Actuarial Principles: Lifetables and Mortality Models explores the core of actuarial science: the study of mortality and other risks and applications. Including the CT4 and CT5 UK courses, but applicable to a global audience, this work lightly covers the mathematical and theoretical background of the subject to focus on real life practice. It offers a brief history of the field, why actuarial notation has become universal, and how theory can be applied to many situations. Uniquely covering both life contingency risks and survival models, the text provides numerous exercises (and their solutions), along with complete self-contained real-world assignments.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Neural Networks, ISNN 2017, held in Sapporo, Hakodate, and Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan, in June 2017. The 135 revised full papers presented in this two-volume set were carefully reviewed and selected from 259 submissions. The papers cover topics like perception, emotion and development, action and motor control, attractor and associative memory, neurodynamics, complex systems, and chaos.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Neural Networks, ISNN 2017, held in Sapporo, Hakodate, and Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan, in June 2017. The 135 revised full papers presented in this two-volume set were carefully reviewed and selected from 259 submissions. The papers cover topics like perception, emotion and development, action and motor control, attractor and associative memory, neurodynamics, complex systems, and chaos.

This book provides an effective model for helping persons with serious mental illness and is suitable for readers working in psychiatric rehabilitation. It is well documented that persons with serious mental illness suffer from severe psychosocial issues. Studies suggest that many of them also have different spiritual problems such as lacking hope and losing meaning and a purpose in life. In Hong Kong, a Christian non-governmental organisation has developed a holistic care program for the rehabilitation of persons with serious mental illness. Holistic care is conceived as the care delivered to meet an integral, independent individual's health needs including physical, psychosocial, spiritual, cultural and environmental aspects as a whole. The holistic care program is characterised by a Self Help Group (SHG) approach with the adoption of holistic care principles where the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the clients are emphasised. Beyond using solely conventional therapeutic intervention such as psychodynamic, cognitive and behavioural strategies in running SHGs, spiritual intervention in the form of hymn singing, Bible reading, personal sharing and intercessions is also used.

Buildings create an environment where people work and live, thus affecting their quality of life. In Hong Kong, as in other major metropolitan cities, buildings define its city image and are the hub of a considerable amount of financial investments by individuals, families and businesses. For all these reasons, it is important to understand the life-cycle of buildings. Ageing buildings and the problems and opportunities they present have significant policy ramifications and implications for both the building and social sciences. This book provides an understanding of the life-cycle of buildings, how they age, and what can be done when they become old. New dimensions are given in evaluating urban renewal and addressing how, through rejuvenation, the value of ageing buildings may be increased.