Causal Inference in R. Decipher complex relationships with advanced R techniques for data-driven decision-making

Subhajit Das

Determining causality in data is difficult due to confounding factors. Written by an applied scientist specializing in causal inference with over a decade of experience, Causal Inference in R provides the tools and methods you need to accurately establish causal relationships, improving data-driven decision-making.This book helps you get to grips with foundational concepts, offering a clear understanding of causal models and their relevance in data analysis. You’ll progress through chapters that blend theory with hands-on examples, illustrating how to apply advanced statistical methods to real-world scenarios. You’ll discover techniques for establishing causality, from classic approaches to contemporary methods, such as propensity score matching and instrumental variables. Each chapter is enriched with detailed case studies and R code snippets, enabling you to implement concepts immediately. Beyond technical skills, this book also emphasizes critical thinking in data analysis to empower you to make informed, data-driven decisions. The chapters enable you to harness the power of causal inference in R to uncover deeper insights from data.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to confidently establish causal relationships and make data-driven decisions with precision.

Using CiviCRM. Develop and implement a fully functional, systematic CRM plan for your organization Using CiviCRM

Joseph Murray, Brian P Shaughnessy, Dave Greenberg

CiviCRM is a web-based, open source CRM system, designed specifically to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental organizations. Elected officials, professional/trade associations, political campaigns and parties, government agencies, and other similar organizations are among its growing number of enthusiastic users. This book shows you how to harness CiviCRM’s impressive array of possibilities as you develop and execute performance-critical CRM strategies.This book will help you become familiar with the structure and main functions of CiviCRM. It will guide you in developing and successfully implementing a CRM strategy for your organization using detailed explanations and practical examples.Using CiviCRM walks you through developing a CRM Implementation Plan that is suited to your organization's size, culture, and needs. Readers will take away many constituent relationship management best practices and the knowledge of how to implement them with CiviCRM. Benefits of Using CiviCRM will be felt across your organization, and help it better achieve its mission.Overall, your organization will interact with constituents more effectively and handle staff growth and transitions by tracking all contacts and interactions with them in a system shared across the organization. Gathering and analyzing data about your constituents and their interactions with your organization will better inform your decisions.If your organization fundraises, you’ll be able to raise more money and reduce costs by identifying qualified prospects for targeted fundraising initiatives. We show how to attract new prospects and convert them to donors using online, direct mail, telemarketing and direct contact channels Using CiviCRM. You’ll learn why and how to set up and then grow your monthly donor program, as well as improve the frequency, average donation amounts, and retention rates of your donor base.With this book you’ll be able to reduce the burden on administrative resources by providing online payments and self-service options for event registrations and membership renewals. You can increase the likelihood your existing subscribers will become more involved with your organization, ensure more of your members show up to volunteer, identify potential leaders and steward their volunteer activitiesFinally, you'll be making relevant information easily available that quantifies what a great job you've been doing, including the number of hours that volunteers gave to your organization last year, the number of cases managed, or the number of new viral signups from your latest urgent action e-mail.

Learning VirtualDub: The Complete Guide to Capturing, Processing and Encoding Digital Video. The complete guide to capturing, processing and encoding digital video

John Buechler, Georgios Diamantopoulos, Sohail Salehi, Avery Lee

VirtualDub is one of the most popular video processing applications for Windows. As an open source application, it's free, and is constantly updated and expanded by an active community of developers and experts. VirtualDub is particularly popular for capturing video from analogue sources such as video tape, cleaning up the image and compressing it ready for distribution over the Internet. This book provides a rapid and easy to use tutorial to the basic features of VirtualDub to get you up and running quickly. It explains how to capture great quality video from various sources, use filters to clean up the captured image and add special effects. The book also shows how to use VirtualDub to cut and paste video to remove or insert sequences, including removing ad breaks or trailers. It goes on to cover the art of effective encoding and compression, so you end up with great quality videos that won't hog your bandwidth forever. VirtualDub is the fastest and most effective way to capture, process and encode video on your PC. This book gets you started fast, and goes on to give you full control of all the features of this legendary tool.

Phalcon Cookbook. High Performance PHP Framework

Serghei Iakovlev, David Schissler

Phalcon is a high-performance PHP framework delivered as a PHP extension. This provides new opportunities for speed and application design, which until recently have been unrealized in the PHP ecosystem.Packed with simple learning exercises, technology prototypes, and real-world usable code, this book will guide you from the beginner and setup stage all the way to advanced usage. You will learn how to avoid niche pitfalls, how to use the command-line developer tools, how to integrate with new web standards, as well as how to set up and customize the MVC application structure. You will see how Phalcon can be used to quickly set up a single file web application as well as a complex multi-module application suitable for long-term projects. Some of the recipes focus on abstract concepts that are vital to get a deep comprehension of Phalcon and others are designed as a vehicle to deliver real-world usable classes and code snippets to solve advanced problems. You’ll start out with basic setup and application structure and then move onto the Phalcon MVC and routing implementation, the power of the ORM and Phalcon Query Language, and Phalcon’s own Volt templating system. Finally, you will move on to caching, security, and optimization.

Data Visualization: a successful design process

Andy Kirk, Andy Kirk

Do you want to create more attractive charts? Or do you have huge data sets and need to unearth the key insights in a visual manner? Data visualization is the representation and presentation of data, using proven design techniques to bring alive the patterns, stories and key insights locked away.Data Visualization: a Successful Design Process explores the unique fusion of art and science that is data visualization; a discipline for which instinct alone is insufficient for you to succeed in enabling audiences to discover key trends, insights and discoveries from your data. This book will equip you with the key techniques required to overcome contemporary data visualization challenges. You'll discover a proven design methodology that helps you develop invaluable knowledge and practical capabilities.You'll never again settle for a default Excel chart or resort to fancy-looking graphs. You will be able to work from the starting point of acquiring, preparing and familiarizing with your data, right through to concept design. Choose your killer visual representation to engage and inform your audience.Data Visualization: a Successful Design Process will inspire you to relish any visualization project with greater confidence and bullish know-how; turning challenges into exciting design opportunities.

Machine Learning for Time-Series with Python. Forecast, predict, and detect anomalies with state-of-the-art machine learning methods

Ben Auffarth

The Python time-series ecosystem is huge and often quite hard to get a good grasp on, especially for time-series since there are so many new libraries and new models. This book aims to deepen your understanding of time series by providing a comprehensive overview of popular Python time-series packages and help you build better predictive systems.Machine Learning for Time-Series with Python starts by re-introducing the basics of time series and then builds your understanding of traditional autoregressive models as well as modern non-parametric models. By observing practical examples and the theory behind them, you will become confident with loading time-series datasets from any source, deep learning models like recurrent neural networks and causal convolutional network models, and gradient boosting with feature engineering.This book will also guide you in matching the right model to the right problem by explaining the theory behind several useful models. You’ll also have a look at real-world case studies covering weather, traffic, biking, and stock market data.By the end of this book, you should feel at home with effectively analyzing and applying machine learning methods to time-series.

Azure OpenAI Essentials. A practical guide to unlocking generative AI-powered innovation with Azure OpenAI

Amit Mukherjee, Adithya Saladi, Marco Casalaina

Find out what makes Azure OpenAI a robust platform for building AI-driven solutions that can transform how businesses operate. Written by seasoned experts from Microsoft, this book will guide you in understanding Azure OpenAI from fundamentals through to advanced concepts and best practices.The book begins with an introduction to large language models (LLMs) and the Azure OpenAI Service, detailing how to access, use, and optimize its models. You'll learn how to design and implement AI-driven solutions, such as question-answering systems, contact center analytics, and GPT-powered search applications. Additionally, the chapters walk you through advanced concepts, including embeddings, fine-tuning models, prompt engineering, and building custom AI applications using LangChain and Semantic Kernel. You'll explore real-world use cases such as QnA systems, document summarizers, and SQLGPT for database querying, as well as gain insights into securing and operationalizing these solutions in enterprises.By the end of this book, you'll be ready to design, develop, and deploy scalable AI solutions, ensuring business success through intelligent automation and data-driven insights.

Sculpting in ZBrush Made Simple. Explore powerful modeling and character creation techniques used for VFX, games, and 3D printing

Lukas Kutschera

Embark on a creative journey with ZBrush, the leading software for creating characters, creatures, and props in films, games, and 3D printing. This guide will take you through its powerful yet user-friendly workflows, allowing you to explore its dynamic organic sculpting, painting, and hard-surface modeling tools.The first part of this book is dedicated to helping you become familiar with ZBrush’s user interface and learning the very basics, from sculpting brushes and painting the model with Polypaint to setting up lights and rendering images. You’ll also create a demon bust with the help of ZBrush’s concept sculpting tool, DynaMesh. In the second part, you’ll get to grips with the creation of a humanoid character that is optimized for 3D printing. Focusing on anatomy, poly-modeling, and preparing the model for 3D printing, you’ll acquire the skills essential for sculptors. The final part delves into portrait sculpting, where you’ll learn everything from basic facial anatomy to hair creation with FiberMesh.By the end of this book, you'll have developed the expertise necessary to succeed in the ever-evolving world of 3D character modeling, complemented by portfolio and social media tips for showcasing your standout work.

The Kubernetes Book. Navigate the world of Kubernetes with expertise - Second Edition

Nigel Poulton, Pushkar Joglekar

Containers transformed how we package and deploy applications, but they came with inherent challenges. Kubernetes is a platform for deploying and managing containerized applications at scale. It also abstracts underlying infrastructure, making it easier to deploy and manage applications across heterogenous clouds and on-premises environments. The Kubernetes Book offers a beginner-friendly approach to mastering Kubernetes architecture and core concepts such as Pods, Deployments, Services, StatefulSets, Ingress, & ConfigMaps. It also demystifies the Kubernetes API, teaches you how to secure Kubernetes, and brings you up to speed with important cloud-native concepts such as microservices, declarative configuration, desired state, & reconciliation. The book also serves as a comprehensive guide for software developers, systems administrators, cloud engineers, and architects to help them master Kubernetes. It offers the most precise explanations and is full of practical examples to help develop applications on a laptop and then deploy them to real-world Kubernetes environments. The Kubernetes Book is updated annually, meaning it's always up to date with the latest and greatest in the Kubernetes and cloud-native ecosystems.

Kubernetes - An Enterprise Guide. Effectively containerize applications, integrate enterprise systems, and scale applications in your enterprise - Second Edition

Marc Boorshtein, Scott Surovich

Kubernetes has taken the world by storm, becoming the standard infrastructure for DevOps teams to develop, test, and run applications. With significant updates in each chapter, this revised edition will help you acquire the knowledge and tools required to integrate Kubernetes clusters in an enterprise environment.The book introduces you to Docker and Kubernetes fundamentals, including a review of basic Kubernetes objects. You’ll get to grips with containerization and understand its core functionalities such as creating ephemeral multinode clusters using KinD. The book has replaced PodSecurityPolicies (PSP) with OPA/Gatekeeper for PSP-like enforcement. You’ll integrate your container into a cloud platform and tools including MetalLB, externalDNS, OpenID connect (OIDC), Open Policy Agent (OPA), Falco, and Velero. After learning to deploy your core cluster, you’ll learn how to deploy Istio and how to deploy both monolithic applications and microservices into your service mesh. Finally, you will discover how to deploy an entire GitOps platform to Kubernetes using continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).

Oracle 11g R1/R2 Real Application Clusters Essentials. Design, implement, and support complex Oracle 11g RAC environments for real world deployments

Syed Jaffer Hussain, Ben Prusinski, Benjamin Scott Prusinski

Oracle RAC or Real Application Clusters is a grid computing solution that allows multiple nodes (servers) in a clustered system to mount and open a single database that resides on shared disk storage. Should a single system (node) fail, the database service will still be available on the remaining nodes. Oracle RAC is an integral part of the Oracle database setup. You have one database with multiple users accessing it, in real time. This book will enable DBAs to get their finger on the pulse of the Oracle 11g RAC environment quickly and easily.This book will cover all areas of the Oracle RAC environment and is indispensable if you are an Oracle DBA who is charged with configuring and implementing Oracle11g R1, with bonus R2 information included. This book presents a complete method for the configuration, installation, and design of Oracle 11g RAC, ultimately enabling rapid administration of Oracle 11g RAC environments.This practical handbook documents how to administer a complex Oracle 11g RAC environment. Packed with real world examples, expert tips and troubleshooting advice, the book begins by introducing the concept of Oracle RAC and High Availability. It then dives deep into the world of RAC configuration, installation and design, enabling you to support complex RAC environments for real world deployments. Chapters cover Oracle RAC and High Availability, Oracle 11g RAC Architecture, Oracle 11g RAC Installation, Automatic Storage Management, Troubleshooting, Workload Management and much more.By following the practical examples in this book, you will learn every concept of the RAC environment and how to successfully support complex Oracle 11g R1 and R2 RAC environments for various deployments within real world situations.This book is the updated release of our previous Oracle 11g R1/R2 Real Application Clusters Handbook. If you already own a copy of that Handbook, there is no need to upgrade to this book.

Multi-Cloud Handbook for Developers. Learn how to design and manage cloud-native applications in AWS, Azure, GCP, and more

Subash Natarajan, Jeveen Jacob

Unleash the power of cloud computing with Multi-Cloud Handbook for Developers, your guide to mastering the nuances of cloud-native and multi-cloud, covering practical strategies for design, development, and management. Explore the essential concepts, challenges, and methodologies critical for navigating the complex landscape of modern cloud computing.Using core architectural and design principles (such as microservices and 12-factor architecture) and advanced strategies (such as distributed application design patterns, domain-driven design (DDD), and API-first strategies), you’ll learn how to build portable and efficient apps across various cloud platforms. You’ll understand how to leverage Infrastructure as Code (IaC), continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), GitOps, and DevOps practices, along with containerization and orchestration techniques using Docker and Kubernetes. You’ll also get to grips with data, security, compliance, and cloud cost management strategies in multi-cloud environments.With real-world case studies, best practices, and insights into future trends, this book will equip you with the skills to develop, manage, troubleshoot, and innovate cloud-native applications across diverse cloud platforms, positioning you at the forefront of the cloud computing revolution.

Mastering JavaScript Functional Programming. Write clean, robust, and maintainable web and server code using functional JavaScript - Second Edition

Federico Kereki

Functional programming is a paradigm for developing software with better performance. It helps you write concise and testable code. To help you take your programming skills to the next level, this comprehensive book will assist you in harnessing the capabilities of functional programming with JavaScript and writing highly maintainable and testable web and server apps using functional JavaScript.This second edition is updated and improved to cover features such as transducers, lenses, prisms and various other concepts to help you write efficient programs. By focusing on functional programming, you’ll not only start to write but also to test pure functions, and reduce side effects. The book also specifically allows you to discover techniques for simplifying code and applying recursion for loopless coding. Gradually, you’ll understand how to achieve immutability, implement design patterns, and work with data types for your application, before going on to learn functional reactive programming to handle complex events in your app. Finally, the book will take you through the design patterns that are relevant to functional programming.By the end of this book, you’ll have developed your JavaScript skills and have gained knowledge of the essential functional programming techniques to program effectively.

BeagleBone By Example. Click here to enter text

Pei JIA, Jayakarthigeyan Prabakar, Alexander Hiam

BeagleBone is a low cost, community-supported development platform to develop a variety of electronic projects. This book will introduce you to BeagleBone and get you building fun, cool, and innovative projects with it. Start with the specifications of BeagleBone Black and its operating systems, then get to grips with the GPIOs available in BeagleBone Black. Work through four types of exciting projects: building real-time physical computing systems, home automation, image processing for a security system, and building your own tele-controlled robot and learn the fundamentals of a variety of projects in a single book. By the end of this book, you will be able to write code for BeagleBone in order to operate hardware and impart decision-making capabilities with the help of efficient coding in Python.

Real-World Next.js. Build scalable, high-performance, and modern web applications using Next.js, the React framework for production

Michele Riva

Next.js is a scalable and high-performance React.js framework for modern web development and provides a large set of features, such as hybrid rendering, route prefetching, automatic image optimization, and internationalization, out of the box. If you are looking to create a blog, an e-commerce website, or a simple website, this book will show you how you can use the multipurpose Next.js framework to create an impressive user experience. Starting with the basics of Next.js, the book demonstrates how the framework can help you reach your development goals. You'll realize how versatile Next.js is as you build real-world applications with step-by-step explanations. This Next.js book will guide you in choosing the right rendering methodology for your website, securing it, and deploying it to different providers, all while focusing on performance and developer happiness. By the end of the book, you'll be able to design, build, and deploy modern architectures using Next.js with any headless CMS or data source.

Hands-On Business Intelligence with DAX. Discover the intricacies of this powerful query language to gain valuable insights from your data

Ian Horne

Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) is known for its ability to increase efficiency by extracting new information from data that is already present in your model. With this book, you’ll learn to use DAX’s functionality and flexibility in the BI and data analytics domains.You’ll start by learning the basics of DAX, along with understanding the importance of good data models, and how to write efficient DAX formulas by using variables and formatting styles. You’ll then explore how DAX queries work with the help of examples. The book will guide you through optimizing the BI workflow by writing powerful DAX queries. Next, you’ll learn to manipulate and load data of varying complexity within Microsoft products such as Power BI, SQL Server, and Excel Power Pivot. You’ll then discover how to build and extend your data models to gain additional insights, before covering progressive DAX syntax and functions to understand complex relationships in DAX. Later, you’ll focus on important DAX functions, specifically those related to tables, date and time, filtering, and statistics. Finally, you’ll delve into advanced topics such as how the formula and storage engines work to optimize queries.By the end of this book, you’ll have gained hands-on experience in employing DAX to enhance your data models by extracting new information and gaining deeper insights.