Dear all,
1. On Tuesday 27th March, jointly with the RSS Social Statistics Section, the RSS Leeds/Bradford local group will be hosting three talks on "Evidence-based practice and Social Statistics". The meeting will be held at Room X, Level 8, Worsley building, University of Leeds starting at 2pm until 5pm, with refreshments from 1:30pm.
No registration required for this event.
2. On Tuesday 24th April 2012 as part of the RSS getstats campaign the RSS Leeds/Bradford local group will be hosting a talk on "How to get from pitch to plinth - the statistics of stadium statues". The meeting will be held at Leeds City Museum, Thoresby room, from 3:30-4:30, refreshments available from the museum cafe.
No registration required for this event, open to all as part of the RSS getstats campaign (http://www.getstats.org.uk/).
Further details of these events can be found on our webpage:
http://tinyurl.com/rss-lba
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Dr. Sarah Fleming
Secretary/Treasurer, RSS Leeds/Bradford Local Group, Division of Biostatistics, LIGHT, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
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1. Tuesday 27th March 2012, 2pm, University of Leeds
Evidence-based practice and Social Statistics - A joint meeting with RSS Social Statistics Section
Paul Marchant (Leeds Metropolitan University)
Evidence for policy: - how good is it?
An experiment, especially with randomised groups and a large sample size, is a scientifically appealing way to determine the effect of an intervention. However if there are other problems within an experimental study, `hall marks of quality` may only serve to give a false illusion of trustworthiness. Therefore in the social sphere, as in health- care, `Phase IV` (post marketing surveillance) studies are needed to see if predictions are fulfilled (and possibly pick up side-effects). This talk will give an outline of a particular case (concerning a crime reduction intervention) and its attendant potential problems. It will discuss a proposed post marketing surveillance study to see what actually occurs in practise. The issues involved are wider than the particular case.
Amanda Perry (University of York)
Methodological quality in criminology randomised controlled trials: A fresh look at the CONSORT Statement
The presentation will discuss the use and development of the CONsolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement in healthcare and its recent use in criminology. Some challenges are presented in applying such statements to other discipline areas and examples of using the CONSORT statement and the methodological difficulties will be discussed. The presentation will present some suggestions of adaptation for a new statement for randomised controlled trials in criminology.
George Ellison (University of Leeds)
The social science of evidence-based practice
Evidence-based practice offers a rational approach for overcoming uncertainty in decision-making by influencing both the quality of evidence available and its accessibility to practitioners. Social science, in the broadest sense, needs to be at the heart of this endeavour - offering guidance on the production and consumption of evidence, and examining how these processes might be improved. This presentation will discuss the important contribution social science has already made, not least in: broadening the scope of eligible evidence beyond `evidence of effectiveness`; strengthening the analysis of non-experimental data; developing techniques for the synthesis of mixed-methods research; assessing the impact of interventions to improve evidence production and dissemination; and exploring the translation of evidence into practice. Much of this remains a work in progress, and the presentation will argue that adopting the stance of "decision-making in the absence of definitive evidence" is necessary to ensure that evidence-based practice can address the different types of questions that practitioners pose and can embrace the full range of evidence that social scientists (and others) can provide.
A panel discussion will follow about the issues raised in the presentations
The meeting will be held Leeds University Worsley Building, Level 8 in room X at 2pm with refreshments from 1:30 in Room X (see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/campusmap for directions).
2. Tuesday 24th April 2012, 3:30pm, Leeds City Museum, A getstats event
Chris Stride (University of Sheffield)
How to get from pitch to plinth - the statistics of stadium statues
From an almost standing start at the beginning of the 1990s, the number of statues of US baseball and English soccer heroes has risen inexorably. By 1st September 2011, 33 soccer players and 67 Major League Baseball (MLB) players were, or were soon to be depicted by existing or commissioned subject specific statues inside or adjacent to the stadia they once performed in. Yet even amongst the very finest exponents of their sport, relatively few players are honoured in this way.
This paper investigates and compares the defining characteristics of stadium statue subjects in these two national sports. We first developed a shortlist of potential causal factors likely to influence subject selection by considering the motivations behind statue building. The MLB Hall of Fame and the English Football League `100 Legends` list were then used as samples of the best performers from each sport. Logistic regression models were built to test the effects of potential predictors for the selection of statue subjects; these included loyalty, locality, longevity, performance of the player and their team, national recognition, sympathy and the effect of nostalgia or memory (i.e. the era a player performed in).
The optimal models for baseball and soccer correctly identified depiction or non-depiction for 87% and 90.6% of the respective samples, and their significant constituent effects indicated the importance of club loyalty and era. Players who played most or all of their careers at one club or franchise, and those active in the 1950`s and 1960`s were most likely to be depicted. This latter finding in particular suggests that the role of a statue as a nostalgia/heritage marketing object impacts upon subject choice, which is thus dependent in part on the `chance` effect of birth era. Distinct characteristics of each sport, such as baseball franchise relocation and international soccer success were also found to have a significant effect upon the probability of depiction. Predicted probabilities were calculated for players with statues who were not part of the legends samples; these confirm the viability of the model outside of the elite performers it was constructed upon.
The meeting will be held at Leeds City Museum, Thoresby room, from 3:30-4:30pm, open to all as part of the RSS getstats campaign.
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