Quantitative Concepts Research Articles

Qualitative researchers as modern day Sophists? Reflections on the qualitative–quantitative divide

This paper presents some of the questions or difficulties quantitative researchers might have when reading or thinking about qualitative methods. These issues include whether qualitative data differ from anecdotes, the idea that qualitative research is nonexperimental and is purely descriptive, and the ‘borrowing’ of quantitative concepts and giving them qualitative names. These questions were explored through discussion with three qualitative researchers. All the researchers emphasised that an important function of qualitative research is to provide context. The issues are discussed and contrasted with similar difficulties with quantitative methods. The idea that quantitative researchers are interested in measuring psychological phenomena, whereas qualitative researchers are interested in the interpretation of phenomena is explored. It is concluded that bringing quantitative and qualitative researchers together as collaborators would allow for richer data and, perhaps, bring us closer to the ‘truth’.

Hypothesis for a new method to measure the dynamic patterns of tissue injury

This note illustrates a novel method to measure the dynamics of pathological states using primary biliary cirrhosis as a prototype disease manifesting a dynamic course. The basis of the new method is the evaluation of liver sections using quantitative metrical concepts able to provide scalars useful for statistical purposes while abandoning the qualitative or semi-quantitative commonly used categorizations. The metrical measurements are provided by our fully automated machine coined the Metrizer. The method includes physical determinators that describe the history of the pathologic event with the time-related changes occurring in the liver tissue sections. The vectorial sum of the areas covered by two irreversible determinators (cytokeratin 7 positive cells representing ductular regeneration and liver fibrosis) is then utilized to illustrate the empirical trajectory of PBC. This ultimately provides a theoretical trajectory that includes all possible disease changes over time. The proposed approach includes both a description of the tissue architecture and an objective computerised dynamic diagnosis. Major strengths of this method include the solid physics and mathematics rationale and the high reproducibility irrespective the operator expertise along with the rapidity warranted by the computerised approach.

Evaluating the operational performance of knowledge-based industries: the perspective of intellectual capital

Performance evaluation is more than a quantitative concept but should also take industrial characteristics into account in order to form an accurate evaluation. In the past, evaluations of the operational performance of knowledge-based industries have missed out a significant factor, which is intellectual capital (IC). By adopting data envelopment analysis (DEA), a multiple-objective decision making method, this study aims to construct an efficiency evaluation model for the Taiwanese digital content industry based on the perspective of IC. The empirical results suggest that the scale of the digital content companies does play an important role in influencing the operating efficiency. The firms have a small amount of capital can still attain optimal efficiency, from the perspective of IC. In addition, human resource capital and customer capital are the most significant influential factors that deserve digital content firms’ attention. It is suggested that enterprises in the digital content industries should focus more on managing their IC. DEA can provide the semiconductor firms’ operations with insights into resource allocation and competitive advantage as well as help with strategic decision-making.

Effects of Problem-Solving, Guided-Discovery and Expository Teaching Strategies on Students' Performance in Redox Reactions

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of problem-solving, guideddiscovery, and expository methods of instruction on students� performance in redox reaction, considering their mathematics ability. It was a quasiexperimental research using non-randomized-pre-test�post-test control group design with expository method as control. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated for answering and testing, respectively. A sample of 120 SS2 chemistry students drawn from 3-co educational public secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State was used for the study. Criterion sampling technique was used in selecting the sample. Two researcher- developed tests � Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) and Mathematical Ability Test (MAT), with reliability indices of 0.76 and 0.68, respectively, determined using test-retest method were used in collecting relevant data. After investigations, the results showed that those taught using problem-solving method performed significantly better than those taught with guided-discovery and expository methods; expository approach was the least facilitative. Students� performance was observed not to be dependent on their mathematics ability. Consequently, it has beenrecommended that Chemistry teachers should always adopt problem-solving teaching approach in teaching redox reaction and other quantitative concepts in chemistry in view of its high facilitative effect on the students� performance.&nbsp

Thermoscopes, thermometers, and the foundations of measurement

Psychologists debate whether mental attributes can be quantified or whether they admit only qualitative comparisons of more and less. Their disagreement is not merely terminological, for it bears upon the permissibility of various statistical techniques. This article contributes to the discussion in two stages. First it explains how temperature, which was originally a qualitative concept, came to occupy its position as an unquestionably quantitative concept (§§1–4). Specifically, it lays out the circumstances in which thermometers, which register quantitative (or cardinal) differences, became distinguishable from thermoscopes, which register merely qualitative (or ordinal) differences. I argue that this distinction became possible thanks to the work of Joseph Black, ca. 1760. Second, the article contends that the model implicit in temperature’s quantitative status offers a better way for thinking about the quantitative status of mental attributes than models from measurement theory (§§5–6).

Critically Appraising Qualitative Research: a Guide for Clinicians More Familiar With Quantitative Techniques

Papers using qualitative methods are increasingly common in psychiatric journals. This overview is an introduction to critically appraising a qualitative paper for clinicians who are more familiar with quantitative methods. Qualitative research uses data from interviews (semi-structured or unstructured), focus groups, observations or written materials. Data analysis is inductive, allowing meaning to emerge from the data, rather than the more deductive, hypothesis centred approach of quantitative research. This overview compares and contrasts quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative concepts such as reliability, validity, statistical power, bias and generalisability have qualitative equivalents. These include triangulation, trustworthiness, saturation, reflexivity and applicability. Reflexivity also shares features of transference. Qualitative approaches include: ethnography, action-assessment, grounded theory, case studies and mixed methods. Qualitative research can complement quantitative approaches. An understanding of both is useful in critically appraising the psychiatric literature.

Quantitative Techniques in PET-CT Imaging

The appearance of hybrid PET/CT scanners has made quantitative whole body scanning of radioactive tracers feasible. This paper deals with the novel concepts for assessing global organ function and disease activity based on combined functional (PET) and structural (CT or MR) imaging techniques, their advantages over current quantitative techniques and their potential clinical applications in the management of various diseases. First the complicated kinetic modeling and methods for calculation of the standardized uptake value (SUV) that have been utilized in the practice of clinical PET are briefly described. Subsequently we discuss the quantitative concepts in PET-CT imaging that have been developed in recent years: (a) SUV analysis in the dual-time point and delayed PET imaging, (b) partial volume correction of SUV for small lesions (c) assessment of global metabolic activity in the whole organ or of diseased sites and (d) the novel image segmentation techniques with FDG-PET and newer tracers to precisely define the diseased or intended normal tissue which is of great value for image guided radiation therapy.

The effect of climate change on Korean drought occurrences using a stochastic soil water balance model

In this study, the effect of climate change on drought occurrence is modeled using a conceptual soil water model and results from the model are analyzed. Future climatic data are prepared by applying climate information drawn by four global climate models in accordance with greenhouse gas emission scenarios A2, A1B and B2 to the spatio-temporal changing factor method which is a relatively simple statistical downscaling method to downscale the climate information to 60 meteorological observation points in Korea. Using a conceptual soil water model that can simulate temporal evolution of the soil water probability density function, changes in the soil water probability density function relative to climate changes are analyzed. Based on these changes in the probability density function, we can see that drought will occur more frequently in Korea in future. Since drought is not an absolute quantitative concept but is a spatiotemporally relative concept and is not an average event in terms of probability, it will be more realistic to define it as an extreme event with a low probability to occur at a site during a period and from this viewpoint, the quantile comparison method (that is, comparing the nonexceedance probability of drought occurrence of now with that of the future based on the reference soil water) applied in this study is expected to be appropriately applicable to the evaluation of the effects of extreme hydrologic events.

Application of Cloud Theory in Association Rules

The data mining is to discover knowledge from the database, quantitative association rules mining method is difficult for their values are too large. The usual means is dividing quantitative Data to discrete conception. The Cloud model combines fuzziness and randomness organically, so it fits the real world objectively, a new method to mine association rules from quantitative data based on the cloud model was proposed, which first take the original data distribution in the database into account, and then use the trapezoidal cloud model to complicate concepts division, and transforms qualitative data to the quantitative concept, in the conversion take account of the basic characteristics of human behavior fully, divides quantitative Data with trapezium Cloud model to create discreet concepts, the concept cluster within one class, and separated with each other. So the quantitative Data can be transforms to Boolean data well, the Boolean data can be mined by the mature Boolean association rules mining method to find useful knowledge.

Probability as a Measure of Information Added

Some propositions add more information to bodies of propositions than do others. We start with intuitive considerations on qualitative comparisons of information added. Central to these are considerations bearing on conjunctions and on negations. We find that we can discern two distinct, incompatible, notions of information added. From the comparative notions we pass to quantitative measurement of information added. In this we borrow heavily from the literature on quantitative representations of qualitative, comparative conditional probability. We look at two ways to obtain a quantitative conception of information added. One, the most direct, mirrors Bernard Koopman's construction of conditional probability: by making a strong structural assumption, it leads to a measure that is, transparently, some function of a function P which is, formally, an assignment of conditional probability (in fact, a Popper function). P reverses the information added order and mislocates the natural zero of the scale so some transformation of this scale is needed but the derivation of P falls out so readily that no particular transformation suggests itself. The Cox---Good---Aczel method assumes the existence of a quantitative measure matching the qualitative relation, and builds on the structural constraints to obtain a measure of information that can be rescaled as, formally, an assignment of conditional probability. A classical result of Cantor's, subsequently strengthened by Debreu, goes some way towards justifying the assumption of the existence of a quantitative scale. What the two approaches give us is a pointer towards a novel interpretation of probability as a rescaling of a measure of information added.

Qualitative research meets the ghost of Pythagoras

The issue of qualitative versus quantitative methods is rooted first and foremost in the character of the phenomena investigated and not in an investigator’s methodological preferences. If the phenomenon under investigation is non-quantitative, then it cannot be studied successfully by attempting to use quantitative methods because trying to impose quantitative concepts upon qualitative phenomena misrepresents them. If the target articles provide any guide, these truths are ignored as much by psychologists wanting to mix quantitative with qualitative methods as by mainstream quantitative researchers. These articles display both the power of the modernist fantasy that measurement is always a discretionary choice of any investigator and the power of the persistent delusion that psychological attributes must be measurable. In psychology, as ever, the ghost of Pythagoras rules.

Mathematical Skills in 3- and 5-Year-Olds with Spina Bifida and Their Typically Developing Peers: A Longitudinal Approach

Preschoolers with spina bifida (SB) were compared to typically developing (TD) children on tasks tapping mathematical knowledge at 36 months (n = 102) and 60 months of age (n = 98). The group with SB had difficulty compared to TD peers on all mathematical tasks except for transformation on quantities in the subitizable range. At 36 months, vocabulary knowledge, visual-spatial, and fine motor abilities predicted achievement on a measure of informal math knowledge in both groups. At 60 months of age, phonological awareness, visual-spatial ability, and fine motor skill were uniquely and differentially related to counting knowledge, oral counting, object-based arithmetic skills, and quantitative concepts. Importantly, the patterns of association between these predictors and mathematical performance were similar across the groups. A novel finding is that fine motor skill uniquely predicted object-based arithmetic abilities in both groups, suggesting developmental continuity in the neurocognitive correlates of early object-based and later symbolic arithmetic problem solving. Models combining 36-month mathematical ability and these language-based, visual-spatial, and fine motor abilities at 60 months accounted for considerable variance on 60-month informal mathematical outcomes. Results are discussed with reference to models of mathematical development and early identification of risk in preschoolers with neurodevelopmental disorder.

Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum, 2: Assessing Our Success with Students at Eckerd College

The Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum (SSAC) library consists of activities to reinforce or teach quantitative literacy or mathematical concepts and skills in context. Each SSAC “module” consists of a PowerPoint presentation with embedded Excel spreadsheets. Each student works through a presentation, thinks about the in-context problem, figures out how to solve it mathematically, and builds spreadsheets to calculate and examine answers. To assess the effectiveness of SSAC modules, I surveyed Eckerd College undergraduates in two separate studies. Two undergraduate research assistants and I generated preand post-tests for 10 SSAC modules. We hired 21 undergraduates who conducted 62 individual module assessments during their free time in exchange for modest stipends. To complement this initial study, 12 students assessed three modules in the context of an upper-level geology course. In both the individual and in class experiments, students with a wide variety of academic interests and expertise showed improvements in quantitative and Excel skills. Based on my experiences, I recommend that instructors wishing to use SSAC modules carefully match student ability with module difficulty, use more than one module over the course of a semester, ensure that students have realistic expectations before starting, and facilitate student use in a supervised setting.

Multivariate consumption profiling (MCP) for intelligent meter systems: a methodology to define categories and levels

Multivariate Consumption Profiling (MCP) is a methodology to analyse the readings made by Intelligent Meter (IM) systems. Even in advanced water companies with well supported IM, full statistical analyses are not performed, since no efficient methods are available to deal with all the data items. Multivariate Analysis has been proposed as a convenient way to synthesise all IM information. MCP uses Factor Analysis, Cluster Analysis and Discriminant Analysis to analyse data variability by categories and levels, in a cyclical improvement process. MCP obtains a conceptual schema of a reference population on a set of classifying tables, one for each category. These tables are quantitative concepts to evaluate consumption, meter sizing, leakage and undermetering for populations and groupings and individual cases. They give structuring items to enhance “traditional” statistics. All the relevant data from each new meter reading can be matched to the classifying tables. A set of indexes is computed and thresholds are used to select those cases with the desired profiles. The paper gives an example of a MCP conceptual schema for five categories, three variables, and five levels, and obtains its classifying tables. It shows the use of case profiles to implement actions in accordance with the operative objectives.

Is All Cartel Activity Evil?*

The new Australian cartel laws prohibit a provision of a contract, arrangement or understanding that inter alia, results in price fixing and output restriction between competitors in the relevant market. This is subject to a recognition that sometimes such conduct can be in the public interest, in which case the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) may grant an authorisation. One such instance may be an activity characterised by substantial externalised cost. An authorisation application would need to provide suitable evidence in support of the underlying case being argued. Traditionally in Australia, such evidence has been qualitative in nature; however, where possible, the ACCC and its counterparts in the EU and New Zealand encourage quantitative estimates. This is a case study of the welfare impact of output restrictions in the Australian beer industry, which is a source of substantial negative externalities. A standard simulation exercise is utilised as an example of how applicants and the competition regulator might combine theoretical and quantitative concepts to better achieve the objectives of the new legislation.

Risk and Responsibility: A Complex and Evolving Relationship

This paper analyses the nature of the relationship between risk and responsibility. Since neither the concept of risk nor the concept of responsibility has an unequivocal definition, it is obvious that there is no single interpretation of their relationship. After introducing the different meanings of responsibility used in this paper, we analyse four conceptions of risk. This allows us to make their link with responsibility explicit and to determine if a shift in the connection between risk and responsibility can be outlined. (1) In the engineer’s paradigm, the quantitative conception of risk does not include any concept of responsibility. Their relationship is indirect, the locus of responsibility being risk management. (2) In Mary Douglas’ cultural theory, risks are constructed through the responsibilities they engage. (3) Rayner and (4) Wolff go further by integrating forms of responsibility in the definition of risk itself. Analysis of these four frameworks shows that the concepts of risk and responsibility are increasingly intertwined. This tendency is reinforced by increasing public awareness and a call for the integration of a moral dimension in risk management. Therefore, we suggest that a form of virtue-responsibility should also be integrated in the concept of risk.

Phase-field model for multiphase systems with different thermodynamic factors

A modified phase-field model for quantitative simulations of low-speed phase transitions in multiphase systems is proposed, which takes into account the difference between thermodynamic factors in all the phases. The presented model is based on the quantitative phase-field concept developed by Steinbach et al. [I. Steinbach, F. Pezolla, B. Nestler, M. Seeelberg, R. Prieler, G.J. Schmitz, J.L.L. Rezende, A phase field concept for multiphase systems, Physica D 94 (1996) 135] for multiphase systems allowing to consider the multiphase transition as a superposition of pairwise interactions between two phases. We complete this approach and develop a model, which uses parameters derived from chemical free energy functions of individual phases evaluated from experimental data by the CALPHAD method Lukas et al. (2007) [17]. Because the thermodynamic factors are different in various phases we need to evaluate a special form of total chemical free energy function of a multiphase mixture and use it in the phase-field model. It is shown, that for the developed model the thin-interface asymptotic and the anti-trapping term developed previously for the solidification of pure substances can be applied. The model is verified by an example of the Al–Ni system whose peritectic structural morphology during the directional solidification is investigated. The suggested model can be also extended to multicomponent systems.

Social Geography of Developmental Health in the Early Years

What happens to children in their earliest years is critical for their development throughout the life course. The years from zero to school age are foundational for brain and biological development. Attachment and face recognition; impulse control and regulation of physical aggression; executive function in the prefrontal cortex and focused attention; fine and gross motor functions and coordination; receptive and expressive language; and understandings of quantitative concepts are all established during this time and become embedded in the architecture and function of the brain (Doherty 1997; Kolb 2009; McCain and Mustard 1999). Brain and biological development are in turn expressed through three broad domains of development of the whole child: physical, social-emotional and language-cognitive, which together are the basis of "developmental health" (Keating and Hertzman 1999). Developmental health influences many aspects of well-being, including obesity and stunting, mental health, heart disease, competence in literacy and numeracy, criminality and economic participation throughout life (Irwin et al. 2007). Accordingly, developmental health is the central concern of this article.

Reconceptualizing Vagueness: Legal Rules and Social Orders

'[I]ndefiniteness' is not quantitative concept.' The void for vagueness doctrine is traditionally understood as concerned with the capacity of legal rules to control conduct. The doctrine underwrites the clarity of the law's distinction between acceptable and forbidden behavior, so as both to guide the actions of citizens and to restrict the discretion of government officials. In the words of recent Supreme Court decision, the doctrine, [a]s generally stated,... requires that penal statute define the criminal offense with sufficient that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.2 The traditional account of void for vagueness doctrine thus focuses on the nature of legal rules. It invites us to perceive the question of vagueness as continuous variable, as a matter of degree,3 so that one can speak of rule as having more or less definiteness and therefore as exercising more or less control over government caprice and citizen conduct. For this reason an unconstitutionally vague statute can be rewritten so as to be clearer or more precise. Hence vagueness analysis is said to address itself to the form of regulation, without reference to the ultimate amenability to regulation of its subject.4 I do not mean to deny that this traditional image of vagueness doctrine is often valid and appropriate. But I wish in this Essay to call attention to significant class of cases in which this image is inaccurate and misleading. In these cases courts do not use vagueness doctrine to focus on the isolated properties of legal rules, but rather to analyze the relationship between legal rules and forms of social order. My hypothesis is that different kinds of legal rules presuppose and instantiate different forms of social order, and that vagueness doctrine is frequently employed to distinguish among the

1, 2, 3, 4: Infusing Quantitative Literacy into Introductory Biology

Biology of the twenty-first century is an increasingly quantitative science. Undergraduate biology education therefore needs to provide opportunities for students to develop fluency in the tools and language of quantitative disciplines. Quantitative literacy (QL) is important for future scientists as well as for citizens, who need to interpret numeric information and data-based claims regarding nearly every aspect of daily life. To address the need for QL in biology education, we incorporated quantitative concepts throughout a semester-long introductory biology course at a large research university. Early in the course, we assessed the quantitative skills that students bring to the introductory biology classroom and found that students had difficulties in performing simple calculations, representing data graphically, and articulating data-driven arguments. In response to students' learning needs, we infused the course with quantitative concepts aligned with the existing course content and learning objectives. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by significant improvement in the quality of students' graphical representations of biological data. Infusing QL in introductory biology presents challenges. Our study, however, supports the conclusion that it is feasible in the context of an existing course, consistent with the goals of college biology education, and promotes students' development of important quantitative skills.