Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

On The Reporting Of Reliability In Content Analysis, Patric R. Spence

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This article explores one type of misreporting of reliability that has been seen in recent conference papers and articles using the method of content analysis. The reporting of reliability is central to the validity of claims made using this method. A brief overview of content analysis is offered, followed by the exploration of one type of misreporting of reliability. Suggestions are offered to address the problem.

Validation Studies: Matters Of Dimensionality, Accuracy, And Parsimony With Predictive Discriminant Analysis And Factor Analysis, David A. Walker

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Two studies were used as examples that examined issues of dimensionality, accuracy, and parsimony in educational research via the use of predictive discriminant analysis and factor analysis. Using a two-group problem, study 1 looked at how accurately group membership could be predicted from subjects’ test scores. Study 2 looked at the dimensionality structure of an instrument and if it developed constructs that would measure theorized domains.

Stratified Extreme Ranked Set Sample With Application To Ratio Estimators, Hani M. Samawai, Laith J. Saeid

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Stratified extreme ranked set sample (SERSS) is introduced. The performance of the combined and separate ratio estimates using SERSS is investigated. Theoretical and simulation study are presented. Results indicate that using SERSS for estimating the ratios is more efficient than using stratified simple random sample (SSRS) and simple random sample (SRS). In some cases it is more efficient than ranked set sample (RSS) and stratified ranked set sample (SRSS), when the underlying distribution is symmetric. An application to real data on the bilirubin level in jaundice babies is introduced to illustrate the method.

Depth Based Permutation Test For General Differences In Two Multivariate Populations, Yonghong Gao

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

For two p-dimensional data sets, interest exists in testing if they come from the common population distribution. Proposed is a practical, effective and easy to implement procedure for the testing problem. The proposed procedure is a permutation test based on the concept of the depth of one observation relative to some population distribution. The proposed test is demonstrated to be consistent. A small Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to evaluate the power of the proposed test. The proposed test is applied to some numerical examples.

Accurate Binary Decisions For Assessing Coronary Artery Disease, Mehmet Ali Cengiz

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Generalized linear models offer convenient and highly applicable tools for modeling and predicting the behavior of random variables in terms of observable factors and covariates. This paper investigates applications of a special case of generalized linear model to improve the accuracy of predictions and decisions adopting Bayesian methods, in the specific context of assessing coronary artery disease. The basic model is developed for this application using binary response. The results clearly demonstrate the potential advantages offered by this approach.

Statistical Pronouncements Iii, Jmasm Editors

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

No abstract provided.

Meta-Analysis Of Results And Individual Patient Data In Epidemiologal Studies, Aurelio Tobías, Marc Saez, Manolis Kogevinas

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Epidemiological information can be aggregated by combining results through a meta-analysis technique, or by pooling and analyzing primary data. Common approaches to analyzing pooled studies through an example on the effect of occupational exposure to wood dust on sinonasal cancer are described. Results were combined applying a meta-analysis technique. Alternatively, primary data from all studies were pooled and re-analyzed using mixed effect models. The combination of individual information rather than results is desirable to facilitate interpretations of epidemiological findings, leading also to more precise estimations and more powerful statistical tests for study heterogeneity.

Meteor-S Web Service Annotation Framework, Abhijit A. Patil, Swapna A. Oundhakar, Amit P. Sheth, Kunal Verma

Kno.e.sis Publications

The World Wide Web is emerging not only as an infrastructure for data, but also for a broader variety of resources that are increasingly being made available as Web services. Relevant current standards like UDDI, WSDL, and SOAP are in their fledgling years and form the basis of making Web services a workable and broadly adopted technology. However, realizing the fuller scope of the promise of Web services and associated service oriented architecture will requite further technological advances in the areas of service interoperation, service discovery, service composition, and process orchestration. Semantics, especially as supported by the use of ontologies, …

Sempl: A Semantic Portal, Matthew Perry, Eric Stiles

Kno.e.sis Publications

Semantic Web technology is intended for the retrieval, collection, and analysis of meaningful data with significant automation afforded by machine understandability of data [1]. As one illustration of semantic web technology in action, we present SEMPL, a semantic web portal for the Large Scale Distributed Information Systems lab (LSDIS) at the University of Georgia. SEMPL, which is powered by a state of the art commercial system, Semagix Freedom [7], uses an ontology-driven approach to provide semantic browsing, linking, and contextual querying of content within the portal. By using the ontology based information integration technique, SEMPL can specify the context of …

Defining Archaeological Stratigraphy: Evaluating Microartifact Sampling, David N. Holycross

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A variety of subsurface methods have been used to discover and evaluate buried archaeological occupations. Researchers such as Stafford (1993,1995) have proposed that micro artifacts are an effective means of defining the archaeological stratigraphy of deposits, but only limited evaluation of this approach has been undertaken. This study tested the utility of microartifacts within a range of sample size and site density characteristics at three Ohio Valley archaeological sites buried within early and late Holocene age landforms. Occupations were typically detected in unit-to-core comparisons, within acceptable margins of error, and microartifacts often revealed a more complex stratigraphy than reflected by …

Indexing Genomic Databases, Gina Cooper, Michael L. Raymer, Travis E. Doom, Dan E. Krane, Natsuhiko Futamura

Kno.e.sis Publications

Current biological sequence comparison tools utilize full database searches to find approximate matches between a database and a query. A new approach to sequence comparisons can be performed by indexing the database using a novel indexing scheme. An indexed scheme can immediately eliminate highly mismatched sequences thereby improving performance and accuracy. iBlast is proposed as an indexed version of BLAST. In its initial implementation, iBlast uses a sequence-based index to catalog genomic databases in an NCR Teradata RDBMS. Several types of indexes and querying methods are explored to determine the most efficient solution utilizing the parallel nature of the Teradata …

Multivariate Location: Robust Estimators And Inference, Rand R. Wilcox, H. J. Keselman

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The sample mean can have poor efficiency relative to various alternative estimators under arbitrarily small departures from normality. In the multivariate case, (affine equivariant) estimators have been proposed for dealing with this problem, but a comparison of various estimators by Massé and Plante (2003) indicated that the small-sample efficiency of some recently derived methods is rather poor. This article reports that a skipped mean, where outliers are removed via a projection-type outlier detection method, is found to be more satisfactory. The more obvious method for computing a confidence region based on the skipped estimator (using a slight modification of the …

A Power Comparison Of Robust Test Statistics Based On Adaptive Estimators, H. J. Keselman, Rand R. Wilcox, James Algina, Abdul R. Othman

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Seven test statistics known to be robust to the combined effects of nonnormality and variance heterogeneity were compared for their sensitivity to detect treatment effects in a one-way completely randomized design containing four groups. The six Welch-James-type heteroscedastic tests adopted either symmetric or asymmetric trimmed means, were transformed for skewness, and used a bootstrap method to assess statistical significance. The remaining test, due to Wilcox and Keselman (2003), used a modification of the well-known one-step M-estimator of central tendency rather than trimmed means. The Welch-James-type test is recommended because for nonnormal data likely to be encountered in applied research settings …

A Rank-Based Estimation Procedure For Linear Models With Clustered Data, Suzanne R. Dubnicka

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

A rank method is presented for estimating regression parameters in the linear model when observations are correlated. This correlation is accounted for by including a random effect term in the linear model. A method is proposed that makes few assumptions about the random effect and error distribution. The main goal of this article is to determine the distributions for which this method performs well relative to existing methods.

A Generalized Quasi-Likelihood Model Application To Modeling Poverty Of Asian American Women, Jeffrey R. Wilson

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

A generalized quasi-likelihood function that does not require the assumption of an underlying distribution when modeling jointly the mean and the variance, is introduced to examine poverty of Asian American women living in the West coast of the United States, using data from U.S. Census Bureau.

Estimation Of Multiple Linear Functional Relationships, Amjad D. Al-Nasser

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This article deals with multiple linear functional relationships models. Two robust estimations procedure are proposed to estimate the model, based on Generalized Maximum Entropy and Partial Least Square. They are distribution free and do not rely (so much) on classical assumptions. The experiments showed that the GME approach outperforms the PLS in terms of mean squares of errors (MSE). Empirical examples are studied.

Teaching Random Assignment: Do You Believe It Works?, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Textbook authors admonish students to check on the comparability of two randomly assigned groups by conducting statistical tests on pretest means to determine if randomization worked. A Monte Carlo study was conducted on a sample of n = 2 per group, where each participant’s personality profile was represented by 7,500 randomly selected and assigned scores. Independent samples t tests were conducted and the results demonstrated that random assignment was successful in equating the two groups on 7,467 variables. The students’ focus is redirected from the ability of random assignment to create comparable groups to the testing of the claims of …

A Comparison Of Bayesian And Frequentist Statistics As Applied In A Simple Repeated Measures Example, Jan Perkins, Daniel Wang

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Clinicians see Bayesian and frequentist analysis in published research papers, and need a basic understanding of both. A repeated measures data set was analyzed using both approaches. Assumptions underlying each method and conclusions reached were contrasted. The Bayesian approach is a viable alternative to frequentist statistical analysis for many clinical projects.

Jmasm10: A Fortran Routine For Sieve Bootstrap Prediction Intervals, Andrés M. Alonso

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

A Fortran routine for constructing nonparametric prediction intervals for a general class of linear processes is described. The approach uses the sieve bootstrap procedure of Bühlmann (1997) based on residual resampling from an autoregressive approximation to the given process.

A Comparison Of Methods For Longitudinal Analysis With Missing Data, James Algina, H. J. Keselman

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In a longitudinal two-group randomized trials design, also referred to as randomized parallel-groups design or split-plot repeated measures design, the important hypothesis of interest is whether there are differential rates of change over time, that is, whether there is a group by time interaction. Several analytic methods have been presented in the literature for testing this important hypothesis when data are incomplete. We studied these methods for the case in which the missing data pattern is non-monotone. In agreement with earlier work on monotone missing data patterns, our results on bias, sampling variability, Type I error and power support the …

On Polynomial Transformations For Simulating Multivariate Non-Normal Distributions, Todd C. Headrick

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Procedures are introduced and discussed for increasing the computational and statistical efficiency of polynomial transformations used in Monte Carlo or simulation studies. Comparisons are also made between polynomials of order three and five in terms of (a) computational and statistical efficiency, (b) the skew and kurtosis boundary, and (c) boundaries for Pearson correlations. It is also shown how ranked data can be simulated for specified Spearman correlations and sample sizes. Potential consequences of nonmonotonic transformations on rank correlations are also discussed.

An Alternative Q Chart Incorporating A Robust Estimator Of Scale, Michael B. C. Khoo

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In overcoming the shortcomings of the classical control charts in a short runs production, Quesenberry (1991 & 1995a – d) proposed Q charts for attributes and variables data. An approach to enhance the performance of a variable Q chart based on individual measurements using a robust estimator of scale is proposed. Monte carlo simulations are conducted to show that the proposed robust Q chart is superior to the present Q chart.

Quantifying The Proportion Of Cases Attributable To An Exposure, Camil Fuchs, Vance W. Berger

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The attributable fraction and the average attributable fractions, which are commonly used to assess the relative effect of several exposures to the prevalence of a disease, do not represent the proportion of cases caused by each exposure. Furthermore, the sum of attributable fractions over all exposures generally exceeds not only the attributable fraction for all exposures taken together, but also 100%. Other measures are discussed here, including the directly attributable fraction and the confounding fraction, that may be more suitable in defining the fraction directly attributable to an exposure.

Inside Unlv, Gian Galassi, Andy Grossman, Donna Mcaleer, Jennifer Vaughan, Carol C. Harter, Ronald Yasbin

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

2004 - The Ninth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Ninth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 16, 2004. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Liberal Arts - Spring 2004, University Of Mississippi. College Of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Newsletters

Transformations creating new homes for visual, performing arts departments

Draft Aquaculure Plan For Exmouth Gulf, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries Management Papers

The Plan’s objective is to provide a sound strategy for developing future aquaculture activities in Exmouth Gulf, while at the same time conserving the unique environment of Exmouth Gulf for present and future generations, and minimising conflict with existing and future users of Exmouth Gulf.

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 45 Number 4, Spring 2004, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

8 - TOP TEACHERS By Elizabeth Kelley Gillogly '93-Meet three SCU professors who received University awards for teaching excellence and curriculum innovations.

10 - BLAZING THE TRAIL By Victoria Hendel De La O. There are many unique challenges and rewards for the hundreds of first-generation college students at SCU.

14 - THE SCU DIFFERENCE By Margaret Avritt. The value of an SCU education goes beyond statistics and scores. Students at this university have experiences that engage and transform them.

18 - MIND OVER MONEY By Hersh Shefrin and Meir Statman. Two SCU professors of finance explore how psychology can help …

A Spatial Analysis Of The Impact Of Development On Wetland Habitat In Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, Jenna Medlin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In response to growing concerns over wetland habitat loss and the associated impact on water resources, federal and state legislation has been enacted to protect vulnerable wetland habitats from the impacts of humans. In order to examine the efficacy of current coastal resource policy and its implementation, a study was conducted in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, a coastal city of the Atlantic, focusing on the quantification of wetland habitat change over time within a specific area of interest. The study incorporated an assessment of the effects of escalating population pressures and subsequent urban development on local wetland habitats due to …

Quality Of Service For Workflows And Web Service Processes, Jorge Cardoso, Amit P. Sheth, John A. Miller, Jonathan Arnold, Krzysztof J. Kochut

Kno.e.sis Publications

Workflow management systems (WfMSs) have been used to support various types of business processes for more than a decade now. In workflows or Web processes for e-commerce and Web service applications, suppliers and customers define a binding agreement or contract between the two parties, specifying quality of service (QoS) items such as products or services to be delivered, deadlines, quality of products, and cost of services. The management of QoS metrics directly impacts the success of organizations participating in e-commerce. Therefore, when services or products are created or managed using workflows or Web processes, the underlying workflow engine must accept …