This book discusses innovative methods for mining information from images of plants, especially leaves, and highlights the diagnostic features that can be implemented in fully automatic systems for identifying plant species. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it explores the problem of plant species identification, covering both the concepts of taxonomy and morphology. It then provides an overview of morphometrics, including the historical background and the main steps in the morphometric analysis of leaves together with a number of applications. The core of the book focuses on novel diagnostic methods for plant species identification developed from a computer scientist's perspective. It then concludes with a chapter on the characterization of botanists' visions, which highlights important cognitive aspects that can be implemented in a computer system to more accurately replicate the human expert's fixation process. The book not only represents an authoritative guide to advanced computational tools for plant identification, but provides experts in botany, computer science and pattern recognition with new ideas and challenges. As such it is expected to foster both closer collaborations and further technological developments in the emerging field of automatic plant identification.

'A slice of scary, escapist fun' Observer 'The twists and turns are never-ending' Daily Mail 'An unnervingly plausible and scintillatingly paced thriller' Radio Times 'A phenomenal thriller, meticulously plotted and brilliantly realised' Clare Mackintosh, Books of the Year _______________________________ If you can hear it, your time is running out. Teacher Kit Chaplin can't understand why some students at his north London school are experiencing an extreme ticking noise in their ears. Perhaps it's just a severe form of tinnitus? But only days later, it spreads to more students - and starts leaving bodies in its wake. Eminent vaccinologist Lilly Slater has never seen anything like this before. She must race against the clock to work out what is happening - and to find a cure. But their investigation throws up more questions than answers until they realise the mystery behind the illness is even bigger than they could have imagined... Will the truth behind this catastrophe become clear before it's too late? _______________________________ Readers are loving Tick Tock 'Well, BBC Radio presenter Simon Mayo sure can write a darned good thriller!' 'An excellent conspiracy theory thriller, it's exciting, full of danger... it's riveting and hard to put down' 'I was utterly gripped and read this in one sitting! I could feel the tension and fear in every page - loved it!' 'Never has there been a more timely thriller! I was gripped from the first page. I was so immersed, I read it in one night.'

This book discusses innovative methods for mining information from images of plants, especially leaves, and highlights the diagnostic features that can be implemented in fully automatic systems for identifying plant species. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it explores the problem of plant species identification, covering both the concepts of taxonomy and morphology. It then provides an overview of morphometrics, including the historical background and the main steps in the morphometric analysis of leaves together with a number of applications. The core of the book focuses on novel diagnostic methods for plant species identification developed from a computer scientist's perspective. It then concludes with a chapter on the characterization of botanists' visions, which highlights important cognitive aspects that can be implemented in a computer system to more accurately replicate the human expert's fixation process. The book not only represents an authoritative guide to advanced computational tools for plant identification, but provides experts in botany, computer science and pattern recognition with new ideas and challenges. As such it is expected to foster both closer collaborations and further technological developments in the emerging field of automatic plant identification.

'A phenomenal thriller, meticulously plotted and brilliantly realised' Clare Mackintosh, Books of the Year It starts quietly enough. A tick tick ticking you can hear in your ear. Tinnitus, you think. It will pass. But it doesn't. It gets worse. And then you pass it on... Before you know it, it spreads. Elsewhere across the globe, it emerges: small outbreaks at first, but then suddenly it's a plague - and only days later it is already killing people. In an increasingly affected north London school, teacher Kit Chaplin is struggling to understand what he is witnessing. Even Lilly Slater, his partner and an eminent vaccinologist, can't work out what's happening. As it spreads, little by little, they are inexorably drawn into the mystery behind the illness. And what they discover will change the world as they know it... Exciting and urgently contemporary, this piercingly insightful novel tells the story of a global catastrophe through the eyes of the three people at the heart of the storm. ------------------------------------------------------------ Readers are loving Tick Tock 'Well, BBC Radio presenter Simon Mayo sure can write a darned good thriller!' 'Another cracking read from a man of many talents' 'An excellent conspiracy theory thriller, it's exciting, full of danger... it's riveting and hard to put down' 'A cracker of a read and another winner from Simon Mayo!' 'I read it over two evenings, both times staying up far later than normal as I didn't want to put it down' 'I was utterly gripped and read this in one sitting! I could feel the tension and fear in every page - loved it!' 'Never has there been a more timely thriller! I was gripped from the first page. I was so immersed, I read it in one night.'

Exploding euros and exciting elements - join Itch, Jack and Chloe on their latest adventure. Itchingham Lofte, teenage element hunter and unlikely hero, has had anough excitement to last him a lifetime. Stumbling across an unknown radioactive element and trying to keep it out of the hands of those who want to use it for their own ends was hard enough. But when a school trip to Spain ends in exploding currency and rioting locals, he knows that he has to continue to look for answers. Itch knows the lives of those closest to him are at risk. He must track down a deadly enemy who will stop at nothing to take his vengeance . . .

'A great debut. You'll be itching to read more.' Anthony Horowitz Meet Itch - an accidental, accident-prone hero. Science is his weapon. Elements are his gadgets. All-action adventure perfect for fans of Alex Rider and Young Bond. Itchingham Lofte - known as Itch - is fourteen, and loves science, especially chemistry. He's also an element-hunter: he's collecting all the elements in the periodic table. Which has some interesting and rather destructive results in his bedroom. Then, Itch makes a discovery. A new element, never seen before. At first no one believes him - but soon someone hears about the strange new rock and wants it for himself. And Itch and his family are catapulted into a breathless adventure with terrifyingly high stakes . . . The debut novel from BBC radio presenter Simon Mayo.

Whatever your ailment, the nation's best-loved film experts have the perfect cinematic prescription for you, whether it's a course of the Coens or a dose of Die Hard. And they're ready to cure the movies to, taking their scalpels to bloated blockbusters and warning of the ill effects of overpraise. Where medical ignorance and movie expertise meet - the surgery of Doctors Kermode and Mayo is now open.

After almost poisoning his whole class with arsenic gas, going on the run from a psychotic science teacher and nearly dying of radiation poisoning, life is getting back to normal for Itchingham Lofte - at least, as normal as it can be when you have a round-the-clock detail of government security guards watching your every move. But sinister forces are still hunting for Element 126 and will stop at nothing to find out where Itch has hidden the precious radioactive rocks. With the help of his sister Chloe and his tomboy cousin Jack, Itch has to put 126 beyond the reach of unscrupulous scientists and international terrorists forever. It's time to save the world. Again. The second book in the explosively exciting ITCH series. 'A great debut. You'll be itching to read more.' Anthony Horowitz

'The best kind of thriller - step by all-too-plausible step we're sucked into frantic, breathless action ... Perfect." LEE CHILD You never know where danger may come from... 6.45am. A sweltering London rush hour. And in the last 27 minutes, seven people have been murdered. In a series of coordinated attacks, seven men and women across London have been targeted. For journalist Famie Madden, the horror unfolds as she arrives for the morning shift. The victims have one thing in common: they make up the investigations team at the news agency where Famie works. The question everyone's asking: what were they working on that could prompt such brutal devastation? As Famie starts to receive mysterious messages, she must find out whether she is being warned of the next attack, or being told that she will be the next victim...

'The plot of Mad Blood Stirring grows from a kernel of historical truth, but his book dazzles not so much as fact than as fiction...Instructive as well as entertaining' NEW YORK TIMES 1815: The war is over but for the inmates at Dartmoor Prison, peace - like home - is still a long way away. On the eve of the year 1815, the captured sailors of the Eagle arrive at Dartmoor prison; bedraggled, exhausted, sustained only by a rumour heard along the way. Joe Hill thought he'd left the conflict behind but it is clear there is a different type of battle here. As he announces the news of the end of the war, the guards bristle and the inmates stir. The powder keg was fixed to blow and Joe has just lit the fuse. Elizabeth Shortland, the Governor's wife, looks out at the unsettled crowd. The peace means the end is near, that she needn't be here for ever. But suddenly, she cannot bear the thought of leaving. Inspired by true events, Mad Blood Stirring is a story of hope and freedom, of loss and suffering. It is a story about how sometimes, in our darkest hour, it can be the most unlikely of things that see us through. * 'Wonderful - a story I never heard before, told with style, pace, character, texture, and tension ... bliss.' Lee Child 'Bristling with energy, written with passion, Mad Blood Stirring is a joy to read.' John Boyne

What happens when society wants you banged up in prison for a crime your parents committed? That's the situation in which Ant finds herself - together with her little brother Mattie and their foster-parents, she's locked up in a new kind of family prison. None of the inmates are themselves criminals, but wider society wants them to do time for the unpunished 'heritage' crimes of their parents. Tensions are bubbling inside the London prison network Ant and Mattie call home - and when things finally erupt, they realize they've got one chance to break out. Everyone wants to see them punished for the sins of their mum and dad, but it's time for Ant to show the world that they're not to blame. A new nail-bitingly taught YA suspense thriller, from author of the bestselling ITCH series, Simon Mayo.