The Intersect


Book Description

Set against the backdrop of Arizona's political and cultural vortex at the start of 2010, "The Intersect" explores the issues of the day by weaving together the varied lives of disparate characters striving to survive in a world where sometimes the strongest link, and most lasting connection, is made among strangers.




The Intersection


Book Description

The Intersection is about people-real people just like you. In some cases, we don't know their names, but we recognize them. They are needy just like us. There's a woman with an incurable illness and a widow, without hope, on the way to a cemetery. There's a man who despairs that his dreams will never come true and sister who cannot understand the timing of God. There's a father who needs Christ to hurry. They all represent people on the road of life in need of an intersection. There is a point of need in all of them where Jesus shows up. When He does, chaos is turned to order and turmoil is replaced by peace. The Savior is about hope. You need it. I need it. He offers it. Look ahead- there He is. Go ahead-approach Him. He won't be surprised; He's expecting you. I assure you that you won't be disappointed!




Scala:Applied Machine Learning


Book Description

Leverage the power of Scala and master the art of building, improving, and validating scalable machine learning and AI applications using Scala's most advanced and finest features About This Book Build functional, type-safe routines to interact with relational and NoSQL databases with the help of the tutorials and examples provided Leverage your expertise in Scala programming to create and customize your own scalable machine learning algorithms Experiment with different techniques; evaluate their benefits and limitations using real-world financial applications Get to know the best practices to incorporate new Big Data machine learning in your data-driven enterprise and gain future scalability and maintainability Who This Book Is For This Learning Path is for engineers and scientists who are familiar with Scala and want to learn how to create, validate, and apply machine learning algorithms. It will also benefit software developers with a background in Scala programming who want to apply machine learning. What You Will Learn Create Scala web applications that couple with JavaScript libraries such as D3 to create compelling interactive visualizations Deploy scalable parallel applications using Apache Spark, loading data from HDFS or Hive Solve big data problems with Scala parallel collections, Akka actors, and Apache Spark clusters Apply key learning strategies to perform technical analysis of financial markets Understand the principles of supervised and unsupervised learning in machine learning Work with unstructured data and serialize it using Kryo, Protobuf, Avro, and AvroParquet Construct reliable and robust data pipelines and manage data in a data-driven enterprise Implement scalable model monitoring and alerts with Scala In Detail This Learning Path aims to put the entire world of machine learning with Scala in front of you. Scala for Data Science, the first module in this course, is a tutorial guide that provides tutorials on some of the most common Scala libraries for data science, allowing you to quickly get up to speed building data science and data engineering solutions. The second course, Scala for Machine Learning guides you through the process of building AI applications with diagrams, formal mathematical notation, source code snippets, and useful tips. A review of the Akka framework and Apache Spark clusters concludes the tutorial. The next module, Mastering Scala Machine Learning, is the final step in this course. It will take your knowledge to next level and help you use the knowledge to build advanced applications such as social media mining, intelligent news portals, and more. After a quick refresher on functional programming concepts using REPL, you will see some practical examples of setting up the development environment and tinkering with data. We will then explore working with Spark and MLlib using k-means and decision trees. By the end of this course, you will be a master at Scala machine learning and have enough expertise to be able to build complex machine learning projects using Scala. This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products: Scala for Data Science, Pascal Bugnion Scala for Machine Learning, Patrick Nicolas Mastering Scala Machine Learning, Alex Kozlov Style and approach A tutorial with complete examples, this course will give you the tools to start building useful data engineering and data science solutions straightaway. This course provides practical examples from the field on how to correctly tackle data analysis problems, particularly for modern Big Data datasets.




Intersect


Book Description

A contemporary time travel romance unlike anything else you've ever read. The Parallel Series continues: Quinn thought she'd simply dreamed Nick Reilly up. But now, weeks before her wedding, he's appeared in real life. Her doctor. And the longer he's here, trying to save her life, the more she's remembering about lives they shared in the past. Lives someone didn't want them to have. As Nick and Quinn piece together the truth about the life they once shared, they discover it was much deeper and darker than they ever imagined. That Quinn's life seems to restart again and again, a chain of events that always begins with Nick and Quinn falling in love, and ends with a mysterious blonde woman swooping into keep them apart. In order to keep history from repeating, Quinn will need to master her unusual gifts-but that means admitting to herself and to Nick why she stopped using them in the first place. He may never forgive her when he learns the truth, but Quinn is running out of options-because the clock is ticking, and it's no longer just her life that hangs in the balance. This book should be read following Parallel, but before Across Time and Across Eternity.




Mastering Scala Machine Learning


Book Description

Advance your skills in efficient data analysis and data processing using the powerful tools of Scala, Spark, and Hadoop About This Book This is a primer on functional-programming-style techniques to help you efficiently process and analyze all of your data Get acquainted with the best and newest tools available such as Scala, Spark, Parquet and MLlib for machine learning Learn the best practices to incorporate new Big Data machine learning in your data-driven enterprise to gain future scalability and maintainability Who This Book Is For Mastering Scala Machine Learning is intended for enthusiasts who want to plunge into the new pool of emerging techniques for machine learning. Some familiarity with standard statistical techniques is required. What You Will Learn Sharpen your functional programming skills in Scala using REPL Apply standard and advanced machine learning techniques using Scala Get acquainted with Big Data technologies and grasp why we need a functional approach to Big Data Discover new data structures, algorithms, approaches, and habits that will allow you to work effectively with large amounts of data Understand the principles of supervised and unsupervised learning in machine learning Work with unstructured data and serialize it using Kryo, Protobuf, Avro, and AvroParquet Construct reliable and robust data pipelines and manage data in a data-driven enterprise Implement scalable model monitoring and alerts with Scala In Detail Since the advent of object-oriented programming, new technologies related to Big Data are constantly popping up on the market. One such technology is Scala, which is considered to be a successor to Java in the area of Big Data by many, like Java was to C/C++ in the area of distributed programing. This book aims to take your knowledge to next level and help you impart that knowledge to build advanced applications such as social media mining, intelligent news portals, and more. After a quick refresher on functional programming concepts using REPL, you will see some practical examples of setting up the development environment and tinkering with data. We will then explore working with Spark and MLlib using k-means and decision trees. Most of the data that we produce today is unstructured and raw, and you will learn to tackle this type of data with advanced topics such as regression, classification, integration, and working with graph algorithms. Finally, you will discover at how to use Scala to perform complex concept analysis, to monitor model performance, and to build a model repository. By the end of this book, you will have gained expertise in performing Scala machine learning and will be able to build complex machine learning projects using Scala. Style and approach This hands-on guide dives straight into implementing Scala for machine learning without delving much into mathematical proofs or validations. There are ample code examples and tricks that will help you sail through using the standard techniques and libraries. This book provides practical examples from the field on how to correctly tackle data analysis problems, particularly for modern Big Data datasets.




Learning Blender


Book Description

Master the Newest Blender Techniques for Creating Amazing 3D Characters: From Design and Modeling to Video Compositing Now fully updated for Blender 2.83 LTS (Long-Term Support) and beyond, Learning Blender, Third Edition, walks you through every step of creating an outstanding 3D animated character with Blender, and then compositing it in a real video using a professional workflow. This edition covers the extensive interface changes of the software, as well as many improvements and some almost fully rewritten chapters to showcase more modern workflows. Still the only Blender tutorial to take you from preproduction to final result, this guide is perfect for both novices and those moving from other software to Blender (open source and free software). Author Oliver Villar provides full-color, hands-on chapters that cover every aspect of character creation: design, modeling, unwrapping, texturing, shading, rigging, animation, and rendering. He also walks you through integrating your animated character into a real-world video, using professional camera tracking, lighting, and compositing techniques. The rich companion website ( blendtuts.com/learning-blender-files) will help you quickly master even the most complex techniques with bonus contents like video tutorials. By the time you're done, you'll be ready to create outstanding characters for all media -- and you'll have up-to-date skills for any 3D project, whether it involves characters or not. Learn Blender's updated user interface and navigation Create your first scene with Blender and the Blender Render and Cycles render engines Organize an efficient, step-by-step pipeline to streamline workflow in any project Master modeling, unwrapping, and texturing Bring your character to life with materials and shading in both Cycles and EEVEE (the new real-time render engine included in Blender) Create your character's skeleton and make it walk Use Camera Tracking to mix 3D objects into a real-world video Transform a raw rendered scene into the final result using Blender's compositing nodes Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.




Learning SQL


Book Description

Updated for the latest database management systems -- including MySQL 6.0, Oracle 11g, and Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 -- this introductory guide will get you up and running with SQL quickly. Whether you need to write database applications, perform administrative tasks, or generate reports, Learning SQL, Second Edition, will help you easily master all the SQL fundamentals. Each chapter presents a self-contained lesson on a key SQL concept or technique, with numerous illustrations and annotated examples. Exercises at the end of each chapter let you practice the skills you learn. With this book, you will: Move quickly through SQL basics and learn several advanced features Use SQL data statements to generate, manipulate, and retrieve data Create database objects, such as tables, indexes, and constraints, using SQL schema statements Learn how data sets interact with queries, and understand the importance of subqueries Convert and manipulate data with SQL's built-in functions, and use conditional logic in data statements Knowledge of SQL is a must for interacting with data. With Learning SQL, you'll quickly learn how to put the power and flexibility of this language to work.




Learning to Seek


Book Description

The accelerating technological transformation in learn- ing has necessitated an ability to search and differentiate among the one billion web pages, libraries, databases, books, newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, and opinion columns available online. This volume focuses on the normative challenges that the current technological transformation presents to all professionals engaged in higher education. Part I concentrates on the current social and technological trends. David Snyder presents an outline of technologies that have made open knowledge systems possible. Majid Tehranian argues that the new technological environment has made learning to seek out information more possible than ever before. Robert Fuller calls for an egalitarian rather than hierarchical approach to communication systems. Harlan Cleveland proposes integrative learning, broad thinking, and globally aware citizenship through "education for wisdom." Part II focuses on problems of governance and finance in the new technological environment. John Hinchcliff takes up the problem of values and argues for the maintenance of traditional altruistic rather than Promethean goals. Karou Yamaguchi comes to the problem of the futures with the tools of system dynamics. William Bergquist calls for a reorganization of higher education to meet the needs for creation, transfer, and inculcation of knowledge and skills. Hamid Shirvani calls for the core values of transparency, integrity, open communication, and dignitarian approach as the guideposts in educational leadership. Walter Truett Anderson concludes by attempting to bring the complex technological, social, economic, and political variables into a holistic approach for the management of higher education. In 2005, at the Universities of the Future Conference, participants were asked to envision the future of higher education. Part III, presents their visions.




How Surfaces Intersect in Space


Book Description

This marvelous book of pictures illustrates the fundamental concepts of geometric topology in a way that is very friendly to the reader. It will be of value to anyone who wants to understand the subject by way of examples. Undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and non-professionals will profit from reading the book and from just looking at the pictures.




Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Programming


Book Description

Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007 Programming Welcome to the only guidebook series that takes a visual approach to professional-level computer topics. Open the book and you'll discover step-by-step screen shots that demonstrate over 140 key Excel programming techniques, including: Assigning digital signatures to macros Setting properties for a project Assigning values to a variable Changing the properties of an object Formatting a numeric expression Processing a runtime error Saving worksheets to another file Displaying a built-in dialog box Creating custom Ribbon tabs Building and debugging add-ins Extra Apply It "Apply It" and "Extra" sidebars highlight useful tips High-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task Succinct explanations walk you through step by step Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules