Stochastic elasticity is a fast developing field that combines nonlinear elasticity and stochastic theories in order to significantly improve model predictions by accounting for uncertainties in the mechanical responses of materials. However, in contrast to the tremendous development of computational methods for large-scale problems, which have been proposed and implemented extensively in recent years, at the fundamental level, there is very little understanding of the uncertainties in the behaviour of elastic materials under large strains. Based on the idea that every large-scale problem starts as a small-scale data problem, this book combines fundamental aspects of finite (large-strain) elasticity and probability theories, which are prerequisites for the quantification of uncertainties in the elastic responses of soft materials. The problems treated in this book are drawn from the analytical continuum mechanics literature and incorporate random variables as basic concepts along with mechanical stresses and strains. Such problems are interesting in their own right but they are also meant to inspire further thinking about how stochastic extensions can be formulated before they can be applied to more complex physical systems.

This book develops alternative methods to estimate the unknown parameters in stochastic volatility models, offering a new approach to test model accuracy. While there is ample research to document stochastic differential equation models driven by Brownian motion based on discrete observations of the underlying diffusion process, these traditional methods often fail to estimate the unknown parameters in the unobserved volatility processes. This text studies the second order rate of weak convergence to normality to obtain refined inference results like confidence interval, as well as nontraditional continuous time stochastic volatility models driven by fractional Levy processes. By incorporating jumps and long memory into the volatility process, these new methods will help better predict option pricing and stock market crash risk. Some simulation algorithms for numerical experiments are provided.

This book is a “How To” guide for modeling population dynamics using Integral Projection Models (IPM) starting from observational data. It is written by a leading research team in this area and includes code in the R language (in the text and online) to carry out all computations. The intended audience are ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and mathematical biologists interested in developing data-driven models for animal and plant populations. IPMs may seem hard as they involve integrals. The aim of this book is to demystify IPMs, so they become the model of choice for populations structured by size or other continuously varying traits. The book uses real examples of increasing complexity to show how the life-cycle of the study organism naturally leads to the appropriate statistical analysis, which leads directly to the IPM itself. A wide range of model types and analyses are presented, including model construction, computational methods, and the underlying theory, with the more technical material in Boxes and Appendices. Self-contained R code which replicates all of the figures and calculations within the text is available to readers on GitHub. Stephen P. Ellner is Horace White Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, USA; Dylan Z. Childs is Lecturer and NERC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at The University of Sheffield, UK; Mark Rees is Professor in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at The University of Sheffield, UK.

One of the first books to provide in-depth and systematic application of finite element methods to the field of stochastic structural dynamics The parallel developments of the Finite Element Methods in the 1950’s and the engineering applications of stochastic processes in the 1940’s provided a combined numerical analysis tool for the studies of dynamics of structures and structural systems under random loadings. In the open literature, there are books on statistical dynamics of structures and books on structural dynamics with chapters dealing with random response analysis. However, a systematic treatment of stochastic structural dynamics applying the finite element methods seems to be lacking. Aimed at advanced and specialist levels, the author presents and illustrates analytical and direct integration methods for analyzing the statistics of the response of structures to stochastic loads. The analysis methods are based on structural models represented via the Finite Element Method. In addition to linear problems the text also addresses nonlinear problems and non-stationary random excitation with systems having large spatially stochastic property variations. A systematic treatment of stochastic structural dynamics applying the finite element methods Highly illustrated throughout and aimed at advanced and specialist levels, it focuses on computational aspects instead of theory Emphasizes results mainly in the time domain with limited contents in the time-frequency domain Presents and illustrates direction integration methods for analyzing the statistics of the response of linear and nonlinear structures to stochastic loads Under Author Information - one change of word to existing text: He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)........

This book introduces readers to benchmarking techniques in the stochastic environment, primarily stochastic data envelopment analysis (DEA), and provides stochastic models in DEA for the possibility of variations in inputs and outputs. It focuses on the application of theories and interpretations of the mathematical programs, which are combined with economic and organizational thinking. The book’s main purpose is to shed light on the advantages of the different methods in deterministic and stochastic environments and thoroughly prepare readers to properly use these methods in various cases. Simple examples, along with graphical illustrations and real-world applications in industry, are provided for a better understanding. The models introduced here can be easily used in both theoretical and real-world evaluations. This book is intended for graduate and PhD students, advanced consultants, and practitioners with an interest in quantitative performance evaluation.

This thesis summarizes most of my recent research in the field of portfolio optimization. The main topics which I have addressed are portfolio problems with stochastic interest rates and portfolio problems with defaultable assets. The starting point for my research was the paper "A stochastic control ap proach to portfolio problems with stochastic interest rates" (jointly with Ralf Korn), in which we solved portfolio problems given a Vasicek term structure of the short rate. Having considered the Vasicek model, it was obvious that I should analyze portfolio problems where the interest rate dynamics are gov erned by other common short rate models. The relevant results are presented in Chapter 2. The second main issue concerns portfolio problems with default able assets modeled in a firm value framework. Since the assets of a firm then correspond to contingent claims on firm value, I searched for a way to easily deal with such claims in portfolio problems. For this reason, I developed the elasticity approach to portfolio optimization which is presented in Chapter 3. However, this way of tackling portfolio problems is not restricted to portfolio problems with default able assets only, but it provides a general framework allowing for a compact formulation of portfolio problems even if interest rates are stochastic.

Chapters 6-9 present methods for solving problems defined by equations with deterministic and/or random coefficients and deterministic and/or stochastic inputs. The Monte Carlo simulation is used extensively throughout to clarify advanced theoretical concepts and provide solutions to a broad range of stochastic problems.".

In the summer of 1993, twenty-six graduate and postdoctoral stu dents and fourteen lecturers converged on Cornell University for a summer school devoted to structured-population models. This school was one of a series to address concepts cutting across the traditional boundaries separating terrestrial, marine, and freshwa ter ecology. Earlier schools resulted in the books Patch Dynamics (S. A. Levin, T. M. Powell & J. H. Steele, eds., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1993) and Ecological Time Series (T. M. Powell & J. H. Steele, eds., Chapman and Hall, New York, 1995); a book on food webs is in preparation. Models of population structure (differences among individuals due to age, size, developmental stage, spatial location, or genotype) have an important place in studies of all three kinds of ecosystem. In choosing the participants and lecturers for the school, we se lected for diversity-biologists who knew some mathematics and mathematicians who knew some biology, field biologists sobered by encounters with messy data and theoreticians intoxicated by the elegance of the underlying mathematics, people concerned with long-term evolutionary problems and people concerned with the acute crises of conservation biology. For four weeks, these perspec tives swirled in discussions that started in the lecture hall and carried on into the sweltering Ithaca night. Diversity mayor may not increase stability, but it surely makes things interesting.

This is a concise, unified exposition of the existing methods of analysis of linear stochastic waves with particular reference to the most recent results. Both scalar and vector waves are considered. Principal attention is concentrated on wave propagation in stochastic media and wave scattering at stochastic surfaces. However, discussion extends also to various mathematical aspects of stochastic wave equations and problems of modelling stochastic media.