Here's an affordable way to break into the data analysis field
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By StackCommerceMashable Shopping2020-01-26 10:00:00 UTC
TL;DR: Evolve your data interpretation skills with the Data Analytics Expert Certification Bundle for $49, a 98% savings.
Somehow, while we were all laughing at the meme of the day or what Kanye said on Twitter, data took over the world. It drives everything from your Instagram feed and Netflix recommendations to Google Maps and self-driving cars. It's not hard to see why data analysts are so in demand across virtually every industry.
Despite that high demand, there's a relatively small group of people with the skills needed to take on the data of the world. So now's your chance to get a leg up on the competition. And luckily, you don't even need to go back to school. This Data Analytics Expert Certification Bundle can help you become an invaluable asset to your company or even score a new position for less than $50.
With this bundle, you'll get a year's access to five courses on data analytics, Tableau, Python, Excel, and MongoDB – just about every tool and method you'll need to become a data whiz.
Here's a glimpse at what each course covers:
Introduction to Data Analytics Training Course
This introductory course will help you build a foundation in data analytics. You'll get insights into applying data and analytics principles in your business, gain an understanding of the complete data analytics lifecycle and data visualization, and learn how all these things can be used to drive better business choices.
Tableau Certification Training Course
Tableau Desktop 10 is a powerful and fast-growing data visualization tool and this course will help you learn how to build visualizations, organize data, and design dashboards all within its walls. You'll learn statistics, data mapping, and data connections, and ultimately prepare to ace the Tableau Desktop 10 Qualified Associate exam, which will look excellent on your résumé.
Data Science with Python Training Course
With over 40 lessons and nearly 15 hours of content, this course will teach you data science analytics techniques using Python, the popular programming language used to build web apps and manipulate data. You'll gain knowledge not only in data analysis, but also in machine learning, data visualization, web scraping, and natural language processing.
Business Analytics Certification Training with Excel
Microsoft Excel has much more to offer than simply plugging numbers into cells. This course dives into its more advanced analytics functions and tools, introducing you to Power BI, which helps you visualize your Excel data, and ANOVA, which helps you analyze differences among group means in a sample.
MongoDB Developer and Administrator Certification Training
Complete your data science toolbox with this 17-hour training in MongoDB, an open-source document database used for high volume data storage. You'll learn how to install, configure, and maintain a MongoDB environment, explore operational strategies, gain an understanding of NoSQL, data modeling, ingestion, query, sharding, and data replication, and even master writing Java and Node JS applications.
Individually, these courses would cost you a whopping $2,645, but you can get them bundled together for just $49.

Can A.I. blood analysis predict Alzheimer’s progress?
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Artificial intelligence analysis of blood samples can predict and explain neurodegenerative disease progression, researchers report.
The technique could one day help doctors choose more appropriate and effective treatments for patients.
Researchers used an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to analyze the blood and postmortem brain samples of 1,969 patients with Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. Their goal was to find molecular patterns specific to these diseases.
The algorithm could detect how these patients’ genes expressed themselves in unique ways over decades. This offers the first long-term view of molecular changes underlying neurodegeneration, an important accomplishment because neurodegenerative diseases develop over years, researchers say.
Previous studies of neurodegeneration often used static or “snapshot” data, which limits how much they can reveal about the typically slow progression of disease. This study aimed to uncover the chronological information contained in large-scale data by covering decades of disease progression, revealing how changes in gene expression over that time relate to changes in the patient’s condition.
Furthermore, the blood test detected 85 to 90% of the top predictive molecular pathways that the test of postmortem brain data did, showing a striking similarity between molecular alterations in both the brain and peripheral body.
“This test could one day be used by doctors to evaluate patients and prescribe therapies tailored to their needs,” says first author Yasser Iturria-Medina, an assistant professor in the neurology and neurosurgery department at McGill University. “It could also be used in clinical trials to categorize patients and better determine how experimental drugs impact their predicted disease progression.”
Iturria-Medina says his next steps will be testing these models in other diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The results appear in the journal Brain.
Researchers used data openly available through the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. Additional scientists from The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) of McGill University and the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health contributed to the work.
McGill University’s Healthy Brain for Healthy Lives Initiative, the Ludmer Centre, and the Brain Canada Foundation, and Health Canada support to the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre at The Neuro funded the study.
Source: McGill University
Did You Manage To Avoid Pebblebrook Hotel Trust's (NYSE:PEB) 49% Share Price Drop?
For many, the main point of investing is to generate higher returns than the overall market. But the main game is to find enough winners to more than offset the losers At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB), since the last five years saw the share price fall 49%. More recently, the share price has dropped a further 11% in a month.
See our latest analysis for Pebblebrook Hotel Trust
While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).
Over five years Pebblebrook Hotel Trust's earnings per share dropped significantly, falling to a loss, with the share price also lower. The recent extraordinary items contributed to this situation. At present it's hard to make valid comparisons between EPS and the share price. However, we can say we'd expect to see a falling share price in this scenario.
The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
NYSE:PEB Past and Future Earnings, January 28th 2020
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It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Pebblebrook Hotel Trust's earnings, revenue and cash flow.
What About Dividends?
When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust's TSR for the last 5 years was -35%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.
A Different Perspective
Investors in Pebblebrook Hotel Trust had a tough year, with a total loss of 19% (including dividends) , against a market gain of about 24%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 8.4% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (including 2 which is shouldn't be ignored) .
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
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