The book is based on the recently held Symposium on mathematics and its connections to the arts and sciences, namely the second Mathematics and its Connections to the Arts and Sciences (MACAS2)Symposium in Odense, Denmark (May 29-31, 2007). The chapters are an eclectic collection of interdisciplinary research initiatives undertaken by mathematics educators with implications for practitioners concerned with teaching and learning processes. The papers cover a wide genre of research domains within mathematics education (cognition, modelling, problem solving, teacher education, ethnomathematics, mathematical/statistical literacy, curricular and technological initiatives and research related to science education). The major interdisciplinary themes of the papers in this book are: 1. How can modelling activities be used to foster interdisciplinary projects in the school and university setting? 2. How can the intricate connections between mathematics and physics be used to design and research interdisciplinary activities in schools and the university? 3. How can research within the ethnomathematics domain of mathematics education be linked to critical mathematics education and interdisciplinary projects involving mathematics, art and culture? 4. How can the push for mathematical and statistical literacy be connected to other subjects in the school curricula and emphasized via interdisciplinary activities? 5. What are concrete examples of classroom experiments with empirical data that demonstrate new and unusual connections/relations between mathematics, arts and the sciences with implications for pedagogy? 6. What is the role of technology and new ICT interfaces in linking communities of learners in interdisciplinary activities involving problem solving? The book is an important contribution to the literature on educational initiatives in interdisciplinary education increasing vital for emerging professions of the 21st century.

In a time of changing technology and cultural shifts, it is difficult to measure some aspects of the workforce. Education and the American Workforce brings together a comprehensive collection of employment and education information from federal statistical agencies. The Census Bureau is the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy. Together, these agencies produce a wealth of information about the American workforce. This book includes information about the jobs that people hold, the occupations that they pursue, the industries where they work, and the education levels that people have attained. In addition to tables, each section also includes relevant figures and highlights of notable data. Some examples of interesting data found inside Education and the American Workforce include: *With no formal educational requirement and a median salary of $22,680, 4.5 million people are employed as retail salespersons, the most of any single occupation. Cashiers and food preparation/serving workers account for another 3.5 million each. There are 2.9 million registered nurses, the most numerous of occupations that require a bachelor's degree. *The biggest numeric decline is expected for Postal Service mail carriers, dropping by about 78,000 in ten years. When combined with other Postal Service occupations-such as clerks, sorters, postmasters, and others-a decline of 140,000 jobs is expected for the Postal Service. *Among the 75 largest counties, Bronx County, NY had the highest number of residents age 25 and over with less than a high school diploma at 29.4 percent while Montgomery County, PA had the lowest percentage at 6.2 percent. *Meanwhile, New York County, NY and Fairfax County, VA had the highest percentage of residents with a bachelor's degree or higher at 59.9 percent followed by Montgomery County, MD at 57.9 percent among the 75 largest counties. Nationally, between 2011 and 2015, 29.8 percent of the population had a bachelor's degree or higher.

The main purpose of this book is not only to present recent studies and advances in the field of social science research, but also to stimulate discussion on related practical issues concerning statistics, mathematics, and economics. Accordingly, a broad range of tools and techniques that can be used to solve problems on these topics are presented in detail in this book, which offers an ideal reference work for all researchers interested in effective quantitative and qualitative tools. The content is divided into three major sections. The first, which is titled "Social work", collects papers on problems related to the social sciences, e.g. social cohesion, health, and digital technologies. Papers in the second part, "Education and teaching issues," address qualitative aspects, education, learning, violence, diversity, disability, and ageing, while the book's final part, "Recent trends in qualitative and quantitative models for socio-economic systems and social work", features contributions on both qualitative and quantitative issues. The book is based on a scientific collaboration, in the social sciences, mathematics, statistics, and economics, among experts from the "Pablo de Olavide" University of Seville (Spain), the "University of Defence" of Brno (Czech Republic), the "G. D'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) and "Alexandru Ioan Cuza University" of Iasi (Romania). The contributions, which have been selected using a peer-review process, examine a wide variety of topics related to the social sciences in general, while also highlighting new and intriguing empirical research conducted in various countries. Given its scope, the book will appeal, in equal measure, to sociologists, mathematicians, statisticians and philosophers, and more generally to scholars and specialists in related fields.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This Advanced Introduction provides a critical review and discussion of research concerning spatial statistics, differentiating between it and spatial econometrics, to answer a set of core questions covering the geographic-tagging-of-data origins of the concept and its theoretical underpinnings, conceptual advances, and challenges for future scholarly work. It offers a vital tool for understanding spatial statistics and surveys how concerns about violating the independent observations assumption of statistical analysis developed into this discipline. Key Features: A concise overview of spatial statistics theory and methods, looking at parallel developments in geostatistics and spatial econometrics, highlighting the eclipsing of centography and point pattern analysis by geostatistics and spatial autoregression, and the emergence of local analysis Contemporary descriptions of popular geospatial random variables, emphasizing one- and two-parameter spatial autoregression specifications, and Moran eigenvector spatial filtering coupled with a broad coverage of statistical estimation techniques A detailed articulation of a spatial statistical workflow conceptualization The helpful insights from empirical applications of spatial statistics in agronomy, criminology, demography, economics, epidemiology, geography, remotely sensed data, urban studies, and zoology/botany, will make this book a useful tool for upper-level students in these disciplines.

While many facets of our lives are rapidly becoming more digital, educational institutions are now faced with the task of finding new and innovative ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. Examining the latest trends in digital tools provides a more effective learning environment for future generations. The Handbook of Research on Digital Content, Mobile Learning, and Technology Integration Models in Teacher Education is a pivotal scholarly reference source that outlines the most efficient ways for educators to employ technology-enhanced lesson plans in their classroom. Featuring pertinent topics that include blended learning environments, student engagement, artificial intelligence, and learner-centered pedagogy, this is an ideal resource for educators, aspiring teachers, and researchers that are interested in discovering recent trends and techniques related to digital learning environments and technology-enhanced classrooms.

This book provides an in-depth view on Bourdieu's empirical work, thereby specially focusing on the construction of the social space and including the concept of the habitus. Themes described in the book include amongst others: * the theory and methodology for the construction of "social spaces", * the relation between various "fields" and "the field of power", * formal construction and empirical observation of habitus, * the formation, accumulation, differentiation of and conversion between different forms of capital, * relations in geometric data analysis. The book also includes contributions regarding particular applications of Bourdieu's methodology to traditional and new areas of research, such as the analysis of institutional, international and transnational fields. It further provides a systematic introduction into the empirical construction of the social space.

A volume in Adult Education Special Topics: Theory, Research, and Practice in Lifelong Learning Series Editor: Kathleen P. King, Fordham University Case studies have become a widely-used instructional tool in many educational environments. The use of case studies began in the 1950s at Harvard Business School. Today, they may be used as part of a course of study, or as the main focus of a course, to which other material is added. While the use of case studies is prevalent in schools of business and medicine, they are not often used in adult education or human resource development. This may be because there are no current major publications that deal with the use of case studies in these disciplines; nor are there any major databases of adult education or human resource development case studies for instructors to use. Good case studies can bring reality into the classroom. They can provide frameworks for discussion based on issues that must be faced in real life. Complex case issues can be broken down and examined for greater understanding, then pulled together again for resolution. Case studies can be used successfully in adult education. I propose a book based on the use of case-based learning in adult education and human resource development (HRD). The book could be positioned as a supplement to course textbooks for courses in adult education and HRD. I would write the cases and develop the exercises, but could also get others to contribute a case study or exercise to the book. Cases would each be a half-page to maybe 2-3 pages at the long end, and would include questions for students/readers. Supplementary information (possibly in the form of a DVD) could be put together for instructors. This information would include case study focal points and examples of possible responses for each study/exercise.

Organizations of all kinds struggle to understand, adapt, respond and manipulate changing conditions in their internal and external environments. Approaches based on the causal, linear logic of mechanistic sciences and engineering continue to play an important role, given people's ability to create order. But such approaches are valid only within carefully circumscribed boundaries. They become counterproductive when the same organizations display the highly reflexive, context-dependent, dynamic nature of systems in which agents learn and adapt and new patterns emerge. The rapidly expanding discussion about complex systems offers important contributions to the integration of diverse perspectives and ultimately new insights into organizational effectiveness. There is increasing interest in complexity in mainstream business education, as well as in specialist business disciplines such as knowledge management. Real world systems can't be completely designed, controlled, understood or predicted, even by the so-called sciences of complexity, but they can be more effective when understood as complex systems. While many scientific disciplines explore complexity principally through abstract mathematical models and simulations, Emergence: Complexity & Organization explores the emerging understanding of human systems from both the 'hard' quantitative sciences and the the 'soft' qualitative perspectives. This 2006 Annual includes articles from Elizabeth McMillan, Daniel Solow, Kathleen Carley, Paul Cilliers, Ysanne Carlisle, James Hazy, and many more, which explore a range of complexity-related topics from philosophical concerns through to the practical application of complexity ideas, concepts and frameworks in human organizations. Also included are a series of three reproductions of classical papers in the fields of complexity and systems, each with critical introductions that explore their modern relevance: "The Philosophic Functions of Emergence" by Charles A. Baylis (originally published in 1929); "Novelty, Indeterminism, and Emergence" by W. T. Stace (originally published in 1939); "The Functions of the Executive: The Individual and Organization" by Chester I. Barnard(originally published in 1938).

A volume in Research for Social Justice Personal Passionate Participatory Inquiry (Sponsored by AERA Qualitative Research SIG and International Studies SIG) Series Editors Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University and JoAnn Phillion, Purdue University Series Scope: Research for Social Justice: Personal Passionate Participatory Inquiry, the book series, demonstrates a form of educational inquiry that connects the personal with the political, the theoretical with the practical, and research with social and educational change. The principle aspect of this form of inquiry that distinguishes it from others is that the researcher is not separate from the socio-political and cultural phenomena of the inquiry, the data collected, findings, interpretations, or writing. The purpose of the proposed book series is to draw together work which demonstrates three distinct qualities: personal passionate participatory with explicit research agendas that focus on equity, equality, and social justice, specific research methodologies that illustrate the participatory process of the inquiries, and positive social and educational change engendered by the inquiries. Scope of the Book: Personal Passionate Participatory Inquiry into Social Justice in Education, the first book in the series, features 14 programs of social justice oriented research on life in schools, families, and communities. This work, done by a diverse group of practitioner researchers, educators, and scholars, connects the personal with the political, the theoretical with the practical, and research with social and educational change. These inquiries demonstrate three distinct qualities. Each is personal, compelled by values and experiences researchers bring to the work. Each is passionate, grounded in a commitment to social justice concerns of people and places under consideration. Each is participatory, built on long-term, heart-felt engagement, and shared efforts. The principle aspect of the inquiries featured in the book series that distinguish it from others is that researchers are not detached observers, nor putatively objective recorders, but active participants in schools, families, and communities. Researchers have explicit research agendas that focus on equity, equality, and social justice. Rather than aiming solely at traditional educational research outcomes, positive social and educational change is the focal outcome of inquiry. The researchers are diverse and their inquiries are far ranging in terms of content, people and geographic locations studied. These studies reflect new and exciting ways of researching and representing experience of the disenfranchised, underrepresented, and invisible groups seldom discussed in the literature, and challenge stereotypical or deficit oriented perspectives on these groups. This book informs pre-service and in-service teachers, educators, educational researchers, administrators, and educational policy makers, particularly those who advocate for people who are marginalized and those who are committed to the enactment of social justice and positive educational and social change.

The book focuses on the state of education and on the levels of inequality among gender, rural-urban and social groups. Taking into account the various findings from existing literature on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of education, it uses empirical findings based on a revised methodology to draw new conclusions. This revised method was devised to define the size of population eligible for enrollment and was then employed to estimate the Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) and Gross Literacy Rate (GLR) at various completed education levels, using age-wise data from the Population Census, 2011. This methodology is based on the concept that among those eligible for enrollment/literacy, a few never get chance to enrol and others achieve various levels of literacy by remaining engaged in formal or informal education up to various ages. The book comes up with findings that have deep significance so far as policy making is concerned towards improving the state of education in India. There are fourteen hypotheses that the book proposes based on the study and each hypothesis is accompanied with policy suggestions. Interestingly, one of the hypotheses is that arbitrariness of government policies creates more problems and, as such, before proposing a policy change the government needs to put in more effort and time in planning and come up with carefully chalked out processes. In addition to being a valuable resource for researchers working in this area, the book has huge policy implications and think tanks working towards improving education in India.

For anyone interested in Northern Ireland, it's history, it's culture, it's music.... finally here comes a book that offers a new approach into understanding the complex diversity that has shaped Northern Irish society and its people during the times of the Troubles and beyond. Like poems, songs, in their own right, should be recognised as historical documents. From Mickey McConnells Only our Rivers Run Free and Phil Coulter The Town I loved so Well to Tommy Sands There Were Roses - political & social developments inspired Northern Irish poets and songwriters alike. By incorporating a great amount of background information on the artists mentioned above and resulting from personal interviews with the author a very unique insight into the history of Northern Ireland is given. In addition, the vast amount of songs written from an outsiders perspective and in particular in the Rock and Popmusic Genre such as Paul McCartney's Give Ireland back to the Irish, John Lennon's Sunday, Bloody Sunday to James Taylor's Belfast to Boston and Katie Melua's Belfast, also required appropriate recognition. Together, all these songs compiled and discussed in this book will provide the reader with a better understanding of Northern Ireland's history, its society, its people past and present. Whether it is for further academic research or simply used as reference material for anyone interested in Irish Music and Songs about and from Northern Ireland, this book will remain an essential guide and reference book in years to come.

While becoming a parent is relatively easy, parenting is a skill that is learned and improved over a lifetime. This reference book provides a comprehensive summary of what we know about parents and parent-child relationships. Through more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries, the volume synthesizes the present state of research on parenting. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and represents an authoritative view on a particular topic. Entries are related to child activity, child outcomes, child states, parent behaviors, parental situations, external and community concerns, systemic issues, the transition to parenthood, available resources, and various persons who have shaped our knowledge of parenting. The entries draw on information from a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, education, and sociology. Each entry includes a brief bibliography, and the volume closes with a selected list of works for further reading. The word parent is most often used to refer to a biological relationship with a child. But the word parent, like mother and father, can also invoke acts of caring, nurturing, and protecting. When we say, That child needs a father, we imply that the child needs a relationship with a man capable of fathering. This emphasizes a social and emotional relationship, not merely a biological one. Parenting means assuming responsibility for the long-term care of a child. Becoming a parent is relatively easy. But parenting is a skill that is learned and improved over a lifetime. Moreover, parenting is a skill that becomes more complex in response to the demands of a changing society. Some elements of successful parenting are relatively abstract and seem to remain fairly constant across different generations. But with the rise of new social problems and the proliferation of various threats to the integrity of the nuclear family, the parenting strategies of a generation ago are not necessarily effective today. Parenting has also received growing amounts of attention from researchers, and what was once considered chiefly an art is now also recognized for being a science. Our knowledge of parenting has increased significantly in the last few decades, and new developments continue to be made daily. This reference book provides a comprehensive summary of what we know about parents and the parent-child relationship. Through more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries, the volume synthesizes the present state of research on parenting. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and provides an authoritative overview of a particular topic. Entries are related to child activity, child outcomes, child states, parent behaviors, parental situations, external and community factors, systemic concerns, the transition to parenthood, available resources, and a number of persons who have added to our knowledge of the field. The entries draw on a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, education, and sociology. Each entry closes with a brief bibliography, and the volume concludes with a selected list of works for further reading.

Over the past decade, the world has experienced a major economic collapse, the increasing racial inequity and high-profile police killings of unarmed Black and Brown people, the persistence of global terrorism, a large-scale refugee crisis, and the negative impacts of global warming. In reaction to social instability, there are growing populist movements in the United States and across the world, which present major challenges for democracy. Concurrently, there has been a rise of grassroots political movements focused on increasing equity in relation to race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and religion. The role of social studies teachers in preparing the next generation of democratic citizens has never been more important, and the call for more social studies teacher educators to help teachers address these critical issues only gets louder. This volume examines how teacher educators are (or are not) supporting beginning and experienced social studies teachers in such turbulent times, and it offers suggestions for moving the field forward by better educating teachers to address growing local, national, and global concerns. In their chapters, authors in social studies education present research with implications for practice related to the following topics: race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration, religion, disciplinary literacy, global civics, and social justice. This book is guided by the following overarching questions: What can the research tell us about preparing and developing social studies teachers for an increasingly complex, interconnected, and rapidly changing world? How can we educate social studies teachers to "teach against the grain" (Cochran-Smith, 1991, 2001b), centering their work on social justice, social change, and social responsibility?

Providing a clear explanation of the fundamental theory of time series analysis and forecasting, this book couples theory with applications of two popular statistical packages--SAS and SPSS. The text examines moving average, exponential smoothing, Census X-11 deseasonalization, ARIMA, intervention, transfer function, and autoregressive error models and has brief discussions of ARCH and GARCH models. The book features treatments of forecast improvement with regression and autoregression combination models and model and forecast evaluation, along with a sample size analysis for common time series models to attain adequate statistical power. To enhance the book's value as a teaching tool, the data sets and programs used in the book are made available on the Academic Press Web site. The careful linkage of the theoretical constructs with the practical considerations involved in utilizing the statistical packages makes it easy for the user to properly apply these techniques.
Key Features
* Describes principal approaches to time series analysis and forecasting
* Presents examples from public opinion research, policy analysis, political science, economics, and sociology
* Free Web site contains the data used in most chapters, facilitating learning
* Math level pitched to general social science usage
* Glossary makes the material accessible for readers at all levels

A volume in Critical Concerns in Blindness Series Editor Edward C. Bell, Louisiana Tech University All parents hope for an independent future for their blind/visually impaired child. To turn that hope into a reality, parents need to understand the scope of skill development that must be addressed, along with the importance of equal expectations for the child's development, proper training, and opportunity to practice and develop skills. But what if expectations are low, training in blindness skills is scanty or even absent, and overprotection prevents the blind/VI child from learning and practicing skills? The idea of an independent future can remain a distant dream. The purpose of this book is to guide parents and teachers in fostering the blind/visually impaired child's skill development in such critical areas as academics, independent movement and travel, social interaction, daily living, and self-advocacy, so that he or she will truly be on the road to an independent future. A practical, easy to use guide, written in plain English, the book warns about common problem areas and provides ideas for getting and keeping the child's education and development on track. It highlights the interplay between skills and competence, confidence, self-respect, and the respect of others. Of the small number of books and videos available on the subject, most were written by professionals in the field and many begin with the supposition that blindness is at best sad and at worst tragic. Few --maybe none --have the ardent passion for independence that the parent of a blind/visually impaired child brings to the subject. Instead of overwhelming parents and teachers with the difficulty of the undertaking before them, Getting Ready for College Begins in Third Grade will inspire their confidence and enthusiasm for the task at hand.

The objective of this book is to quantify the social costs of gun violence in order to help policy makers determine how many and which violence programmes to support. Drawing upon the most detailed and extensive economic study of the cost of gun violence, Cook and Ludwig provide detailed information about how the burden of gun violence is distributed in the US. Drawing upon this data, the book draws out the important implications for public policy. The burden of gun violence in America is valued at about $100 billion annually, and this heavy cost is distributed much more evenly over the population than the victimization statistics would suggest. Cook and Ludwig's examination of these costs lead them to propose a multifaceted policy agenda that includes both law enforcement and gun control measures.

This book brings together carefully selected, peer-reviewed works on mathematical biology presented at the BIOMAT International Symposium on Mathematical and Computational Biology, which was held at the Institute of Numerical Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences, in October 2017, in Moscow. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, the evolution of spatial patterns on metapopulations, problems related to cardiovascular diseases and modeled by boundary control techniques in hemodynamics, algebraic modeling of the genetic code, and multi-step biochemical pathways. Also, new results are presented on topics like pattern recognition of probability distribution of amino acids, somitogenesis through reaction-diffusion models, mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, and many others. Experts, scientific practitioners, graduate students and professionals working in various interdisciplinary fields will find this book a rich resource for research and applications alike.

Statistical Design-Chemometrics is applicable to researchers and professionals who wish to perform experiments in chemometrics and carry out analysis of the data in the most efficient way possible. The language is clear, direct and oriented towards real applications. The book provides 106 exercises with answers to accompany the study of theoretical principles. Forty two cases studies with real data are presented showing designs and the complete statistical analyses for problems in the areas chromatography, electroanalytical and electrochemistry, calibration, polymers, gas adsorption, semiconductors, food technology, biotechnology, photochemistry, catalysis, detergents and ceramics. These studies serve as a guide that the reader can use to perform correct data analyses.
-Provides 42 case studies containing step-by-step descriptions of calculational procedures that can be applied to most real optimization problems
-Contains 106 theoretical exercises to test individual learning and to provide classroom exercises and material for written tests and exams
-Written in a language that facilitates learning for physical and biological scientists and engineers
-Takes a practical approach for those involved in industrial optimization problems

This book discusses the question of whether legal interpretation is a scientific activity. The law's dependency on language, at least for the usual communication purposes, not only makes legal interpretation the main task performed by those whose work involves the law, but also an unavoidable step in the process of resolving a legal case. This task of decoding the words and sentences used by normative authorities while enacting norms, carried out in compliance with the principles and rules of the natural language adopted, is prone to all of the difficulties stemming from the uncertainty intrinsic to all linguistic conventions. In this context, seeking to determine whether legal interpretation can be scientific or, in other words, can comply with the requirements for scientific knowledge, becomes a central question. In fact, the coherent application of the law depends on a knowledge regarding the meaning of normative sentences that can be classified (at least) as being structured, systematically organized and tendentially objective. Accordingly, this book focuses on analyzing precisely these problems; its respective contributions offer a range of revealing perspectives on both the problems and their ramifications.