Introduction
This tutorial teaches you how to use the statistical programming language R to develop a business case simulation and analysis. It presents a methodology for conducting business case analysis that minimizes decision delay by focusing stakeholders on what matters most and suggests pathways for minimizing the risk in strategic and capital allocation decisions. Business case analysis, often conducted in spreadsheets, exposes decision makers to additional risks that arise just from the use of the spreadsheet environment.
R has become one of the most widely used tools for reproducible quantitative analysis, and analysts fluent in this language are in high demand. The R language, traditionally used for statistical analysis, provides a more explicit, flexible, and extensible environment than spreadsheets for conducting business case analysis.
The main tutorial follows the case in which a chemical manufacturing company considers constructing a chemical reactor and production facility to bring a new compound to market. There are numerous uncertainties and risks involved, including the possibility that a competitor brings a similar product online. The company must determine the value of making the decision to move forward and where they might prioritize their attention to make a more informed and robust decision. While the example used is a chemical company, the analysis structure it presents can be applied to just about any business decision, from IT projects to new product development to commercial real estate. The supporting tutorials include the perspective of the founder of a professional service firm who wants to grow his business and a member of a strategic planning group in a biomedical device company who wants to know how much to budget in order to refine the quality of information about critical uncertainties that might affect the value of a chosen product development pathway.
What You’ll Learn:
Set up a business case abstraction in an influence diagram to communicate the essence of the problem to other stakeholders
Model the inherent uncertainties in the problem with Monte Carlo simulation using the R language
Communicate the results graphically
Draw appropriate insights from the results
Develop creative decision strategies for thorough opportunity cost analysis
Calculate the value of information on critical uncertainties between competing decision strategies to set the budget for deeper data analysis
Construct appropriate information to satisfy the parameters for the Monte Carlo simulation when little or no empirical data are available
Keywords
Business case analysis Risk analysis Decision analysis Engineering economics Quantitative analysis R modeling R langauage R Business case simulation Monte Carlo simulation
The topic this book addresses originated from a panel discussion at the ACM SIGKDD (Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining) Conference held in Seattle, Washington, USA. We the editors organized the panel to promote discussion on how text mining and natural language processing, two related topics originating from very different disciplines, can best interact with each other, and benefit from each other’s strengths. It attracted a great deal of interest and was attended by 200 people from all over the world. We then guest-edited a special issue of ACM SIGKDD Explorations on the same topic, with a number of very interesting papers. At the same time, Springer believed this to be a topic of wide interest and expressed an interest in seeing a book published. After a year of work, we have put together 11 papers from international researchers on a range of techniques and applications.
Practical IPv6 for Windows Administrators is a handy guide to implementing IPv6 in a Microsoft Windows environment. This is the book you need if you are a Microsoft Windows Administrator confronted with IPv6 and in need of a quick resource to get up and going. The book covers the current state of IPv6 and its support in Microsoft Windows. It provides best-practices and other guidance toward successful implementation.
This book is especially written with the goal of translating your current expertise in IPv4 into the new realm of IPv6. Special attention is given to dual-stack configurations, helping you to run IPv4 and IPv6 side-by-side and support both protocol versions during a transition period.
Practical IPv6 for Windows Administrators is also a fast reference you can look at to get something done quickly. It covers IPv6 addressing, management of IPv6 from Powershell, Advanced Firewall configuration, and use of IPv6 in Hyper-V and virtual networking environments. You'll find practical examples showing how IPv6 integrates with all the standard tools you use for IPv4 today, tools like DNS and DHCP. You'll also find insider knowledge on IPv6 that can help avert stumbling points on the road to deployment.
Provides a quick path from IPv4 expertise to IPv6 implementation
Gives best-practices specific to Windows on IPv6 and dual stack networks
Is chock full of practical examples showing how to manage IPv6 on Windows
The PHP Quick Scripting Reference is a condensed scripting code and syntax reference to the PHP scripting language, the most popular Web scripting language in use today. It presents the essential PHP script in a well-organized format that can be used as a handy reference.
You won’t find any technical jargon, bloated samples, drawn out history lessons or witty stories in this book. What you will find is a Web scripting language reference that is concise, to the point and highly accessible. The book is packed with useful information and is a must-have for any PHP programmer or Web developer
In the PHP Quick Scripting Reference, you will find:
A concise reference to the PHP scripting language syntax.
Short, simple and focused code examples.
A well laid out table of contents and a comprehensive index allowing easy review.
The bash shell is a complete programming language, not merely a glue to combine external Linux commands. By taking full advantage of shell internals, shell programs can perform as snappily as utilities written in C or other compiled languages. And you will see how, without assuming Unix lore, you can write professional bash 4.0 programs through standard programming techniques. * Complete bash coverage * Teaches bash as a programming language * Helps you master bash 4.0 features What you'll learn * Use the shell to write new utilities and accomplish most programming tasks. * Use shell parameter expansion to replace many external commands, making scripts very fast. * Learn to avoid many common mistakes that cause scripts to fail. * Learn how bash's readline and history libraries can save typing when getting user input. * Learn to use features new to bash 4.0. * Build shell scripts that get information from the Web. Who this book is for Beginning Linux and Unix system administrators who want to be in full command of their systems. Table of Contents * Hello, World! Your First Shell Program * Input, Output, and Throughput * Looping and Branching * Command-Line Parsing and Expansion * Parameters and Variables * Shell Functions * String Manipulation * File Operations and Commands * Reserved Words and Builtin Commands * Writing Bug-Free Scripts and Debugging the Rest * Programming for the Command Line * Runtime Configuration * Data Processing * Scripting the Screen * Entry-Level Programming
Scripting in Java starts with the explanation of basic scripting concepts and mechanisms needed for implementating scripting languages on the Java platform. Next, it focuses on particular languages available for Java developers today, such as Groovy, BeanShell, Python (Jython), JavaScript (Rhino), etc.
After these basic concepts, the book's topic is moved towards frameworks and patterns. This part of the book describes Apache BSF framework and the Scripting API (javax.script). It also introduces practical advices and design patterns for successful usage of scripting languages in Java projects. At the end, the Web Scripting Framework (javax.script.http) is described with examples of integration of PHP and Java web applications.
Practical Data Science with R lives up to its name. It explains basic principles without the theoretical mumbo-jumbo and jumps right to the real use cases you’ll face as you collect, curate, and analyze the data crucial to the success of your business. You’ll apply the R programming language and statistical analysis techniques to carefully explained examples based in marketing, business
You've experienced the shiny, point and click surface of your Linux computer—now dive below and explore its depths with the power of the command line.
The Linux Command Line takes you from your very first terminal keystrokes to writing full programs in Bash, the most popular Linux shell. Along the way you'll learn the timeless skills handed down by generations of gray bearded, mouse shunning gurus: file navigation, environment configuration, command chaining, pattern matching with regular expressions, and more.
In addition to that practical knowledge, author William Shotts reveals the philosophy behind these tools and the rich heritage that your desktop Linux machine has inherited from Unix supercomputers of yore.
As you make your way through the book's short, easily digestible chapters, you'll learn how to:
Create and delete files, directories, and symlinks
Administer your system, including networking, package installation, and process management
Use standard input and output, redirection, and pipelines
Edit files with Vi, the world's most popular text editor
Write shell scripts to automate common or boring tasks
Slice and dice text files with cut, paste, grep, patch, and sed
Once you overcome your initial "shell shock," you'll find that the command line is a natural and expressive way to communicate with your computer. Just don't be surprised if your mouse starts to gather dust.
