Financial econometrics

Sample

Dan Binkley, Richard F. Fisher

Forest soils are the foundation of the entire forest ecosystem and complex, long-term interactions between trees, soil animals, and the microbial community shape soils in was that are very distinct from agricultural soils. The composition, structure, and processes in forest soils at any given time reflect current conditions, as well as the legacies of decades (and even millennia) of interactions that shape each forest soil. Reciprocal interactions are fundamental; vegetation alters soil physical properties, which influence soil biology and chemistry, which in turn influence the growth and success of plants. These dynamic systems may be strongly influenced by intentional and unintentional management, ranging from fire to fertilization. Sustaining the long-term fertility of forest soils depends on insights about a diverse array of soil features and changes over space and time. Since the third edition of this successful book many new interests in forest soils and their management have arisen, including the role of forest soils in sequestering carbon, and how management influences rates of carbon accumulation. This edition also expands the consideration of how soils are sampled and characterized, and how tree species differ in their influence on soil development. Clearly structured throughout, the book opens with the origins of forest soil science and ends with the application of soil science principles to land management. This new edition provides : A completely revised and updated Fourth Edition of this classic textbook in the field A coherent overview of the major issues surrounding the ecology and management of forest soils Global in scope with coverage of soil types ranging from the tropical rainforest soils of Latin America to the boreal forest soils of Siberia New chapters on Management: Carbon sequestration; Evidence-based approaches and applications of geostatistics, GIS and taxonomies A clear overview of each topic, informative examples/case studies, and an overall context for helping readers think clearly about forest soils An introduction to the literature of forest soil science and to the philosophy of forest soil science research This coherent overview of the major issues surrounding the ecology and management of forest soils will be particularly useful to students taking courses in soil science, forestry, agronomy, ecology, natural resource management, environmental management and conservation, as well as professionals in forestry dealing with the productivity of forests and functioning of watersheds.

Sample

Neal Asbury

"Conscientious Equity presents a groundbreaking vision, one that posits solutions to America's and the globe's most pressing problems in a kind of win-win scenario that truly changes the game. What Neal Asbury - a radio personality and successful entrepreneur - argues is that moving away from intransigent political ideologies and toward a world driven by fair international commerce allows us to address and in fact solve economic instability, the destruction of the environment, crushing poverty, and crippling corruption all over the planet. In this book, he lays out a plan for making Conscientious Equity happen, addressing all of the roadblocks and opportunities that lay before us"--

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Thomas F. Cargill and Naoyuki Yoshino

"This book provides an institutional, flow of funds, theoretical, and statistical overview of the PSS and FILP. It evaluates the contributions these institutions have made to Japan's economic growth and the problems these institutions create as Japan attempts to modernize its financial and economic system. The book provides a positive analysis of the role played by the PSS and the FILP in Japan's impressive growth from 1950 to the late 1980s and the economic and financial distress of the 1990s. The authors evaluate the reforms started in 1998 and provide a normative view of what direction reform of the PSS and the FILP needs to take if the goals of the 1996 Big Bang announcement are to be realized. Despite the setbacks in the late 1990s and the first years of the new century, the 1996 Big Bang remains the operating framework for financial reform in Japan."--BOOK JACKET.

Sample

Martin L. Puterman

The past decade has seen considerable theoretical and applied research on Markov decision processes, as well as the growing use of these models in ecology, economics, communications engineering, and other fields where outcomes are uncertain and sequential decision-making processes are needed. A timely response to this increased activity, Martin L. Puterman's new work provides a uniquely up-to-date, unified, and rigorous treatment of the theoretical, computational, and applied research on Markov decision process models. It discusses all major research directions in the field, highlights many significant applications of Markov decision processes models, and explores numerous important topics that have previously been neglected or given cursory coverage in the literature. Markov Decision Processes focuses primarily on infinite horizon discrete time models and models with discrete time spaces while also examining models with arbitrary state spaces, finite horizon models, and continuous-time discrete state models. The book is organized around optimality criteria, using a common framework centered on the optimality (Bellman) equation for presenting results. The results are presented in a "theorem-proof" format and elaborated on through both discussion and examples, including results that are not available in any other book. A two-state Markov decision process model, presented in Chapter 3, is analyzed repeatedly throughout the book and demonstrates many results and algorithms. Markov Decision Processes covers recent research advances in such areas as countable state space models with average reward criterion, constrained models, and models with risk sensitive optimality criteria. It also explores several topics that have received little or no attention in other books, including modified policy iteration, multichain models with average reward criterion, and sensitive optimality. In addition, a Bibliographic Remarks section in each chapter comments on relevant historical references in the book's extensive, up-to-date bibliography...numerous figures illustrate examples, algorithms, results, and computations...a biographical sketch highlights the life and work of A. A. Markov...an afterword discusses partially observed models and other key topics...and appendices examine Markov chains, normed linear spaces, semi-continuous functions, and linear programming. Markov Decision Processes will prove to be invaluable to researchers in operations research, management science, and control theory. Its applied emphasis will serve the needs of researchers in communications and control engineering, economics, statistics, mathematics, computer science, and mathematical ecology. Moreover, its conceptual development from simple to complex models, numerous applications in text and problems, and background coverage of relevant mathematics will make it a highly useful textbook in courses on dynamic programming and stochastic control.