Statistics and Probability Commons^™

Gradient Wild Bootstrap For Instrumental Variable Quantile Regressions With Weak And Few Clusters, Wenjie Wang, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the gradient wild bootstrap-based inference for instrumental variable quantile regressions in the framework of a small number of large clusters in which the number of clusters is viewed as fixed, and the number of observations for each cluster diverges to infinity. For the Wald inference, we show that our wild bootstrap Wald test, with or without studentization using the cluster-robust covariance estimator (CRVE), controls size asymptotically up to a small error as long as the parameter of endogenous variable is strongly identified in at least one of the clusters. We further show that the wild bootstrap Wald test …

High Fat Diet & Social Isolation: Interactive Effects On Pain, Cognition, & Neuroinflammation, Ian M. Campuzano

Research Psychology Theses

Prior research has established a role for both social isolation and exposure to high fat Western diets in altering a range of behaviors from reduced memory performance to increased depression-like behaviors. The present study scrutinizes the interplay among these variables during the peri-adolescent developmental phase, utilizing Long-Evans rats as the experimental model. Our overarching hypothesis is that rats exposed to either social isolation, a high-fat diet, or both will result in heightened pain sensitivity, diminished cognitive flexibility, and increased neuroinflammatory responses within brain regions implicated in sociability, cognition, memory, and pain processing. Behavioral flexibility will be assessed using a maze-based …

Exploring The Diagnostic Potential Of Radiomics-Based Pet Image Analysis For T-Stage Tumor Diagnosis, Victor Aderanti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is a leading cause of death globally, and early detection is crucial for better

outcomes. This research aims to improve Region Of Interest (ROI) segmentation

and feature extraction in medical image analysis using Radiomics techniques

with 3D Slicer, Pyradiomics, and Python. Dimension reduction methods, including

PCA, K-means, t-SNE, ISOMAP, and Hierarchical Clustering, were applied to highdimensional features to enhance interpretability and efficiency. The study assessed the ability of the reduced feature set to predict T-staging, an essential component of the TNM system for cancer diagnosis. Multinomial logistic regression models were developed and evaluated using MSE, AIC, BIC, and Deviance …

An Application Of An In-Depth Advanced Statistical Analysis In Exploring The Dynamics Of Depression, Sleep Deprivation, And Self-Esteem, Muslihat Gaffari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Depression, intertwined with sleep deprivation and self-esteem, presents a significant challenge to mental health worldwide. The research shown in this paper employs advanced statistical methodologies to unravel the complex interactions among these factors. Through log-linear homogeneous association, multinomial logistic regression, and generalized linear models, the study scrutinizes large datasets to uncover nuanced patterns and relationships. By elucidating how depression, sleep disturbances, and self-esteem intersect, the research aims to deepen understanding of mental health phenomena. The study clarifies the relationship between these variables and explores reasons for prioritizing depression research. It evaluates how statistical models, such as log-linear, multinomial logistic regression, …

Interpregnancy Interval And Adverse Perinatal Outcomes: A Within-Individual Comparative Method, Maria Sevoyan, Marco Geraci, Edward A. Frongillo, Jihong Liu, Nansi S. Boghossian

Faculty Publications

Background and Aim: Previously observed associations between interpregnancy interval (IPI) and perinatal outcomes using a between-individual method may be confounded by unmeasured maternal factors. This study aims to examine the association between IPI and adverse perinatal outcomes using within-individual comparative analyses. Methods: We studied 10,647 individuals from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Consecutive Pregnancies Study in Utah with ≥3 liveborn singleton pregnancies. We matched two IPIs per individual and used conditional logistic regression to examine the association between IPI and adverse perinatal outcomes, including preterm birth (PTB, < 37 weeks’ gestation), small-for-gestational-age (SGA, < 10th percentile of sex-specific birthweight for gestational age), low birthweight (LBW, < 2,500 g), and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission. Point and 95% confidence interval (CI) estimates were adjusted for factors that vary across pregnancies within individuals. Results: CIs did not unequivocally support either an increase or a decrease in the odds of PTB (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.31, 95% CI: 0.87, 1.96), SGA (aOR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.51, 1.28), LBW (aOR: 1.59, 95% CI: 0.90, 2.80), or NICU admission (aOR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.66, 1.40) for an IPI < 6 months compared to 18–23-months IPI (reference), and neither did the CIs for the aOR of IPIs of 6–11 and 12–18 months compared to the reference. In contrast, an IPI ≥24 months was associated with increased odds of LBW (aOR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.03, 2.66 for 24–29 months; aOR: 2.27, 95% CI: 1.21, 4.29 for 30–35 months; and aOR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.17, 3.72 for ≥36 months). Conclusions: Using a within-individual comparative method, we did not find evidence that a short IPI compared to the recommended IPI of 18–23 months was associated with increased odds of PTB, SGA, LBW, and NICU admission. IPI ≥ 24 months was associated with increased odds of delivering an LBW infant.

Genomic Data Science Approaches For Understanding Human Diseases, Snehal Shah

All Dissertations

The intricate interplay of genetic predisposition, environmental influences, and lifestyle acts as the multifactorial landscape of diseases. Understanding this complexity presents a significant challenge. Molecular insights into disease mechanisms, particularly the interactions of DNA, RNA, and proteins with environmental and lifestyle factors, have revolutionized disease diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. High-throughput technologies, such as next-generation sequencing, generate large amounts of molecular data, holding a wealth of knowledge. These datasets unveil the roles of genes and their interactions with various factors through analysis, shedding light on previously unknown molecular mechanisms underlying disease pathogenesis. Furthermore, they facilitate the discovery of biomarkers crucial for …

Gan With Skip Patch Discriminator For Biological Electron Microscopy Image Generation, Nishith Ranjon Roy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

GAN models have been successfully used for image generation in various sections such as real-life objects like human faces, cars, animal faces, landscapes, etc. This work focuses on biological electron microscopy (EM) image generation. Unlike other real-life objects, biological EM images are obtained through electron microscopy techniques to study biological specimens. Electron microscopy offers high resolution and magnification capabilities, making it a powerful tool for visualizing biological structures at the nanoscale. However, using GAN models for biological EM image generation poses challenges due to the complex and unique arrangements of biological structures and the sparse and asymmetrical patterns in EM …

Sparse Neural Network To Enhance Performance Under Limited Parameter Constraints., Nailah Rawnaq

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, the widespread adoption of deep neural networks has been a breakthrough driven by significant computational advancements. Additionally, the number of parameters of those models is exponentially increasing for performing complex tasks and achieving better performance. However, in most practical cases, often there are constraints in the number of parameters due to limited resources in storage size and computational cost. Network pruning can lead to an optimal solution to this problem. In this thesis, I present supporting evidence to the hypothesis that higher sparsity leads to better performance for a convolution-based neural network. I perform performance studies …

Effects Of Measurement Error In Student Pre-Post Test Score On The Recovery Of The Estimates Of Teachers Value-Added Scores, Merlin J. Kamgue

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Background: Value-added models (VAMs) are statistical tools used to gauge a teacher’s impact on student performance by analyzing standardized test scores. These models project students’ future performance based on past scores and compare the projection to actual outcomes, accounting for differences in student backgrounds. However, the standard error of measurement (SEM) inherent in all measurement tools is often overlooked in VAMs. Aims and Objectives: This study aims to investigate the impact of test reliability on teacher and school score estimates within a Bayesian framework. We will precisely manipulate the reliability of standardized tests by adjusting the standard error of …

Hierarchical Spatial Abundance Models For Migratory Shorebirds, Md Shahbaz Alam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Predicting the distribution and abundance of migratory shorebirds is crucial for effective conservation planning. This research applies hierarchical spatial models to predict counts and spatial variations of three shorebird species: Semipalmated sandpiper (sesa), Ruddy turnstone (rutu), and Whimbrel (whim). Different versions of the Poisson, Negative Binomial, and Hurdle regression models are employed to tackle specific data characteristics, such as overdispersion and excess zeros. Model comparisons are performed in terms of likelihood measures and cross-validation. The Hurdle model for sesa and rutu and the Negative Binomial model for whim effectively captured spatial patterns, highlighting potential hotspots. Mean predictive count further emphasized …

Forecasting Commercial Vehicle Miles Traveled (Vmt) In Urban California Areas, Steve Chung, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study investigates commercial truck vehicle miles traveled (VMT) across six diverse California counties from 2000 to 2020. The counties—Imperial, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Francisco—represent a broad spectrum of California’s demographics, economies, and landscapes. Using a rich dataset spanning demographics, economics, and pollution variables, we aim to understand the factors influencing commercial VMT. We first visually represent the geographic distribution of the counties, highlighting their unique characteristics. Linear regression models, particularly the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and elastic net regressions are employed to identify key predictors of total commercial VMT. LASSO regression …

The Fourth International Workshop On Smart Data For Blockchain And Distributed Ledger (Sdbd '24), Feida Zhu, Jian Pei, Michael Zeller, Bingxue Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the advent of Bitcoin, a cryptographically-enabled peer-to-peer digital payment system, blockchain together with a whole package of distributed ledger technologies, which serve as the underlying foundation of all the crypto-currencies, have been gaining attention from both academia and industry in the last fifteen years. The recent years have witnessed tremendous momentum in the development of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, largely due to the impressive rise in the market capital of these digital tokens. More and more industries, from banking and insurance, to supply chain and e-commerce, are quickly realizing the great potential in blockchain technology in efficiency boost, …

Application Of Machine Learning Algorithms In Healthcare, Dwaipayan Mukhopadhyay

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence that has made substantial strides in predicting and identifying health emergencies, disease populations, and disease state and immune response, amongst a few fields of healthcare. Here we provide a brief overview of machine learning-based approaches and learning algorithms. Second, we discuss a general procedure of ML and review some studies presented in ML application for several healthcare fields. We also briefly discuss the risks and challenges of ML application to healthcare.This dissertation also consists of four different cases in healthcare where we have applied ML techniques on real life data sets. …

A Two-Part Validation Study Of The Sexual Minority Identity Emotion Scale, Henrietta Kadi Tettey-Tawiah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A number of existing studies indicate that there is some correlation between pride and shame and various behavioral health outcomes like anxiety, depression, and self-harm in the general population. Research also confirms that this relationship is true among sexual minorities as well. This study sets itself up to interrogate this assertion vis-à-vis sexual minority adolescents (SMAs). Consequently, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and differential item functioning (DIF) detection analysis were performed on the 35-item Sexual Minority Identity Emotion Scale (SMIES) for SMAs. A tree-based modeling technique, specifically conditional inference trees (CIT), was then employed to explore and make predictions about the …

Using Digitized Building And Weather Records To Improve The Accuracy Of Ground To Roof Snow Load Ratio Estimations, Gideon Parry

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Reliability target loads refer to the amount of accumulated snow a roof needs to be able to support to ensure that the probability of collapse is sufficiently low. Since ground snow weight, or load, is much easier to measure than roof snow load, models for roof snow loads rely on ground snow load measurements along with a statistical model that estimates roof snow retention as a ratio of the measured ground snow load. This thesis focuses on improving the roof snow retention model using data from Canadian case studies that include information about building geometry and local wind speeds. This …

Oh Statistics!, Heather L. Cook

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This poem was written about statistics and the usefulness thereof.

Effect Of Aging Temperature On Properties Of Sealant Under Field Construction Conditions, Liu Hanchao, Teng Xinhua, Zhang Jingyan, Zhang Kaihua, Lin Hui

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to study the influence of short-term aging temperature on the properties of sealant,a sealant was prepared,and field construction conditions were simulated.The properties of the sealant before and after short-term aging at 180‒220 ℃ were tested.The viscoelastic properties,physicochemical properties,and microstructures of the sealant were studied,and the mechanism of property changes was discussed.The results show that the cone penetration and flow value of the aged sealant decrease,while the softening point and elastic recovery rate increase.Aging at high temperature (>180 ℃) for a short time and low temperature (160 ℃) for a long time will cause obvious property changes.The tensile …

Experimental Study On Capillary Water‑Holding Characteristics Of Loess Backfill In Ecological Ditches, Nan Yalin, Zhang Xiaoyu, Chen Hong, An Peng, Liu Kui, Camara Ibrahima Kalil

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

The municipal ecological ditches have the basic functions of accumulating water for infiltration in the rainy season and conserving moisture in the dry season.However，the design of loess backfill in ecological ditches is based on no evidence，which often leads to landscape vegetation drowning in the rainy season or dying in the dry season.For this reason，a study was carried out by remoulding loess with a small-size capillary water rise height test，a large-size water-holding characteristic model test，and an unsaturated numerical analysis.The results show that the final capillary water rise height of the soil column can reach 100 cm when the dry density is …

Research On Performance Of Coal Gangue Concrete, Wang Jiliang, Ma Wenhui, Xu Weidong, Lyu Zhigang

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

Coal gangue is an industrial solid waste produced in the process of raw coal mining.It has a large stock and a relatively low utilization rate.Using coal gangue as concrete aggregate can not only solve the environmental pollution caused by coal gangue storage but also make up for the shortage of natural sand and gravel resources，which opens up an effective way for the large-scale utilization of coal gangue.According to the application characteristics of coal gangue as concrete aggregate，the chemical component，mineral composition，and physical properties of coal gangue were systematically analyzed.The influence of coal gangue as aggregate on the working performance，mechanical properties，volume stability，and …

Experimental Study On Shear Performance Of Uhpc‑Nc Interface, Wan Zhiyong, Chen Jianping, He Shaohua, Huang Xu, Sun Xiangdong

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

Ultra-high performance concrete （UHPC） has great application prospects in engineering structure reinforcement.The reliability of the bonding properties at the interface between the new UHPC reinforcement layer and the old concrete structure is critical for ensuring the serviceability of the reinforced structures.To determine the influence of different interface treatments on the bonding properties at the interface between the UHPC and normal concrete （NC），six Z-shaped UHPC-NC bonding specimens were designed，and the bonding properties of the UHPC-NC with three different kinds of interface，namely smooth，chisel，chisel + reinforced，were investigated.In addition，nonlinear finite element models for the concrete interface were established to determine the distribution law of …

Application Of Sequential Quadratic Programming Method In Cable Force Adjustment Of Cable‑Stayed Bridges, Xu Yufeng, Zhu Mengyang, Chen Si, Xie Yunfei

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

When the construction of a cable-stayed bridge enters the completion stage，due to various factors，there is a certain error between the actual alignment and internal force of the structure and the theoretical completion state，and it is usually necessary to adjust the cable force.In order to calculate the cable force adjustment of a cable-stayed bridge in the adjustment stage，a method based on an influence matrix and sequential quadratic programming was proposed to solve the cable force adjustment.A large-span hybrid girder cable-stayed bridge was taken as the background，and the alignment and internal force response values of the structure with varying cable units were …

Protection Design Of Middle Piers Of Overpass Bridges Based On Double Protection Concept, Lyu Sizhong, Wang Xin, Guo Jianmin, Liu Siyuan, Li Yuxin, Yang Fuyu

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

The collision accident types of middle piers of overpass bridges were summarized and analyzed，and it was proven that anti-collision and anti-scratching were two important requirements of pier protection.Then，the new concept of double protection and corresponding technical schemes were put forward.The first protection adopted the way of setting concrete barriers or ship-shaped elevating members on the periphery of the pier to prevent vehicles from impacting the pier，and the second protection used the self-wrapped steel plate or aluminum foam plate to prevent vehicles from scratching the pier.The safety of the pier protection structure schemes was verified by computer simulation and unit test，and …

Research On Yolov 5‑Ganomaly Joint Algorithm For High‑Strength Bolt Detection, Xie Haibo, Zhu Weijun, Zhang Bi2, Zhang Dahai

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

High-strength bolt loosening detection of bridges faces problems such as heavy workload，small targets，many anomalies，and difficult collection.Therefore，this paper proposed a semi-supervised deep learning model，which could obtain the bolt loosening detection model even with a small number of negative samples and solve the problem of unbalanced model training samples.The accuracy of the YOLOv 5-CT model for bolt target detection reached 98.33%.By preprocessing bolt data，the reconstruction ability of bolt images by the Ganomaly model was improved.When the hidden space vector value was 100，the model had the highest SAUC and the best discriminant performance.In the model test stage，the threshold of abnormal fraction was set …

Experimental Study On Effect Of Temperature On Bound Water Adsorption And Deformation Of High Liquid Limit Soil, Zi Yinhui, Shen Xuning, Zhang Hao, Zhang Rui, Li Lu

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to study the effect of temperature change on the bound water content adsorbed by high liquid limit clay and the deformation law of high liquid limit clay embankment，the high liquid limit clay in Hainan Province was selected as the primary research object and compared with the low liquid limit sand in Hunan Province.The effect of temperature on the bound water content adsorbed by high liquid limit clay was explored through a nuclear magnetic resonance test.In addition，the effect of temperature on the deformation of high liquid limit clay embankments was analyzed through the consolidation test with a temperature-controlled consolidometer.The …

Temperature And Strain Development Characteristics Of Tunnel Concrete Based On Double Grating Sensors, Fang Jianping, Zhang Mengxi, Yao Xiaonan

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to better prevent tunnel concrete from cracking，the development law of concrete temperature and strain was studied.Based on the connection project of Sanjiang Middle Road in the Smart New City of Quzhou，a data acquisition system was established to monitor concrete temperature and strain on site.The defects of the traditional method that the temperature and strain monitoring are insensitive，and the monitoring data is discontinuous were overcome.In addition，the high-performance double grating temperature-strain sensor was used to simultaneously monitor the temperature and strain at the same position，and the temperature compensation method was used to overcome the influence of the ambient temperature on …

Properties And Mechanism Of Reclaimed Asphalt Based On Sbs Structure Repair, Feng Xinjun, Yang Hongyang, Xiao Honghai, Zhu Ziqiang

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

At present，the common asphalt regenerant is used for treating the aged styrene-butadiene-styrene （SBS） modified asphalt in China，which fails to repair the SBS cross-networking structure，resulting in the poor regeneration effect of the aged SBS modified asphalt.In this study，a new reactive regenerator containing a structural repair agent，extractive oil，plasticizer，solubilizer，and a small amount of SBS was used to regenerate the aged SBS modified asphalt.The conventional properties and rheological properties of reclaimed SBS modified asphalt were studied by three index tests，Brookfield viscosity test，dynamic shear rheological test，and low temperature bending rheological test.Then，a fluorescence microscope and infrared spectrometer were used to study the regeneration mechanism of the …

Research On General Drawing Design Technologies For Cover Culverts In Hunan Province, Peng Xiaoming, Li Yukun, Hu Qiong, Xia Yutao

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

As one of the main structures of highways，a culvert has the characteristics of large quantity and wide range.Affected by design and construction factors，engineering diseases of culverts have been prominent for a long time.With the extensive promotion of the green highway construction concept and the continuous updating of technical standards and design specifications，the original general drawing of culverts fails to meet the needs of the sustainable and healthy development of highway construction under the new situation.Hunan Provincial Communications Planning，Survey & Design Institute has conducted extensive and in-depth investigation and research on the key technologies of highway culvert design and prepared a …

Transverse Deformation And Countermeasures Of Cantilever Assembly Of Super‑Wide Steel Box Girder Of Zhongshan Bridge Over Shenzhen‑Zhongshan Link, Zhou Yu

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In view of the transverse deformation of super-wide steel box girders of cable-stayed bridges during the cantilever assembly，the construction characteristics of the two-way eight-lane super-wide steel box girder of Zhongshan Bridge over Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link were analyzed，and the main causes of the transverse deformation during the cantilever assembly of the super-wide steel box girder were investigated.According to the matching height difference adjustment technology in the cantilever assembly construction of the wide box girder in China and abroad，this paper innovatively proposed a matching process of straight beam locking + initial tension of hanging cables，which better solved the problem of poor transverse deformation …

Fume Emission And Environmental Impact Assessment In Fresh Asphalt Tunnel Construction Site, Deng Wenti, Zou Guilian, Zhang Yuan, Yu Liang, Xie Huiduan

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In view of the random monitori ng of fum e emission in asphalt pavement construction sites，combined with the engineering application of fresh asphalt in the construction of hot-mixed and hot-spread asphalt pavement in large and long tunnels for fume emission reduction，the fume collection and evaluation method of asphalt pavement construction sites were studied，and the emission reduction effect of fresh asphalt was evaluated.The Summa tanks were used to collect the asphalt fume at different positions of the paver，and the asphalt fume was quantitatively analyzed by gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer （GC-MS）.The results show that compared with the non-fresh asphalt from the same source，the …

Visualization Of Species Tree Likelihood Under The Multispecies Coalescent Model, Jaimasan Sutton

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

A commonly used tool for evolutionary biologists is a phylogenetic tree that represents the ancestry of a set of species and the evolution of traits. Statistical models can be used to predict the probabilities of gene trees which represent ancestral relationships of genes sampled from species. Because of this, we are able to represent the likelihood of a species tree, which represents the evolutionary history of a set of species, as a function of the counts of gene tree topologies, where each gene tree represents the ancestry of a specific genetic locus for multiple species. Because we can represent these …