Open Educational Resources | Pao Yue-kong Library, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

e-book

Writing in Knowledge Societies

The editors of Writing in Knowledge Societies provide a thoughtful, carefully constructed collection that addresses the vital roles rhetoric and writing play as knowledge-making practices in diverse knowledge-intensive settings. The essays in this book examine the multiple, subtle, yet consequential ways in which writing is epistemic, articulating the central role of writing in creating, shaping, sharing, and contesting knowledge in a range of human activities in workplaces, civic settings, and higher education. Writing in Knowledge Societies helps us conceptualize the ways in which rhetoric and writing work to organize, (re-)produce, undermine, dominate, marginalize, or contest knowledge-making practices in diverse settings, showing the many ways in which rhetoric and writing operate in knowledge-intensive organizations and societies.

Subjects:: English Language and Language and Languages
Keywords:: Rhetoric -- Research Textbooks English language -- Rhetoric
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Vol. II

Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing offer multiple perspectives on a wide-range of topics about writing. In each chapter, authors present their unique views, insights, and strategies for writing by addressing the undergraduate reader directly. Drawing on their own experiences, these teachers-as-writers invite students to join in the larger conversation about the craft of writing. Consequently, each essay functions as a standalone text that can easily complement other selected readings in writing or writing-intensive courses across the disciplines at any level. Volume 2 continues the tradition of the previous volume with topics, such as the rhetorical situation, collaboration, documentation styles, weblogs, invention, writing assignment interpretation, reading critically, information literacy, ethnography, interviewing, argument, document design, and source integration.

Subjects:: English Language
Keywords:: Textbooks English language -- Rhetoric
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

Writing Spaces Web Writing Style Guide

The Writing Spaces Web Writing Style Guide was created as a crowdsourcing project of Collaborvention 2011: A Computers and Writing Unconference. College writing teachers from around the web joined together to create this guide (see our Contributors list). The advice within it is based on contemporary theories and best practices. While the text was originally written for students in undergraduate writing classes, it can also be a suitable resource for other writers interested in learning more about writing for the web. This document is available as a web text for reading online, a printer-friendly PDF, and an EPUB ereader versions.

Subjects:: English Language
Keywords:: Online authorship Conference papers proceedings Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

Video

What is a scholarly journal article?

Chances are you'll need to find a scholarly journal article for a research paper or project in the near future. But, wait, what is a "scholarly journal article?" How is it different from a popular source like a newspaper or magazine article? Let's reduce the confusion on scholarly journal articles. Scholarly journals enable scholars -- experts in a particular academic field -- to communicate their research with other experts in that field through publishing articles and to stay current by reading about other scholars' work. Consequently, scholarly journals create a community of scholars who are all participating in a kind of "conversation" in that academic field. Rather than a face-to-face conversation, this is a formal conversation, which takes place over months and years through written documents. The most important part of this long term written conversation - what makes it a “scholarly” conversation, as opposed to popular - is what's called the “peer review process.” The peer review process works like this: in order for a scholar to get published in a scholarly journal, his or her expert peers must read their work and critique it. These “peer reviewers” make sure that the scholar has cited the appropriate experts in the discipline, made valid and well-supported arguments, and has written the article on a topic that is appropriate for that particular journal. This rigorous evaluation process ensures that scholarly work meets a higher standard than popular publications. So, why is this important for you? First, the information in a scholarly text has been rigorously evaluated, so it is more reliable and credible than information in popular sources. Second, reading scholarly journal articles for your papers or projects can give you insight into the ways of thinking of experts in that field. Finally, every scholarly text has extensive bibliographies that introduce you to important texts in the field, which can help you extend your research in that area. When you read the articles and books the scholar cited in her article, you are taking part in the scholarly conversation.

Keywords:: Scholarly periodicals Scholarly publishing
Resource Type:: Video

Video

What is Autism? Do you know the signs?

Autism is a spectrum disorder which includes a large range of symptoms and behaviors. This video is part for Behavior Frontiers Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Training Program with an Autism Specialization. Available via web based training program or at seminars across the country.

Course related:: RS3320 Clinical Sciences in Developmental Dysfunction
Subjects:: Health Sciences
Keywords:: Autism
Resource Type:: Video

Presentation

Wego s.r.l.

This video was recorded at Transnational ICT and Security Technology Opportunities, Ljubljana 2007. Wego works in the e-government sector. Its activities consist of consulting and software development for public administration entities, and especially of: business process and administrative proceedings engineering; front end solutions development; electronic document management (EDM).

Subjects:: Management and Computing
Keywords:: Information resources management Management information systems Internet in public administration
Resource Type:: Presentation

Presentation

Using Data Mining Techniques to Address Critical Information Exchange Needs in Disaster Affected Public-Private Networks

This video was recorded at 16th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), Washington 2010. Crisis Management and Disaster Recovery have gained immense importance in the wake of recent man and nature inflicted calamities. A critical problem in a crisis situation is how to efficiently discover, collect, organize, search and disseminate real-time disaster information. In this paper, we address several key problems which inhibit better information sharing and collaboration between both private and public sector participants for disaster management and recovery. We design and implement a web based prototype implementation of a Business Continuity Information Network (BCIN) system utilizing the latest advances in data mining technologies to create a user-friendly, Internet-based, information-rich service and acting as a vital part of a company's business continuity process. Specifically, information extraction is used to integrate the input data from different sources; the content recommendation engine and the report summarization module provide users personalized and brief views of the disaster information; the community generation module develops spatial clustering techniques to help users build dynamic community in disasters. Currently, BCIN has been exercised at Miami-Dade County Emergency Management.

Subjects:: Management and Computing
Resource Type:: Presentation

Courseware

User Interface Design and Implementation

This course examines human-computer interaction in the context of graphical user interfaces. The course covers human capabilities, design principles, prototyping techniques, evaluation techniques, and the implementation of graphical user interfaces. Deliverables include short programming assignments and a semester-long group project. Students taking the graduate version also have readings from current literature and additional assignments.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems)
Resource Type:: Courseware

Presentation

Usage of Integrated Services in the industry

his video was recorded at COIN / PlanetData Winter School on Knowledge Technologies for Complex Business Environments, Ljubljana 2011. Organized by COIN FP7 Integrated Project and PlanetData FP7 Network of Excellence, the school seeks to bring together students, scholars and researchers from industry in order to foster collaboration and interoperability with innovative services and project large-scale data management in business environments. The main topics of the winter school are: Interoperability and collaboration models and solutions, Enterprise interoperability and collaboration services, Innovative knowledge and semantically powered technologies, Knowledge process and context modelling, Pro-active knowledge tools, Large scale analytics and reasoning tools, Business cases and real case studies.

Subjects:: Management
Keywords:: Enterprise application integration (Computer systems) Internetworking (Telecommunication) Management information systems Information resources management
Resource Type:: Presentation

Video

The Technology of Storytelling

iPad storyteller Joe Sabia introduces us to Lothar Meggendorfer, who created a bold technology for storytelling: the pop-up book. Sabia shows how new technology has always helped us tell our own stories, from the walls of caves to his own onstage iPad.

Subjects:: Technology, Communication, and Storytelling
Keywords:: Social media Digital storytelling
Resource Type:: Video

Video

The Surprising Math of Cities And Corporations

Physicist Geoffrey West has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities -- that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can be deduced from a single number: the city's population. In this mind-bending talk from TEDGlobal he shows how it works and how similar laws hold for organisms and corporations.

Subjects:: Environmental Engineering and Mathematics and Statistics
Keywords:: Cities towns -- Growth -- Econometric models Sustainable urban development
Resource Type:: Video

Video

The Single Biggest Health Threat Women Face

Surprising, but true: More women now die of heart disease than men, yet cardiovascular research has long focused on men. Pioneering doctor C. Noel Bairey Merz shares what we know and don't know about women's heart health -- including the remarkably different symptoms women present during a heart attack (and why they're often missed).

Subjects:: Health Sciences
Keywords:: Heart -- Diseases -- Research Heart diseases in women
Resource Type:: Video

e-book

The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business

Terence Lau & Lisa Johnson's The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business is a book for today's student, who expects learning to be comprised not only of substance, but also of interactive exercises and multimedia. This book streamlines the presentation of material to ensure that every page is relevant, engaging, and interesting to undergraduate business students, without losing the depth of coverage that they need to be successful in their academic journeys and in their professional careers. This is not Legal Environment of Business (LEB) ”light.“ Rather, this is LEB without risk of students' eyes glazing over in boredom or from lack of comprehension. This is LEB presented in an exciting way, where every page is interesting to students and relevant to real life. The authors recognize that the sheer volume of information to be covered in a LEB course makes it one of the more challenging courses for the business undergraduate. Not only do typical LEB texts read like the first year curriculum at law school, but also the LEB course is grounded in the humanities, which can make the subject even more demanding for students who are also taking statistics, economics, finance, and accounting. Each chapter contains not only substantive law, but also illustrative videos, interactive exercises for hands-on learning, and discussion questions for critical thought. Additionally, each chapter presents ”A Question of Ethics“ section, which contains real world ethical dilemmas relevant to the topic under study. These videos, exercises, discussion questions, and ethics sections all provide opportunities for students to apply concepts that they are learning in the context of relevant LEB topics that shape or restrain actual decision-makers' actions. It's real world practice in the safety of the classroom environment. Lau & Johnson's The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business is a textbook that students will enjoy reading. This will encourage them to come to class prepared, and free you to teach the kind of course you want to teach. Request a desk copy and see for yourself.

Subjects:: Law and Legislation and Business Ethics
Keywords:: Business ethics Commercial law United States Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

Video

The Future of Business is The "Mesh"

Lisa Gansky, author of "The Mesh," talks about a future of business that's about sharing all kinds of stuff, either via smart and tech-enabled rental or, more boldly, peer-to-peer. Examples across industries -- from music to cars -- show how close we are to this meshy future.

Keywords:: Information technology Entrepreneurship New business enterprises
Resource Type:: Video

Presentation

The Cognitive Dissonance of Living in a world of "Big Data"

This video was recorded at COIN / PlanetData Winter School on Knowledge Technologies for Complex Business Environments, Ljubljana 2011. Organized by COIN FP7 Integrated Project and PlanetData FP7 Network of Excellence, the school seeks to bring together students, scholars and researchers from industry in order to foster collaboration and interoperability with innovative services and project large-scale data management in business environments. The main topics of the winter school are: Interoperability and collaboration models and solutions, Enterprise interoperability and collaboration services, Innovative knowledge and semantically powered technologies, Knowledge process and context modelling, Pro-active knowledge tools, Large scale analytics and reasoning tools, Business cases and real case studies.

Subjects:: Management and Computing
Keywords:: Big data -- Social aspects Big data
Resource Type:: Presentation

Video

The Beautiful Math Behind The World's Ugliest Music

Scott Rickard set out to engineer the ugliest possible piece of music, devoid of repetition, using a mathematical concept known as the Costas Array. In this surprisingly entertaining talk, he shares the math behind musical beauty ... and its opposite.

Subjects:: Mathematics and Statistics
Keywords:: Repetition in music Mathematics Composition (Music)
Resource Type:: Video

e-book

The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry

The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry by David W. Ball, John W. Hill, and Rhonda J. Scott is for the one-semester General, Organic and Biological Chemistry course. The authors designed this textbook from the ground up to meet the needs of a one-semester course. It is 20 chapters in length and approximately 350-400 pages; just the right breadth and depth for instructors to teach and students to grasp. In addition, The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry is written not by one chemist, but THREE chemistry professors with specific, complimentary research and teaching areas. David W. Ball's specialty is physical chemistry, John W. Hill's is organic chemistry, and finally, Rhonda J. Scott's background is in enzyme and peptide chemistry. These three authors have the expertise to identify and present only the most important material for students to learn in the GOB Chemistry course. These experienced authors have ensured their text has ample in-text examples, and ”Test Yourself“ questions following the examples so students can immediately check their comprehension. The end-of-chapter exercises will be paired, with one answered in the back of the text so homework can easily be assigned and self-checked. The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry by David W. Ball, John W. Hill, and Rhonda J. Scott is the right text for you and your students if you are looking for a GOB textbook with just the right amount of coverage without overdoing the concepts and overwhelming your students.

Subjects:: Chemistry
Keywords:: Chemistry Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

Courseware

The Atmosphere, the Ocean, and Environmental Change

This course explores the physical processes that control Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, and climate. Quantitative methods for constructing mass and energy budgets. Topics include clouds, rain, severe storms, regional climate, the ozone layer, air pollution, ocean currents and productivity, the seasons, El Niño, the history of Earth’s climate, global warming, energy, and water resources.

Subjects:: Environmental Engineering
Keywords:: Atmospheric physics Meteorology
Resource Type:: Courseware

Presentation

Technical and Business Innovation

This video was recorded at COIN / PlanetData Winter School on Knowledge Technologies for Complex Business Environments, Ljubljana 2011. Organized by COIN FP7 Integrated Project and PlanetData FP7 Network of Excellence, the school seeks to bring together students, scholars and researchers from industry in order to foster collaboration and interoperability with innovative services and project large-scale data management in business environments. The main topics of the winter school are: Interoperability and collaboration models and solutions, Enterprise interoperability and collaboration services, Innovative knowledge and semantically powered technologies, Knowledge process and context modelling, Pro-active knowledge tools, Large scale analytics and reasoning tools, Business cases and real case studies. Detailed information can be found here.

Subjects:: Management
Keywords:: Enterprise application integration (Computer systems) Internetworking (Telecommunication) Management information systems Information resources management
Resource Type:: Presentation

e-book

Sustainability, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

This book is suited for the Entrepreneurship or Innovation course with an emphasis on Sustainability or for a course devoted entirely to Sustainability. What are the trends and forces underlying the changing character of the business-environment relationship? How they are creating significant entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals and companies? Around the world, the movement toward ”sustainable development“ has caused many firms to adopt policies and practices that reflect what is sometimes called a ”sustainable business“ or ”triple bottom line“ approach. ”Triple bottom line“ refers to the demonstration of strong performance across economic, social, and environmental indicators. Those measures serve as indicators of fiduciary responsibility to a growing set of concerned investors and therefore can help ensure access to capital. They also enable innovators to lower costs, create strategic differentiation, reduce risk, and position themselves for competitive advantage over rivals less attuned to trends. The deep roots of sustainability thinking are now evident in widespread and increasingly visible activities worldwide, and Sustainability, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship explores this evolution; its necessity, its implications and its progression.

Subjects:: Management
Keywords:: Entrepreneurship Business -- Environmental aspects Sustainable development Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

Video

StatQuest with Josh Starmer

Statistics, Machine Learning and Data Science can sometimes seem like very scary topics, but since each technique is really just a combination of small and simple steps, they are actually quite simple. My goal with StatQuest is to break down the major methodologies into easy to understand pieces. That said, I don't dumb down the material. Instead, I build up your understanding so that you are smarter.

Course related:: HTI34016 Introduction to Clinical Research
Subjects:: Computing and Mathematics and Statistics
Keywords:: Statistics Mathematical analysis Data mining Machine learning
Resource Type:: Video

e-book

Sound Reasoning

“Sound Reasoning” is a web-based, introductory music appreciation course. It offers a new approach to music appreciation for adults, focusing on style-independent concepts. While the course concentrates primarily on Western classical and modern music, the concepts that are introduced apply to music of any style or era. The goal of “Sound Reasoning” is to equip you with questions that you may ask of any piece of music, thereby creating a richer and more comprehensive understanding of music both familiar and unfamiliar. Here are some additional features of the course. 1) ”Sound Reasoning” is completely listening based. No ability to read music is required. 2) The course assumes little or no musical background. A minimum of terminology is invoked. 3) Musical examples are interpolated directly into the text. 4) The course is interactive. A “listening gallery” with exercises follows each module, so that you may practice and refine your listening skills. 5) The modules may be studied in sequence or individually. 6)You may easily print a .pdf of any module.. “Sound Reasoning” is designed as both a stand-alone, self-paced course as well as a supplement to existing university classes.

Subjects:: Performing Arts
Keywords:: Music appreciation Music Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

Six Steps To Job Search Success

This book is a practical discussion of six actionable steps that students can take to land a job regardless of the market. Whether the estimate is 25% unemployment or single-digit unemployment, that number doesn't apply to any one student. For any individual, the unemployment rate is 0% or 100%. One either has a job or doesn't. When any one person is looking for a job and there is 10% unemployment, that person just wants to be one of the nine people that has a job. Students might think even that one job is beyond their grasp. They think they don't have the right degree. Their school is in a different location than where they'd like to work. Not enough jobs are listed or employers are visiting the campus. This type of thinking cedes control of a student's search to outside forces. It is not up to professors, schools, career services support, or recruiters to get students a job. This book is about the proactive things that students can do to get themselves a job. In the first chapter, Six Steps to Job Search Success covers the different types of job searches: full-time job after graduation, internship, return to workforce, career change, relocation. The rest of the book is about how, regardless of the type of job search or overall market, one can be proactive and successfully land a job. This textbook outlines a structured approach, actionable steps, and stresses the importance of a student's willingness to see this through. Six Steps to Job Search Success provides that structure with six steps anyone can take to: Identify the types of jobs they'd like (Step 1: Identify Your Target) Position themselves for these jobs (Step 2: Create A Powerful Marketing Campaign) Figure out what employers are looking for (Step 3: Research) Develop relationships with prospective employers (Step 4: Network and Interview) Stay connected throughout the decision-making process and fix any problems that might arise (Step 5: Stay Motivated; Organized and Troubleshoot Your Search) Complete their search (Step 6: Negotiate and Close the Offer). Connie and Caroline are both former recruiters with over 40 years of combined hiring experience between them. Connie led recruiting areas for three Fortune 500 companies, and Caroline led recruiting in-house for a Fortune 500 but also as an external recruiter for established firms and start-ups. They've hired thousands of people from interns to senior executives. They developed the process detailed in Six Steps to Job Search Success based on how hiring works. The authors explain that in reality, the ability to look for a job and land a job is a separate and distinct skill than any of the skills required for the job itself. The goal of their book is share their job search techniques with your students so that your students can take control of their job search, add an exceptional new job to their career and enjoy the life rewards a satisfying career can bring. If you are interested in a practical approach that can deliver results, this book is for you and your course. Order a desk copy today and see for yourself.

Keywords:: Textbooks Job hunting
Resource Type:: e-book

Courseware

Signals and Systems

This course covers the fundamentals of signal and system analysis, focusing on representations of discrete-time and continuous-time signals (singularity functions, complex exponentials and geometrics, Fourier representations, Laplace and Z transforms, sampling) and representations of linear, time-invariant systems (difference and differential equations, block diagrams, system functions, poles and zeros, convolution, impulse and step responses, frequency responses). Applications are drawn broadly from engineering and physics, including feedback and control, communications, and signal processing.

Subjects:: Electrical Engineering
Keywords:: Signal processing System analysis
Resource Type:: Courseware

Presentation

Semantic Web Services Applications

This video was recorded at REASE. This is a one-hour video recording of the presentation of John Domingue at the First Asian Autumn School on the Semantic Web. It comprises two videos synchronized with the slides (requires Flash) or the videos alone. Table of Contents: Semantic Web Services: Application Areas Contents DIP DIP Consortium Supporting Emergency Planning for Essex County Council Essex County Council Emergency Planning Context Emergency planning scenario eMerges Ontologies Generic Application Structure Demonstration of Emergency Planning (GIS) Prototype V1 EMerges Prototype Architecture SWS and Business Process Modelling Super Project SUPER Consortium Motivation Querying the Process Space The Critical IT / Process Divide What Are My Services? What are my services? Matching Activities and Port Types Based on Semantics Supporting Business Users Better Matching Model Representations & Semantics The SUPER Stack Modelling Stack Telecommunications Solution Map Content on Demand Digital Rights Management & Content Procurement Modelling Stack Business Process Notations Modelling Stack Programming Model Deploying Applications Business Protocols Modelling Stack WSMO Top Level Notions The SUPER Trinity SUPER Methodology SUPER Architecture SUPER Ontology Stack Super Demo Context Prototype Scenario Digital Asset Management BPMN Service/Process Catalogue Super Demo Video

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Semantic integration (Computer systems) Semantic Web
Resource Type:: Presentation

Presentation

Sampling Table Configurations for the Hierarchical Poisson-Dirichlet Process

This video was recorded at European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML PKDD), Athens 2011. Hierarchical modeling and reasoning are fundamental in machine intelligence, and for this the two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet Process (PDP) plays an important role. The most popular MCMC sampling algorithm for the hierarchical PDP and hierarchical Dirichlet Process is to conduct an incremental sampling based on the Chinese restaurant metaphor, which originates from the Chinese restaurant process (CRP). In this paper, with the same metaphor, we propose a new table representation for the hierarchical PDPs by introducing an auxiliary latent variable, called table indicator, to record which customer takes responsibility for starting a new table. In this way, the new representation allows full exchangeability that is an essential condition for a correct Gibbs sampling algorithm. Based on this representation, we develop a block Gibbs sampling algorithm, which can jointly sample the data item and its table contribution. We test this out on the hierarchical Dirichlet process variant of latent Dirichlet allocation (HDP-LDA) developed by Teh, Jordan, Beal and Blei. Experiment results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms their "posterior sampling by direct assignment" algorithm in both out-of-sample perplexity and convergence speed. The representation can be used with many other hierarchical PDP models.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Machine learning Artificial intelligence
Resource Type:: Presentation

Video

SPSS for Beginners 1: Introduction

This video provides an introduction to SPSS/PASW. It shows how to navigate between Data View and Variable View, and shows how to modify properties of variables.

Course related:: ENGL518 Research Design and Methods
Keywords:: Statistics -- Computer programs SPSS (Computer file) Social sciences -- Statistical methods -- Computer programs
Resource Type:: Video

Presentation

SEEKDA as IT Multiplier: The Web Services Portal

This video was recorded at COIN / PlanetData Winter School on Knowledge Technologies for Complex Business Environments, Ljubljana 2011. Organized by COIN FP7 Integrated Project and PlanetData FP7 Network of Excellence, the school seeks to bring together students, scholars and researchers from industry in order to foster collaboration and interoperability with innovative services and project large-scale data management in business environments. The main topics of the winter school are: Interoperability and collaboration models and solutions, Enterprise interoperability and collaboration services, Innovative knowledge and semantically powered technologies, Knowledge process and context modelling, Pro-active knowledge tools, Large scale analytics and reasoning tools, Business cases and real case studies.

Subjects:: Management and Computing
Keywords:: Enterprise application integration (Computer systems) Internetworking (Telecommunication) Management information systems Information resources management
Resource Type:: Presentation

Presentation

Publishing and Consuming Linked Sensor Data

This video was recorded at COIN / PlanetData Winter School on Knowledge Technologies for Complex Business Environments, Ljubljana 2011. Organized by COIN FP7 Integrated Project and PlanetData FP7 Network of Excellence, the school seeks to bring together students, scholars and researchers from industry in order to foster collaboration and interoperability with innovative services and project large-scale data management in business environments. The main topics of the winter school are: Interoperability and collaboration models and solutions, Enterprise interoperability and collaboration services, Innovative knowledge and semantically powered technologies, Knowledge process and context modelling, Pro-active knowledge tools, Large scale analytics and reasoning tools, Business cases and real case studies. Detailed information can be found here.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Crowd funding Technological innovations Industrial management
Resource Type:: Presentation

Courseware

Project Evaluation

Project Evaluation covers methodologies for evaluating civil engineering projects, which typically are large-scale and long-lived and involve many economic, financial, social and environmental factors. The course places an emphasis on dealing with uncertainty. Students learn basic techniques of engineering economics, including net present value analysis, life-cycle costing, benefit-cost analysis, and other approaches to project evaluation. Examples are drawn from both contemporary and historical projects in various fields, including transportation systems, urban development, energy and environmental projects, water resource management, telecommunications systems, and other elements of the public and private projects and programs.

Subjects:: Building and Real Estate
Keywords:: Sustainable engineering Infrastructure (Economics) Project management
Resource Type:: Courseware

e-book

Operating Systems and Middleware: Supporting Controlled Interaction

In this book, you will learn about all three kinds of interaction. In all three cases, interesting software techniques are needed in order to bring the computations into contact, yet keep them suffciently at arm's length that they don't compromise each other's reliability. The exciting challenge, then, is supporting controlled interaction. This includes support for computations that share a single computer and interact with one another, as your email and word processing programs do. It also includes support for data storage and network communication. This book describes how all these kinds of support are provided both by operating systems and by additional software layered on top of operating systems, which is known as middleware. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the text as a whole, explaining what an operating system is, what middleware is, and what sorts of support these systems provide for controlled interaction. The next nine chapters work through the varieties of controlled interac- tion that are exemplified by the scenario at the beginning of the preface: in- teraction between concurrent computations on the same system (as between your email program and your word processor), interaction across time (as between your word processor before your trip and your word processor after your trip), and interaction across space (as between your email program and your service provider's email server). The first of these three topics is controlled interaction between computa- tions operating at one time on a particular computer. Before such interaction can make sense, you need to understand how it is that a single computer can be running more than one program, such as an email program in one window and a word processing program in another. Therefore, Chapter 2 explains the fundamental mechanism for dividing a computer's attention between concurrent computations, known as threads. Chapter 3 continues with the related topic of scheduling. That is, if the computer is dividing its time between computations, it needs to decide which ones to work on at any moment. With concurrent computations explained, Chapter 4 introduces con- trolled interactions between them by explaining synchronization, which is control over the threads' relative timing. For example, this chapter explains how, when your email program sends a document to your word processor, the word processor can be constrained to read the document only after the email program writes it. One particularly important form of synchroniza- tion, atomic transactions, is the topic of Chapter 5. Atomic transactions are groups of operations that take place as an indivisible unit; they are most commonly supported by middleware, though they are also playing an increasing role in operating systems. Other than synchronization, the main way that operating systems con- trol the interaction between computations is by controlling their access to memory. Chapter 6 explains how this is achieved using the technique known as virtual memory. That chapter also explains the many other objectives this same technique can serve. Virtual memory serves as the foundation for Chapter 7's topic, which is processes. A process is the fundamental unit of computation for protected access, just as a thread is the fundamental unit of computation for concurrency. A process is a group of threads that share a protection environment; in particular, they share the same access to virtual memory. The next three chapters move outside the limitations of a single com- puter operating in a single session. First, consider the document stored before a trip and available again after it. Chapter 8 explains persistent storage mechanisms, focusing particularly on the file storage that operat- ing systems provide. Second, consider the interaction between your email program and your service provider's email server. Chapter 9 provides an overview of networking, including the services that operating systems make available to programs such as the email client and server. Chapter 10 ex- tends this discussion into the more sophisticated forms of support provided by communication middleware, such as messaging systems, RMI, and web services. Finally, Chapter 11 focuses on security. Because security is a pervasive issue, the preceding ten chapters all provide some information on it as well. Specifically, the final section of each chapter points out ways in which se- curity relates to that chapter's particular topic. However, even with that coverage distributed throughout the book, a chapter specifically on security is needed, primarily to elevate it out of technical particulars and talk about general principles and the human and organizational context surrounding the computer technology. The best way to use these chapters is in consecutive order. However, Chapter 5 can be omitted with only minor harm to Chapters 8 and 10, and Chapter 9 can be omitted if students are already suffciently familiar with networking.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Operating systems (Computers) Computer software -- Development Textbooks Middleware
Resource Type:: e-book

Video

NTU Speech Lab

This youtube playlist included the topic of deep learning for human language processing, linear algebra, deep reinforcement learning, generative adversarial network, deep learning theory, structured learning, and machine learning.

Course related:: LGT6801 Guided Study in Logistics I
Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Machine learning Natural language processing (Computer science)
Resource Type:: Video

e-book

Microeconomics: Theory Through Applications

Russell Cooper and Andrew John have written an economics text aimed directly at students from its very inception. You're thinking, ”Yeah, sure. I've heard that before.“ This textbook, Microeconomics: Theory Through Applications, centers around student needs and expectations through two premises: … Students are motivated to study economics if they see that it relates to their own lives. … Students learn best from an inductive approach, in which they are first confronted with a problem, and then led through the process of solving that problem. Many books claim to present economics in a way that is digestible for students; Russell and Andrew have truly created one from scratch. This textbook will assist you in increasing students' economic literacy both by developing their aptitude for economic thinking and by presenting key insights about economics that every educated individual should know. How? Russell and Andrew have done three things in this text to accomplish that goal: 1. Applications Ahead of Theory: They present all the theory that is standard in Principles books. But by beginning with applications, students get to learn why this theory is needed. The authors take the kind of material that other authors put in ”applications boxes“ and place it at the heart of their book. Each chapter is built around a particular business or policy application, such as minimum wages, the stock exchange, and auctions. Why take this approach? Traditional courses focus too much on abstract theory relative to the interests and capabilities of the average undergraduate. Students are rarely engaged and the formal theory is never integrated into the way students think about economic issues. And traditional books are organized around theoretical constructs that mean nothing to students. The authors' applications-first approach ensures that students will not see chapters with titles like ”Cost Functions“ or ”Short-Run Fluctuations“. They introduce tools and ideas as and when they are needed. Each chapter is designed with two goals. First, the application upon which the chapter is built provides a ”hook“ that gets students' attention. Second, the application is a suitable vehicle a vehicle for teaching the principles of economics. 2. Learning through Repetition: Important tools appear over and over again, allowing students to learn from repetition and to see how one framework can be useful in many different contexts. Each piece of economic theory in this text is first introduced and explained in the context of a specific application. Most are re-used in other chapters, so students see them in action on multiple occasions. As students progress through the book, they accumulate a set of techniques and ideas. These are collected separately in a ”toolkit“ that provides students with an easy reference and also gives them a condensed summary of economic principles for examination preparation. 3. A Student's Table of Contents vs. An Instructor's Table of Contents: There is no further proof that Russell and Andrew have created a book aimed specifically at educating students about economics than their two tables of contents. The Student's Table of Contents speaks to students, piquing their interest to involve them in the economics, and a Instructor's Table of Contents with the economics to better help you organize your teaching—and frankly, you don't need to get excited by economics, you already are.

Subjects:: Economics
Keywords:: Microeconomics Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

Presentation

Media Stream

This video was recorded at COIN / PlanetData Winter School on Knowledge Technologies for Complex Business Environments, Ljubljana 2011. Organized by COIN FP7 Integrated Project and PlanetData FP7 Network of Excellence, the school seeks to bring together students, scholars and researchers from industry in order to foster collaboration and interoperability with innovative services and project large-scale data management in business environments. The main topics of the winter school are: Interoperability and collaboration models and solutions, Enterprise interoperability and collaboration services, Innovative knowledge and semantically powered technologies, Knowledge process and context modelling, Pro-active knowledge tools, Large scale analytics and reasoning tools, Business cases and real case studies. Detailed information can be found here.

Subjects:: Management and Computing
Keywords:: Data mining Real-time data processing
Resource Type:: Presentation

Video

Marty Lobdell - Study Less Study Smart

If you spend hours and hours of studying, without improving your grades, or information retention, then learn how to study smart by Marty Lobdell. Lobdell taught Psychology at Pierce College in Washington State for 40 years. During Lobdell's career, he has taught tens of thousands of students and he wants students to succeed. After watching students cram for eight hours or more for a test without any improvement, Lobdell has developed a studying technique that helps the brain retain the information that you are studying in this video "Study Less, Study Smart"

Course related:: APSS1L01 Tomorrow Leader
Keywords:: Study skills
Resource Type:: Video

Courseware

MIT Open Courseware - Linear Algebra

This course has been designed for independent study. It provides everything you will need to understand the concepts covered in the course. The materials include:
A complete set of Lecture Videos by Professor Gilbert Strang.
Summary Notes for all videos along with suggested readings in Prof. Strang’s textbook Linear Algebra.
Problem Solving Videos on every topic taught by an experienced MIT Recitation Instructor.
Problem Sets to do on your own with Solutions to check your answers against when you’re done.
A selection of Java® Demonstrations to illustrate key concepts.
A full set of Exams with Solutions, including review material to help you prepare.

Course related:: AMA1120 Basic Mathematics II
Subjects:: Mathematics and Statistics
Keywords:: Algebras Linear
Resource Type:: Courseware

Presentation

Linked Data and APIs

This video was recorded at COIN / PlanetData Winter School on Knowledge Technologies for Complex Business Environments, Ljubljana 2011. Organized by COIN FP7 Integrated Project and PlanetData FP7 Network of Excellence, the school seeks to bring together students, scholars and researchers from industry in order to foster collaboration and interoperability with innovative services and project large-scale data management in business environments. The main topics of the winter school are: Interoperability and collaboration models and solutions, Enterprise interoperability and collaboration services, Innovative knowledge and semantically powered technologies, Knowledge process and context modelling, Pro-active knowledge tools, Large scale analytics and reasoning tools, Business cases and real case studies.

Subjects:: Management and Computing
Keywords:: Linked data Application program interfaces (Computer software)
Resource Type:: Presentation

e-book

Introductory chemistry

"The goal of this textbook is not to make you an expert. True expertise in any field is a years-long endeavor. Here I [i.e. David W. Ball] will survey some of the basic topics of chemistry. This survey should give you enough knowledge to appreciate the impact of chemistry in everyday life and, if necessary, prepare you for additional instruction in chemistry."--BCcampus website.

Subjects:: Chemistry
Keywords:: Chemistry Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

Introductory Chemistry

David W. Ball of Cleveland State University brings his new survey of general chemistry text, Introductory Chemistry, to the market with a fresh theme that will be sure to hold student interest: "Chemistry is Everywhere." Introductory Chemistry is intended for a one-semester introductory or preparatory chemistry course. Throughout the chapters, David presents two features that reinforce the theme of the textbook, that chemistry is everywhere. The first is the boxed feature titled, appropriately, ”Chemistry is Everywhere“. This feature takes a topic of the chapter and demonstrates how this topic shows up in everyday life. In the introductory chapter, ”Chemistry is Everywhere“ focuses on the personal hygiene products that students may use every morning: toothpaste, soap, shampoo among others. These products are chemicals, aren't they? This book explores some of the chemical reactions like the ones that give students clean and healthy teeth, and shiny hair. This feature makes it clear to students that chemistry is, indeed, everywhere, and it will promote student retention in what is sometimes considered an intimidating course. The second boxed feature focuses on chemistry that students likely indulge in every day: eating and drinking. In the ”Food and Drink App“, David discusses how the chemistry of the chapter applies to things that students eat and drink every day. Carbonated beverages depend on the behavior of gases, foods contain acids and bases, and everyone actually eats certain rocks. (Yikes!) Cooking, eating, drinking, metabolism — all chemical processes students are involved with all the time. These features allow students to see the things we interact with every day in a new light — as chemistry. Just like many of the one-semester chemistry books you may be used to, each section in David Ball's starts with one or more Learning Objectives, which list the main points of the section. Each section ends with Key Takeaways, which are reviews of the main points of the section. Each chapter is full of examples to illustrate the key points of the materials, and each example is followed with a similar ”Test Yourself“ exercise to see if the student understands the concept. Each section ends with its own set of paired exercises to practice the material from that section, and each chapter ends with a section of ”Additional Exercises“ that are more challenging or require multiple steps or skills to answer. David took the time to treat mathematical problems in Introductory Chemistry one of two ways, either as a conversion-factor problem or as a formula problem. David believes having two basic mathematical approaches (converting and formulas) allows the text to focus on the logic of the approach and not tricks or shortcuts; which speaks to the final point about Introductory Chemistry. You'll notice that David took no shortcuts with the material in this text, his inviting writing style, concise approach, consistent presentation, and interesting pedagogy have given it some of the best peer reviews we've seen at Flat World. So, order a desk copy or dive in now to see for yourself.

Subjects:: Chemistry
Keywords:: Chemistry Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

Others

Introduction to Petroleum Geomechanics

This set of Presentations comprises an introductory course in Petroleum Geomechanics (Petroleum Rock Mechanics). The presentations start by introducing the basics of rock behaviour and design, initial conditions such as stress and temperature, and then move on to applications in areas such as borehole stability and stress changes in reservoirs. An attempt has been made to cover all of the major issues in Petroleum Geomechanics, but the materials also reflect the interests of the author to some degree.
There are approximately 35-50 hours of lecture material, depending how it is presented, and whether there are problems presented and worked out in class by participants. The materials are suitable for 4th-year students in Petroleum Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, although the materials could be used as the basis of a late 3rd-year course providing the students have had exposure to stress and strain in earth materials such as a course in Structural and Petroleum Geology, or an introductory course in Soil Mechanics.
As a professional short course, the materials can be presented in 35 hours, or selected modules can be added or left aside. As a courtesy, if you use these materials and develop modules of your own, develop clear problems sets, or improve these materials, please send a copy to mauriced@uwaterloo.ca, as I am always looking for better ways to present ideas and concepts.

Subjects:: Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics
Keywords:: Rock mechanics Petroleum -- Geology
Resource Type:: Others

Courseware

Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy

The course provides a contextual and evolutionary account for how various Chinese classical thoughts...

Subjects:: Chinese Studies
Keywords:: Civilization Philosophy Chinese China
Resource Type:: Courseware

e-book

Introducing Marketing

Through good economic times and bad, marketing remains the pivotal function in any business. Determining and satisfying the needs of customers through products that have value and accessibility and whose features are clearly communicated is the general purpose of any business. It is also a fundamental definition of marketing. This text introduces students to the marketing strategies and tools that practitioners use to market their products.

Subjects:: Marketing
Keywords:: Marketing Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

International Business

International Business is one of the most challenging and exciting courses to teach in the Business School. To teach a current, dynamic and complete course you need a textbook by authors as passionate and informed about International Business as you are. Carpenter and Dunung's International Business: The Opportunities and Challenges of a Flat World provides exploration into building, leading, and thriving in global organizations in an increasingly flat world. The authors define ”Flat world“ as one where service industries that dwarf manufacturing industries in terms of scale and scope, an Internet that pervades life and work, and networks define modern businesses, whether service or manufacturing. Carpenter and Dunung's text is designed to speak to technologically-savvy students who see national borders as bridges and not barriers. The authors use the lexicon of international business, and additionally, develop students' knowledge of international contexts with the aim that they may launch, run, and work in any organization that is global in scope (or is wrestling with global competition or other global threats). The textbook is organized in 5 Sections: Section 1 introduces the global business course and concludes with a chapter on seizing global opportunities. Section 2 develops student knowledge about key facets of the global business environment, while Section 3 develops knowledge about how a student or organization can exploit opportunities in that global environment. Section 4 is devoted to entrepreneurship in a flat world — this section will explore why the entrepreneurial context is changing, provide lenses for identifying and capitalizing on entrepreneurial opportunities, and Section 5 shows how key organizational activities can be managed for global effectiveness. Every chapter has five enumerated learning objectives, each of these five sections concludes with a short summary (”Key Takeaways“) and five review questions. In addition, each chapter concludes with a mini case on a unique global business that encompasses the topics shown in the chapter. The authors even provide a set of end-of-chapter questions that are mapped to AACSB learning standards, so that you will be able to measure how well students are grasping course content that aligns with the AACSB guidelines. Request a desk copy of Carpenter and Dunung's International Business: The Opportunities and Challenges of a Flat World to experience its current and progressive look at International Business for yourself.

Subjects:: Management and International Trade
Keywords:: Strategic planning International business enterprises -- Study teaching Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

Others

Intergenerational Justice: What do we owe future generations?

What are the long-term consequences of decisions we make today, and to what extent should the interests of future generations be taken into account? There is a wide range of public policy challenges that require us to provide some sort of answer to these questions. This interdisciplinary seminar series brings together academics and experts to address the implications of critical questions arising from ideas of intergenerational justice.

Subjects:: Sociology
Keywords:: Intergenerational relations Justice
Resource Type:: Others

Video

How I Became a Scientist: From English Literature Major to Science

How does an English literature major ultimately end up as a cancer biologist? Varmus tells us of his circuitous path to becoming a scientist to illustrate the many routes that one can follow to a career in science.

Keywords:: Physical sciences -- Vocational guidance Biologists -- Vocational guidance
Resource Type:: Video

Video

How Healthy Living Nearly Killed Me

For a full year, A.J. Jacobs followed every piece of health advice he could -- from applying sunscreen by the shot glass to wearing a bicycle helmet while shopping. Onstage at TEDMED, he shares the surprising things he learned.

Subjects:: Health Sciences
Keywords:: Health behavior Noise pollution Joy
Resource Type:: Video

Video

Healthier Men, One Moustache at A Time

Adam Garone has an impressive moustache, and it's for a good cause. A co-founder of Movember, Garone's initiative to raise awareness for men's health -- by having men grow out their moustaches every November -- began as a dare in a bar in 2003. Now, it's a worldwide movement that raised $126 million for prostate cancer research last year.

Subjects:: Health Sciences
Keywords:: Health promotion Fund raising Prostate -- Cancer
Resource Type:: Video

Video

Geological Engineering

The ISRM is extremely grateful to Dr. John Franklin for preparing this series of videos on Geological Engineering.

Subjects:: Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics
Keywords:: Geotechnical engineering Engineering geology
Resource Type:: Video

e-book

General Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications

The overall goal of the authors with General Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications was to produce a text that introduces the students to the relevance and excitement of chemistry. Although much of first-year chemistry is taught as a service course, Bruce and Patricia feel there is no reason that the intrinsic excitement and potential of chemistry cannot be the focal point of the text and the course. So, they emphasize the positive aspects of chemistry and its relationship to students' lives, which requires bringing in applications early and often. In addition, the authors feel that many first year chemistry students have an enthusiasm for biologically and medically relevant topics, so they use an integrated approach in their text that includes explicit discussions of biological and environmental applications of chemistry. Topics relevant to materials science are also introduced to meet the more specific needs of engineering students. To facilitate integration of such material, simple organic structures, nomenclature, and reactions are introduced very early in the text, and both organic and inorganic examples are used wherever possible. This approach emphasizes the distinctions between ionic and covalent bonding, thus enhancing the students' chance of success in the organic chemistry course that traditionally follows general chemistry. Finally, the authors made a conscious effort to treat material that has traditionally been relegated to boxes, and thus perhaps perceived as peripheral by the students, by incorporating it into the text to serve as a learning tool. To begin the discussion of chemistry rapidly, the traditional first chapter introducing units, significant figures, conversion factors, dimensional analysis, and so on, has been reorganized. The material has been placed in the chapters where the relevant concepts are first introduced, thus providing three advantages: Eliminates the tedium of the traditional approach, which introduces mathematical operations at the outset, and thus avoids the perception that chemistry is a mathematics course; Avoids the early introduction of operations such as logarithms and exponents, which are typically not encountered again for several chapters and may easily be forgotten when they are needed; and Provides a review for those students who have already had relatively sophisticated high school chemistry and math courses, although the sections are designed primarily for students unfamiliar with the topic. Consider this text for your course if you are interested in In summary, a text that represents a step in the evolution of general chemistry texts toward one that reflects the increasing overlap between chemistry and other disciplines. Most importantly, if you want a text that discusses exciting and relevant aspects of biological, environmental, and materials science that are usually relegated to the last few chapters, in a format that allows the you to tailor the emphasis to the needs of the class. Request your desk copy today.

Subjects:: Chemistry
Keywords:: Environmental chemistry Chemistry Physical theoretical Chemistry Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

Fundamentals of Matrix Algebra

A college (or advanced high school) level text dealing with the basic principles of matrix and linear algebra. It covers solving systems of linear equations, matrix arithmetic, the determinant, eigenvalues, and linear transformations. Numerous examples are given within the easy to read text. This third edition corrects several errors in the text and updates the font faces.

Subjects:: Mathematics and Statistics
Keywords:: Matrices Algebra Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

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