What existential threats does humanity face? And how can we secure our future? 'The Precipice is a powerful book . . . Ord's love for humanity and hope for its future is infectious' Spectator 'Ord's analysis of the science is exemplary . . . Thrillingly written' Sunday Times We live during the most important era of human history. In the twentieth century, we developed the means to destroy ourselves - without developing the moral framework to ensure we won't. This is the Precipice, and how we respond to it will be the most crucial decision of our time. Oxford moral philosopher Toby Ord explores the risks to humanity's future, from the familiar man-made threats of climate change and nuclear war, to the potentially greater, more unfamiliar threats from engineered pandemics and advanced artificial intelligence. With clear and rigorous thinking, Ord calculates the various risk levels, and shows how our own time fits within the larger story of human history. We can say with certainty that the novel coronavirus does not pose such a risk. But could the next pandemic? And what can we do, in our present moment, to face the risks head on? A major work that brings together the disciplines of physics, biology, earth and computer science, history, anthropology, statistics, international relations, political science and moral philosophy, The Precipice is a call for a new understanding of our age: a major reorientation in the way we see the world, our history, and the role we play in it.

This book demonstrates an original concept for implementing the rough set theory in the construction of decision-making systems. It addresses three types of decisions, including those in which the information or input data is insufficient. Though decision-making and classification in cases with missing or inaccurate data is a common task, classical decision-making systems are not naturally adapted to it. One solution is to apply the rough set theory proposed by Prof. Pawlak. The proposed classifiers are applied and tested in two configurations: The first is an iterative mode in which a single classification system requests completion of the input data until an unequivocal decision (classification) is obtained. It allows us to start classification processes using very limited input data and supplementing it only as needed, which limits the cost of obtaining data. The second configuration is an ensemble mode in which several rough set-based classification systems achieve the unequivocal decision collectively, even though the systems cannot separately deliver such results.

Risk management is a vital concern in any organization. In order to succeed in the competitive modern business environment, the decision-making process must be effectively governed and managed. Research, Practices, and Innovations in Global Risk and Contingency Management is a critical scholarly resource that provides an all-encompassing holistic discussion of risk management and perception, while giving readers innovations on empirical risk-contingency management research and case studies. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as contingency planning, project management, and risk mitigation, this book is geared towards academicians, practitioners, and researchers seeking current research on risk and contingency management issues.

This book tells the story of radical transparency in a datafied world. It is a story that not only includes the beginnings of WikiLeaks and its endings as a weapon of the GRU, but also exposes numerous other decentralised disclosure networks designed to crack open democracy - for good or ill - that followed in its wake. This is a story that can only be understood through rethinking how technologies of government, practices of media, and assumptions of democracy interact. By combining literatures of governmentality, media studies, and democracy, this illuminating account offers novel insights and critiques of the transparency ideal through its material-political practice. Case studies uncover evolving media practices that, regardless of being scraped from public records or leaked from internal sources, still divulge secrets. The narrative also traces new corporate players such as Clearview AI, the civic-minded ICIJ, and state-based public health disclosures in times of pandemic to reveal how they all form unique proto-institutional instances of disclosure as a technology of government. The analysis of novel forms of digital radical transparency - from a trickle of paper-based leaks to the modern digital .torrent - is grounded in analogues from the analogue past, which combine to tell the whole story of how transparency functions in and helps form democracy.

This book includes a collection of articles that present recent developments in the fields of optimization and dynamic game theory, economic dynamics, dynamic theory of the firm, and population dynamics and non standard applications of optimal control theory. The authors of the articles are well respected authorities in their fields and are known for their high quality research in the fields of optimization and economic dynamics.

The Value TRAI is a four part classification which has been developed to enable any business entity, process, project or job to be broken down into its component value elements. This then provides a framework for the identification, prioritisation, evaluation and management of business risks. In addition to the value TRAI this book introduces a series of simple tools which address business risks: both threats and opportunities.The Author, Chris Duggleby, has spent over thirty years managing chemicals businesses around the world working with several internationally respected partners. His recent work focused on the management of Joint Ventures and the design of Management of Change processes for transformation projects. His first-hand knowledge of managing industrial business risks has been used in the design of the tools and processes described in this book.Using a standardised set of easy to apply risk management tools is fundamental to the introduction of an enterprise wide risk management system. This book, supported by the www.bizchangers.com website, describes these tools and how to apply them.

The aim of this work is to reduce the risks of medical treatment and e nhance the safety of patients in all areas of healthcare. The first se ction discusses human error, the incidence of harm to patients, and th e development of risk management. Chapters in the second section discu ss the reduction of risk in clinical practice in key medical specialti es. The third section discusses features of the healthcare systems tha t are essential to safe practice, such as communication of risk to pat ients, the design of equipment, supervision and training, and effectiv e teamwork. The fourth section describes how to put risk management in to practice, including the effective and sensitive handling of complai nts and claims, the care of injured patients and the staff involved, a nd the reporting, investigation and analysis of serious incidents.

Fire safety is a major concern in many industries, particularly as there have been significant increases in recent years in the quantities of hazardous materials in process, storage or transport. Plants are becoming larger and are often situated in or close to densely populated areas, and the hazards are continually highlighted with incidents such as the fires and explosions at the Piper Alpha oil and gas platform, and the Enschede firework factory. As a result, greater attention than ever before is now being given to the evaluation and control of these hazards.

In a comprehensive treatment of the subject unavailable elsewhere, this book describes in detail the applications of hazard and risk analysis to fire safety, going on to develop and apply quantification methods. It also gives an explanation in quantitative terms of improvements in fire safety in association with the costs that are expended in their achievement. Furthermore, a quantitative approach is applied to major fire and explosion disasters to demonstrate crucial faults and events.

Featuring:

Full international coverage and a review of several major fires and explosion disasters.Presentation of the properties and science of fire including the latest research.Detailed coverage of the performance of fire safety measures.

This is an essential book for practitioners in fire safety engineering, loss prevention professionals, technical personnel in insurance companies as well as academics involved in fire science and postgraduate students. This book is also a useful reference for fire safety officers, building designers, engineers in the process industries, safety practitioners and risk assessment consultants.