In 2011, there were fourteen natural calamities that each destroyed over a billion dollars worth of property in the United States alone. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast and major earthquakes struck in Italy, the Philippines, Iran, and Afghanistan. In the first half of 2013, the awful drumbeat continued a monster supertornado struck Moore, Oklahoma; a powerful earthquake shook Sichuan, China; a cyclone ravaged Queensland, Australia; massive floods inundated Jakarta, Indonesia; and the largest wildfire ever engulfed a large part of Colorado.

Despite these events, we still behave as if natural disasters are outliers. Why else would we continue to build new communities near active volcanoes, on tectonically active faults, on flood plains, and in areas routinely lashed by vicious storms?

A famous historian once observed that civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice. In the pages of this unique book, leading geologist Susan W. Kieffer provides a primer on most types of natural disasters: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, hurricanes, cyclones, and tornadoes. By taking us behind the scenes of the underlying geology that causes them, she shows why natural disasters are more common than we realize, and that their impact on us will increase as our growing population crowds us into ever more vulnerable areas.

Kieffer describes how natural disasters result from changes in state in a geologic system, much as when water turns to steam. By understanding what causes these changes of state, we can begin to understand the dynamics of natural disasters.

In the book s concluding chapter, Kieffer outlines how we might better prepare for, and in some cases prevent, future disasters. She also calls for the creation of an organization, something akin to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but focused on pending natural disasters."

The functional psychoses, medical diseases with no known biological causes (for example, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders), continue to be classed as illnesses of unknown origin, and the validity of diagnostic concepts therefore also depends on extrinsic criteria such as course and outcome, results of biological and genetic investigation, and response to treatment. Operational diagnostic criteria, or the process of defining a psychosis by studying its manifestations, are the main subject of this book, which presents a comprehensive review of the present state of diagnostic formulations for functional psychoses. From the early nosological and pathogenetic concepts of Kraepelin, Bleuler. Schneider, and Kasanin, the authors trace the development, internationally, of the various classifications of the functional psychoses, culminating among others in those embodied in the latest International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) formulations. This is a revised and expanded edition of Diagnostic Criteria for Schizophrenic and Affective Psychoses and is also published under the auspices of the World Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic criteria have been selected for inclusion on the basis of their historic importance, their influence on current diagnostic systems, their international scope, and their scientific importance.

The functional psychoses continue to be classed as illnesses of unknown origin, and the validity of diagnostic concepts therefore also depends on extrinsic criteria such as course and outcome, results of biological and genetic investigation, and response to treatment. 'Operational' diagnostic criteria are the main subject of this book, first published in 1992, which presents a comprehensive review of the state of diagnostic formulations for functional psychoses. From the early nosological and pathogenetic concepts of Kraepelin, Bleuler, Schneider and Kasanin, the authors trace the development, internationally, of the various classifications of the functional psychoses, culminating among others in those embodied in the latest ICD and DSM formulations. This is a revised and expanded edition of Diagnostic Criteria for Schizophrenic and Affective Psychoses and is also published under the auspices of the World Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic criteria have been selected for inclusion on the basis of their historical importance, their influence on current diagnostic systems, their international scope and their scientific importance.