Measurement refers generally to the process of assigning a numeric value to, or ordering characteristics or traits of, entities under study. Measurement is necessary for building and testing theory, specifying problems, and defining goals. It is arguably one of the most important and diffcult tasks in social work research. Social work researchers who are not expert in developing, selecting, and using measures will not be able to contribute maximally to the social work knowledge base. Such knowledge and skills related to measurement ultimately determines the extent to which social work research can effectively inform social policy and social work interventions. This book is to serve as a guide for developing, selecting, and using measures in social work research. In particular, this book provides a detailed review of contemporary validity theory; an update on the major issues of reliability; common errors in measurement of latent variables; and suggestions on measurement of social networks and collectives. An important theme of this book is the focus on the creative potential of measurement - that is, helping social work researchers think about the wide variety of ways that social work concepts can be measured. Reflecting on these differences raises questions about underlying assumptions that in turn inspires creative theoretical insights. Rather than seeing measurement as simply a task to be completed in the research process, we will encourage the reader to think creatively about measurement and theory. This book also addresses the interdependency of measurement and theory construction. In other words, this book covers how measurement and theory are connected in two different ways. First, every measure has its own working theory that relates the measure to the concept being measured. Second, theory construction is dependent on measurement. What we learn using a given measure could be different if a concept was measured in a different way.

These four working papers present research designs for system-wide data analysis and productivity measurement for evaluation. The four papers, prepared by four working teams, are titled, "Performance Measurement and the Criminal Justice System," "A Conceptual Basis for Effectiveness Measurement of Law Enforcement Activities"' "Performance Measures for Evaluation of LEAA and CJS Programs;" and "A Program of Research on Performance Measurement and Evaluation for the Criminal Justice System." Concepts covered by the papers include total social cost associated with crime and crime control, a systematic approach to determine a methodology for the measurement of law enforcement effectiveness, system-level aggregate performance measures, analysis and interpretation of criminal justice statistics, and operational performance measures. An additional topic coverage is the use of evaluation as a technical tool for better measurement and resource allocation

The vigorous development of the internet and other information technologies have significantly expanded the amount and variety of sources of information available on decision making. This book presents the current trends of soft computing applications to the fields of measurements and information acquisition. Main topics are the production and presentation of information including multimedia, virtual environment, and computer animation as well as the improvement of decisions made on the basis of this information in various applications ranging from engineering to business. In order to make high-quality decisions, one has to fuse information of different kinds from a variety of sources with differing degrees of reliability and uncertainty. The necessity to use intelligent methodologies in the analysis of such systems is demonstrated as well as the inspiring relation of computational intelligence to its natural counterpart. This book includes several contributions demonstrating a further movement towards the interdisciplinary collaboration of the biological and computer sciences with examples from biology and robotics.

Papers presented at the First and Second IGT Symposium, Chicago, IL, USA, 26-28 August 1985 and 30 April-2 May 1986.

Measurement of Airborne Pollutants stresses the importance of developing air pollution measurements that is central to progress in the formulation of environmental policy, efficient regulation of emissions, and satisfactory control of processes which emit pollutants into the atmosphere. This book is divided into two parts. Part 1 deals with the operational evaluations of emerging techniques for ambient measurements of airborne particles and for low levels of nitrogen dioxide. The calibration techniques for automatic analyses or for gas cylinders obtained from commercial suppliers and fundamental issues in the measurement of acid deposition are also deliberated. The assessment of air pollution sources that includes analyzing dioxins and furans at sub-nanogram levels and particle or dust source assessments through dust deposit and particle flux gauges are described in Part 2. This publication is valuable to environmental scientists and researchers concerned with air pollution measurements.

This book discusses how and why historical measurement units developed, and reviews useful methods for making conversions as well as situations in which dimensional analysis can be used. It starts from the history of length measurement, which is one of the oldest measures used by humans. It highlights the importance of area measurement, briefly discussing the methods for determining areas mathematically and by measurement. The book continues on to detail the development of measures for volume, mass, weight, time, temperature, angle, electrical units, amounts of substances, and light intensity. The seven SI/metric base units are highlighted, as well as a number of other units that have historically been used as base units. Providing a comprehensive reference for interconversion among the commonly measured quantities in the different measurement systems with engineering accuracy, it also examines the relationships among base units in fields such as mechanical/thermal, electromagnetic and physical flow rates and fluxes using diagrams.

We planned this book as a Festschrift for Smitty Stevens because we thought he might be retiring around 1974, although we knew very well that only death or deep illness would stop Smitty from doing science. Death came suddenly, unexpectedly - after a full day of skiing at Vail, Colorado on the annual trip with wife Didi to the Winter Conference on Brain Research. Smitty liked winter conferences near ski resorts and often tried to get us other psychophysicists to organize one. Every person is unique. Smitty would have said it's mainly because each of us has so many genes that two combinations just alike would be well-nigh impossible. But most of us strive in many ways to be like others, and to abide by the norms (some smaller number try even harder to be unlike other people); as a result many persons seem to lose their uniqueness, their individuality. Not Smitty. He tried neither to be like others nor to be different. He took himself as he found himself, and ascribed peculiarities, strengths, and weaknesses to his pioneering Utah forebears, in whom he took much pride. His was the true and right nonconformity. He approached each task, each problem, ready to grapple with the facts and set them into meaningful order. And if the answer he came up with was different from everyone else's, well that was too bad.

This book is written for all those involved in measurement of soil water phenomena, whether they be environmental scientists, field technicians, agronomists, meteorologists, hydrogeologists, foresters, physical geographers, civil or water engineers or students in these subjects. It contains a comprehensive description of all the major methods used for measurement of soil water content and potential, solute concentration, transport and balance of water and solutes, including recharge to groundwater aquifers. The emphasis is firmly on techniques which can be applied in the field or on samples obtained from the field. The theory and practice of the workings of the main instruments and methods available is described, along with practical tips on surmounting some of the main difficulties and explanations of many commonly encountered jargon words.

Measurement is a fundamental concept that underpins almost every aspect of the modern world. It is central to the sciences, social sciences, medicine, and economics, but it affects everyday life. We measure everything - from the distance of far-off galaxies to the temperature of the air, levels of risk, political majorities, taxes, blood pressure, IQ, and weight. The history of measurement goes back to the ancient world, and its story has been one of gradual standardization. Today there are different types of measurement, levels of accuracy, and systems of units, applied in different contexts. Measurement involves notions of variability, accuracy, reliability, and error, and challenges such as the measurement of extreme values. In this Very Short Introduction, David Hand explains the common mathematical framework underlying all measurement, the main approaches to measurement, and the challenges involved. Following a brief historical account of measurement, he discusses measurement as used in the physical sciences and engineering, the life sciences and medicine, the social and behavioural sciences, economics, business, and public policy. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.