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Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Interest Rate Risk Management

    • 1st Edition
    • Christine Helliar
    • English
    Financial risk management is currently subject to much debate, especially the accounting for derivative products, and a number of commentators are objecting to the introduction of International Accounting Standard IAS 39 for Derivatives that will be in force by January 2005 for all EU companies. The topic of hedge accounting and the treatment of fair values may have a significant impact on many companies reported profits, and the volatility of earnings is likely to increase. Uniquely this monograph focuses on interest rate risk management. Most studies of corporate risk management have typically dwelt on the topic of management of exchange rate risk, with interest rate risk management being neglected. The book’s findings examine the views of UK corporate treasurers who are usually involved in the risk management strategies of their organisation and who have responsibility for implementing those strategies in practice.
  • Corporate Social Responsibility

    a case study guide for Management Accountants
    • 1st Edition
    • John Innes + 1 more
    • English
    Corporate Social Responsiblity is based on critical insight gained by analysing four large companies’ experiences of corporate social responsibility. This study highlights the inadequacies of social and ethical reporting by business, both in terms of the ad-hoc nature of the information currently reported, and the absence of internal reporting. It will serve as evidence to companies, that producing a glossy report does not necessarily equal social responsibility.
  • A Practical Logic of Cognitive Systems

    The Reach of Abduction: Insight and Trial
    • 1st Edition
    • Dov M. Gabbay + 1 more
    • English
    The present work is a continuation of the authors' acclaimed multi-volume APractical Logic of Cognitive Systems. After having investigated the notion ofrelevance in their previous volume, Gabbay and Woods now turn to abduction. Inthis highly original approach, abduction is construed as ignorance-preserving... in which conjecture plays a pivotal role. Abduction is a response to acognitive target that cannot be hit on the basis of what the agent currently knows.The abducer selects a hypothesis which were it true would enable the reasoner to attain his target. He concludes from this fact that the hypothesis may be conjectured. In allowing conjecture to stand in for the knowledge he fails to have, the abducer reveals himself to be a satisficer, since an abductive solution is not a solution from knowledge. Key to the authors' analysis is the requirement that a conjectured proposition is not just what a reasoner might allow himself to assume, but a proposition he must defeasibly release as a premiss for further inferences in the domain of enquiry in which the original abduction problem has arisen.The coverage of the book is extensive, from the philosophy of science tocomputer science and AI, from diagnostics to the law, from historical explanation to linguistic interpretation. One of the volume's strongest contributions is its exploration of the abductive character of criminal trials, with special attention given to the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.Underlying their analysis of abductive reasoning is the authors' conception ofpractical agency. In this approach, practical agency is dominantly a matter of thecomparative modesty of an agent's cognitive agendas, together with comparatively scant resources available for their advancement. Seen in these ways, abduction has a significantly practical character, precisely because it is a form of inference that satisfices rather than maximizes its response to the agent's cognitive target.The Reach of Abduction will be necessary reading for researchers, graduatestudents and senior undergraduates in logic, computer science, AI, belief dynamics, argumentation theory, cognitive psychology and neuroscience, linguistics, forensic science, legal reasoning and related areas.Key features:- Reach of Abduction is fully integrated with a background logic of cognitive systems.- The most extensive coverage compared to competitive works.- Demonstrates not only that abduction is a form of ignorance preservinginference but that it is a mode of inference that is wholly rational.- Demonstrates the satisficing rather than maximizing character ofabduction.- The development of formal models of abduction is considerably more extensive than one finds in existing literature. It is an especially impressive amalgam of sophisticatedconcept... analysis and extensive logical modelling.
  • Reliability, Maintainability and Risk

    Practical Methods for Engineers including Reliability Centred Maintenance and Safety-Related Systems
    • 7th Edition
    • David J. Smith
    • English
    For over 30 years, Reliability, Maintainability and Risk has been recognised as a leading text for reliability and maintenance professionals. Now in its seventh edition, the book has been updated to remain the first choice for professional engineers and students. The seventh edition incorporates new material on important topics including software failure, the latest safety legislation and standards, product liability, integrity of safety-related systems, as well as delivering an up-to-date review of the latest approaches to reliability modelling, including cutsec ranking. It is also supported by new detailed case studies on reliability and risk in practice.
  • Implementing Database Security and Auditing

    • 1st Edition
    • Ron Ben Natan
    • English
    This book is about database security and auditing. You will learn many methods and techniques that will be helpful in securing, monitoring and auditing database environments. It covers diverse topics that include all aspects of database security and auditing - including network security for databases, authentication and authorization issues, links and replication, database Trojans, etc. You will also learn of vulnerabilities and attacks that exist within various database environments or that have been used to attack databases (and that have since been fixed). These will often be explained to an “internals” level. There are many sections which outline the “anatomy of an attack” – before delving into the details of how to combat such an attack. Equally important, you will learn about the database auditing landscape – both from a business and regulatory requirements perspective as well as from a technical implementation perspective.
  • Mergers and Acquisitions Security

    Corporate Restructuring and Security Management
    • 1st Edition
    • Edward Halibozek + 1 more
    • English
    In reaction to the continually changing business climate companies develop many business strategies to increase their competitiveness and improve profitability. Companies regularly reshape themselves continually exploring new markets and developing new products. When they can't expand into new markets or develop new products on their own, they seek alternatives. These alternatives include merging with or acquiring other companies to create a single more capable company. Companies acquire other companies for a wide variety of reasons. In some cases company survival may actually be the reason. What does this condition mean to the security professional? In the course of mergers and acquisitions, security plays a vital role in helping to make the endeavor successful. There are numerous titles on the business aspects of M&A such as the ones listed below. However, this unique book focuses on the role security plays in helping to make a merger, acquisition or divestiture successful. It addresses the fundamental security elements that are required to support the effort. In addition, it provides an integrated "how to" approach to implementing M&A security complete with methods and processes that have been quickly and cost-effectively implemented.
  • The Psychology of Media and Politics

    • 1st Edition
    • George Comstock + 1 more
    • English
    Research indicates that people discount their own opinions and experiences in favor of those of "experts" as espoused in the media. The framing of news coverage thus has a profound impact on public opinion, and political decision making as a response to public outcry. However, the choice of how to frame the news is typically made to solicit viewership and high ratings rather than to convey accurate and meaningful information. The Psychology of Media and Politics discusses why people discount their own opinions, how the media shapes the news, when this drives political decision making, and what the effect is on the future of society. Issues addressed include: How powerful are the media in shaping political beliefs/judgment? How has this power changed in recent years? How does media influence voting behavior? To what extent do media opinions affect political decision making?
  • Cisco PIX Firewalls

    Configure / Manage / Troubleshoot
    • 1st Edition
    • Umer Khan
    • English
    Umer Khan's first book, Cisco Security Specialist's Guide to PIX Firewalls, ISBN: 1931836639, has consistently maintained its spot as the #1 best-selling PIX book on amazon.com by providing readers with a clear, comprehensive, and independent introduction to PIX Firewall configuration. With the market for PIX Firewalls maintaining double digit growth and several major enhancements to both the PIX Firewall and VPN Client product lines, this book will have enormous appeal with the audience already familiar with his first book.
  • Software Piracy Exposed

    • 1st Edition
    • Ron Honick
    • English
    This book is about software piracy--what it is and how it's done. Stealing software is not to be condoned, and theft of intellectual property and copyright infringement are serious matters, but it's totally unrealistic to pretend that it doesn't happen. Software piracy has reached epidemic proportions. Many computer users know this, the software companies know this, and once you've read the Introduction to this book, you'll understand why. Seeing how widespread software piracy is, learning how it's accomplished, and particularly how incredibly easy it is to do might surprise you. This book describes how software piracy is actually being carried out.
  • Sockets, Shellcode, Porting, and Coding: Reverse Engineering Exploits and Tool Coding for Security Professionals

    • 1st Edition
    • James C Foster
    • English
    The book is logically divided into 5 main categories with each category representing a major skill set required by most security professionals:1. Coding – The ability to program and script is quickly becoming a mainstream requirement for just about everyone in the security industry. This section covers the basics in coding complemented with a slue of programming tips and tricks in C/C++, Java, Perl and NASL. 2. Sockets – The technology that allows programs and scripts to communicate over a network is sockets. Even though the theory remains the same – communication over TCP and UDP, sockets are implemented differently in nearly ever language. 3. Shellcode – Shellcode, commonly defined as bytecode converted from Assembly, is utilized to execute commands on remote systems via direct memory access. 4. Porting – Due to the differences between operating platforms and language implementations on those platforms, it is a common practice to modify an original body of code to work on a different platforms. This technique is known as porting and is incredible useful in the real world environments since it allows you to not “recreate the wheel.”5. Coding Tools – The culmination of the previous four sections, coding tools brings all of the techniques that you have learned to the forefront. With the background technologies and techniques you will now be able to code quick utilities that will not only make you more productive, they will arm you with an extremely valuable skill that will remain with you as long as you make the proper time and effort dedications.