To request a blog written on a specific topic, please email James@StatisticsSolutions.com with your suggestion. Thank you!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Attribute

An attribute is generally a quality or characteristic that an individual possess. Some of the common attributes that an individual possesses are smoking, drinking, blindness, intelligence, etc. In or to determine attributes in statistics, the theory of attributes is used. Here, quality is emphasized over quantity. Hence, attribute cannot be measured or calculated, but it requires a completely different mode and method. A distinctive statistical treatment is required to compute attribute.


Statistics Solutions is the country's leader in qualitative analysis and dissertation consulting. Contact Statistics Solutions today for a free 30-minute consultation.

Attributes are detected by their presence or absence in a particular individual. Statistics is therefore widely used to determine attributes through the various numbers of techniques available. These statistical methods are used in the study of variables and are used in a wide scope in the theory of attribute. The theory of attribute has certain representations. A population is divided into two classes (i.e. negative and positive). This is done in accordance to the presence or the absence of attribute. The positive class indicating the absence of the attribute is represented by the roman letters A, B, C etc., while the negative class is indicated by Greek letters - α, β etc.

Any combination between two attributes is denoted by assembling the two attributes. For example, if the combination is A and B, then the letters would be denoted as AB. If the population is divided into two subclasses, then it is called dichotomous classification. Observations that have been allocated to the attributes are termed as class frequencies, which are denoted by bracketing the attribute symbols. For instance, (A) stands for the frequency of the attribute A. A class characterized by ‘n’ attribute is called a class of nth order and the matching frequency of that attribute is the frequency of the nth order. An example, (A) is a class frequency of the first order. These class symbols of the attribute also work as an operator. For example, A.N=(A) implies that the process of dichotomizing N in accordance to the attribute A gives the class frequency equal to (A). Attributes A and B are said to be independent only if there is no connection between the two. When independent, the same proportion of A attribute occurs amongst B attribute and amongst the β attribute, and the proportion of B attribute amongst A attribute is same as that amongst the α attribute. The attributes A and B may be considered to be linked if they are not independent but are related in some way. For positive association between two attributes, (AB) > (A) (B) / N and are negatively connected if (AB) < (A) (B) / N. If attribute A cannot occur with attribute B, but attribute B can occur with attribute, A (or vice versa), then the two attributes are actually connected. Again, two attributes are said to be connected if the two occur together in a number of cases. The reliability between the two attributes (A)=20 and (AB)=25 is not present as the attribute (AB) cannot be greater than the attribute (A) if they have been studied from the same population.

The consistency between the two attributes (A)=20 and (AB)=25 is not present as the attribute (AB) cannot be greater than the attribute (A) if they have been observed from the same population.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Doctoral Dissertation Consultants

Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can be extremely helpful for doctoral students looking to get their degrees. Because a dissertation is a mandatory requirement for graduating, it is the most important aspect of a student’s life. The dissertation, then, is the biggest academic project for a doctoral student. A dissertation is a difficult and time consuming task and it carries with it many complications. The point of a dissertation is to allow a student to demonstrate the practical application of the material they have studied throughout their time in academia. Dissertations can also enhance students’ existing skills in innovative means. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can help in the arduous task and completion of the dissertation.

Statistics Solutions is the country's leader in doctoral dissertation consulting. Contact Statistics Solutions today for a free 30-minute consultation.

Doctoral Dissertation Consultants start by determining what topic a doctoral student should choose. After doing a considerable amount of research, Doctoral Dissertation Consultants guide the student through the deciding of the topic. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants also help draft a strategy once a student has analyzed the validity of the topic upon which they want to work. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants know that when starting a dissertation, a student should always read and explore the existing published material. During this process of research and finding of information, one has to increase his or her knowledge on the topic, and Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can be of great help with this. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants, then, assist a student in the identification of the missing parts of the subject and topic. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants also help students to formulate some ideas on the existing knowledge of the topic. This will give them an idea of what to research and study. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can also help with the literature review—something that can also be very time consuming. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can teach a student how to formulate a search profile. This search profile can be very beneficial in guiding and organizing a student’s valuable research. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants also help in limiting a student’s topic to manageable proportions, which provides the student manageable data, instead of a scattered mass of information.

Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can help a student in the writing of a topic—as this can be complicated and difficult. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can further help by doing research and searching through dictionaries, encyclopedias and the history of the topic. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can help students in the determination of whether or not their selected topic already exists in the field. After that aspect of the research is completed with the help of Doctoral Dissertation Consultants, the students and the consultants will then start collecting information to support their dissertation. Because the Dissertation Consultants help with all of this research, the student is saved much valuable time as they are better able to narrow down all that he/she needs to do to complete the dissertation.

Doctoral Dissertation Consultants also make sense of the collected data. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants help students gather, interpret and format all of the data and all of their sources. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants can help a student transcribe the references in a particular and precise standard format (usually APA format). Therefore, Doctoral Dissertation Consultants help with the formatting of the dissertation as well.

Doctoral Dissertation Consultants assist students as they move to writing the main dissertation. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants always give step-by-step guidance on all parts of the dissertation. This includes help on the title page, the abstract, the acknowledgements, the list of tables and figures, the main body, the conclusion, the glossary and the bibliography of the dissertation. Once this is completed with the help of Doctoral Dissertation Consultants, the student is well on his/her way to successfully completing their doctoral degree. Doctoral Dissertation Consultants are a catalyst to success as they make the students finish their dissertations on time and with precision and accuracy.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a kind of research in which the information about any discipline is inquired into with the help of research tools. The major task of qualitative research is basically to obtain an in-depth understanding of the subject that has been taken under consideration by the researcher.

Statistics Solutions is the country's leader in qualitative research and consulting. Contact Statistics Solutions today for a free 30-minute consultation.

Qualitative research in the field of psychology can be used to have an in-depth understanding about certain human behaviors. Qualitative research also helps in understanding why some human behaviors prevail. In order to understand certain human behaviors, qualitative research can be conducted by in-depth focus group study, contextual interviews, individual interviews, etc.

Qualitative research in the field of medicine/nursing is utilized in those cases where there are decision making problems due to certain insufficient information, or due to contradictory information. Consensus methods in medical and health service research are termed qualitative research. There are basically two types of consensus methods or qualitative research, and they are the Delphi Process and the Nominal Group Technique.

The Delphi Process in qualitative research is basically the process that collects and filters knowledge by using the medium of questionnaires, which are made by experts in questionnaires. These obtain appropriate and controlled feedback. In qualitative research, controlled feedback means that the feedback obtained is not a contradicted one.

Nominal Group Technique in qualitative research is the structured variation of small group discussion methods. This method in qualitative research generally involves ideas and views of a group of people rather than that of an individual. This method in qualitative research generally encourages participation of more passive group members. The basic advantage of this group in qualitative research is that it encourages equal participation of all the group members.

Qualitative research is extensively used in the field of business, especially in market research. Whenever a new company plans to launch a new product, it performs pre- launch qualitative research, or a survey about what kind of attributes a customer wants on the product. After launching the product, the company performs post-launch qualitative research, or a survey about the views of the consumer about the new product.

However, researchers argue that the qualitative research mentioned above is quite artificial. Thus, more advanced kinds of techniques have been introduced, other than qualitative research.

Suppose a company is launching new software (for example) and wants to know the market scenario for the product. In this case, qualitative research involves telephone interviews of people by preparing a questionnaire, which involves questions like the company’s turnover, the company’s budget on IT products, etc.

Although qualitative research involving questions like the company’s turnover can be very sensitive, a response to this question can depend upon the researcher and how he or she has framed the question.

There is an association called the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, which is a nonprofit organization. This organization promotes all aspects of qualitative research. Through Qualitative Research Consultants Association, we can have access to nearly 1000 qualitative research consultants. The qualitative research consultants include group moderators, facilitators, interviewers and planners. The consultants of qualitative research mainly provide expertise on focus groups, individual in-depth interviews, ethnography, observational research, usability research, idea generation, etc.

There is also an international association for qualitative research which focuses upon the practice and study of qualitative research. The aim of this international association for qualitative research is to improve the theory involved in qualitative research and the usage of qualitative research across various disciplines of human sciences.