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The knowledge economy and the digital age have changed the nature of work and management. More people than ever before need to master critical and ethical thinking skills. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how scenarios may be used as a vehicle for enhancing students' critical and ethical thinking skills and to take a critical thinking approach to evaluating data-based conclusions and arguments. This paper proposes a set of 15 scenarios from the fields of medicine, school admissions, institutional rankings, criminology, business, quality control and pharmaceutical research. These scenarios were chosen for their relevance to statistics education. Individuals who wish to sharpen their critical and ethical thinking skills may benefit from this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of the level of nonresponse in a survey and the impact of that nonresponse on the survey estimates is an important issue in survey research. It is important to apply the most accurate method of calculating response rates in order to understand the components of nonresponse and to be in a better position to incorporate modifications in the survey procedures as necessary and feasible. Response rates have been defined in a number of ways for RDD surveys. The standard/traditional method of calculating response rates involves the product of three rates -- the resolution rate, the screening completion rate, and the interview completion rate. The coverage rate (population coverage) has often been reported separately from the response rate. The method presented in this paper has the advantage of combining the coverage rate and the response rate in the calculation of the overall response rate.

Objective: Although reducing adverse events and medical errors has become a central focus of the U.S. health care system over the past two decades both within and outside the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) hospital systems, patients treated in psychiatric units of acute care general hospitals have been excluded from major research in this field.Methods: The study included a random sample of 40 psychiatric units from medical centers in the national VHA system. Standardized abstraction tools were used to assess the electronic health records from 8,005 hospitalizations. Medical record administrators screened the records for the presence of ten specific types of patient safety events, which, when present, were evaluated by physician reviewers to assess whether the event was the result of an error, whether it caused harm, and whether it was preventable.Results: Approximately one in five patients experienced a patient safety event. The most frequently occurring events were medication errors (which include delayed and missed doses) (17.2%), followed by adverse drug events (4.1%), falls (2.8%), and assault (1.0%). Most patient safety events (94.9%) resulted in little harm or no harm, and more than half (56.6%) of the events were deemed preventable.Conclusions: Although patient safety events in VHA psychiatric inpatient units were relatively common, a great majority of these events resulted in little or no patient harm. Nevertheless, many were preventable, and the study provides data with which to target future initiatives that may improve the safety of this vulnerable patient population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Address-based sampling(ABS) involves drawing probability samples from address frames; in the United States, ABS frames are usually based, in part, on U.S. Postal Service mail delivery databases. Its use has grown rapidly over the past 10 years to the point where it is considered a viable alternative to random-digit-dial dual frame telephone sample designs. Although telephone surveys are well established in the U.S., they have seen declining response rates and the need to sample from both the landline telephone number sampling frame and the cell phone sampling frame. ABS typically involves sampling from a single address frame and opens up the possibility of using various contact and data collection modes including mail, Internet, telephone, and in-person. Mixed modes are often employed in ABS with anywhere from one to multiple phases of contact and/or data collection. The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Council, operating under the auspices of the AAPOR Standards Committee, convened a task force to prepare a comprehensive report on Address-based Sampling. This paper is drawn from the AAPOR report and focuses on sampling, approaches to data collection, and weighting procedures. We also address an important and somewhat challenging aspect of ABS designs for population surveys, the random selection of an adult from the sample household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Random-digit-dial telephone sampling of households with landline telephones has been a popular tool for conducting surveys of the population in the United States of America (USA) in the past several [...]

The article presents a report published by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) which reviews empirical information related to the opt-in online discussion panels used for data collection on public opinion. The Opt-In Online Panel Task Force established by the AAPOR executive council in September 2008 is mentioned. Methods used to recruit online panelists are reviewed. The author comments on the difficulties related to gathering data online in spite of the number of adults in the U.S. that do not use the Internet on a regular basis. Methods used to reduce bias in public opinion research are also discussed.

Depicts enrollment in grades K-12 from 1950-2000 and projected population changes into the 1990s, and discusses the methodology for projecting changes. (SK)

Focuses on the findings and recommendations of the American Statistical Association Committee on privacy and confidentiality. Impact of statistical information system and the quality of statistical data; Application of privacy and confidentiality laws and regulations; Provision of appropriate liaison with congressional committees and federal agencies.