Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Adjustment theory: an introduction
Peter Teunissen · TU Delft Open · 2024
Adjustment theory can be regarded as the part of mathematical geodesy that deals with the optimal combination of redundant measurements together with the estimation of unknown parameters. It is essential for a geodesist, its meaning comparable to what mechanics means to a civil engineer or a mechanical engineer. Historically, the first methods of combining redundant measurements originate from the study of three problems in geodesy and astronomy, namely to determine the size and shape of the Earth, to explain the long-term inequality in the motions of Jupiter and Saturn, and to find a mathematical representation of the motions of the Moon. Nowadays, the methods of adjustment are used for a much greater variety of geodetic applications, ranging from, for instance, surveying and navigation to remote sensing and global positioning. The two main reasons for performing redundant measurements are the wish to increase the accuracy of the results computed and the requirement to be able to check for errors. Due to the intrinsic uncertainty in measurements, measurement redundancy generally leads to an inconsistent system of equations. Without additional criteria, such a system of equations is not uniquely solvable. In this introductory course on adjustment theory, methods are developed and presented for solving inconsistent systems of equations. The leading principle is that of least-squares adjustment together with its statistical properties. The inconsistent systems of equations can come in many different guises. They could be given in parametric form, in implicit form, or as a combination of these two forms. In each case the same principle of least-squares applies. The algorithmic realizations of the solution will differ however. Depending on the application at hand, one could also wish to choose between obtaining the solution in one single step or in a step-wise manner. This leads to the need of formulating the system of equations in partitioned form. Different partitions
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Introduction to Mechanical Design and Manufacturing
David Jensen · University of Arkansas · 2024
An introductory text on the design and manufacturing of products from a mechanical engineering perspective.
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An Introduction to Waste Management and Circular Economy
Stijn van Ewijk; Julia Stegemann · UCL Press · 2023
This introductory textbook provides an essential interdisciplinary guide to waste management and circular economy. It helps students to understand the drivers of waste, the environmental, social, and economic impacts of waste generation, and best practices and technologies for waste management, recycling, energy recovery and disposal. With helpful, full-colour diagrams throughout, each chapter includes learning objectives, introduction to concepts and themes, exercises and review sections, to guide students through the book. The textbook is ideal for teaching environmental engineering and science, as well as interdisciplinary environmental programmes.
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An Animated Introduction to Digital Logic Design
John Carpinelli · NJIT Library · 2023
This book is designed for use in an introductory course on digital logic design, typically offered in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and other related programs. Such a course is usually offered at the sophomore level. This book makes extensive use of animation to illustrate the flow of data within a digital system and to step through some of the procedures used to design and optimize digital circuits.
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Air Safety Investigation: The Journey
Michiel Schuurman · TU Delft Open · 2023
"Air Safety Investigation – The Journey" is an introductory book that explores the world of air safety investigation. Unlike a how-to manual for investigating aviation accidents, this book focuses on the essential knowledge and mindset required to conduct a safety investigation. It covers the various phases of an investigation, from gathering facts to formulating safety recommendations, with each chapter addressing a different relevant aspect. With the increasing complexity of investigations, critical thinking, logic, and speculation are essential skills for investigators to possess. This book delves into these topics, offering thought-provoking examples and questions to address the challenges of drawing conclusions and obtaining positive investigative outcomes. Its aim is to help students and readers interested in air safety develop the necessary mindset and knowledge to conduct an investigation. By the end of the book, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities involved in an air safety investigation.
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Introduction to Engineering Thermodynamics
Claire Yu Yan · BCcampus · 2022
The book is most suitable for a one-term, introductory engineering thermodynamics course at the undergraduate level. It may also be used for self-learning of fundamental concepts of classical thermodynamics.
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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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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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Introduction to Probability
Charles Grinstead; J. Laurie Snell · American Mathematical Society · 2006
Probability theory began in seventeenth century France when the two great French mathematicians, Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat, corresponded over two problems from games of chance. Problems like those Pascal and Fermat solved continuedto influence such early researchers as Huygens, Bernoulli, and DeMoivre in establishing a mathematical theory of probability. Today, probability theory is a wellestablished branch of mathematics that finds applications in every area of scholarlyactivity from music to physics, and in daily experience from weather prediction topredicting the risks of new medical treatments. This text is designed for an introductory probability course taken by sophomores,juniors, and seniors in mathematics, the physical and social sciences, engineering,and computer science. It presents a thorough treatment of probability ideas andtechniques necessary for a form understanding of the subject. The text can be usedin a variety of course lengths, levels, and areas of emphasis. For use in a standard one-term course, in which both discrete and continuousprobability is covered, students should have taken as a prerequisite two terms ofcalculus, including an introduction to multiple integrals. In order to cover Chapter 11, which contains material on Markov chains, some knowledge of matrix theoryis necessary. The text can also be used in a discrete probability course. The material has beenorganized in such a way that the discrete and continuous probability discussions arepresented in a separate, but parallel, manner. This organization dispels an overlyrigorous or formal view of probability and o?ers some strong pedagogical valuein that the discrete discussions can sometimes serve to motivate the more abstractcontinuous probability discussions. For use in a discrete probability course, studentsshould have taken one term of calculus as a prerequisite. Very little computing background is assumed or necessary in order to obtain fullbenefits from the use of the comp
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A First Course in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Louis Scharf · OpenStax CNX · 2009
This book was written for an experimental freshman course at the University of Colorado. The course is now an elective that the majority of our electrical and computer engineering students take in the second semester of their freshman year, just before their first circuits course. Our department decided to offer this course for several reasons: we wanted to pique student' interest in engineering by acquainting them with engineering teachers early in their university careers and by providing with exposure to the types of problems that electrical and computer engineers are asked to solve; we wanted students entering the electrical and computer engineering programs to be prepared in complex analysis, phasors, and linear algebra, topics that are of fundamental importance in our discipline; we wanted students to have an introduction to a software application tool, such as MATLAB, to complete their preparation for practical and efficient computing in their subsequent courses and in their professional careers; we wanted students to make early contact with advanced topics like vector graphics, filtering, and binary coding so that they would gain a more rounded picture of modern electrical and computer engineering. In order to introduce this course, we had to sacrifice a second semester of Pascal programming. We concluded that the sacrifice was worth making because we found that most of our students were prepared for high-level language computing after just one semester of programming. We believe engineering educators elsewhere are reaching similar conclusions about their own students and curriculums. We hope this book helps create a much needed dialogue about curriculum revision and that it leads to the development of similar introductory courses that encourage students to enter and practice our craft.Students electing to take this course have completed one semester of calculus, computer programming, chemistry, and humanities. Concurrently with this course, students take ph
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Think Data Structures: Algorithms and Information Retrieval in Java
Allen Downey · Green Tea Press · 2016
Data structures and algorithms are among the most important inventions of the last 50 years, and they are fundamental tools software engineers need to know. But in my opinion, most of the books on these topics are too theoretical, too big, and too bottom-up: Too theoretical: Mathematical analysis of algorithms is based on simplifying assumptions that limit its usefulness in practice. Many presentations of this topic gloss over the simplifications and focus on the math. In this book I present the most practical subset of this material and eliminate the rest. Too big: Most books on these topics are at least 500 pages, and some are more than 1000. By focusing on the topics I think are most useful for software engineers, I kept this book under 250 pages. Too bottom-up: Many data structures books focus on how data structures work (the implementations), with less about how to use them (the interfaces). In this book, I go “top down”, starting with the interfaces. Readers learn to use the structures in the Java Collections Framework before getting into the details of how they work. Finally, many present this material out of context and without motivation: it’s just one damn data structure after another! I try to alleviate the boredom by organizing the topics around an application—web search—that uses data structures extensively, and is an interesting and important topic in its own right. This application also motivates some topics that are not usually covered in an introductory data structures class, including persistent data structures, with Redis, and streaming algorithms. This book also presents basic aspects of software engineering practice, including version control and unit testing. Each chapter ends with an exercise that allows readers to apply what they have learned. Each exercise includes automated tests that check the solution. And for most exercises, I present my solution at the beginning of the next chapter. This book is intended for college students in computer
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Project Management Fundamentals
Shelly Morris; Karla Murtescu · Seneca Polytechnic · 2021
The primary purpose of this text is to provide an open source textbook that can be used in introductory project management courses. The objective is to develop a concise, widely applicable open source textbook that can be used in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. This text covers all aspects of the project management lifecycle. The author has intentionally left out examples from fields of practice like business, engineering and information technology in order to ensure this text has universal applicability.
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Introduction to Computer Science
Dr. Jean-Claude Franchitti; Amal Alhosban; Mark Buckler; Joanna Gilberti · OpenStax, Rice University
Introduction to Computer Science provides a comprehensive foundation in core computer science concepts and principles, aligning with the scope and sequence of most introductory computer science courses. The offering serves as an engaging entry point for students pursuing diverse fields of study and employment, including computer science, business, engineering, data science, social sciences, and related disciplines. By addressing a broad learner audience—ranging from computer science majors to non-majors—the book offers a thorough introduction to computational thinking and its applications across multiple domains. Introduction to Computer Science is designed to be both interactive and practical, focusing on real-world applications that showcase how core computer science concepts can be used to solve complex problems. Students will explore foundational concepts, such as algorithms, data structures, computer systems organization, and software development, using an array of engaging, hands-on activities. Introduction to Computer Science also includes advanced topics such as machine learning, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, ensuring students have a solid foundation for continued study and future professional success. The offering integrates meaningful learning experiences through chapter-based scenarios, problem-solving exercises, embedded coding activities, and project-based assessments that encourage students to apply what they learn in authentic contexts. The material also includes an array of industry insights and explorations of emerging technology trends in order to provide a holistic approach to learning that extends beyond theory.
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Contemporary Biology
Rachel Aptekar · Cosumnes River College
In the contents: 8.06: Cloning and Genetic Engineering
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Widener Chem 145 Fall 2022
Scott Van Bramer · Widener University
This is the first semester of a two-semester introductory chemistry sequence for science, engineering, and pre-med programs. Topics include elements, atomic structure, molecular structure, chemical reactions, stoichiometry, thermochemistry, gases, liquids, and solids.
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Calculus-Based Physics
Jeffrey W. Schnick · Saint Anselm College
Calculus-Based Physics is an introductory physics textbook designed for use in the two-semester introductory physics course typically taken by science and engineering students.
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Biology for an Informed World
Trevor Rivers · University of Kansas
In the contents: 1.01: What is different about this approach to Introductory Biology · 15.01: Cloning and Genetic Engineering
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Concepts in Biology
OpenStax · LibreTexts
In the contents: 10.01: Cloning and Genetic Engineering
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Principles of Biology
LibreTexts
In the contents: 20.03: Genetic Engineering
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Java, Java, Java - Object-Oriented Programming
Ralph Morelli & Ralph Wade · Trinity College
We have designed this third edition of Java, Java, Java to be suitable for a typical Introduction to Computer Science (CS1) course or for a slightly more advanced Java as a Second Language course. This edition retains the “objects first” approach to programming and problem solving that was characteristic of the first two editions. Throughout the text we emphasize careful coverage of Java language features, introductory programming concepts, and object-oriented design principles.