Outcome Uncertain

Outcome Uncertain
Author: Ronald Munson
Publisher: Cengage Learning
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2003
Genre: Bioethics
ISBN:

This casebook presents both classic and current cases in bioethics, as well as the biomedical and social framework needed to understand the moral and social issues they raise. The text draws its cases from the author's market leading text, INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION, 6th Edition, and provides up-to-date introductions and a strong theoretical foundation for the critical study of bioethics.

Uncertainty in Games

Uncertainty in Games
Author: Greg Costikyan
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2015-01-30
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 0262527537

How uncertainty in games—from Super Mario Bros. to Rock/Paper/Scissors—engages players and shapes play experiences. In life, uncertainty surrounds us. Things that we thought were good for us turn out to be bad for us (and vice versa); people we thought we knew well behave in mysterious ways; the stock market takes a nosedive. Thanks to an inexplicable optimism, most of the time we are fairly cheerful about it all. But we do devote much effort to managing and ameliorating uncertainty. Is it any wonder, then, asks Greg Costikyan, that we have taken this aspect of our lives and transformed it culturally, making a series of elaborate constructs that subject us to uncertainty but in a fictive and nonthreatening way? That is: we create games. In this concise and entertaining book, Costikyan, an award-winning game designer, argues that games require uncertainty to hold our interest, and that the struggle to master uncertainty is central to their appeal. Game designers, he suggests, can harness the idea of uncertainty to guide their work. Costikyan explores the many sources of uncertainty in many sorts of games—from Super Mario Bros. and Dungeons & Dragons to Rock/Paper/Scissors, from Monopoly to CityVille, from FPS Deathmatch play to Chess. He describes types of uncertainty, including performative uncertainty, analytic complexity, and narrative anticipation. And he suggests ways that game designers who want to craft novel game experiences can use an understanding of game uncertainty in its many forms to improve their designs.

Rules of Play

Rules of Play
Author: Katie Salen Tekinbas
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 680
Release: 2003-09-25
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780262240451

An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date. As pop culture, games are as important as film or television—but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance. Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

Fuzziness and Approximate Reasoning

Fuzziness and Approximate Reasoning
Author: Kofi Kissi Dompere
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2009-07-28
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3540880879

We do not perceive the present as it is and in totality, nor do we infer the future from the present with any high degree of dependability, nor yet do we accurately know the consequences of our own actions. In addition, there is a fourth source of error to be taken into account, for we do not execute actions in the precise form in which they are imaged and willed. Frank H. Knight [R4.34, p. 202] The “degree” of certainty of confidence felt in the conclusion after it is reached cannot be ignored, for it is of the greatest practical signi- cance. The action which follows upon an opinion depends as much upon the amount of confidence in that opinion as it does upon fav- ableness of the opinion itself. The ultimate logic, or psychology, of these deliberations is obscure, a part of the scientifically unfathomable mystery of life and mind. Frank H. Knight [R4.34, p. 226-227] With some inaccuracy, description of uncertain consequences can be classified into two categories, those which use exclusively the language of probability distributions and those which call for some other principle, either to replace or supplement.

Risk, Decision and Rationality

Risk, Decision and Rationality
Author: Bertrand Munier
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 694
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 940094019X

Decision Theory has considerably developed in the late 1970's and the 1980's. The evolution has been so fast and far-r2aching that it has become increasingly difficult to keep track of the new state of the art. After a decade of new contributions, there was a need for an overview' of the field. This book is intended to fill the gap. The reader will find here thirty~nine selected papers which were given at FUR-III, the third international confe rence on the Foundations and applications of Utility, Risk and decision theories, held in Aix-en-Provence in June 1986. An introductory chapter will provide an overview of the main questions raised on the subject since the 17th Century and more particularly so in the last thirty years, as well as some elementary information on the experimental and theoretical results obtained. It is thus hoped that any reader with some basic background in either Economics, Hanagement or Operations Research will be able to read profitably the thirty-nine other chapters. Psychologists, Sociologists, Social Philosophers and other specialists of the social sciences will also read this book with interest, as will high-level practitioners of decision~making and advanced students in one of the abovementioned fields. An expository survey of this volume will be found at the end of the introductory chapter, so that any of the seven parts of the book can be put by the reader in due perspective.

Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis for Industrial Engineering

Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis for Industrial Engineering
Author: Gerald William Evans
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2016-12-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1498739857

This textbook presents methodologies and applications associated with multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA), especially for those students with an interest in industrial engineering. With respect to methodology, the book covers (1) problem structuring methods; (2) methods for ranking multi-dimensional deterministic outcomes including multiattribute value theory, the analytic hierarchy process, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and outranking techniques; (3) goal programming,; (4) methods for describing preference structures over single and multi-dimensional probabilistic outcomes (e.g., utility functions); (5) decision trees and influence diagrams; (6) methods for determining input probability distributions for decision trees, influence diagrams, and general simulation models; and (7) the use of simulation modeling for decision analysis. This textbook also offers: · Easy to follow descriptions of how to apply a wide variety of MCDA techniques · Specific examples involving multiple objectives and/or uncertainty/risk of interest to industrial engineers · A section on outranking techniques ; this group of techniques, which is popular in Europe, is very rarely mentioned as a methodology for MCDA in the United States · A chapter on simulation as a useful tool for MCDA, including ranking & selection procedures. Such material is rarely covered in courses in decision analysis · Both material review questions and problems at the end of each chapter . Solutions to the exercises are found in the Solutions Manual which will be provided along with PowerPoint slides for each chapter. The methodologies are demonstrated through the use of applications of interest to industrial engineers, including those involving product mix optimization, supplier selection, distribution center location and transportation planning, resource allocation and scheduling of a medical clinic, staffing of a call center, quality control, project management, production and inventory control,and so on. Specifically, industrial engineering problems are structured as classical problems in multiple criteria decision analysis, and the relevant methodologies are demonstrated.

Risk, Uncertainty and Decision-Making in Property

Risk, Uncertainty and Decision-Making in Property
Author: P. Byrne
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2002-11-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135821267

Provides undergraduates in surveying and property professionals with a clear practical explanation of the various management techniques to improve their property development decisions.

Fix Your Damn Book!

Fix Your Damn Book!
Author: James Osiris Baldwin
Publisher: Gift Horse Productions
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2016-05-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0994407025

Have you finished a novel manuscript? Wondering what to do next? Fix Your Damn Book! is a self-help manual for writers who have finished a manuscript – a novel, novella, short story, or serial – and who want to self-edit their work to a professional standard and get it on the market. In this instructional and occasionally hilarious book, James Osiris Baldwin – an author and editor with over 8 years of experience as a freelance and staff editor – explains his technique for painlessly and successfully polishing your manuscript to a perfect glow. Fix Your Damn Book! will: • Introduce you to the seven essential components of successful editing; • Help you get in the right headspace to edit your own work; • Teach you to objectively diagnose problems in your manuscript; • Walk you through the secrets of developmental editing and line editing; • Teach you hacks for sharpening your story, character, and dialogue; • Guide you through copy-editing and grammar, including a copy-editing essentials checklist; • Give you guidelines on recruiting and making the most out of your first readers; • Cover proofreading and publishing. You will also find a special section on writing and editing query letters, advice on developing characters and stories, a list of the best software to help you write and edit, and much more! If you want to write faster, edit stronger, master the craft of storytelling, and ensure your book is something to be proud of before you put it on the market, Fix Your Damn Book! is the how-to book for you.