This book is designed to give you the essential, nitty-gritty information typically covered in a first semester statistics course. It’s bottom-line information for you to use as a refresher, a resource, a quick reference, and/or a study guide. It helps you decipher and make important decisions about statistical polls, experiments, reports and headlines with confidence, being ever aware of the ways people can mislead you with statistics, and how to handle it. Topics I work you through include graphs and charts, descriptive statistics, the binomial, normal, and t-distributions, twoway tables, simple linear regression, confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, surveys, experiments, and of course the most frustrating yet critical of all statistical topics: sampling distributions and the Central Limit Theorem.

the purposes of this book are to review the basic concepts and principles of criminological theories and to evaluate their adequacy as explanations of criminal and deviant behavior or of the criminal law and justice system. While not exhaustive, the coverage of theories is comprehensive. I have included all the major theories that have been the subject of nine out of ten theory-testing articles in the leading criminological journal over the past three decades (Stitt and Giacopassi, 1992). The first goal in presenting each theory is to give a concise and clear exposition of its central concepts, assertions, and hypotheses. The intent is to provide an accurate, understandable introduction for readers who are not familiar with the theory and a review for those who are. In each case, an effort has been made not only to present the classic or original statements of a theory but to show modifications and revisions of it, including the most recent and significant developments. The second goal is to evaluate the theory. In Chapter 1,1 review the main criteria by which the merits of a theory can be judged—logical consistency, scope, parsimony, applicability to policy, testability, and empirical validity. All these are invoked at various points, but the central focus of the evaluation of each theory is the empirical validity of the theory. I review the research relevant to the theory and assess how well the findings support or contradict the main assertions of the theory. Before the empirical adequacy of a theory can be evaluated, of course, it must be testable, and a considerable amount of attention is given to questions of tautology and measurement. The last chapter (Chapter 11) is devoted to the topic of theoretical rivalry and integration. Recent examples of conceptual and propositional integration are reviewed and evaluated.

People talk about research in academic institutions, but little attention is given to research methodology. As a result, a great deal of research tends to be futile. Entity of the nation is to maximize productivity, which can be improved through several research studies. Every research is a set of activities to study and develop a model or procedures to analyze the results of a realistic problem supported by literature review and analysis of data. So, the objectives are optimized and further make recommendations for its implementation. The motivation for writing this book has come from the lack of contextually relevant and a comprehensive book on Research Methodology, which are sufficient to provide rather substantial course of study for the students. The book is intended for the students of Management, M.Phil., Engineering, Science & Technology, Medical Science, Pharmacy, Nursing, Commerce, Arts, Social-Science, Operation Research, and Economics. Most chapters of this book have been developed from the lecture notes used in teaching of UG-/ PG-/Doctorate-level programs. We have used our research and teaching experience and our industrial contacts to create this textbook full of real industry-based examples and research insights. We have kept the presentation simple and stimulating; nevertheless, the treatment of topics is detailed and up-to-date enough so that experts (researchers, industry professionals, etc.) in the field can use the book as a reference. The text contains in-depth coverage of concepts and techniques of research methodology. Chapters of the book include examples, figures, and bibliography/references. The text includes the comprehensive coverage of research problems, types of research, and research procedure followed by guidelines of data collection and presentation, which made the platform for further analysis. Well-defined algorithms for the various statistical methods are provided, and the operations of different statistical techniques with relevant examples are demonstrated. In the entire text, a large number of tables and figures are presented and easy-to-understand style has been followed to illustrate the concepts and techniques. The chapter on report writing has been dealt with in a comprehensive manner, which will aid researchers to document their research studies and analyses along with findings. To enhance the understanding of the subject matter by students belonging to different disciplines, our approach is conceptual. This book provides an understanding of problem-solving methods based on formulation, procedure, and analysis. It provides students the art of using research procedure, methods, and techniques to enable them in developing appropriate methodology for their research. Each chapter contains review questions, self-practice numerical with hints, and answers to help students in self- evaluation. To facilitate ready recall of concepts discussed in each chapter, a summary is provided.

I feel encouraged by the widespread response from teachers and students alike to the first edition. I am presenting this second edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged, to my readers in all humbleness. All possible efforts have been made to enhance further the usefulness of the book. The feedback received from different sources has been incorporated. In this edition a new chapter on “The Computer: Its role in Research” have been added in view of the fact that electronic computers by now, for students of economics, management and other social sciences, constitute an indispensable part of research equipment. The other highlights of this revised edition are (i) the subject contents has been developed, refined and restructured at several points, (ii) several new problems have also been added at the end of various chapters for the benefit of students, and (iii) every page of the book has been read very carefully so as to improve its quality. I am grateful to all those who have helped me directly and/or indirectly in preparing this revised edition. I firmly believe that there is always scope for improvement and accordingly I shall look forward to received suggestions, (which shall be thankfully acknowledged) for further enriching the quality of the text.

In this book, we introduce readers to the main techniques of statistical analysis employed by psychologists and sociologists. However, we do not see the book as a standard introduction to statistics. We see the book as distinctively different because we are not concerned to introduce the often complex formulae that underlie the statistical methods covered. Students often find these formulae and the calculations that are associated with them extremely daunting, especially when their background in mathematics is weak. Moreover, in these days of powerful computers and packages of statistical programs, it seems gratuitous to put students through the anxiety of confronting complex calculations when machines can perform the bulk of the work. Indeed, most practitioners employ statistical packages that are run on computers to perform their calculations, so there seems little purpose in treating formulae and their application as a rite de passage for social scientists. Moreover, few students would come to understand fully the rationale for the formulae that they would need to learn. Indeed, we prefer the term ‘quantitative data analysis’ to ‘statistics’ because of the adverse image that the latter term has in the minds of many prospective readers. In view of the widespread availability of statistical packages and computers, we feel that the two areas that students need to get to grips with are how to decide which statistical procedures are suitable for which purpose and how to interpret the ensuing results. We try to emphasise these two elements in this book.

In recent years, qualitative research has enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth and diversification as it has become an established and respected research approach across a variety of disciplines and contexts. An increasing number of students, teachers and practitioners are facing questions and problems of how to do qualitative research – in general and for their specific individual purposes. To answer these questions, and to address such practical problems on a how-to-do level, is the main purpose of The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit. The books in The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit collectively address the core issues that arise when we actually do qualitative research. Each book focuses on key methods (e.g. interviews or focus groups) or materials (e.g. visual data or discourse) that are used for studying the social world in qualitative terms. Moreover, the books in the Kit have been written with the needs of many different types of reader in mind.

Microbiology is an extremely diverse discipline and can be a bewildering field to the novice. The traditional books, seem to be exhaustive of microbiologic facts, are too voluminous and detailed to be read by a typical medical student, who is trying to keep up with simultaneously several classes of other subjects. One of the ways to fulfill the goals of the book is to concentrate on understanding concepts— important fundamental ideas or themes that form a framework of the subject. Essentials of Microbiology is the result of the author’s 28 years of experience in teaching medical students. The book is readable and complete enough to meet the students’ needs. The overall objective of this book is to provide students the basics of medical microbiology as well as a complete coverage of the subject. It contains all of the information that is pertinent to the medical students who are studying microbiology keeping in mind their examination. Although the text has been designed to teach undergraduate and postgraguate medical students, it would also serve as a review tool for the individuals who are taking medical examinations and persons working in health-related professions, physicians, and infectious disease scientists. Microbiology has expanded beyond recognition with various medical specialty, and it is not possible for any one book to cover all aspects of medical microbiology in depth. This book is divided into the following seven sections, based on the major disciplines included within microbiology: General Bacteriology, Immunology, Systemic Bacteriology, Virology, Medical Mycology, Miscellaneous, and Diagnostic Medical Microbiology. The chapters themselves are comprehensive yet free of unnecessary detail and provide the reader with a framework for understanding. Mycology and parasitology have continued to flourish and have blossomed into fields of study of their own rights. Therefore, parasitology has not been included in this book which has a sturdy independence. I would be thankful for any comments or suggestions from students, teachers, and all the readers of this book for further improvements in its future editions.

guide to php