Practical Data Processing and Analysis Using R

This practical textbook introduces the fundamental physics behind radar measurements, to guide students and practitioners in the proper interpretation of radar reflectivity, Doppler velocity and dual-polarization imagery. Operational applications are explored, such as how radar imagery can be used to analyze and forecast convective and widespread weather systems. The book concludes with an overview of current research topics, including the study of clouds and precipitation using radars, signal processing, and data assimilation. Numerous full-color illustrations are included, as well as problem sets, case studies, and a variety of supplementary electronic material including animated time sequences of images to help convey complex concepts. This book is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in radar meteorology and other related courses, such as precipitation microphysics and dynamics. It will also make a useful reference for researchers, professional meteo

The second edition of Principles of Seismology has been extensively revised and updated to present a modern approach to observation seismology and the theory behind digital seismograms. It includes: a new chapter on Earthquakes, Earth's structure and dynamics; a considerably revised chapter on instrumentation, with new material on processing of modern digital seismograms and a list of website hosting data and seismological software; and 100 end-of-chapter problems. The fundamental physical concepts on which seismic theory is based are explained in full detail with step-by-step development of the mathematical derivations, demonstrating the relationship between motions recorded in digital seismograms and the mechanics of deformable bodies. With chapter introductions and summaries, numerous examples, newly drafted illustrations and new color figures, and an updated bibliography and reference list, this intermediate-level textbook is designed to help students develop the skills to tackle r

For courses in Introductory Statistics (algebra-based). Gets students thinking statistically from the start Stats: Modeling the World by Bock, Velleman, DeVeaux, and Bullard engages students by opening with practical data analysis and graphics. Chapters begin with new, motivating examples and follow through with analyses of the data; then, real-world examples provide a basis for sample problems and exercises.The authors’ colloquial, approachable writing style reads unlike any other other statistics text. Their signature Think, Show, and Tell problem-solving method guides students through learning what we can find in data, why we find it interesting, and how to report it to others. Focused lessons are shorter than in most other texts, and are more manageable for both students and instructors. The 5th Edition extends the innovations of this acclaimed text, with important revisions and additions that support the teaching of Statistics and statistical thinking as it is practiced toda

"This book explores how to assess, characterize and design urban spaces using perceptual approaches. It gathered theory and case studies on methods for data collection and analysis of individual respo

Written by leading researchers, this complete introduction brings together all the theory and tools needed for building robust machine learning in adversarial environments. Discover how machine learning systems can adapt when an adversary actively poisons data to manipulate statistical inference, learn the latest practical techniques for investigating system security and performing robust data analysis, and gain insight into new approaches for designing effective countermeasures against the latest wave of cyber-attacks. Privacy-preserving mechanisms and the near-optimal evasion of classifiers are discussed in detail, and in-depth case studies on email spam and network security highlight successful attacks on traditional machine learning algorithms. Providing a thorough overview of the current state of the art in the field, and possible future directions, this groundbreaking work is essential reading for researchers, practitioners and students in computer security and machine learning,

Many of the complex problems faced by decision makers involve uncertainty as well as multiple conflicting objectives. This book provides a complete understanding of the types of objective functions that should be used in multiattribute decision making. By using tools such as preference, value, and utility functions, readers will learn state-of-the-art methods to analyze prospects to guide decision making and will develop a process that guarantees a defensible analysis to rationalize choices. Summarizing and distilling classical techniques and providing extensive coverage of recent advances in the field, the author offers practical guidance on how to make good decisions in the face of uncertainty. This text will appeal to graduate students and practitioners alike in systems engineering, operations research, business, management, government, climate change, energy, and healthcare.

The goal of this guide and manual is to provide a practical and brief overview of the theory on computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and multistage testing (MST) and to illustrate the methodologies and

Every day, social service agencies collect millions of pieces of data about the children and families they serve. Agencies depend on this data to inform decision-making by personnel throughout the org

This book presents the methodology and applications of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in measuring productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in Financial Services firms such as banks, bank branches,

How do infants learn a language? Why and how do languages evolve? How do we understand a sentence? This book explores these questions using recent computational models that shed new light on issues related to language and cognition. The chapters in this collection propose original analyses of specific problems and develop computational models that have been tested and evaluated on real data. Featuring contributions from a diverse group of experts, this interdisciplinary book bridges the gap between natural language processing and cognitive sciences. It is divided into three sections, focusing respectively on models of neural and cognitive processing, data driven methods, and social issues in language evolution. This book will be useful to any researcher and advanced student interested in the analysis of the links between the brain and the language faculty.

East Asia is richer, more integrated and more stable than ever before, whilst East Asian defense spending is now roughly half of what it was in 1990 and shows no sign of increasing. There is no evidence of any Asian arms race. All countries in the region are seeking diplomatic, not military solutions with each other. Yet this East Asia reality still runs counter to a largely Western narrative that views China's rise as a threat and the region as increasingly unstable. In this important book, David C. Kang argues that American grand strategy should emphasize diplomatic and economic relations with the region, rather than military-first policies. Using longitudinal and comparative data, statistical analysis, and intensive research in selected East Asian countries, he suggests that East Asia is in sync with the American desire to share burdens and that the region may in fact be more stable than popularly believed.

East Asia is richer, more integrated and more stable than ever before, whilst East Asian defense spending is now roughly half of what it was in 1990 and shows no sign of increasing. There is no evidence of any Asian arms race. All countries in the region are seeking diplomatic, not military solutions with each other. Yet this East Asia reality still runs counter to a largely Western narrative that views China's rise as a threat and the region as increasingly unstable. In this important book, David C. Kang argues that American grand strategy should emphasize diplomatic and economic relations with the region, rather than military-first policies. Using longitudinal and comparative data, statistical analysis, and intensive research in selected East Asian countries, he suggests that East Asia is in sync with the American desire to share burdens and that the region may in fact be more stable than popularly believed.

Using diverse theories and methods including analysis of online data, feminist critical discourse, fieldwork, grounded theory, and queer theory, this edited volume explores gender panic and policy in

As many medical and healthcare researchers have a love-hate relationship with statistics, the second edition of this practical reference book may make all the difference. Using practical examples, mai

Why do governments backtrack on major policy reforms? Reversals of pension privatization provide insight into why governments abandon potentially path-departing policy changes. Academics and policymakers will find this work relevant in understanding market-oriented reform, authoritarian and post-communist politics, and the politics of aging populations. The clear presentation and multi-method approach make the findings broadly accessible in understanding social security reform, an issue of increasing importance around the world. Survival analysis using global data is complemented by detailed case studies of reversal in Russia, Hungary, and Poland including original survey data. The findings support an innovative argument countering the conventional wisdom that more extensive reforms are more likely to survive. Indeed, governments pursuing moderate reform - neither the least nor most extensive reformers - were the most likely to retract. This lends insight into the stickiness of many so

Using decades of public opinion data from the US, UK, Australia, Germany and Canada, and distinguishing between three concepts - issue ownership, performance and generalised competence - Green and Jennings show how political parties come to gain or lose 'ownership' of issues, how they are judged on their performance in government across policy issues and how they develop a reputation for competence (or incompetence) over a period in office. Their analysis tracks the major events causing people to re-evaluate party reputations and the costs of governing which cause electorates to punish parties in power. They reveal why, when and how these movements in public opinion matter to elections. The implications are important for long-standing debates about performance and partisanship, and reveal that public opinion about party and governing competence is, to a great extent, the product of major shocks and predictable dynamics.

Is British English becoming more like American English? If so, why, and in what ways? This book compares examples of American and British language data from the 1930s, 1960s, 1990s and 2000s, to track the most important ways that both varieties are changing over time, and compares the extent to which they are following similar paths using a mixture of computer and human analysis. The analysis is carried out across several levels, including spelling differences (such as colour vs color), vocabulary (truck vs lorry), and a range of morphological, grammatical, semantic and pragmatic features. Baker explores the changing aspects of American and British society which help to explain the findings.

Is British English becoming more like American English? If so, why, and in what ways? This book compares examples of American and British language data from the 1930s, 1960s, 1990s and 2000s, to track the most important ways that both varieties are changing over time, and compares the extent to which they are following similar paths using a mixture of computer and human analysis. The analysis is carried out across several levels, including spelling differences (such as colour vs color), vocabulary (truck vs lorry), and a range of morphological, grammatical, semantic and pragmatic features. Baker explores the changing aspects of American and British society which help to explain the findings.

The Rights Turn in Conservative Christian Politics documents a recent, fundamental change in American politics with the waning of Christian America. Rather than conservatives emphasizing morality and liberals emphasizing rights, both sides now wield rights arguments as potent weapons to win political and legal battles and build grassroots support. Lewis documents this change on the right, focusing primarily on evangelical politics. Using extensive historical and survey data that compares evangelical advocacy and evangelical public opinion, Lewis explains how the prototypical culture war issue - abortion - motivated the conservative rights turn over the past half century, serving as a springboard for rights learning and increased conservative advocacy in other arenas. Challenging the way we think about the culture wars, Lewis documents how rights claims are used to thwart liberal rights claims, as well as to provide protection for evangelicals, whose cultural positions are increasingly

Based on a course taught by the author, this book combines the theoretical underpinnings of statistics with the practical analysis of Earth sciences data using MATLAB. The book is organized to introduce the underlying concepts, and then extends these to the data, covering methods that are most applicable to Earth sciences. Topics include classical parametric estimation and hypothesis testing, and more advanced least squares-based, nonparametric, and resampling estimators. Multivariate data analysis, not often encountered in introductory texts, is presented later in the book, and compositional data is treated at the end. Datasets and bespoke MATLAB scripts used in the book are available online, as well as additional datasets and suggested questions for use by instructors. Aimed at entering graduate students and practicing researchers in the Earth and ocean sciences, this book is ideal for those who want to learn how to analyse data using MATLAB in a statistically-rigorous manner.

Building on unique data, this book analyses the efficacy of a prominent climate change mitigation strategy: voluntary programs for sustainable buildings and cities. It evaluates the performance of thirty-five voluntary programs from the global north and south, including certification programs, knowledge networks, and novel forms of financing. The author examines them through the lens of club theory, urban transformation theory, and diffusion of innovations theory. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) the book points out the opportunities and constraints of voluntary programs for decarbonising the built environment, and argues for a transformation of their use in climate change mitigation. The book will appeal to readers interested in sustainable city planning, climate change mitigation, and voluntarism as an alternative governance mechanism for achieving socially and environmentally desirable outcomes. The wide diversity of cases from the global north and south generate new ins

Noting that social network analysis falls within the realm of big data computing, computer and information scientists synthesize recent research in using graph theory for analyzing large-scale soc

Australian Vegetation has been an essential reference for students and researchers in botany, ecology and natural resource management for over 35 years. Now fully updated and with a new team of authors, the third edition presents the latest insights on the patterns and processes that shaped the vegetation of Australia. The first part of the book provides a synthesis of ecological processes that influence vegetation traits throughout the continent, using a new classification of vegetation. New chapters examine the influences of climate, soils, fire regimes, herbivores and aboriginal people on vegetation, in addition to completely revised chapters on evolutionary biogeography, quaternary vegetation history and alien plants. The book's second half presents detailed ecological portraits for each major vegetation type and offers data-rich perspectives and comparative analysis presented in tables, graphs, maps and colour illustrations. This authoritative book will inspire readers to learn an

This book presents advances in biomedical imaging analysis and processing techniques using time dependent medical image datasets for computer aided diagnosis. The analysis of time-series images is one

The concepts of statistical physics and big data play an important role in the evidence-based analysis and interpretation of macroeconomic principles. The techniques of complex networks, big data, and statistical physics are useful to understand theories of economic systems, and the authors have applied these to understand the intricacies of complex macroeconomic problems. Recent research work using tools and techniques of big data, statistical physics, complex networks, and statistical science is covered, and basic graph algorithms and statistical measures of complex networks are described. The application of big data and statistical physics tools to assess price dynamics, inflation, systemic risks, and productivity is discussed. Chapter-end summary and numerical problems are provided to reinforce understanding of concepts.

Using a combination of theoretical analysis and case studies, this book analyses the theoretical issues — concept and type of independent innovation, and the practical issues — construction of institu

With this self-contained, introductory text, readers will easily understand the fundamentals of microwave and radar image generation. Written with the complete novice in mind, and including an easy-to-follow introduction to electromagnetic scattering theory, it covers key topics such as forward models of scattering for interpreting S-parameter and time-dependent voltage data, S-parameters and their analytical sensitivity formulae, basic methods for real-time image reconstruction using frequency-sweep and pulsed-radar signals, and metrics for evaluating system performance. Numerous application examples and practical tutorial exercises provided throughout allow quick understanding of key concepts, and sample MATLAB codes implementing key reconstruction algorithms accompany the book online. This one-stop resource is ideal for graduate students taking introductory courses in microwave imaging, as well as researchers and industry professionals wanting to learn the fundamentals of the field.

This book presents practical information about hemispherical photography from the perspectives of field data acquisition, image processing and information retrieval methods. This book is organize

The transfer of immovables in Europe creates a series of challenges and questions in practice. The increase in cross-border transactions of immovable property within the European Union has created a demand for knowledge of the system of land registration across a range of jurisdictions. This volume compares and contrasts the different legal processes of seventeen countries and includes a comprehensive analysis of the transfer of immovables and the Land Register in Europe. With fifteen case studies, it provides both theoretical and practical information on the applicable contract and land law. This volume encourages the reader to evaluate legal issues by using the wider European legal sources available. For this very purpose, it is an important research tool for comparative study in the field.

Corruption is a significant problem for democracies throughout the world. Even the most democratic countries constantly face the threat of corruption and the consequences of it at the polls. Why are some governments more corrupt than others, even after considering cultural, social, and political characteristics? In Clarity of Responsibility, Accountability, and Corruption, the authors argue that clarity of responsibility is critical for reducing corruption in democracies. The authors provide a number of empirical tests of this argument, including a cross-national time-series statistical analysis to show that the higher the level of clarity the lower the perceived corruption levels. Using survey and experimental data, the authors show that clarity causes voters to punish incumbents for corruption. Preliminary tests further indicate that elites respond to these electoral incentives and are more likely to combat corruption when clarity is high.

“Provides data and information that can be used for comparative analysis and as a foundation for further exploration. Inviting research from various geographic, cultural, and temporal locales from aro

This book explains why leaders choose social democracy, revolution, or moderate syndicalism to mobilize workers, and why it matters. In some countries, leaders have responded effectively to their political environment, while others have made ill-fitting choices. Vössing explains not only why leaders make certain choices, but also how their choices affect the success of interest mobilization and subsequent political development. Using quantitative data and historical sources, this book combines an analysis of the formation of class politics in all twenty industrialized countries between 1863 and 1919 with a general theory of political mobilization. It integrates economic, political, and ideational factors into a comprehensive account that highlights the critical role of individual leaders.

Since 9/11, al-Qaida has become one of the most infamous and widely discussed terrorist organizations in the world, with affiliates spread across the globe. However, little-known are the group's activities within Afghanistan itself, something which Anne Stenersen examines in this book. Using an array of unique primary sources, she presents an alternative narrative of al-Qaida's goals and strategies prior to 9/11. She argues that al-Qaida's actions were not just an ideological expression of religious fanaticism and violent anti-Americanism, but that they were actually far more practical and organised, with a more revolutionary and Middle Eastern-focused agenda than previously thought. Through Stenersen's analysis, we see how al-Qaida employed a dual strategy: with a small section focused on staging international terrorist attacks, but at the same time a larger part dedicated to building a resilient and cohesive organization that would ultimately serve as a vanguard for future Islamist r

Since 9/11, al-Qaida has become one of the most infamous and widely discussed terrorist organizations in the world, with affiliates spread across the globe. However, little-known are the group's activities within Afghanistan itself, something which Anne Stenersen examines in this book. Using an array of unique primary sources, she presents an alternative narrative of al-Qaida's goals and strategies prior to 9/11. She argues that al-Qaida's actions were not just an ideological expression of religious fanaticism and violent anti-Americanism, but that they were actually far more practical and organised, with a more revolutionary and Middle Eastern-focused agenda than previously thought. Through Stenersen's analysis, we see how al-Qaida employed a dual strategy: with a small section focused on staging international terrorist attacks, but at the same time a larger part dedicated to building a resilient and cohesive organization that would ultimately serve as a vanguard for future Islamist r

Written by one of developmental science's foremost methodologists, The Developmental Scientist's Companion provides an engaging and accessible guide to the scientific techniques that have been devised to investigate human development. Adopting an original approach to what can be a dry yet essential topic, Reznick enlivens his coverage of key issues in developmental methodology - measuring psychological phenomena, assessing reliability and validity, experimental design, interviews and surveys, data collection and analysis and interpreting research results - with discussion of his own experiences of those various techniques, gained over a substantial research career. The Companion concludes with practical tips for improving the field and navigating a path to professional success. Reznick's 'behind-the-scenes' view of empirical research and career progression, told with wit, wisdom and insight, is essential reading for students and young researchers launching their careers in developmenta

Written by one of developmental science's foremost methodologists, The Developmental Scientist's Companion provides an engaging and accessible guide to the scientific techniques that have been devised to investigate human development. Adopting an original approach to what can be a dry yet essential topic, Reznick enlivens his coverage of key issues in developmental methodology - measuring psychological phenomena, assessing reliability and validity, experimental design, interviews and surveys, data collection and analysis and interpreting research results - with discussion of his own experiences of those various techniques, gained over a substantial research career. The Companion concludes with practical tips for improving the field and navigating a path to professional success. Reznick's 'behind-the-scenes' view of empirical research and career progression, told with wit, wisdom and insight, is essential reading for students and young researchers launching their careers in developmenta

This volume provides in-depth examinations of a variety of individual, social, and environmental factors that contribute to the success of expatriate employees. Using data from numerous large-scale st

This comprehensive yet accessible textbook is an ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate students taking their first course in demography. Clearly explaining technical demographic issues without using extensive mathematics, Population and Society is sociologically oriented, but incorporates a variety of social sciences in its approach, including economics, political science, geography, and history. It highlights the significant impact of decision-making at the individual level - especially regarding fertility, but also mortality and migration - on population change. The text engages students by providing numerous examples of demography's practical applications in their lives, and demonstrates the extent of its relevance by examining a wide selection of data from the United States, Africa, Asia, and Europe. This thoroughly revised edition includes four new chapters, covering topics such as race and sexuality, and encourages students to consider the broad implications of population

This comprehensive yet accessible textbook is an ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate students taking their first course in demography. Clearly explaining technical demographic issues without using extensive mathematics, Population and Society is sociologically oriented, but incorporates a variety of social sciences in its approach, including economics, political science, geography, and history. It highlights the significant impact of decision-making at the individual level - especially regarding fertility, but also mortality and migration - on population change. The text engages students by providing numerous examples of demography's practical applications in their lives, and demonstrates the extent of its relevance by examining a wide selection of data from the United States, Africa, Asia, and Europe. This thoroughly revised edition includes four new chapters, covering topics such as race and sexuality, and encourages students to consider the broad implications of population

The analysis and interpretation of data is fundamental to the subject of genetics and forms a compulsory part of the undergraduate genetics curriculum. Indeed, the key skills that a genetics student r