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Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
by Adrian Nicole Leblanc<P>Random Family tells the American outlaw saga lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. <P>With an immediacy made possible only after ten years of reporting, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses the reader in the mind-boggling intricacies of the little-known ghetto world. She charts the tumultuous cycle of the generations, as girls become mothers, mothers become grandmothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation. <P>Two romances thread through Random Family: the sexually charismatic nineteen-year-old Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George, and fourteen-year-old Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar, an aspiring thug. <P>Fleeing from family problems, the young couples try to outrun their destinies. Chauffeurs whisk them to getaways in the Poconos and to nightclubs. They cruise the streets in Lamborghinis and customized James Bond cars. <P>Jessica and Boy George ride the wild adventure between riches and ruin, while Coco and Cesar stick closer to the street, all four caught in a precarious dance between life and death. <P>Friends get murdered; the DEA and FBI investigate Boy George's business activities; Cesar becomes a fugitive; Jessica and Coco endure homelessness, betrayal, the heartbreaking separation of prison, and throughout it all, the insidious damage of poverty. <P>Together, then apart, the teenagers make family where they find it. Girls look for excitement and find trouble; boys, searching for adventure, join crews and prison gangs. Coco moves upstate to dodge the hazards of the Bronx; Jessica seeks solace in romance. Both find that love is the only place to go. <P>A gifted prose stylist and a profoundly compassionate observer, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc has slipped behind the cold statistics and sensationalism surrounding inner-city life and come back with a riveting, haunting, and true urban soap opera that reveals the clenched grip of the streets. <P>Random Family is a compulsive read and an important journalistic achievement, sure to take its place beside the classics of the genre.
Random Forests with R (Use R!)
by Jean-Michel Poggi Robin GenuerThis book offers an application-oriented guide to random forests: a statistical learning method extensively used in many fields of application, thanks to its excellent predictive performance, but also to its flexibility, which places few restrictions on the nature of the data used. Indeed, random forests can be adapted to both supervised classification problems and regression problems. In addition, they allow us to consider qualitative and quantitative explanatory variables together, without pre-processing. Moreover, they can be used to process standard data for which the number of observations is higher than the number of variables, while also performing very well in the high dimensional case, where the number of variables is quite large in comparison to the number of observations. Consequently, they are now among the preferred methods in the toolbox of statisticians and data scientists. The book is primarily intended for students in academic fields such as statistical education, but also for practitioners in statistics and machine learning. A scientific undergraduate degree is quite sufficient to take full advantage of the concepts, methods, and tools discussed. In terms of computer science skills, little background knowledge is required, though an introduction to the R language is recommended. Random forests are part of the family of tree-based methods; accordingly, after an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 presents CART trees. The next three chapters are devoted to random forests. They focus on their presentation (Chapter 3), on the variable importance tool (Chapter 4), and on the variable selection problem (Chapter 5), respectively. After discussing the concepts and methods, we illustrate their implementation on a running example. Then, various complements are provided before examining additional examples. Throughout the book, each result is given together with the code (in R) that can be used to reproduce it. Thus, the book offers readers essential information and concepts, together with examples and the software tools needed to analyse data using random forests.
Random Noise: Measuring Your Company's Safety Performance (The Business, Management and Safety Effects of Neoliberalism)
by Sidney Dekker Georgina PooleIn the realm of safety management, this book embarks on a profound exploration of how the political economy was reshaped in the last two decades. Much like privatization, deregulation, and financialization altered the economic landscape, this narrative unveils how safety management has been affected by the intertwined dynamics of asset underinvestment, privatization, self-regulation, workplace flexibilization, and market-driven policies.This book, the second installment of a thought-provoking trilogy on the consequences of neoliberalism, mirrors the political economy's promotion of the private sector's role in the economy. Just as neoliberalism amplified and accelerated the mechanisms of human-made disasters in complex systems, this narrative lays bare the heightened potential for safety misfortunes when governed by market-driven principles.As the story unfolds, the book delves into the concept of 'synoptic legibility' in safety management, akin to how the political economy distilled its essence into privatization and deregulation. The authors scrutinize the consequences of translating safety measures into rigid targets, unveiling how this shift can distort the integrity of safety metrics and inadvertently harm individuals. Drawing parallels with historical blunders such as England's window tax, the book contemplates the precarious nature of equating simplified metrics with safety achievements. Much like the political economy's 'acceptable risk' renegotiations, it examines how the pursuit of safety through metrics and surveillance can lead to 'manufactured insecurity,' eroding trust, autonomy, and professionalism.In Random Noise, Poole and Dekker extend this reach once again, writing for all managers, board members, organization leaders, consultants, practitioners, researchers, lecturers, students, and investigators curious to understand the genuine nature of organizational and safety performance.
Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Are Changing Our World
by Andrew LeighA fascinating account of how radical researchers have used experiments to overturn conventional wisdom and shaped life as we know itExperiments have consistently been used in the hard sciences, but in recent decades social scientists have adopted the practice. Randomized trials have been used to design policies to increase educational attainment, lower crime rates, elevate employment rates, and improve living standards among the poor.This book tells the stories of radical researchers who have used experiments to overturn conventional wisdom. From finding the cure for scurvy to discovering what policies really improve literacy rates, Leigh shows how randomistas have shaped life as we know it. Written in a &“Gladwell-esque&” style, this book provides a fascinating account of key randomized control trial studies from across the globe and the challenges that randomistas have faced in getting their studies accepted and their findings implemented. In telling these stories, Leigh draws out key lessons learned and shows the most effective way to conduct these trials.
Randomized Controlled Trials in Evidence-Based Dentistry
by Richie Kohli Harjit S. Sehgal Peter MilgromThis book reviews the role of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in clinical dentistry, explains how to successfully conduct RCTs related to dentistry, and provides detailed information on the use of RCTs within each of the dental specialties. Although RCTs represent the gold standard in evidence-based dentistry for evaluation of the effects of an intervention, a textbook on the subject has to date been lacking. Randomized Controlled Trials in Evidence-Based Dentistry will fill this educational gap and improve the confidence of dental providers, researchers, and their multidisciplinary teams in conducting high-quality RCTs in a variety of settings and different parts of the world. In particular, it will enable readers to implement a suitable step-by-step approach to RCTs, identify possible solutions to common challenges when performing RCTs in individual dental specialties, and apply these solutions to their own RCT projects.
Randomized Response: Theory and Techniques (Statistics: A Series Of Textbooks And Monographs #Volume 34)
by Arijit Chaudhuri Rahul MukerjeeOffering a concise account of the most appropriate and efficient procedures for analyzing data from queries dealing with sensitive and confidential issues- including the first book-length treatment of infinite and finite population set-ups - this volume begins with the simplest problems, complete with their properties and solutions, and proceeds to incrementally more difficult topics. Randomized Response is mandatory reading for statisticians and biostatisticians, market researchers, operations researchers, pollsters, sociologists, political scientists, economists and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in these areas.
Rangeland Ecology And Management
by Harold HeadyThe science of range management, like many other resource disciplines, has embraced and integrated environmental concerns in the field, the laboratory, and policy. Rangeland Ecology and Management now brings this integrated approach to the classroom in a thoroughly researched, comprehensive, and readable text. The authors discuss the basics of ran
Rankings – Soziologische Fallstudien
by Leopold Ringel Tobias WerronRankings sind in der modernen Gesellschaft allgegenwärtig: Athleten, Hotels, Nationalstaaten, Unternehmen, Universitäten, Kunsttreibende und viele andere sehen sich Leistungsvergleichen in der Form von regelmäßig veröffentlichen Ranglisten ausgesetzt. Die Beiträge des Sammelbandes nähern sich dem Phänomen aus einer genuin soziologischen Perspektive und untersuchen u.a. die Produktion, Verwendungsweisen, Institutionalisierung und Effekte von Rankings in unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Feldern.
Rap RoMania: Band 1: Spanisch/Französisch (Romance Languages and Their Didactics #48)
by Manfred PrinzHip-hop and rap music have been a central part of youth cultures all around the world for decades. While every country has its own scene with a specific social and cultural context, the global hip-hop phenomenon also allows young people to integrate their regional identities within an increasingly international environment. The inclusion of rap and hip-hop lyrics in foreign language teaching makes a unique, transcultural approach possible that connects directly to the students' interests.This guidebook offers both teachers and students a wealth of authentic rap and hip-hop lyrics that can be used in Spanish and French as foreign-language classes. They can serve as exercises for listening and reading comprehension of all levels or as templates for entire teaching units. The accompanying website (www.rapromania.de) lends itself to the integration in various forms of multimedia teaching and learning.
Rape Justice: Beyond the Criminal Law (Interventions Ser.)
by Asher Flynn Nicola Henry Anastasia PowellThis book explores the burgeoning interest in alternative and innovative justice responses to sexual violence both within and outside the legal system. It explores the limits of criminal law for achieving 'rape justice' and highlights possibilities for expanding how we think about justice in the aftermath of sexual violence.
Rape New York
by Jana LeoIn the gripping first pages of this true story, Jana Leo relives the moment-by-moment experience of a home invasion and rape in her own apartment in Harlem. After she reports the crime, she waits. Between police disinterest and squabbles from the health insurance company over who's going to pay for the rape kit, she realizes that the violence of such an experience does not stop with the crime. Increasingly concerned that the rapist will return (to harm her or other women in the building), she seeks help from her landlord, who refuses to address security issues on the property. She comes to understand that it is precisely these conditions of newly gentrified lower-income areas which lead to vulnerable living spaces, high turnover rates, and ultimately higher profits for these slumlords. In this most singular memoir, Leo weaves a psychological journey into an analysis that becomes equally personal: the fault lines of property mismanagement, class vulnerabilities, and a deeply flawed criminal justice system. In a stunning conclusion, Leo has her day in court.Jana Leo taught at Cooper Union for seven years and now divides her time between Madrid and New York. In 2007 she founded Civic Gaps, a New York think tank dedicated to studying empty or neglected spaces in the city.
Rape Work: Victims, Gender, and Emotions in Organization and Community Context (Perspectives on Gender)
by Patricia Yancey MartinDespite the proliferation of rape crisis centers and other improvements in the treatment of rape victims over the past 20 years, many victims still find themselves the victims of what has been called a "second rape" by doctors, lawyers, judges, police, and administrators that process them. This book takes a critical look at the organizations and officials that process rape victims to see how the structure of their respective organizations often prevent them from providing responsive care.
Rape in the Nordic Countries: Continuity and Change (Routledge Research in Gender and Society)
by Kari Stefansen May-Len Skilbrei Marie Bruvik-HeinskouWhile the Nordic countries are listed at the top in most international rankings of gender equality and citizens’ feelings of security, studies on the prevalence of sexual victimisation present a different picture, suggesting that the very countries that have invested much in establishing gender equality actually see a high prevalence of sexual violence. This book sheds light on the phenomenon and construction of rape and other forms of sexual violence within the Nordic region, exploring the ways in which rape and sexual violence are dealt with through criminal law and considering governmental policies aimed at combatting it, with a special focus on legal regulations and developments. Thematically organised, it offers new research on perpetrators, victimhood, criminal justice and prevention. Multi-disciplinary in approach, it brings together the latest work from a range of scholars to offer insights into the situation in the five Nordic countries, asking how and why rape and other forms of sexual violence occur, whilst also addressing the timely issues of online sexual cultures, BDSM and the grey areas of sexual offences. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, criminology and law with interests in gender and sexual violence.
Rapid Climate Change: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions (Framing 21st Century Social Issues)
by Scott G. McNallThe book reviews the science of climate change and explains why it is one of the most difficult problems humanity has ever tackled. Climate change is a "wicked" problem bound up with problems of population growth, environmental degradation, and world problems of growing social and economic inequality. The book explores the politicization of the topic, the polarization of opinion, and the reasons why, for some, science has become just another ideology to be contested. How do humans assess risk? Why are they are so bad at focusing on the future? How can we solve the problem of climate change? These are the questions this work answers. The goal of this new, unique Series is to offer readable, teachable "thinking frames" on today’s social problems and social issues by leading scholars, all in short 60 page or shorter formats, and available for view on http://routledge.customgateway.com/routledge-social-issues.html For instructors teaching a wide range of courses in the social sciences, the Routledge Social Issues Collection now offers the best of both worlds: originally written short texts that provide "overviews" to important social issues as well as teachable excerpts from larger works previously published by Routledge and other presses.
Rapid Urbanisation, Urban Food Deserts and Food Security in Africa
by Jonathan Crush Jane BattersbyThis book investigates food security and the implications of hyper-urbanisation and rapid growth of urban populations in Africa. By means of a series of case studies involving African cities of various sizes, it argues that, while the concept of food security holds value, it needs to be reconfigured to fit the everyday realities and distinctive trajectory of urbanisation in the region. The book goes on to discuss the urban context, where food insecurity is more a problem of access and changing consumption patterns than of insufficient food production. In closing, it approaches food insecurity in Africa as an increasingly urban problem that requires different responses from those applied to rural populations.
Rapture for the Geeks: When AI Outsmarts IQ
by Richard DoolingWill the Geeks inherit the earth? If computers become twice as fast and twice as capable every two years, how long is it before they're as intelligent as humans? More intelligent? And then in two more years, twice as intelligent? How long before you won't be able to tell if you are texting a person or an especially ingenious chatterbot program designed to simulate intelligent human conversation? According to Richard Dooling in Rapture for the Geeks--maybe not that long. It took humans millions of years to develop opposable thumbs (which we now use to build computers), but computers go from megabytes to gigabytes in five years; from the invention of the PC to the Internet in less than fifteen. At the accelerating rate of technological development, AI should surpass IQ in the next seven to thirty-seven years (depending on who you ask). We are sluggish biological sorcerers, but we've managed to create whiz-bang machines that are evolving much faster than we are. In this fascinating, entertaining, and illuminating book, Dooling looks at what some of the greatest minds have to say about our role in a future in which technology rapidly leaves us in the dust. As Dooling writes, comparing human evolution to technological evolution is "worse than apples and oranges: It's appliances versus orangutans. " Is the era of Singularity, when machines outthink humans, almost upon us? Will we be enslaved by our supercomputer overlords, as many a sci-fi writer has wondered? Or will humans live lives of leisure with computers doing all the heavy lifting? With antic wit, fearless prescience, and common sense, Dooling provocatively examines nothing less than what it means to be human in what he playfully calls the age of b. s. (before Singularity)--and what life will be like when we are no longer alone with Mother Nature at Darwin's card table. Are computers thinking and feeling if they can mimic human speech and emotions? Does processing capability equal consciousness? What happens to our quaint beliefs about God when we're all worshipping technology? What if the human compulsion to create ever more capable machines ultimately leads to our own extinction? Will human ingenuity and faith ultimately prevail over our technological obsessions? Dooling hopes so, and his cautionary glimpses into the future are the best medicine to restore our humanity.
Rara! Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora
by Elizabeth A. McalisterThis book is the first full-length study of the religious music festival known as Rara as it is traditionally practiced in Haiti and Brooklyn. A centuries-old religious tradition with roots in plantation slavery, this community-produced music grows out of Afro-Haitian voodoo and is frequently used to launch political criticism.
Rare Tongues: The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages
by Lorna GibbAn enthralling tour of the world&’s rarest and most endangered languagesLanguages and cultures are becoming increasingly homogenous, with the resulting loss of a rich linguistic tapestry reflecting unique perspectives and ways of life. Rare Tongues tells the stories of the world&’s rare and vanishing languages, revealing how each is a living testament to human resilience, adaptability, and the perennial quest for identity.Taking readers on a captivating journey of discovery, Lorna Gibb explores the histories of languages under threat or already extinct as well as those in resurgence, shedding light on their origins, development, and distinctive voices. She travels the globe—from Australia and Finland to India, the Canary Islands, Namibia, Scotland, and Paraguay—showing how these languages are not mere words and syntax but keepers of diverse worldviews, sites of ethnic conflict, and a means for finding surprising commonalities. Readers learn the basics of how various language systems work—with vowels and consonants, whistles and clicks, tonal inflections, or hand signs—and how this kaleidoscope of self-expression carries vital information about our planet, indigenous cultures and tradition, and the history and evolution of humankind.Rare Tongues is essential reading for anyone concerned about the preservation of endangered languages and an eloquent and disarmingly personal meditation on why the world&’s linguistic heritage is so fundamental to our shared experience—and why its loss should worry us all.
Rarely Pure and Never Simple: Selected Essays of Scott O'Hara
by Scott O' HaraA follow-up to O’Hara’s steamy and provocative book Autopornography: A Memoir of Life in the Lust Lane, Rarely Pure and Never Simple: Selected Essays of Scott O’Hara shares with you more intimate stories from former porn star Scott O’Hara. You’ll gain an even deeper sense of the man behind the “Biggest Dick in San Francisco” and come to understand his take on porn, sex, life, and loss. Discussing his ventures as a writer, playwright, and editor of the popular but short-lived journal Steam, Rarely Pure and Never Simple includes poems and stories by O’Hara that express his opinions and feelings about monogamy, safe sex, male beauty, morality, social politics, and “being queer.” O’Hara also relates his childhood experiences to his adult life and uses many examples to link the past to his actions and thoughts concerning his sexuality.Bold, personal, and honest, Rarely Pure and Never Simple gives you an inside look into the life of this controversial author, who died in February 1998 of AIDS-related complications. O’Hara challenges the “norms” of society as he discloses intimate thoughts and details about his sex life and fantasies that are guaranteed to arouse your . . . curiosity.
Rasch Measurement: Applications in Quantitative Educational Research
by Myint Swe KhineThis book focuses on the use of the Rasch measurement model in validation studies and in analyzing the psychometric properties of a variety of test instruments, questionnaires, and scales in international contexts. It broadly examines the development and application of Rasch modeling, providing in-depth analyses of the properties of various scales used in the fields of education, and humanities and social sciences research.The book includes exemplary works on educational research and practices that highlight recent and innovative applications, as well as theoretical and practical aspects of Rasch modeling. Readers will find it helpful to understand the latest approaches to Rasch measurement in educational research, as well as practices for future studies and quantitative research.'This book provides a diverse set of perspectives on Rasch models from scholars across the globe. The volume is both theoretical and applied. The first section of the book provides an overview of Rasch modeling and explains the theoretical and conceptual framework underlying the Rasch model. The remainder of the book highlights multiple applications of the Rasch model within educational assessment as well as several examples of how Rasch modeling can be used for validation studies. This volume showcases the wide variety of ways in which Rasch modeling can be applied to assessment data to provide insights into students’ achievement and learning and to improve instruction.'–Betsy McCoach, University of Connecticut, USA.'A well-written collection of articles. Grouped by the theoretical and applied aspects of Rasch measurement, each chapter in this edited volume makes notable contributions to knowledge and practice. Written by leading scholars in the field, these chapters were written in a clear, succinct, and assertive manner, providing readers with up-to-date information, analyses, and debates. This book should be found in the core collection of emerging researchers and established scholars in educational measurement.'–Timothy Teo, Murdoch University, Australia.
Rassismus in der Polizei: Eine wissenschaftliche Bestandsaufnahme
by Tobias Singelnstein Daniela HunoldDer Open Access-Band arbeitet das Themenfeld Polizei und Rassismus umfassendauf. In 33 Beiträgen werden behandelt:• Grundlagen zum Phänomen Rassismus,• relevante Befunde zur Polizei als Organisation und zu ihrer Praxis,• Entstehungszusammenhänge und Folgen von Rassismus in der Polizei,• Methoden der wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung und• Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Umgangs mit dem Problem.Angestoßen durch die Geschehnisse und Diskussionen in den USA beschäftigt Rassismus als mit der Polizei assoziiertes Problem auch hierzulande die öffentliche Debatte äußerst intensiv. Dabei wird offenbar, dass die Organisation Polizei in der diversen Gesellschaft vor besonderen Problemen und Herausforderungen steht, denen sie bislang nur in Ansätzen begegnet und wenig gewachsen zu sein scheint. Zugleich fehlt es im deutschen Kontext bisher an einem hinreichend breiten wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisstand zu Rassismusin der Polizei. Vor diesem Hintergrund bietet der Band eine Grundlage für die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema, indem er den Forschungsstand aus verschiedenen Disziplinen zusammenführt und systematisch aufarbeitet. Die Beiträge können als Ausgangspunkt für weitere Forschung dienen, sollen aber auch eine Übersetzung der Befunde der Rassismusforschung in Richtung Polizei leisten.
Rassismus wider Willen
by Anja WeißRassismus äußert sich nicht nur in Vorurteilen oder Diskursen. Auch Alltagspraktiken und Institutionen werden durch Rassismus strukturiert. In Anlehnung an die Bourdieu'schen Theorien des sozialen Raumes und der symbolischen Gewalt entwickelt Anja Weiß ein Modell des Rassismus als symbolisch vermittelte Dimension sozialer Ungleichheit. Die Auswertung von Gruppendiskussionen und Rollenspielen mit antirassistisch engagierten Realgruppen zeigt, wie diese offene Rassismen kompetent vermeiden, und wo trotz ihrer Bemühungen rassistische Effekte auftreten. Interkulturelle Konfliktdynamiken werden als Ausdruck struktureller Machtasymmetrie verständlich. Die antirassistische Mobilisierung von weißen Deutschen kann in der klassenspezifischen Distinktion der gebildeten Mittelschicht verortet werden.
Rassismus- und Diskriminierungserfahrungen Studierender an der Hochschule: Eine qualitative Untersuchung zu den Erfahrungen und Bewältigungsstrategien (BestMasters)
by Nesrine SekkaliDie vorliegende Studie beleuchtet den bislang wenig erforschten Erfahrungsraum von Studierenden, die als Migrationsandere markiert werden und scheinbar alle Ungleichheiten überwunden haben. Das zentrale Anliegen dieser qualitativ-empirischen Untersuchung besteht in der Analyse der Rassismus- und Diskriminierungserfahrungen rassifizierter Studierender sowie ihrer Bewältigungsstrategien. Die Ergebnisse der mit dem Preis für herausragende Masterarbeiten des Interdisziplinären Zentrums für Migrations- und Integrationsforschung der Universität Duisburg-Essen ausgezeichneten Studie verdeutlichen eindrücklich, dass eine umfassende Auseinandersetzung der Hochschule mit dem Thema Rassismus dringend erforderlich ist.
Rassismusbedingter Stress in Deutschland: Bewältigungsstrategien und Ressourcen aus der Sicht von Menschen mit Rassismuserfahrungen (BestMasters)
by Dunja KhouryWelche Rassismen erleben Schwarze Personen, Personen of Color und Asiatisch-Deutsche in Deutschland? Wie gehen Betroffene mit dem damit verbundenen Stress um? Welche Strategien der Bewältigung verwenden sie? Und welche Ressourcen nutzen sie zur Bewältigung von rassismusbedingtem Stress? Antworten auf diese Fragen finden sich in den Interviews, die diesem Buch zu Grunde liegen. Insbesondere durch den Ressourcenfokus zeigt Dunja Khoury die Vielfalt von personalen und umweltbezogenen Ressourcen auf, welche die Auswirkungen, die Rassismus auf die Gesundheit und das Selbstbild hat, abmildern, das eigene Wohlbefinden wieder zentrieren und ermöglichen, eine aktive, selbstermächtigende Rolle einzunehmen. Die Arbeit zeigt ein großes Spektrum an rassismusbezogenen Stressoren in der deutschen Gesellschaft auf und leitet wertvolle Implikationen für die Praxis ab.
Rastaman: The Rastafarian Movement in England (Routledge Revivals)
by E. CashmoreFirst published in 1979, this book makes a detailed study of Rastafarianism. It traces the expansion of Rastafarian culture from its origins and development in Jamaica through to the growth of Rastafarian life in Britain. It looks at Rastafarian culture in England in the late 1970s based on the author’s intimate experiences and communications with followers of the movement.