A liability is an existing debt or obligation of a company. It is an amount owed to a third-party creditor that requires something of value, usually cash, to be transferred to the creditor to settle the debt. Most obligations are known amounts based on invoices and con- tracts; some liabilities are estimated because the value that changes hands is not fixed at the time of the initial transactio…
Istarted researching this book in 1997 as I watched the East Asian currency crisis unfold. I was writing my doctoral dissertationatOxfordUniversityontheroleofSiliconValley firms and the United States government in that regional crisis. At the time, I saw the crisis across the Pacific as, in part, an American crisis. We had contributed to the East Asian Miracle, while at the same time cre…
The landmark approval of a health claim for oats in 1997 by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marked the first food specific health claim. The FDA had concluded that an intake of at least glucan from oats as part of a diet low in saturated fats could help reduce the risk of heart disease (Chapter 17). Of importance is that the oat health claim signifies for the first time…
This handbook is intended as a reference for financial managers, credit and security analysts, bankers, lawyers, accountants, auditors, and educators, whose decisions en- compass the international dimensions of financial analysis, reporting, and control. It expands and updates the topical coverage of its award-winning predecessor, The Handbook of International Accounting, and, in its second e…
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has been an important analytical and qualitative tool in chemistry, material science, and organic geochemistry for quite some time, and now is becoming recognized as a valuable tool in environmental science and technology. Because it is a non- destructive and element-specific probe, it is useful for examining a myriad of environmental reactions occu…
Although the two terms “technology” and “engineering” are interlaced, the prin- ciples of each subject and their capabilities are quite different. Generally, de fi nition of technology is broader than that of engineering, and from a normative standpoint, it is a part of coevolution process with society (Keulartz et al. 2004). Technology emerges from ideas and wills for creating and u…
When building a new application, often one of the first things you’ll want to do is to design its data model. In relational databases such as MySQL, this step is formalized in the process of normalization, focused on removing redundancy from a set of tables. MongoDB, unlike relational databases, stores its data in structured documents rather than the fixed tables required in relational databa…
By its very nature, a very large distributed,decentralized,self-organized,and evolving system necessarily yields uncertain and incomplete measurements and data.Probability and statistics are the fundamental mathematical tools that allow us to model, reason and proceed with inference in uncertain environments. Not only are probabilistic methods needed to deal with noisy measurements, but many of…
Logical complexity of software systems is one of the main factors causing problems and errors in their planning, design, development, testing, deployment, maintenance, and use. There is a common under- standing that building complex software systems requires careful planning, good architectural design, and well-controlled development processes. Many good books and papers, as well as all softwar…
APIs are a big deal and they are getting bigger. Pioneering companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Twitter have exposed amazing technological solutions to the public, transforming existing businesses and creating new industries. Central to these companies’ successes are the APIs that link people and their computing devices to the underlying platforms that power each business and that …
Converting Server with a GUI to Server Core (Should know), provides methods using Windows PowerShell for converting a Windows Server 2012 Server with a GUI into Windows Server 2012 Server Core. This recipe also provides a method for identifying different types of Windows Server 2012. Configuring Windows Server 2012 (Must know), provides an overview of Window Server 2012 Server Manager, performi…
When briefing CIOs and senior IT executives at Microsoft, we are often told that migrating IT workloads to the cloud ranks among their highest priorities. That statement is almost inevitably followed by “How do I start?”; “How should I build a plan for cloud migration for my entire portfolio?”; and “How will my organization be affected by this change?” This book, based on real-world…
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit, Third Edition, is a comprehensive technical resource for installing, configuring, and supporting Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 in networks that use Microsoft Windows Server operating systems and other server systems. All versions of Windows XP Professional are covered, with an emphasis on Windows XP Service Pack 2. Feature and f…
A context is a surround. We are all situated or positioned in particular, but changing, contexts; which means that we are surrounded. Inevitably, however, we are part of our surroundings. It is perfectly true that we often feel disconnected from our surroundings. Sometimes we are just amused, even cynical, observers; or we can feel positively detached from what is going on around us (when it re…
Window functions, to me, are the most profound feature supported by both standard SQL and Microsoft SQL Server’s dialect—T-SQL. They allow you to perform calculations against sets of rows in a flexible, clear, and efficient manner. The design of window functions is ingenious, overcoming a number of shortcomings of the traditional alternatives. The range of problems that window functions hel…
Welcome to the wonderful world of Silverlight, Microsoft's platform for building Rich Internet Applications (RIA). The earliest versions of Silverlight focused on rich media, interactivity, and animation. Now Silverlight has gotten down to business with new features geared towards making business application development faster and easier. Of course, you still have access to all the graphics and…
ABSTRACT: This article provides a summary of economic issues found in Atlas Shrugged. It discusses the role of individual initiative, creativity, and productivity in economic progress as illustrated in this novel. It also shows the novel’s depiction of the benefits of trade—and the destruction of exchange relationships and production that results from government intervention in the econom…
Our world is dominated by an urban culture. Cities not only represent economies of density, but also economics of interaction. They incorporate both quantity and quality. Cities are not just geographical settlements of people, they are also the ‘home of man’ (Ward 1976). They reflect the varied history of mankind and are at the same time contemporaneous expressions of the diversity of human…