Statistics and Probability Commons^™

Analysis Of Influence Of Moisture Content ⁃Temperature Dual Factor On Mechanical Properties Of Red Clay, Wang Jiangtao, Bao Temenbaiyila, Yang Weiguang, Zhou Qi, Fu Helin

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

Under the new climatic environment and engineering construction requirements, engineering problems involving red clay are becoming more and more prominent, and it is urgent to deeply grasp the mechanical and engineering properties of residual slope red clay. The typical red clay in Hunan Province was studied in this paper. Based on the unconsolidated undrained direct shear test, this paper studied the mechanical properties of residual slope red clay under the influence of moisture content and temperature, focusing on the most unfavorable conditions affecting the mechanical properties of red clay. The results show that: ① The shear strength of red clay …

Traffic Conflict Analysis Of Multila Neexpressway Based On Simulation, Ceng Yuekai, Zhou Tao, Chen Yazhen

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to prevent traffic accidents on multi-lane expressways, the VISSIM traffic simulation model was established based on three types of multi-lane traffic conflicts: mixed passenger and cargo type, separated passenger and cargo type, and separated main and auxiliary type. SSAM software was used to obtain traffic conflict data, and the form, quantity, and location of the conflicts were analyzed. The results show that traffic conflicts are the most under the mixed passenger and cargo type, which are mainly distributed in the upper 100 m range of the innermost lane, outermost lane, and deceleration lane. The traffic conflicts under the …

Risk Analysis Of Highway Nighttime Maintenance Operation Based On Sem, Fan Jinhua, Zou Leping, Qi Shaoren, Tian Zhen

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to analyze the factors affecting the risk of nighttime expressway maintenance operation and quantitatively assess the degree of influence of various factors on the risk of nighttime maintenance operation, this paper extracted five first-level indicators and 36 second-level indicators that affect the risk of operation through literature review, accident data, and questionnaire survey and built an evaluation system. The first-order and second-order confirmatory factor analysis models were constructed by using a structural equation model (SEM) based on 343 questionnaires of the nighttime maintenance operation risks. The results show that the driver factor has the greatest effect on the …

Study On Effectiveness Evaluation Method Of Expressway Drainage System In Rainy Area, Luo Datian, Li Jiayi, Zou Jingrong

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of expressway drainage systems in rainy areas and comprehensively analyze the factors affecting the effectiveness of drainage systems, this paper took the perfection of drainage system, stability of drainage facilities, and road traffic safety as the first-level evaluation index and six kinds of influencing factors such as the degree of integrity as the second-level index, and it put forward the evaluation criteria of the effectiveness of expressway drainage system in rainy areas. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was used to determine the membership degree of expert scoring through the trapezoid membership function, and …

Research On Crack And Permeability Characteristics Of Cement ⁃Modified Expansive Soil Under Dry ⁃Wet Cycles, Bao Guiyong, Xu Yangshaojun, Jiang Zhijie, Rong Hongliu, Wang Jinlong

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to study the engineering permeability characteristics of cement-modified expansive soil under dry and wet cycles, the mix ratio of cement-modified expansive soil was designed, and the orthogonal design test method was adopted. Image analysis software PACS, unconfined compressive strength test, and laboratory permeability test were used to study the crack development, strength attenuation characteristics, and permeability changes of cement-modified expansive soil under dry and wet cycle conditions. The results show that soil permeability and strength are greatly affected by the number of dry and wet cycles. Under the condition of dry and wet cycles, the moisture content of …

A Multivariate Investigation Of The Motivational, Academic, And Well-Being Characteristics Of First-Generation And Continuing-Generation College Students, Christopher L. Thomas, Staci Zolkoski

Journal of Research Initiatives

Prior research has noted differences in motivational, academic, and well-being factors between first-generation and continuing-education students. However, past investigations have primarily overlooked the interactive influence of protective and risk factors when comparing the characteristics of first-generation and continuing-education students. Thus, the current study adopted a multivariate approach to gain a more nuanced understanding of the influence of generational status on students' self-regulated learning capabilities, academic anxiety, sense of belonging, academic barriers, mental health concerns, and satisfaction with life. University students (N = 432, 67.46% Caucasian, 87.55% female, _Age = 28.10 ± 9.46) completed the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale-2^{nd …}

The Appropriateness Of Outlier Exclusion Approaches Depends On The Expected Contamination: Commentary On André (2022), Daniel Villanova

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

In a recent article, André (2022) addressed the decision to exclude outliers using a threshold across conditions or within conditions and offered a clear recommendation to avoid within-conditions exclusions because of the possibility for large false-positive inflation. In this commentary, I note that André’s simulations did not include the situation for which within-conditions exclusion has previously been recommended—when across-conditions exclusion would exacerbate selection bias. Examining test performance in this situation confirms the recommendation for within-conditions exclusion in such a circumstance. Critically, the suitability of exclusion criteria must be considered in relationship to assumptions about data-generating mechanisms.

Modified Geometries, Clifford Algebras And Graphs: Their Impact On Discreteness, Locality And Symmetr, Roman Sverdlov

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

In this dissertation I will explore the question whether various entities commonly used in quantum field theory can be “constructed". In particular, can spacetime be “constructed" out of building blocks, and can Berezin integral be “constructed" in terms of Riemann integrals.

As far as “constructing" spacetime out of building blocks, it has been attempted by multiple scientific communities and various models were proposed. But the common downfall is they break the principles of relativity. I will explore the ways of doing so in such a way that principles of relativity are respected. One of my approaches is to replace points …

Optimal Experimental Planning Of Reliability Experiments Based On Coherent Systems, Yang Yu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In industrial engineering and manufacturing, assessing the reliability of a product or system is an important topic. Life-testing and reliability experiments are commonly used reliability assessment methods to gain sound knowledge about product or system lifetime distributions. Usually, a sample of items of interest is subjected to stresses and environmental conditions that characterize the normal operating conditions. During the life-test, successive times to failure are recorded and lifetime data are collected. Life-testing is useful in many industrial environments, including the automobile, materials, telecommunications, and electronics industries.

There are different kinds of life-testing experiments that can be applied for different purposes. …

A Comparison Of Confidence Intervals In State Space Models, Jinyu Du

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

This thesis develops general procedures for constructing confidence intervals (CIs) of the error disturbance parameters (standard deviations) and transformations of the error disturbance parameters in time-invariant state space models (ssm). With only a set of observations, estimating individual error disturbance parameters accurately in the presence of other unknown parameters in ssm is a very challenging problem. We attempted to construct four different types of confidence intervals, Wald, likelihood ratio, score, and higher-order asymptotic intervals for both the simple local level model and the general time-invariant state space models (ssm). We show that for a simple local level model, both the …

Kinetic Particle Simulations Of Plasma Charging At Lunar Craters Under Severe Conditions, David Lund, Xiaoming He, Daoru Frank Han

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents fully kinetic particle simulations of plasma charging at lunar craters with the presence of lunar lander modules using the recently developed Parallel Immersed-Finite-Element Particle-in-Cell (PIFE-PIC) code. The computation model explicitly includes the lunar regolith layer on top of the lunar bedrock, taking into account the regolith layer thickness and permittivity as well as the lunar lander module in the simulation domain, resolving a nontrivial surface terrain or lunar lander configuration. Simulations were carried out to study the lunar surface and lunar lander module charging near craters at the lunar terminator region under mean and severe plasma environments. …

Development And Testing Of A New Method For Velocity-Selecting White Dwarfs From Gaia By Galactic Population, Joseph Hammill

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The detailed processes by which spiral galaxies form remains an open question in modern cosmology. Observations of the current configuration of spiral galaxies including the Milky Way reveal thin and thick disk and halo populations which must all be accounted for in formation theories and likely have distinct ages. Using the Milky Way as an example to probe this question, we are studying the formation history of these structures.

This work details our approach to age-dating the galaxy, velocity-selecting targets from a sample of white dwarfs from the Gaia DR3 catalog that have also been age-analysed using BASE-9. BASE-9 uses …

Approaches To Detecting And Modeling Over-And Underdispersion In Alternative Count Data Distributions And An Application Of Logistic Regression And Random Forest Modeling To Improve Screening Tools For Tic Disorders In Children, Rebecca C. Wardrop

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on theory and application of discrete data methods, particularly approaches to over- and underdispersion relative to the Poisson distribution and an application of random forest and logistic regression modeling. The first chapter derives a score test for over- and underdispersion in the heaped generalized Poisson distribution. Equi-, over-, and underdispersed heaped generalized Poisson and heaped negative binomial data are simulated to evaluate the performance of the score test by comparing the power it achieves to that of Wald and likelihood ratio tests. We find that the score test we derive performs comparably to both the Wald and …

Statistical Methods For Single Cell Sequencing Data Analysis, Fei Qin

Theses and Dissertations

The recent emergence of single cell sequencing (SCS) technology has provided us with single-cell DNA or RNA sequencing (scDNA/RNA-seq) information to investigate cellular evolutionary relationships. Despite many analysis methods have been developed to infer intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity, cluster cellular subclones, detect genetic mutations, and investigate spatially variable (SV) genes, exploring SCS data remains statistically challenging due to its noisy nature.

To identify subclones with scDNA-seq data, many existing studies use an independent statistical model to detect copy number profile in the first step, followed by classical clustering methods for subclone identification in downstream analyses. However, spurious results might be generated …

A Bayesian Spatial Scan Statistic For Normal Data, Laasya Velamakanni

Theses and Dissertations

Scan statistics are useful methods for detecting spatial clustering. While they were initially developed to detect regions with an excess of binomial or Poisson events, spatial scan statistics have been extended to detect hotspots in other types of data including continuous data. They have many applications in different fields such as epidemiology (e.g. detecting disease outbreaks), sociology (e.g. detecting crime hotspots), and environmental health (e.g. detecting high-pollution areas). Spatial scan statistics identify a ‘most likely cluster’ and then use a likelihood ratio test to determine if this cluster is statistically significant. Spatial scan statistics have been extended to the Bayesian …

Statistical Methods For Semi-Competing And Competing Risks Data With Missing Event Types, Ruiqian Wu

Theses & Dissertations

There is a growing interest in modeling multiple event data in biomedical and public health investigations. Competing and semi-competing risks data are two special types of multiple event data. Statistical modeling of semi-competing risks data involves an intermediate event and a terminal event and emphasizes the investigation of the effect of the intermediate event on the terminal event. The investigation of the semi-competing risks data model not only enables us to determine if a disease episode is associated with mortality but also provides a toolkit for predicting death if the episode occurred at a particular time. Meanwhile, the interpretation of …

Cost Estimation Trends For Major Defense Acquisition Programs, Sammantha Jones, Edward D. White, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Shawn M. Valentine

Faculty Publications

The authors use both descriptive and inferential techniques to investigate average and standard deviation trends in cost estimates for major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) grouped into decades from the 1970s to 2010s. For total program-cost-growth factors (CGFs), the 2010s exhibited lower CGFs compared to the 1990s. For the program-acquisition-unit cost (PAUC) CGFs, the 2010s appear lower than the 1990s and borderline lower than the 1970s. A statistically significant decreasing trend in the standard deviations of total program CGFs throughout the decades was identified. This lowering variability trend also appeared for PAUC CGFs from the 1980s onward. This finding appears to …

Unraveling The Neural Basis Of Emotions: Advancing Understanding With Ecologically Valid Paradigms And High-Resolution Intracranial Eeg, Tiankang Xie

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Background

Emotion arises from integrating information about the external world with memories of past experiences, current homeostatic states, and future goals. They play a vital role in regulating our thoughts, feelings and behaviors, significantly impacting our mental health. Thus, it is important to understand the neurobiological mechanisms that give rise to emotions. While there has been considerable work investigating the neural basis of emotions, progress has been hampered by several methodological limitations. For example, prior work has relied on relatively simple and isolated stimuli, which often fail to effectively capture the dynamic and multifaceted nature of emotional experiences in real-life …

A Comparison Of Quaternion Neural Network Backpropagation Algorithms, Jeremiah Bill, Bruce A. Cox, Lance Champaign

Faculty Publications

This research paper focuses on quaternion neural networks (QNNs) - a type of neural network wherein the weights, biases, and input values are all represented as quaternion numbers. Previous studies have shown that QNNs outperform real-valued neural networks in basic tasks and have potential in high-dimensional problem spaces. However, research on QNNs has been fragmented, with contributions from different mathematical and engineering domains leading to unintentional overlap in QNN literature. This work aims to unify existing research by evaluating four distinct QNN backpropagation algorithms, including the novel GHR-calculus backpropagation algorithm, and providing concise, scalable implementations of each algorithm using a …

A Characterization Of Complex-Valued Random Variables With Rotationally-Invariant Moments, Michael L. Maiello

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

A complex-valued random variable Z is rotationally invariant if the moments of Z are the same as the moments of W=e^{i*theta}Z. In the first part of the article, we characterize such random variables, in terms of "vanishing unbalanced moments," moment and cumulant generating functions, and polar decomposition. In the second part, we consider random variables whose moments are not necessarily finite, but which have a density. In this setting, we prove two characterizations that are equivalent to rotational invariance, one involving polar decomposition, and the other involving entropy. If a random variable has both a density and moments which determine …

Exposure Levels Of Airborne Fungi, Bacteria, And Antibiotic Resistance Genes In Cotton Farms During Cotton Harvesting And Evaluations Of N95 Respirators Against These Bioaerosols, Atin Adhikari, Pratik Banerjee, Taylor Thornton, Daleniece Higgins, Caleb Adeoye, Sonam Sherpa

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

The USA is the third-leading cotton-producing country worldwide and cotton farming is common in the state of Georgia. Cotton harvest can be a significant contributor to airborne microbial exposures to farmers and nearby rural communities. The use of respirators or masks is one of the viable options for reducing organic dust and bioaerosol exposures among farmers. Unfortunately, the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard (29 CFR Part 1910.134) does not apply to agricultural workplaces and the filtration efficiency of N95 respirators was never field-tested against airborne microorganisms and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) during cotton harvesting. This study addressed these two information gaps. …

Childhood Asthma-Management Practices In Rural Nigeria: Exploring The Knowledge, Attitude, And Practice Of Caregivers In Oyo State, Oyindamola Akinso, Atin Adhikari, Jingjing Yin, Joanne Chopak-Foss, Gulzar H. Shah

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Caregivers of asthmatic children have a poor knowledge of proper asthma-management practices in Nigeria. This study examined the knowledge, attitudes, and practice behaviors of caregivers in the management of asthma in children under 5 years of age in Oyo State, Nigeria. Methods: While a mixed method was used in the original research, this brief describes the quantitative method used in this study to evaluate caregivers’ asthma-management practices. A 55-item questionnaire on childhood asthma knowledge, attitude, and practice was administered during child welfare-clinic visits to 118 caregivers. Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Version 25.0. Statistical significance was set …

Creating Regression Model For Non-Markov Transition Probability Using Pseudo-Observations, Michael Gray

Dissertations and Theses

A multi-state model is a graphical tool widely used to illustrate a transitional relationship between states in many applications. We will study the transition probabilities of an illness-death model, which is an example of a multi-state model. We will investigate transition probabilities using a counting process approach. Aalen-Johansen estimator is the gold-standard in estimating a transition probability. However, Aalen-Johansen estimator may be biased when the Markov assumption is violated. Therefore, Aalen-Johansen estimator is an unreliable estimator when the Markov assumption is violated. Several papers have published non-parametric estimators that accommodate for non-Markov models using a counting process approach.

Furthermore, there …

Survival Times And Investment Analysis With Dynamic Learning, Zhenzhen Li

Dissertations and Theses

The central statistical problem of survival analysis is to determine and characterize the conditional distribution of a survival time given a history of some observed health markers.

This dissertation contributes to the modeling of such conditional distributions in a setup where the health markers evolve randomly over time in a manner that can be represented by an Ito stochastic process, that is, a stochastic process that can be written as a sum of a time integral of some stochastic process and an Ito integral of some stochastic process, with both integrands subject to certain restrictions.

The random survival time is …

Quantifying Implicit Bias In Judicial Legal Opinions: A Natural Language Processing Approach, Philip N. Surendran

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

Implicit bias and criminal justice are two concepts that have long been intertwined. There is no justice without neutrality, and yet how do we tell if the actors enforcing the system are actually impartial? In this thesis, I utilize recent advancements in machine learning to attempt to answer this question. Specifically, I use natural language processing to examine the text of opinions written by judges in appellate courts, and I leverage these findings to build quantifiable measures of implicit bias. In particular, I look at the over/under-representation of certain emotions, sentiments and linguistic styles as a proxy for disparate treatment …

What Makes An Impartial Jury? Perceptions Of Jury Impartiality And Court Legitimacy, Joshua P. Freitag

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

In light of decreasing trust in courts at all levels of the American justice system, it is more important than ever to understand what affects people’s perceptions of the courts as fair, just, and legitimate. The Black Lives Matter protests highlighted a racial element to perceptions of impartiality in the jury system. Existing literature reveals a complex historical relationship between race and the jury, but little research has been done on public perceptions of race in the jury box.

With a novel two-experiment design using a survey instrument and a half White–half Black respondent sample pool fielded using Prolific, I …

Sex Differences In The Clinical Presentation Of Early Psychosis In A Primary Care Setting, Brooke Carter, Rebecca Rodrigues, Jennifer Reid, Suzanne Archie, Amanda L Terry, Lena Palaniyappan, Arlene G Macdougall, Aristotle Voineskos, Saadia Hameed Jan, Liisa Jaakkimainen, Branson Chen, Neo Sawh, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

Primary care is an important part of the help-seeking pathway for young people experiencing early psychosis, but sex differences in clinical presentation in these settings are unexplored. We aimed to identify sex differences in clinical presentation to primary care services in the 1-year period prior to a first diagnosis of psychotic disorder. We identified first-onset cases of non-affective psychotic disorder over a 10-year period (2005-2015) using health administrative data linked with electronic medical records (EMRs) from primary care (n = 465). Detailed information on encounters in the year prior to first diagnosis was abstracted, including psychiatric symptoms, other relevant behaviours, …

Cybersecurity: Stochastic Intensity Function And Monitoring Indicators, Hackers Demographics, Statistical Analysis And Treatment Of Ovarian Cancer, Ranju Karki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the major tasks in the present day-era is securing computer systems against unauthorized access. Every year we lost millions of dollars because of cyber attacks and thousands of people suffer economically and psychologically. Rapid development in the field of information technology increases the challenges to the Information technology personnel working on protecting against cyber attacks. In cyber security, vulnerabilities and hackers play a major role. Researchers are putting in enormous efforts to develop methods and models to control vulnerabilities and psychological behavior and motivation of hackers. Our study defines two important aspects of the computer operating system concerning …

Uniqueness For An Inverse Quantum-Dirac Problem With Given Weyl Function, Martin Bohner, Ayça Çetinkaya

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this work, we consider a boundary value problem for a q-Dirac equation. We prove orthogonality of the eigenfunctions, realness of the eigenvalues, and we study asymptotic formulas of the eigenfunctions. We show that the eigenfunctions form a complete system, we obtain the expansion formula with respect to the eigenfunctions, and we derive Parseval's equality. We construct the Weyl solution and the Weyl function. We prove a uniqueness theorem for the solution of the inverse problem with respect to the Weyl function.

Vallée-Poussin Theorem For Equations With Caputo Fractional Derivative, Martin Bohner, Alexander Domoshnitsky, Seshadev Padhi, Satyam Narayan Srivastava

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the functional differential equation (^CD_a^α+x)(t) + ^mΣ_i=0 (T_ix(ⁱ))(t) = f(t); t 2 [a; b]; with Caputo fractional derivative ^CD_a^α+ is studied. The operators Ti act from the space of continuous to the space of essentially bounded functions. They can be operators with deviations (delayed and advanced), integral operators and their various linear combinations and superpositions. Such equations could appear in various applications and in the study of systems of, for example, two fractional differential equations, when one of the components can be …