This book, based on lectures on natural and environmental resource economics, offers a nontechnical exposition of the modern theory of sustainability in the presence of resource scarcity. It applies an alternative take on environmental economics, focusing on the economics of the natural environment, including development, computation, and potential empirical importance of the concept of option value, as opposed to the standard treatment of the economics of pollution control. The approach throughout is primarily conceptual and theoretical, though empirical estimation and results are sometimes noted. Mathematics, ranging from elementary calculus to more formal dynamic optimization, is used, especially in the early chapters on the optimal management of exhaustible and renewable resources, but results are always given an economic interpretation. Diagrams and numerical examples are also used extensively. The first chapter introduces the classical economists as the first resource economists, in their discussion of the implications of a limited natural resource base (agricultural land) for the evolution of the wider economy. A later chapter returns to the same concerns, along with others stimulated by the energy and environmental "crises" of the 1970s and beyond. One section considers alternative measures of resource scarcity and empirical findings on their behavior over time. Another introduces the modern concept of sustainability with an intuitive development of the analytics. A chapter on the dynamics of environmental management motivates the concept of option value, shows how to compute it, then demonstrates its importance in an illustrative empirical example. The closing chapter, on climate change, first projects future changes and potential catastrophic impacts, then discusses the policy relevance of both option value and discounting for the very long run. This book is intended for resource and environmental economists and can be read by interested graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the field as well.

In this pioneering study, Krutilla and Fisher put the amenity resources of natural environments into an analytical framework comparable to that for the extractive resources. The models and theoretical background of their techniques are illustrated by case studies which include the controversial Hells Canyon dam, the Mineral King ski resort, and the Trans-Alaska pipeline. The authors point out that resource development activities undertaken on public lands often receive financial advantages---preferential tax treatment, subsidized capital, and access to public resources---that are not taken into account in the costs of the project. True evaluation of the costs and benefits of a development project often tips the balance in favor of preserving an area in a natural state.

In this pioneering study, Krutilla and Fisher put the amenity resources of natural environments into an analytical framework comparable to that for the extractive resources. The models and theoretical background of their techniques are illustrated by case studies which include the controversial Hells Canyon dam, the Mineral King ski resort, and the Trans-Alaska pipeline. The authors point out that resource development activities undertaken on public lands often receive financial advantages---preferential tax treatment, subsidized capital, and access to public resources---that are not taken into account in the costs of the project. True evaluation of the costs and benefits of a development project often tips the balance in favor of preserving an area in a natural state.

This book, based on lectures on natural and environmental resource economics, offers a nontechnical exposition of the modern theory of sustainability in the presence of resource scarcity. It applies an alternative take on environmental economics, focusing on the economics of the natural environment, including development, computation, and potential empirical importance of the concept of option value, as opposed to the standard treatment of the economics of pollution control. The approach throughout is primarily conceptual and theoretical, though empirical estimation and results are sometimes noted. Mathematics, ranging from elementary calculus to more formal dynamic optimization, is used, especially in the early chapters on the optimal management of exhaustible and renewable resources, but results are always given an economic interpretation. Diagrams and numerical examples are also used extensively. The first chapter introduces the classical economists as the first resource economists, in their discussion of the implications of a limited natural resource base (agricultural land) for the evolution of the wider economy. A later chapter returns to the same concerns, along with others stimulated by the energy and environmental "crises" of the 1970s and beyond. One section considers alternative measures of resource scarcity and empirical findings on their behavior over time. Another introduces the modern concept of sustainability with an intuitive development of the analytics. A chapter on the dynamics of environmental management motivates the concept of option value, shows how to compute it, then demonstrates its importance in an illustrative empirical example. The closing chapter, on climate change, first projects future changes and potential catastrophic impacts, then discusses the policy relevance of both option value and discounting for the very long run. This book is intended for resource and environmental economists and can be read by interested graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the field as well.

This important volume features essays dealing with a wide range of theoretical, measurement and policy issues in environmental and resource economics. Anthony Fisher is an internationally acclaimed environmental economist whose work combines relevance with intellectual rigour.The integration of environmental considerations into decisions about extractive resource has been a central theme of Professor Fisher's work. The essays in this collection range from exercises in the pure theory of resource depletion to applications of theoretical and empirical techniques on the management of energy and water resources. Particular attention is given to uncertainty about environmental values and the irreversibility of certain kinds of resource depletion. Featuring work on a wide range of topics and adopting a breadth of approaches, Environmental and Resource Economics will be welcomed by researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

This book is organized into 4 sections, each looking at the question of outcome prediction in cancer from a different angle. The first section describes the clinical problem and some of the predicaments that clinicians face in dealing with cancer. Amongst issues discussed in this section are the TNM staging, accepted methods for survival analysis and competing risks. The second section describes the biological and genetic markers and the role of bioinformatics. Understanding of the genetic and environmental basis of cancers will help in identifying high-risk populations and developing effective prevention and early detection strategies. The third section provides technical details of mathematical analysis behind survival prediction backed up by examples from various types of cancers. The fourth section describes a number of machine learning methods which have been applied to decision support in cancer. The final section describes how information is shared within the scientific and medical communities and with the general population using information technology and the World Wide Web.
* Applications cover 8 types of cancer including brain, eye, mouth, head and neck, breast, lungs, colon and prostate
* Include contributions from authors in 5 different disciplines
* Provides a valuable educational tool for medical informatics"

This book presents the major themes of the economic literature on natural resources and the environment. It is designed to bring the reader, in part with the aid of a unified model of optimal resource use, to the frontiers of the discipline, using only elementary mathematical models. Features special to exhaustible and renewable resources, including the problems posed by market imperfections, are treated as extensions of the basic model. The theoretical discussion is enriched with examples and applications, including a systematic investigation of the behaviour of resource reserves, costs, prices, and substitution possibilities. Substantial attention to environmental, as well as extractive, resources is a distinctive aspect of this book. The author describes methods of estimating the environmental costs of resource development and other projects, and presents some key empirical findings. Policy instruments to protect the environment, such as taxes, subsidies, marketable permits, and direct controls, are carefully analysed from a welfare-theoretic point of view.