Multiple sclerosis is an incurable neurological disease of unknown cause with a fearful reputation for generating disability, unemployment, poverty and early death. This book critically surveys the current state of multiple sclerosis research, demonstrating the shortfall of current research undertaken on the lives of people with multiple sclerosis.

This collection sets a new agenda for conducting research on the EU and learns from past mistakes. In doing so it provides a state-of-the-art examination of social science research designs in EU studies while providing innovative guidelines for the advancement of more inclusive and empirically sensitive research designs in EU studies

Volume 1 of Research in Community Sociology focuses on "Community of the Streets".

This book focuses on critical issues and perspectives concerning globally mobile students, aspects that have grown in importance thanks to major geopolitical, economic, and technological changes around the globe (i.e., in and across major origins and destinations of international students). Over the past few decades, the field of international higher education and scholarship has developed robust areas of research that guide current policy, programs, and pedagogy. However, many of the established narratives and wisdoms that dominate research agendas, scope, and foci have become somewhat ossified and are unable to reflect recent political upheavals and other changes (e.g. the Brexit, Trump era, and Belt and Road Initiative) that have disrupted a number of areas including mobility patterns and recruitment practices, understanding and supporting students, engagement of global mobile students with their local counterparts, and the political economy of international education at large. By re-assessing established issues and perspectives in light of the emerging global/local situations, the contributing authors - all experts on international education - share insights on policies and practices that can help adapt to emerging challenges and opportunities for institutions, scholars, and other stakeholders in international higher education. Including theoretical, empirical, and practitioner-based methods and perspectives provided by scholars from around the world, the book offers a unique and intriguing resource.

This book results from a research program on which I have spent most of my time since 1974. It addresses two of the major problems facing social system account ing: how to measure and account for nonmarket activities and how to combine social and economic indicators. The solution I propose is accounts based on behavior settings, a concept originated by Roger G. Barker more than thirty years ago. Behavior settings are the natural units of social activity into which people sort themselves to get on with the busi ness of daily life--grocery stores, school classes, reI i gious services, meetings, athletic events, and so on. The descriptive power of behavior settings has been established in surveys of complete communities in the United States and England, of high schools ranging in size from fewer than 100 to more than 2000 students, of rehabilitation centers in hospitals, and of several other types of organizations. Behavior settings are empirical facts of everyday life. A description of a community or an organization in terms of behavior settings corresponds to common experi ence. In many cases, small establishments are behavior settings; the paid roles in behavior settingsare occupa tions; and the buildings and equipment of establishments are the buildings and equipment of behavior settings."

This book employs a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology to analyse the language used by university careers services in the UK. Drawing on a corpus which includes the public-facing websites of careers services from 24 Russell Group and 34 Post-92 universities, the author highlights some of the potentially problematic 'common-sense' views and ideas that are currently promoted to students using these services. She argues that the language used by university websites promotes neoliberal ideology and encourages the denaturalisation of such language. This book will be of interest to linguists, sociologists, education scholars, and scholars who are otherwise interested in the notion of employability.

In this powerful volume, six qualitative methods are used to analyze a couple therapy with a troubled young couple, illustrating the intricate processes and sub-processes of therapy through client interactions with their therapists and with each other. Increasingly popular for revealing the nuances and complexity of human interactions, qualitative approaches focus on process and discursive methods which can be particularly rewarding in multi-client settings. Through the examples that make up the text, practitioners and researchers become better acquainted with the power of qualitative perspectives and are encouraged to examine their own views on therapy as they consider these and other concepts: The development of dialogical space in a couple therapy session. Introducing novelties into therapeutic dialogue: the importance of minor shifts of the therapist. Therapists' responses for enhancing change through dialogue: dialogical investigations of change. Fostering dialogue: exploring the therapists' discursive contributions in a couple therapy. Dominant story, power, and positioning. Constructing the moral order of a relationship in couples therapy. Research Perspectives in Couple Therapy: Discursive Qualitative Methods ably demonstrates the balance between therapeutic art and science for family and couples therapists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals in research and practice.

Written from both the librarian's and scientist's point of view, this book is a comprehensive guide to conducting searches of scientific, agricultural, and technological literature. The beginning user will find the work a valuable introduction to search and retrieval techniques, while the experienced user will welcome the volume's overview of the most recent methods and strategies. Because the library is no longer the only place where a researcher may conduct literature searches, this revised edition gives extensive attention to electronic searches from remote sites, such as computers at the home or office.

Searching for information is changing from the traditional library setting to the remote environment. Written from both the librarian's and scientist's perspectives, this comprehensive guide overviews fundamental and advanced methods of conducting scientific, technological, and agricultural literature searches from libraries and remote sites, such as computers at the home or office. Beginners will find this book a useful introduction to search and retrieval techniques. At the same time, the computerization of libraries has been so rapid that the experienced researcher will also benefit from this work.

The first part of the book overviews and discusses available information sources. The second and third parts examine ways of finding these information sources in the library, and techniques of searching and retrieving this information via computer from outside the library. The volume explains the pathway of information in literature, methods of identifying and citing literature, the usefulness of the online catalog, the special features of abstracts and indexes, the nature of online searching, and the significance of the Internet to users in scientific and research environments. The final chapter gives special attention to the electronic library and the World Wide Web. A concise bibliography directs the reader to some of the most important aids for literature searching.

Nowadays statistical surveys represent an important source of scientific knowledge and a consolidated decision support tool in many fields of applications: from social sciences to economics, marketing, medicine, political science, etc. Most of the methodological issues concerning statistical surveys have been investigated by scientists so that the scientific literature offers a plenty of excellent references concerning all the required steps for planning and realizing them. Nevertheless, facing real problems through statistical surveys often requires looking for operative solutions deviating from the consolidated methodology or choosing through several options. The book will focus on theory and applications of statistical surveys, providing remarks and innovative solutions to face problems in survey practice. Topics covered in the book will include all the main issues regarding a planning of a statistical survey: data collection, sampling scheme, questionnaire definition, estimation. A good balance between formal rigor and clarity will allow the book be aimed to practitioners involved in applied research but also to academics interested in recent scientific developments in the field.

This book offers practical advice on designing, conducting and analyzing interviews with 'elite' and 'expert' persons (or 'socially prominent actors'), with a focus on criminology and criminal justice. It offers dilemmas and examples of 'good' and 'bad' practices in order to encourage readers to critically asses their own work. It also addresses methodological issues which include: access, power imbalances, getting past 'corporate answers', considerations of whether or not it is at times acceptable to ask leading questions and whether to enter a discussion with a respondent at all. This book will be valuable to students and scholars conducting qualitative research.

This proceedings volume highlights the latest research and developments in psychometrics and statistics. It represents selected and peer-reviewed presentations given at the 85th Annual International Meeting of the Psychometric Society (IMPS), held virtually on July 13-17, 2020. The IMPS is one of the largest international meetings on quantitative measurement in education, psychology and the social sciences. It draws approximately 500 participants from around the world, featuring paper and poster presentations, symposiums, workshops, keynotes, and invited presentations. Leading experts and promising young researchers have written the included chapters. The chapters address a wide variety of topics including but not limited to item response theory, adaptive testing, Bayesian estimation, propensity scores, and cognitive diagnostic models. This volume is the 9th in a series of recent works to cover research presented at the IMPS.

This book focuses on the use of the Rasch measurement model in validation studies and in analyzing the psychometric properties of a variety of test instruments, questionnaires, and scales in international contexts. It broadly examines the development and application of Rasch modeling, providing in-depth analyses of the properties of various scales used in the fields of education, and humanities and social sciences research. The book includes exemplary works on educational research and practices that highlight recent and innovative applications, as well as theoretical and practical aspects of Rasch modeling. Readers will find it helpful to understand the latest approaches to Rasch measurement in educational research, as well as practices for future studies and quantitative research. 'This book provides a diverse set of perspectives on Rasch models from scholars across the globe. The volume is both theoretical and applied. The first section of the book provides an overview of Rasch modeling and explains the theoretical and conceptual framework underlying the Rasch model. The remainder of the book highlights multiple applications of the Rasch model within educational assessment as well as several examples of how Rasch modeling can be used for validation studies. This volume showcases the wide variety of ways in which Rasch modeling can be applied to assessment data to provide insights into students' achievement and learning and to improve instruction.'-Betsy McCoach, University of Connecticut, USA. 'A well-written collection of articles. Grouped by the theoretical and applied aspects of Rasch measurement, each chapter in this edited volume makes notable contributions to knowledge and practice. Written by leading scholars in the field, these chapters were written in a clear, succinct, and assertive manner, providing readers with up-to-date information, analyses, and debates. This book should be found in the core collection of emerging researchers and established scholars in educational measurement.'-Timothy Teo, Murdoch University, Australia.

The new edition of the best-selling text, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, continues the pioneering tradition of providing clear and concise instruction for understanding research and developing proposals for all three approaches. John W. Creswell and co-author J. David Creswell include a preliminary consideration of philosophical assumptions, a review of the literature, an assessment of the use of theory in research approaches, and reflections about the importance of writing and ethics in scholarly inquiry in a way that is applicable to all types of research. Key elements of the research process, giving specific attention to each approach. The book has been lauded for its language and tone, which are both accessible and inviting. It is a text that students keep and continue to use as a resource throughout their studies, once the specific class is over. The Sixth Edition includes more coverage of community-based participatory research, comparisons of qualitative and quantitative research, an expanded glossary with basic terms, updated examples of social, behavioral, and health research, new coverage of ethical requirements, updated APA 7th edition coverage, and additional exercises aimed at research projects.

China Urban Statistics 1988 is an important reference book for understanding and studying economic and social conditions in Chinese cities. This is an annual publication presenting data on economic development in 382 Chinese cities. The data in the 1988 edition are figures for 1987. There were 381 cities in China at the end of 1987. However, since the cities of Huangshan and Tunxi in Anhui Province maintained separate statistical reports in 1987 after the administration of these two cities was merged, there are a total of 382 cities included in this book. Data presented in this volume include a survey of population, surface area, agricultural and industrial production, transportation and telecommunications, urban development, trade and commerce, education and culture, public health, labor, and public finance. China Urban Statistics 1988 is a revised and improved English language edition of the official China Statistical Abstract compiled by the State Statistical Bureau of the People's Republic of China (SSB). The English Language Editorial Board was responsible for the translation and annotation of this volume. The English Language Editorial Board is composed of representatives of the China Statistical Information and Consultancy Service Center, an affiliate of the SSB, and the China Statistics Archives, a research center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This is the sixth volume in a series of statistical annuals. The volumes so far published are China Statistical Abstract 1988, China Social Statistics 1986, China Trade and Prices Statistics 1988, China Rural Statistics 1988 and China Statistical Abstract 1989.

Through an examination of three wooden boat workshops on the East coast of the United States, this volume explores how craftspeople interpret their tools and materials during work, and how such perception fits into a holistic conception of practical skill. The author bases his findings on first-person fieldwork as a boat builder's apprentice, during which he recorded his changing sensory experience as he learned the basics of the trade. The book reveals how experience in the workshop allows craftspeople to draw new meaning from their senses, constituting meaningful objects through perception that are invisible to the casual observer. Ultimately, the author argues that this kind of perceptual understanding demonstrates a fundamental mode of human cognition, an intelligence frequently overlooked within contemporary education.

What constitutes a causal explanation, and must an explanation be causal? What warrants a causal inference, as opposed to a descriptive regularity? What techniques are available to detect when causal effects are present, and when can these techniques be used to identify the relative importance of these effects? What complications do the interactions of individuals create for these techniques? When can mixed methods of analysis be used to deepen causal accounts? Must causal claims include generative mechanisms, and how effective are empirical methods designed to discover them? The Handbook of Causal Analysis for Social Research tackles these questions with nineteen chapters from leading scholars in sociology, statistics, public health, computer science, and human development.

"Social Simulation for a Digital Society" provides a cross-section of state-of-the-art research in social simulation and computational social science. With the availability of big data and faster computing power, the social sciences are undergoing a tremendous transformation. Research in computational social sciences has received considerable attention in the last few years, with advances in a wide range of methodologies and applications. Areas of application of computational methods range from the study of opinion and information dynamics in social networks, the formal modeling of resource use, the study of social conflict and cooperation to the development of cognitive models for social simulation and many more. This volume is based on the Social Simulation Conference of 2017 in Dublin and includes applications from across the social sciences, providing the reader with a demonstration of the highly versatile research in social simulation, with a particular focus on public policy relevance in a digital society. Chapters in the book include contributions to the methodology of simulation-based research, theoretical and philosophical considerations, as well as applied work. This book will appeal to students and researchers in the field.

Putting the anthropological imagination under the spotlight, this book represents the experience of three generations of researchers, each of whom have long collaborated with the same Indigenous community over the course of their careers. In the context of a remote Indigenous Australian community in northern Australia, these researchers-anthropologists, an archeologist, a literary scholar, and an artist-encounter reflexivity and ethnographic practice through deeply personal and professionally revealing accounts of anthropological consciousness, relational encounters, and knowledge sharing. In six discrete chapters, the authors reveal the complexities that run through these relationships, considering how any one of us builds knowledge, shares knowledge, how we encounter different and new knowledge, and how well we are positioned to understand the lived experiences of others, whilst making ourselves fully available to personal change. At its core, this anthology is a meditation on learning and friendship across cultures.

This book presents a series of analyses of educational policies - largely in the UK, but some also in Europe - researched by a team of social scientists who share a commitment to social justice and equity in education. We explore what social justice means, in educational policy and practice, and how it impacts on our understanding of both 'educational science' and 'the public good'. Using a social constructivist approach, the book argues that social justice requires a particular and critical analysis of the meaning of meritocracy, and of the way this term turns educational policies towards treating learning as a competition, in which many young people are constructed as 'losers'. We discuss how many terms in education are essentialised and have specific, and different, meanings for particular social groups, and how this may create issues in both quantitative survey methods and in determining what is 'the public good'. We discuss social justice across a range of intersecting social characteristics, including social class, ethnicity and gender, as they are applied across the educational policy spectrum, from early years to postgraduate education. We examine the ways that young people construct their identities, and the implications of this for understanding the 'public good' in educational practice. We consider the responsibilities of educational researchers to acknowledge these issues, and offer examples of researching with such a commitment. We conclude by considering how educational policy might contribute to a socially just, equitable and inclusive public good.

This book offers a unified treatment of my research in the foundations of expected utility theory from around 1965 to 1980. While parts are new, the presentation draws heavily on published articles and a few chapters in my 1970 monograph on utility theory. The diverse notations and styles of the sources have of course been reconciled here, and their topics arranged in a logical sequence. The two parts of the book take their respective cues from the von Neumann-Morgenstern axiomatization of preferences between risky options and from Savage's foundational treatment of decision making under uncertainty. Both parts are studies in the axiomatics of preferences for decision situations and in numerical representations for preferences. Proofs of the representation and uniqueness theorems appear at the ends of the chapters so as not to impede the flow of the discussion. A few warnings on notation are in order. The numbers for theorems cited within a chapter have no prefix if they appear in that chapter, but otherwise carry a chapter prefix (Theorem 3.2 is Theorem 2 in Chapter 3). All lower case Greek letters refer to numbers in the closed interval from o to 1. The same symbol in different chapters has essentially the same meaning with one major exception: x, y, ... mean quite different things in different chapters. I am indebted to many people for their help and encouragement.

The Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews on a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of research findings on a selected topic, critiques the research literature in terms of its conceptual and methodological rigor, and sets forth an agenda for future research intended to advance knowledge on the chosen topic.

This book introduces readers to the latest advances in and approaches to intuitionistic fuzzy decision-making methods. To do so, it explores a range of applications to practical decision-making problems, together with representative case studies. Examining a host of decision-making methods, most of which are based on intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operators, its goal is to offer readers a new way to study decision-making methods in the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. Chiefly intended for practitioners and researchers working in the areas of risk management, decision-making under uncertainty, and operational research, the book can also be used as supplementary material for graduate and senior undergraduate courses in these areas.

The intention behind this book is to illustrate the deep relation among human behavior, data-centric science, and social design. In fact, these three issues have been independently developing in different fields, although they are, of course, deeply interrelated to one another. Specifically, fundamental understanding of human behavior should be employed for investigating our human society and designing social systems. Insights and both quantitative and qualitative understandings of collective human behavior are quite useful when social systems are designed. Fundamental principles of human behavior, theoretical models of human behavior, and information cascades are addressed as aspects of human behavior. Data-driven investigation of human nature, social behavior, and societal systems are developed as aspects of data-centric science. As design aspects, how to design social systems from heterogeneous memberships is explained. There is also discussion of these three aspects-human behavior, data-centric science, and social design-independently and with regard to the relationships among them.

This book covers the essential concepts and strategies within traditional and cutting-edge feature learning methods thru both theoretical analysis and case studies. Good features give good models and it is usually not classifiers but features that determine the effectiveness of a model. In this book, readers can find not only traditional feature learning methods, such as principal component analysis, linear discriminant analysis, and geometrical-structure-based methods, but also advanced feature learning methods, such as sparse learning, low-rank decomposition, tensor-based feature extraction, and deep-learning-based feature learning. Each feature learning method has its own dedicated chapter that explains how it is theoretically derived and shows how it is implemented for real-world applications. Detailed illustrated figures are included for better understanding. This book can be used by students, researchers, and engineers looking for a reference guide for popular methods of feature learning and machine intelligence.

This book gathers together novel essays on the state-of-the-art research into the logic and practice of abduction. In many ways, abduction has become established and essential to several fields, such as logic, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, philosophy of science, and methodology. In recent years this interest in abduction's many aspects and functions has accelerated. There are evidently several different interpretations and uses for abduction. Many fundamental questions on abduction remain open. How is abduction manifested in human cognition and intelligence? What kinds or types of abduction can be discerned? What is the role for abduction in inquiry and mathematical discovery? The chapters aim at providing answer to these and other current questions. Their contributors have been at the forefront of discussions on abduction, and offer here their updated approaches to the issues that they consider central to abduction's contemporary relevance. The book is an essential reading for any scholar or professional keeping up with disciplines impacted by the study of abductive reasoning, and its novel development and applications in various fields.