SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2024'Fascinating, witty and perspective-shifting . . . I finished it not only better informed about a captivating branch of mathematics, but with an invigorating sense of greater purchase on the world' OLIVER BURKEMANThomas Bayes was an eighteenth-century Presbyterian minister and amateur mathematician whose obscure life belied the profound impact of his work. Fusing biography, razor-sharp science communication and intellectual history, Everything Is Predictable is a captivating tour of Bayes' theorem and its impact on modern life. From medical testing to artificial intelligence, Tom Chivers shows how a single compelling idea can have far-reaching consequences. Read more

Essential Property Investment CalculationsOverviewLike any other form of investment, property investment is largely a numbers game. But there’s a big gap between the techniques used by individual investors in the residential buy-to-let market and the more disciplined, numbers-led approach used by professional real estate investors. Moreover, there is no single source of knowledge or wisdom that brings all these calculation techniques and metrics together in one place. This book aims to bridge this gap. It will teach you the property investment techniques and formalised metrics used by professional investors to assess property deals and manage their portfolios.Essential Property Investment Calculations is a guide to all the calculations, numerical techniques and metrics you need to know to take your property investing to the next level.Part OnePart One is all about the early stages of property investment and assessing property deals. It will teach you the property investment calculations you need to know to find, finance and close any property deal. You'll learn techniques used by property valuation experts and negotiation strategies you can use to close your next property deal.Part TwoPart Two is all about property management. It will teach you how to measure property returns, both on a property-by-property basis and at the total portfolio level. You'll learn all the property management KPIs you need to track and improve performance, how to quantify and manage key property investing risks and the five golden rules of portfolio building.Whether you're new to property investing or a seasoned professional, this book is a guide to the essential property investment and property management calculations you need to know.List of ChaptersPart One : Assessing a property dealChapter 1 - Rental yield calculationsChapter 2 - Stress testing deal cash flowChapter 3 - How to value residential propertyChapter 4 - Calculations for deal financingChapter 5 - Ten negotiation tips and tricksPart Two : Managing your property portfolioChapter 6 - Accounting for property investorsChapter 7 - How to measure your returnsChapter 8 - Property management KPIsChapter 9 - Portfolio risk managementChapter 10 - Golden rules of portfolio buildingAbout the AuthorRobert Heaton is a property investor, writer and qualified actuary.He blogs about property investment and property investing at his website. Read more

A fascinating exploration of how computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives.In this dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, acclaimed author Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths show us how the simple, precise algorithms used by computers can also untangle very human questions. Modern life is constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? The authors explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others.From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to understanding the workings of human memory, Algorithms To Live By is full of practical takeaways to help you solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind. Read more

'A brilliant account of how models are so often abused and of how they should be used' John KayHow do mathematical models shape our world - and how can we harness their power for good?Models are at the centre of everything we do. Whether we use them or are simply affected by them, they act as metaphors that help us better understand the increasingly complex problems facing us in the modern world. Without models, we couldn't begin to tackle three of the major challenges facing modern society: regulation of the economy, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet in recent years, the validity of the models we use has been hotly debated and there has been renewed awareness of the disastrous consequences when the makers and interpreters of models get things wrong.Drawing on contemporary examples from finance, climate and health policy, Erica Thompson explores what models are, why we need them, how they work and what happens when they go wrong. This is not a book that argues we should do away with models, but rather, that we need to properly understand how they are constructed - and how some of the assumptions that underlie the models we use can have significant unintended consequences. Unexpectedly humorous, thought-provoking and passionate, this is essential reading for everyone. Read more

With a foreword by Tim Rice, this book will change the way you see the world. Why is it better to buy a lottery ticket on a Friday? Why are showers always too hot or too cold? And what's the connection between a rugby player taking a conversion and a tourist trying to get the best photograph of Nelson's Column?These and many other fascinating questions are answered in this entertaining and highly informative book, which is ideal for anyone wanting to remind themselves – or discover for the first time – that maths is relevant to almost everything we do.Dating, cooking, travelling by car, gambling and even life-saving techniques have links with intriguing mathematical problems, as you will find explained here. Whether you have a PhD in astrophysics or haven't touched a maths problem since your school days, this book will give you a fresh understanding of the world around you. Read more

This book applies the mathematics and concepts of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory to the modelling of interest rates and the theory of options. Particular emphasis is placed on path integrals and Hamiltonians. Financial mathematics is dominated by stochastic calculus. The present book offers a formulation that is completely independent of that approach. As such many results emerge from the ideas developed by the author. This work will be of interest to physicists and mathematicians working in the field of finance, to quantitative analysts in banks and finance firms and to practitioners in the field of fixed income securities and foreign exchange. The book can also be used as a graduate text for courses in financial physics and financial mathematics. Read more

Volatility underpins financial markets by encapsulating uncertainty about prices, individual behaviors, and decisions and has traditionally been modeled as a semimartingale, with consequent scaling properties. This mathematical description has been an active topic of research for decades, however, driven by empirical estimates of the scaling behavior of volatility, a new paradigm has emerged, whereby paths of volatility are rougher than those of semimartingales. According to this perspective, volatility is path-dependent and exhibits jump-like short-term behavior.The first book to offer a comprehensive exploration of the subject, Rough Volatility contributes to the understanding and application of rough volatility models by equipping readers with the tools and insights needed to delve into the topic, exploring the motivation for rough volatility modeling and providing a toolbox for computation and practical implementation, and organizing the material to reflect the subject's development and progression. Read more

Everything you need to make the most of building information modelingIf you're looking to get involved in the world of BIM, but don't quite know where to start, Building Information Modeling For Dummies is your one-stop guide to collaborative building using one coherent system of computer models rather than as separate sets of drawings. Inside, you'll find an easy-to-follow introduction to BIM and hands-on guidance for understanding drivers for change, the benefits of BIM, requirements you need to get started, and where BIM is headed.The future of BIM is bright―it provides the industry with an increased understanding of predictability, improved efficiency, integration and coordination, less waste, and better value and quality. Additionally, the use of BIM goes beyond the planning and design phase of the project, extending throughout the building life cycle and supporting processes, including cost management, construction management, project management, and facility operation. Now heavily adopted in the U.S., Hong Kong, India, Singapore, France, Canada, and countless other countries, BIM is set to become a mandatory practice in building work in the UK, and this friendly guide gives you everything you need to make sense of it―fast.Demonstrates how BIM saves time and waste on siteShows you how the information generated from BIM leads to fewer errors on siteExplains how BIM is based on data sets that describe objects virtually, mimicking the way they'll be handled physically in the real worldHelps you grasp how the integration of BIM allows every stage of the life cycle to work together without data or process conflictWritten by a team of well-known experts, this friendly, hands-on guide gets you up and running with BIM fast. Read more

Malliavin Calculus in Finance: Theory and Practice, Second Edition introduces the study of stochastic volatility (SV) models via Malliavin Calculus. Originally motivated by the study of the existence of smooth densities of certain random variables, Malliavin calculus has had a profound impact on stochastic analysis. In particular, it has been found to be an effective tool in quantitative finance, as in the computation of hedging strategies or the efficient estimation of the Greeks.This book aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice and demonstrate the practical value of Malliavin calculus. It offers readers the chance to discover an easy-to-apply tool that allows us to recover, unify, and generalize several previous results in the literature on stochastic volatility modeling related to the vanilla, the forward, and the VIX implied volatility surfaces. It can be applied to local, stochastic, and also to rough volatilities (driven by a fractional Brownian motion) leading to simple and explicit results.FeaturesIntermediate-advanced level text on quantitative finance, oriented to practitioners with a basic background in stochastic analysis, which could also be useful for researchers and students in quantitative financeIncludes examples on concrete models such as the Heston, the SABR and rough volatilities, as well as several numerical experiments and the corresponding Python scriptsCovers applications on vanillas, forward start options, and options on the VIX.The book also has a Github repository with the Python library corresponding to the numerical examples in the text. The library has been implemented so that the users can re-use the numerical code for building their examples. The repository can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/2KNex2Y.New to the Second EditionIncludes a new chapter to study implied volatility within the Bachelier framework.Chapters 7 and 8 have been thoroughly updated to introduce a more detailed discussion on the relationship between implied and local volatilities, according to the new results in the literature. Read more

Book Read more

Linear algebra and the foundations of deep learning, together at last! From Professor Gilbert Strang, acclaimed author of Introduction to Linear Algebra, comes Linear Algebra and Learning from Data, the first textbook that teaches linear algebra together with deep learning and neural nets. This readable yet rigorous textbook contains a complete course in the linear algebra and related mathematics that students need to know to get to grips with learning from data. Included are: the four fundamental subspaces, singular value decompositions, special matrices, large matrix computation techniques, compressed sensing, probability and statistics, optimization, the architecture of neural nets, stochastic gradient descent and backpropagation. Read more

Simulating the behavior of a human heart, predicting tomorrow's weather, optimizing the aerodynamics of a sailboat, finding the ideal cooking time for a hamburger: to solve these problems, cardiologists, meteorologists, sportsmen, and engineers can count on math help. This book will lead you to the discovery of a magical world, made up of equations, in which a huge variety of important problems for our life can find useful answers. Read more

Learn to use modeling and simulation methods to attack real-world problems, from physics to engineering, from life sciences to process engineeringReviews of the first edition (2009):"Perfectly fits introductory modeling courses [...] and is an enjoyable reading in the first place. Highly recommended [...]"Zentralblatt MATH, European Mathematical Society, 2009"This book differs from almost all other available modeling books in that [the authors address] both mechanistic and statistical models as well as 'hybrid' models. [...] The modeling range is enormous."SIAM Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, USA, 2011This completely revised and substantially extended second edition answers the most important questions in the field of modeling: What is a mathematical model? What types of models do exist? Which model is appropriate for a particular problem? What are simulation, parameter estimation, and validation? What kind of mathematical problems appear and how can these be efficiently solved using professional free of charge open source software?The book addresses undergraduates and practitioners alike. Although only basic knowledge of calculus and linear algebra is required, the most important mathematical structures are discussed in sufficient detail, ranging from statistical models to partial differential equations and accompanied by examples from biology, ecology, economics, medicine, agricultural, chemical, electrical, mechanical, and process engineering.About 200 pages of additional material include a unique chapter on virtualization, Crash Courses on the data analysis and programming languages R and Python and on the computer algebra language Maxima, many new methods and examples scattered throughout the book, an update of all software-related procedures, and a comprehensive book software providing templates for typical modeling tasks in thousands of code lines. The book software includes GmLinux, an operating system specifically designed for this book providing preconfigured and ready-to-use installations of OpenFOAM, Salome, FreeCAD/CfdOF workbench, ParaView, R, Maxima/wxMaxima, Python, Rstudio, Quarto/Markdown and other free of charge open source software used in the book. Read more

'Football looked at in a very different way' Pat Nevin, former Chelsea and Everton star and football media analystFootball - the most mathematical of sports. From shot statistics and league tables to the geometry of passing and managerial strategy, the modern game is filled with numbers, patterns and shapes. How do we make sense of them? The answer lies in the mathematical models applied in biology, physics and economics. Soccermatics brings football and mathematics together in a mind-bending synthesis, using numbers to help reveal the inner workings of the beautiful game.This new and expanded edition analyses the current big-name players and teams using mathematics, and meets the professionals working inside football who use numbers and statistics to boost performance.Welcome to the world of mathematical modelling, expressed brilliantly by David Sumpter through the prism of football. No matter who you follow - from your local non-league side to the big boys of the Premiership, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A or the MLS - you'll be amazed at what mathematics has to teach us about the world's favourite sport. Read more

This practical guide is designed for students and researchers with an existing knowledge of R who wish to learn how to apply it in an epidemiological context and exploit its versatility. It also serves as a broader introduction to the quantitative aspects of modern practical epidemiology. The standard tools used in epidemiology are described and the practical use of R for these is clearly explained and laid out. R code examples, many with output, are embedded throughout the text. The entire code is also available on the companion website so that readers can reproduce all the results and graphs featured in the book.Epidemiology with R is an advanced textbook suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate students, professional researchers, and practitioners in the fields of human and non-human epidemiology, public health, veterinary science, and biostatistics. Read more

The human brain is made up of 85 billion neurons, which are connected by over 100 trillion synapses. For more than a century, a diverse array of researchers searched for a language that could be used to capture the essence of what these neurons do and how they communicate – and how those communications create thoughts, perceptions and actions. The language they were looking for was mathematics, and we would not be able to understand the brain as we do today without it.In Models of the Mind, author and computational neuroscientist Grace Lindsay explains how mathematical models have allowed scientists to understand and describe many of the brain's processes, including decision-making, sensory processing, quantifying memory, and more. She introduces readers to the most important concepts in modern neuroscience, and highlights the tensions that arise when the abstract world of mathematical modelling collides with the messy details of biology. Each chapter of Models of the Mind focuses on mathematical tools that have been applied in a particular area of neuroscience, progressing from the simplest building block of the brain – the individual neuron – through to circuits of interacting neurons, whole brain areas and even the behaviours that brains command. Lindsay examines the history of the field, starting with experiments done on frog legs in the late eighteenth century and building to the large models of artificial neural networks that form the basis of modern artificial intelligence. Throughout, she reveals the value of using the elegant language of mathematics to describe the machinery of neuroscience. Read more

Finance is one of the fastest growing areas in the modern banking and corporate world. This, together with the sophistication of modern financial products, provides a rapidly growing impetus for new mathematical models and modern mathematical methods; the area is an expanding source for novel and relevant 'real-world' mathematics. In this book the authors describe the modelling of financial derivative products from an applied mathematician's viewpoint, from modelling through analysis to elementary computation. A unified approach to modelling derivative products as partial differential equations is presented, using numerical solutions where appropriate. Some mathematics is assumed, but clear explanations are provided for material beyond elementary calculus, probability, and algebra. Over 140 exercises are included. This volume will become the standard introduction to this exciting new field for advanced undergraduate students. Read more

'There is no author whose books I look forward to more' Bill GatesThe New York Times bestselling author returns with a mind-opening exploration of how size defines life on Earth.Explaining the key processes shaping size in nature, society and technology, Smil busts myths around proportions - from bodies to paintings and the so-called golden ratio - tells us what Jonathan Swift got wrong in Gulliver's Travels - the giant Brobdingnagian's legs would buckle under their enormous weight - and dives headfirst into the most contentious issue in ergonomics: the size of aeroplane seats.It is no exaggeration to say this fascinating and wide-ranging tour de force will change the way you look at absolutely everything.‘Vaclav Smil is a phenomenon with an appetite for facts over prejudice and fashion. Essential reading for anyone who cares about the future’ Lord Norman Foster Read more

A bold, visionary, and mind-bending exploration of how the geometry of chaos can explain our uncertain world―from weather and pandemics to quantum physics and free willCovering a breathtaking range of topics―from climate change to the foundations of quantum physics, from economic modelling to conflict prediction, from free will to consciousness and spirituality―The Primacy of Doubt takes us on a unique journey through the science of uncertainty. A key theme that unifies these seemingly unconnected topics is the geometry of chaos: the beautiful and profound fractal structures that lie at the heart of much of modern mathematics. Royal Society Research Professor Tim Palmer shows us how the geometry of chaos not only provides the means to predict the world around us, it suggests new insights into some of the most astonishing aspects of our universe and ourselves. This important and timely book helps the reader makes sense of uncertainty in a rapidly changing world. Read more