Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Biomedical Engineering for Africa
Tania Douglas · University of Cape Town Libraries · 2019
Health technology innovation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including countries in Africa, falls far short of meeting the healthcare needs of these settings. The result is a heavy reliance on products and technologies imported from industrialised countries that are often not suited to, or sustainable for, LMICs. Appropriate healthcare products for LMICs are best developed in these countries, where local knowledge and understanding of needs, context and available resources may be incorporated into designs and implementation plans. The objectives for enabling health technology development in LMICs include: 1) expanding the base of expertise through research training programmes with a problem-solving focus; 2) stimulating new knowledge, approaches and solutions by enabling innovation; and 3) integrating research communities within and across institutions to build critical mass. The field of biomedical engineering is central to health technology innovation. This book is a response to the need for biomedical engineering capacity in Africa. It is grounded in the African context. It serves as a resource for academics and students in biomedical engineering, for those interested in entering the field in any capacity and for practitioners at every stage of product development. University leaders intent on establishing new biomedical engineering programmes or departments, may draw on the content for guidance on structuring their offerings. The book reaches beyond Africa, as it is relevant to other LMIC settings, and provides insights to guide global health initiatives focused on technology innovation.
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Construction Contracting: Business and Legal Principles, Second Edition
Stewart Bartholomew · Virginia Tech Libraries · 2002
This introduction to construction contracting as it applies to typical, every-day situations explains “theoretical” ideas in terms of what really happens in practice. It emphasizes the more common case law holdings and industry customs that help avoid troublesome legal issues during the completion of a project. Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at https://bit.ly/interest_construction_contracting Any derivatives of this work must comply with the use and attribution requirements of the Creative Commons license, and include the following statement, “This material was previously published by Pearson Education, Inc.” Construction Contracting, 2nd edition is an "out of print," rights-reverted book for which the author's estate has given permission for digitization and release under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license. It was previously published in 2002 by Pearson ISBN 1-13-091055-4. The copyright page has been edited and graphics redrawn. A new cover, dedication, acknowledgements, how to adopt this book, and author biography have been added, and the table of contents has been revised. As the book has been reformatted, the original back of the book index is not included.
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Open Signals and Systems Laboratory Exercises
Aaron Fonseca; Julie Dickerson · Iowa State University · 2024
Open Signals and Systems Laboratory Exercises is a collection of lab assignments that have been used in EE 224: Signals and Systems I in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. These lab exercises have been curated, edited, and presented in a consistent format to improve student learning. This second edition provides a thorough coverage of the MATLAB concepts needed to complete each exercise, and incorporates hardware descriptions and explanations into the exercises that had integrated new lab equipment. A ZIP file containing additional materials is also available.
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Ports and Waterways: Navigating the changing world
Mark van Koningsveld; Henk Verheij; Poonam Taneja; Huib de Vriend · TU Delft Open
Before you lies the book ‘Ports and Waterways - Navigating the changing world’, written by the Ports and Waterways team, part of the Civil Engineering and Geosciences faculty at Delft University of Technology. It integrates the content of a number of separate lecture notes we used in our teaching activities and updates this information where relevant. The integration reflects our vision that ports and waterways should be viewed as parts of a coherent system that supports waterborne supply chains, and that their integral design and operation is essential.
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Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance
James Marchman III · Virginia Tech Libraries · 2004
Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance, 3rd edition is a college undergraduate-level introduction to aircraft aerodynamics and performance. This text is designed for a course in Aircraft Performance that is taught before the students have had any course in fluid mechanics, fluid dynamics, or aerodynamics. The text is meant to provide the essential information from these types of courses that is needed for teaching basic subsonic aircraft performance, and it is assumed that the students will learn the full story of aerodynamics in other, later courses. The text assumes that the students will have had a university level Physics sequence in which they will have been introduced to the most fundamental concepts of statics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, and basic conservation laws that are needed to understand the coverage that follows. It is also assumed that students will have completed first year university level calculus sequence plus a course in multi-variable calculus. Separate courses in engineering statics and dynamics are helpful but not necessary. Any student who takes a course using this text after completing courses in aerodynamics or fluid dynamics should find the chapters of this book covering those subjects an interesting review of the material. The 236-page text was created specifically for use by undergraduate students in Aerospace Engineering and was based on Professor Marchman’s many years of experience teaching related subject matter as well as his numerous wind tunnel research projects related to aircraft aerodynamics and his personal experience as the owner and pilot of a general aviation airplane. It has been used at Virginia Tech and other universities. Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/aerodynamics_interest.
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Introduction to Biosystems Engineering
Nicholas M. Holden; Mary Leigh Wolfe; Jactone A. Ogejo; Enda J. Cummins · American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), Virginia Tech Publishing · 2021
The discipline of Biosystems Engineering emerged in the 1990s from the traditional strongholds of agricultural engineering and food engineering. Biosystems engineering integrates engineering science and design with applied biological, environmental, and agricultural sciences. Introduction to Biosystems Engineering is targeted at 1st and 2nd year university-level students with an interest in biosystems engineering but who are not yet familiar with the breadth and depth of the subject. It is designed as a coherent educational resource, also available for download as individual digital chapters. The book can be used as a localized, customizable text for introductory courses in Biosystems Engineering globally. It is written as a series of stand-alone chapters organized under six major topics: Food and Bioprocessing; Environment; Buildings and Infrastructure; Information and Communications Technology and Data; Machinery Systems; and Energy. Each chapter is organized around stated learning outcomes and describes key concepts, applications of the concepts, and worked examples. Instructors adopting or reviewing this text are encouraged to register with the publisher using this form.
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Applied Fluid Mechanics Lab Manual
Habib Ahmari; Shah Md Imran Kabir; Ginny Bowers · Mavs Open Press · 2019
This lab manual provides students with the theory, practical applications, objectives, and laboratory procedure of ten experiments. The manual also includes educational videos showing how student should run each experiment and a workbook for organizing data collected in the lab and preparing result tables and charts.
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Electromagnetics
Steven Ellingson · Virginia Tech Publishing · 2020
Electromagnetics, volume 2 by Steven W. Ellingson is a 216-page peer-reviewed open textbook designed especially for electrical engineering students in the third year of a bachelor of science degree program. It is intended as the primary textbook for the second semester of a two-semester undergraduate engineering electromagnetics sequence. The book addresses magnetic force and the Biot-Savart law; general and lossy media; parallel plate and rectangular waveguides; parallel wire, microstrip, and coaxial transmission lines; AC current flow and skin depth; reflection and transmission at planar boundaries; fields in parallel plate, parallel wire, and microstrip transmission lines; optical fiber; and radiation and antennas. To express your interest in this book or series, please visit http://bit.ly/vtpublishing-updates Additional resources Problem sets and the corresponding solution manuals; Slides of figures used in and created for the book; LaTeX sourcefiles; Errata for Volume 2; Collaborator portal for the Electromagnetics series; Faculty listserv for the Electromagnetics series. An accessible version will be available in January 2020. The Open Electromagnetics Project Led by Steven W. Ellingson at Virginia Tech, the goal of the Open Electromagnetics Project is to create no-cost openly-licensed content for courses in engineering electromagnetics. The project is motivated by two things: lowering learning material costs for students and giving faculty the freedom to adopt, modify, and improve their educational resources. Books in this Series Electromagnetics, Volume 1 https://doi.org/10.21061/electromagnetics-vol-1 Electromagnetics, Volume 2 https://doi.org/10.21061/electromagnetics-vol-2
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Microwave and RF Design: Amplifiers and Oscillators
Michael Steer · North Carolina State University Libraries · 2019
Microwave and RF Design: Amplifiers and Oscillators presents the design of amplifiers and oscillators in a way that enables state-of-the-art designs to be realized. Detailed strategies and case studies are presented. Design of competitive microwave amplifiers and oscillators is particularly challenging as many trade-offs are required in design, and the design decisions cannot be reduced to a formulaic flow. The emphasis is on developing design skills. This book is suitable as both an undergraduate and graduate textbook, as well as a career-long reference book.
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Microwave and RF Design: Networks
Michael Steer · North Carolina State University Libraries · 2019
Microwave and RF Design: Networks presents the tools and techniques required to analyze and design microwave and RF circuits. Because of the finite speed of light, microwave circuits must be considered to be spatially distributed and so there is not a single ground. As such metrics that can be used to describe power flow are of most use. The topics covered include scattering parameters, signal flow graphs, and Smith charts. Acquiring expertise in these is the biggest barriers to a successful career in microwave and RF engineering. This book is suitable as both an undergraduate and graduate textbook, as well as a career-long reference book.
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Fundamentals of Microwave and RF Design
Michael Steer · North Carolina State University Libraries · 2019
Fundamentals of Microwave and RF Design enables mastery of the essential concepts required to cross the barriers to a successful career in microwave and RF design. Extensive treatment of scattering parameters, that naturally describe power flow, and of Smith-chart-based design procedures prepare the student for success. The emphasis is on design at the module level and on covering the whole range of microwave functions available. The orientation is towards using microstrip transmission line technologies and on gaining essential mathematical, graphical and design skills for module design proficiency. This book is derived from a multi volume comprehensive book series, Microwave and RF Design, Volumes 1-5, with the emphasis in this book being on presenting the fundamental materials required to gain entry to RF and microwave design. This book closely parallels the companion series that can be consulted for in-depth analysis with referencing of the book series being familiar and welcoming.
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Dredging Engineering: Special Topics
Sape Miedema · TU Delft Open · 2019
In dredging, production estimating is carried out mainly with analytical physical models of the different dredging processes.Slurry transport of settling slurries and cutting processes in sand, clay and rock are already covered in two other books by the author.Other processes like hopper sedimentation and erosion, water jet fluidization, cutter head spillage, pump/pipeline dynamics and clamshell dredging are covered in this Special Topics Edition.New topics may be added in the near future
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Direct Energy
Andrea Mitofsky · Andrea M. Mitofsky · 2018
Direct Energy Conversion discusses both the physics behind energy conversion processes and a wide variety of energy conversion devices. A direct energy conversion process converts one form of energy to another through a single process. The first half of this book surveys multiple devices that convert to or from electricity including piezoelectric devices, antennas, solar cells, light emitting diodes, lasers, thermoelectric devices, and batteries. In these chapters, physical effects are discussed, terminology used by engineers in the discipline is introduced, and insights into material selection is studied. The second part of this book puts concepts of energy conversion in a more abstract framework. These chapters introduce the idea of calculus of variations and illuminate relationships between energy conversion processes.
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Operational Amplifiers & Linear Integrated Circuits: Theory and Application
James Fiore · dissidents · 2018
The goal of this text, as its name implies, is to allow the reader to become proficient in the analysis and design of circuits utilizing modern linear ICs. It progresses from the fundamental circuit building blocks through to analog/digital conversion systems. The text is intended for use in a second year Operational Amplifiers course at the Associate level, or for a junior level course at the Baccalaureate level. In order to make effective use of this text, students should have already taken a course in basic discrete transistor circuits, and have a solid background in algebra and trigonometry, along with exposure to phasors. Calculus is used in certain sections of the text, but for the most part, its use is kept to a minimum. For students without a calculus background, these sections may be skipped without a loss of continuity. (The sole exception to this being Chapter Ten, Integrators and Differentiators, which hinges upon knowledge of calculus.) There is also a lab manual for this textbook.
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Semiconductor Devices: Theory and Application
James Fiore · dissidents · 2018
The goal of this text, as its name implies, is to allow the reader to become proficient in the analysis and design of circuits utilizing discrete semiconductor devices. It progresses from basic diodes through bipolar and field effect transistors. The text is intended for use in a first or second year course on semiconductors at the Associate or Baccalaureate level. In order to make effective use of this text, students should have already taken coursework in basic DC and AC circuits, and have a solid background in algebra and trigonometry along with exposure to phasors. Calculus is used in certain sections of the text but for the most part it is used for equation derivations and proofs, and is kept to a minimum. For students without a calculus background these sections may be skipped without a loss of continuity. There is also a lab manual for this textbook.
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Notes on Diffy Qs: Differential Equations for Engineers
Jirí Lebl · Jirí Lebl · 2014
A one semester first course on differential equations, aimed at engineering students. Prerequisite for the course is the basic calculus sequence. This free online book (e-book in webspeak) should be usable as a stand-alone textbook or as a companion to a course using another book such as Edwards and Penney, Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems: Computing and Modeling or Boyce and DiPrima, Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems (section correspondence to these two is given). I developed and used these notes to teach Math 286/285 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sample Dirichlet problem solution (one is a 4-day-a-week, the other a 3-day-a-week semester-long course). I have also taught Math 20D at University of California, San Diego with these notes (a 3-day-a-week quarter-long course). There is enough material to run a 2-quarter course, and even perhaps a two semester course depending on lecturer speed.
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Elementary Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems
William Trench · A.T. Still University · 2013
Elementary Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems is written for students in science, engineering, and mathematics who have completed calculus through partial differentiation. An elementary text should be written so the student can read it with comprehension without too much pain. I have tried to put myself in the student's place, and have chosen to err on the side of too much detail rather than not enough. An elementary text can't be better than its exercises. This text includes 1695 numbered exercises, many with several parts. They range in difficulty from routine to very challenging. An elementary text should be written in an informal but mathematically accurate way, illustrated by appropriate graphics. I have tried to formulate mathematical concepts succinctly in language that students can understand. I have minimized the number of explicitly stated theorems and definitions, preferring to deal with concepts in a more conversational way, copiously illustrated by 250 completely worked out examples. Where appropriate, concepts and results are depicted in 144 figures. Although I believe that the computer is an immensely valuable tool for learning, doing, and writing mathematics, the selection and treatment of topics in this text reflects my pedagogical orientation along traditional lines. However, I have incorporated what I believe to be the best use of modern technology, so you can select the level of technology that you want to include in your course. The text includes 336 exercises – identified by the symbols C and C/G – that call for graphics or computation and graphics. There are also 73 laboratory exercises – identified by L – that require extensive use of technology. In addition, several sections include informal advice on the use of technology. If you prefer not to emphasize technology, simply ignore these exercises and the advice.
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Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation
Tom Theis; Jonathan Tomkin · OpenStax CNX · 2015
With “Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation”, first and second-year college students are introduced to this expanding new field, comprehensively exploring the essential concepts from every branch of knowledge – including engineering and the applied arts, natural and social sciences, and the humanities. As sustainability is a multi-disciplinary area of study, the text is the product of multiple authors drawn from the diverse faculty of the University of Illinois: each chapter is written by a recognized expert in the field. This text is designed to introduce the reader to the essential concepts of sustainability. This subject is of vital importance seeking as it does to uncover the principles of the long-term welfare of all the peoples of the planet but is only peripherally served by existing college textbooks. The content is intended to be useful for both a broad-based introductory class on sustainability and as a useful supplement to specialist courses which wish to review the sustainability dimensions of their areas of study. By covering a wide range of topics with a uniformity of style, and by including glossaries, review questions, case studies, and links to further resources, the text has sufficient range to perform as the core resource for a semester course. Students who cover the material in the book will be conversant in the language and concepts of sustainability, and will be equipped for further study in sustainable planning, policy, economics, climate, ecology, infrastructure, and more. Furthermore, the modular design allows individual chapters and sections to be easily appropriated without the purchase of a whole new text. This allows educators to easily bring sustainability concepts, references, and case studies into their area of study. This appropriation works particularly well as the text is free downloadable to anyone who wishes to use it. Furthermore, readers are encouraged to work with the text. Provided there is attribution to the source, use
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The ELC: An Early Childhood Learning Community at Work
Heather Bridge; Lorraine Melita; Patricia Roiger · Open SUNY · 2020
The ELC professional development model was designed to improve the quality of teacher candidates’ Practicum field placements and align teaching in field placements with Learning Standards used in the teacher education program. Teams of four educators from varied settings worked in a Practicum placement setting for one semester to improve their teaching and align it with Learning Standards. An action research approach improved teaching challenges teams faced. Research articles were read to improve teams’ teaching challenges by implementing one agreed strategy. Teams video-recorded, assessed, and reflected on the impact of the strategy on their teaching, on teacher candidates’ learning and on children’s learning. This text compiles six case studies from this model to illustrate how teaching challenges were improved. Appropriate for practiced educators as well as educators in training, this text provides a real world look into applying Learning Standards in early childhood classrooms.
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Who Teaches Writing
Tyler Branson; Ron Brooks; Dana Cadman; Heidi Cephus · Oklahoma State University · 2021
Who Teaches Writing is an open teaching and learning resource being used in English Composition classes at Oklahoma State University. It was authored by contributors from Oklahoma State University and also includes invited chapters from faculty and staff at institutions both inside and outside of Oklahoma. Contributors include faculty from various departments, contingent faculty and staff, and graduate instructors. One purpose of the resource is to provide short, relatively jargon-free chapters geared toward undergraduate students taking First-Year Composition. Support for this project was provided in part by OpenOKState and Oklahoma State University Libraries.