Multivariate Analysis Commons^™

A Transdisciplinary Analysis Of Just Transition Pathways To 100% Renewable Electricity, Adewale Aremu Adesanya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The transition to using clean, affordable, and reliable electrical energy is critical for enhancing human opportunities and capabilities. In the United States, many states and localities are engaging in this transition despite the lack of ambitious federal policy support. This research builds on the theoretical framework of the multilevel perspective (MLP) of sociotechnical transitions as well as the concept of energy justice to investigate potential pathways to 100 percent renewable energy (RE) for electricity provision in the U.S. This research seeks to answer the question: what are the technical, policy, and perceptual pathways, barriers, and opportunities for just transition to …

Statistical Methods In Genetic Studies, Cheng Gao

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation includes three Chapters. A brief description of each chapter is organized as follows.

In Chapter 1, we proposed a new method, called MF-TOWmuT, for genome-wide association studies with multiple genetic variants and multiple phenotypes using family samples. MF-TOWmuT uses kinship matrix to account for sample relatedness. It is worth mentioning that in simulations, we considered hidden polygenic effects and varied the proportion of variance contributed by it to generate phenotypes. Simulation studies show that MF-TOWmuT can preserve the type I error rates and is more powerful than several existing methods in different simulation scenarios, MFTOWmuT is also quite …

Review Of Forecasting Univariate Time-Series Data With Application To Water-Energy Nexus Studies & Proposal Of Parallel Hybrid Sarima-Ann Model, Cory Sumner Yarrington

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The necessary materials for most human activities are water and energy. Integrated analysis to accurately forecast water and energy consumption enables the implementation of efficient short and long-term resource management planning as well as expanding policy and research possibilities for the supportive infrastructure. However, the integral relationship between water and energy (water-energy nexus) poses a difficult problem for modeling. The accessibility and physical overlay of data sets related to water-energy nexus is another main issue for a reliable water-energy consumption forecast. The framework of urban metabolism (UM) uses several types of data to build a global view and highlight issues …

Satellite-Based Phenology Analysis In Evaluating The Response Of Puerto Rico And The United States Virgin Islands' Tropical Forests To The 2017 Hurricanes, Melissa Collin

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The functionality of tropical forest ecosystems and their productivity is highly related to the timing of phenological events. Understanding forest responses to major climate events is crucial for predicting the potential impacts of climate change. This research utilized Landsat satellite data and ground-based Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data to investigate the dynamics of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ (PRVI) tropical forests after two major hurricanes in 2017. Analyzing these two datasets allowed for validation of the remote sensing methodology with field data and for the investigation of whether this is an appropriate approach for estimating forest …

Characterization Of Modern Ammunition And Background Profiles: A Novel Approach And Probabilistic Interpretation Of Inorganic Gunshot Residue, Korina Layli Menking-Hoggatt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Gunshot residue (GSR) can provide essential clues in gun-related investigations. The standard practice for GSR analysis uses SEM-EDS, with the capability for single particle elemental and morphological analysis. However, the method is time-consuming and based on categorical classification models without considering case circumstances. Therefore, complementary and more encompassing methods are needed to improve evidence interpretation of modern ammunition. This research aims to fill these demands by developing standard materials and alternative methods to characterize and interpret IGSR.

This study developed primer GSR (pGSR) standards from sixty discharged primers that were fully characterized by three techniques. The number of GSR particles, …

Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines two personality traits: exploration and neophobia, which could influence human-elephant conflicts. Thirty-one semi-wild elephants were tested over two trials using a custom novel puzzle tube containing three tasks and three rewards. Our studies show that elephants do vary significantly between individuals in both exploration and neophobia.

Multi-Level Small Area Estimation Based On Calibrated Hierarchical Likelihood Approach Through Bias Correction With Applications To Covid-19 Data, Nirosha Rathnayake

Theses & Dissertations

Small area estimation (SAE) has been widely used in a variety of applications to draw estimates in geographic domains represented as a metropolitan area, district, county, or state. The direct estimation methods provide accurate estimates when the sample size of study participants within each area unit is sufficiently large, but it might not always be realistic to have large sample sizes of study participants when considering small geographical regions. Meanwhile, high dimensional socio-ecological data exist at the community level, providing an opportunity for model-based estimation by incorporating rich auxiliary information at the individual and area levels. Thus, it is critical …

Gene Set Testing By Distance Correlation, Sho-Hsien Su

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pathways are the functional building blocks of complex diseases such as cancers. Pathway-level studies may provide insights on some important biological processes. Gene set test is an important tool to study the differential expression of a gene set between two groups, e.g., cancer vs normal. The differential expression of a gene set could be due to the difference in mean, variability, or both. However, most existing gene set tests only target the mean difference but overlook other types of differential expression. In this thesis, we propose to use the recently developed distance correlation for gene set testing. To assess the …

Profile Of Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) From Cold-Processed And Heat-Treated Virgin Coconut Oil (Vco) Samples, Ian Ken D. Dimzon, Grace B. Tantengco, Noel A. Oquendo, Fabian M. Dayrit

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) can be prepared with or without heat. Fermentation and centrifuge processes can be done without the use of heat (cold process), while expelling involves heat due to friction. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from VCO samples prepared using these three methods were collected using solid phase microextraction (SPME) and analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Twenty-seven VCO samples from nine VCO producers were analyzed. The VOCs from refined, bleached, and deodorized coconut oil (RBDCO) were also obtained for comparison. Fourteen compounds were found to be common in more than 80% of the VCO samples analyzed. These included: …

A Geochemical And Statistical Investigation Of The Big Four Springs Region In Southern Missouri, Jordan Jasso Vega

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The Big Four Springs region hosts four major first-order magnitude springs in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. These springs are Big Spring (Carter County, MO), Greer Spring (Oregon County, MO), Mammoth Spring (Fulton County, AR), and Hodgson Mill Spring (Ozark County, MO). Based on historic dye traces and hydrogeological investigations, these springs drain an area of approximately 1500 square miles and collectively discharge an average of 780 million gallons of water per day. The rocks from youngest to oldest that are found in Big Four Springs region are the Cotter and Jefferson City Dolomite (Ordovician), Roubidoux Formation (Ordovician), Gasconade Dolomite …

Improving The Quality And Design Of Retrospective Clinical Outcome Studies That Utilize Electronic Health Records, Oliwier Dziadkowiec, Jeffery Durbin, Vignesh Jayaraman Muralidharan, Megan Novak, Brendon Cornett

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Electronic health records (EHRs) are an excellent source for secondary data analysis. Studies based on EHR-derived data, if designed properly, can answer previously unanswerable clinical research questions. In this paper we will highlight the benefits of large retrospective studies from secondary sources such as EHRs, examine retrospective cohort and case-control study design challenges, as well as methodological and statistical adjustment that can be made to overcome some of the inherent design limitations, in order to increase the generalizability, validity and reliability of the results obtained from these studies.

Effect Of Predictor Dependence On Variable Selection For Linear And Log-Linear Regression, Apu Chandra Das

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We propose a Bayesian approach to the Dirichlet-Multinomial (DM) regression model, which uses horseshoe, Laplace, and horseshoe plus priors for shrinkage and selection. The Dirichlet-Multinomial model can be used to find the significant association between a set of available covariates and taxa for a microbiome sample. We incorporate the covariates in a log-linear regression framework. We design a simulation study to make a comparison among the performance of the three shrinkage priors in terms of estimation accuracy and the ability to detect true signals. Our results have clearly separated the performance of the three priors and indicated that the horseshoe …

Assessing Differential Item Functioning In The Perceived Stress Scale, Nana Amma Berko Asamoah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When an item on a test functions differently for subgroups of respondents with respect to an exogenous variable (or covariate) after conditioning on the latent variable of interest, the item is said to exhibit Differential Item Functioning (DIF). The 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10) is administered to respondents via MTurk to quantify “perceived stress” and identify if items on the scale function differently for specific subgroups defined by age, sex, race, marital status, number of children, employment status and social media usage.

The purpose of this study was to compare traditional DIF detection approaches (Mantel-Haenszel, logistic regression, likelihood ratio test …

Learning Networks With Categorical Data Using Distance Correlation, And A Novel Graph-Based Multivariate Test, Jian Tinker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We study the use of distance correlation for statistical inference on categorical data, especially the induction of probability networks. Szekely et al. first defined distance correlation for continuous variables in [42], and Zhang translated the concept into the categorical setting in [57] by defining dCor(X,Y) for categorical variables X = (x1,...,xI) and Y = (y1,...,yJ) where P(X=xi)=[pi]i and P(Y=yi)=[pi]j with the formula [Please open the document]

Part I of the dissertation covers the background we need to understand this formula, and prepares us to analyze the properties and performance of its applications.

Part II then presents the main results of …

Factors Contributing To The Implementation Of Data Analytics In External Auditing, Jacky Yeamin

Student Works (2020-2029)

The objective of the study is to explore the factors effecting the implementation of Data Analytics in Audit process and the impact of those factors on Audit Quality. Two stages of study were performed to achieve the objective of the study, First, this study analysed response letters on the use of Data Analytics (DA) in external auditing submitted by stakeholders of audit services to the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB)’s Data Analytics Working Group (DAWG). Using the Modified IT Audit Model as a framework, this study performs a directed content analysis on all 50 response letters sent to …

Chemical Variability In Volatile Oils Of Bentong Ginger: A Chemometric Study, Ahmad Jahiddin Farah Syuhaidah

Student Works (2020-2029)

The volatile oil of ginger (Zingiber officinale) possesses various pharmacological properties corresponding to its chemical compositions, which in turn, depends on its source material and preparation method. In this study, preliminary experiments were carried out to investigate the variations in volatile oil of ginger prepared based on different method (dry/fresh samples), extraction duration and size reduction process (grate/slice samples). The ginger volatile oil yield can be quantitatively improved by using a fresh sample with grated form and a longer extraction cycle. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) was conducted and the chromatogram profile was subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Results show …

Applications Of Portable Libs For Actinide Analysis, Ashwin P. Rao, John D. Auxier Ii, Dung Vu, Michael B. Shattan

Faculty Publications

A portable LIBS device was used for rapid elemental impurity analysis of plutonium alloys. This device demonstrates the potential for fast, accurate in-situ chemical analysis and could significantly reduce the fabrication time of plutonium alloys.

Chemostratigraphy Of Carbonate Gravity Flows Of The Wolfcamp Formation In Crockett County, Midland Basin, Texas, Alex Blizzard, Julie Bloxson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sediment gravity flows into deep-water environments are important stratigraphic traps in lithologically diverse reservoirs generating multiple plays for hydrocarbon exploration. These highly heterogeneous deposits can be studied by utilizing chemostratigraphy and higher-order sequence stratigraphy; being an accurate method for reservoir characterization. Studying these gravity flows along a carbonate platform’s slope can further expand an understanding of the stratigraphy that is filling adjacent basins. The application of elemental analyses can support in identifying mineralogy that impact reservoir quality, especially when conventional testing cannot be applied.

This study utilizes five cores containing the Wolfcamp Formation from the southeastern slope of the Central …

Forecasting Daily Stock Market Return With Multiple Linear Regression, Shengxuan Chen

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The purpose of this project is to use data mining and big data analytic techniques to forecast daily stock market return with multiple linear regression. Using mathematical and statistical models to analyze the stock market is important and challenging. The accuracy of the final results relies on the quality of the input data and the validity of the methodology. In the report, within 5-year period, the data regarding eleven financial and economical features are observed and recorded on each trading day. After preprocessing the raw data with statistical method, we use the multiple linear regression to predict the daily return …

Novel Inference Methods For Generalized Linear Models Using Shrinkage Priors And Data Augmentation., Arinjita Bhattacharyya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Generalized linear models have broad applications in biostatistics and sociology. In a regression setup, the main target is to find a relevant set of predictors out of a large collection of covariates. Sparsity is the assumption that only a few of these covariates in a regression setup have a meaningful correlation with an outcome variate of interest. Sparsity is incorporated by regularizing the irrelevant slopes towards zero without changing the relevant predictors and keeping the resulting inferences intact. Frequentist variable selection and sparsity are addressed by popular techniques like Lasso, Elastic Net. Bayesian penalized regression can tackle the curse of …