastroianni. Unparalleled in its scope and exceptionally illustrated, In Vogue is sure to be among the most important publications on the subjects of culture, art, fashion, photography, and media.

The goal of this book is to present advances that discuss alternative Evolutionary Computation (EC) developments and non-conventional operators which have proved to be effective in the solution of several complex problems. The book has been structured so that each chapter can be read independently from the others. The book contains nine chapters with the following themes: 1) Introduction, 2) the Social Spider Optimization (SSO), 3) the States of Matter Search (SMS), 4) the collective animal behavior (CAB) algorithm, 5) the Allostatic Optimization (AO) method, 6) the Locust Search (LS) algorithm, 7) the Adaptive Population with Reduced Evaluations (APRE) method, 8) the multimodal CAB, 9) the constrained SSO method.

The goal of this book is to present advances that discuss alternative Evolutionary Computation (EC) developments and non-conventional operators which have proved to be effective in the solution of several complex problems. The book has been structured so that each chapter can be read independently from the others. The book contains nine chapters with the following themes: 1) Introduction, 2) the Social Spider Optimization (SSO), 3) the States of Matter Search (SMS), 4) the collective animal behavior (CAB) algorithm, 5) the Allostatic Optimization (AO) method, 6) the Locust Search (LS) algorithm, 7) the Adaptive Population with Reduced Evaluations (APRE) method, 8) the multimodal CAB, 9) the constrained SSO method.

"Smoke Rings" follows a group of friends who use their youthful experiences smuggling marijuana to form the basis for smuggling cigars into the United States. Now in their mid-forties, attorney Jorge Montes de Oca and his best friend, John Davis, a medical doctor, find themselves lured into this adventure by another friend, a Cuban exile and political activist who must finance his activities against the Cuban regime.As they become more involved in the adventure, Jorge and John risk their professional lives to engage in the cigar smuggling. At the same time, the cop who had pursued them during their marijuana-smuggling days is hot on their trail again; and this time, the stakes are so much larger!Examining the intricacies affecting Cuban politics and the love of Cuban cigars, "Smoke Rings" is fast-paced thriller filled with action and the beautiful scenery of Miami, Havana, and the Florida Keys.

This volume contains papers presented at Symposium 5C, 'New Trends in Polymer Chemistry and Characterization' of the XXIII International Materials Research Congress organized by the Sociedad Mexicana de Materiales A. C. in collaboration with the Materials Research Society (MRS), USA, which was held from 17-21 August 2014 in Cancun, Mexico. The symposium was devoted to fundamental and technological applications of polymeric materials, and continued the tradition of providing a forum for scientists from various backgrounds with a common interest in the development and use of polymeric materials to come together and share their findings and expertise. The topics included step-growth and chain-growth polymerizations, macromolecular architecture and topology, well-defined and uniform polymers, polymer engineering and processing, polymer characterization by new and combined techniques, polymer morphology, dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers, smart and functional polymers, composite materials and coatings, polymer-forming reactions, modeling and simulation methods in polymer chemistry and physics, environment-friendly polymers and biopolymers.