This book is about Data Analytics. In that respect, it is like others. What distinguishes it from the rest is the variety of open-source tool applications. This book incorporates the use of R Studio, Python, SAS Studio (University Edition), and KNIME. This book is also about manipulating Big Data. Apache Hadoop on Hortonworks Sandbox is introduced and we manage, move, handle, and transform data using Apache Hive, Apache Spark, MapReduce and TEZ, with terminal shell commands and Ambari. We show you how to set up a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure. We then use the data in later chapters for modeling. We cover Descriptive Modeling and Predictive. The content includes Support Vector Machines, Decision Tree learning, Random Forests, Naive and Empirical Bayes, Gradient Boosting, Cluster Modeling, Generalized Linear Models, Logistic Regression, and Artificial Neural Networks. Every chapter includes completely worked examples using one or more open-source tools.

We all need hope, yet we do not really understand what the origin of this craving may be nor the ramifications of its completion. After the Fall of Man, something was missing and resulted in our separation from God. Quantum hope reconnects us through of faith in Christ Jesus until that day when we will be fully restored. Quantum Hope is the sequel to Quantum Phaith and prequel to Quantum Love (not yet published). In Quantum Phaith, we learned what faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1: "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Quantum Hope examines the biblical hope as the connection between faith and love (1st Corinthians 13:13). Hope is that which we persevere for and the force that binds-an equilibrium. Unlike secular hope, quantum hope encompasses several ideas and is measurable. We will see that quantum hope is not only a character trait and a promise laid up in heaven, but also a Person: Christ.

"The Men of Manhattan" is a short history of the origins and development of the American atomic bomb program during World War II, focusing on the men and woman who made it possible. Beginning with the scientific developments of the pre-war years, the book details the role of scientific exploration in conducting a secret, nationwide enterprise that took science from the laboratory and into combat with an entirely new type of weapon. Throughout the book, short biographies of the men, and a women-Lise Meitner, Leona Woods Marshall Libby, and Chien-Shiung Wu-are provided where most pertinent. Although nuclear weapons still pose a threat to peace throughout the world, splitting the atom was a watermark point in nuclear science and quantum physics. Harnessed responsibly, the enormous power of an atomic chain reaction can serve humanity for good, e.g., atomic energy. Nuclear medicine and x-ray technology are examples of the benefits brought about by these pioneers-the Men of Manhattan.

A few of my blog readers asked me to share this story of my military career as a series of blogs. When I set out writing about this saga, I was just writing. I had not planned for it to evolve into lessons about leadership, but it did. Years before I set out on my military journey, a young officer on the staff of Thomas J "Stonewall" Jackson, wrote I Rode with Stonewall. I never really gave General William Scott Wallace a nickname, but if I had this book would be called, I Rode with the Calm Man or I Rode with the Quiet Man. I Rode with Wallace is about the modern U.S. Cavalry and my ride in it, even though that ride only lasted eight years. I did ride with Wallace for three of those eight, but I also rode with Cook and Broll, Mitchell and Vanwinkle, Charlton and Hardesty, Bates and McCoy. The book is organized into eight primary parts based on blogs I wrote. Yet there is more material than appeared in the blogs, including some unit histories and additional anecdotes.

In Quantum Phaith (Faith), Dr. Strickland argued that Science and Scripture are not at odds and Faith has substance. In Quantum Hope, he argued that Hope is tangible. In Quantum Love, he argues that Love is measureable. However, we cannot choose one of these in favor of the other. Certainly Love is the greatest, but a relationship exist between Faith, Hope, and Love, which requires all three working together. Quantum Love argues from the base of Scripture that Love is not some abstract concept and that real love is only possible with the presence of the Holy Spirit. Although the Bible is the basis, Dr. Strickland injects frequent episodes of "What I Learned at the Movies." Often, Hollywood gets it wrong, but there is an occasional nugget.

Many graduates of formal educational programs do not enter the work force ready to approach or solve the complex problems faced by Systems Engineers (SE). This book describes the processes and practices commonly employed for Systems Engineering which provide a greater depth of understanding for Systems Engineers and Systems Engineering Managers. Earlier chapters present an overview of the Systems Engineering Processes; the Technical processes, Project processes, and Organizational (Enterprise) processes; Life-Cycle Stages; Enabling Systems Engineering processes; Systems Engineering Support Activities; Specialty Engineering Activities; and SE processes Tailoring. Later chapters describe the Systems Engineering Processes and Practice including Standard SE processes; the Stakeholder Requirements Definition Process; the Requirements Definition Process; the Logical Decomposition Process and Functional Analysis and Allocation; the Systems Architecture Process; and the Trade Study Process.

The story of the Templars is one of the most desolate and obscure in the history of the medieval West. Created as a military-religious order to defend the Holy Land, after becoming one of the most powerful and influential institutions of all Christianity, the Temple was put under inquisition at the beginning of the fourteenth century and then suspended in 1312 because of the serious charges that weighed on its members. The last Grand Master Jacques de Molay, along with one of the highest dignitaries of the Order, chose to die as a testimony of his innocence, contrasting the guilt of brothers who had been imputed to them, heresy, adherence to an anti-Christian beliefs, corruption of morals, and idolatry. Condemned to the stake for trying to defend the honor to the end of the Temple, shortly before his death would de Molay summon Clement V and Philip the Fair before the Court of God to give account of their responsibility. Both died before the turn of the year. This is their true, substantiated story.

Weird Scientists is a sequel to Men of Manhattan. As I wrote the latter about the nuclear physicists who brought in the era of nuclear power, quantum mechanics (or quantum physics) was unavoidable. Many of the contributors to the science of splitting the atom were also contributors to quantum mechanics. Atomic physics, particle physics, quantum physics, and even relativity are all interrelated. This book is about the men and women who established the science that shook the foundations of classical physics, removed determinism from measurement, and created alternative worlds of reality. The book introduces fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics, roughly in the order they were discovered, as a launching point for describing the scientist and the work that brought forth the concepts.

A missile flight simulation is a computational tool that calculates the flight of a missile from launch until it engages the target. The simulation is based on mathematical models of the missile, target and environment. This book provides instruction for the preparation of these mathematical models to simulate the flight of a surface-to-air missile. The 2nd Edition of Missile Flight Simulation provides updated simulation processes using MATLAB(R) and Simulink(TM), while improving and clarifying previous content. The book may be used as a reference or as a textbook, although it is devoid of exercises. However, the reader is encouraged to perform the simulation of Charter 12 using MATLAB(R) and Simulink(TM), or a programming language such as FORTRAN (see Chapter 10). The book is not intended to be a missile flight engineering reference and does not contain every aspect of missile flight. It provides the appropriate content for simulating missile flight from launch to terminus only.

Operations Research using open-source tools is a book that is affordable to everyone and uses tools that do not cost you anything. For less than $50, you can begin to learn and apply operations research, which includes analytics, predictive modeling, mathematical optimization and simulation. Plus there are ample examples and exercise incorporating the use of SCILAB, LPSolve and R. In fact, all the graphs and plot in the book were generated with SCILAB and R. Code is provided for every example and solutions are available at the authors website. The book covers the typical topics in a one or two semester upper division undergrad program or can be used in a graduate level course.

This book is about predictive analytics. Yet, each chapter could easily be handled by an entire volume of its own. So one might think of this a survey of predictive modeling. A predictive model is a statistical model or machine learning model used to predict future behavior based on past behavior. In order to use this book, one should have a basic understanding of mathematical statistics - it is an advanced book. Some theoretical foundations are laid out but not proven, but references are provided for additional coverage. Every chapter culminates in an example using R. R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. You may download R, from a preferred CRAN mirror at http://www.r-project.org/. The book is organized so that statistical models are presented first (hopefully in a logical order), followed by machine learning models, and then applications: uplift modeling and time series. One could use this a textbook with problem solving in R-but there are no "by-hand" exercises.

To write a single book about data science, at least as I view the discipline, would result in several volumes. I have come to view Data Science as a multidisciplinary field. People who engage in data science may be statisticians, economists, mathematicians, operations research analysts, and a myriad of other scientific professionals. Most would agree that data scientist have advance degrees in one or more of these disciplines. All practitioners would agree that Data is at center stage. This book is intended to demonstrate the multidisciplinary application of data science, using R-programming with R Studio.

This book is about Data Analytics. In that respect, it is like others. What distinguishes it from the rest is the variety of open-source tool applications. This book incorporates the use of R Studio, Python, SAS Studio (University Edition), and KNIME. This book is also about manipulating Big Data. Apache Hadoop on Hortonworks Sandbox is introduced and we manage, move, handle, and transform data using Apache Hive, Apache Spark, MapReduce and TEZ, with terminal shell commands and Ambari. We show you how to set up a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure. We then use the data in later chapters for modeling. We cover Descriptive Modeling and Predictive. The content includes Support Vector Machines, Decision Tree learning, Random Forests, Naive and Empirical Bayes, Gradient Boosting, Cluster Modeling, Generalized Linear Models, Logistic Regression, and Artificial Neural Networks. Every chapter includes completely worked examples using one or more open-source tools.

Data Science and Analytics for Ordinary People is a collection of blogs I have written on LinkedIn over the past year. As I continue to perform big data analytics, I continue to discover, not only my weaknesses in communicating the information, but new insights into using the information obtained from analytics and communicating it. These are the kinds of things I blog about and are contained herein. Data science and analytics have been used as synonyms on occasion. In reality data science includes data modeling, data mining, data analysis, database architecture and so on. Analytics is what we do to make sense of the data. That is, we take data and turn it into information for business decision makers. This our course implies that we translate our data science jargon into English.

LinkedIn operates the world's largest professional network on the Internet with more than 332 million members in over 200 countries and territories. Dr. Strickland been a LinkedIn Premium member since November 2, 2010. At the time of this publication he has 4,250 followers who view his posts on a regular basis. This book is a collection of his most popular post for the year 2014. I have posted articles on a variety of topics, usually something I am quite passionate about, like professionalism, etiquette, analytical science, leadership, and so on. Post titles include, "LinkedIn Random Acts of Kindness", "Three Things Leaders Must Do", "The Last Full Measure of Devotion", "To Teach or not to Teach", and "If You Hate Probability Theory, You are in Good Company". I enjoy the interaction that I have with over 4,000 connections from 59 countries, if I include the Republic of Texas. This book is for them, but also for those friends and colleagues who do not frequent the network as much as I do.

This work began when I was appointed as a Technical Director for Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Verification and Validation (V&V) for a major defense system in 2008. It is intended to provide the nuts and bolts of performing M&S V&V in one volume. It is not intended to provide a holistic approach to M&S V&V, as that can be derived from other sources. As such, this book assumes a basic understanding of V&V, including its place in the lifecycle, its purpose and its scope for ensuring the quality of models and simulations. During the process of developing this text, the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) completed SISO-GUIDE-001.2-2013, Guide for Generic Methodology for Verification and Validation (GM-VV) to Support Acceptance of Models, Simulations, and Data, 2 Volumes, June 2013. The guide does serve the purpose not covered by this book. This text provides procedural details for performing V&V. The procedures are static, dynamic and informal.

The story of the Templars is one of the most desolate and obscure in the history of the medieval West: created as a military-religious order to defend the Holy Land. After becoming one of the most powerful and influential institutions of all Christianity, the Temple was put under procedure at the beginning of the 14th Century and then suspended in 1312, because of the serious charges weighed against its members. The last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, chose to die as a testimony of his innocence, contrasting the guilt of brothers who had been imputed to them, heresy, adherence to an anti-Christian beliefs, corruption of morals, and idolatry. The Templars have been linked with the shroud of Turin, the Holy Grail, and the Ark of the Covenant. None of these can be substantiated. What can be substantiated is that, though arrested, tortured, and burned at the stake, Pope Clement V absolved them from heresy in 1308, as discovered in a secret Vatican parchment in 2001, and released to the public in 2007.

This book is about predictive modeling. Yet, each chapter could easily be handled by an entire volume of its own. So one might think of this as a survey of predictive models, both statistical and machine learning. We define A predictive model as a statistical model or machine learning model used to predict future behavior based on past behavior. In order to use this book, the reader should have a basic understanding of statistics (statistical inference, models, tests, etc.)-this is an advanced book. Every chapter culminates in an example using R. R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS. The book is organized so that statistical models are presented first (hopefully in a logical order), followed by machine learning models, and then applications: uplift modeling and time series. One could use this as a textbook with problem solving in R (there are no "by-hand" exercises).

Crime analysis is both a profession and a set of techniques. The professionals who perform crime analysis, and the techniques they use, are dedicated to helping a police department become more effective through better information. Crime mapping is used by analysts in law enforcement agencies to map, visualize, and analyze crime incident patterns. It is a key component of crime analysis and the CompStat policing strategy. Mapping crime, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), allows crime analysts to identify crime hot spots, along with other trends and patterns. This book focuses mostly on crime analysis mapping, but includes a discussion of predictive modeling, a special handling of modeling terrorism, and appendices which include a review of probability and statistics and possible board questions. The book is not intended to be all inclusive, nor does it handle the subjects in depth. Rather, it is more of a "survey" of a few crime analysis topics that are dealt with more rigorously by other authors.

Typically, scientist try to either prove or disprove Scripture, as it relates the Creation story, then write books about their findings. Quantum Phaith is not one of those books. Instead, the author accepts the Word of God, a priori. Quantum Phaith is a journey through elementary quantum mechanics, chaos theory, number theory, and more. This is also a journey through the author's faith and what he has discovered about science through it; his faith has been unshaken by science and mathematics. Quantum Phaith examines the Creation account, using the results to support what scientists have discovered about the universe. Their discoveries were already contained in the Bible! Quantum Phaith portrays God as perfect, His creation perfect in every regard. Imperfection was introduced by the Fall or Man. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, transcends time, space, and our understanding. God is order, and you will find that chaos contains unobservable order! Quantum Phaith will make you think. It may change your life.

In light of the 2nd Amendment debates, shooting may become the national passtime. To act responsibly within the 2nd Amendment, means knowing how to properly "bear arms". Knowing involves understanding firearm types, firearm operation, ammunition, internal ballistics, and shooting. These require training, especially shooting. Whether you own or plan to own a handgun for recreation, competition, or self-defense, training is of the utmost importance. When you fire a projectile (bullet) from a firearm, you are responsible for where it goes. You need to understand how fast it travels, how far it can travel, and how accurate your firearm is in delivering the projectile to your intended target. Yes, bearing arms is a right, but not one to be taken lightly. Firing a handgun is a grave responsibility and must be done correctly and with a full understanding of all the components that make up "shooting".

This text presents the basic concepts of discrete event simulation using ExtendSim 8. The book can be used as either a desk reference or as a textbook for a course in discrete event simulation. This book is intended to be a blend of theory and application, presenting just enough theory to understand how to build a model, designs a simulation experiment, and analyze the results. Most of the text is devoted to building models with ExtendSim 8, starting with a simple single-server queue and culminating with a transportation depot for package transfer and delivery. I have built all the models contained in this book with ExtendSim 8 LT, which limits the number of modeling blocks, but otherwise has the required ExtendSim 8 capabilities. Each chapter contains practical exercises and problems at the end of the chapters. ExtendSim 8 LT is not included in this book. Students may obtain ExtendSim 8 LT from Imagine That, Inc.

Dear Mister President is a book spoken from the heart of a veteran. I have heard it said that a veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' I set out to write a letter to the President of the United States, from the perspective of an ordinary citizen, even though I may or may not be one. My letter turned into a book. What follows is a series of concerns that I have for our country, based on my life experiences. It is not an autobiography, but incorporates a lot of lessons I have learned from my life and the people in it. The book is essentially a tribute to the people who have influenced my life: friends, family, mentors, veterans, and fallen heros-lest we forget.

Simulation Conceptual Modeling explores several system analysis methods and conceptual modeling techniques. It also discusses appropriate tools that may be used to assist with conceptual modeling. In addition, it discusses how to evaluate the quality of a conceptual model. Some commonly used conceptual modeling techniques and methods include; Data Flow Modeling, Entity Relationship Modeling, Event-Drive Process Chain, Joint Application Development, Place/Transition Net Modeling, State Transition Modeling, Object Role Modeling, and Unified Modeling Language (UML).