The dangers inherent in the financial system make understanding risk management essential for anyone working in, or planning to work in, the financial sector. A practical resource for financial professionals and students alike, Risk Management and Financial Institutions, Fourth Edition explains all aspects of financial risk as well as the way financial institutions are regulated, to help readers better understand financial markets and potential dangers. Fully revised and updated, this new edition features coverage of new regulatory issues, liquidity risk, and stress testing. In addition, end-of-chapter practice problems and a website featuring supplemental materials designed to provide a more comprehensive learning experience make this the ultimate learning resource. Written by acclaimed risk management expert, John Hull, Risk Management and Financial Institutions is the only book you need to understand — and respond to financial risk. The new edition of the financial risk management bestseller describes the activities of different types of financial institutions, explains how they are regulated, and covers market risk, credit risk, operational risk, liquidity risk, and model riskFeatures new coverage of new regulatory issues, liquidity risk, and stress testingProvides readers with access to a supplementary website offering software and unique learning aidsAuthor John Hull is one of the most respected authorities on financial risk management. A timely update to the definitive resource on risk in the financial system, Risk Management and Financial Institutions + Website, Fourth Edition is an indispensable resource from internationally renowned expert John Hull.

«Get a handle on the digital currency revolution, and learn how to get on board «The Bitcoin Big Bang» is a guide to navigating the uncharted territory of digital currency. Written by CNBC contributor Brian Kelly, this book goes beyond Bitcoin 101 to explain how this transformative technology is about to change the world. Digital currency is thrown into perspective against the history of payment systems and its own evolution, as readers are invited to explore the ways in which this technology is already changing the way business gets done. Readers gain insight into the mechanisms behind Bitcoin, and an expert perspective on digital currency's effect on the future of money and the economic implications of the Bitcoin revolution. In the same way that e-mail changed the way we transfer information, the decentralized Bitcoin network is about to revolutionize the business world, the legal profession, and even the role of the government. «The Bitcoin Big Bang» dives head first into this paradigm shift, allowing readers to: Explore the origins of digital currency Learn the history and evolution of payment systems Discover how the Bitcoin network is facilitating free and instant transfer of value Understand the mining of Bitcoin, and how to invest The digital currency revolution has implications that spread far beyond the finance industry. Anyone who exchanges payment for goods and services is on the cusp of the next big push in societal evolution, and only an understanding of the technology and a clear knowledge of the systems and behaviors at play can fully prepare us for the changes to come. «The Bitcoin Big Bang» is the go-to guide, helping those who use money use it better.»

This book provides readers with a solid introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of Kalman filtering. It has been updated with the latest developments in the implementation and application of Kalman filtering, including adaptations for nonlinear filtering, global navigation and satellite systems, the error modeling of gyros and accelerometers, inertial navigation systems, and freeway traffic control. In addition, it shares original methods for designing, implementing, validating, and improving Kalman filters.

Flowing through the heart of the North China Plain home to 200 million people the Yellow River sustains one of China s core regions. Yet this vital water supply has become highly vulnerable in recent decades, with potentially serious repercussions for China s economic, social, and political stability. The Yellow River is an investigative expedition to the source of China s contemporary water crisis, mapping the confluence of forces that have shaped the predicament that the world s most populous nation now faces in managing its water reserves. Chinese governments have long struggled to maintain ecological stability along the Yellow River, undertaking ambitious programs of canal and dike construction to mitigate the effects of recurrent droughts and floods. But particularly during the Maoist years the North China Plain was radically re-engineered to utilize every drop of water for irrigation and hydroelectric generation. As David A. Pietz shows, Maoist water management from 1949 to 1976 cast a long shadow over the reform period, beginning in 1978. Rapid urban growth, industrial expansion, and agricultural intensification over the past three decades of China s economic boom have been realized on a water resource base that was acutely compromised, with effects that have been more difficult and costly to overcome with each passing decade. Chronicling this complex legacy, The Yellow River provides important insight into how water challenges will affect China s course as a twenty-first-century global power.

The past twenty-five years have witnessed a revolution in the science of addiction, yet we still rely upon sorely outdated methods of treatment. Expensive new programs for managing addiction are also flourishing, but since they are not based in science, they offer little benefit to people who cannot afford to lose money or faith in their recovery. Clarifying the cutting-edge science of addiction for practitioners and general readers, The Thirteenth Step pairs stories of real patients with explanations of key concepts relating to their illness. A police chief who disappears on the job illustrates the process through which a drug can trigger the brain circuits mediating relapse. One person's effort to find a burrito shack in a foreign city illuminates the reward prediction error signaled by the brain chemical dopamine. With these examples and more, this volume paints a vivid, relatable portrait of drug seeking, escalation, and other aspects of addiction and suggests science-based treatments that promise to improve troubling relapse rates. Merging science and human experience, The Thirteenth Step offers compassionate, valuable answers to anyone who hopes for a better handle on a pernicious and confounding disease.

As oil insecurity deepens, the extraction risks of fossil fuels rise, and concerns about climate instability cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new world energy economy is emerging. The old economy, fueled by oil, natural gas, and coal is being replaced with one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The Great Transition details the accelerating pace of this global energy revolution. As many countries become less enamored with coal and nuclear power, they are embracing an array of clean, renewable energies. Whereas solar energy projects were once small-scale, largely designed for residential use, energy investors are now building utility-scale solar projects. Strides are being made: some of the huge wind farm complexes under construction in China will each produce as much electricity as several nuclear power plants, and an electrified transport system supplemented by the use of bicycles could reshape the way we think about mobility.

In The Genealogy of a Gene, Myles Jackson uses the story of the CCR5 gene to investigate the interrelationships among science, technology, and society. Mapping the varied genealogy of CCR5 — intellectual property, natural selection, Big and Small Pharma, human diversity studies, personalized medicine, ancestry studies, and race and genomics — Jackson links a myriad of diverse topics. The history of CCR5 from the 1990s to the present offers a vivid illustration of how intellectual property law has changed the conduct and content of scientific knowledge, and the social, political, and ethical implications of such a transformation. The CCR5 gene began as a small sequence of DNA, became a patented product of a corporation, and then, when it was found to be an AIDS virus co-receptor with a key role in the immune system, it became part of the biomedical research world — and a potential moneymaker for the pharmaceutical industry. When it was further discovered that a mutation of the gene found in certain populations conferred near-immunity to the AIDS virus, questions about race and genetics arose. Jackson describes these developments in the context of larger issues, including the rise of biocapitalism, the patentability of products of nature, the difference between U.S. and European patenting approaches, and the relevance of race and ethnicity to medical research.

The change is both unexpected and so fundamental in nature that it represents a true shift in the energy macro and micro economic landscape. The book is divided into three parts: 1) The first part sets the stage and outlines the current state of the energy markets as well as touching on some key developments and changes. 2) Strategies on how investors may profit from current and future developments are set out in the second part of the book, which sets out ten key pillars of a successful energy investment strategy. 3) The third part of the book will briefly outline the historical journey of the energy markets, putting into perspective the recent changes and drawing parallels between shifts and changes in the past. It will also include supporting information that will provide an explanation of key technologies that are driving the change and that are crucial for analysts and investors to understand.

Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal behavior silently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and Internet use. The data compiled and portraits created are incredibly detailed, to the point of being invasive. But who connects the dots about what firms are doing with this information? The Black Box Society argues that we all need to be able to do so and to set limits on how big data affects our lives. Hidden algorithms can make (or ruin) reputations, decide the destiny of entrepreneurs, or even devastate an entire economy. Shrouded in secrecy and complexity, decisions at major Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms were long assumed to be neutral and technical. But leaks, whistleblowers, and legal disputes have shed new light on automated judgment. Self-serving and reckless behavior is surprisingly common, and easy to hide in code protected by legal and real secrecy. Even after billions of dollars of fines have been levied, underfunded regulators may have only scratched the surface of this troubling behavior. Frank Pasquale exposes how powerful interests abuse secrecy for profit and explains ways to rein them in. Demanding transparency is only the first step. An intelligible society would assure that key decisions of its most important firms are fair, nondiscriminatory, and open to criticism. Silicon Valley and Wall Street need to accept as much accountability as they impose on others.

Human beings evolved in the company of others and flourish in proportion to their positive social ties. To understand the human brain, we must situate its biology in the wider context of society. To understand society, we must also consider how the brains and minds of individuals shape interactions with other human beings. Social Neuroscience offers a comprehensive new framework for studying the brain, human development, and human behavior. In this book, leading researchers in the fields of neurobiology, psychiatry, psychology, and sociology elucidate the connections between brain biology and the brain s functioning in the social world, providing a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary explanation of how humans think and act, as well as the ways we define and treat pathological behavior. Synthesizing the insights and perspectives of these experts, Social Neuroscience examines how neural processes make the brain sensitive to social experience, how cognition shapes social behavior, and how social networks create a range of responses among different individuals to the same environmental stimuli. The mutually reinforcing connections between brain, mind, and society have profound implications for human health, from the emotionally damaging effects of severe social deprivation to the neurological impact of parental abuse and neighborhood violence. The authors explore these connections, with special focus on mental illnesses, including schizophrenia a disorder characterized by marked social deficits in which a neurological basis is now well established.

In the development of any new energy project, alternative schemes that meet overall project goals are usually feasible. Like any others, renewable energy and energy efficiency schemes must be evaluated against a range of criteria in order to select the most appropriate for development. Appraisal of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Projects deals with such evaluations, illustrating appraisal against economic and financial measures as well as non-economic measures. The most important technologies are first described, stressing the economic and performance characteristics which influence project performance. A short description of the operation of common energy markets is also included, so that projects can be put into context and cash flows estimated. Key project appraisal concepts are then introduced, approaches to modelling the cash flows in energy projects are described, and the issues of uncertainty and optimisation are fully discussed. All aspects illustrated with a number of current case studies.

«The Chernobyl disaster has been variously ascribed to human error, reactor design flaws, and industry mismanagement. Six former Chernobyl employees were convicted of criminal negligence; they defended themselves by pointing to reactor design issues. Other observers blamed the Soviet style of ideologically driven economic and industrial management. In Producing Power, Sonja Schmid draws on interviews with veterans of the Soviet nuclear industry and extensive research in Russian archives as she examines these alternate accounts. Rather than pursue one «definitive» explanation, she investigates how each of these narratives makes sense in its own way and demonstrates that each implies adherence to a particular set of ideas — about high-risk technologies, human-machine interactions, organizational methods for ensuring safety and productivity, and even about the legitimacy of the Soviet state. She also shows how these attitudes shaped, and were shaped by, the Soviet nuclear industry from its very beginnings. Schmid explains that Soviet experts established nuclear power as a driving force of social, not just technical, progress. She examines the Soviet nuclear industry's dual origins in weapons and electrification programs, and she traces the emergence of nuclear power experts as a professional community. Schmid also fundamentally reassesses the design choices for nuclear power reactors in the shadow of the Cold War's arms race. Schmid's account helps us understand how and why a complex sociotechnical system broke down. Chernobyl, while unique and specific to the Soviet experience, can also provide valuable lessons for contemporary nuclear projects.»

Generations of student writers have been subjected to usage handbooks that proclaim, This is the correct form. Learn it — books that lay out a grammar, but don't inspire students to use it. By contrast, this antihandbook handbook, presenting some three hundred sentences drawn from the printed works of a single, typical day in the life of the language — December 29, 2008 — tries to persuade readers that good grammar and usage matter. Using real-world sentences rather than invented ones, One Day in the Life of the English Language gives students the motivation to apply grammatical principles correctly and efficiently. Frank Cioffi argues that proper form undergirds effective communication and ultimately even makes society work more smoothly, while nonstandard English often marginalizes or stigmatizes a writer. He emphasizes the evolving nature of English usage and debunks some cherished but flawed grammar precepts. Is it acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition? It is. Can you start a sentence with a conjunction? You can. OK to split an infinitive? No problem. A grammar and usage handbook like no other, One Day in the Life of the English Language features accessible chapters divided into Fundamentals, Fine Tuning, and Deep Focus, allowing readers to select a level most suited to their needs. It also includes a glossary, a teachers' guide, and a section refuting some myths about digital-age English.

Noise, as we usually think of it, is background sound that interferes with our ability to hear more interesting sounds. In general terms, though, it is anything that interferes with the reception of signals of any sort. It includes extraneous energy in the environment, degradation of signals in transit, and spontaneous random activity in receivers and signalers. Whatever the cause, the consequence of noise is error by receivers, and these errors are the key to understanding how noise shapes the evolution of communication. Noise Matters breaks new ground in the scientific understanding of how communication evolves in the presence of noise. Combining insights of signal detection theory with evidence from decades of his own original research, Haven Wiley explains the profound effects of noise on the evolution of communication. The coevolution of signalers and receivers does not result in ideal, noise-free communication, Wiley finds. Instead, signalers and receivers evolve to a joint equilibrium in which communication is effective but never error-free. Noise is inescapable in the evolution of communication. Wiley s comprehensive approach considers communication on many different levels of biological organization, from cells to individual organisms, including humans. Social interactions, such as honesty, mate choice, and cooperation, are reassessed in the light of noisy communication. The final sections demonstrate that noise even affects how we think about human language, science, subjectivity, and freedom. Noise Matters thus contributes to understanding the behavior of animals, including ourselves.

Developmental robotics is a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to robotics that is directly inspired by the developmental principles and mechanisms observed in children's cognitive development. It builds on the idea that the robot, using a set of intrinsic developmental principles regulating the real-time interaction of its body, brain, and environment, can autonomously acquire an increasingly complex set of sensorimotor and mental capabilities. This volume, drawing on insights from psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and robotics, offers the first comprehensive overview of a rapidly growing field. After providing some essential background information on robotics and developmental psychology, the book looks in detail at how developmental robotics models and experiments have attempted to realize a range of behavioral and cognitive capabilities. The examples in these chapters were chosen because of their direct correspondence with specific issues in child psychology research; each chapter begins with a concise and accessible overview of relevant empirical and theoretical findings in developmental psychology. The chapters cover intrinsic motivation and curiosity; motor development, examining both manipulation and locomotion; perceptual development, including face recognition and perception of space; social learning, emphasizing such phenomena as joint attention and cooperation; language, from phonetic babbling to syntactic processing; and abstract knowledge, including models of number learning and reasoning strategies. Boxed text offers technical and methodological details for both psychology and robotics experiments.

This volume is the first of two to illuminate the buildings of the northeast of Scotland. It covers not only Aberdeenshire's historic districts of Formartine, Buchan, and Banff but also the whole of Moray. Picturesque former fishing villages cling to the rugged coastline, while the inland rivers support some of the most famous whisky distilleries in Scotland. Also included are examples of the finest medieval ecclesiastical architecture, notably the ruins of Elgin Cathedral, major country houses such as Brodie Castle and Duff House, as well as the churches and public buildings of the numerous planned settlements, villages and major towns.

From John Muir to the Endangered Species Act, environmentalism in America has always had close to its core a preservationist ideal. Generations have been inspired by its ethos-to protect nature from the march of human development. But we have to face the facts. Accelerating climate change, rapid urbanization, agricultural and industrial devastation, metastasizing fire regimes, and other quickening anthropogenic forces all attest to the same truth: the earth is now spinning through the age of humans. After Preservation takes stock of the ways we have tried to both preserve and exploit nature to ask a direct but profound question: what is the role of preservationism in an era of seemingly unstoppable human development, in what some have called the Anthropocene? Ben A. Minteer and Stephen J. Pyne bring together a stunning consortium of voices comprised of renowned scientists, historians, philosophers, environmental writers, activists, policy makers, and land managers to negotiate the incredible challenges that environmentalism faces. Some call for a new, post-preservationist model, one that is far more pragmatic and human-centered. Others push back, arguing for a more chastened vision of human action on the earth. Some try to establish a middle ground, while others ruminate more deeply on the meaning and value of wilderness. Some write on species lost, others on species saved, and yet others discuss the enduring practical challenges of managing our land, water, and air. From spirited optimism to careful prudence to critical skepticism, the resulting range of approaches offers an inspiring contribution to the landscape of modern environmentalism, one driven by serious, sustained engagements with the critical problems we must solve if the planet is going to survive the era we have ushered in.

To some, food allergies seem like fabricated cries for attention. For others, they pose a dangerous health threat. Food allergies are bound up with so many personal and ideological concerns that it is difficult to determine what is medical and what is myth. This book parses the political, economic, cultural, and genuine health factors of a phenomenon that now dominates our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. Surveying the history of food allergy from ancient times to the present, Another Person's Poison also gives readers a clear grasp of new medical findings on allergies and what they say about our environment, our immune system, and the nature of the food we consume. For most of the twentieth century, food allergies were considered a fad or junk science. While many physicians and clinicians argued that certain foods could cause a range of chronic problems, from asthma and eczema to migraines and hyperactivity, others believed that allergies were psychosomatic. Another Person's Poison traces the trajectory of this debate and its effect on public-health policy and the production, manufacture, and consumption of food. Are rising allergy rates purely the result of effective lobbying and a booming industry built on self-diagnosis and expensive remedies? Or should physicians become more flexible in their approach to food allergies and more careful in their diagnoses? Exploring the issue from scientific, political, economic, social, and patient-centered perspectives, this book is the first to engage fully with the history of what is now a major modern affliction, illuminating society's troubled relationship with food, disease, and the creation of medical knowledge.

This book discusses energy efficiency in large-scale systems. It provides an overview of current energy-reducing technologies and the energy consumption method, addressing topics such as cloud computing, high-performance computing, networks and more. The book begins with an introduction to energy demands in ICT. It then covers topics like green wired/wireless networks, mobile computing, power modeling, green data centers and high-performance computing, resource allocation and energy efficiency in P2P systems.