What if there was a technology so scary, reality seemed like your worst nightmare? No going back. Burned spy Tasha Shivko must rescue her brother from a Siberian prison and the only person who can help is her former partner Matt Kincaid. But Matt, once himself held captive in a Siberian prison, has no intention of returning to that God-forsaken place. An evil plot. Before his arrest, Tasha's brother managed to smuggle information out of Russia about a terrorist plot using a nanovirus developed by a dirty scientist. Code name: Zombie Virus-when injected it leaves its victims helpless to resist any command. The clock is ticking. Learning of the imminent terrorist threat, ex-FBI agent turned spymaster Dave Armstrong realizes Tasha's brother has critical information vital to thwart the plot. Dave entices Matt to join them and also pulls in Mafia princess Marisa Peruzzo who is now a reluctant mob boss. Marisa's job: set up a deal with a Russian mobster who has the contacts they need to set their trap. Marisa isn't that hard to convince; unbeknownst to Dave, she has her own vendetta. Will they succeed? From New York to Russia, from Alaska to Siberia, as they work to unravel the terrifying plans of an intricate criminal network, the small but loyal team is pushed to the Edge of Trust. Click buy now to continue the journey! Or still undecided? Scroll down to read an excerpt. **** EXCERPT: The MiG came into sight. Niko saw it first. “MiG’s on our tail.” “Thanks for that.” Matt put the small aircraft into a dive. Tasha’s stomach dove with it. Matt flew as close to the ground as he could, staying just high enough to miss the trees. If they were shot down, at least they wouldn’t have far to crash. Not flying in a straight line, Matt weaved in and out the top branches of the trees, up and down, using military strafing maneuvers. Tasha felt like she was on a roller-coaster. The MiG, flying at a speed much faster than the small plane, flew over them. “Dave send those coordinates yet?” Matt asked. Tasha checked her phone. “No, not yet.” Now, the MiG was now coming straight at them. “Let’s play chicken,” Tasha suggested. “Crazy woman.” Matt shook his head. “But smart. Hang on.” He pulled back on the yoke and the airplane rose at an alarming rate, pressing Tasha back into her seat. “Um . . . I was just joking. You know my sense of humor.” The plane kept gaining altitude until the MiG was directly in their line of sight. “Matt. Sarcasm. It was only sarcasm. I wasn’t serious. If the pilot gets over the shock, he’s going to blow us out of the sky.” Tasha could imagine bullets ripping through the windshield. “He’s got to get over the shock first,” Matt said. He didn’t waiver, but flew steadily toward the MiG. Little plane facing off with big bad-ass military jet. Tasha couldn’t imagine a scarier sight. “What the hell? Are you going to wait until you can see the white of his eyes?” Matt laughed, crazily enough seeming to enjoy himself. Flashbacks from his military days, perhaps? “Going down.” He put the plane into another sharp dive. Down, down, down. He was so focused his face looked like a granite statue. The MiG shot over the top and disappeared behind them. Only trouble was, Tasha’s stomach was still going up, up, up. It was possible she was going to lose the food she’d eaten earlier. “How the hell do you do this for a living?” “What happened to my tough woman?” “Your woman? I’m sure I’ll need to analyze that when I’m not about to barf.” She held onto her head, took deep lung-expanding breaths through her nose. He tossed her a glance. “You are looking a little green, baby.” She only managed a sideways glance. “Call me baby again, and I’ll cut out your tongue.” **** Will Tasha cut out Matt's tongue? Can Matt outfly the MiG? Scroll up and click buy now to find out. 408 pages, 121,500 words

"Originally published in 2009 by Summerside Press."

Recommender systems are one of the recent inventions to deal with the ever-growing information overload in relation to the selection of goods and services in a global economy. Collaborative Filtering (CF) is one of the most popular techniques in recommender systems. The CF recommends items to a target user based on the preferences of a set of similar users known as the neighbors, generated from a database made up of the preferences of past users. In the absence of these ratings, trust between the users could be used to choose the neighbor for recommendation making. Better recommendations can be achieved using an inferred trust network which mimics the real world “friend of a friend” recommendations. To extend the boundaries of the neighbor, an effective trust inference technique is required. This book proposes a trust interference technique called Directed Series Parallel Graph (DSPG) that has empirically outperformed other popular trust inference algorithms, such as TidalTrust and MoleTrust. For times when reliable explicit trust data is not available, this book outlines a new method called SimTrust for developing trust networks based on a user’s interest similarity. To identify the interest similarity, a user’s personalized tagging information is used. However, particular emphasis is given in what resources the user chooses to tag, rather than the text of the tag applied. The commonalities of the resources being tagged by the users can be used to form the neighbors used in the automated recommender system. Through a series of case studies and empirical results, this book highlights the effectiveness of this tag-similarity based method over the traditional collaborative filtering approach, which typically uses rating data. Trust for Intelligent Recommendation is intended for practitioners as a reference guide for developing improved, trust-based recommender systems. Researchers in a related field will also find this book valuable.

What does it mean to "trust?" What makes us feel secure enough to place our confidence—even at times our welfare—in the hands of other people? Is it possible to "trust" an institution? What exactly do people mean when they claim to "distrust" their governments? As difficult as it may be to define, trust is essential to the formation and maintenance of a civil society. In Trust and Trustworthiness political scientist Russell Hardin addresses the standard theories of trust and articulates his own new and compelling idea: that much of what we call trust can be best described as "encapsulated interest." Research into the roles of trust in our society has offered a broad range of often conflicting theories. Some theorists maintain that trust is a social virtue that cannot be reduced to strategic self-interest; others claim that trusting another person is ultimately a rational calculation based on information about that person and his or her incentives and motivations. Hardin argues that we place our trust in persons whom we believe to have strong reasons to act in our best interests. He claims that we are correct when we assume that the main incentive of those whom we trust is to maintain a relationship with us—whether it be for reasons of economic benefit or for love and friendship. Hardin articulates his theory using examples from a broad array of personal and social relationships, paying particular attention to explanations of the development of trusting relationships. He also examines trustworthiness and seeks to understand why people may behave in ways that violate their own self-interest in order to honor commitments they have made to others. The book also draws important distinctions between vernacular uses of "trust" and "trustworthiness," contrasting, for example, the type of trust (or distrust) we place in individuals with the trust we place in institutions Trust and Trustworthiness represents the culmination of important new research into the roles of trust in our society; it offers a challenging new voice in the current discourse about the origins of cooperative behavior and its consequences for social and civic life. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation Series on Trust

How are organizations expected to foster innovation and expertise among employees when they lack trust and collaboration between their management and staff? This common problem in workplaces stifles creativity that is a driving element of innovation, creating an environment of stagnation. These organizations need the book, Management Model for Building Trust and Upskilling the Workforce, which provides a practical framework that addresses these issues. It emphasizes shared affiliations and trust-building, enabling managers to move toward building an environment that nurtures innovation and expertise. The Sharing Affiliations, Innovation, and Expertise (SHINE) model encourages managers to adopt a mindset that values collaboration and open communication, providing a practical and applicable solution. Organizations can overcome obstacles and drive meaningful change by implementing the SHINE model. This book offers real-world examples and case studies demonstrating how organizations can leverage the SHINE model to break free from outdated practices and empower their workforce to embrace a culture of innovation and learning.