Extremes in Nature : An Approach Using Copulas
The study of the statistics of extreme events is an essential first step in the mitigation of natural catastrophies, that often cause severe economic losses worldwide. This book is about the theoretical and practical aspects of the statistics of Extreme Events in Nature. Most importantly, this is the first text in which Copulas are introduced and used in Geophysics. Several topics are fully original, and show how standard models and calculations can be improved by exploiting the opportunities offered by Copulas. In addition, new quantities useful for design and risk assessment are introduced. Practicioners in all research areas of Geosciences and extreme events (including Finance and Insurance, closely related to natural disasters) will definitely benefit from the new Copula-approach outlined in the book.
Extreme Financial Risks : From Dependence to Risk Management
Portfolio analysis and optimization, together with the associated risk assessment and management, require knowledge of the likely distributions of returns at different time scales and insights into the nature and properties of dependences between the different assets. This book offers an original and thorough treatment of these two domains, focusing mainly on the concepts and tools that remain valid for large and extreme price moves. Strong emphasis is placed on the theory of copulas and their empirical testing and calibration, because they offer intrinsic and complete measures of dependences.
Evidence Based Global Health Manual for Preterm Birth Risk Assessment
This book is based on global literature, published international, national and regional guidance and it is structured into six chapters providing: an overview of the domains for risk assessment and the summary recommendations in greater depth maternal demographics and past pregnancy histories, accurate pregnancy dating, and the contribution of infection, nutritional status and substance misuse to preterm birth risk. Each chapter has structured sections which include a) background information, b) an evidence statement highlighting the risk factors covered, and c) practical recommendations for evaluating those risks as well as the evidenced recommended and effective interventions for women deemed to be at risk.
Environmental Security in Harbors and Coastal Areas : Management Using Comparative Risk Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
This book explores the challenges facing coastal areas during the next few decades and the difficult decisions needed to prevent a repeat of the past. Establishing, maintaining or enhancing a sense of environmental security in different coastal regions and improving the management of critical infrastructure will require (i) matching human demands with available environmental resources; (ii) recognition of environmental security threats and infrastructure vulnerabilities; and, (iii) identification of the range of available options for preventing and/or minimizing natural disasters, technological failures, and/or terror actions. This book emphasizes beliefs that the convergence of seemingly disparate viewpoints and often uncertain and limited information is possible only by using one or more available risk assessment methodologies and decision-making tools such as multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA).
Environmental security and environmental management : The role of risk assessment ; Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workhop on The Role of Risk Assessment in Environmental Security and Emergency Preparedness in the Mediterranean Region, held in Eilat, Israel, April 15-18, 2004
The concept of “environmental security” has emerged as one basis for understanding international conflicts. This phrase can mean a variety of things. It can signify security issues stemming from environmental concerns or conflicting needs, or it can mean that the environment is treated as a resource for the long term, and the question is what should be done today to preserve the quality of the environment in the future. In the same way that energy security is about ensuring access to energy for the long run, it can also mean that pressing environmental concerns create a situation where different countries and communities are forced to collaboratively design a unified response, even if cooperation is not generally in the logic of their relations. Over the last several years, the authors of this book and their colleagues have tried to demonstrate the power of risk assessment and decision analysis as valuable tools that decision makers should use for a broad range of environmental problems, including environmental security. Risk analysis is almost more a state of mind or a way of looking at problems than it is a kind of algorithm or a set of recipes. It projects a kind of rationality on problems and forces a certain degree of quantitative rigor, as opposed to the all too common tendency of making environmental recommendations based on anecdotal evidence.
Environmental Risk Assessment : Quantitative Measures, Anthropogenic Influences, Human Impact
The world is a dirty place and getting dirtier all the time. The reasons for this ever-increasing lack of cleanliness are not hard to find, being basically caused by the actions of the six billion people who inhabit the planet. The needs of the people for air, water, food, housing, clothing, heating, materials, oil, gas, minerals, metals, chemicals, and so forth have, over the centuries, given rise to a variety of environmental problems that have been exacerbated or been newly created by the industrialization of the world, the increase in population, and the increase in longevity of the population. The costs of cleaning even fractions of the known environmental problems are truly enormous, as detailed in the volume Environmental Risk Analysis (I. Lerche and E. Paleologos, 2001, McGraw-Hill). The chances of causing new environmental problems, and their associated costs of clean up, are equally challenging in terms of anthropogenic influences and also of the natural environmental problems that can be triggered by humanity.
Environmental Challenges in Civil Engineering II
Rports on findings concerning structural material behavior, and new methods and technologies in constructions. A special emphasis is given to sustainable constructions practices, including material recycling and reuse, renovation and restoration of historical building and to those fostering sustainable development of cities and rural areas, and a better integration of buildings with the environment. Offering a good balance of theory and practice, and covering both technical and organizational aspects in civil engineering and architectural projects, this book offers extensive information on solutions and current challenges in construction projects and structural interventions in the context of environmental protection and earthquake prevention.
Environmental and Health Risk Assessment and Management : Principles and Practices
The book covers the essential aspects of environmental and health law, environmental economics, applied statistical and probabilistic methods, fundamental notions of applied epidemiology and toxicology, as well as decision analysis, to provide an integrated overview of how risk assessment and management combine to produce sound societal outcomes. Risk-based methods play a pivotal role in identifying and ranking alternative, sustainable choices, while accounting for uncertainty and variability. Specifically, most reductions in risks require a balancing of the costs and benefits associated with the action to reduce exposure to a hazard and thus risk. This balancing necessarily involves linking exposure and response through causation. Fundamentally, in risk assessment and management, science and law intersect through legal and scientific causation to the point that the failure to provide a sound causal argument can make an otherwise beneficial law or regulation invalid.
Ecotoxicology, Ecological Risk Assessment and Multiple Stressors
The science of ecotoxicology and the practice of ecological risk assessment are evolving rapidly. Ecotoxicology as a subject area came into prominence in the 1960s after the publication of Rachel Carson's book on the impact of pesticides on the environment. The rise of public and scientific concern for the effects of chemical pollutants on the environment in the 1960s and 1970s led to the development of the discipline of ecotoxicology, a science that takes into account the effects of chemicals in the context of ecology. Until the early 1980s, in spite of public concern and interest among scientists, the assessment of ecological risks associated with natural or synthetic pollutants was not considered a priority issue by most government. However, as the years passed, a better understanding of the importance of ecotoxicology emerged and with it, in some countries, the progressive formalization of an ecological risk assessment process.
Economics: Complex Windows
This volume contains papers that provide an analysis of topics in the following areas: Agent Based Models, Non-linear Time Series Analysis, Financial Market Dynamics, Econo-physics, Deterministic Chaos, Macroeconomic Dynamics. Economics: Complex Windows, does not present contributions to the sterile debate as to the merits of the different grand, or potentially grand paradigms of economics. Rather it offers a balanced collection of methodological advances which can be applied to concrete economic problems. Starting with a presentation of the "complexity approach" to economics, it goes on to provide a collection of applications to areas such as the analysis of market imperfections, risk assessment, non-linear dynamics, forecasting and highly irregular fluctuations. The tools used help to provide a clearer understanding and a more accurate analysis of these areas of economics. They also highlight the gulf which exists between current economic theory and real economic practice. The basic idea is to encourage economic researchers to embrace a more open and pragmatic approach to economics rather than to reluctantly move in this direction as if it were somehow a betrayal of established dogma. We hope, in this way, to open up avenues which will lead to progress beyond the "holy trinity", (rationality, equilibrium and greed) of modern economics.
Ecological risks associated with the destruction of chemical weapons ; Proceedings of the NATO ARW on ecological risks associated with the destruction of chemical weapons, Lüneburg, Germany, from 22-26 October 2003
Chemical Weapons Convention after the First Review Conference -- Implementation of Russia’s Obligation to Destroy chemical Weapons in the Udmurt Republic -- The CWC after the Review Conference . Prof. Dr. Vladimir Mikhailovitsh Kolodkin , Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Ruck 1 Institute of Natural and Technogenic Disasters, Udmurt State University, Izhevsk (Russia), 2 Institute of Ecology and Environmental Chemistry, University Lüneburg (Germany) During the Cold War a whole arsenal of deadly chemical weapons was allowed to build up on both sides of the ideological divide. Happily, today the problems are reversed. Expertise is now required in the field of safe and environment-friendly disposal of chemical weapons and cleaning up of contaminated sites all around the world, but not least in the ex-Soviet-led countries. In all, there were 57 participants, of which 11 dispatched from the TACIS project “The development of the chemical weapons” facility at the detached plant No 4 of OAO Khimprom, Novocheboksarsk.
Ecological Risk Assessment for Chlorpyrifos in Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems in the United States
Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.
Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Nuclear Risks : Prediction and Assessment Beyond the Fukushima Accident
This book covers seismic probabilistic risk assessment (S-PRA) and related studies which have become more important to increase the safety of nuclear facilities against earthquakes and tsunamis in the face of the many uncertainties after the Fukushima accident. The topics are (1) Active faults and active tectonics important for seismic hazard assessment of nuclear facilities,(2) Seismic source modeling and simulation and modeling techniques indispensable for strong ground motion prediction, and (3) PRA with external hazard and risk communication.
Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering ; 4th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering-Invited Lectures
This book contains the full papers on which the invited lectures of the 4th International Conference on Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering (4ICEGE) were based. It provides a comprehensive overview of the progress achieved to date in soil dynamics and geotechnical earthquake engineering, as well as in engineering seismology and seismic risk assessment and management. In situ and laboratory testing, theoretical issues and numerical modeling of soil dynamics, seismic hazard with emphasis on the long-period ground motion displacements, site effects and microzonation, liquefaction assessment and mitigation, soil-structure interaction, performance based design of geotechnical structures, earthquake resistant design and performance of shallow and deep foundations, retaining structures, embankments and dams, underground structures and lifelines, are all among the different topics covered in this book. Interdisciplinary subjects such as vulnerability assessment of, transportation networks and lifelines as well as of geotechnical structures are also discussed. Finally, the book provides a thorough presentation of the existing worldwide important large-scale testing facilities and geotechnical strong ground motion arrays.
Early Childhood Oral Health
Addresses the biology and epidemiology of caries, the clinical management of early childhood caries, risk assessment, and early diagnosis. Other topics include public health approaches to managing caries worldwide, implementation of new caries prevention programs, fluoride regimens, and community programs, and family oral health education. Brand new are four chapters on the medical management of early childhood caries, considerations for children with special needs, interprofessional education and practice, and how the newest policy issues and the Affordable Care Act affect dental care.
Diagnosis and Treatment Planning in Dentistry ; 3rd ed.
Provides a full-color guide to creating treatment plans based on a comprehensive patient assessment. Using evidence-based research, this book shows how risk assessment, prognosis, and expected treatment outcomes factor into the planning process. New chapters cover patient diagnosis and team-based treatment planning, and a new Evolve website includes videos and decision-making algorithms. Written by experienced dentistry educators Stephen Stefanac and Samuel Nesbit, this book is the only dental resource that combines patient examination and oral diagnosis with treatment planning.
Dental erosion and its clinical management
In this handbook, the most up-to-date theoretical and practical information on dental erosion is distilled into an accessible, practical, and clinically focused format. Topics are covered in a step-by-step, easy-to-understand manner, with tables, checklists, images, flowcharts, and bullet point-like presentation of core messages that is ideal for busy dental practitioners and students. Procedures and products not yet supported with evidence are not included. Besides providing evidence-based guidance on the varied treatment and prevention strategies, the book examines thoroughly the dental erosion process itself and the intrinsic and extrinsic causes. In addition, careful attention is paid to the etiology, prevalence, and management of dentin hypersensitivity, the restoration of worn dentin, and non-carious cervical lesions. Provides step-by-step, evidence-based guidance on clinical management procedures for dental erosion / Describes the etiology, prevalence, and treatment of dentin hypersensitivity / Discusses restoration of worn dentin and non-carious cervical lesions / Includes informative color images, tables, summary boxes, and flowcharts
Debris-flow Hazards and Related Phenomena
Debris Flow Hazards and Related Phenomena is set to become the standard reference on debris flows, debris avalanches and related phenomena. The editors provide a complete treatment of all aspects of debris flow and debris avalanche research whilst making the book a useful tool for experts, researchers and students. Case studies are provided on a global basis which will illustrate graphically the real problems and real solutions associated with this devastating phenomena. The number of published articles in journals on landslides is literally exploding and where climate change is beginning to affect landslide activity, this book will be a much needed and long sought addition to the literature currently available.
Contaminated soils, sediments and water ; Vol.10 : Successes and challenges
Contaminated Soils, Sediments and Water: Successes and Challenges, Volume 10 contains a valuable collection of success stories (and challenges) in the areas of environmental fate, heavy metals, modeling, MTBE and oxygenates, regulatory, remediation, risk assessment, site assessment and sampling methodology. It demonstrates the progress that has been made in working together toward the optimization of established approaches, as well as embracing departures from traditional regulatory models in order to address the threats to our natural resources. The book is divided into eight sections: Part I: Environmental Fate; Part II: Heavy Metals; Part III: Modeling; Part IV: MTBE and Oxygenates; Part V: Radionuclides; Part VI: Regulatory; Part VII: Remediation; Part VIII: Risk Assessment and Remedial Approaches Towards Restoration and Management of Contaminated Rivers.
Consumer perception of product risks and benefits
Reflects the current thinking and research on how consumers’ perception of product risks and benefits affects their behavior. It provides the scientific, regulatory and industrial research community with a conceptual and methodological reference point for studies on consumer behavior and marketing. The contributions address various aspects of consumer psychology and behavior, risk perception and communication, marketing research strategies, as well as consumer product regulation. The book is divided into 4 parts: Product risks; Perception of product risks and benefits; Consumer behavior; Regulation and responsibility.



















