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

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

Presentation

Analyzing Word Frequencies in Large Text Corpora using Inter-arrival Times and Bootstrapping

This video was recorded at European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML PKDD), Athens 2011. Comparing frequency counts over texts or corpora is an important task in many applications and scientific disciplines. Given a text corpus, we want to test a hypothesis, such as "word X is frequent", "word X has become more frequent over time", or "word X is more frequent in male than in female speech". For this purpose we need a null model of word frequencies. The commonly used bag-of-words model, which corresponds to a Bernoulli process with fixed parameter, does not account for any structure present in natural languages. Using this model for word frequencies results in large numbers of words being reported as unexpectedly frequent. We address how to take into account the inherent occurrence patterns of words in significance testing of word frequencies. Based on studies of words in two large corpora, we propose two methods for modeling word frequencies that both take into account the occurrence patterns of words and go beyond the bag-of-words assumption. The first method models word frequencies based on the spatial distribution of individual words in the language. The second method is based on bootstrapping and takes into account only word frequency at the text level. The proposed methods are compared to the current gold standard in a series of experiments on both corpora. We find that words obey different spatial patterns in the language, ranging from bursty to non-bursty/uniform, independent of their frequency, showing that the traditional approach leads to many false positives.

Subjects:: Management and Computing
Keywords:: Computational linguistics Text processing (Computer science) Discourse analysis -- Data processing
Resource Type:: Presentation

Courseware

Farmer's Agribusiness Training Course: Module 3 - Entrepreneurship. Lesson 5: Credit Management

This Farmers' Agribusiness training course has been developed to help both farmers and farmer organisations. Its intention is to provide access to provide access to additional skills and knowledge that will allow farmers to move from a 'farm' to a 'firm'. This lesson describes funding possibilities, the process for sourcing funds, the measures that should be taken to ensure effective utilization of funds, repayment procedures.

Subjects:: Management
Keywords:: Entrepreneurship Credit -- Management
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

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

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

COIN meets Science 2.0

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:: Information resources management Internetworking (Telecommunication) Management information systems
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

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

Presentation

Content as basis for Social Connectness …as basis for better User Experience

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:: Online social networks Computer software -- Development -- Social aspects Computer networks -- Social aspects Social networks
Resource Type:: Presentation

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

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

COIN System Demos

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

COIN services and 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.

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

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

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

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

e-book

A Brief Introduction to Engineering Computation with MATLAB

A Brief Introduction to Engineering Computation with MATLAB is specifically designed for students with no programming experience. However, students are expected to be proficient in First Year Mathematics and Sciences and access to good reference books are highly recommended. Students are assumed to have a working knowledge of the Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows operating systems. The strategic goal of the course and book is to provide learners with an appreciation for the role computation plays in solving engineering problems. MATLAB specific skills that students are expected to be proficient at are: write scripts to solve engineering problems including interpolation, numerical integration and regression analysis, plot graphs to visualize, analyze and present numerical data, and publish reports.

Subjects:: Mechanical Engineering and Computing
Keywords:: MATLAB Engineering mathematics
Resource Type:: e-book

Courseware

Dynamic Systems and Control

The course addresses dynamic systems, i.e., systems that evolve with time. Typically these systems have inputs and outputs; it is of interest to understand how the input affects the output (or, vice-versa, what inputs should be given to generate a desired output). In particular, this course will concentrates on systems that can be modeled by Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs), and that satisfy certain linearity and time-invariance conditions.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Mathematical models Dynamics System theory
Resource Type:: Courseware

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

Courseware

Communicating with Mobile Technology

This course covers the basics of J2ME and explores mobile imaging and media creation, GPS location, user-centered design, usability testing, and prototyping. Java experience is recommended.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Mobile apps Mobile computing Cell phone systems Application software -- Development
Resource Type:: Courseware

e-book

Advances in Flight Control Systems

This book brings together reputable researchers from different countries in order to provide a comprehensive coverage of advanced and modern topics in flight control not yet reflected by other books. This product comprises 14 contributions submitted by 38 authors from 11 different countries and areas. It covers most of the currents main streams of flight control researches, ranging from adaptive flight control mechanism, fault tolerant flight control, acceleration based flight control, helicopter flight control, comparison of flight control systems and fundamentals. According to these themes the contributions are grouped in six categories, corresponding to six parts of the book.

Subjects:: Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering
Keywords:: Flight control Automatic pilot (Airplanes)
Resource Type:: e-book

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

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

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

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

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

Others

C Programming Exercises, Practice, Solution

C is a general-purpose, imperative computer programming language, supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope and recursion, while a static type system prevents many unintended operations. C was originally developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1973 at Bell Labs, and used to re-implement the Unix operating system. It has since become one of the most widely used programming languages of all time, with C compilers from various vendors available for the majority of existing computer architectures and operating systems. The best way we learn anything is by practice and exercise questions. We have started this section for those (beginner to intermediate) who are familiar with C programming. Hope, these exercises help you to improve your C programming coding skills. Currently, following sections are available, we are working hard to add more exercises.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Programming languages (Electronic computers) C (Computer program language)
Resource Type:: Others

e-book

Digital Foundations

This book was written by two artist educators who teach digital art and design studio foundation classes. While teaching classes that take place in software laboratories, we noticed that many of our students expected to learn to use software, but gave little consideration to aesthetics or art and design history. A typical first day question is, "Are we going to learn Photoshop in this class?" At first we were tempted to oblige our students' thirst for so-called practical knowledge, but we recognize that in the absence of the visual, theoretical, and historical frameworks, practical knowledge is practically useless. To teach our classes, we used the very best of the software training manuals, and supplemented them with all the visual and historical material that was missing. After settling for years on books that don't really encapsulate a class, we finally decided to write the book that we think all introductory media design students should be using. For us, a student is anyone actively engaged in learning. A student can be working towards a degree in art, communication, graphic design, illustration, and so on in a traditional classroom setting, or a self-taught found-it-on-the-bookstore-shelf learner. In the twenty chapters that follow, we have shared small bites of history, followed by visual references, and then digital exercises that explore creative software in a manner that brings design principles into the software demo. Originally, this book was printed as a manual to the Adobe Creative Suite, the software found in classrooms and labs around the country. Just a month after the book was published, we teamed up with Floss Manuals to convert our manuscript into one that teaches the same design principles using open source software.

Subjects:: Interactive and Digital Media
Keywords:: Open source software Computer art
Resource Type:: e-book

Video

Conventus Law

At Conventus Law, we love to do things differently. We want to help people stay informed, give them new ideas about the Asia legal market and challenge the way people think. We specialise in partnering with law firms to deliver knowledge differently. Our products are highly informative, simple to access and easy to digest.

Course related:: AF5520 Corporate Law
Subjects:: Law and Legislation
Keywords:: Asia Law Law firms
Resource Type:: Video

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

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

Elementary Algebra

It is essential to lay a solid foundation in mathematics if a student is to be competitive in today's global market. The importance of algebra, in particular, cannot be overstated, as it is the basis of all mathematical modeling used in applications found in all disciplines. Traditionally, the study of algebra is separated into a two parts, elementary algebra and intermediate algebra. This textbook, Elementary Algebra, is the first part, written in a clear and concise manner, making no assumption of prior algebra experience. It carefully guides students from the basics to the more advanced techniques required to be successful in the next course. This text is, by far, the best elementary algebra textbook offered under a Creative Commons license. It is written in such a way as to maintain maximum flexibility and usability. A modular format was carefully integrated into the design. For example, certain topics, like functions, can be covered or omitted without compromising the overall flow of the text. An introduction of square roots in Chapter 1 is another example that allows for instructors wishing to include the quadratic formula early to do so. Topics such as these are carefully included to enhance the flexibility throughout. This textbook will effectively enable traditional or nontraditional approaches to elementary algebra. This, in addition to robust and diverse exercise sets, provides the base for an excellent individualized textbook instructors can use free of needless edition changes and excessive costs! A few other differences are highlighted below: Equivalent mathematical notation using standard text found on a keyboard A variety of applications and word problems included in most exercise sets Clearly enumerated steps found in context within carefully chosen examples Alternative methods and notation, modularly integrated, where appropriate Video examples available, in context, within the online version of the textbook Robust and diverse exercise sets with discussion board questions Key words and key takeaways summarizing each section This text employs an early-and-often approach to real-world applications, laying the foundation for students to translate problems described in words into mathematical equations. It also clearly lays out the steps required to build the skills needed to solve these equations and interpret the results. With robust and diverse exercise sets, students have the opportunity to solve plenty of practice problems. In addition to embedded video examples and other online learning resources, the importance of practice with pencil and paper is stressed. This text respects the traditional approaches to algebra pedagogy while enhancing it with the technology available today. In addition, textual notation is introduced as a means to communicate solutions electronically throughout the text. While it is important to obtain the skills to solve problems correctly, it is just as important to communicate those solutions with others effectively in the modern era of instant communications.

Subjects:: Mathematics and Statistics
Keywords:: Algebra 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

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

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

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

e-book

Business Information Systems: Design an App for That

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 plan, build, and develop a proposal for an iPhone application. They develop a very realistic mockup. They also build a website to help market and support the app. Students are engaged because the project is fun and feels real. However, they are simultaneously learning business concepts and MIS skills. Prior to the existence of this course, we were only able to give such an interesting project at the senior level. Now, even as freshmen, students have a real experience of MIS in operation. A by product of creating an engaging course is increased enrollment in the MIS major. Even students who have never heard of MIS become excited about the major and either switch majors or add it as a double major or minor. Many other books have students study tools and then do a case. By contrast, most of this book is a case. Much like the real world, we introduce tools when needed, and only to the extent needed, to get at each part of the case.

Subjects:: Industrial and Systems Engineering and Computing
Keywords:: Business information services Management information systems Textbooks Application software -- Development
Resource Type:: e-book

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

e-book

Business English for Success

Business English for Success is a creative solution to a common challenge across Business Communication courses: Business English or Business Presentations? Some classes place an equal emphasis on oral and written communication. If that's the case for you check out our text Business Communication for Success. If, however, your class places the emphasis squarely on written communication and writing proficiency, then Business English for Success is for you. Business English for Success provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition. This step-by-step approach provides a clear path to student-centered learning. A wide range of writing levels and abilities are addressed, helping each student prepare for the next writing or university course. The text opens with a discussion on the sentence and then breaks it down into its elemental components, before reconstructing them into effective sentences, paragraphs, and larger assignments. Then, starting in Chapter 9: Effective Business Writing, the discussion applies lessons learned from the previous foundational chapters into common business issues and applications. From paraphrasing and plagiarism to style to the research process, the expectations increase as several common business documents are presented, including text messages and e-mail, memorandums and letters, the business proposal, business report, resume, and the sales message. This textbook has been used in classes at:Arizona Western College, Hostos Community College, Virginia State University, Truckee Meadows Community College, San Jose State University, Concordia University - Irvine, University New Brunswick - Fredericton, Cerritos College, University of Houston - Downtown, Flat World Knowledge University, A-C Central High School, University of The People, Truckee Meadows Community College, Danville Community High School

Subjects:: English Language
Keywords:: Business writing English language -- Business English Business communication Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

Essentials of Geographic Information Systems

Essentials of Geographic Information Systems integrates key concepts behind the technology with practical concerns and real-world applications. Recognizing that many potential GIS users are nonspecialists or may only need a few maps, this book is designed to be accessible, pragmatic, and concise. Essentials of Geographic Information Systems also illustrates how GIS is used to ask questions, inform choices, and guide policy. From the melting of the polar ice caps to privacy issues associated with mapping, this book provides a gentle, yet substantive, introduction to the use and application of digital maps, mapping, and GIS.
In today's world, learning involves knowing how and where to search for information. In some respects, knowing where to look for answers and information is arguably just as important as the knowledge itself. Because Essentials of Geographic Information Systems is concise, focused, and directed, readers are encouraged to search for supplementary information and to follow up on specific topics of interest on their own when necessary. Essentials of Geographic Information Systems provides the foundations for learning GIS, but readers are encouraged to construct their own individual frameworks of GIS knowledge. The benefits of this approach are two-fold. First, it promotes active learning through research. Second, it facilitates flexible and selective learning—that is, what is learned is a function of individual needs and interest.
Since GIS and related geospatial and navigation technology change so rapidly, a flexible and dynamic text is necessary in order to stay current and relevant. Though essential concepts in GIS tend to remain constant, the situations, applications, and examples of GIS are fluid and dynamic. Though this book is intended for use in introductory GIS courses, Essentials of Geographic Information Systems will also appeal to the large number of certificate, professional, extension, and online programs in GIS that are available today. In addition to providing readers with the tools necessary to carry out spatial analyses, Essentials of Geographic Information Systems outlines valuable cartographic guidelines for maximizing the visual impact of your maps. The book also describes effective GIS project management solutions that commonly arise in the modern workplace.

Subjects:: Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics and Computing
Keywords:: Geographic information systems Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

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

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

e-book

Calculus for the Life Sciences: A Modeling Approach Volume 1

Our writing is based on three premises. First, life sciences students are motivated by and respond well to actual data related to real life sciences problems. Second, the ultimate goal of calculus in the life sciences primarily involves modeling living systems with difference and differential equations. Understanding the concepts of derivative and integral are crucial, but the ability to compute a large array of derivatives and integrals is of secondary importance. Third, the depth of calculus for life sciences students should be comparable to that of the traditional physics and engineering calculus course; else life sciences students will be short changed and their faculty will advise them to take the 'best' (engineering) course. In our text, mathematical modeling and difference and differential equations lead, closely follow, and extend the elements of calculus. Chapter one introduces mathematical modeling in which students write descriptions of some observed processes and from these descriptions derive first order linear difference equations whose solutions can be compared with the observed data. In chapters in which the derivatives of algebraic, exponential, or trigonometric functions are defined, biologically motivated differential equations and their solutions are included. The chapter on partial derivatives includes a section on the diffusion partial differential equation. There are two chapters on non-linear difference equations and on systems of two difference equations and two chapters on differential equations and on systems of differential equation.

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

e-book

Algorithms and Data Structures With Applications to Graphics and Geometry

An introductory coverage of algorithms and data structures with application to graphics and geometry.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Algorithms Data structures (Computer science) Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

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

e-book

Foundations of Computation

Foundations of Computation is a free textbook for a one-semester course in theoretical computer science. It has been used for several years in a course at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The course has no prerequisites other than introductory computer programming. The first half of the course covers material on logic, sets, and functions that would often be taught in a course in discrete mathematics. The second part covers material on automata, formal languages, and grammar that would ordinarily be encountered in an upper level course in theoretical computer science.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Computer science Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

Computer Networking: Principles, Protocols and Practice

This open textbook aims to fill the gap between the open-source implementations and the open-source network specifications by providing a detailed but pedagogical description of the key principles that guide the operation of the Internet.

Subjects:: Computing
Keywords:: Computer network protocols Textbooks
Resource Type:: e-book

e-book

Accounting Principles: A Business Perspective

Accounting Principles: A Business Perspective uses annual reports of real companies to illustrate many of the accounting concepts in use in business today. Gaining an understanding of accounting terminology and concepts, however, is not enough to ensure your success. You also need to be able to find information on the Internet, analyze various business situations, work effectively as a member of a team, and communicate your ideas clearly. This text was developed to help you develop these skills.

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

Search OER Collection

ALL

PolyU OER

Internet Resource

Search Constraints

Search Results