Biostatistics Commons^™

Real-Time Dengue Forecasting In Thailand: A Comparison Of Penalized Regression Approaches Using Internet Search Data, Caroline Kusiak

Masters Theses

Dengue fever affects over 390 million people annually worldwide and is of particu- lar concern in Southeast Asia where it is one of the leading causes of hospitalization. Modeling trends in dengue occurrence can provide valuable information to Public Health officials, however many challenges arise depending on the data available. In Thailand, reporting of dengue cases is often delayed by more than 6 weeks, and a small fraction of cases may not be reported until over 11 months after they occurred. This study shows that incorporating data on Google Search trends can improve dis- ease predictions in settings with severely …

Regression Analysis For Ordinal Outcomes In Matched Study Design: Applications To Alzheimer's Disease Studies, Elizabeth Austin

Masters Theses

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) affects nearly 5.4 million Americans as of 2016 and is the most common form of dementia. The disease is characterized by the presence of neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques [1]. The amount of plaques are measured by Braak stage, post-mortem. It is known that AD is positively associated with hypercholesterolemia [16]. As statins are the most widely used cholesterol-lowering drug, there may be associations between statin use and AD. We hypothesize that those who use statins, specifically lipophilic statins, are more likely to have a low Braak stage in post-mortem analysis.

In order to address this hypothesis, …