Statistics decrypted—a comprehensive review and smartphone-assisted five-step approach for good statistical practice

Background Statistic scripts are often made by mathematicians and cryptic for clinicians or non-mathematician scientists. Nevertheless, almost all research projects necessitate the application of some statistical tests or at least an understanding thereof. The present review aims on giving an overview of the most common statistical terms and concepts. It further ensures good statistical practice by providing a five-step approach guiding the reader to the correct statistical test. Methods and results First, different types of variables and measurements to describe a data set with means of descriptive statistics are introduced. The basic thoughts and tools of interferential statistics are presented, and different types of bias are discussed. Then in the final paragraph, the most commonly used statistical tests are described. A smartphone app accessible via QR code finally guides the reader in five steps to the correct statistical test, depending on the data used in order to avoid commonly performed mistakes. Conclusions The five-step approach sets a new minimal standard for good statistical practice.

How the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the perception of climate change in the UK

Forthcoming in American Behavioral Scientist (ABS) The COVID-19 pandemic erupted during the climate change (CC) crisis, forcing individuals to adapt abruptly to a new scenario, and triggering changes in everyone’s lifestyles. Based on a representative sample of the UK population (N= 1013) this paper investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic invited/forced individuals to reflect upon a new sustainable way of life and to (re)consider the anthropogenic impact on the environment. The results show that age and education are negatively associated with skepticism relating to the human impact on CC, while other control variables such as income, gender and employment status, have a limited impact on this attitude toward CC. Secondly, findings indicate a clear separation between those with a minimal standard of education, who support the natural origin of CC, while individuals with a higher level of education believe that CC is caused by human actions. Finally, on average, younger and more educated individuals tend to associate the COVID-19 pandemic with an opportunity to promote an eco-friendly world and to adopt an eco-sustainable approach.

STS; Post-truth, and the Rediscovery of Bullshit

Post-truth politics has led to a number of prominent reflections on the extent to which the basic tenets of STS (social construction, the symmetry thesis, etc.) must be amended (Briggle 2016; Latour 2004; Sismondo 2017a). Alternatively, others have argued that the basic principles of STS should be maintained and the similarities of STS with post-truth should be embraced (Fuller 2016b; Woolgar 2017). After first critiquing other scholars read on post-truth politics, I argue that one of the central drawbacks of STS is the absence of epistemic grounds to identify people who are plainly bullshitters (Frankfurt 1986). I contend that the lesson that post-truth politics has to offer STS is that a minimal standard of an epistemological system is that it must have the intellectual resources to endorse the claim “Trump is full of shit.” Yet it is not clear how one could go about reconciling central STS tenets with the clear and present need to oppose dangerous trends in contemporary politics. Despite arguing that STS should change, I contend that it should not do so at the expense of what is distinctive and valuable about STS. After considering Steve Woolgar’s (2017) list of the strengths of STS scholarship I propose that with slight modification they can be preserved. As an example of an epistemology which does so, I introduce Helen Longino's critical contextual empiricism and then use it to analyze a case study of the recent FDA approval of flibanserin for hypoactive sexual desire disorder. I conclude by arguing that social epistemology, as developed in philosophy of science, is reconcilable with opposing post-truth politics and retains many of the primary virtues of STS.

The Meaning of Freedom: Slave Self-Purchase and the Making of Free Labour in Martinique

This article examines the introduction of legalized slave savings and compulsory slave self-purchase—the pécule légal and rachat forcé—by the Mackau Laws in the French colony of Martinique in the last years of the July Monarchy. Drawing on official correspondence, political debates, published pamphlets and individual cases of slave self-purchase, it examines official efforts to replace a system of bondage rooted in direct, personal domination and explicit violence with a system of colonial labour based on free labour and impersonal social controls. Their efforts were profoundly shaped by two sets of actors: members of the pro-slavery lobby and the enslaved. Together these two groups defined a minimal standard of free labour that would have far-reaching impact on colonial labour policy in the post-emancipation period.

Talking Sticks as a Technique to Stimulate the Students' Speaking Performance

Talking sticks is an alternative teaching technique to support students in developing their speaking performance. Holding the talking sticks empower the deep communication between people and allow opportunities to speak up during the classroom. Thus, the present study is to stimulate the students' speaking performance in EFL classroom by utilizing the talking sticks. It applied classroom action research which was conducted in four stages; planning, action, observation, and reflection. A total of 22 students is the subject of speaking tests, observation, and interviews. The results demonstrated a significant improvement of students' speaking performance which can be seen in the mean score result and the number of students passing the minimal standard score. The mean score gained 9.43 higher than in the pre-test and 77% of students passed the minimal standard score. Both of these criteria indicated that utilizing the talking stick can boost the students' speaking performance

Suggestions for improving the reporting of magnetic resonance spectroscopy voxels and spectra

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has seen an increase in popularity as a method for studying the human brain. This approach is highly dependent on voxel localisation and spectral quality, knowledge of which are essential for judging the validity and robustness of any analysis. As such, visualisation plays a central role in appropriately communicating MRS studies. The quality of data visualisation has been shown to be poor in a number of biomedical fields and so we sought to appraise this in MRS papers. To do this we conducted an informal survey of the MRS literature, focusing on papers comparing people with psychiatric disorders to controls. Data visualisations in 50 papers were given scores for the amount of information conveyed about voxel localisation and spectral quality. This revealed a generally low standard, with a significant proportion of papers not providing the information required to judge the validity of their findings or replicate the experiment. Some basic suggestions are then presented as to a minimal standard for MRS data visualisation. Sample code to produce the suggested figures is provided.

Pooling Risk Games

There are numerous situations in which variability reduction is desirable. We examine cases where such reductions can be achieved by cooperating agents who share similar interests. Our goal is to quantify the contribution of each of the agents toward this reduction. We model this situation as a cooperative game in which the cost is defined as the minimal standard deviation the cooperating agents can achieve. We show that this game is subadditive and has a nonempty core. We derive special presentations for the Shapley and Banzhaf values.

PENERAPAN MODEL PEMBELAJARAN STAD UNTUK MENINGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR MATEMATIKA SISWA KELAS V SD

This study aims to improve mathematics learning outcome of fifth grade students by using STAD learning model at SD Muhammadiyah Domban 1 Sleman. This type of research was classroom action research. Data collection techniques used tests and observations. The data obtained in this study were then analyzed by using quantitative and qualitative descriptive analysis. This study shows that the use of STAD learning model can improve mathematics learning outcome among the fifth grade students of SD Muhammadiyah Domban. The learning outcome obtained from the cycle I were still not optimal in which there were only 67.7% of students who meet the minimal standar score then proceed to cycle II. In cycle II, the application of STAD learning model runs well, it can be seen from the students learning outcome of the cycle I in which there were 87.1 % of students who had reached the minimal standard score)