Loren Eiseley (1907–77) is one of the most important American nature writers of the twentieth century and an admired practitioner of creative nonfiction. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Eiseley was a professor of anthropology and a prolific writer and poet who worked to bring an understanding of science to the general public, incorporating religion, philosophy, and science into his explorations of the human mind and the passage of time. As a writer who bridged the sciences and the humanities, Eiseley is a challenge for scholars locked into rigid disciplinary boundaries. Artifacts and Illuminations, the first full-length collection of critical essays on the writing of Eiseley, situates his work in the genres of creative nonfiction and nature writing. The contributing scholars apply a variety of critical approaches, including ecocriticism and place-oriented studies ranging across prairie, urban, and international contexts. Contributors explore such diverse topics as Eiseley’s use of anthropomorphism and Jungian concepts and examine how his work was informed by synecdoche. Long overdue, this collection demonstrates Eiseley’s continuing relevance as both a skilled literary craftsman and a profound thinker about the human place in the natural world.

The City of Light. For many, these four words instantly conjure late nineteenth-century Paris and the garish colors of Toulouse-Lautrec’s iconic posters. More recently, the Eiffel Tower’s nightly show of sparkling electric lights has come to exemplify our fantasies of Parisian nightlife. Though we reflect longingly on such scenes, in Illuminated Paris, Hollis Clayson shows that there’s more to these clichés than meets the eye. In this richly illustrated book, she traces the dramatic evolution of lighting in Paris and how artists responded to the shifting visual and cultural scenes that resulted from these technologies. While older gas lighting produced a haze of orange, new electric lighting was hardly an improvement: the glare of experimental arc lights—themselves dangerous—left figures looking pale and ghoulish. As Clayson shows, artists’ representations of these new colors and shapes reveal turn-of-the-century concerns about modernization as electric lighting came to represent the harsh glare of rapidly accelerating social change. At the same time, in part thanks to American artists visiting the city, these works of art also produced our enduring romantic view of Parisian glamour and its Belle Époque.

Spectroscopy, Diffraction and Tomography in Art and Heritage Science gives an overview of the main spectroscopy and diffraction techniques currently available for cultural heritage research. It starts with an introductory, general discussion of spectroscopy and diffraction and the kinds of information they can give. Further sections deal with, respectively, typical laboratory methods, mobile equipment, and large-scale instruments and infrastructural methods. The work concludes with comments on combining and comparing multiple techniques, sources of error, and limitations of the analytical methods. - Explains spectroscopy and diffraction techniques in detail, yet remains accessible to those without a chemistry or physics background - Provides explanations of commonly used terms, such as destructive, non-destructive, non-invasive, in-situ, and ex-situ, and their sometimes-misleading origins - Includes real-world examples that demonstrate how each technique is used in the field - Highlights the complementary use of different analytical techniques in fully interpreting the data

Irradiance caching is a ray tracing-based technique for computing global illumination on diffuse surfaces. Specifically, it addresses the computation of indirect illumination bouncing off one diffuse object onto another. The sole purpose of irradiance caching is to make this computation reasonably fast. The main idea is to perform the indirect illumination sampling only at a selected set of locations in the scene, store the results in a cache, and reuse the cached value at other points through fast interpolation. This book is for anyone interested in making a production-ready implementation of irradiance caching that reliably renders artifact-free images. Since its invention 20 years ago, the irradiance caching algorithm has been successfully used to accelerate global illumination computation in the Radiance lighting simulation system. Its widespread use had to wait until computers became fast enough to consider global illumination in film production rendering. Since then, its use is ubiquitous. Virtually all commercial and open-source rendering software base the global illumination computation upon irradiance caching. Although elegant and powerful, the algorithm in its basic form often fails to produce artifact-free mages. Unfortunately, practical information on implementing the algorithm is scarce. The main objective of this book is to show the irradiance caching algorithm along with all the details and tricks upon which the success of its practical implementation is dependent. In addition, we discuss some extensions of the basic algorithm, such as a GPU implementation for interactive global illumination computation and temporal caching that exploits temporal coherence to suppress flickering in animations. Our goal is to show the material without being overly theoretical. However, the reader should have some basic understanding of rendering concepts, ray tracing in particular. Familiarity with global illumination is useful but not necessary to read this book. Table of Contents: Introduction to Ray Tracing and Global Illumination / Irradiance Caching Core / Practical Rendering with Irradiance Caching / Irradiance Caching in a Complete Global Illumination / Irradiance Caching on Graphics Hardware / Temporal Irradiance Caching

Highly praised in its first three editions, Cornea has become a market-leading cornerstone text and the immediate go-to resource for anyone working in this hugely popular and evolving sub-specialty. Offered over two volumes and featuring the knowledge of over 200 experts worldwide, it presents state-of-the-art coverage of the expanding range of contemporary corneal surgery, new diagnostic technology, and medical management of corneal and external disease as well as ocular surface disease. This updated edition includes 20 brand-new chapters, while an enhanced focus on images provides key visual guidance in this challenging field. Exceptionally clear illustrations, diagnostic images, and step-by-step surgical photographs offer superb visual guidance. Expert Consult eBook version included with purchase. This enhanced eBook experience allows you to search all of the text, figures, images, videos, and references from the book on a variety of devices. 20 brand-new chapters cover the latest advances in the field, such as DMEK, Ultra-Thin DSEK and DSAEK techniques; endothelial cell transplantation; keratoplasty and prosthokeratoplasty techniques; collagen cross-linking; and new refractive surgical techniques (presbyopic implants and SMILE surgery). 60 video clips on Expert Consult show new footage of the latest corneal surgery techniques, including Boston Keratoprosthesis, corneal inlay surgery, and lenticule extraction. Boasts over 170 chapters with unique, cutting-edge content, as well as 2,300 clear illustrations – 670 of which are new to this edition. Presents a detailed exposition of the growing number of techniques for lamellar keratoplasty, including outcomes. Includes new sections on the latest developments in the management of ocular surface disease. Key point overviews in each chapter offer easier access to crucial information.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Information and Software Technologies, ICIST 2016, held in Druskininkai, Lithuania, in October 2016. The 61 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 158 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on information systems; business intelligence for information and software systems; software engineering; information technology applications.

The Pritzker laureate Renzo Piano is recognized worldwide as one of the most renowned architects of our time. Central elements of his aesthetics include the playful use of natural light, the transparency of his buildings and their fine detailing. This publication documents nine museum buildings by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.