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Python for Everybody: Exploring Data Using Python 3
Charles Severance · Charles Severance · 2016
I never seemed to find the perfect data-oriented Python book for my course, so I set out to write just such a book. Luckily at a faculty meeting three weeks before I was about to start my new book from scratch over the holiday break, Dr. Atul Prakash showed me the Think Python book which he had used to teach his Python course that semester. It is a well-written Computer Science text with a focus on short, direct explanations and ease of learning.The overall book structure has been changed to get to doing data analysis problems as quickly as possible and have a series of running examples and exercises about data analysis from the very beginning. Chapters 2–10 are similar to the Think Python book, but there have been major changes. Number-oriented examples and exercises have been replaced with data- oriented exercises. Topics are presented in the order needed to build increasingly sophisticated data analysis solutions. Some topics like try and except are pulled forward and presented as part of the chapter on conditionals. Functions are given very light treatment until they are needed to handle program complexity rather than introduced as an early lesson in abstraction. Nearly all user-defined functions have been removed from the example code and exercises outside of Chapter 4. The word “recursion”1 does not appear in the book at all. In chapters 1 and 11–16, all of the material is brand new, focusing on real-world uses and simple examples of Python for data analysis including regular expressions for searching and parsing, automating tasks on your computer, retrieving data across the network, scraping web pages for data, object-oriented programming, using web services, parsing XML and JSON data, creating and using databases using Structured Query Language, and visualizing data. The ultimate goal of all of these changes is a shift from a Computer Science to an Informatics focus is to only include topics into a first technology class that can be useful even if one choose
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Signal Computing: Digital Signals in the Software Domain
Michael Stiber; Bilin Stiber; Eric Larson · Michael Stiber, Eric Larson · 2020
In this book, you will learn how digital signals are captured, represented, processed, communicated, and stored in computers. The specific topics we will cover include: physical properties of the source information (such as sound or images), devices for information capture (microphones, cameras), digitization, compression, digital signal representation (JPEG, MPEG), digital signal processing (DSP), signal analysis and feature extraction via re-representation as functions of frequency, and network communication. By the end of this book, you should understand the problems and solutions facing signal computing systems development in the areas of data structures and algorithms, data analytics, feature extraction, information retrieval, user interfaces, and communications.
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Think Bayes: Bayesian Statistics Made Simple
Allen Downey · Green Tea Press · 2012
Think Bayes is an introduction to Bayesian statistics using computational methods. The premise of this book, and the other books in the Think X series, is that if you know how to program, you can use that skill to learn other topics. Most books on Bayesian statistics use mathematical notation and present ideas in terms of mathematical concepts like calculus. This book uses Python code instead of math, and discrete approximations instead of continuous mathematics. As a result, what would be an integral in a math book becomes a summation, and most operations on probability distributions are simple loops. I think this presentation is easier to understand, at least for people with programming skills. It is also more general, because when we make modeling decisions, we can choose the most appropriate model without worrying too much about whether the model lends itself to conventional analysis. Also, it provides a smooth development path from simple examples to real-world problems.
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Think Java: How To Think Like a Computer Scientist
Chris Mayfield; Allen Downey · Green Tea Press · 2020
Think Java is a hands-on introduction to computer science and programming used by many universities and high schools around the world. Its conciseness, emphasis on vocabulary, and informal tone make it particularly appealing for readers with little or no experience. The book starts with the most basic programming concepts and gradually works its way to advanced object-oriented techniques. In this fully updated and expanded edition, authors Allen Downey and Chris Mayfield introduce programming as a means for solving interesting problems. Each chapter presents material for one week of a college course and includes exercises to help you practice what you’ve learned. Along the way, you’ll see nearly every topic required for the AP Computer Science A exam and Java SE Programmer I certification.
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The Little Book of Semaphores
Allen Downey · Green Tea Press · 2016
The Little Book of Semaphores is a free (in both senses of the word) textbook that introduces the principles of synchronization for concurrent programming. In most computer science curricula, synchronization is a module in an Operating Systems class. OS textbooks present a standard set of problems with a standard set of solutions, but most students don't get a good understanding of the material or the ability to solve similar problems. The approach of this book is to identify patterns that are useful for a variety of synchronization problems and then show how they can be assembled into solutions. After each problem, the book offers a hint before showing a solution, giving students a better chance of discovering solutions on their own. The book covers the classical problems, including "Readers-writers," "Producer-consumer", and "Dining Philosophers." In addition, it collects a number of not-so-classical problems, some written by the author and some by other teachers and textbook writers. Readers are invited to create and submit new problems.
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Physical Modeling in MATLAB
Allen Downey · Green Tea Press · 2021
Modeling and simulation are powerful tools for explaining the world, making predictions, designing things that work, and making them work better. Learning to use these tools can be difficult; this book is my attempt to make the experience as enjoyable and productive as possible. By reading this book — and working on the exercises — you will learn some programming, some modeling, and some simulation: With basic programming skills, you can create models for a wide range of physical systems. My goal is to help you develop these skills in a way you can apply immediately to real-world problems. This book presents the entire modeling process, including model selection, analysis, simulation, and validation. I explain this process in Chapter 1, and there are examples throughout the book. Simulation is an approach to modeling that uses computer programs to implement models and generate predictions. This book shows how simulations are used to run experiments, answer questions, and guide decision-making.
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Business Information Systems: Design an App for That
Raymond Frost; Jacqueline Pike; Lauren Kenyo; Sarah Pels · Saylor Foundation · 2011
We set out to design an introductory course governed by four themes: Give students a good idea of what a career in MIS looks like by doing MIS. Enhance the professionalism of deliverables by teaching design and usability concepts. Promote creativity by assigning projects that demand it. Teach students about cloud computing by having them do cloud computing. Students in an introductory Management Information Systems (MIS) course often ask what a career in MIS looks like. Lacking a clear vision, they make their own assumptions. Often they assume the career involves programming with little human interaction. That MIS is a technical field could not be further from the truth. MIS job descriptions typically require candidates to be able to collaborate, communicate, analyze needs and gather requirements. They also list the need for excellent written and communication skills. In other words, MIS workers are constantly interacting with other people both inside and outside the organization. They are coming up with creative solutions to business problems. This course is designed to help students get a feel for what a career in MIS would be like. Our students report that they learn more about information systems from their internships than from their IS courses. Consequently, we designed a course that looks very much like an internship—an introduction to the field followed by a substantial project. Chapter 1 begins by introducing the information systems landscape. Here we discuss all the usual suspects: the information systems triangle, the systems development life cycle, transaction systems (ERP, SCM, CRM), collaboration systems, and business intelligence systems. Other aspects of the landscape such as usability, outsourcing, database concepts and so forth are introduced throughout chapter in Chapter 2 where they fit in naturally with the flow of the project. Chapter 2 is the substantial project which runs over a number of chapters. Over the course of the semester, students pl
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Critical Employment, Ethical, and Legal Scenarios in Human Resource Development
Claretha Hughes · University of Arkansas · 2020
This book provides mini-cases for HRD and other disciplines to use for engaging students in incident discussions. Exploring ways to solve problems and make decisions about situations that occur at work.
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Introduction to Financial Analysis
Kenneth Bigel · Open Touro · 2022
This Open Textbook is a dynamic guide incorporating the essential skills needed to build a foundation in Financial Analysis. Students and readers will learn how to insightfully read a Financial Statement, utilize key financial ratios in order to derive forward-looking investment-related inferences from the accounting data, engage in elementary forecasting and modeling, master the theory of the Time Value of Money, and learn to price stocks and bonds in an environment in which interest rates constantly change. Ample problems and solutions, and review questions are provided to the student so that s/he can gauge his/her progress. This text will be continually updated in order to provide novel information and enhance students’ experiences.
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Introduction to Financial Accounting: U.S. GAAP Adaptation
David Annand; Donna Marchand; Henry Dauderis · Lyryx · 2021
This textbook is an adaptation by D. Marchand and Athabasca University of the original text written by D. Annand and H. Dauderis. It is intended for use in entry-level college and university courses in financial accounting. A corporate approach is utilized consistently throughout the book. The adapted textbook includes multiple ancillary student and instructor resources. Student aids include solutions to all end-of-chapter questions and problems, and randomly-generated spreadsheet problems that cover key concepts of each chapter. These provide unlimited practice and feedback for students. Instructor aids include an exam bank, lecture slides, and a comprehensive end-of-term case assignment. This requires students to prepare 18 different year-end adjusting entries and all four types of financial statements, and to calculate and analyze 16 different financial statement ratios. Unique versions can be created for any number of individual students or groups. Tailored solutions are provided for instructors. Another version of the textbook written by D. Annand and adapted by T. Thompson, including .docx files and ancillary material, can be obtained upon request to D. Annand (davida@athabascau.ca).
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International Finance: Theory and Policy
Steve Suranovic · Saylor Foundation · 2010
International Finance Theory and Policy is built on Steve Suranovic's belief that to understand the international economy, students need to learn how economic models are applied to real world problems. It is true what they say, that ”economists do it with models.“ That's because economic models provide insights about the world that are simply not obtainable solely by discussion of the issues. International Finance Theory and Policy develops a unified model of the international macroeconomy. The text provides detailed descriptions of major macroeconomic variables, covers the interest rate parity and purchasing power parity theories of exchange rate determination, takes an exhaustive look at the pros and cons of trade imbalances and presents the well-known AA-DD model to explore the effects of fiscal and monetary policy under both fixed and flexible exchange rates. The models are developed, not by employing advanced mathematics, but rather by walking students through a detailed description of how a model's assumptions influence its conclusions. But more importantly, each model and theory is connected to real world policy issues. The Finance Text has the following unique features: o Begins with an historical overview of the international macroeconomy to provide context for the theory. o Concludes with a detailed discussion of the pros and cons of fixed and floating exchange rate systems. o Provides an extensive look at the issue of trade imbalances. Readers learn techniques to evaluate whether a country's trade deficit (or surplus) is dangerous, beneficial, or benign. o Explains how purchasing power parity is used to make cross country income comparisons. o Offers clear detailed explanations of the AA-DD model. o Applies the AA-DD model to understand the effects of monetary and fiscal policy on GDP, the exchange rate, and the trade balance. International Finance Theory and Policy by Steve Suranovic is intended for a one-semester course in International Finance. After M
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Technical Project Management in Living and Geometric Order
Jeffrey Russell; Wayne Pferdehirt; John Nelson; Brian Price · University of Wisconsin - Madison · 2018
The Technical Project Management class is designed to help students build on their past experiences and develop effective strategies for managing complex technical projects, with an emphasis on applying project management concepts to real-world problems. In the weekly web conferences, the class comes together in community to discuss the lesson topics, considering the practical applications of the concepts in each subject area.
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Personal Finance
Rachel Siegel; Carol Yacht · Saylor Foundation · 2009
Personal Finance by Rachel Siegel and Carol Yacht is a comprehensive Personal Finance text which includes a wide range of pedagogical aids to keep students engaged and instructors on track. This book is arranged by learning objectives. The headings, summaries, reviews, and problems all link together via the learning objectives. This helps instructors to teach what they want, and to assign the problems that correspond to the learning objectives covered in class. Personal Finance includes personal finance planning problems with links to solutions, and personal application exercises, with links to their associated worksheet(s) or spreadsheet(s). In addition, the text boasts a large number of links to videos, podcasts, experts' tips or blogs, and magazine articles to illustrate the practical applications for concepts covered in the text. Rachel would love to hear from you. If you have questions about teaching with her book, comments about teaching Personal Finance, or just feedback, feel free to email her at rachelsiegelcfa@hughes.net. This textbook has been used in classes at: Miami University.
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Managerial Accounting
Kurt Heisinger; Joe Hoyle · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Kurt Heisinger and Joe Ben Hoyle believe that students want to learn accounting in the most efficient way possible, balancing coursework with personal schedules. They tend to focus on their studies in short intense segments between jobs, classes, and family commitments. Meanwhile, the accounting industry has endured dramatic shifts since the collapse of Enron and WorldCom, causing a renewed focus on ethical behavior in accounting. This dynamic author team designed Managerial Accounting to work within the confines of today's students' lives while delivering a modern look at managerial accounting. Managerial Accounting was written around three major themes: Ready, Reinforcement and Relevance. This book is aimed squarely at the new learning styles evident with today's students and addresses accounting industry changes as well. Ready. Your students want to be as efficient as possible in their learning. This book adopts a concise, jargon-free, and easy-to-understand approach that is ready with concise sections and concepts when the student is ready to study in a format the student wants. Key concepts are provided in short segments with bullet points and step-by-step instructions to simplify concepts. This thoughtful, step-wise approach will help your students avoid distractions and focuses attention on the big picture. Reinforcement. Managerial Accounting boasts “Review Problems” at the end of each major section or learning objective which offer practical opportunities for students to apply what they have learned. These “Review Problems” allow students to immediately reinforce what they have learned and are provided within the body of the chapter along with the solutions. Relevance. Why is managerial accounting important? Since all students perform better when they can answer the “why” question, meaningful references to companies throughout the chapters help students tie the concepts presented in each chapter to real organizations. In addition, realistic managerial scena
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Fundamentals of Infrastructure Management
Donald Coffelt; Chris Hendrickson · Donald Coffelt and Chris Hendrickson · 2017
The authors believe this free of charge book, Fundamentals of Infrastructure Management, will expand the impact of the material and help improve the practice of infrastructure management. By ‘free of charge,' we mean that the material can be freely obtained, but readers should devote time and effort to mastering the material. We have provided problem assignments for various chapters, and we strongly urge readers to undertake the problems as a learning experience. This book grew out of a decade of co-teaching a course entitled ‘Infrastructure Management' at Carnegie Mellon University. Our teaching philosophy was to prepare students for work in the field of infrastructure management. We believe that infrastructure management is a professional endeavor and an attractive professional career. The book is co-authored by two accomplished engineers - each representing professional practice, academic research and theoretical evaluation. Their collective strengths are presented throughout the text and serve to support both the practice of infrastructure management and a role for infrastructure management inquiry and search. Importantly, both co-authors have academic research interests (and a number of research publications) on various topics of infrastructure management. That said, the primary audience for this book is expected to be professionals intending to practice infrastructure management, and only secondarily individuals who intend to pursue a career of research in the area. The text draws examples and discusses a wide variety of infrastructure systems, including roadways, telecommunications, power generation, buildings and systems of infrastructure. We have found that some common fundamentals of asset management, analysis tools and informed decision-making are useful for a variety of such systems. Certainly, many infrastructure managers encounter a variety of infrastructure types during their professional careers. Moreover, due to the functional inter-dependencies of
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Elementary Algebra
Wade Ellis; Denny Burzynski · OpenStax CNX · 2010
This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to ethics in business and provides modules in Ethical Leadership, Ethical Decision-Making, Social Responsibility, and Corporate Governance. Students will actively study ethical theory by carrying out exercises to help them build theory-based tools for encountering ethical problems in business practice. They will also work with cases in business ethics designed to give them practice in developing skills of ethical leadership, ethical decision-making, and carrying out socio-technical analyses to respond to issues of social responsibility. This course will culminate in an Ethics Bowl competition in which students will practice ethics advocacy in a variety of organizational contexts in business.
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Introductory Business Statistics
Lex Holmes; Barbara Illowsky; Susan Dean · OpenStax · 2023
Introductory Business Statistics 2e aligns with the topics and objectives of the typical one-semester statistics course for business, economics, and related majors. The text provides detailed and supportive explanations and extensive step-by-step walkthroughs. The author places a significant emphasis on the development and practical application of formulas so that students have a deeper understanding of their interpretation and application of data. Problems and exercises are largely centered on business topics, though other applications are provided in order to increase relevance and showcase the critical role of statistics in a number of fields and real-world contexts. The second edition retains the organization of the original text. Based on extensive feedback from adopters and students, the revision focused on improving currency and relevance, particularly in examples and problems. A detailed transition guide is available for instructors. The first edition of Introductory Business Statistics by OpenStax is available in web view here.
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Financial Strategy for Public Managers
Sharon Kioko; Justin Marlowe · Rebus Community · 2016
Financial Strategy for Public Managers is a new generation textbook for financial management in the public sector. It offers a thorough, applied, and concise introduction to the essential financial concepts and analytical tools that today's effective public servants need to know. It starts “at the beginning” and assumes no prior knowledge or experience in financial management. Throughout the text, Kioko and Marlowe emphasize how financial information can and should inform every aspect of public sector strategy, from routine procurement decisions to budget preparation to program design to major new policy initiatives. They draw upon dozens of real-world examples, cases, and applied problems to bring that relationship between information and strategy to life. Unlike other public financial management texts, the authors also integrate foundational principles across the government, non-profit, and “hybrid/for-benefit” sectors. Coverage includes basic principles of accounting and financial reporting, preparing and analyzing financial statements, cost analysis, and the process and politics of budget preparation. The text also includes several large case studies appropriate for class discussion and/or graded assignments.
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Beyond Lean: Simulation in Practice
Charles Standridge · Grand Valley State University · 2013
Lean thinking, as well as associated processes and tools, have involved into a ubiquitous perspective for improving systems particularly in the manufacturing arena. With application experience has come an understanding of the boundaries of lean capabilities and the benefits of getting beyond these boundaries to further improve performance. Discrete event simulation is recognized as one beyond-the-boundaries of lean technique. Thus, the fundamental goal of this text is to show how discrete event simulation can be used in addition to lean thinking to achieve greater benefits in system improvement than with lean alone. Realizing this goal requires learning the problems that simulation solves as well as the methods required to solve them. The problems that simulation solves are captured in a collection of case studies. These studies serve as metaphors for industrial problems that are commonly addressed using lean and simulation.
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Guidelines for Improving the Effectiveness of Boards of Directors of Nonprofit Organizations
Yvonne Harrison; Vic Murray · Open SUNY · 2014
The purpose of this book is to help boards of directors of nonprofit organizations improve their performance after completing the online board self-assessment tool found at www.boardcheckup.com. However, it can also be used as a stand-alone resource for any board seeking to enhance its effectiveness in that it also contains the diagnostic questions on which the online tool is based. The approach taken here is similar to that which lies behind health checkups for individuals. Doctors usually begin by asking us to review a lengthy list of many possible health issues and we check those about which we have concerns. The doctor and patient then focus their discussions on these issues. The typical process proceeds through the following three stages: Understanding the symptoms. The doctor and patient begin by trying to define the issues more clearly. Diagnosis. Effort is made to understand the causes of the problems through tests and further examination. Treatment. Once the problem has been properly diagnosed, a treatment program to remedy it is begun. While the Board Check-Up survey on which this book is based does not pretend to be as scientifically rigorous as a medical examination, it is based on the same logic. It begins by having those who belong to, or relate to, boards provide their perceptions of how well the board is working by guiding them through a list of potential "health issues”, i.e. statements of possible problems, issues or challenges that boards might encounter in their work. These statements have been derived from comments made by those who serve on boards or interact with them as well as from the work of researchers and consultants who have studied boards over the past 30 years. Once issues (symptoms) have been identified, they become the focal point for discussions that explore how serious they are, what might be causing them (diagnosis) and what can be done to resolve them (treatment). As noted above, this book is intended to help boards assess perfo