![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies > Data analysis
As an emerging discipline, data science broadly means different things across different areas. Exploring the relationship of data science with statistics, a well-established and principled data-analytic discipline, this book provides insights about commonalities in approach, and differences in emphasis.Featuring chapters from established authors in both disciplines, the book also presents a number of applications and accompanying papers.
Recent advances in sabermetrics have made it possible to assess the exact contribution of each player to the success of failure of his team. Using the simple metric Wins Above Average-the number of wins that the 2016 Red Sox, for example, added to their total because they had Mookie Betters in right field instead of an average player (5)-David Kaiser leads us on a fascinating tour through the history of major league baseball from 1901 through 2016, analyzing all the greatest players and teams of the past and showing exactly why they enjoyed the success that they did. Along the way, he identifies the 15 or 20 greatest players of every generation, using simple metrics that allow him to compare the impact of players from Ty Cobb through Ted Williams to Willie Mays, Rickey Henderson and Barry Bonds, and pitchers from Christy Mathewson to Roger Clemens. The book also says a great deal about short- and long-term strategies for organizational success. Along the way, Kaiser takes on a good many tenets of diamond faith.. The importance of pitching, he argues, has been vastly exaggerated since the beginning of baseball time, and great pitching has almost never been the key to a dynasty. Many Hall of Fame pitchers and some hitters as well, he finds, have reached Cooperstown almost entirely on the backs of their teammates. Accurate metrics also reveal that a few over-qualified players are still awaiting selection to Cooperstown. Last but hardly least, Kaiser shows that baseball is threatened by an unprecedented shortage of great players, and challenges MLB to do something about it.
Python is one of the most popular programming languages, widely used for data analysis and modelling, and is fast becoming the leading choice for scientists and engineers. Unlike other textbooks introducing Python, typically organised by language syntax, this book uses many examples from across Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth science, and Engineering to teach and motivate students in science and engineering. The text is organised by the tasks and workflows students undertake day-to-day, helping them see the connections between programming tools and their disciplines. The pace of study is carefully developed for complete beginners, and a spiral pedagogy is used so concepts are introduced across multiple chapters, allowing readers to engage with topics more than once. "Try This!" exercises and online Jupyter notebooks encourage students to test their new knowledge, and further develop their programming skills. Online solutions are available for instructors, alongside discipline-specific homework problems across the sciences and engineering.
This study explores issues of biomass energy use in relation to household welfare and it assesses Ethiopia's future energy security with a focus on long-term model of the energy sector, and institutional arrangements required for decentralized energy initiatives. Data from Ethiopian rural households reveal negative welfare effects associated with traditional biomass energy utilization, while increases in the opportunity cost of fuelwood collection is associated negatively with allocation of labour to agriculture and fuelwood use. It appears that investment on integrated energy source diversification improves sustainability and resilience, but increases production cost. Innovations that improve alternative sources reduce production cost, improve energy security, and thus serve as an engine of economic growth.
Data science has never had more influence on the world. Large companies are now seeing the benefit of employing data scientists to interpret the vast amounts of data that now exists. However, the field is so new and is evolving so rapidly that the analysis produced can be haphazard at best. The 9 Pitfalls of Data Science shows us real-world examples of what can go wrong. Written to be an entertaining read, this invaluable guide investigates the all too common mistakes of data scientists - who can be plagued by lazy thinking, whims, hunches, and prejudices - and indicates how they have been at the root of many disasters, including the Great Recession. Gary Smith and Jay Cordes emphasise how scientific rigor and critical thinking skills are indispensable in this age of Big Data, as machines often find meaningless patterns that can lead to dangerous false conclusions. The 9 Pitfalls of Data Science is loaded with entertaining tales of both successful and misguided approaches to interpreting data, both grand successes and epic failures. These cautionary tales will not only help data scientists be more effective, but also help the public distinguish between good and bad data science.
Effectively and ethically leveraging people data to deliver real business value is what sets the best HR leaders and teams apart. Excellence in People Analytics provides business and human resources leaders with everything they need to know about creating value from people analytics. Written by two leading experts in the field, this practical guide outlines how to create sustainable business value with people analytics and develop a data-driven culture in HR. Most importantly, it allows HR professionals and business executives to translate their data into tangible actions to improve business performance. while navigating the rapidly evolving world of work. Full of practical tools and advice assembled around the Insight222 Nine Dimensions in People Analytics (R) model, this book demonstrates how to use people data to increase profits, improve staff retention and workplace productivity as well as develop individual employee experience. Featuring case studies from leading companies including Microsoft, HSBC, Syngenta, Capital One, Novartis, Bosch, Uber, Santander Brasil and American Eagle Outfitters (R), Excellence in People Analytics is essential reading for all HR professionals needing to unlock the potential in their people data and gain competitive advantage
Data Analysis in Molecular Biology and Evolution introduces biologists to DAMBE, a proprietary, user-friendly computer program for molecular data analysis. The unique combination of this book and software will allow biologists not only to understand the rationale behind a variety of computational tools in molecular biology and evolution, but also to gain instant access to these tools for use in their laboratories. Data Analysis in Molecular Biology and Evolution serves as an excellent resource for advanced level undergraduates or graduates as well as for professionals working in the field.
Critical Theory and Qualitative Data Analysis in Education offers a path-breaking explanation of how critical theories can be used within the analysis of qualitative data to inform research processes, such as data collection, analysis, and interpretation. This contributed volume offers examples of qualitative data analysis techniques and exemplars of empirical studies that employ critical theory concepts in data analysis. By creating a clear and accessible bridge between data analysis and critical social theories, this book helps scholars and researchers effectively translate their research designs and findings to multiple audiences for more equitable outcomes and disruption of historical and contemporary inequality.
This textbook is a complete rewrite, and expansion of Hugh Rollinson's highly successful 1993 book Using Geochemical Data: Evaluation, Presentation, Interpretation. Rollinson and Pease's new book covers the explosion in geochemical thinking over the past three decades, as new instruments and techniques have come online. It provides a comprehensive overview of how modern geochemical data are used in the understanding of geological and petrological processes. It covers major element, trace element, and radiogenic and stable isotope geochemistry. It explains the potential of many geochemical techniques, provides examples of their application, and emphasizes how to interpret the resulting data. Additional topics covered include the critical statistical analysis of geochemical data, current geochemical techniques, effective display of geochemical data, and the application of data in problem solving and identifying petrogenetic processes within a geological context. It will be invaluable for all graduate students, researchers, and professionals using geochemical techniques.
1.1 Overview V ARIOWIN 2.2 is a collection of four Windows (TM) programs - Prevar2D, Vari02D with PCF, Model, and Grid Display - that are used for spatial data analysis and variogram modeling of irregularly spaced data in two dimensions. Prevar2D builds a pair comparison file (PCF), that is, a binary file containing pairs of data sorted in terms of increasing distance. Pair comparison files can be built from subsets in order to reduce memory requirements. Vari02D with PCF is used for spatial data analysis of 2D data. It uses an ASCII data file and a binary pair comparison file produced by Prevar2D. Features implemented in Vari02D with PCF include: * the possibility to characterize the spatial continuity of one variable or the joined spatial continuity of two variables, * variogram surfaces for identifying directions of anisotropies, * directional variograms calculated along any direction, * several measures of spatial continuity. Not only the variogram but also the standardized variogram, the covariance, the correlogram, and the madogram are used to measure spatial continuity. * h-scatterplots to assess the meaning of these measures, * the identification and localization of pairs of data adversely affecting the measure of spatial continuity. Once identified, these pairs can be masked from the calculation interactively. * variogram clouds for identifying pairs of data values having the most influence on the measure of spatial continuity. Those pairs can also be located on the sample map.
This book has won the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title award 2014. A century of education and education reform along with the last three decades of high-stakes testing and accountability reveals a disturbing paradox: Education has a steadfast commitment to testing and grading despite decades of research, theory, and philosophy that reveal the corrosive consequences of both testing and grading within an education system designed to support human agency and democratic principles. This edited volume brings together a collection of essays that confronts the failure of testing and grading and then offers practical and detailed examinations of implementing at the macro and micro levels of education teaching and learning free of the weight of testing and grading. The book explores the historical failure of testing and grading; the theoretical and philosophical arguments against testing and grading; the negative influence of testing and grading on social justice, race, class, and gender; and the role of testing and grading in perpetuating a deficit perspective of children, learning, race, and class. The chapters fall under two broad sections: Part I: "Degrading Learning, Detesting Education: The Failure of High-Stake Accountability in Education" includes essays on the historical, theoretical, and philosophical arguments against testing and grading; Part II: "De-Grading and De-Testing in a Time of High-Stakes Education Reform" presents practical experiments in de-testing and de-grading classrooms for authentic learning experiences.
The importance of data analytics is well known, but how can you get end users to engage with analytics and business intelligence (BI) when adoption of new technology can be frustratingly slow or may not happen at all? Avoid wasting time on dashboards and reports that no one uses with this practical guide to increasing analytics adoption by focusing on people and process, not technology. Pulling together agile, UX and change management principles, Delivering Data Analytics outlines a step-by-step, technology agnostic process designed to shift the organizational data culture and gain buy-in from users and stakeholders at every stage of the project. This book outlines how to succeed and build trust with stakeholders amid the politics, ambiguity and lack of engagement in business. With case studies, templates, checklists and scripts based on the author's considerable experience in analytics and data visualisation, this book covers the full cycle from requirements gathering and data assessment to training and launch. Ensure lasting adoption, trust and, most importantly, actionable business value with this roadmap to creating user-centric analytics projects.
Data has dramatically changed how our world works. Understanding and using data is now one of the most transferable and desirable skills out there - whether you're an entrepreneur wanting to boost your business, a job-seeker looking for that employable edge, or hoping to make the most of your current career. Learning how to work with data may seem intimidating or difficult - but don't worry, Confident Data Skills is here to help. This updated second edition takes you through the basics of data: from data mining and preparing and analyzing your data, to visualizing and communicating your insights, and now with exciting new content on neural networks and deep learning. Featuring in-depth international case studies from companies like Netflix, LinkedIn and Mike's Hard Lemonade Co., as well as easy-to understand language and inspiring advice and guidance, Confident Data Skills help you use your new-found data skills to give your career that cutting-edge boost. About the Confident series... From coding and web design to data, digital content and cyber security, the Confident books are the perfect beginner's resource for enhancing your professional life, whatever your career path..
Minds Alive explores the enduring role and intrinsic value of libraries, archives, and public institutions in the digital age. Featuring international contributors, this volume delves into libraries and archives as institutions and institutional partners, the professional responsibilities of librarians and archivists, and the ways in which librarians and archivists continue to respond to the networked age, digital culture, and digitization. The endless possibilities and robust importance of libraries and archives are at the heart of this optimistic collection. Topics include transformations in the networked digital age; Indigenous issues and challenges in custodianship, ownership, and access; the importance of the harmonization of memory institutions today; and the overarching significance of libraries and archives in the public sphere. Libraries and archives - at once public institutions providing both communal and private havens of discovery - are being repurposed and transformed in intercultural contexts. Only by keeping pace with users' changing needs can they continue to provide the richest resources for an informed citizenry.
Meaningful use of advanced Bayesian methods requires a good understanding of the fundamentals. This engaging book explains the ideas that underpin the construction and analysis of Bayesian models, with particular focus on computational methods and schemes. The unique features of the text are the extensive discussion of available software packages combined with a brief but complete and mathematically rigorous introduction to Bayesian inference. The text introduces Monte Carlo methods, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, and Bayesian software, with additional material on model validation and comparison, transdimensional MCMC, and conditionally Gaussian models. The inclusion of problems makes the book suitable as a textbook for a first graduate-level course in Bayesian computation with a focus on Monte Carlo methods. The extensive discussion of Bayesian software - R/R-INLA, OpenBUGS, JAGS, STAN, and BayesX - makes it useful also for researchers and graduate students from beyond statistics.
The approximation and the estimation of nonparametric functions by projections on an orthonormal basis of functions are useful in data analysis. This book presents series estimators defined by projections on bases of functions, they extend the estimators of densities to mixture models, deconvolution and inverse problems, to semi-parametric and nonparametric models for regressions, hazard functions and diffusions. They are estimated in the Hilbert spaces with respect to the distribution function of the regressors and their optimal rates of convergence are proved. Their mean square errors depend on the size of the basis which is consistently estimated by cross-validation. Wavelets estimators are defined and studied in the same models.The choice of the basis, with suitable parametrizations, and their estimation improve the existing methods and leads to applications to a wide class of models. The rates of convergence of the series estimators are the best among all nonparametric estimators with a great improvement in multidimensional models. Original methods are developed for the estimation in deconvolution and inverse problems. The asymptotic properties of test statistics based on the estimators are also established.
This richly illustrated book describes the use of interactive and dynamic graphics as part of multidimensional data analysis. Chapter topics include clustering, supervised classification, and working with missing values. A variety of plots and interaction methods are used in each analysis, often starting with brushing linked low-dimensional views and working up to manual manipulation of tours of several variables. The book is augmented by a wealth of online material.
This book occupies a unique position in the field of statistical analysis in the behavioural and social sciences in that it targets learners who would benefit from learning more conceptually and less computationally about statistical procedures and the software packages that can be used to implement them. This book provides a comprehensive overview of this important research skill domain with an emphasis on visual support for learning and better understanding. The primary focus is on fundamental concepts, procedures and interpretations of statistical analyses within a single broad illustrative research context. The book covers a wide range of descriptive, correlational and inferential statistical procedures as well as more advanced procedures not typically covered in introductory and intermediate statistical texts. It is an ideal reference for postgraduate students as well as for researchers seeking to broaden their conceptual exposure to what is possible in statistical analysis.
Distribution-free resampling methods-permutation tests, decision trees, and the bootstrap-are used today in virtually every research area. A Practitioner's Guide to Resampling for Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Modeling explains how to use the bootstrap to estimate the precision of sample-based estimates and to determine sample size, data permutations to test hypotheses, and the readily-interpreted decision tree to replace arcane regression methods. Highlights Each chapter contains dozens of thought provoking questions, along with applicable R and Stata code Methods are illustrated with examples from agriculture, audits, bird migration, clinical trials, epidemiology, image processing, immunology, medicine, microarrays and gene selection Lists of commercially available software for the bootstrap, decision trees, and permutation tests are incorporated in the text Access to APL, MATLAB, and SC code for many of the routines is provided on the author's website The text covers estimation, two-sample and k-sample univariate, and multivariate comparisons of means and variances, sample size determination, categorical data, multiple hypotheses, and model building Statistics practitioners will find the methods described in the text easy to learn and to apply in a broad range of subject areas from A for Accounting, Agriculture, Anthropology, Aquatic science, Archaeology, Astronomy, and Atmospheric science to V for Virology and Vocational Guidance, and Z for Zoology. Practitioners and research workers and in the biomedical, engineering and social sciences, as well as advanced students in biology, business, dentistry, medicine, psychology, public health, sociology, and statistics will find an easily-grasped guide to estimation, testing hypotheses and model building.
"This comprehensive, practical, user-friendly book provides a wealth of data analysis strategies that are essential for any qualitative research. It is a must-have tool book for moving from data analysis to writing for publication!" -Guofang Li, University of British Columbia, Canada Miles, Huberman, and Saldana's Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook is the authoritative text for analyzing and displaying qualitative research data. The Fourth Edition maintains the analytic rigor of previous editions while showcasing a variety of new visual display models for qualitative inquiry. Graphics are added to the now-classic matrix and network illustrations of the original co-authors. Five chapters have been substantially revised, and the appendix's annotated bibliography includes new titles in research methods. Graduate students and established scholars from all disciplines will find this resource an innovative compendium of ideas for the representation and presentation of qualitative data. As the authors demonstrate, when researchers "think display," their analyses of social life capture the complex and vivid processes of the people and institutions studied.
This textbook integrates mathematical index theory and its application in official price statistics. It tries to bridge theory and practice, due to the apparent divergence between mathematicians with ever more sophisticated and complex models and practitioners with problems that are more and more difficult to understand without broad knowledge and some experience. The text offers an introduction into axiomatic, microeconomic and stochastic reasoning as regards index numbers, with moderately difficult mathematics. It also summarizes many ongoing discussions concerning methodological merits and demerits of specific indices, such as consumer price-, producer price-, unit value- and chain indices, in official price statistics. The book is comprehensive and presents a readable overview of a great number of topics in modern price index theory and their application in inflation measurement, deflation of aggregates in National Accounts, sampling and quality adjustment in price collection and other important though controversial issues.
This book provides a comprehensive account of survey sampling theory and methodology which will be suitable for students and researchers across a variety of disciplines. A central theme is to show how statistical modeling is a vital component of the sampling process and in the choice of estimation technique. Statistical modeling has strongly influenced sampling theory in recent years and has clarified many issues related to the uses of auxiliary information in surveys. This is the first textbook that systematically extends traditional sampling theory with the aid of a modern model assisted outlook. The central ideas of sampling theory are developed from the unifying perspective of unequal probability sampling. The book covers classical topics as well as areas where significant new developments have taken place notably domain estimation, variance estimation, methods for handling nonresponse, models for measurement error, and the analysis of survey data. The authors have taken care to presuppose nothing more on the part of the reader than a first course in statistical inference and regression analysis. Throughout, the emphasis is on statistical ideas rather than advanced mathematics. Each chapter concludes with a range of exercises incorporating the analysis of data from actual finite populations. As a result, all those concerned with survey methodology or engaged in survey sampling will find this an invaluable and up-to-date coverage of the subject.
Classical probability theory and mathematical statistics appear sometimes too rigid for real life problems, especially while dealing with vague data or imprecise requirements. These problems have motivated many researchers to "soften" the classical theory. Some "softening" approaches utilize concepts and techniques developed in theories such as fuzzy sets theory, rough sets, possibility theory, theory of belief functions and imprecise probabilities, etc. Since interesting mathematical models and methods have been proposed in the frameworks of various theories, this text brings together experts representing different approaches used in soft probability, statistics and data analysis.
This book covers some recent developments in statistical inference. The author's main aim is to develop a theory of generalized p-values and generalized confidence intervals and to show how these concepts may be used to make exact statistical inferences in a variety of practical applications. In particular, they provide methods applicable in problems involving nuisance parameters such as those encountered in comparing two exponential distributions or in ANOVA without the assumption of equal error variances. The generalized procedures are shown to be more powerful in detecting significant experimental results and in avoiding misleading conclusions.
View the Table of Contents. Read Chapter 1. "Auerbach and Silverstein write at a level that can be
understood by beginners but is sophisticated enough for
scholars...informative and interesting." Qualitative Data is meant for the novice researcher who needs guidance on what specifically to do when faced with a sea of information. It takes readers through the qualitative research process, beginning with an examination of the basic philosophy of qualitative research, and ending with planning and carrying out a qualitative research study. It provides an explicit, step-by-step procedure that will take the researcher from the raw text of interview data through data analysis and theory construction to the creation of a publishable work. The volume provides actual examples based on the authors' own work, including two published pieces in the appendix, so that readers can follow examples for each step of the process, from the project's inception to its finished product. The volume also includes an appendix explaining how to implement these data analysis procedures using NVIVO, a qualitative data analysis program. |
You may like...
Ethical Practice of Statistics and Data…
Rochelle Tractenberg
Hardcover
R2,402
Discovery Miles 24 020
Insightful Data Visualization with SAS…
Falko Schulz, Travis Murphy
Hardcover
R1,147
Discovery Miles 11 470
Unified Methods for Censored…
Mark J.Van Der Laan, James M. Robins
Hardcover
R4,077
Discovery Miles 40 770
Qualitative Data - An Introduction to…
Carl Auerbach, Louise B Silverstein
Hardcover
R2,859
Discovery Miles 28 590
Applying Data Science and Learning…
Goran Trajkovski, Marylee Demeter, …
Hardcover
R5,333
Discovery Miles 53 330
|