Applied Statistics Commons^™

Quarterback Statistics Vs. Season Success, Brendan Woods

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The purpose of this research is to determine which quarterback statistic most significantly impacts team success in the National Football League. By analyzing data from quarterbacks with at least 100 pass attempts per season from 2006 to 2023, we examine the relationship between quarterback rating, passer rating, completion percentage, and TD-INT ratio with end-of-season power rankings. We ran the data through multiple linear regression models to identify which statistic has the strongest correlation with team performance. Our model considers variations across different seasons and accounts for statistical trends over time. With over 17 seasons of data analyzed, further exploration could …

The Effect Of Internal Consistency On Ncaa Women’S Gymnastics Scores, Jordan Williams

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The aim of my research is to examine internal consistency in relation to the validity of scores in NCAA Women’s Gymnastics. This study focuses on scores from the now infamous 2024 Tennessee Collegiate Classic. Patterns from several different deviations and correlation coefficients are analyzed, and a “gold standard” score to test against is created. This allows me to identify several patterns in results that could signify invalid scores.

Faculty Diversity And Minority Enrollment In Advanced Stem Courses: A Case Study At Neville High School, Anaya Cormier

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

This study investigates the correlation between the diversity of STEM faculty and the enrollment rates of minority students in honors, Advanced Placement (AP), and dual enrollment STEM courses at Neville High School. Recognizing the long-standing underrepresented minority students in advanced STEM education, this research explores whether a more diverse faculty positively influences student participation in these courses. Using a quantitative correlational design, data on faculty demographics and student enrollment patterns were analyzed through descriptive statistics and chi-square tests of independence. The results are expected to provide information on the role of faculty diversity in fostering equitable academic opportunities. The findings …

An Analysis Of The Alaskan Salmon Harvest, Carson Allen

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The objective of this paper is to analyze the annual Alaskan salmon harvest and the variables that effect the harvest differently each year. Every year, thousands of workers’ livelihoods depend on the annual salmon harvest to provide for themselves and their families. This paper takes this reality and aims to use data gathered from previous fishing seasons to understand what variables affect the salmon population. To analyze the salmon harvest, multiple linear regression will be used over a 41 year period with variables including water temperature, air temperature, yearly harvest, and species of salmon. By modeling these and other variables, …

Can Compiled Player War Predict Mlb Team Win Percentage?, Thomas Hertel

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The baseball statistic Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is a complex yet effective metric for approximating the contribution of a player to his team through representing how many more wins his team ought to earn than with a AAAA player in his stead. The intent of this paper is to test whether the accumulation of player’s WAR can be extended to satisfy another discipline of SABRmetrics, i.e. predicting an entire team’s future performance, through modeling the sum’s correspondence (or lack thereof) to wins. If WAR is shown to extend in this way then franchise front offices could feasibly isolate it as …

Using Multiple Regression Analysis To Determine The Strength Of Certain Factors On Student Absenteeism, Emmitt Antwine

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

During the 2015-16 academic year, approximately 16% of the student population—exceeding 7 million students—were absent from school for 15 days or more. The escalation in chronic absenteeism is influenced by various factors, including poor health conditions, nonstandard work schedules of parents, socioeconomic disadvantages, changes in household compositions, frequent residential relocation, and substantial family responsibilities. Previous research on student absenteeism has examined the negative impacts that chronic absenteeism has had on students in diverse communities such as racial minorities, students with disabilities, and English Language Learners communities. We utilized information obtained from the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection …

Factors That Contribute To Completing Gateway Math Course At Southern University, Emma Colvin

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

At Southern University in Shreveport, Louisiana, there are several pathways students can take to complete the institution’s required Gateway Math Courses (GMC). The GMC consists of Math 133, Math 135, and Math 136. Currently, there is a significantly low passing rate for these courses potentially due to several factors such as the student’s math ACT score, the student’s age, whether or not the student took optional developmental math courses beforehand, and whether or not the student took these courses online or in person.

Does The ”Freshman 15” Exist?, Peyton Albritton

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

This experiment was performed to determine whether the environmental changes of adapting from high school to college impact a student’s weight. Using a Google form, we collected data from 58 college students in two Psychology 102 classes, with ages ranging from seventeen to twenty-two. The students were asked a series of questions regarding their age and gender, as well as their eating, sleeping, and activity habit changes. Data was analyzed using hypothesis testing and a t-test.

Injuries On Artificial Turf Vs. Natural Grass In The Nfl, Robert Emory

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The purpose of this research is to determine if artificial turf causes more injuries than natural grass. By referencing different statistics from a sample of games from the 2023 National Football League season. Out of the ten games sampled, five were played on natural grass and five were played on artificial turf. We ran the data collected from these games through two different regression analysis models that output p-values to show what truly caused the injuries. Our model uses a player’s position, height, weight, age, and snap counts along with the field surface type to see how if an injury …

State Gross Domestic Product Predictions Using Hierarchical Clustering And Multivariate Time Series, Austin Dae Nietfeld

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

This research was conducted to determine the weight certain taxes and expenditures have over state Gross Domestic Product(GDP) as well as how accurately these predictors can predict future GDP. The motivation behind this project comes from a desire to find the most efficient way to increase the GDP of states with poorer economies. This will improve the quality of life of citizens of these states. To come to a consensus as to what predictors are most influential, Hierarchical Clustering will be used to split the states into four groups. The average of each tax, expenditure and GDP from 2015-2020 will …

Regression Analysis Of Injuries On Nfl Quarterbacks, Julie Weems

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

Risk assessment is an important aspect of many careers such as first responders and the military. This is no different for people who play sports, especially people who are in contact sports such as football. These players’ lives can be changed forever with one bad hit. The goal of this research is to analyze the probability of an injury for the National Football League’s (NFL) quarterbacks. It is hard to predict when, what, and where an injury will occur, because of this very little work has been done on the subject matter in a general form. The goal of this …

Firefighter Safety, Haynes Mandino

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

There are close to 1.2 million career and volunteer firefighters across the United States. In the year 2020 alone 62 of these firefighters died and 64,875 were injured. The following research was performed to determine if the firefighter profession has become safer due to new standards and regulations. Each year the National Fire Protection Agency(NFPA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency(FEMA) collect data on the number of firefighter deaths and injuries, in order to determine if the standards and regulations are keeping firefighters safe. Statistical hypothesis testing and linear regression were performed on the data to show if in fact …

Does The Three Point Shot Affect Winning Percentage, Marcamus Winn

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The three-point shot, introduced in the late 1970s, is a shot that occurs typically 24 feet away from the basket at the professional level. Strategically the game of basketball was originally based on two-point field goals. Recently, there has been a noticeable trend in the popularity of the three-point shot amongst professional teams. Nowadays, three point shot attempts account for more than a third of average NBA shot selection. Statistical analysis is becoming integral to athletics. Statistics has become a critical component to the development of not only on court basketball strategies, but also team structure as well. There are …

Hypothesis Testing Of Student's Mathematical Performance In Relation To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elizabeth Foster

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The COVID-19 Pandemic affected everyone, especially schools and education due to the rapid switch from traditional face-to-face classes to online and hybrid classes. The goal of this study is to see how the pandemic affected students’ grades during distance learning when compared to before. Using hypothesis testing, we will analyze data from 13 sections of MATH 243 classes to determine if the averages went down during the pandemic, specifically in hybrid class settings. Based on the raw data of the test grades in relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic, a significant difference can be found in test scores before and during …

Statistical Analysis Of Home-Field Advantage In European Soccer, Francisco Simoncini

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

Home-field advantage in the sports world is commonly known as a huge factor in determining the final score of any sports game. By using a one-tailed, two-sample t-test, I am analyzing how playing at home generally affects a European soccer team’s performance. I am looking at how these performances are affected across three domestic leagues in Europe. I predict that when teams play at home, there will be a significant difference in their win ratio and goals scored.

Spatiotemporal Subspace Feature Tracking By Mining Discriminatory Characteristics, Richard D. Appiah

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent advancements in data collection technologies have made it possible to collect heterogeneous data at complex levels of abstraction, and at an alarming pace and volume. Data mining, and most recently data science seek to discover hidden patterns and insights from these data by employing a variety of knowledge discovery techniques. At the core of these techniques is the selection and use of features, variables or properties upon which the data were acquired to facilitate effective data modeling. Selecting relevant features in data modeling is critical to ensure an overall model accuracy and optimal predictive performance of future effects. The …

A Study Of Mathematics Achievement, Placement, And Graduation Of Engineering Students, Sara Hahler Blazek

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how background knowledge impacts freshmen engineering students' success at Louisiana Tech University in terms of grades in two different freshman classes and graduation. To determine what factors impact students, three different studies were implemented. The first study used linear regression to analyze which demographic and academic variables significantly impacted freshman math and engineering courses. Using regression discontinuity, the second study determined if the university's placement requirement for Pre-Calculus was appropriate. The final study analyzed factors that impact graduation for engineering students as well as other disciplines to determine which significant variables were …

Sensitivity Of Mixed Models To Computational Algorithms Of Time Series Data, Gunaime Nevine

Doctoral Dissertations

Statistical analysis is influenced by implementation of the algorithms used to execute the computations associated with various statistical techniques. Over many years; very important criteria for model comparison has been studied and examined, and two algorithms on a single dataset have been performed numerous times. The goal of this research is not comparing two or more models on one dataset, but comparing models with numerical algorithms that have been used to solve them on the same dataset.

In this research, different models have been broadly applied in modeling and their contrasting which are affected by the numerical algorithms in different …

Improvements On Segment Based Contours Method For Dna Microarray Image Segmentation, Yang Li

Doctoral Dissertations

DNA microarray is an efficient biotechnology tool for scientists to measure the expression levels of large numbers of genes, simultaneously. To obtain the gene expression, microarray image analysis needs to be conducted. Microarray image segmentation is a fundamental step in the microarray analysis process. Segmentation gives the intensities of each probe spot in the array image, and those intensities are used to calculate the gene expression in subsequent analysis procedures. Therefore, more accurate and efficient microarray image segmentation methods are being pursued all the time.

In this dissertation, we are making efforts to obtain more accurate image segmentation results. We …

Common Method Variance: An Experimental Manipulation, Alison Wall

Doctoral Dissertations

Although common method variance has been a subject of research concern for over fifty years, its influence on study results is still not well understood. Common method variance concerns are frequently cited as an issue in the publication of self-report data; yet, there is no consensus as to when, or if, common method variance creates bias. This dissertation examines common method variance by approaching it from an experimental standpoint. If groups of respondents can be influenced to vary their answers to survey items based upon the presence or absence of procedural remedies, a better understanding of common method variance can …

Performance Modeling And Optimization Techniques For Heterogeneous Computing, Supada Laosooksathit

Doctoral Dissertations

Since Graphics Processing Units (CPUs) have increasingly gained popularity amoung non-graphic and computational applications, known as General-Purpose computation on GPU (GPGPU), CPUs have been deployed in many clusters, including the world's fastest supercomputer. However, to make the most efficiency from a GPU system, one should consider both performance and reliability of the system.

This dissertation makes four major contributions. First, the two-level checkpoint/restart protocol that aims to reduce the checkpoint and recovery costs with a latency hiding strategy in a system between a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a GPU is proposed. The experimental results and analysis reveals some benefits, …

New Microarray Image Segmentation Using Segmentation Based Contours Method, Yuan Cheng

Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of the research developed in this dissertation is to develop a more accurate segmentation method for Affymetrix microarray images. The Affymetrix microarray biotechnologies have become increasingly important in the biomedical research field. Affymetrix microarray images are widely used in disease diagnostics and disease control. They are capable of monitoring the expression levels of thousands of genes simultaneously. Hence, scientists can get a deep understanding on genomic regulation, interaction and expression by using such tools.

We also introduce a novel Affymetrix microarray image simulation model and how the Affymetrix microarray image is simulated by using this model. This simulation …

Reliability Models For Hpc Applications And A Cloud Economic Model, Thanadech Thanakornworakij

Doctoral Dissertations

With the enormous number of computing resources in HPC and Cloud systems, failures become a major concern. Therefore, failure behaviors such as reliability, failure rate, and mean time to failure need to be understood to manage such a large system efficiently.

This dissertation makes three major contributions in HPC and Cloud studies. First, a reliability model with correlated failures in a k-node system for HPC applications is studied. This model is extended to improve accuracy by accounting for failure correlation. Marshall-Olkin Multivariate Weibull distribution is improved by excess life, conditional Weibull, to better estimate system reliability. Also, the univariate …

A Failure Index For High Performance Computing Applications, Clayton F. Chandler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation introduces a new metric in the area of High Performance Computing (HPC) application reliability and performance modeling. Derived via the time-dependent implementation of an existing inequality measure, the Failure index (FI) generates a coefficient representing the level of volatility for the failures incurred by an application running on a given HPC system in a given time interval. This coefficient presents a normalized cross-system representation of the failure volatility of applications running on failure-rich HPC platforms. Further, the origin and ramifications of application failures are investigated, from which certain mathematical conclusions yield greater insight into the behavior of these …

Mathematical And Empirical Modeling Of Chemical Reactions In A Microreactor, Jing Hu

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with mathematical and empirical modeling to simulate three important chemical reactions (cyclohexene hydrogenation and dehydrogenation, preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide, and the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis in a microreaction system.

Empirical modeling and optimization techniques based on experimental design (Central Composite Design (CCD)) and response surface methodology were applied to these three chemical reactions. Regression models were built, and the operating conditions (such as temperature, the ratio of the reactants, and total flow rate) which maximize reactant conversion and product selectivity were determined for each reaction.

A probability model for predicting the probability that a certain species …

Machine Learning Approaches For Determining Effective Seeds For K -Means Algorithm, Kaveephong Lertwachara

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, I investigate and conduct an experiment on two-stage clustering procedures, hybrid models in simulated environments where conditions such as collinearity problems and cluster structures are controlled, and in real-life problems where conditions are not controlled. The first hybrid model (NK) is an integration between a neural network (NN) and the k-means algorithm (KM) where NN screens seeds and passes them to KM. The second hybrid (GK) uses a genetic algorithm (GA) instead of the neural network. Both NN and GA used in this study are in their simplest-possible forms.

In the simulated data sets, I investigate two …

Fuzzy Product -Limit Estimators: Soft Computing In The Presence Of Very Small And Highly Censored Data Sets, Kian Lawrence Pokorny

Doctoral Dissertations

When very few data are available and a high proportion of the data is censored, accurate estimates of reliability are problematic. Standard statistical methods require a more complete data set, and with any fewer data, expert knowledge or heuristic methods are required. In the current research a computational system is developed that obtains a survival curve, point estimate, and confidence interval about the point estimate.

The system uses numerical methods to define fuzzy membership functions about each data point that quantify uncertainty due to censoring. The “fuzzy” data are then used to estimate a survival curve, and the mean survival …

Statistical Modeling And Inference Regarding Risk In Case Control Studies, Deborah Kay Shepherd

Doctoral Dissertations

Some of the common measures of risk used m epidemiology today are the relative risk, the odds ratio, the attributable risk, and the chi-square goodness of fit test. All of these measures have their shortcomings. A new approach to measuring risk in case-control studies is to use the unitless measure of the coefficient of variation of incidence of disease over the risk categories, kˆ2, first proposed by Begg et al. (1998). Begg et al. (1998), also showed that the product of multiple risk factors may be compared to an overall measure of the square of the coefficient of variation …

Statistical Properties Of Maximum Likelihood Estimates For Accelerated Lifetime Data Under The Weibull Model, Mahmoud A. Yousef

Doctoral Dissertations

Pipe rehabilitation liners are often installed in host pipes that lie below the water table. As such, they are subjected to external hydrostatic pressure. The external pressure leads to early deformation in the liners, which could ultimately lead to its failing or buckling before its expected service lifetime is achieved. Experiments involving long term buckling behavior of liners are typically accelerated lifetime testing procedures. In an accelerated testing procedure a liner is subjected to a constant external hydrostatic pressure and observed until it fails or for a certain time, t whichever occurs first. Liners that do not fail at time …