%0 Book %A Transportation Research Board %A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine %T Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement %@ 978-0-309-46201-3 %D 2017 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24818/improving-motor-carrier-safety-measurement %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24818/improving-motor-carrier-safety-measurement %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Transportation and Infrastructure %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 182 %X Every year roughly 100,000 fatal and injury crashes occur in the United States involving large trucks and buses. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in the U.S. Department of Transportation works to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. FMCSA uses information that is collected on the frequency of approximately 900 different violations of safety regulations discovered during (mainly) roadside inspections to assess motor carriers’ compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, as well as to evaluate their compliance in comparison with their peers. Through use of this information, FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) identifies carriers to receive its available interventions in order to reduce the risk of crashes across all carriers. Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement examines the effectiveness of the use of the percentile ranks produced by SMS for identifying high-risk carriers, and if not, what alternatives might be preferred. In addition, this report evaluates the accuracy and sufficiency of the data used by SMS, to assess whether other approaches to identifying unsafe carriers would identify high-risk carriers more effectively, and to reflect on how members of the public use the SMS and what effect making the SMS information public has had on reducing crashes. %0 Book %T Record Linkage Techniques -- 1997: Proceedings of an International Workshop and Exposition %D 1999 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/6491/record-linkage-techniques-1997-proceedings-of-an-international-workshop-and %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/6491/record-linkage-techniques-1997-proceedings-of-an-international-workshop-and %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Math, Chemistry, and Physics %K Surveys and Statistics %P 520 %0 Book %E Szpiro, George G. %T The Secret Life of Numbers: 50 Easy Pieces on How Mathematicians Work and Think %D 2006 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11543/the-secret-life-of-numbers-50-easy-pieces-on-how %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11543/the-secret-life-of-numbers-50-easy-pieces-on-how %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Math, Chemistry, and Physics %K Surveys and Statistics %P 224 %X Most of us picture mathematicians laboring before a chalkboard, scribbling numbers and obscure symbols as they mutter unintelligibly. This lighthearted (but realistic) sneak-peak into the everyday world of mathematicians turns that stereotype on its head.Most people have little idea what mathematicians do or how they think. It’s often difficult to see how their seemingly arcane and esoteric work applies to our own everyday lives. But mathematics also holds a special allure for many people. We are drawn to its inherent beauty and fascinated by its complexity—but often intimidated by its presumed difficulty. The Secret Life of Numbers opens our eyes to the joys of mathematics, introducing us to the charming, often whimsical side, of the discipline. Divided into several parts, the book looks at interesting and largely unknown historical tidbits, introduces the largerthan- life practitioners of mathematics through the ages, profiles some of the most significant unsolved conjectures, and describes problems and puzzles that have already been solved. Rounding out the table of contents is a host of mathematical miscellany—all of which add up to 50 fun, sometimes cheeky, shorttakes on the field. Chock full of stories, anecdotes, and entertaining vignettes, The Secret Life of Numbers shows us how mathematics really does affect almost every aspect of life—from the law to geography, elections to botany—and we come to appreciate the delight and gratification that mathematics holds for all of us. %0 Book %A National Research Council %E Citro, Constance F. %E Martin, Margaret E. %E Straf, Miron L. %T Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Fourth Edition %@ 978-0-309-12175-0 %D 2009 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/12564/principles-and-practices-for-a-federal-statistical-agency-fourth-edition %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/12564/principles-and-practices-for-a-federal-statistical-agency-fourth-edition %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 135 %X Since 1992, the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) has produced a book on principles and practices for a federal statistical agency, updating the document every 4 years to provide a current edition to newly appointed cabinet secretaries at the beginning of each presidential administration. This fourth edition presents and comments on four basic principles that statistical agencies must embody in order to carry out their mission fully: (1) They must produce objective data that are relevant to policy issues, (2) they must achieve and maintain credibility among data users, (3) they must achieve and maintain trust among data providers, and (4) they must achieve and maintain a strong position of independence from the appearance and reality of political control. The book also discusses 11 important practices that are means for statistical agencies to live up to the four principles. These practices include a commitment to quality and professional practice and an active program of methodological and substantive research. This fourth edition adds the principle that statistical agencies must operate from a strong position of independence and the practice that agencies must have ongoing internal and external evaluations of their programs. %0 Book %A National Research Council %E Citro, Constance F. %E Straf, Miron L. %T Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Fifth Edition %@ 978-0-309-28433-2 %D 2013 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18318/principles-and-practices-for-a-federal-statistical-agency-fifth-edition %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18318/principles-and-practices-for-a-federal-statistical-agency-fifth-edition %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 178 %X Publicly available statistics from government agencies that are credible, relevant, accurate, and timely are essential for policy makers, individuals, households, businesses, academic institutions, and other organizations to make informed decisions. Even more, the effective operation of a democratic system of government depends on the unhindered flow of statistical information to its citizens. In the United States, federal statistical agencies in cabinet departments and independent agencies are the governmental units whose principal function is to compile, analyze, and disseminate information for such statistical purposes as describing population characteristics and trends, planning and monitoring programs, and conducting research and evaluation. The work of these agencies is coordinated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Statistical agencies may acquire information not only from surveys or censuses of people and organizations, but also from such sources as government administrative records, private-sector datasets, and Internet sources that are judged of suitable quality and relevance for statistical use. They may conduct analyses, but they do not advocate policies or take partisan positions. Statistical purposes for which they provide information relate to descriptions of groups and exclude any interest in or identification of an individual person, institution, or economic unit. Four principles are fundamental for a federal statistical agency: relevance to policy issues, credibility among data users, trust among data providers, and independence from political and other undue external influence. Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Fifth Edition explains these four principles in detail. %0 Book %A Transportation Research Board %T How We Travel: A Sustainable National Program for Travel Data %D 2011 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13125/how-we-travel-a-sustainable-national-program-for-travel-data %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13125/how-we-travel-a-sustainable-national-program-for-travel-data %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 136 %X TRB Special Report 304: How We Travel: A Sustainable National Program for Travel Data assesses the current state of travel data at the federal, state, and local levels and defines an achievable and sustainable travel data system that could support public and private transportation decision making. The committee that developed the report recommends the organization of a National Travel Data Program built on a core of essential passenger and freight travel data sponsored at the federal level and well integrated with travel data collected by states, metropolitan planning organizations, transit and other local agencies, and the private sector. %0 Book %A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine %T A Smarter National Surveillance System for Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Century %@ 978-0-309-46299-0 %D 2018 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24835/a-smarter-national-surveillance-system-for-occupational-safety-and-health-in-the-21st-century %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24835/a-smarter-national-surveillance-system-for-occupational-safety-and-health-in-the-21st-century %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Health and Medicine %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Industry and Labor %K Surveys and Statistics %P 318 %X The workplace is where 156 million working adults in the United States spend many waking hours, and it has a profound influence on health and well-being. Although some occupations and work-related activities are more hazardous than others and face higher rates of injuries, illness, disease, and fatalities, workers in all occupations face some form of work-related safety and health concerns. Understanding those risks to prevent injury, illness, or even fatal incidents is an important function of society. Occupational safety and health (OSH) surveillance provides the data and analyses needed to understand the relationships between work and injuries and illnesses in order to improve worker safety and health and prevent work-related injuries and illnesses. Information about the circumstances in which workers are injured or made ill on the job and how these patterns change over time is essential to develop effective prevention programs and target future research. The nation needs a robust OSH surveillance system to provide this critical information for informing policy development, guiding educational and regulatory activities, developing safer technologies, and enabling research and prevention strategies that serves and protects all workers. A Smarter National Surveillance System for Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Century provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of OSH surveillance. This report is intended to be useful to federal and state agencies that have an interest in occupational safety and health, but may also be of interest broadly to employers, labor unions and other worker advocacy organizations, the workers' compensation insurance industry, as well as state epidemiologists, academic researchers, and the broader public health community. The recommendations address the strengths and weaknesses of the envisioned system relative to the status quo and both short- and long-term actions and strategies needed to bring about a progressive evolution of the current system. %0 Book %A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine %E Lauritsen, Janet L. %E Cork, Daniel L. %T Modernizing Crime Statistics: Report 1: Defining and Classifying Crime %@ 978-0-309-44109-4 %D 2016 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/23492/modernizing-crime-statistics-report-1-defining-and-classifying-crime %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/23492/modernizing-crime-statistics-report-1-defining-and-classifying-crime %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 286 %X To derive statistics about crime – to estimate its levels and trends, assess its costs to and impacts on society, and inform law enforcement approaches to prevent it – a conceptual framework for defining and thinking about crime is virtually a prerequisite. Developing and maintaining such a framework is no easy task, because the mechanics of crime are ever evolving and shifting: tied to shifts and development in technology, society, and legislation. Interest in understanding crime surged in the 1920s, which proved to be a pivotal decade for the collection of nationwide crime statistics. Now established as a permanent agency, the Census Bureau commissioned the drafting of a manual for preparing crime statistics—intended for use by the police, corrections departments, and courts alike. The new manual sought to solve a perennial problem by suggesting a standard taxonomy of crime. Shortly after the Census Bureau issued its manual, the International Association of Chiefs of Police in convention adopted a resolution to create a Committee on Uniform Crime Records —to begin the process of describing what a national system of data on crimes known to the police might look like. The key distinction between the rigorous classification proposed in this report and the “classifications” that have come before in U.S. crime statistics is that it is intended to partition the entirety of behaviors that could be considered criminal offenses into mutually exclusive categories. Modernizing Crime Statistics: Report 1: Defining and Classifying Crime assesses and makes recommendations for the development of a modern set of crime measures in the United States and the best means for obtaining them. This first report develops a new classification of crime by weighing various perspectives on how crime should be defined and organized with the needs and demands of the full array of crime data users and stakeholders. %0 Book %A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine %E Lauritsen, Janet L. %E Cork, Daniel L. %T Modernizing Crime Statistics: Report 2: New Systems for Measuring Crime %@ 978-0-309-47261-6 %D 2018 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25035/modernizing-crime-statistics-report-2-new-systems-for-measuring-crime %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25035/modernizing-crime-statistics-report-2-new-systems-for-measuring-crime %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 280 %X To derive statistics about crime – to estimate its levels and trends, assess its costs to and impacts on society, and inform law enforcement approaches to prevent it - a conceptual framework for defining and thinking about crime is virtually a prerequisite. Developing and maintaining such a framework is no easy task, because the mechanics of crime are ever evolving and shifting: tied to shifts and development in technology, society, and legislation. Interest in understanding crime surged in the 1920s, which proved to be a pivotal decade for the collection of nationwide crime statistics. Now established as a permanent agency, the Census Bureau commissioned the drafting of a manual for preparing crime statistics—intended for use by the police, corrections departments, and courts alike. The new manual sought to solve a perennial problem by suggesting a standard taxonomy of crime. Shortly after the Census Bureau issued its manual, the International Association of Chiefs of Police in convention adopted a resolution to create a Committee on Uniform Crime Records —to begin the process of describing what a national system of data on crimes known to the police might look like. Report 1 performed a comprehensive reassessment of what is meant by crime in U.S. crime statistics and recommends a new classification of crime to organize measurement efforts. This second report examines methodological and implementation issues and presents a conceptual blueprint for modernizing crime statistics. %0 Book %A National Research Council %E Abraham, Katharine G. %E Mackie, Christopher %T Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States: Interim Report %D 2003 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10769/designing-nonmarket-accounts-for-the-united-states-interim-report %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10769/designing-nonmarket-accounts-for-the-united-states-interim-report %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Industry and Labor %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 48 %0 Book %A National Research Council %T Fueling Innovation and Discovery: The Mathematical Sciences in the 21st Century %@ 978-0-309-25473-1 %D 2012 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13373/fueling-innovation-and-discovery-the-mathematical-sciences-in-the-21st %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13373/fueling-innovation-and-discovery-the-mathematical-sciences-in-the-21st %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Math, Chemistry, and Physics %K Surveys and Statistics %P 64 %X The mathematical sciences are part of everyday life. Modern communication, transportation, science, engineering, technology, medicine, manufacturing, security, and finance all depend on the mathematical sciences. Fueling Innovation and Discovery describes recent advances in the mathematical sciences and advances enabled by mathematical sciences research. It is geared toward general readers who would like to know more about ongoing advances in the mathematical sciences and how these advances are changing our understanding of the world, creating new technologies, and transforming industries. Although the mathematical sciences are pervasive, they are often invoked without an explicit awareness of their presence. Prepared as part of the study on the Mathematical Sciences in 2025, a broad assessment of the current state of the mathematical sciences in the United States, Fueling Innovation and Discovery presents mathematical sciences advances in an engaging way. The report describes the contributions that mathematical sciences research has made to advance our understanding of the universe and the human genome. It also explores how the mathematical sciences are contributing to healthcare and national security, and the importance of mathematical knowledge and training to a range of industries, such as information technology and entertainment. Fueling Innovation and Discovery will be of use to policy makers, researchers, business leaders, students, and others interested in learning more about the deep connections between the mathematical sciences and every other aspect of the modern world. To function well in a technologically advanced society, every educated person should be familiar with multiple aspects of the mathematical sciences. %0 Book %A National Research Council %T Measuring Food Insecurity and Hunger: Phase 1 Report %@ 978-0-309-09596-9 %D 2005 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11227/measuring-food-insecurity-and-hunger-phase-1-report %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11227/measuring-food-insecurity-and-hunger-phase-1-report %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Food and Nutrition %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 80 %0 Book %A National Research Council %E Mellody, Maureen %T Robust Methods for the Analysis of Images and Videos for Fisheries Stock Assessment: Summary of a Workshop %@ 978-0-309-31469-5 %D 2015 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18986/robust-methods-for-the-analysis-of-images-and-videos-for-fisheries-stock-assessment %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18986/robust-methods-for-the-analysis-of-images-and-videos-for-fisheries-stock-assessment %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Math, Chemistry, and Physics %K Agriculture %K Surveys and Statistics %P 88 %X The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for the stewardship of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat. As part of this charge, NMFS conducts stock assessments of the abundance and composition of fish stocks in several bodies of water. At present, stock assessments rely heavily on human data-gathering and analysis. Automatic means of fish stock assessments are appealing because they offer the potential to improve efficiency and reduce human workload and perhaps develop higher-fidelity measurements. The use of images and video, when accompanies by appropriate statistical analyses of the inferred data, is of increasing importance for estimating the abundance of species and their age distributions. Robust Methods for the Analysis of Images and Videos for Fisheries Stock Assessment is the summary of a workshop convened by the National Research Council Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics to discuss analysis techniques for images and videos for fisheries stock assessment. Experts from diverse communities shared perspective about the most efficient path toward improved automation of visual information and discussed both near-term and long-term goals that can be achieved through research and development efforts. This report is a record of the presentations and discussions of this event. %0 Book %A National Research Council %E Abraham, Katharine G. %E Mackie, Christopher %T Beyond the Market: Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States %@ 978-0-309-09319-4 %D 2005 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11181/beyond-the-market-designing-nonmarket-accounts-for-the-united-states %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11181/beyond-the-market-designing-nonmarket-accounts-for-the-united-states %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Industry and Labor %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 224 %X The national income and product accounts that underlie gross domestic product (GDP), together with other key economic data—price and employment statistics— are widely used as indicators of how well the nation is doing. GDP, however, is focused on the production of goods and services sold in markets and reveals relatively little about important production in the home and other areas outside of markets. A set of satellite accounts—in areas such as health, education, volunteer and home production, and environmental improvement or pollution—would contribute to a better understanding of major issues related to economic growth and societal well-being. Beyond the Market: Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States hopes to encourage social scientists to make further efforts and contributions in the analysis of nonmarket activities and in corresponding data collection and accounting systems. The book illustrates new data sources and new ideas that have improved the prospects for progress. %0 Book %A National Research Council %T Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis %@ 978-0-309-28778-4 %D 2013 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18374/frontiers-in-massive-data-analysis %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18374/frontiers-in-massive-data-analysis %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Math, Chemistry, and Physics %K Surveys and Statistics %P 190 %X Data mining of massive data sets is transforming the way we think about crisis response, marketing, entertainment, cybersecurity and national intelligence. Collections of documents, images, videos, and networks are being thought of not merely as bit strings to be stored, indexed, and retrieved, but as potential sources of discovery and knowledge, requiring sophisticated analysis techniques that go far beyond classical indexing and keyword counting, aiming to find relational and semantic interpretations of the phenomena underlying the data. Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis examines the frontier of analyzing massive amounts of data, whether in a static database or streaming through a system. Data at that scale--terabytes and petabytes--is increasingly common in science (e.g., particle physics, remote sensing, genomics), Internet commerce, business analytics, national security, communications, and elsewhere. The tools that work to infer knowledge from data at smaller scales do not necessarily work, or work well, at such massive scale. New tools, skills, and approaches are necessary, and this report identifies many of them, plus promising research directions to explore. Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis discusses pitfalls in trying to infer knowledge from massive data, and it characterizes seven major classes of computation that are common in the analysis of massive data. Overall, this report illustrates the cross-disciplinary knowledge--from computer science, statistics, machine learning, and application disciplines--that must be brought to bear to make useful inferences from massive data. %0 Book %E Derbyshire, John %T Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra %@ 978-0-309-09657-7 %D 2006 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11540/unknown-quantity-a-real-and-imaginary-history-of-algebra %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11540/unknown-quantity-a-real-and-imaginary-history-of-algebra %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Explore Science %K Math, Chemistry, and Physics %K Surveys and Statistics %P 390 %X Prime Obsession taught us not to be afraid to put the math in a math book. Unknown Quantity heeds the lesson well. So grab your graphing calculators, slip out the slide rules, and buckle up! John Derbyshire is introducing us to algebra through the ages -- and it promises to be just what his die-hard fans have been waiting for. "Here is the story of algebra." With this deceptively simple introduction, we begin our journey. Flanked by formulae, shadowed by roots and radicals, escorted by an expert who navigates unerringly on our behalf, we are guaranteed safe passage through even the most treacherous mathematical terrain. Our first encounter with algebraic arithmetic takes us back 38 centuries to the time of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Ur and Haran, Sodom and Gomorrah. Moving deftly from Abel's proof to the higher levels of abstraction developed by Galois, we are eventually introduced to what algebraists have been focusing on during the last century. As we travel through the ages, it becomes apparent that the invention of algebra was more than the start of a specific discipline of mathematics -- it was also the birth of a new way of thinking that clarified both basic numeric concepts as well as our perception of the world around us. Algebraists broke new ground when they discarded the simple search for solutions to equations and concentrated instead on abstract groups. This dramatic shift in thinking revolutionized mathematics. Written for those among us who are unencumbered by a fear of formulae, Unknown Quantity delivers on its promise to present a history of algebra. Astonishing in its bold presentation of the math and graced with narrative authority, our journey through the world of algebra is at once intellectually satisfying and pleasantly challenging. %0 Book %A National Research Council %T Mathematical Research in Materials Science: Opportunities and Perspectives %@ 978-0-309-04930-6 %D 1993 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/2206/mathematical-research-in-materials-science-opportunities-and-perspectives %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/2206/mathematical-research-in-materials-science-opportunities-and-perspectives %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Engineering and Technology %K Math, Chemistry, and Physics %K Surveys and Statistics %P 144 %X This book describes fruitful past collaborations between the mathematical and materials sciences and indicates future challenges. It seeks both to encourage mathematical sciences research that will complement vital research in materials science and to raise awareness of the value of quantitative methods. The volume encourages both communities to increase cross-disciplinary collaborations, emphasizing that each has much to gain from such an increase, and it presents recommendations for facilitating such work. This book is written for both mathematical and materials science researchers interested in advancing research at this interface; for federal and state agency representatives interested in encouraging such collaborations; and for anyone wanting information on how such cross-disciplinary, collaborative efforts can be accomplished successfully. %0 Book %A National Research Council %T Mathematics and 21st Century Biology %@ 978-0-309-09584-6 %D 2005 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11315/mathematics-and-21st-century-biology %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11315/mathematics-and-21st-century-biology %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Biology and Life Sciences %K Math, Chemistry, and Physics %K Surveys and Statistics %P 162 %X The exponentially increasing amounts of biological data along with comparable advances in computing power are making possible the construction of quantitative, predictive biological systems models. This development could revolutionize those biology-based fields of science. To assist this transformation, the U.S. Department of Energy asked the National Research Council to recommend mathematical research activities to enable more effective use of the large amounts of existing genomic information and the structural and functional genomic information being created. The resulting study is a broad, scientifically based view of the opportunities lying at the mathematical science and biology interface. The book provides a review of past successes, an examination of opportunities at the various levels of biological systems— from molecules to ecosystems—an analysis of cross-cutting themes, and a set of recommendations to advance the mathematics-biology connection that are applicable to all agencies funding research in this area. %0 Book %A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine %E Wunderlich, Gooloo S. %T Rationalizing Rural Area Classifications for the Economic Research Service: A Workshop Summary %@ 978-0-309-38056-0 %D 2016 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/21843/rationalizing-rural-area-classifications-for-the-economic-research-service-a %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/21843/rationalizing-rural-area-classifications-for-the-economic-research-service-a %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Earth Sciences %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 190 %X The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA/ERS) maintains four highly related but distinct geographic classification systems to designate areas by the degree to which they are rural. The original urban-rural code scheme was developed by the ERS in the 1970s. Rural America today is very different from the rural America of 1970 described in the first rural classification report. At that time migration to cities and poverty among the people left behind was a central concern. The more rural a residence, the more likely a person was to live in poverty, and this relationship held true regardless of age or race. Since the 1970s the interstate highway system was completed and broadband was developed. Services have become more consolidated into larger centers. Some of the traditional rural industries, farming and mining, have prospered, and there has been rural amenity-based in-migration. Many major structural and economic changes have occurred during this period. These factors have resulted in a quite different rural economy and society since 1970. In April 2015, the Committee on National Statistics convened a workshop to explore the data, estimation, and policy issues for rationalizing the multiple classifications of rural areas currently in use by the Economic Research Service (ERS). Participants aimed to help ERS make decisions regarding the generation of a county rural-urban scale for public use, taking into consideration the changed social and economic environment. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop. %0 Book %A National Research Council %E Tourangeau, Roger %E Plewes, Thomas J. %T Nonresponse in Social Science Surveys: A Research Agenda %@ 978-0-309-27247-6 %D 2013 %U https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18293/nonresponse-in-social-science-surveys-a-research-agenda %> https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18293/nonresponse-in-social-science-surveys-a-research-agenda %I The National Academies Press %C Washington, DC %G English %K Behavioral and Social Sciences %K Surveys and Statistics %P 166 %X For many household surveys in the United States, responses rates have been steadily declining for at least the past two decades. A similar decline in survey response can be observed in all wealthy countries. Efforts to raise response rates have used such strategies as monetary incentives or repeated attempts to contact sample members and obtain completed interviews, but these strategies increase the costs of surveys. This review addresses the core issues regarding survey nonresponse. It considers why response rates are declining and what that means for the accuracy of survey results. These trends are of particular concern for the social science community, which is heavily invested in obtaining information from household surveys. The evidence to date makes it apparent that current trends in nonresponse, if not arrested, threaten to undermine the potential of household surveys to elicit information that assists in understanding social and economic issues. The trends also threaten to weaken the validity of inferences drawn from estimates based on those surveys. High nonresponse rates create the potential or risk for bias in estimates and affect survey design, data collection, estimation, and analysis. The survey community is painfully aware of these trends and has responded aggressively to these threats. The interview modes employed by surveys in the public and private sectors have proliferated as new technologies and methods have emerged and matured. To the traditional trio of mail, telephone, and face-to-face surveys have been added interactive voice response (IVR), audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI), web surveys, and a number of hybrid methods. Similarly, a growing research agenda has emerged in the past decade or so focused on seeking solutions to various aspects of the problem of survey nonresponse; the potential solutions that have been considered range from better training and deployment of interviewers to more use of incentives, better use of the information collected in the data collection, and increased use of auxiliary information from other sources in survey design and data collection. Nonresponse in Social Science Surveys: A Research Agenda also documents the increased use of information collected in the survey process in nonresponse adjustment.