Master the art of creating impressive and reactive UIs for mobile applications on the latest version of Android Oreo. About This Book A comprehensive guide to designing and developing highly interactive user interfaces for your app. Design responsive and agile applications targeting multiple Android devices (up to Android Oreo) using Android Studio 3.0 Write reactive user interfaces with minimal effort by leveraging the latest Android technologies, such as Architecture components and the Lifecycle API Avoid common design problems and pitfalls with the help of shared UI design patterns and best practices. Who This Book Is For This book is for novice Android and Java developers who have a basic knowledge of Android development and want to start developing stunning user interfaces. What You Will Learn Create effective and efficient user interfaces that allow users to carry out tasks smoothly Understand the fundamentals of Android UI design, and take a look at the basic layouts, Inputs, and controls Learn about various UI components provided by Android, which include structured layout objects and UI controls that allow you to build the graphical user interface for your app Explore various styles and themes that allow you to customize the look and feel of your app Leverage the animation and graphics APIs to improve user experience and draw custom 2D graphics In Detail A great user interface (UI) can spell the difference between success and failure for any new application. This book will show you not just how to code great UIs, but how to design them as well. It will take novice Android developers on a journey, showing them how to leverage the Android platform to produce stunning Android applications. Begin with the basics of creating Android applications and then move on to topics such as screen and layout design. Next, learn about techniques that will help improve performance for your application. Also, explore how to create reactive applications that are fast, animated, and guide the user toward their goals with minimal distraction. Understand Android architecture components and learn how to build your application to automatically respond to changes made by the user. Great platforms are not always enough, so this book also focuses on creating custom components, layout managers, and 2D graphics. Also, explore many tips and best practices to ease your UI development process. By the end, you'll be able to design and build not only amazing UIs, but also systems that provide the best possible user experience. Style and approach This book takes an easy tutorial approach to help you learn how to create consistent and efficient user interfaces for your apps. The book first takes you through the basics of user interfaces such as basic layouts, inputs, and controls, and also covers animations and graphics. By the end of the book, you will have learned best practices and will be able to develop inspired interfaces that look good and also work subtly in the background.

Master a series of performance-enhancing coding techniques and methods that help them improve the performance of their Unity3D applications About This Book Discover features and techniques to optimize Unity Engine's CPU cycles, memory usage, and the GPU throughput of any application Explore multiple techniques to solve performance issues with your VR projects Learn the best practices for project organization to save time through an improved workflow Who This Book Is For This book is intended for intermediate and advanced Unity developers who have experience with most of Unity's feature-set, and who want to maximize the performance of their game. Familiarity with the C# language will be needed. What You Will Learn Use the Unity Profiler to find bottlenecks anywhere in your application, and discover how to resolve them Implement best practices for C# scripting to avoid common pitfalls Develop a solid understanding of the rendering pipeline, and maximize its performance by reducing draw calls and avoiding fill rate bottlenecks Enhance shaders in a way that is accessible to most developers, optimizing them through subtle yet effective performance tweaks Keep your scenes as dynamic as possible by making the most of the Physics engine Organize, filter, and compress your art assets to maximize performance while maintaining high quality Discover different kinds of performance problems that are critical for VR projects and how to tackle them Use the Mono Framework and C# to implement low-level enhancements that maximize memory usage and avoid garbage collection Get to know the best practices for project organization to save time through an improved workflow In Detail Unity is an awesome game development engine. Through its massive feature-set and ease-of-use, Unity helps put some of the best processing and rendering technology in the hands of hobbyists and professionals alike. This book shows you how to make your games fly with the recent version of Unity 2017, and demonstrates that high performance does not need to be limited to games with the biggest teams and budgets. Since nothing turns gamers away from a game faster than a poor user-experience, the book starts by explaining how to use the Unity Profiler to detect problems. You will learn how to use stopwatches, timers and logging methods to diagnose the problem. You will then explore techniques to improve performance through better programming practices. Moving on, you will then learn about Unity's built-in batching processes; when they can be used to improve performance, and their limitations. Next, you will import your art assets using minimal space, CPU and memory at runtime, and discover some underused features and approaches for managing asset data. You will also improve graphics, particle system and shader performance with a series of tips and tricks to make the most of GPU parallel processing. You will then delve into the fundamental layers of the Unity3D engine to discuss some issues that may be difficult to understand without a strong knowledge of its inner-workings. The book also introduces you to the critical performance problems for VR projects and how to tackle them. By the end of the book, you will have learned to improve the development workflow by properly organizing assets and ways to instantiate assets as quickly and waste-free as possible via object pooling. Style and approach This practical book will help readers understand the essentials of the Unity3D engine and how to build games while improving the performance of their applications.

A comprehensive and accessible handbook providing vital information for sufferers of low blood sugar, this is an ideal reference guide and essential first step for those who want to understand and treat their symptoms naturally. Includes 60 delicious recipes to prove that sufferers don’t have to miss out! An increasing number of people are being diagnosed with low blood sugar due to today’s high-pressure lifestyles and the predominance of over-processed foods in our diet- and the number of sufferers is set to rise. This is an essential up-to-date reference guide to low blood sugar, detailing everything that sufferers need to know about their condition and how to treat it. A complete guide to how to treat low blood sugar, this book reviews all the latest research on subjects such as insulin resistance, syndrome X and the role of the adrenal and thyroid hormones, as well as providing information about all the complementary and orthodox treatments available. The book explains what low blood sugar is and what causes it, and lists the symptoms of the condition making it easy to spot. The easy-to-follow nutritional plan is accompanied by 60 delicious recipes that prove sufferers can still enjoy their food while keeping low blood sugar under control. A comprehensive resources section reviews appropriate supplements, websites and suppliers. Ideal for anyone who wants to prevent low blood sugar, as well as for anyone already suffering from this condition.

Consumer guide to what’s best in complementary health, from products to therapies. Susan Clark is the UK’s most trusted consumer watchdog. For all those people who are forever cutting out snippets from newspapers and magazines and for those who are confused by just how much information on supplements and therapies is thrown at them in the media, this book will be a godsend. This wide ranging guide covers What Really Works across the entire mind, body, spirit area: ? Part 1 contains 5 chapters which are the building blocks for optimum health 1) Food: what to eat and when to eat it 2) Air: how to breathe and effects of pollution 3) Water: how much we need and why what comes out of our taps could be harmful 4) Sunlight – its benefits 5) Exercise ? Part 2: is a top to toe look at natural remedies for 80 everyday complaints ? Part 3: called Hands-on, lists 30 of the best complementary therapies ? Part 4: called Soulworks looks at spiritual-based therapies and practices – from shamanism to meditation ? Part 5 is a Time Out guide to spas, retreats, therapists – everything from yoga holidays to flotation tanks ? The biggest resources section of any book on the market today makes this book invaluable to the public In each case the book is thoroughly referenced to show you where to go, what brand to choose, which practitioner is best internationally.

A book which offers fresh perspectives on the scientific developments of the past hundred years through the complementary work of two of the century’s greatest thinkers, Einstein and Freud. At the turn of the century there was a widespread assumption in scientific circles that the pursuit of knowledge was nearing its end and that all available evidence had been exhausted. However, by 1916 both Einstein and Freud had exploded the myth by leading exploration into the science of the invisible and the unconscious. These men were more than just contemporaries – their separate pursuits were in fact complementary. Freud’s science of psychoanalysis found its cosmological counterpart in the Astronomy of Invisible Light pioneered by Einstein. Together they questioned the little inconsistencies of Newton’s ordered cosmos to reveal a different reality, a natural order that was anything but ordered, a cosmos that was volatile and vast – an organism alive in time. These men inspired a fundamental shift in the history of human thought. They began a revolution that is still in progress and provided one of the past century’s greatest contributions to the history of science.

Ever faced a crowd of fifteen 5-year olds and quaked? Well, here is your chance to bring order and calm to the party proceedings. Just consult your Gem and you can prepare for those half forgotten games such as Musical Bumps, Simon Says and Blind Man’s Buff. Collins Gem Children’s Party Games provides clear advice and instructions on the most popular family and party games. It is an invaluable guide for organizing children’s and family parties, for wet weekends, Christmas family holidays as well as train or car journeys. The clear instructions also include: Number and age of participants How long the game lasts What equipment is required How to prepare for the game For hours of family games and entertainment look no further than this Gem.

In this remarkable, landmark publication, countryman Sir Johnny Scott evokes all that is romantic about the British countryside, its people, customs and traditions. Over its 600 gloriously illustrated pages, Johnny draws on his wisdom and knowledge to reveal a forgotten culture, and encourages us all to rediscover a beautiful Britain. “I always think of nightingales when spring arrives in the south of England and winter is still reluctant to release its grip north of the Border. I heard my first as a very small child while staying with my grandparents on the Ashdown Forest. My sister woke me one night with an excited whisper, 'A nightingale! You must listen to the nightingale sing!' Together we sat on the window seat, gazing across moonlit lawns towards the forest. At that moment, as if nature had not already done enough to impress, the most wonderful sound I had ever heard filled the silence, as the nightingale started to sing. A rapid succession of varied, unconstructed notes, some harsh, some liquid, sung with great exuberance and vigour, changed to a long, slow, pleading song that rose in volume to a sudden piteous crescendo, before reverting to a tune of jollity and mirth. In my mind's eye I saw it erect and glowing, somewhere in the darkness among the oak trees, but no amount of searching that morning produced a single golden feather.” Throughout the pages of A Book of Britain, Johnny Scott celebrates the landscape and people and reveals why, through centuries of careful management, conservation and cultivation, Britain looks as it does. We discover Royal forests and protected oaks; learn animal behaviour and how best to observe wildlife whether on the moors or in your garden; we learn about traditional country sports from familiar hobbies such as fishing and shooting to lesser-known activities such as “swan upping”. Johnny teaches us to look to animals and nature to predict the weather, and reveals many customs and traditions that are in danger of being lost. This book is a gift in every sense – not only in its sheer scope and presence, but in the rich legacy it will leave behind for future generations.

The imperative to 'know thyself' is both fundamental and profoundly elusive – for how can we ever truly comprehend the drama and complexity of the human experience? In ‘Why Us?’ James Le Fanu offers a fascinating exploration of the power and limits of science to penetrate the deep mysteries of our existence, challenging the certainty that has persisted since Charles Darwin's Origin of Species that we are no more than the fortuitous consequence of a materialist evolutionary process. That challenge arises, unexpectedly, from the two major projects that promised to provide definitive proof for this most influential of scientific theories. The first is the astonishing achievement of the Human Genome Project, which, it was anticipated, would identify the genetic basis of those characteristics that distinguish humans from their primate cousins. The second is the phenomenal advance in brain imaging that now permits neuroscientists to observe the brain 'in action' and thus account for the remarkable properties of the human mind. But that is not how it has turned out. It is simply not possible to get from the monotonous sequence of genes along the Double Helix to the near infinite diversity of the living world, nor to translate the electrical firing of the brain into the creativity of the human mind. This is not a matter of not knowing all the facts. Rather, science has inadvertently discovered that its theories are insufficient to conjure the wonder of the human experience from the bare bones of our genes and brains. We stand on the brink of a tectonic shift in our understanding of ourselves that will witness the rediscovery of the central premise of Western philosophy that there is 'more than we can know'. Lucid, compelling and utterly engaging, ‘Why Us?’ offers a convincing and provocative vision of the new science of being human.

Mariano Sigman, a physicist by training, is an international leading figure in the cognitive neuroscience of learning and decision making. He is the founder of the Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Buenos Aires. Sigman is the only Latin American scientist to be a director of the Human Brain Project, was awarded a Human Frontiers Career Development Award, the National Prize of Pphysics, the Young Investigator Prize of "College de France," the IBM Scalable Data Analytics Award, and is a scholar of the James S. McDonnell Foundation.

Elizabeth Warren is the senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. A former Harvard Law School professor, she is the author of ten books, including A Fighting Chance, a national bestseller that received widespread critical acclaim. One of nation’s most influential progressives, she has long been a champion of working families and the middle class. The mother of two and grandmother of three, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband, Bruce Mann.

Peter Godfrey-Smith is a distinguished professor of history and the philosophy of science at the University of Sydney. He is the author of four books, including Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection, which won the 2010 Lakatos Award for an outstanding work on the philosophy of science. His underwater videos of octopuses have been featured in National Geographic and New Scientist.

John Gribbin gained a PhD from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge (then under the leadership of Fred Hoyle), before working as a science journalist for Nature and later New Scientist. Mary Gribbin is a teacher with a special gift for communicating difficult concepts, and she is a previous winner of the TES Junior Information Book Award. They have co-written several titles for adults and children. John has written many bestselling popular science books, including Erwin Schr?dinger and the Quantum Revolution, In Search of the Multiverse and The Universe: A Biography. John and Mary are both Visiting Fellows at the University of Sussex.

Chris van Tulleken trained in medicine in Oxford and is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians. He has a diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School of Tropical Medicine and after more than a decade working in the NHS he is now doing a PhD in Molecular Virology under the supervision of Greg Towers at UCL. Xand van Tulleken has a diploma in Tropical Medicine, a Diploma in International Humanitarian Assistance and a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is a contributing editor to the first edition of the Oxford Handbook of Humanitarian Medicine and has worked for Doctors of the World, Merlin and the World Health Organisation in humanitarian crises around the world. Chris and Xand have worked on a number of projects together, including Operation Ouch!, a 2x BAFTA-winning children’s health show on CBBC. Additionally, the two have collaborated on Horizon: Fat vs Sugar, Horizon: Is Binge Drinking Really That Bad for You?, The Secret Life of Twins and Operation Ouch: Blow Your Mind. And in their younger and slightly fuller-haired days, Chris and Xand starred in a series called Medicine Men Go Wild, a show in which they did, in fact, go wild. Andrew Cohen is Head of the BBC Science Unit and the Executive Producer of the BBC series Secrets of the Human Body. He has been responsible for a wide range of science documentaries including Horizon, the Wonders trilogy, Stargazing Live and Human Universe. He lives in London with his wife and three children.

The editor, Anthony Storr, is a doctor, psychiatrist and analyst (trained in the school of C.G.) and author of 'Jung' (a Fontana Modern Master,1973) amongst many others.

Angela Saini is an award-winning science journalist, author and broadcaster.

Tony Juniper is the Executive Director of Friends of the Earth and co-author of the award-winning PARROTS. He lives in Cambridge, and campaigns in the UK and worldwide on a broad range of environmental issues.

Benjamin Woolley is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. He is the author of the best-selling The Queen's Conjuror: The Life and Magic of Dr John Dee. His first book, Virtual Worlds was short-listed for the Rhone-Poulenc prize and has been translated into eight languages. His second, 'The Bride of Science', examined the life of Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter. He has written and presented documentaries for the BBC on subjects ranging from the fight for liberty during the English Civil War to the end of the Space Age. He has won the Arts Journalist of the Year award and an Emmy for his commentary for Discovery's 'Three Minutes to Impact'. He lives in London.

J P McEvoy was born in the USA. He has published over 50 papers on his specialist subject, superconductivity. He has been involved in improving public understanding of science for many years. He wrote the TV series Eureka, describing great moments in science from Archimedes to the present. In addition to journalism and radio broadcasting, he has written two guides in the ‘Begginers’ series for Icon Books.

Jonathan Rutherford teaches Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Middlesex. A former community worker and journalist, he contributes regularly to the Guardian and Cosmopolitan.

Nick Ashton has been a curator at the British Museum for over 30 years, specialising in Lower and Middle Palaeolithic archaeology. He helps curate the extensive stone tool collections from these periods and has directed and published major excavation projects at the Lower Palaeolithic sites of High Lodge, Barnham, Elveden and Hoxne (all in Suffolk). He is currently Co-Director of the Pathways to Ancient Britain Project funded by the Calleva Foundation. His work focuses on the earliest occupation of northern Europe, currently being investigated through fieldwork at Happisburgh (Norfolk), the early human adaptation to northern environments and the investigation of when Britain first became an island.

If you’re gonna break the rules, break ‘em good.