With the constant evolution of change in healthcare from both a technology and governmental perspective, it is imperative to take a step back and view the big picture. Relying on hunches or beliefs is no longer sustainable, so avoid jumping to conclusions and making decisions without thoroughly understanding the statistics being analyzed. The triple aim of statistics is a conceptual model laying the foundation for improving healthcare outcomes through statistics. This foundation is: know your numbers; develop behavioral interventions; and set goals to drive change. With the availability of electronic data sources, the quantity and quality of data have grown exponentially to the point of information overload. Translating all this data into words that tell a meaningful story is overwhelming. This book takes the reader on a journey that navigates through this data to tell a story that everyone can understand and use to drive improvement. Readers will learn to tell a narrative story based on data, to develop creative, innovative and effective solutions to improve processes and outcomes utilizing the authors' tools. Topics include mortality and readmission, patient experience, patient safety survey, governmental initiatives, CMS Star Rating and Hospital Compare. Storytelling with Data in Healthcare combines methodology and statistics in the same course material, making it coherent and easier to put into practice. It uses storytelling as a tool for knowledge acquisition and retention and will be valuable for courses in nursing schools, medical schools, pharmacy schools or any healthcare profession that has a research design or statistics course offered to students. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, healthcare professionals, and students in the fields of healthcare management and operations as well as statistics and data visualization.

Agent-Based Modelling for Criminological Theory Testing and Development addresses the question whether and how we can use simulation methods in order to test criminological theories, and if they fail to be corroborated, how we can use simulation to mend and further develop theories. It is by no means immediately obvious how results being observed in an artificial environment have any relevance for what is going on in the real world. By using the concept of a "stylized fact," the contributors bridge the gap between artificial and real world. With backgrounds in criminology or artificial intelligence (AI), these contributors present agent-based model studies that test aspects of various theories, including crime pattern theory, guardianship in action theory, near repeat theory, routine activity theory, and general deterrence theory. All six simulation models presented have been specially developed for the book. Contributors have specified the theory, identified stylized facts, developed an agent-based simulation model, let it run, and interpreted whether the chosen stylized fact is occurring in their model, and what we should conclude from congruence or incongruence between simulation and expectations based on the theory under scrutiny. The final chapter discusses what can be learnt from these six enterprises. The book will be of great interest to scholars of criminology (in particular computational criminologists and theoretical criminologists) and AI (with an emphasis on AI for generative social processes), and more widely researchers in social science in general. It will also be valuable for master's courses in quantitative criminology.

Critical Autoethnography: Intersecting Cultural Identities in Everyday Life, Second Edition, examines the development of the field of critical autoethnography through the lens of social identity. Contributors situate interpersonal and intercultural experiences of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, citizenship, sexuality, and spirituality within larger systems of power, oppression, and privilege. Approachable and accessible narratives highlight intersectional experiences of marginalization and interrogate social injustices. The book is divided into three sections: Complexities of Identity Performance, Relationships in Diverse Contexts, and Pathways to Culturally Authentic Selves. Each thematic section includes provocative stories that critically engage personal and cultural narratives through a lens of difference. The chapters in the book highlight both unique and ubiquitous, extraordinary and common experiences in the interior lives of people who are Othered because of at least two overlapping identities. The contributors offer first person accounts to suggest critical responses and alternatives to injustice. The book also includes sectional summaries and discussion questions to facilitate dialogue and self-reflection. It is an excellent resource for undergraduate students, graduate students, educators, and scholars who are interested in autoethnography, interpersonal and intercultural communication, qualitative studies, personal narrative, cultural studies, and performance studies.

Traditional approaches focused on significance tests have often been difficult for linguistics researchers to visualise. Statistics in Corpus Linguistics Research: A New Approach breaks these significance tests down for researchers in corpus linguistics and linguistic analysis, promoting a visual approach to understanding the performance of tests with real data, and demonstrating how to derive new intervals and tests. Accessibly written, this book discusses the 'why' behind the statistical model, allowing readers a greater facility for choosing their own methodologies. Accessibly written for those with little to no mathematical or statistical background, it explains the mathematical fundamentals of simple significance tests by relating them to confidence intervals. With sample datasets and easy-to-read visuals, this book focuses on practical issues, such as how to: * pose research questions in terms of choice and constraint; * employ confidence intervals correctly (including in graph plots); * select optimal significance tests (and what results mean); * measure the size of the effect of one variable on another; * estimate the similarity of distribution patterns; and * evaluate whether the results of two experiments significantly differ. Appropriate for anyone from the student just beginning their career to the seasoned researcher, this book is both a practical overview and valuable resource.

Traditional approaches focused on significance tests have often been difficult for linguistics researchers to visualise. Statistics in Corpus Linguistics Research: A New Approach breaks these significance tests down for researchers in corpus linguistics and linguistic analysis, promoting a visual approach to understanding the performance of tests with real data, and demonstrating how to derive new intervals and tests. Accessibly written, this book discusses the 'why' behind the statistical model, allowing readers a greater facility for choosing their own methodologies. Accessibly written for those with little to no mathematical or statistical background, it explains the mathematical fundamentals of simple significance tests by relating them to confidence intervals. With sample datasets and easy-to-read visuals, this book focuses on practical issues, such as how to: * pose research questions in terms of choice and constraint; * employ confidence intervals correctly (including in graph plots); * select optimal significance tests (and what results mean); * measure the size of the effect of one variable on another; * estimate the similarity of distribution patterns; and * evaluate whether the results of two experiments significantly differ. Appropriate for anyone from the student just beginning their career to the seasoned researcher, this book is both a practical overview and valuable resource.

From the time of conception, through the gestation of pregnancy, to the birth of a newborn child exists an extraordinary, emergent ethics. How does this ethics come into being when a child is conceived? How does the appearance of ethics in pregnancy differ from its emergence after birth? How does the original meaning of ethics relate to modern morality in decision making? In this book, Michael van Manen explores these ethical moral complexities and conceptualizations of life's beginnings. He delves into perennial and contemporary aspects of conception, pregnancy, and birth to present ethics as a fundamental phenomenon in the experiential encounter between parent and child. Even in the context of neonatal-perinatal medicine, where all manner of medical technologies and illnesses may potentially complicate the developing relation of parent and child, ethics is always already present yet also enigmatic in its origin. And yet, to approach ethical moral questions, we need to understand the inception of ethics. The Birth of Ethics: Phenomenological Reflections on Life's Beginnings is an essential text not only for health professionals and researchers but also for parents, family members, and others who care and take responsibility for newborns in need of medical care.

From the time of conception, through the gestation of pregnancy, to the birth of a newborn child exists an extraordinary, emergent ethics. How does this ethics come into being when a child is conceived? How does the appearance of ethics in pregnancy differ from its emergence after birth? How does the original meaning of ethics relate to modern morality in decision making? In this book, Michael van Manen explores these ethical moral complexities and conceptualizations of life's beginnings. He delves into perennial and contemporary aspects of conception, pregnancy, and birth to present ethics as a fundamental phenomenon in the experiential encounter between parent and child. Even in the context of neonatal-perinatal medicine, where all manner of medical technologies and illnesses may potentially complicate the developing relation of parent and child, ethics is always already present yet also enigmatic in its origin. And yet, to approach ethical moral questions, we need to understand the inception of ethics. The Birth of Ethics: Phenomenological Reflections on Life's Beginnings is an essential text not only for health professionals and researchers but also for parents, family members, and others who care and take responsibility for newborns in need of medical care.

Scientometrics for the Humanities and Social Sciences is the first ever book on scientometrics that deals with the historical development of both quantitative and qualitative data analysis in scientometric studies. It focuses on its applicability in new and emerging areas of inquiry. This important book presents the inherent potential for data mining and analysis of qualitative data in scientometrics. The author provides select cases of scientometric studies in the humanities and social sciences, explaining their research objectives, sources of data and methodologies. It illustrates how data can be gathered not only from prominent online databases and repositories, but also from journals that are not stored in these databases. With the support of specific examples, the book shows how data on demographic variables can be collected to supplement scientometric data. The book deals with a research methodology which has an increasing applicability not only to the study of science, but also to the study of the disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Age, Period and Cohort Effects: Statistical Analysis and the Identification Problem gives a number of perspectives from top methodologists and applied researchers on the best ways to attempt to answer Age-Period-Cohort related questions about society. Age-Period-Cohort (APC) analysis is a fundamental topic for any quantitative social scientist studying individuals over time. At the same time, it is also one of the most misunderstood and underestimated topics in quantitative methods. As such, this book is key reference material for researchers wanting to know how to deal with APC issues appropriately in their statistical modelling. It deals with the identification problem caused by the co-linearity of the three variables, considers why some currently used methods are problematic and suggests ideas for what applied researchers interested in APC analysis should do. Whilst the perspectives are varied, the book provides a unified view of the subject in a reader-friendly way that will be accessible to social scientists with a moderate level of quantitative understanding, across the social and health sciences.

Wayfinding and Critical Autoethnography is the first critical autoethnography compilation from the global south, bringing together indigenous, non-indigenous, Pasifika, and other diverse voices which expand established understandings of autoethnography as a critical, creative methodology. The book centres around the traditional practice of 'wayfinding' as a Pacific indigenous way of being and knowing, and this volume manifests traditional knowledges, genealogies, and intercultural activist voices through critical autoethnography. The chapters in the collection reflect critical autoethnographic journeys that explore key issues such as space/place belonging, decolonizing the academy, institutional racism, neoliberalism, gender inequity, activism, and education reform. This book will be a valuable teaching and research resource for researchers and students in a wide range of disciplines and contexts. For those interested in expanding their cultural, personal, and scholarly knowledge of the global south, this volume foregrounds the vast array of traditional knowledges and the ways in which they are changing academic spaces and knowledge creation through braiding old and new. This volume is unique and timely in its ability to highlight the ways in which indigenous and allied voices from the diverse global south demonstrate the ways in which the onto-epistemologies of diverse cultures, and the work of critical autoethnography, function as parallel, and mutually informing, projects.

This innovative volume showcases the possibilities of autoethnography as a means of exploring the complexities of transnational identity construction for learners, teachers, and practitioners in English language teaching (ELT). // The book unpacks the dynamics of today's landscape of language education which sees practitioners and students with nuanced personal and professional histories inhabit liminal spaces as they traverse national, cultural, linguistic, ideological, and political borders, thereby impacting their identity construction and engagement with pedagogies and practices across different educational domains. The volume draws on solo and collaborative autoethnographies of transnational language practitioners to question such well-established ELT binaries such as 'center'/'periphery' and 'native'/non-native' and issues of identity-related concepts such as ideologies, discourses, agency, and self-reflexibility. In so doing, the book also underscores the unique affordances of autoethnography as a methodological tool for better understanding transnational identity construction in ELT and bringing to the fore key perspectives in emerging areas of study within applied linguistics. // This dynamic collection will appeal to students, scholars, and practitioners in English language teaching, applied linguistics, TESOL education, educational linguistics, and sociolinguistics.

This is the book that discusses the up-and-coming blockchain technology in a structured way from the conceptual, technological and business perspectives, thereby providing the integrated insight that is essential for truly understanding blockchain applications and their impact. While most people may know about blockchain from Bitcoin and news about its price in the financial markets, blockchain is a technology that increasingly permeates the way in which modern businesses operate. However, its dynamics and functioning remain obscure for most people. This book gives readers the tools to understand the full extent to which blockchain technology is or can be used in business. First, the book focuses on the functioning of blockchain systems, introducing basic concepts such as transactions, consensus mechanisms and smart contracts, as well as giving a smooth introduction to the basic features of cryptography that underpin blockchain technology, e.g., digital signatures and hashing. Then, the book focuses on specific blockchain platforms (Bitcoin, Ethereum, private blockchain platforms) currently used for the implementation of cryptocurrencies and other blockchain systems. Finally, it introduces a set of tools to understand and analyse the suitability of blockchain technology in different business scenarios from the software architecture, business model, and business operation perspectives. Examples and case studies of blockchain applications currently in production are discussed extensively across the book. This book targets students and educators with an interest in blockchain technology providing a one-stop shop to obtain a deep and complete insight in blockchain technology and its applicability in different business scenarios. The textbook is designed primarily for 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students in industrial engineering, business and management, and information systems. However, it can be adopted also in the computer science majors, since it does not strictly require any specific pre-requisite knowledge. At the graduate level, this book can be used in courses for industrial engineering, information systems and management students. Finally, the book is also of interest to practitioners, like business analysts, process analysts and information system architects, to understand the enabling and transformative potential of blockchain in a given business scenario.

Originally published in 1972. This book covers from 'linear' statistical methods, regression and variance analysis to multivariate methods to wider spatial analytic techniques, in which a clear association is maintained between quantitative data and the spatial coordinates which locate them. The purpose of this volume is to highlight this coherent area of scholarship under the general headings of spatial point systems, networks, continuous distributions, partitioning and simulation. Seventeen authors from Britain and the United States have been brought together to produce a book whose attention is on the body of spatial techniques necessary to enable the building of dynamic spatial models of landforms which formed the keystone of much geomorphic work in future years.

In a context of changing times and current debate, this highly topical book discusses the aims, methods and organisation of legal scholarship. Jan Smits assesses the recent turn away from doctrinal research towards a more empirical and theoretical way of legal investigation and offers a fresh perspective on what it is that legal academics should deal with and how they should do it. The book also considers the consequences which follow for the organisation of the legal discipline by universities and uses this context to discuss the key questions of the internationalisation of law schools, quality assessments, legal education and the research culture. Being the first book to address the aim and goals of legal scholarship in an international context, this insightful study will appeal to academics, graduate students, researchers and policymakers in higher education."

1. The use of memoir as a structure for disciplinary criticism is innovative and creative. 2. The field of humanistic psychology is growing, and this book will be an important contribution by one of the field's respected scholars. 3. Provides examples and illustrations of the ways in which professional associations, academic publishers, university administrators, and granting agencies fit into and help constitute the lives and development of academic psychologists

Routledge Handbook of Counter-Narratives is a landmark volume providing students, university lecturers, and practitioners with a comprehensive and structured guide to the major topics and trends of research on counter-narratives. The concept of counter-narratives covers resistance and opposition as told and framed by individuals and social groups. Counter-narratives are stories impacting on social settings that stand opposed to (perceived) dominant and powerful master-narratives. In sum, the contributions in this handbook survey how counter-narratives unfold power to shape and change various fields. Fields investigated in this handbook are organizations and professional settings, issues of education, struggles and concepts of identity and belonging, the political field, as well as literature and ideology. The handbook is framed by a comprehensive introduction as well as a summarizing chapter providing an outlook on future research avenues. Its direct and clear appeal will support university learning and prompt both students and researchers to further investigate the arena of narrative research.

This volume, derived from the 1999 International Tsunami Symposium, presents a unique look at the state of tsunami research at the end of the 20th century. It displays recent progress both in data recovery and reconstructions of historical tsunamis and in detail examination of recent disasters. It shows the tsunami community using both traditional methods of data gathering - searching archives and attempting to simulate past events - and integrating modern technologies - side-scan sonar, GPS, global communications, supercomputers - in the quest to understand tsunamis and improve mankind's ability to mitigate the disastrous consequences of these unpredictable and unstoppable events. It chronicles recent advances in mitigation efforts while illuminating the continuing need for increased efforts. The papers range from descriptive texts for the non-specialists to fairly technical discussions for those familiar with tsunami research. Audience: This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students involved in natural hazards research, physical oceanography, seismology, environmental impact assessment and risk assessment.

Based on ethnographic research, this book examines the paranormal investigation subculture in the US. Presenting interviews with investigators as well as extensive field observations, it explores their reasons for getting involved, their use of different investigative methods, the interpretive processes by which they individually and collectively 'sense' spirits, the ways in which these processes are influenced by small group power dynamics, and what paranormal investigation ultimately means to those who participate. While focusing on the practices by which investigators 'sense' spirits in small groups, the author also situates paranormal investigation within a broader cultural context and attends to how investigators attempt to legitimize their practice despite being marginalized by both science and religion. A fascinating study of ghosts as an inherently social phenomenon, Sensing Spirits will appeal to sociologists with interests in ethnography, interactionism, cultural studies and subcultures.

This important book examines the motives that drive family historians and explores whether those who research their ancestral pedigrees have distinct personalities, demographics or family characteristics. It describes genealogists' experiences as they chart their family trees including their insights, dilemmas and the fascinating, sometimes disturbing and often surprising, outcomes of their searches. Drawing on theory and research from psychology and other humanities disciplines, as well as from the authors' extensive survey data collected from over 800 amateur genealogists, the authors present the experiences of family historians, including personal insights, relationship changes, mental health benefits and ethical dilemmas. The book emphasises the motivation behind this exploration, including the need to acknowledge and tell ancestral stories, the spiritual and health-related aspects of genealogical research, the addictiveness of the detective work, the lifelong learning opportunities and the passionate desire to find lost relatives. With its focus on the role of family history in shaping personal identity and contemporary culture, this is fascinating reading for anyone studying genealogy and family history, professional genealogists and those researching their own history.

1. The author is forefront of the application of IRT (classic and innovative methodologies). 2. Covers all IRT in broad brushstrokes in an accessible manner. 3. Includes an abundance of original and secondary sources to facilitate learning, including further reading, simulated datasets, and graphics.

1. The author is forefront of the application of IRT (classic and innovative methodologies). 2. Covers all IRT in broad brushstrokes in an accessible manner. 3. Includes an abundance of original and secondary sources to facilitate learning, including further reading, simulated datasets, and graphics.

Organizational diversity has become a topic of interest for practitioners and academics alike. This book explores how diversity in organizations is, and can be researched, providing readers with insights into the potential research designs for studies in contemporary organizations. This includes paying attention to methods but also to the role of the researcher and research bodies in the field, their potential as activists as well as to the theoretical question of standpoints in researching organizational diversity. Chapters also consider the diversity of research participants, inclusive research, and intersectionality. All contributors are experts in diversity research, and in their contributions, they reflect upon the appropriate methods for the specific type of diversity research they conduct, noting strengths and weaknesses and illustrating their arguments with practical examples from their work. This handbook will be of great value to academics, students, researchers, practitioners, and professionals with an interest in broadening their understanding of how to research organizational diversity in contemporary organizations or seeking to develop their awareness of diversity when researching management and organization, more generally.

Classic Writings for a Phenomenology of Practice features examples of newly translated classic phenomenological texts that have been largely forgotten or misunderstood. The writings are unique in that they speak to the practice of doing phenomenological research for the purpose of gaining insights and better understandings regarding aspects of professional practice and ordinary life phenomena and events. Phenomenology does not have to be impenetrable philosophy, dealing with tedious technical issues. Instead, phenomenology may offer relevance, value, and enduring allure to readers and researchers who are engaged with the quotidian life experiences and events of students, patients, clients, friends, and other individuals. This phenomenological approach aims to stay as close as possible to the ordinary events of everyday life: seeing the first smile of a child, feeling compulsive, being humorous, having a conversation, experiencing childhood secrecy, encountering new things-topics that span a manifold of life experiences. In this collection of classic phenomenological writings, each author is thoughtfully introduced, and each text is followed by a conversational descant: a reflection on the phenomenological reflection. The presentation of these classic writings and their reflections aims to show us what it means to do phenomenology directly on the phenomena that we live-thus asking us to be attentive to the fascinating varieties and subtleties of primal lived experiences and consciousness in all its remarkable complexities. This book is relevant for scholars and students who are interested in human science research and the origins and practices of the phenomenological method.

Discussions of street culture exist in a variety of academic disciplines, yet a handbook that brings together the diversity of scholarship on this subject has yet to be produced. The Routledge Handbook of Street Culture integrates and reviews current scholarship regarding the history, types, and contexts of the concept of street culture. It is comprehensive and international in its treatment of the subject of street culture. Street culture includes many subtypes, situations, locations, and participants, and these are explored in the various chapters included in this book. Street culture varies based on numerous factors including capitalism, market societies, policing, ethnicity, and race but also advances in technology. The book is divided into four major sections: Actors and street culture, Activities connected to street culture, The centrality of crime to street culture, and Representations of street culture. Contributors are well respected and recognized international scholars in their fields. They draw upon contemporary scholarship produced in the social sciences, arts, and humanities in order to communicate their understanding of street culture. The book provides a comprehensive and accessible approach to the subject of street culture through the lens of an inter- and/or multidisciplinary perspective. It is also intersectional in its approach and consideration of the subject and phenomenon of street culture.

Introducing the reader to grounded methodology and its ethical approach, this book explores the theory behind the method as well as how to use it to develop and evaluate learning and education projects. Grounded methodology is designed to challenge traditional educational research methodologies, and in doing so questions the notion of the need for highly formal research in institutional settings. In this respect, it is also a simple way of planning an educational project that needs an evaluative element. Covering data collection techniques used in the course of education research such as observations, interviews, course development, participant diaries and online data collection, this book investigates the practical realities of researching in education contexts and the differences in educational, national and cultural backgrounds. It is ideal reading for students and academics looking to update and increase their knowledge on grounded methodology, especially students who are researchers in final-year undergraduate or post-graduate level programs, or instructors planning to teach grounded theory or grounded methodology to their own emerging research students.