Statistics and Probability Commons^™

The Ethics In Synthetics: Statistics In The Service Of Ethics And Law In Health-Related Research In Big Data From Multiple Sources, Sharon Bassan Ph.D., Ofer Harel Ph.D.

Journal of Law and Health

An ethical advancement of scientific knowledge demands a delicate equilibrium between benefits and harms, in particular in health-related research. When applying and advancing scientific knowledge or technologies, Article 4 of UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, ethically justifiable research requires maximizing direct and indirect benefits and minimizing possible harms. The National Institution of Health [NIH] Data Sharing Policy and Implementation Guidance similarly states that data necessary for drawing valid conclusions and advancing medical research should be made as widely and freely available as possible (in order to share the benefits) while safeguarding the privacy of participants from potentially …

The Kumaraswamy Marshall-Olkin Log-Logistic Distribution With Application, Selen Cakmakyapan, Gamze Ozel, Yehia Mousa Hussein El Gebaly, Gholamhossein G. Hamedani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, we define and study a new lifetime model called the Kumaraswamy Marshall-Olkin log-logistic distribution. The new model has the advantage of being capable of modeling various shapes of aging and failure criteria. The new model contains some well-known distributions as special cases such as the Marshall-Olkin log-logistic, log-logistic, lomax, Pareto type II and Burr XII distributions. Some of its mathematical properties including explicit expressions for the quantile and generating functions, ordinary moments, skewness, kurtosis are derived. The maximum likelihood estimators of the unknown parameters are obtained. The importance and flexibility of the new model is proved empirically …

Preservice Mathematics Teachers' Conceptions And Enactments Of Modeling Standards, Hyunyi Jung, Jill Newton

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Mathematical modeling has been highlighted recently as Common Core State Standards for Mathematics [CCSSM] included Model with Mathematics as one of the Standards for Mathematical Practices [SMP] and a modeling strand in the high school standards. This common aspect of standards across most states in the U.S. intended by CCSSM authors and policy makers seems to mitigate the diverse notions of mathematical modeling. When we observed secondary mathematics preservice teachers [PSTs] who learned about the SMP and used CCSSM modeling standards to plan and enact lessons, however, we noted differences in their interpretations and enactments of the standards, despite their …

Characterizations And Infinite Divisibility Of Certain Recently Introduced Distributions Iv, Gholamhossein G. Hamedani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Certain characterizations of recently proposed univariate continuous distributions are presented in different directions. This work contains a good number of reintroduced distributions and may serve as a source of preventing the reinvention and/or duplication of the existing distributions in the future.

Classifying Controversiality In Article Data, Kateryna Kaplun

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The paper presents a statistical analysis that explores methods for measuring con- troversy in online news articles collected from 23 RSS feeds. Several baseline datasets are used to re-evaluate previous work and determine the predictive quality of uni- grams for classifying controversial documents. This is achieved by comparing con-troversy and sentiment, exploring sentiment variance, and considering entropy and standard deviation as potential features. The paper tests whether there are more controversial words in negative sentiment than in positive sentiment as well as whether there are more non-controversial words in positive sentiment than in negative sen-timent. Unlike previous studies, we determine …

Mindset, Attitudes, And Success In Statistics, Matthew Isaac

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Students in many disciplines are required to take an introductory statistics course while pursuing a college education. Despite the utility of statistical methods in future research and career pursuits, many students have negative views of statistics. We are interested in how students' mindsets and attitudes towards statistics impact their performance in an undergraduate statistics course. We administered a survey to students in several undergraduate statistics courses at Utah State University. This survey included questions addressing mathematics experience, attitudes towards statistics, mindset, and course performance. We observed that the majority of students indicated the presence of a growth mindset and positive …

Geostatistical Analysis Of Potential Sinkhole Risk: Examining Spatial And Temporal Climate Relationships In Tennessee And Florida, Kimberly Blazzard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sinkholes are a significant hazard for the southeastern United States. Although differences in climate are known to affect karst environments differently, quantitative analyses correlating sinkhole formation with climate variables is lacking. A temporal linear regression for Florida sinkholes and two modeled regressions for Tennessee sinkholes were produced: a general linearized logistic regression and a MaxEnt derived species distribution model. Temporal results showed highly significant correlations with precipitation, teleconnection patterns, temperature, and CO₂, while spatial results showed highly significant correlations with precipitation, wind speed, solar radiation, and maximum temperature. Regression results indicated that some sinkhole formation variability could be …

Analysis Of 2016-17 Major League Soccer Season Data Using Poisson Regression With R, Ian D. Campbell

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

To the outside observer, soccer is chaotic with no given pattern or scheme to follow, a random conglomeration of passes and shots that go on for 90 minutes. Yet, what if there was a pattern to the chaos, or a way to describe the events that occur in the game quantifiably. Sports statistics is a critical part of baseball and a variety of other of today’s sports, but we see very little statistics and data analysis done on soccer. Of this research, there has been looks into the effect of possession time on the outcome of a game, the difference …

Allocating Interventions Based On Counterfactual Predictions: A Case Study On Homelessness Services, Amanda R. Kube

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Modern statistical and machine learning methods are increasingly capable of modeling individual or personalized treatment effects by predicting counterfactual outcomes. These counterfactual predictions could be used to allocate different interventions across populations based on individual characteristics. In many domains, like social services, the availability of possible interventions can be severely resource limited. This thesis considers possible improvements to the allocation of such services in the context of homelessness service provision in a major metropolitan area. Using data from the homeless system, I show potential for substantial predicted benefits in terms of reducing the number of families who experience repeat episodes …

Hierarchical Bayesian Regression With Application In Spatial Modeling And Outlier Detection, Ghadeer Mahdi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation makes two important contributions to the development of Bayesian hierarchical models. The first contribution is focused on spatial modeling. Spatial data observed on a group of areal units is common in scientific applications. The usual hierarchical approach for modeling this kind of dataset is to introduce a spatial random effect with an autoregressive prior. However, the usual Markov chain Monte Carlo scheme for this hierarchical framework requires the spatial effects to be sampled from their full conditional posteriors one-by-one resulting in poor mixing. More importantly, it makes the model computationally inefficient for datasets with large number of units. …

Resistance To Peer Influence Moderates The Relationship Between Perceived (But Not Actual) Peer Norms And Binge Drinking In A College Student Social Network, Graham T. Diguiseppi, Matthew K. Meisel, Sara G. Balestrieri, Miles Q. Ott, Melissa J. Cox, Melissa A. Clark, Nancy P. Barnett

Statistical and Data Sciences: Faculty Publications

Introduction: Adolescent and young adult binge drinking is strongly associated with perceived social norms and the drinking behavior that occurs within peer networks. The extent to which an individual is influenced by the behavior of others may depend upon that individual’s resistance to peer influence (RPI).

Methods: Students in their first semester of college (N = 1323; 54.7% female, 57% White, 15.1% Hispanic) reported on their own binge drinking, and the perceived binge drinking of up to 10 important peers in the first-year class. Using network autocorrelation models, we investigated cross-sectional relationships between participant’s binge drinking frequency and the perceived …

Life-History Characteristics And Fishery Dynamics Of Red Drum (Sciaenops Ocellatus), In The North-Central Gulf Of Mexico, Corbin Bennetts

Master's Theses

Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) are highly targeted recreationally in the Gulf of Mexico, and support a small commercial fishery in Mississippi. Despite their popularity, the stock is assessed using data limited approaches that necessitate accurate life history information. I estimated the year-specific and year-aggregated escapement rates for the Mississippi stock (years 2004 to 2015), which were sensitive to mortality estimation methods; year-aggregated estimates were 6.9 to 28.2 % depending on the method, but temporal patterns were consistent. I then addressed concerns with previously estimated life-history characteristics by describing the sex-specific growth and reproductive dynamics. The three-parameter von Bertalanffy …

Initial Evidence Of Construct Validity Of Data From A Self-Assessment Instrument Of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Tpack) In 2-Year Public College Faculty In Texas, Kristin C. Scott

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) has been studied in K-12 faculty in the U.S. and around the world using survey methodology. Very few studies of TPACK in post-secondary faculty have been conducted and no peer-reviewed studies in U.S. post-secondary faculty have been published to date. The present study is the first reliability and validity of data from a TPACK survey to be conducted with a large sample of U.S. post-secondary faculty. The professorate of 2-year public college faculty in Texas will help their institutions meet the goals of the state’s higher education strategic plan, 60x30TX. In order to do …

An Optimized Route For Q100'S Bert And Kristin To Visit All Jersey Mike's Subs In Atlanta For Charity

Symposium of Student Scholars

The Bert Show is a popular morning show on Atlanta’s Q100 radio station. They host a non-profit organization that provides a “magical, all-expenses-paid, five-day journey to Walt Disney World for children with chronic and terminal illnesses and their families” called “Bert’s Big Adventure.” On March 28^th, 2018, thirty-seven locations of Jersey Mike’s are participating in the their Jersey Mike’s Day of Giving to support Bert’s Big Adventure. The goal is to have two popular radio show hosts visit each of these locations for some photos and presence to draw in more customers! But how do we get two …

Improved Regional Sports Scheduling Using Sas Optgraph

Symposium of Student Scholars

My project improves upon the tmanual cluster method of state interleague scheduling used by the Georgia State Soccer Association by use of an automated multi-round linear assignment algorithm based on SAS Optgraph.

Currently, interleague schedules are formed by manually grouping teams according to placement on a map. Typically, ten teams are assigned to a group and each team plays all of the others once per season (nine games). This approach has two flaws: 1) distance on a map does not always correlate with travel time, and 2) assigning teams to clusters precludes teams from playing teams from other groups. The …

Endoscopic Ultrasound Features Of Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1-Related Versus Sporadic Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors: A Single-Center Retrospective Study, Gianluca Tamagno, Vanessa Scherer, Alberto Caimo, Simona Bergmann, Peter Kann

Articles

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) can occur in patients with a familial syndrome either as multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN-1) or as sporadic tumors. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has become one of the first-line investigations for pNET characterization. The ultrasonographic features of pNETs may differ depending on the familial versus sporadic pathogenesis of the tumor. Therefore, the EUS findings could help and direct the definition of a pNET with an impact on the most appropriate diagnostic and ther- apeutic patient management. Methods: In this single-center retrospective study, we reviewed the EUS features of 94 pNETs from 37 MEN-1 patients and 15 …

The Psychology Of Baseball: How The Mental Game Impacts The Physical Game, Kiera Dalmass

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this study was to find whether or not sports psychology can be effective. Baseball was chosen as the sport for the study because baseball can be analyzed for nearly every single factor of the game, with the exception of the mental readiness or state of the player when he steps onto the field. It therefore provides the optimal atmosphere to provide clinical and statistical support to the field of sports psychology. Despite the various, numerous pieces of literature that praise and show support for sports psychology, there hasn’t been clinical research to support it. Additionally, multiple sports …

Identification And Estimation In Panel Models With Overspecified Number Of Groups, Ruiqi Liu

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

In this thesis, we provide a simple approach to identify and estimate group structure in panel models by adapting the M-estimationmethod. We consider both linear and nonlinear panel models where the regression coefficients are heterogeneous across groups but homogeneous within a group and the group membership is unknown to researchers. The main result of the thesis is that under certain assumptions, our approach is able to provide uniformly consistent group parameter estimator as long as the number of groups used in estimation is not smaller than the true number of groups. We also show that, with probability approaching one, our …

Cognitive Virtual Admissions Counselor, Kumar Raja Guvindan Raju, Cory Adams, Raghuram Srinivas

SMU Data Science Review

Abstract. In this paper, we present a cognitive virtual admissions counselor for the Master of Science in Data Science program at Southern Methodist University. The virtual admissions counselor is a system capable of providing potential students accurate information at the time that they want to know it. After the evaluation of multiple technologies, Amazon’s LEX was selected to serve as the core technology for the virtual counselor chatbot. Student surveys were leveraged to collect and generate training data to deploy the natural language capability. The cognitive virtual admissions counselor platform is currently capable of providing an end-to-end conversational dialog to …

Comparative Study: Reducing Cost To Manage Accessibility With Existing Data, Claire Chu, Bill Kerneckel, Eric C. Larson, Nathan Mowat, Christopher Woodard

SMU Data Science Review

“Project Sidewalk” is an existing research effort that focuses on mapping accessibility issues for handicapped persons to efficiently plan wheelchair and mobile scooter friendly routes around Washington D.C. As supporters of this project, we utilized the data “Project Sidewalk” collected and used it to confirm predictions about where problem sidewalks exist based on real estate and crime data. We present a study that identifies correlations found between accessibility data and crime and housing statistics in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. We identify the key reasons for increased accessibility and the issues with the current infrastructure management system. After a thorough …

Using Random Forests To Describe Equity In Higher Education: A Critical Quantitative Analysis Of Utah’S Postsecondary Pipelines, Tyler Mcdaniel

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

The following work examines the Random Forest (RF) algorithm as a tool for predicting student outcomes and interrogating the equity of postsecondary education pipelines. The RF model, created using longitudinal data of 41,303 students from Utah's 2008 high school graduation cohort, is compared to logistic and linear models, which are commonly used to predict college access and success. Substantially, this work finds High School GPA to be the best predictor of postsecondary GPA, whereas commonly used ACT and AP test scores are not nearly as important. Each model identified several demographic disparities in higher education access, most significantly the effects …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of Conditional Analysis Of Variance Under Heterogeneity And Non-Normality, Yan Wang, Thanh Pham, Diep Nguyen, Eun Sook Kim, Yi-Hsin Chen, Jeffrey Kromrey, Zhiyao Yi, Yue Yin

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

A simulation study was conducted to examine the efficacy of conditional analysis of variance (ANOVA) methods where the initial homogeneity of variance screening leads to the choice between the ANOVA F test and robust ANOVA methods. Type I error control and statistical power were investigated under various conditions.

Developing Methods Of Processing And Analyzing Genetic Data To Examine Tiger Salamander Population Structure, Dennis Dongmin Kim

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2018

Professor Heather Waye and her colleagues conducted a pilot study in 2014 to measure genetic diversity and dispersal pattern in a population of tiger salamanders in west-central Minnesota. The ultimate goal of this research was to analyze the genetic differences between tiger salamander larvae captured in breeding ponds within Pepperton Waterfowl Production Area to understand the population structure and movement patterns. They expected that ponds closer to each other would have more similar genetic information, and that genetic differences between ponds would increase with geographic distance. However, the initial analysis using standard techniques failed to uncover useful patterns in the …

Visualizing Statistical Data On United States Agriculture, Xingyao Xiao

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2018

Food is essential to life. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) plays an indispensable role in ensuring people have access to healthy food. However, the data on the USDA website is not easy to access. Users must download many files to get data about animals, crops, the weather, and so on. To make the data more accessible to the general public, I built a web-based application to help make the data easy to access, explore, and compare. My application integrates multiple datasets from USDA website to provide graphic visualizations that enable users to get the exact, specific data intervals …

Elementary/Middle School Pre-Service Teachers’ Understanding Of Variability And The Use Of Dynamical Statistical Software, Yaomingxin Lu

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

A primary purpose of the study was to examine the effects of using dynamical statistical software (DSS) on prospective teachers’ (PSTs) understanding of statistical concepts, especially variability. Data were collected from PSTs enrolled in a probability and statistics course designed for prospective K-8 teachers. After initial analysis of the data using coding and classification schemes, we found the need to develop a more targeted framework to analyze students’ different levels of understanding. The variability framework (Garfield & Ben-Zvi, 2005) and the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy were then used in combination to develop a revised framework in order …

Quality Of Life During Treatment With Chemohormonal Therapy: Analysis Of E3805 Chemohormonal Androgen Ablation Randomized Trial In Prostate Cancer, Alicia K. Morgans, Yu-Hui Chen, Christopher J. Sweeney, David F. Jarrard, Elizabeth R. Plimack, Benjamin A. Gartrell, Michael A. Carducci, Maha Hussain, Jorge A. Garcia, David Cella, Robert S. Dipaola, Linda J. Patrick-Miller

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Purpose

Chemohormonal therapy with docetaxel and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT+D) for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer improves overall survival as compared with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) alone. We compared the quality of life (QOL) between patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer who were treated with ADT+D and those who were treated with ADT alone.

Methods

Men were randomly assigned to ADT+ D (six cycles) or to ADT alone. QOL was assessed by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Prostate (FACT-P), FACT-Taxane, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue, and the Brief Pain Inventory at baseline and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. The …

Clustering Biological Data With Self-Adjusting High-Dimensional Sieve, Josselyn Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

Data classification as a preprocessing technique is a crucial step in the analysis and understanding of numerical data. Cluster analysis, in particular, provides insight into the inherent patterns found in data which makes the interpretation of any follow-up analyses more meaningful. A clustering algorithm groups together data points according to a predefined similarity criterion. This allows the data set to be broken up into segments which, in turn, gives way for a more targeted statistical analysis. Cluster analysis has applications in numerous fields of study and, as a result, countless algorithms have been developed. However, the quantity of options makes …

The Validity Of Online Patient Ratings Of Physicians, Jennifer L. Priestley, Yiyun Zhou, Robert Mcgrath

Faculty Articles

Background: Information from ratings sites are increasingly informing patient decisions related to health care and the selection of physicians.

Objective: The current study sought to determine the validity of online patient ratings of physicians through comparison with physician peer review.

Methods: We extracted 223,715 reviews of 41,104 physicians from 10 of the largest cities in the United States, including 1142 physicians listed as “America’s Top Doctors” through physician peer review. Differences in mean online patient ratings were tested for physicians who were listed and those who were not.

Results: Overall, no differences were found between the online patient ratings based …

Waste Management By Waste: Removal Of Acid Dyes From Wastewaters Of Textile Coloration Using Fish Scales, S M Fijul Kabir

LSU Master's Theses

Removal of hazardous acid dyes by economical process using low-cost bio-sorbents from wool industry wastewaters is of a pressing need, since it causes skin and respiratory diseases and disrupts other environmental components. Fish scales (FS), a by-product of fish industry, a type of solid waste, are usually discarded carelessly resulting in pungent odor and environmental burden. In this research, the FS of black drum (Pogonias cromis) were used for the removal of acid dyes (acid red 1 (AR1), acid blue 45 (AB45) and acid yellow 127 (AY126)) from wool industry wastewaters by absorption process with a view to …

A Comparison Of Unsupervised Methods For Dna Microarray Leukemia Data, Denise Harness

Appalachian Student Research Forum

Advancements in DNA microarray data sequencing have created the need for sophisticated machine learning algorithms and feature selection methods. Probabilistic graphical models, in particular, have been used to identify whether microarrays or genes cluster together in groups of individuals having a similar diagnosis. These clusters of genes are informative, but can be misleading when every gene is used in the calculation. First feature reduction techniques are explored, however the size and nature of the data prevents traditional techniques from working efficiently. Our method is to use the partial correlations between the features to create a precision matrix and predict which …