Throughout the world, voters lack access to information about politicians, government performance, and public services. Efforts to remedy these informational deficits are numerous. Yet do informational campaigns influence voter behavior and increase democratic accountability? Through the first project of the Metaketa Initiative, sponsored by the Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) research network, this book aims to address this substantive question and at the same time introduce a new model for cumulative learning that increases coordination among otherwise independent researcher teams. It presents the overall results (using meta-analysis) from six independently conducted but coordinated field experimental studies, the results from each individual study, and the findings from a related evaluation of whether practitioners utilize this information as expected. It also discusses lessons learned from EGAP's efforts to coordinate field experiments, increase replication of theoretically important studies across contexts, and increase the external validity of field experimental research.

Questioning Numbers: How to Read and Critique Research is a critical companion for students in research methods courses in any of the social sciences. This book helps teach students how to read and critique research that employs numbers in the course of empirical argument. Author Karin Gwinn Wilkins provides a list of guidelines for reading research and also presents a critical approach to judging and using numbers in navigating and changing social worlds.
Illuminating the agendas and politics that can inform how research is conducted and interpreted, this text shows readers how to read and critique research contexts, research design, sampling strategies, definitions, research implementation, data analysis, and interpretation. It also provides strong pedagogical support, including key terms, review exercises, and end-of-chapter reflection questions.
A flexible supplement to more comprehensive research texts, Questioning Numbers helps students to become more critical consumers and producers of quantitative research across the social sciences.

Every country, every subnational government, and every district has a designated population, and this has a bearing on politics in ways most citizens and policymakers are barely aware of. Population and Politics provides a comprehensive evaluation of the political implications stemming from the size of a political unit - on social cohesion, the number of representatives, overall representativeness, particularism ('pork'), citizen engagement and participation, political trust, electoral contestation, leadership succession, professionalism in government, power concentration in the central apparatus of the state, government intervention, civil conflict, and overall political power. A multimethod approach combines field research in small states and islands with cross-country and within-country data analysis. Population and Politics will be of interest to academics, policymakers, and anyone concerned with decentralization and multilevel governance.

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.

A new and important contribution to the re-emergent field of comparative anthropology, this book argues that comparative ethnographic methods are essential for more contextually sophisticated accounts of a number of pressing human concerns today. The book includes expert accounts from an international team of scholars, showing how these methods can be used to illuminate important theoretical and practical projects. Illustrated with examples of successful inter-disciplinary projects, it highlights the challenges, benefits, and innovative strategies involved in working collaboratively across disciplines. Through its focus on practical methodological and logistical accounts, it will be of value to both seasoned researchers who seek practical models for conducting their own cutting-edge comparative research, and to teachers and students who are looking for first-person accounts of comparative ethnographic research.

Even though many data analytics tools have been developed in the past years, their usage in the field of cyber twin warrants new approaches that consider various aspects including unified data representation, zero-day attack detection, data sharing across threat detection systems, real-time analysis, sampling, dimensionality reduction, resource-constrained data processing, and time series analysis for anomaly detection. Further study is required to fully understand the opportunities, benefits, and difficulties of data analytics and the internet of things in today's modern world. New Approaches to Data Analytics and Internet of Things Through Digital Twin considers how data analytics and the internet of things can be used successfully within the field of digital twin as well as the potential future directions of these technologies. Covering key topics such as edge networks, deep learning, intelligent data analytics, and knowledge discovery, this reference work is ideal for computer scientists, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students.

Learn how to make the right decisions for your business with the help of Python recipes and the expertise of data leaders Key Features Learn and practice various clustering techniques to gather market insights Explore real-life use cases from the business world to contextualize your learning Work your way through practical recipes that will reinforce what you have learned Book DescriptionOne of the most valuable contributions of data science is toward helping businesses make the right decisions. Understanding this complicated confluence of two disparate worlds, as well as a fiercely competitive market, calls for all the guidance you can get. The Art of Data-Driven Business is your invaluable guide to gaining a business-driven perspective, as well as leveraging the power of machine learning (ML) to guide decision-making in your business. This book provides a common ground of discussion for several profiles within a company. You'll begin by looking at how to use Python and its many libraries for machine learning. Experienced data scientists may want to skip this short introduction, but you'll soon get to the meat of the book and explore the many and varied ways ML with Python can be applied to the domain of business decisions through real-world business problems that you can tackle by yourself. As you advance, you'll gain practical insights into the value that ML can provide to your business, as well as the technical ability to apply a wide variety of tried-and-tested ML methods. By the end of this Python book, you'll have learned the value of basing your business decisions on data-driven methodologies and have developed the Python skills needed to apply what you've learned in the real world. What you will learn Create effective dashboards with the seaborn library Predict whether a customer will cancel their subscription to a service Analyze key pricing metrics with pandas Recommend the right products to your customers Determine the costs and benefits of promotions Segment your customers using clustering algorithms Who this book is forThis book is for data scientists, machine learning engineers and developers, data engineers, and business decision makers who want to apply data science for business process optimization and develop the skills needed to implement data science projects in marketing, sales, pricing, customer success, ad tech, and more from a business perspective. Other professionals looking to explore how data science can be used to improve business operations, as well as individuals with technical skills who want to back their technical proposal with a strong business case will also find this book useful.

Today's students create and are confronted with many kinds of data in multiple formats. Data literacy enables students and researchers to access, interpret, critically assess, manage, handle, and ethically use data. The Data Literacy Cookbook includes a variety of approaches to and lesson plans for teaching data literacy, from simple activities to self-paced learning modules to for-credit and discipline-specific courses. Sixty-five recipes are organized into nine sections based on learning outcomes: Interpreting Polls and Surveys Finding and Evaluating Data Data Manipulation and Transformation Data Visualization Data Management and Sharing Geospatial Data Data in the Disciplines Data Literacy Outreach and Engagement Data Literacy Programs and Curricula Many sections have overlapping learning outcomes, so you can combine recipes from multiple sections to whip up a scaffolded curriculum. The Data Literacy Cookbook provides librarians with lesson plans, strategies, and activities to help guide students as both consumers and producers in the data life cycle.

Elementary Statistics: A Guide to Data Analysis Using R provides students with an introduction to both the field of statistics and R, one of the most widely used languages for statistical computing, analysis, and graphing in a variety of fields, including the sciences, finance, banking, health care, e-commerce, and marketing. Part I provides an overview of both statistics and R. Part II focuses on descriptive statistics and probability. In Part III, students learn about discrete and continuous probability distributions with chapters addressing probability distributions, binominal probability distributions, and normal probability distributions. Part IV speaks to statistical inference with content covering confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, chi-square tests and F-distributions. The final part explores additional statistical inference and assumptions, including correlation, regression, and nonparametric statistics. Helpful appendices provide students with an index of terminology, an index of applications, a glossary of symbols, and a guide to the most common R commands. Elementary Statistics is an ideal resource for introductory courses in undergraduate statistics, graduate statistics, and data analysis across the disciplines.

When would a casino stop a gambler from playing his next hand? How could a company use statistical analysis to blackball you from the job you want? Why should you worry when customer services pay attention to your needs? Beginning with examples of the mathematician who out-predicted wine buffs in determining the best vintages, and the sports scouts who now use statistics rather than intuition to pick winners, Super Crunchers exposes the hidden patterns all around us. No businessperson, academic, student, or consumer (statistically that's everyone) should make another move without getting to grips with thinking-by-numbers - the new way to be smart, savvy and statistically superior.

Many people go through life in a rather hit-or-miss fashion, casting about for ideas to explain why their projects improve or decline, why they are successful or why they are not. Guessing and "hunches," however, are not very reliable. And without the knowledge of how to actually investigate situations, good or bad, and get the true facts, a person is set adrift in a sea of unevaluated data. Accurate investigation is, in fact, a rare commodity. Man's tendency in matters he doesn't understand is to accept the first proffered explanation, no matter how faulty. Thus investigatory technology had not actually been practiced or refined. However, L. Ron Hubbard made a breakthrough in the subject of logic and reasoning which led to his development of the first truly effective way to search for and consistently find the actual causes for things. Knowing how to investigate gives one the power to navigate through the random facts and opinions and emerge with the real reasons behind success or failure in any aspect of life. By really finding out why things are the way they are, one is therefore able to remedy and improve a situation-any situation. This is an invaluable technology for people in all walks of life.

This publication presents a case study in East Java, Indonesia, about ADB's collaboration with local governments and other stakeholders in monitoring, implementing, raising awareness, and advocating for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs set global, big-picture targets that nations have committed to attaining. However, unless action is taken at the local level, these targets can never be reached. The case study on Lumajang and Pacitan district demonstrate how ADB has been helping to make data available and accessible in a visually attractive and easy-to-understand way for different local stakeholders, thereby contributing to localizing SDGs.

Statistics for Social Work with SPSS provides readers with a user-friendly, evidence-based, and practical resource to help them make sense of, organize, analyze, and interpret data in contemporary contexts. It incorporates one of the most well-known statistics software applications, the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS), within each chapter to help readers integrate their knowledge either manually or with the assistance of technology. The book begins with a brief introduction to statistics and research, followed by chapters that address variables, frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and measures of variability. Additional chapters cover probability and hypothesis testing; normal distribution and Z score; correlation; simple linear regression; one-way ANOVA; and more. Each chapter features concise, simple explanations of key terms, formulas, and calculations; study questions and answers; specific SPSS instructions on computerized computations; and evidence-based, practical examples to support the learning experience. Presenting students with highly accessible and universally understandable statistical concepts, Statistics for Social Work with SPSS is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in social work statistics, as well as research-based courses within the social and behavioral sciences.

Reinforce your understanding of data science and data analysis from a statistical perspective to extract meaningful insights from your data using Python programming Key Features Work your way through the entire data analysis pipeline with statistics concerns in mind to make reasonable decisions Understand how various data science algorithms function Build a solid foundation in statistics for data science and machine learning using Python-based examples Book DescriptionStatistics remain the backbone of modern analysis tasks, helping you to interpret the results produced by data science pipelines. This book is a detailed guide covering the math and various statistical methods required for undertaking data science tasks. The book starts by showing you how to preprocess data and inspect distributions and correlations from a statistical perspective. You'll then get to grips with the fundamentals of statistical analysis and apply its concepts to real-world datasets. As you advance, you'll find out how statistical concepts emerge from different stages of data science pipelines, understand the summary of datasets in the language of statistics, and use it to build a solid foundation for robust data products such as explanatory models and predictive models. Once you've uncovered the working mechanism of data science algorithms, you'll cover essential concepts for efficient data collection, cleaning, mining, visualization, and analysis. Finally, you'll implement statistical methods in key machine learning tasks such as classification, regression, tree-based methods, and ensemble learning. By the end of this Essential Statistics for Non-STEM Data Analysts book, you'll have learned how to build and present a self-contained, statistics-backed data product to meet your business goals. What you will learn Find out how to grab and load data into an analysis environment Perform descriptive analysis to extract meaningful summaries from data Discover probability, parameter estimation, hypothesis tests, and experiment design best practices Get to grips with resampling and bootstrapping in Python Delve into statistical tests with variance analysis, time series analysis, and A/B test examples Understand the statistics behind popular machine learning algorithms Answer questions on statistics for data scientist interviews Who this book is forThis book is an entry-level guide for data science enthusiasts, data analysts, and anyone starting out in the field of data science and looking to learn the essential statistical concepts with the help of simple explanations and examples. If you're a developer or student with a non-mathematical background, you'll find this book useful. Working knowledge of the Python programming language is required.

Explore common and not-so-common data transformation scenarios and solutions to become well-versed with Tableau Prep and create efficient and powerful data pipelines Key Features Combine, clean, and shape data for analysis using self-service data preparation techniques Become proficient with Tableau Prep for building and managing data flows across your organization Learn how to combine multiple data transformations in order to build a robust dataset Book DescriptionTableau Prep is a tool in the Tableau software suite, created specifically to develop data pipelines. This book will describe, in detail, a variety of scenarios that you can apply in your environment for developing, publishing, and maintaining complex Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) data pipelines. The book starts by showing you how to set up Tableau Prep Builder. You'll learn how to obtain data from various data sources, including files, databases, and Tableau Extracts. Next, the book demonstrates how to perform data cleaning and data aggregation in Tableau Prep Builder. You'll also gain an understanding of Tableau Prep Builder and how you can leverage it to create data pipelines that prepare your data for downstream analytics processes, including reporting and dashboard creation in Tableau. As part of a Tableau Prep flow, you'll also explore how to use R and Python to implement data science components inside a data pipeline. In the final chapter, you'll apply the knowledge you've gained to build two use cases from scratch, including a data flow for a retail store to prepare a robust dataset using multiple disparate sources and a data flow for a call center to perform ad hoc data analysis. By the end of this book, you'll be able to create, run, and publish Tableau Prep flows and implement solutions to common problems in data pipelines. What you will learn Perform data cleaning and preparation techniques for advanced data analysis Understand how to combine multiple disparate datasets Prepare data for different Business Intelligence (BI) tools Apply Tableau Prep's calculation language to create powerful calculations Use Tableau Prep for ad hoc data analysis and data science flows Deploy Tableau Prep flows to Tableau Server and Tableau Online Who this book is forThis book is for business intelligence professionals, data analysts, and Tableau users looking to learn Tableau Prep essentials and create data pipelines or ETL processes using it. Beginner-level knowledge of data management will be beneficial to understand the concepts covered in this Tableau cookbook more effectively.

Social Network Analysis: Methods and Examples prepares social science students to conduct their own social network analysis (SNA) by covering basic methodological tools along with illustrative examples from various fields. This innovative book takes a conceptual rather than a mathematical approach as it discusses the connection between what SNA methods have to offer and how those methods are used in research design, data collection, and analysis. Four substantive applications chapters provide examples from politics, work and organizations, mental and physical health, and crime and terrorism studies.

This book presents the field of sports statistics to two very distinct target audiences, namely academicians, in order to raise their interest in this growing field, and, on the other hand, sports fans, who, even without advanced mathematical knowledge, will be able to understand the data analysis and gain new insights into their favourite sports. The book thus offers a unique perspective on this attractive topic by combining sports analytics, data visualisation and advanced statistical procedures to extract new findings from sports data such as improved rankings or prediction methods. Bringing together insights from football, tennis, basketball, track and field, and baseball, the book will appeal to aficionados of any sport, and, thanks to its cutting-edge data analysis tools, will provide the reader with completely new insights into their favourite sport in an engaging and user-friendly way.