Applied Statistics Commons^™

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Applications Of Causal Inference Methods For The Estimation Of Effects Of Bone Marrow Transplant And Prescription Drugs On Survival Of Aplastic Anemia Patients, Yesha M. Patel

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

This dissertation provides an in-depth exploration into the treatment effectiveness for aplastic anemia using causal inference methods, structured around three pivotal research papers. Each paper contributes to a nuanced understanding of treatment impacts, specifically focusing on bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and prescription drugs, and the identification of optimal treatment strategies.

The first paper, "Causal Inference Analysis for Assessing the Effect of Bone Marrow Transplantation on the One-Year Survival of Adult and Pediatric Aplastic Anemia Patients," sets the foundation. It examines the short-term effectiveness of BMT in both adult and pediatric patients, providing crucial insights into how this treatment affects survival …

The Impact Of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage On Operative Outcomes After Single-Level Lumbar Fusion, Grace Y. Ng, Ritesh Karsalia, Ryan S. Gallagher, Austin J. Borja, Jianbo Na, Scott Mcclintock, Neil R. Malhotra

Mathematics Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: The relationship between socioeconomic status and neurosurgical outcomes has been investigated with respect to insurance status or median household income, but few studies have considered more comprehensive measures of socioeconomic status. This study examines the relationship between Area Deprivation Index (ADI), a comprehensive measure of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, and short-term postoperative outcomes after lumbar fusion surgery. METHODS: 1861 adult patients undergoing single-level, posterior-only lumbar fusion at a single, multihospital academic medical center were retrospectively enrolled. An ADI matching protocol was used to identify each patient's 9-digit zip code and the zip code-associated ADI data. Primary outcomes included 30- and …

Data Quality Checks: Implementation With Popular Data Collection Crowdsourcing Platforms, James Down, Gregory Balkcom, Kristine Duncan, Ngan (An) Truong, Andrew Lewis

Symposium of Student Scholars

The utilization of online crowdsourcing platforms for data collection has increased over the past two decades in the field of public health due to the ease of use, the cost-saving benefits, the speed of the data collection process, and the accessibility of a potentially true representative population. Although these platforms offer many advantages to researchers, significant drawbacks exist, such as poor data quality, that threaten the reliability and validity of the study. Previous studies have examined data quality concerns, but differences in results arise due to variations in study designs, disciplinary contexts, and the platforms being investigated. Therefore, this study …

Statistical And Machine Learning Approaches To Describe Factors Affecting Preweaning Mortality Of Piglets, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Gary A. Rohrer, Sudhendu R. Sharma, Vamsi Manthena, Yeyin Shi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

High preweaning mortality (PWM) rates for piglets are a significant concern for the worldwide pork industries, causing economic loss and well-being issues. This study focused on identifying the factors affecting PWM, overlays, and predicting PWM using historical production data with statistical and machine learning models. Data were collected from 1,982 litters from the United States Meat Animal Research Center, Nebraska, over the years 2016 to 2021. Sows were housed in a farrowing building with three rooms, each with 20 farrowing crates, and taken care of by well-trained animal caretakers. A generalized linear model was used to analyze the various sow, …

Analytical Approach For Monitoring The Behavior Of Patients With Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma At Different Stages As A Function Of Time, Aditya Chakaborty Dr, Chris P. Tsokos Dr

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Optimizing Tumor Xenograft Experiments Using Bayesian Linear And Nonlinear Mixed Modelling And Reinforcement Learning, Mary Lena Bleile

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Tumor xenograft experiments are a popular tool of cancer biology research. In a typical such experiment, one implants a set of animals with an aliquot of the human tumor of interest, applies various treatments of interest, and observes the subsequent response. Efficient analysis of the data from these experiments is therefore of utmost importance. This dissertation proposes three methods for optimizing cancer treatment and data analysis in the tumor xenograft context. The first of these is applicable to tumor xenograft experiments in general, and the second two seek to optimize the combination of radiotherapy with immunotherapy in the tumor xenograft …

Quantifying The Effect Of Socio-Economic Predictors And The Built Environment On Mental Health Events In Little Rock, Ar, Alfieri Ek, Grant Drawve, Samantha Robinson, Jyotishka Datta

Sociology and Criminology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Law enforcement agencies continue to grow in the use of spatial analysis to assist in identifying patterns of outcomes. Despite the critical nature of proper resource allocation for mental health incidents, there has been little progress in statistical modeling of the geo-spatial nature of mental health events in Little Rock, Arkansas. In this article, we provide insights into the spatial nature of mental health data from Little Rock, Arkansas between 2015 and 2018, under a supervised spatial modeling framework. We provide evidence of spatial clustering and identify the important features influencing such heterogeneity via a spatially informed hierarchy of generalized …

Employee Attrition: Analyzing Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction Of Ibm Data Scientists, Graham Nash

Symposium of Student Scholars

Employee attrition is a relevant issue that every business employer must consider when gauging the effectiveness of their employees. Whether or not an employee chooses to leave their job can come from a multitude of factors. As a result, employers need to develop methods in which they can measure attrition by calculating the several qualities of their employees. Factors like their age, years with the company, which department they work in, their level of education, their job role, and even their marital status are all considered by employers to assist in predicting employee attrition. This project will be analyzing a …

Moral Injury To Inform Analysis Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Amanda Julia Manea

Senior Theses

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that almost one out of ten veterans struggle with. Although the National Center for PTSD has made extensive progress in characterizing and developing new treatments for PTSD, most veterans still experience symptoms of PTSD following treatment. Novel avenues of investigation, such as developing algorithms to review electronic health record (EHR) data and better understanding moral injury, are being pursued to address the gap that still exists when it comes to treating veterans. Moral injury is the individual evaluation of exposure to a potentially morally injurious event (PMIE) and can lead to …

Potential Alzheimer's Disease Plasma Biomarkers, Taylor Estepp

Theses and Dissertations--Epidemiology and Biostatistics

In this series of studies, we examined the potential of a variety of blood-based plasma biomarkers for the identification of Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression and cognitive decline. With the end goal of studying these biomarkers via mixture modeling, we began with a literature review of the methodology. An examination of the biomarkers with demographics and other health factors found evidence of minimal risk of confounding along the causal pathway from biomarkers to cognitive performance. Further study examined the usefulness of linear combinations of biomarkers, achieved via partial least squares (PLS) analysis, as predictors of various cognitive assessment scores and clinical …

Poisson Regression Model With Application To Wastewater Surveillance Under A Threshold Linear Mixed Model For Covid-19 Sensitivity Rates, Norou Diawara, Hueiwang Anna Jeng, Kyle Curtis, Raul Gonzalez, Nancy Welch, Cynthia Jackson, Rekha Singh, David Jurgens, Sasanka Adikari, Omotomilola Jegede

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

A Threshold Linear Mixed Model (TLMM) has been developed to identify specific thresholds based on wastewater SARS-CoV-2 viral concentrations, which reflect COVID-19 cases. The thresholds can guide decisions regarding public health responses and prevention measures. To assess the practical application of TLMM, a simple simulation was conducted using a sample size of 100 and 500 replications. The simulation allowed for comparing parameter estimators by assessing bias and standard deviation and the root of the mean square error. The model and estimation procedures were applied to reported wastewater and clinic data to test its application for real-world scenarios. Our results demonstrated …

Cheiloscopy Patterns In Individuals With And Without Parafunctional Oral Habits: A Cross-Sectional Observation Pilot Study, Emily Regan, Brenda Bradshaw, Ann Bruhn, Walter Melvin, Sinjini Sikdar

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Purpose

Lip prints are unique and have potential for use as a human identifier. The purpose of this study was to observe possible cheiloscopy differences of individuals with and without parafunctional oral habits such as smoking, vaping, playing a wind instrument or using an asthma inhaler.

Methods

This IRB approved blinded cross-sectional observation pilot study collected lip prints from 66 individuals, three of which were excluded. Participants cleansed their lips, then lipstick was applied to the vermillion zones of the upper and lower lips. Adhesive tape was applied to the lips and prints were transferred to white bond paper for …

Longitudinal Sport Science Implementation In American Collegiate Men’S Basketball, Jason Stone

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The expanding opportunities to implement sport science frameworks in elite-level basketball environments coincide with the sport’s increasing global prominence. Concomitant to these opportunities is the continual growth of the sport technology market (e.g., wearables, force plates) and computational power (e.g., data management tools, coding capabilities), which yields solutions and challenges for both athletes and practitioners. Due to the rapid influx of new sport technologies in high performance environments, particularly American Collegiate Men’s Basketball, more formal and ecologically valid research on how to effectively utilize data derived from them, particularly over long periods of time (i.e., multiple seasons) is needed. To …

Knowledge Discovery On The Integrative Analysis Of Electrical And Mechanical Dyssynchrony To Improve Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy, Zhuo He

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is a standard method of treating heart failure by coordinating the function of the left and right ventricles. However, up to 40% of CRT recipients do not experience clinical symptoms or cardiac function improvements. The main reasons for CRT non-response include: (1) suboptimal patient selection based on electrical dyssynchrony measured by electrocardiogram (ECG) in current guidelines; (2) mechanical dyssynchrony has been shown to be effective but has not been fully explored; and (3) inappropriate placement of the CRT left ventricular (LV) lead in a significant number of patients.

In terms of mechanical dyssynchrony, we utilize an …

Bayesian Methods For Graphical Models With Neighborhood Selection., Sagnik Bhadury

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Graphical models determine associations between variables through the notion of conditional independence. Gaussian graphical models are a widely used class of such models, where the relationships are formalized by non-null entries of the precision matrix. However, in high-dimensional cases, covariance estimates are typically unstable. Moreover, it is natural to expect only a few significant associations to be present in many realistic applications. This necessitates the injection of sparsity techniques into the estimation method. Classical frequentist methods, like GLASSO, use penalization techniques for this purpose. Fully Bayesian methods, on the contrary, are slow because they require iteratively sampling over a quadratic …

Improving The Accuracy Of Interactive Voice Response (Ivr) Technology For Pediatric Experience Scores, Elizabeth Spaargaren Ms, Mph, Cpxp, Abigail Kozak Mba, Cpxp, Cara Herbener Cpxp, Barbara Lawlor Burke Ma, Cpxp

Patient Experience Journal

The increased use of interactive voice response (IVR) in assessing patient and family experience should be paired with evidence-based practices on how to obtain the most accurate information via this survey mode. We added a brief clarification sentence of the survey scale at the start of the IVR call to improve our experience data both qualitatively and quantitatively. Our setting was an urban pediatric hospital. We gathered lived experiences from our patients, families, and providers to understand and design a change to the IVR survey mode that would reduce survey inaccuracies. Outcome measures were assessed by baseline measurement and post-intervention …

Predicting Insulin Pump Therapy Settings, Riccardo L. Ferraro, David Grijalva, Alex Trahan

SMU Data Science Review

Millions of people live with diabetes worldwide [7]. To mitigate some of the many symptoms associated with diabetes, an estimated 350,000 people in the United States rely on insulin pumps [17]. For many of these people, how effectively their insulin pump performs is the difference between sleeping through the night and a life threatening emergency treatment at a hospital. Three programmed insulin pump therapy settings governing effective insulin pump function are: Basal Rate (BR), Insulin Sensitivity Factor (ISF), and Carbohydrate Ratio (ICR). For many people using insulin pumps, these therapy settings are often not correct, given their physiological needs. While …

Rewriting The Rules For Diagnostics: Implications Of Probability And Measure Theory For Sars-Cov-2 Testing, Paul Patrone, Anthony Kearsley

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Modelling Muscle Activation Using Emg Signal, Mercy U. Okonna

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

(EMG) is a method for measuring muscle activity by an electrical signal, and is useful in studying motor control, postural control, and in physical therapy. A current research topic is creating an algorithm that can use the EMG signal to reliably classify a muscle as active or inactive. This thesis presents a classification algorithm for leg muscles with a single activation spike while walking. Time is rescaled into steps, which are identified using data from cameras measuring joint angles while walking. The algorithm is based on moving averages and a convex combination of mean signal strength in active and inactive …

Mindfulness And Pain Regulation: The Role Of Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Individuals With Chronic Pain, Ariana C. White

Honors Theses and Capstones

Chronic pain is a significant and widely prevalent health condition which requires comprehensive care to address the many facets contributing to symptomatology. In 2016, 20% of American adults (about 50 million) reported experiencing chronic pain, of which 7.4% indicated that chronic pain frequently limited their life and participation in activities within the past 3 months (CDC, 2018). As a result, many individuals with chronic pain turn to opioid-based medication for pain relief, but long-term use of opioids actually increases pain sensation (Tobin, 2019). Moreover, opioid medication is unable to target underlying mental health components which emerge as part of chronic …

The Online Ordering Behaviors Among Participants In The Oklahoma Women, Infants, And Children Program: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Qi Zhang, Kayoung Park, Junzhou Zhang, Chuanyi Tang

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a nutrition assistance program in the United States (U.S.). Participants in the program redeem their prescribed food benefits in WIC-authorized grocery stores. Online ordering is an innovative method being pilot-tested in some stores to facilitate WIC participants' food benefit redemption, which has become especially important in the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research aimed to examine the online ordering (OO) behaviors among 726 WIC households who adopted WIC OO in a grocery chain, XYZ (anonymous) store, in Oklahoma (OK). These households represented approximately 5% of WIC households who redeemed …

A Participatory Group Process To Collect And Disseminate Covid-19 Needs Assessment Data, Areebah Ahmed

Undergraduate Research Posters

The Richmond, VA COVID-19 Needs Assessment Survey (RVA CoNA) was created in March 2020 to identify behaviors and needs related to COVID-19 in Richmond area adults ages 18 and over. Results are being used to inform support, strategic efforts, and educational outreach of local community organizations. The purpose of this study is to (1) summarize the process used to develop the RVA CoNA, (2) summarize preliminary survey results from a second phase of data collection as well as initial feedback from community partners, and (3) summarize initial conclusions and results dissemination strategies.Community partners and researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University jointly …

Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, And Depression In Association With Incidence Of Type 2 Diabetes Among Mexican Americans In Starr County, Texas, Gabriela Rubannelsonkumar

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

Previous studies on conditions like obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have explored the correlations between them and various other human conditions, including aortic stiffness, left ventricular hypertrophy and sleep apnea, as they predict possibilities of developing certain diseases in Mexican Americans. This study aims to observe the correlation between lifestyle decisions that could relate to the onset of the depression in normal, prediabetic, and diabetic individuals. These include smoking habits and alcohol consumption. Many papers have previously conducted research on these lifestyle habits as they relate to obesity, hypertension, diabetes, however, have done so in a singular …

Estimation Analysis For The Seir Model With Stochastic Perturbation For The Covid-19 Outbreak In Bogotá, Viswanathan Arunachalam, Andres Rios-Gutierrez

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Statistical Modeling Of Sars-Cov-2 Mutation In The U.S., Yuru Jing, Angela Antonou

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Mathematical Modeling And Analysis Of Covid-19 Epidemic With Vaccination, Caitlin Seibel, Tina Huang, Jackson Reisman, Erika Johanna Martinez Salinas, Viswanathan Arunachalam, Moatlhodi Kgosimore, Anuj Mubayi, Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, Allen Bone Sehunelo

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Anti-Vaxxers: Parents Fighting Science, Katie West

Symposium of Student Scholars

Immunizing children helps protect the health of our community, especially those people who cannot be immunized. Yet, since 1996 after a study was released that linked autism to vaccinations, there has been a trend of parents refusing to vaccinate their children. What are the demographics of the parents who believe their children are better off without vaccines? By knowing where these parents live and what decisions they make for their children’s education, counties and medical professionals can provide education and address their concerns.

My research involves data on 116,141 kindergarten classes from 2000-2015 in California. The two vaccine exemption options …

Opioid Abuse: Are Doctors Creating The Problem?, Nguyen Tran

Symposium of Student Scholars

Opioid abuse and overdose are serious health problems in the United States. Current research has concentrated on the treatment and prevention of opioid abuse. Using data from the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) for California zip codes, my research focuses on the causes of opioid overdose by considering the relationships between the following variables within each zip code: population size, average number of prescriptions per doctor, percentage of people who receive opioid prescriptions, percentage of people receiving the same prescription drug from 3 or more doctors, average number of opioid pills per prescription and number of people …

Food Deserts: Hungry For Answers, Lawren Cumberbatch

Symposium of Student Scholars

In 2010, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that 23.5 million people in the United States live in food deserts. As defined by the USDA, a “food desert” is a neighborhood that lacks healthy food sources. This can be measured by distance to a store, number of stores in an area, individual-level resources such as family income or vehicle availability, and neighborhood-level resources such as availability of public transportation. Past research provides evidence that food deserts are especially likely to occur in communities heavily populated by minorities. As a Black Indian pre-med student aiming to join the world …