This volume is a critical exposition of the data and analyses from a full decade of rigorous research into how age-related changes at the individual level, along with other factors, contribute to morbidity, disability and mortality risks at the broader population level. After summarizing the state of our knowledge in the field, individual chapters offer enlightening discussion on a range of key topics such as age trajectory analysis in select and general populations, incidence/age patterns of major chronic illnesses, and indices of cumulative deficits and their use in characterizing and understanding the detailed properties of individual aging. The book features comprehensive statistical analyses of unique longitudinal data sets including the unique resource of the Framingham Heart Study, with its more than 60 years of follow-up. Culminating in penetrating conclusions about the insights gained from the work involved, this book adds much to our understanding of the links between aging and human health.

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.

Critical race theory (CRT) in education centers, examines and seeks to transform the relationship that undergirds race, racism, and power. CRT scholars have applied a critical race framework to advance research methodologies in the form of qualitative interventions. Informed by this work, this book reconsiders the possibilities of CRT applications to quantitative methodologies through 'QuantCrit.' This volume posits the question: How can quantitative methods, long critiqued for their inability to capture the nuance of everyday experience, support and further a critical race agenda in educational research? It provides a starting point for how QuantCrit principles are employed by interdisciplinary contributions in race and quantitative studies. The contributors to the book examine the legacy and genealogy of QuantCrit traditions across disciplines to uncover a rich lineage of methodological possibilities for disrupting racism in research. They argue that quantitative approaches cannot be adopted for racial justice aims without an ontological reckoning that considers historical, social, political, and economic power relations. Only then can quantitative approach be re-imagined and rectified. This book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of Education, Sociology, Social Work, Politics, and Racial and Ethnic Studies. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Race Ethnicity and Education.

In this edited volume, leading experts of human rights measurement address the challenges scholarship of human rights face as well as explore approaches and means to overcoming them. The book seeks to further answer three specific and related questions. First, what do existing measures of human rights conditions tell us about the state of human rights? Are conditions improving or deteriorating? Second, how might scholars improve their measurement efforts and observe states' human rights practices given efforts by governments to hide human rights abuses and to make them essentially "unobservable"? Finally, what challenges might scholars encounter in the future as the conceptualization of human rights develops and changes, and as new methods and technologies (e.g., natural language processing, machine learning) are introduced into the study of human rights? This book will be of interest to students and scholars of human rights politics, power, development, and governance. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Human Rights.

Advancing Digital Humanities moves beyond definition of this dynamic and fast growing field to show how its arguments, analyses, findings and theories are pioneering new directions in the humanities globally. Sections cover digital methods, critical curation and research futures, with theoretical and practical chapters framed around key areas of activity including modelling collections, data-driven analysis, and thinking through building. These are linked through the concept of 'ambitious generosity', a way of working to pursue large-scale research questions while supporting and enabling other research areas and approaches, both within and beyond the academy.

Mark Stevenson has been to the future a few years ahead of the rest of us - and reckons it has a lot going for it. His voyage of discovery takes him to Oxford to meet Transhumanists (they intend to live forever), to Boston where he confronts a robot with mood swings, to an underwater cabinet meeting in the Indian Ocean, and Australia to question the Outback's smartest farmer. He clambers around space planes in the Mojave desert, gets to grips with the potential of nanotechnology, delves deep into the possibilities of biotech, sees an energy renaissance on a printer, a revolution in communications, has his genome profiled, and glimpses the next stage of human evolution ... and tries to make sense of what's in store. Insightful and often very funny, An Optimist's Tour of the Future is a book that tracks one curious man's journey to find out what's in store.

This authoritative handbook reviews the most widely-used methods for studying the use and abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs. Its thorough coverage spans the range of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches to documenting and measuring the complex psychological, behavioral, and physical experience of substance misuse and dependence, to ensure valid, useful results. Experts discuss special issues and considerations for conducting ethical research with specialized populations, including youth, inmates, and the LGBT community. Throughout these chapters, contributors demonstrate the multidisciplinary nature of substance abuse research, with emphasis on professional ethics and the critical role of research in developing best practices and effective policy for prevention and treatment. Among the topics covered: * Transdisciplinary research perspective: a theoretical framework for substance abuse research * Longitudinal methods in substance use research * Considerations in blending qualitative and quantitative components in substance abuse research * The use of biological measures in social research on drug misuse * Using surveys to study substance use behavior * Applications of GIS to inform substance abuse research and interventions * Evaluating substance use prevention and treatment programs Research Methods in the Study of Substance Abuse is an essential resource for health services and public health professionals, policymakers, and researchers working and training in the field of addiction. It encourages the rigor and understanding necessary to address widespread social and public health concerns.

This book examines how and why autonomy matters in contemporary social science research. It considers how autonomy impacts upon the individual researcher, the cultures and values of the university, and research motivation and sponsorship. The authors provide a better understanding of the interplay between individual and institutional autonomy, the issues arising from this interplay, and the value of an independent academic sector to the external community.
Successive chapters consider: the variation in social scientists understanding of academic freedom; the researchers view on academic autonomy and decision making; the influence of Hayek on thinking about freedom and markets; the idea of academic freedom in 14th century Oxford; the policy basis for academic freedom and autonomy in Australia; the extent to which autonomy can be seen in the career of one academic; the particular case of research into higher education itself; and the impact of the research assessment exercise in the United Kingdom.
The book sheds light on a critically important but under-studied issue, seeking to offer a clarification of the meaning of academic freedom and autonomy, and the roles of institutional regulatory and managerial environments in supporting them.
*Examines autonomy and its relationships to the individual researcher, the university, and research motivation and sponsorship
*Provides a better understanding of the interplay between individual and institutional autonomy
*Authors include experts from the UK and Australia; chapters go in to autonomy within specific contexts (14th century Oxford, Australia, etc.)

The primary focus of this book is an examination of longitudinal team communication and its impact on team performance. This theoretically-grounded, holistic examination of team communication includes cross-condition comparisons of team (i.e., distributed/in person, unrestricted/time pressured, two performance episodes) and employs multiple quantitative methodological approaches to examine the phenomena of interest. This book simultaneously provides practical content for researchers and practitioners in the social sciences and humanities. Included are step-by-step instructions for the methodologies employed, and distillations of findings via Managerial Minutes that highlight best practices and/or examples to help enhance team communication in practice.

The first edition of All Tomorrow's Cultures explored the legacy of futures-thinking in anthropology and marked the beginning of a resurgence of interest in anthropological futures. The new edition has been updated to reflect some of the outpouring of work since then, particularly in science and technology studies and in anthropological analyses of indigenous futures. In addition, Collins has updated the final chapter to expand the field of anthropological possibility in an age of both despair and hope.

How do you predict something that has never happened before? There's a useful calculation being employed by Wall Street, Silicon Valley and maths professors all over the world, and it predicts that the human species will become extinct in 760 years. Unfortunately, there is disagreement over how to apply the formula, and some argue that we might only have twenty years left. Originally devised by British clergyman Thomas Bayes, the theorem languished in obscurity for two hundred years before being resurrected as the lynchpin of the digital economy. With brief detours into archaeology, philology, and overdue library books, William Poundstone explains how we can use it to predict pretty much anything. What is the chance that there are multiple universes? How long will Hamilton run? Will the US stock market continue to perform as well this century as it has for the last hundred years? And are we really all doomed?

This book presents new perspectives on Southeast Asia using cases from a range of ethnic groups, cultures and histories, written by scholars from different ethnicities, generations, disciplines and scientific traditions. It examines various research trajectories, engaging with epistemological debates on the 'global' and 'local', on 'insiders' and 'outsiders', and the role played by personal experiences in the collection and analysis of empirical data. The volume provides subjects for debate rarely addressed in formal approaches to data gathering and analysis. Rather than grappling with the usual methodological building blocks of research training, it focuses on neglected issues in the research experience including chance, error, coincidence, mishap, dead ends, silence, secrets, improvisation, remembering, digital challenges and shifting tracks. Fieldwork and the Self is relevant to academics and researchers from universities and international organisations who are engaged in teaching and learning in area studies and social science research methods. "A rich and compelling set of writings about fieldwork in, and beyond, Southeast Asia". - Lyn Parker, Emeritus Professor, University of Western Australia "A must-read for all, especially emerging scholars on Southeast Asia, and a refreshing read for critical 'old hands' on the region". - Abdul Rahman Embong, Emeritus Professor, Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia "An impressive collection of essays by two academics who have devoted their academic life to anthropological fieldwork in Southeast Asia". - Shamsul A.B., Distinguished Professor and UNESCO Chair, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia "The contributors share an unquenchable and passionate curiosity for Southeast Asia. They have survived the uncertainties and disillusionment of their fieldwork and remained first-grade scholars". - Marie-Sybille de Vienne, Professor, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations, Paris "A penetrating reflection on current social science research on Southeast Asia". - Hans-Dieter Evers, Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow, University of Bonn

Six Steps to Preparing Exemplary Principals and Superintendents is the first book to inspire and guide professors and program administrator's proven ways to prepare exemplary principals and superintendents for schools. The authors review issues surrounding extreme criticism of leadership education and counter with positive new research and practices that clearly highlight successful programs that link preparation to on-the-job successes of graduates. The reader will find a step-by-step guide to selecting the best students, creating a pre- and post-assessment of student learning, a well-designed procedure to pretest and assure that all masters degree students actually acquire a strong knowledge base and score well on state licensure exams. The final step provides proven questionnaires to survey graduates of the masters or doctoral programs to gather valuable feedback for constant program improvement and relevance to the real world of schools.

This book discusses the application of various statistical methods to texts, rather than numbers, in various fields in behavioral science. It proposes an approach where quantitative methods are applied to data whereas previously such data were analyzed only by qualitative research methods. To emphasize the quantitative aspects of semantics, and the possibilities of conducting scientific interferences, the book introduces the concept of statistical semantics and presents the reader with a subset of techniques found in that domain. More specifically, the book focuses on methods that allow the investigation of semantic relationships between words, based on empirical corpus data. It shows the reader how to apply various statistical methods on texts, for example statistical tests to ascertain whether two sets of text are statistically different, ways to predict variables from text, as well as how to summarize and graphically illustrate texts. Thus, the book presents an accessible hands-on introduction to a selection of techniques, indispensable for cognitive psychologists, linguists, and social psychologists.

Career development interventions can serve as one means to constructively address the problems of inequitable access to educational and occupational options and achievement that promote health and well-being across the lifespan. Career Development Interventions for Social Justice: Addressing Needs across the Lifespan in Educational, Community, and Employment Contexts offers practical examples of career development interventions that may be adapted to constructively address social justice needs at various points across the lifespan (ranging from elementary school ages to older adults) in educational, community, and employment contexts. Tailored to the needs and context of a specific underserved group of individuals, each intervention integrates relevant career development theory, research, ethical considerations, elements of sound program design and evaluation, and professional competencies for best practices in multicultural career counseling and social justice advocacy. Unique to this book are the contributions of authors, including practicing professional counselors and psychologists, who share their personal reflections of self-awareness from privileged and marginalized identities regarding potential biases and resources of relevance to their chapter's intervention. In the process of designing and providing career development services for individuals from marginalized groups, it is imperative for counselors to continually reflect on and consult about their own biases and resources for empathic understanding and effectiveness with those whom we serve.

This volume includes essay papers on the standards/accountability movement, computer technology in social studies, cultures of constraint/restraint, connecting multicultural and social studies education, and the prospects for social studies research in the 21st century.

Critical Event Studies is a growing field, not just within event management and event studies, but across the traditional and digital social sciences. This volume -with contributions from a range of international scholars- is the first to consider the wide variety of research approaches being used by academics from around the world, whose interests lie within the reach of this emerging field. Each chapter uses one or more case examples to present and discuss different methodological approaches applicable to research within critical event studies. Students and academics alike will find inspiration and critical reflection on methodology that can support their own projects.

America's urban population has been growing while rural areas are declining - especially after the great recession. This is not new as rural decline has been affected by the long-term shift from an agriculturally based economy to a service based economy. However, the preference of many Millennials for urban settings exacerbates the issue and reduces the rural community's ability to replenish the population. Life in Rural America: A Statistical Portrait will present economic and demographic indicators of the rural population and help users understand the community and geographic differences that rural communities experience. The book will be used as a reference source for data users looking to understand community and geographic differences in the rural component of the nation's population.

This book explores the fundamentals of multidimensional scaling (MDS) and how this analytic method can be used in applied setting for educational and psychological research. The book tries to make MDS more accessible to a wider audience in terms of the language and examples that are more relevant to educational and psychological research and less technical so that the readers are not overwhelmed by equations. The goal is for readers to learn the methods described in this book and immediately start using MDS via available software programs. The book also examines new applications that have previously not been discussed in MDS literature. It should be an ideal book for graduate students and researchers to better understand MDS. Fundamentals of Applied Multidimensional Scaling for Educational and Psychological Research is divided into three parts. Part I covers the basic and fundamental features of MDS models pertaining to applied research applications. Chapters in this section cover the essential features of data that are typically associated with MDS analysis such as preference ration or binary choice data, and also looking at metric and non-metric MDS models to build a foundation for later discussion and applications in later chapters. Part II examines specific MDS models and its applications for education and psychology. This includes spatial analysis methods that can be used in MDS to test clustering effect of items and individual differences MDS model (INDSCAL). Finally, Part III focuses on new applications of MDS analysis in these research fields. These new applications consist of profile analysis, longitudinal analysis, mean-level change, and pattern change. The book concludes with a historical review of MDS development as an analytical method and a look to future directions.

The 78th Annual International Meeting of the Psychometric Society (IMPS) built on the Psychometric Society's mission to share quantitative methods relevant to psychology. The chapters of this volume present cutting-edge work in the field. Topics include studies of item response theory, computerized adaptive testing, cognitive diagnostic modeling and psychological scaling. Additional psychometric topics relate to structural equation modeling, factor analysis, causal modeling, mediation, missing data methods and longitudinal data analysis, among others. The papers in this volume will be especially useful for researchers (graduate students and other quantitative researchers) in the social sciences who use quantitative methods, particularly psychologists. Prior knowledge of statistical methods is recommended for the best use of this volume. The conference took place in Arnhem, The Netherlands between July 22nd and 26th, 2013. This is the second volume to showcase the Psychometric Society Meeting. The first is New Developments in Quantitative Psychology: Presentations from the 77th Annual Psychometric Society Meeting (Springer, 2014).

This book examines the use of agent-based modelling (ABM) in population studies, from concepts to applications, best practices to future developments. It features papers written by leading experts in the field that will help readers to better understand the usefulness of ABM for population projections, how ABM can be injected with empirical data to achieve a better match between model and reality, how geographic information can be fruitfully used in ABM, and how ABM results can be reported effectively and correctly. Coverage ranges from detailing the relation between ABM and existing paradigms in population studies to infusing agent-based models with empirical data. The papers show the benefits that ABM offers the field, including enhanced theory formation by better linking the micro level with the macro level, the ability to represent populations more adequately as complex systems, and the possibility to study rare events and the implications of alternative mechanisms in artificial laboratories. In addition, readers will discover guidelines and best practices with detailed examples of how to apply agent-based models in different areas of population research, including human mating behaviour, migration, and socio-structural determinants of health behaviours. Earlier versions of the papers in this book have been presented at the workshop "Recent Developments and Future Directions in Agent-Based Modelling in Population Studies," which took place at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, in September 2014. The book will contribute to the development of best practices in the field and will provide a solid point of reference for scholars who want to start using agent-based modelling in their own research.

This book focuses on the prevention of child abuse and neglect deaths in the U.S. In 2013 1,520 children died from maltreatment. This book defines child maltreatment fatalities (CMFs) and discusses the prevalence of deaths in the U.S. over the last several decades. It addresses the known risk factors for maltreatment deaths including child, parent, the parent-child relationship, and household risk factors. The main focus of the book addresses the responses and interventions that have been put in place in order to prevent CMFs: the child welfare profession, child death review teams, safe haven laws, criminal justice responses, public education, and new, federal efforts in the U.S. to reduce CMFs in the U.S. The book finishes by making recommendations for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers about how to prevent fatal maltreatment among children in the U.S.

This volume presents state of the art analyses from scholars dealing with a range of demographic topics of current concern, including longevity, mortality and morbidity, migration, and how population composition impacts intergenerational transfer schemes. New approaches are applied to such issues as measuring changes in cohort survivorship in low mortality populations, patterns of mortality improvement at older ages, and the consequences of heterogeneity in the susceptibility to death. Studies examine models of the current status of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, advance present methods for estimating population change in small areas, and strive to disentangle age, period, and cohort effects. In sum, the book addresses key contemporary issues in measuring and modeling dynamic populations, and advances the frontier of dynamic demography.

This open access book examines health trajectories and health transitions at different stages of the life course, including childhood, adulthood and later life. It provides findings that assess the role of biological and social transitions on health status over time. The essays examine a wide range of health issues, including the consequences of military service on body mass index, childhood obesity and cardiovascular health, socio-economic inequalities in preventive health care use, depression and anxiety during the child rearing period, health trajectories and transitions in people with cystic fibrosis and oral health over the life course. The book addresses theoretical, empirical and methodological issues as well as examines different national contexts, which help to identify factors of vulnerability and potential resources that support resilience available for specific groups and/or populations. Health reflects the ability of individuals to adapt to their social environment. This book analyzes health as a dynamic experience. It examines how different aspects of individual health unfold over time as a result of aging but also in relation to changing socioeconomic conditions. It also offers readers potential insights into public policies that affect the health status of a population.