Deep Reinforcement Learning with Python. Master classic RL, deep RL, distributional RL, inverse RL, and more with OpenAI Gym and TensorFlow - Second Edition

Sudharsan Ravichandiran

With significant enhancements in the quality and quantity of algorithms in recent years, this second edition of Hands-On Reinforcement Learning with Python has been revamped into an example-rich guide to learning state-of-the-art reinforcement learning (RL) and deep RL algorithms with TensorFlow 2 and the OpenAI Gym toolkit.In addition to exploring RL basics and foundational concepts such as Bellman equation, Markov decision processes, and dynamic programming algorithms, this second edition dives deep into the full spectrum of value-based, policy-based, and actor-critic RL methods. It explores state-of-the-art algorithms such as DQN, TRPO, PPO and ACKTR, DDPG, TD3, and SAC in depth, demystifying the underlying math and demonstrating implementations through simple code examples.The book has several new chapters dedicated to new RL techniques, including distributional RL, imitation learning, inverse RL, and meta RL. You will learn to leverage stable baselines, an improvement of OpenAI’s baseline library, to effortlessly implement popular RL algorithms. The book concludes with an overview of promising approaches such as meta-learning and imagination augmented agents in research.By the end, you will become skilled in effectively employing RL and deep RL in your real-world projects.

XR Development with Unity. A beginner's guide to creating virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences using Unity

Anna Braun, Raffael Rizzo

The drastic surge in the demand for XR development has led to an imminent need for comprehensive resources, learning material, and overall know-how in this area. This one-stop resource will ensure that professionals venturing into XR development can access all XR-related techniques to build appealing XR applications, without relying on Google every step of the way.This book is your guide to developing XR applications with Unity 2021.3 or later versions, helping you to create VR, AR, and MR experiences of increasing complexity. The chapters cover the entire XR application development process from setting up an interactive XR scene using the XR Interaction Toolkit or AR Foundation, adding physics, animations, continuous movement, teleportation, sound effects, and visual effects, to testing and deploying to VR headsets, simulators, smartphones, and tablets. Additionally, this XR book takes you on a journey from the basics of Unity and C# to advanced techniques such as building multiplayer applications and incorporating hand- and gaze-tracking capabilities.By the end of this book, you'll be fully equipped to create cutting-edge XR projects for engaging individual, academic, and industrial use cases that captivate your audience.

Transforming Healthcare with DevOps. A practical DevOps4Care guide to embracing the complexity of digital transformation

Jeroen Mulder, Henry Mulder

Healthcare today faces a multitude of challenges, which can be summed up as the barriers architects and consultants face in transforming the healthcare system into a more sustainable one. This book helps you to guide that transformation step by step.You’ll begin by understanding the need for this transformation, exploring related challenges, the possibilities of technology, and how human factors can be involved in digital transformation. The book will enable you to overcome inhibitions and plan various transformation steps using the Transformation into Sustainable Healthcare (TiSH) model and DevOps4Care. Next, you’ll use the observe, orient, decide, and act (OODA) loop as an iterative approach to address all stakeholders and adapt swiftly when situations change. Further, you’ll be able to build shared platforms that enable interaction between various stakeholders, including the technology-enabled care service teams. The final chapters will help you execute the transformation to sustainable healthcare using the knowledge you’ve gained while getting familiar with common pitfalls and learning how to avoid or mitigate them.By the end of this DevOps book, you will have an overview of the challenges, opportunities, and directions of solutions and be on your way toward starting the transformation into sustainable healthcare.

Building Data Science Applications with FastAPI. Develop, manage, and deploy efficient machine learning applications with Python

François Voron

FastAPI is a web framework for building APIs with Python 3.6 and its later versions based on standard Python-type hints. With this book, you’ll be able to create fast and reliable data science API backends using practical examples.This book starts with the basics of the FastAPI framework and associated modern Python programming language concepts. You'll be taken through all the aspects of the framework, including its powerful dependency injection system and how you can use it to communicate with databases, implement authentication and integrate machine learning models. Later, you’ll cover best practices relating to testing and deployment to run a high-quality and robust application. You’ll also be introduced to the extensive ecosystem of Python data science packages. As you progress, you’ll learn how to build data science applications in Python using FastAPI. The book also demonstrates how to develop fast and efficient machine learning prediction backends and test them to achieve the best performance. Finally, you’ll see how to implement a real-time face detection system using WebSockets and a web browser as a client.By the end of this FastAPI book, you’ll have not only learned how to implement Python in data science projects but also how to maintain and design them to meet high programming standards with the help of FastAPI.

Democratizing Application Development with AppSheet. A citizen developer's guide to building rapid low-code apps with the powerful features of AppSheet

Koichi Tsuji, Suvrutt Gurjar, Takuya Miyai

Many citizen developers regularly use spreadsheets in their business and day-to-day jobs. With AppSheet, you can take your spreadsheets to the next level by enhancing their ease of use. The platform allows you to run your business efficiently and manage it in the field outside of an office or indoor environment. This book enables you to create your own simple or medium to complex hybrid apps for business or personal use.As a beginner to AppSheet, this book will show you how the AppSheet Editor works and how it is used to configure, test, and deploy an app and share it with others as users or co-authors. You’ll learn about widely used features such as how to use data sources, create app views and actions, construct expressions with AppSheet functions, and make your app secure through security and UX options. Next, you’ll create email/attachment templates and develop reports/documents based on templates, store in the cloud, and send files through emails. You’ll also understand how to integrate third-party services and monitor various usage statistics of your app. As you progress, you’ll explore various features with the help of sample apps that you create using the book.By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to make the most of AppSheet to build powerful and efficient applications.

GraphQL Best Practices. Gain hands-on experience with schema design, security, and error handling

Artur Czemiel

In the ever-evolving landscape of web development, GraphQL has emerged as a powerful query language that addresses the limitations of traditional REST APIs. This guide delves deep into GraphQL, starting with its foundational principles and swiftly advancing to complex topics that will equip you with the skills you need to understand this technology.As you progress, you’ll cover advanced concepts such as schema design, security enhancements, and error handling. You'll also explore essential topics such as federation and the transition from REST to GraphQL, gaining a comprehensive understanding of these critical areas. The book helps you learn through practical examples in TypeScript, guiding you through building scalable and secure GraphQL backends. Additionally, you’ll get up to speed with the intricacies of frontend integration.By the end of this book, you’ll have the skills you need to implement real-world GraphQL solutions, creating efficient and robust applications that meet modern web development demands.

Learning Mongoid. If you know MongoDB and Ruby, then Mongoid is a very handy tool to have at your disposal. Quickly learn to build Rails applications with the helpful code samples and instructions in this book

Gautam Rege

Mongoid helps you to leverage the power of schema-less and efficient document-based design, dynamic queries, and atomic modifier operations. Mongoid eases the work of Ruby developers while they are working on complex frameworks.Starting with why and how you should use Mongoid, this book covers the various components of Mongoid. It then delves deeper into the detail of queries and relations, and you will learn some tips and tricks on improving performance. With this book, you will be able to build robust and large-scale web applications with Mongoid and Rails.Starting with the basics, this book introduces you to components such as moped and origin, and how information is managed, learn about the various datatypes, embedded documents, arrays, and hashes. You will learn how a document is stored and manipulated with callbacks, validations, and even atomic updates. This book will then show you the querying mechanism in detail, right from simple to complex queries, and even explains eager loading, lazy evaluation, and chaining of queries. Finally, this book will explain the importance of performance tuning and how to use the right indexes. It also explains MapReduce and the Aggregation Framework.

Mastering iOS Game Development. Mastering iOS Game Development

Miguel DeQuadros

iOS is an operating system for Apple manufactured phones and tablets. Mobile gaming is one of the fastest-growing industries, and compatibility with iOS is now becoming the norm for game developers. SpriteKit is part of the native SDK from Apple, and enables developers to make simple entry into game development without unnecessary overhead and a long learning process. SpriteKit also provides other functionality that is useful for games, including basic sound playback support and physics simulation. In addition, Xcode provides built-in support for SpriteKit so that you can create complex special effects and texture atlases directly in Xcode. This combination of framework and tools makes SpriteKit a good choice for games and other apps that require similar kinds of animation. Become a master in iOS game development through this fast and fun guide! In the beginning, we’ll tell you everything you need to plan and design your game. You’ll then start developing your game through step-by-step instructions using the various built-in technologies of Xcode. From there on, we discuss how to deploy your game to the iOS App Store, as well as monetizing it to make more revenue. You will also learn advanced techniques to improve your game playing experience, including better multi-tasking, improved performance optimization, battery management, and more. To end the book off, we’ll show you how to update your game with different features, then port the update to the App Store.

Docker Certified Associate (DCA): Exam Guide. Enhance and validate your Docker skills by gaining Docker certification

Francisco Javier Ramírez Urea

Developers have changed their deployment artifacts from application binaries to container images, and they now need to build container-based applications as containers are part of their new development workflow. This Docker book is designed to help you learn about the management and administrative tasks of the Containers as a Service (CaaS) platform.The book starts by getting you up and running with the key concepts of containers and microservices. You'll then cover different orchestration strategies and environments, along with exploring the Docker Enterprise platform. As you advance, the book will show you how to deploy secure, production-ready, container-based applications in Docker Enterprise environments. Later, you'll delve into each Docker Enterprise component and learn all about CaaS management. Throughout the book, you'll encounter important exam-specific topics, along with sample questions and detailed answers that will help you prepare effectively for the exam.By the end of this Docker containers book, you'll have learned how to efficiently deploy and manage container-based environments in production, and you will have the skills and knowledge you need to pass the DCA exam.

Instant Magento Shipping How-to. Making Magento shipping settings work for your business

Robert Kent

There is nothing worse for a customer than paying for an item online and never receiving it. As store owners, it is your responsibility to make sure each order is processed correctly, and more importantly—shipped. Configured correctly, Magento's shipping settings will not only make your lives as vendors much easier, but will also, through good service, keep customers coming back for more.Instant Magento Shipping How-to is a comprehensive guide on how to set up your Magento Shipping configuration. This book will also broaden your knowledge of the various systems within Magento that impact upon the shipping settings.Instant Magento Shipping How-to will walk you through the steps required to conduct the initial configuration to allow shipping for your products, taking into account Tax settings and the different product types. Magento's administration panel is a bit of a daunting system. Being able to customise all of Magento's shipping settings is what makes the difference between a store that can take orders and ship them and a store that delivers on all levels.

Python Deep Learning. Understand how deep neural networks work and apply them to real-world tasks - Third Edition

Ivan Vasilev

The field of deep learning has developed rapidly recently and today covers a broad range of applications. This makes it challenging to navigate and hard to understand without solid foundations. This book will guide you from the basics of neural networks to the state-of-the-art large language models in use today.The first part of the book introduces the main machine learning concepts and paradigms. It covers the mathematical foundations, the structure, and the training algorithms of neural networks and dives into the essence of deep learning.The second part of the book introduces convolutional networks for computer vision. We’ll learn how to solve image classification, object detection, instance segmentation, and image generation tasks.The third part focuses on the attention mechanism and transformers – the core network architecture of large language models. We’ll discuss new types of advanced tasks they can solve, such as chatbots and text-to-image generation.By the end of this book, you’ll have a thorough understanding of the inner workings of deep neural networks. You'll have the ability to develop new models and adapt existing ones to solve your tasks. You’ll also have sufficient understanding to continue your research and stay up to date with the latest advancements in the field.

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine. Build professional 3D games with Unreal Engine 4's Visual Scripting system

Brenden Sewell

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine is a step-by-step approach to building a fully functional game, one system at a time. Starting with a basic First Person Shooter template, each chapter will extend the prototype to create an increasingly complex and robust game experience. You will progress from creating basic shooting mechanics to gradually more complex systems that will generate user interface elements and intelligent enemy behavior. Focusing on universally applicable skills, the expertise you will develop in utilizing Blueprints can translate to other types of genres.By the time you finish the book, you will have a fully functional First Person Shooter game and the skills necessary to expand on the game to develop an entertaining, memorable experience for your players.From making customizations to player movement to creating new AI and game mechanics from scratch, you will discover everything you need to know to get started with game development using Blueprints and Unreal Engine 4.

Architecting and Building High-Speed SoCs. Design, develop, and debug complex FPGA based systems-on-chip

Mounir Maaref

Modern and complex SoCs can adapt to many demanding system requirements by combining the processing power of ARM processors and the feature-rich Xilinx FPGAs. You’ll need to understand many protocols, use a variety of internal and external interfaces, pinpoint the bottlenecks, and define the architecture of an SoC in an FPGA to produce a superior solution in a timely and cost-efficient manner.This book adopts a practical approach to helping you master both the hardware and software design flows, understand key interconnects and interfaces, analyze the system performance and enhance it using the acceleration techniques, and finally build an RTOS-based software application for an advanced SoC design. You’ll start with an introduction to the FPGA SoCs technology fundamentals and their associated development design tools. Gradually, the book will guide you through building the SoC hardware and software, starting from the architecture definition to testing on a demo board or a virtual platform. The level of complexity evolves as the book progresses and covers advanced applications such as communications, security, and coherent hardware acceleration.By the end of this book, you'll have learned the concepts underlying FPGA SoCs’ advanced features and you’ll have constructed a high-speed SoC targeting a high-end FPGA from the ground up.

Integrate Lua with C++. Seamlessly integrate Lua scripting to enhance application flexibility

Wenhuan Li

C++ is a popular choice in the developer community for building complex and large-scale performant applications and systems. Often a need arises to extend the system at runtime, without recompiling the whole C++ program. Using a scripting language like Lua can help achieve this goal efficiently.Integrate Lua to C++ is a comprehensive guide to integrating Lua to C++ and will enable you to achieve the goal of extending C++ programs at runtime. You’ll learn, in sequence, how to get and compile the Lua library, the Lua programming language, calling Lua code from C++, and calling C++ code from Lua. In each topic, you’ll practice with code examples, and learn the in-depth mechanisms for smooth working. Throughout the book, the latter examples build on the earlier ones while also acting as a standalone. You’ll learn to implement Lua executor and Lua binding generator, which you can use in your projects directly with further customizations.By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered integrating Lua into C++ and using Lua in your C++ project efficiently, gained the skills to extend your applications at runtime, and achieved dynamic and adaptable C++ development.

IPython Notebook Essentials. Compute scientific data and execute code interactively with NumPy and SciPy

Luiz Felipe Martins

Puppet for Containerization. Manage, orchestrate, and deploy containers with Puppet

Scott Coulton

This book teaches you how to take advantage of the new benefits of containerization systems such as Docker, Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and Docker UCP, without losing the panoptical power of proper configuration management. You will learn how to integrate your containerized applications and modules with your Puppet workflow. You will also understand how to manage, monitor, and orchestrate hosts to keep deployed containers running seamlessly. With the help of this book, you can efficiently automate and document with containers, as a part of your system.The book will also cover use cases of deploying Puppet within a containerized environment.