This book presents a short introduction to continuous-time financial models. An overview of the basics of stochastic analysis precedes a focus on the Black-Scholes and interest rate models. Other topics covered include self-financing strategies, option pricing, exotic options and risk-neutral probabilities. Vasicek, Cox-Ingersoll-Ross, and Heath-Jarrow-Morton interest rate models are also explored. The author presents practitioners with a basic introduction, with more rigorous information provided for mathematicians. The reader is assumed to be familiar with the basics of probability theory. Some basic knowledge of stochastic integration and differential equations theory is preferable, although all preliminary information is given in the first part of the book. Some relatively simple theoretical exercises are also provided.

Living Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education with/in Indigenous Communities explores challenges and possibilities across international contexts, involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, teachers and Elders responding to calls for improved education for all Indigenous students. Authors from Australia, New Zealand, United States, Micronesia, and Canada explore the nature of culturally responsive mathematics education. Chapters highlight the importance of relationships with communities and the land, each engaging critically with ideas of culturally responsive education, exploring what this stance might mean and how it is lived in local contexts within global conversations. Education researchers and teacher educators will find a living pathway where scholars, educators, youth and community members critically take-up culturally responsive teachings and the possibilities and challenges that arise along the journey. Contributors are: Dayle Anderson, Dora Andre-Ihrke, Jo-ann Archibald Q'um Q'um Xiiem, Maria Jose Athie-Martinez, Robin Averill, Trevor Bills, Beatriz A. Camacho, A. J. (Sandy) Dawson, Dwayne Donald, Herewini Easton, Tauvela Fale, Amanda Fritzlan, Florence Glanfield, Jodie Hunter, Roberta Hunter, Newell Margaret Johnson, Julie Kaomea, Robyn Jorgensen, Jerry Lipka, Lisa Lunney Borden, Dora Miura, Sharon Nelson-Barber, Cynthia Nicol, Gladys Sterenberg, Marama Taiwhati, Pania Te Maro, Jennifer S. Thom, David Wagner, Evelyn Yanez, and Joanne Yovanovich.

Successful development of effective computational systems is a challenge for IT developers across sectors due to uncertainty issues that are inherently present within computational problems. Soft computing proposes one such solution to the problem of uncertainty through the application of generalized set structures including fuzzy sets, rough sets, and multisets. The Handbook of Research on Generalized and Hybrid Set Structures and Applications for Soft Computing presents double blind peer-reviewed and original research on soft computing applications for solving problems of uncertainty within the computing environment. Emphasizing essential concepts on generalized and hybrid set structures that can be applied across industries for complex problem solving, this timely resource is essential to engineers across disciplines, researchers, computer scientists, and graduate-level students.

Within the field of modeling complex objects in natural sciences, which considers systems that consist of a large number of interacting parts, a good tool for analyzing and fitting models is the theory of random evolutionary systems, considering their asymptotic properties and large deviations. In Random Evolutionary Systems we consider these systems in terms of the operators that appear in the schemes of their diffusion and the Poisson approximation. Such an approach allows us to obtain a number of limit theorems and asymptotic expansions of processes that model complex stochastic systems, both those that are autonomous and those dependent on an external random environment. In this case, various possibilities of scaling processes and their time parameters are used to obtain different limit results.

Succinct and understandable, this book is a step-by-step guide to the mathematics and construction of electrical load forecasting models. Written by one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, Electrical Load Forecasting provides a brief discussion of algorithms, their advantages and disadvantages and when they are best utilized. The book begins with a good description of the basic theory and models needed to truly understand how the models are prepared so that they are not just blindly plugging and chugging numbers. This is followed by a clear and rigorous exposition of the statistical techniques and algorithms such as regression, neural networks, fuzzy logic, and expert systems. The book is also supported by an online computer program that allows readers to construct, validate, and run short and long term models.

An Invitation to Applied Mathematics: Differential Equations, Modeling, and Computation introduces the reader to the methodology of modern applied mathematics in modeling, analysis, and scientific computing with emphasis on the use of ordinary and partial differential equations. Each topic is introduced with an attractive physical problem, where a mathematical model is constructed using physical and constitutive laws arising from the conservation of mass, conservation of momentum, or Maxwell's electrodynamics. Relevant mathematical analysis (which might employ vector calculus, Fourier series, nonlinear ODEs, bifurcation theory, perturbation theory, potential theory, control theory, or probability theory) or scientific computing (which might include Newton's method, the method of lines, finite differences, finite elements, finite volumes, boundary elements, projection methods, smoothed particle hydrodynamics, or Lagrangian methods) is developed in context and used to make physically significant predictions. The target audience is advanced undergraduates (who have at least a working knowledge of vector calculus and linear ordinary differential equations) or beginning graduate students. Readers will gain a solid and exciting introduction to modeling, mathematical analysis, and computation that provides the key ideas and skills needed to enter the wider world of modern applied mathematics.

Communicable diseases have been an important part of human history. Epidemics afflicted populations, causing many deaths before gradually fading away and emerging again years after. Epidemics of infectious diseases are occurring more often, and spreading faster and further than ever, in many different regions of the world. The scientific community, in addition to its accelerated efforts to develop an effective treatment and vaccination, is also playing an important role in advising policymakers on possible non-pharmacological approaches to limit the catastrophic impact of epidemics using mathematical and machine learning models. Controlling Epidemics With Mathematical and Machine Learning Models provides mathematical and machine learning models for epidemical diseases, with special attention given to the COVID-19 pandemic. It gives mathematical proof of the stability and size of diseases. Covering topics such as compartmental models, reproduction number, and SIR model simulation, this premier reference source is an essential resource for statisticians, government officials, health professionals, epidemiologists, sociologists, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

This book presents a multidisciplinary perspective on chance, with contributions from distinguished researchers in the areas of biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, genetics, general history, law, linguistics, logic, mathematical physics, statistics, theology and philosophy. The individual chapters are bound together by a general introduction followed by an opening chapter that surveys 2500 years of linguistic, philosophical, and scientific reflections on chance, coincidence, fortune, randomness, luck and related concepts. A main conclusion that can be drawn is that, even after all this time, we still cannot be sure whether chance is a truly fundamental and irreducible phenomenon, in that certain events are simply uncaused and could have been otherwise, or whether it is always simply a reflection of our ignorance. Other challenges that emerge from this book include a better understanding of the contextuality and perspectival character of chance (including its scale-dependence), and the curious fact that, throughout history (including contemporary science), chance has been used both as an explanation and as a hallmark of the absence of explanation. As such, this book challenges the reader to think about chance in a new way and to come to grips with this endlessly fascinating phenomenon.

Medical imaging is one of the heaviest funded biomedical engineering research areas. The second edition of Pattern Recognition and Signal Analysis in Medical Imaging brings sharp focus to the development of integrated systems for use in the clinical sector, enabling both imaging and the automatic assessment of the resultant data. Since the first edition, there has been tremendous development of new, powerful technologies for detecting, storing, transmitting, analyzing, and displaying medical images. Computer-aided analytical techniques, coupled with a continuing need to derive more information from medical images, has led to a growing application of digital processing techniques in cancer detection as well as elsewhere in medicine. This book is an essential tool for students and professionals, compiling and explaining proven and cutting-edge methods in pattern recognition for medical imaging.

Essential Methods for Design Based Sample Surveys presents key method contributions selected from the volume in the Handbook of Statistics: Sample Surveys: Design, Methods and Applications, Vol. 29a (2009). This essential reference provides specific aspects of sample survey design, with references to important contributions and available software. The content is aimed at researchers and practitioners who use statistical methods in design based sample surveys and market research. This book presents the core essential methods of sample selection and data processing. The data processing discussion covers editing and imputation, and methods of disclosure control. This reference contains a large variety of applications in specialized areas such as household and business surveys, marketing research, opinion polls and censuses.

Factorization Method for Boundary Value Problems by Invariant Embedding presents a new theory for linear elliptic boundary value problems. The authors provide a transformation of the problem in two initial value problems that are uncoupled, enabling you to solve these successively. This method appears similar to the Gauss block factorization of the matrix, obtained in finite dimension after discretization of the problem. This proposed method is comparable to the computation of optimal feedbacks for linear quadratic control problems.

Living Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education with/in Indigenous Communities explores challenges and possibilities across international contexts, involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, teachers and Elders responding to calls for improved education for all Indigenous students. Authors from Australia, New Zealand, United States, Micronesia, and Canada explore the nature of culturally responsive mathematics education. Chapters highlight the importance of relationships with communities and the land, each engaging critically with ideas of culturally responsive education, exploring what this stance might mean and how it is lived in local contexts within global conversations. Education researchers and teacher educators will find a living pathway where scholars, educators, youth and community members critically take-up culturally responsive teachings and the possibilities and challenges that arise along the journey. Contributors are: Dayle Anderson, Dora Andre-Ihrke, Jo-ann Archibald Q'um Q'um Xiiem, Maria Jose Athie-Martinez, Robin Averill, Trevor Bills, Beatriz A. Camacho, A. J. (Sandy) Dawson, Dwayne Donald, Herewini Easton, Tauvela Fale, Amanda Fritzlan, Florence Glanfield, Jodie Hunter, Roberta Hunter, Newell Margaret Johnson, Julie Kaomea, Robyn Jorgensen, Jerry Lipka, Lisa Lunney Borden, Dora Miura, Sharon Nelson-Barber, Cynthia Nicol, Gladys Sterenberg, Marama Taiwhati, Pania Te Maro, Jennifer S. Thom, David Wagner, Evelyn Yanez, and Joanne Yovanovich.

Ruin Probabilities: Smoothness, Bounds, Supermartingale Approach deals with continuous-time risk models and covers several aspects of risk theory. The first of them is the smoothness of the survival probabilities. In particular, the book provides a detailed investigation of the continuity and differentiability of the infinite-horizon and finite-horizon survival probabilities for different risk models. Next, it gives some possible applications of the results concerning the smoothness of the survival probabilities. Additionally, the book introduces the supermartingale approach, which generalizes the martingale one introduced by Gerber, to get upper exponential bounds for the infinite-horizon ruin probabilities in some generalizations of the classical risk model with risky investments.

Topology Optimization in Engineering Structure Design explores the recent advances and applications of topology optimization in engineering structures design, with a particular focus on aircraft and aerospace structural systems. To meet the increasingly complex engineering challenges provided by rapid developments in these industries, structural optimization techniques have developed in conjunction with them over the past two decades. The latest methods and theories to improve mechanical performances and save structural weight under static, dynamic and thermal loads are summarized and explained in detail here, in addition to potential applications of topology optimization techniques such as shape preserving design, smart structure design and additive manufacturing. These new design strategies are illustrated by a host of worked examples, which are inspired by real engineering situations, some of which have been applied to practical structure design with significant effects. Written from a forward-looking applied engineering perspective, the authors not only summarize the latest developments in this field of structure design but also provide both theoretical knowledge and a practical guideline. This book should appeal to graduate students, researchers and engineers, in detailing how to use topology optimization methods to improve product design.

Mathematic Modelling: Improving the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Interventions, Part B, the latest volume in the Advances in Parasitology series contains comprehensive and up-to-date reviews in the field of mathematic modeling and its implementation within parasitology. The series includes medical studies of parasites of major influence, such as Plasmodium falciparum and trypanosomes, along with reviews of more traditional areas, such as zoology, taxonomy, and life history, all of which shape current thinking and applications.

When it comes to data collection and analysis, ranked set sampling (RSS) continues to increasingly be the focus of methodological research. This type of sampling is an alternative to simple random sampling and can offer substantial improvements in precision and efficient estimation. There are different methods within RSS that can be further explored and discussed. On top of being efficient, RSS is cost-efficient and can be used in situations where sample units are difficult to obtain. With new results in modeling and applications, and a growing importance in theory and practice, it is essential for modeling to be further explored and developed through research. Ranked Set Sampling Models and Methods presents an innovative look at modeling survey sampling research and new models of RSS along with the future potentials of it. The book provides a panoramic view of the state of the art of RSS by presenting some previously known and new models. The chapters illustrate how the modeling is to be developed and how they improve the efficiency of the inferences. The chapters highlight topics such as bootstrap methods, fuzzy weight ranked set sampling method, item count technique, stratified ranked set sampling, and more. This book is essential for statisticians, social and natural science scientists, physicians and all the persons involved with the use of sampling theory in their research along with practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the latest models and methods for ranked set sampling.