Skip to main content

Books in Social sciences and humanities

    • Commercial Awareness and Business Decision Making Skills

      How to understand and analyse company financial information
      • 1st Edition
      • Paul Rodgers
      • English
      This book is designed to act as a financial statement phrase book and dictionary rolled into one. It will enable those new to the financial world to draw meaning from the wealth of information contained within financial documents that were previously considered out of bounds.Furthermore, although the pages within this book will be an invaluable springboard to those starting out in the world of accountancy, its primary aim is to enable commercial managers working within every facet of a business to meet clearly defined objectives. It will enable these professionals to take commercial documents and visualise how they interact with the work of an accountant, explaining why every board of management appears to focus on financial data.
    • General Philosophy of Science: Focal Issues

      • 1st Edition
      • English
      Scientists use concepts and principles that are partly specific for their subject matter, but they also share part of them with colleagues working in different fields. Compare the biological notion of a 'natural kind' with the general notion of 'confirmation' of a hypothesis by certain evidence. Or compare the physical principle of the 'conservation of energy' and the general principle of 'the unity of science'. Scientists agree that all such notions and principles aren't as crystal clear as one might wish. An important task of the philosophy of the special sciences, such as philosophy of physics, of biology and of economics, to mention only a few of the many flourishing examples, is the clarification of such subject specific concepts and principles. Similarly, an important task of 'general' philosophy of science is the clarification of concepts like 'confirmation' and principles like 'the unity of science'. It is evident that clarfication of concepts and principles only makes sense if one tries to do justice, as much as possible, to the actual use of these notions by scientists, without however following this use slavishly. That is, occasionally a philosopher may have good reasons for suggesting to scientists that they should deviate from a standard use. Frequently, this amounts to a plea for differentiation in order to stop debates at cross-purposes due to the conflation of different meanings. While the special volumes of the series of Handbooks of the Philosophy of Science address topics relative to a specific discipline, this general volume deals with focal issues of a general nature. After an editorial introduction about the dominant method of clarifying concepts and principles in philosophy of science, called explication, the first five chapters deal with the following subjects. Laws, theories, and research programs as units of empirical knowledge (Theo Kuipers), various past and contemporary perspectives on explanation (Stathis Psillos), the evaluation of theories in terms of their virtues (Ilkka Niiniluto), and the role of experiments in the natural sciences, notably physics and biology (Allan Franklin), and their role in the social sciences, notably economics (Wenceslao Gonzalez). In the subsequent three chapters there is even more attention to various positions and methods that philosophers of science and scientists may favor: ontological, epistemological, and methodological positions (James Ladyman), reduction, integration, and the unity of science as aims in the sciences and the humanities (William Bechtel and Andrew Hamilton), and logical, historical and computational approaches to the philosophy of science (Atocha Aliseda and Donald Gillies).The volume concludes with the much debated question of demarcating science from nonscience (Martin Mahner) and the rich European-American history of the philosophy of science in the 20th century (Friedrich Stadler).
    • Forecasting Expected Returns in the Financial Markets

      • 1st Edition
      • Stephen Satchell
      • English
      Forecasting returns is as important as forecasting volatility in multiple areas of finance. This topic, essential to practitioners, is also studied by academics. In this new book, Dr Stephen Satchell brings together a collection of leading thinkers and practitioners from around the world who address this complex problem using the latest quantitative techniques.
    • Business Process Change

      A Guide for Business Managers and BPM and Six Sigma Professionals
      • 2nd Edition
      • Paul Harmon + 1 more
      • English
      Every company wants to improve the way it does business, to produce goods and services more efficiently, and to increase profits. Nonprofit organizations are also concerned with efficiency, productivity, and with achieving the goals they set for themselves. Every manager understands that achieving these goals is part of his or her job. BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT (or BPM) is what they call these activities that companies perform in order to improve and adapt processes that will help improve the way they do business. In this balanced treatment of the field of business process change, Paul Harmon offers concepts, methods, and cases for all aspects and phases of successful business process improvement. Updated and added for this edition are coverage of business process management systems, business rules, enterprise architectures and frameworks (SCOR), and more content on Six Sigma and Lean--in addition to new coverage of performance metrics.
    • The Biology of Human Longevity

      Inflammation, Nutrition, and Aging in the Evolution of Lifespans
      • 1st Edition
      • Caleb E. Finch
      • English
      Written by Caleb Finch, one of the leading scientists of our time, The Biology of Human Longevity: Inflammation, Nutrition, and Aging in the Evolution of Lifespans synthesizes several decades of top research on the topic of human aging and longevity particularly on the recent theories of inflammation and its effects on human health. The book expands a number of existing major theories, including the Barker theory of fetal origins of adult disease to consider the role of inflammation and Harmon's free radical theory of aging to include inflammatory damage. Future increases in lifespan are challenged by the obesity epidemic and spreading global infections which may reverse the gains made in lowering inflammatory exposure. This timely and topical book will be of interest to anyone studying aging from any scientific angle.
    • Handbook of Asset and Liability Management

      Applications and Case Studies
      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 2
      • Stavros A. Zenios + 1 more
      • English
      The Handbooks in Finance are intended to be a definitive source for comprehensive and accessible information in the field of finance. Each individual volume in the series presents an accurate self-contained survey of a sub-field of finance, suitable for use by finance and economics professors and lecturers, professional researchers, graduate students and as a teaching supplement. It is fitting that the series Handbooks in Finance devotes a handbook to Asset and Liability Management. Volume 2 focuses on applications and case studies in asset and liability management.The growth in knowledge about practical asset and liability modeling has followed the popularity of these models in diverse business settings. This volume portrays ALM in practice, in contrast to Volume 1, which addresses the theories and methodologies behind these models. In original articles practitioners and scholars describe and analyze models used in banking, insurance, money management, individual investor financial planning, pension funds, and social security. They put the traditional purpose of ALM, to control interest rate and liquidity risks, into rich and broad-minded frameworks. Readers interested in other business settings will find their discussions of financial institutions both instructive and revealing.
    • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Subtypes and Spectrum Conditions

      • 1st Edition
      • Jonathan S Abramowitz + 2 more
      • English
      Researchers and clinicians working with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (OCD) and related disorders who need the most current information available will find this volume of great use. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Subtypes and Spectrum Conditions covers contemporary theory, research, and treatment of the various subtypes of OCD and problems often referred to as OCD spectrum disorders. As the mental health field considers the next iteration of the DSM, an entire research agenda is being planned to elucidate issues such as how best to understand and classify OCD. The questions of subtypes and spectrum disorders are at the heart of this issue and will guide how OCD is conceptualized in DSM-V. This volume, dedicated to such diagnostic, theoretical, and treatment issues, helps informs the field of the most up-to-date knowledge and what remains to be resolved.
    • Railroad Economics

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 20
      • Scott Dennis + 1 more
      • English
      Research in Transportation Economics is now available online at ScienceDirect — full-text online of volumes 6 onwards. Elsevier book series on ScienceDirect gives multiple users throughout an institution simultaneous online access to an important compliment to primary research. Digital delivery ensures users reliable, 24-hour access to the latest peer-reviewed content. The Elsevier book series are compiled and written by the most highly regarded authors in their fields and are selected from across the globe using Elsevier’s extensive researcher network. For more information about the Elsevier Book Series on ScienceDirect Program, please visit:http://www.inf...
    • Counterterrorist Detection Techniques of Explosives

      • 1st Edition
      • Jehuda Yinon
      • English
      The detection of hidden explosives has become an issue of utmost importance in recent years. While terrorism is not new to the international community, recent terrorist attacks have raised the issue of detection of explosives and have generated a great demand for rapid, sensitive and reliable methods for detecting hidden explosives. Counterterrorist Detection Techniques of Explosives covers recent advances in this area of research including vapor and trace detection techniques (chemiluminescence, mass spectrometry, ion mobility spectrometry, electrochemical methods and micromechanical sensors, such as microcantilevers) and bulk detection techniques (neutron techniques, nuclear quadrupole resonance, x-ray diffraction imaging, millimeter-wave imaging, terahertz imaging and laser techniques). This book will be of interest to any scientists involved in the design and application of security screening technologies including new sensors and detecting devices which will prevent the smuggling of bombs and explosives.
    • Advances in Child Development and Behavior

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 35
      • Robert V. Kail
      • English
      Volume 35 of the Advances in Child Development and Behavior series is divided into nine components that highlight some of the most recent research in developmental and educational psychology. A wide array of topics are discussed in detail, including Cognitive Mechanisms, Episodic and Autobiographical Memory, Emotional Security Theory, Working memory and much more. Each component provides in depth discussions of various developmental psychology specializations. This volume serves as an invaluable resource for psychology researchers and advanced psychology students.