Perceiving in Depth is a sequel to Binocular Vision and Stereopsis and to Seeing in Depth, both by Ian P. Howard and Brian J. Rogers. This three-volume work is much broader in scope than previous texts and includes mechanisms of depth perception by all senses, including aural, electrosensory organs, and the somatosensory system. The work contains three extensively illustrated and referenced volumes. Volume 1 reviews sensory coding, psychophysical and analytic procedures, and basic visual mechanisms. Volume 2 reviews stereoscopic vision. Volume 3 reviews all mechanisms of depth perception other than stereoscopic vision. Together, these three volumes provide the most detailed review of all aspects of perceiving the three-dimensional world. Volume 1 contains a historical background and address basic coding process, an account of basic psychophysical procedures and principles of sensory coding, and an account of basic mechanisms underlying visual depth perception. It starts with a review of the history of investigations of visual depth perception from the ancient Greeks to the early 20th century. Depth-detection mechanisms in senses other than vision were not investigated before the 19th century. Special attention is devoted to the discovery of the principles of perspective in 15th century Florence, and the discovery of the principles of stereoscopic vision. The chapter ends with a review of early visual display systems, such as panoramas and peepshows, and the discovery and development of stereoscopes and stereophotography. One chapter reviews the psychophysical and analytic procedures used in behavioral investigations of depth perception. Another chapter deals with the broad topic of sensory coding, including the geometry of visual space, mechanisms of attention, and experience-dependent plasticity of visual functions. A review of the structure and physiology of the primate visual system proceeds from the eye through the LGN to the visual cortex and higher visual centers. This is followed by a review of the early evolution of visual systems and of the development of the mammalian visual system in the embryo and post-natal period, with an emphasis on mechanisms of neural plasticity. The development of perceptual functions, especially depth perception, in human infants is then reviewed. These chapters provide a foundation for a review of the effects of early visual deprivation during the critical period of neural plasticity on the development of the various types of amblyopia and of defects in visual depth perception. Various forms of deprivation are discussed, including dark rearing, binocular and monocular enucleation, strabismus, and eyelid suturing. Volume 1 ends with reviews of the accommodation mechanism of the human eye and vergence eye movements.

Computational Methods for Numerical Analysis with R is an overview of traditional numerical analysis topics presented using R. This guide shows how common functions from linear algebra, interpolation, numerical integration, optimization, and differential equations can be implemented in pure R code. Every algorithm described is given with a complete function implementation in R, along with examples to demonstrate the function and its use. Computational Methods for Numerical Analysis with R is intended for those who already know R, but are interested in learning more about how the underlying algorithms work. As such, it is suitable for statisticians, economists, and engineers, and others with a computational and numerical background.

This Brief presents a benefit-cost analysis of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) as well as an evaluation of its cumulative socioeconomic effects. Created by Congress in 1968, the NFIP provides flood insurance protection to property owners, in return for local government commitment to sound floodplain management. Since 1994, the NFIP has included a Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program to provide local communities with support for flood mitigation. This book offers quantitative evidence of the net social benefit of the NFIP for the years 1996-2010, including an independent assessment of the consumer benefit. Second, it provides distributionally weighted analysis to show the socioeconomic effects of payments and claims. Finally, this Brief includes an analysis of the change in government revenue attributable to the NFIP and FMA programs. The models used in each component of the analysis are usable by others for extending and revising the analysis. Providing a comprehensive analysis of this increasingly important federal policy, this Brief will be of use to students of environmental economics and public policy as well as those interested in risk management in the era of climate change.

One of the most prolific and respected scholars today, Manuel Castells has given us a new language for understanding the impact of information and communication technologies on social life. Politicians can no longer run for office without a digital media strategy, new communication technologies are a fundamental infrastructure for the economy, and the internet has become an invaluable tool for cultural production and consumption. Yet as more of our political, economic, and cultural interaction occurs over digital media, the ability to create and manipulate both content and networks becomes real power. Castells and the Media introduces a great thinker, presents original theories about the network society, and encourages readers to use these theories to help them understand the importance of digital media and social networks in their own lives.

Perceiving in Depth is a sequel to Binocular Vision and Stereopsis and to Seeing in Depth, both by Ian P. Howard and Brian J. Rogers. This three-volume work is much broader in scope than previous texts and includes mechanisms of depth perception by all senses, including aural, electrosensory organs, and the somatosensory system. The work contains three extensively illustrated and referenced volumes. Volume 1 reviews sensory coding, psychophysical and analytic procedures, and basic visual mechanisms. Volume 2 reviews stereoscopic vision. Volume 3 reviews all mechanisms of depth perception other than stereoscopic vision. Together, these three volumes provide the most detailed review of all aspects of perceiving the three-dimensional world. Volume 3 addresses all depth-perception mechanisms other than stereopsis. The chapter starts with reviews of monocular cues to depth. These cues include accommodation, vergence eye movements, perspective, interposition, shading, and motion parallax. A perceptual constancy is the ability to judge a feature of a stimulus as constant in spite of variations in the retinal image. Constancies in depth perception, such as the ability to perceive the sizes, and 3-D shapes of objects as they move or rotate are reviewed. The ways in which different depth cues interact are discussed. They can complement each other, compete, or interact so as to increase the range of depth perception. The next chapter reviews sources of information, such as changing disparity, image looming, and vergence eye movements, used in the perception of objects moving in depth. Various pathologies of depth perception, including visual neglect, stereoanomalies, and albanism are reviewed. Visual depth-perception mechanisms through the animal kingdom are reviewed, starting with insects and progressing though crustaceans, fish, amphibians, retiles, birds, and mammals. Most animals respond to image looming, and many use perspective and motion parallax to detect depth. Stereoscopic vision based on binocular disparity has evolved in some insects, frogs, and mammals. The chapter includes a discussion of the way in which stereoscopic vision may have evolved. The next chapter describes how visual depth perception is used to guide reaching movements of the hand, avoiding obstacles, and walking to a distant object. The next three chapters review non-visual mechanisms of depth perception. Auditory mechanisms include auditory localization, echolocation in bats and marine mammals, and the lateral-line system of fish. Some fish emit electric discharges and then use electric sense organs to detect distortions of the electric field produced by nearby objects. Some beetles and snakes use heat-sensitive sense organs to detect sources of heat. The volume ends with a discussion of mechanisms used by animals to navigate to a distant site. Ants find their way back to the nest by using landmarks and by integrating their walking movements. Several animals navigate by the stars or by polarized sunlight. It seems to be established that animals in several phyla navigate by detecting the Earth's magnetic field.

One of the most prolific and respected scholars today, Manuel Castells has given us a new language for understanding the impact of information and communication technologies on social life. Politicians can no longer run for office without a digital media strategy, new communication technologies are a fundamental infrastructure for the economy, and the internet has become an invaluable tool for cultural production and consumption. Yet as more of our political, economic, and cultural interaction occurs over digital media, the ability to create and manipulate both content and networks becomes real power. Castells and the Media introduces a great thinker, presents original theories about the network society, and encourages readers to use these theories to help them understand the importance of digital media and social networks in their own lives.

In the saga of early western exploration a young Shoshoni Indian girl named Sacajawea is famed as a guide and interpreter for the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Far Northwest between 1804 and 1806. Her fame rests upon her contributions to the expedition. In guiding them through the wilderness, in gathering wild foods, and, above all, in serving as an ambassadress to Indian tribes along the way she helped to assure the success of the expedition.

This book retraces Sacajawea's path across the Northwest, from the Mandan Indian villages in present-day South Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, and back. On the journey Sacajawea was accompanied by her ne'er-do-well French-Canadian husband, Toussaint Charboneau, and her infant son, Baptiste, who became a favorite of the members of the expedition, especially Captain William Clark.

The author presents a colorful account of Sacajawea's journeys with Lewis and Clark and an objective evaluation of the controversial accounts of her later years.