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Introduction to Communication Systems: An Interactive Approach Using the Wolfram Language

Contributor: Frost

Publisher: University of Kansas Libraries

License: CC BY-NC

This ebook provides a unique pedagogical approach to teaching the fundamentals of communication systems using interactive graphics and in-line questions. The material opens with describing the transformation of bits into digital baseband waveforms. Double-sideband suppressed carrier modulation and quadrature modulation then provide the foundation for the discussions of Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), M-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (M-QAM), M-ary Phase Shift Keying (MPSK), and the basic theory of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Traditional analog modulation systems are also described. Systems trade-offs, including link budgets, are emphasized. Interactive graphics allow the students to engage with and visualize communication systems concepts. Interactivity and in-line review questions enables students to rapidly examine system tradeoffs and design alternatives. The topics covered build upon each other culminating with an introduction to the implementation of OFDM transmitters and receivers, the ubiquitous technology used in WiFi, 4G and 5G communication systems.

(1 review)

Graduate research methods in social work

Contributors: DeCarlo, Cummings, and Agnelli

Publisher: Open Social Work Education

License: CC BY-NC-SA

We designed our book to help graduate social work students through every step of the research process, from conceptualization to dissemination. Our textbook centers cultural humility, information literacy, pragmatism, and an equal emphasis on quantitative and qualitative methods. It includes extensive content on literature reviews, cultural bias and respectfulness, and qualitative methods, in contrast to traditionally used commercial textbooks in social work research.

(3 reviews)

Informal Calculus with Applications to Biological and Environmental Sciences

Contributors: Seacrest, Seacrest, Levine, and Anderson

Publisher: TRAILS

License: CC BY

This book is an approachable introduction to calculus with applications to biology and environmental science. For example, one application in the book is determining the volume of earth moved in the 1959 earthquake that created Quake Lake. Another application uses differential equations to model various biological examples, including moose and wolf populations at Isle Royale National Park, ranavirus in amphibians, and competing species of protozoa. The text focuses on intuitive understanding of concepts, but still covers most of the algebra and calculations common in a survey of calculus course.

(2 reviews)

Digging into Canadian Soils: An Introduction to Soil Science

Contributors: Krzic, Walley, and Diochon

Publisher: College of DuPage

License: CC BY-NC

Written entirely by members of the Canadian Society of Soil Science, "Digging into Canadian Soils: An Introduction to Soil Science" provides an introduction to the core disciplines of soil science, and introduces the concepts and vocabulary needed by students just beginning their soil science journey. The textbook provides supplementary materials that are specific to regions in Canada, or may be of specific interest beyond what might be considered introductory soil science material. Importantly, the textbook also is intended to introduce students to the Canadian System of Soil Classification by providing examples from across the length and breadth of the world’s second largest country, and to the Canadian Society of Soil Science, whose members share a common passion for soil science and are keen to share and instill this passion with students across Canada.

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(0 reviews)

Building Democracy for All: Interactive Explorations of Government and Civic Life

Contributors: Maloy and Trust

Publisher: EdTech Books

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Designed as a core or supplementary text for upper elementary, middle and high school teachers and students, Building Democracy for All offers instructional ideas, interactive resources, multicultural content, and multimodal learning materials for interest-building explorations of United States government as well as students’ roles as citizens in a democratic society. It focuses on the importance of community engagement and social responsibility as understood and acted upon by middle and high school students—core themes in the 2018 Massachusetts 8th Grade Curriculum Framework, and which are found in many state history and social studies curriculum frameworks around the country.

(1 review)

PSYC 2200: Elementary Statistics for the Behavioral and Social Sciences

Contributor: Oja

Publisher: LibreTexts

License: CC BY-SA

Welcome to behavioral statistics, a statistics textbook for social science majors!

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(0 reviews)

Optimal, Integral, Likely Optimization, Integral Calculus, and Probability for Students of Commerce and the Social Sciences

Contributors: Belevan, Hamidi, Malhotra, and Yeager

Publisher: Bruno Belevan, Parham Hamidi, Nisha Malhotra, and Elyse Yeager

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Optimal, Integral, Likely is a free, open-source textbook intended for UBC’s course MATH 105: Integral Calculus with Applications to Commerce and Social Sciences. It is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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(0 reviews)

Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science Book 1

Contributors: Snively and Williams

Publisher: University of Victoria

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Knowing Home attempts to capture the creative vision of Indigenous scientific knowledge and technology that is derived from an ecology of a home place. The traditional wisdom component of Indigenous Science—the values and ways of decision-making—assists humans in their relationship with each other, the land and water, and all of creation. Indigenous perspectives have the potential to give insight and guidance to the kind of environmental ethics and deep understanding that we must gain as we attempt to solve the increasingly complex problems of the 21st century.

(1 review)

Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance - 3rd edition

Contributor: Marchman III

Publisher: Virginia Tech Libraries

License: CC BY

Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance, 3rd edition is a college undergraduate-level introduction to aircraft aerodynamics and performance. This text is designed for a course in Aircraft Performance that is taught before the students have had any course in fluid mechanics, fluid dynamics, or aerodynamics. The text is meant to provide the essential information from these types of courses that is needed for teaching basic subsonic aircraft performance, and it is assumed that the students will learn the full story of aerodynamics in other, later courses. The text assumes that the students will have had a university level Physics sequence in which they will have been introduced to the most fundamental concepts of statics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, and basic conservation laws that are needed to understand the coverage that follows. It is also assumed that students will have completed first year university level calculus sequence plus a course in multi-variable calculus. Separate courses in engineering statics and dynamics are helpful but not necessary. Any student who takes a course using this text after completing courses in aerodynamics or fluid dynamics should find the chapters of this book covering those subjects an interesting review of the material.

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(0 reviews)

Climate Lessons: Environmental, Social, Local

Contributor: Bakermans

Publisher: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

License: CC BY-NC

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the, if not the most, pressing issues of our times. The problems that it causes range across many social and environmental domains from habitat and species loss and displacement to the more human and social concerns and issues of access to water, sea level rise that affects coastal communities, to economic degradation as a result of the aforementioned and other connected issues such as increased frequency of storms, droughts, wildfires, and the like. We also know that the affects of climate change are not distributed evenly across populations- that many will and do feel the negative effects of this slow developing problem earlier and more intensely than others based on where they are located both geographically and within economic and other socio-cultural hierarchies. We also know that recently, there is a marked effort to begin to move away from simply decrying the horrors of climate change to a continued recognition of those horrors as they exist now and into the future alongside attempts to begin to come to terms with the changing climate and to rethink the ways that our social and environmental relations and communities are organized with an eye toward both adapting to these changes and mitigating further damage. There is, however, much work to be done. This book was co-authored by undergraduate students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute while exploring the influences of Earth systems and human systems on climate change and the communities at most risk in an interdisciplinary project-based first year course. This course attempts to bring together knowledge of the science of ecological and climate systems and their changing status with knowledge of the social and communal structures within which these systems are embedded and through which they have been influenced. The book highlights key interests and insights of current students in their quest to think through these issues and to create a better world.

(4 reviews)