Statistics and Probability Commons^™

A Characterization Of Connected (1,2)-Domination Graphs Of Tournaments, Kim A. S. Factor, Larry J. Langley

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Recently. Hedetniemi et aI. introduced (1,2)-domination in graphs, and the authors extended that concept to (1, 2)-domination graphs of digraphs. Given vertices x and y in a digraph D, x and y form a (1,2)-dominating pair if and only if for every other vertex z in D, z is one step away from x or y and at most two steps away from the other. The (1,2)-dominating graph of D, dom_1,2 (D), is defined to be the graph G = (V, E ) , where V (G) = V (D), and xy is …

Bayesian Item Response Theory: Statistical Inference And Power Analysis, Jason W. Bodnar

Dissertations

The regulatory pharmaceutical approval process is flawed in that industry clinical trials (ICTs) are always powered for efficacy and rarely powered for safety. The key safety parameter is the adverse event (AE). This practice may result in efficacious products with confounded safety. An ICT’s ability to be powered for detecting AE trends may improve patient safety. Therefore, this dissertation’s purpose was to determine if power analysis resulted in feasible sample sizes for substantiating AE hypotheses. AEs were modeled with three Bayesian 2PL IRT models. The unidimensional latent trait, transfusion-related AE, was modeled as a patient predisposition for experiencing an AE. …

Death By Boredom: The Role Of Visual Processing Theory In Written Evaluation Communication, Stephanie D. H. Evergreen

Dissertations

Evaluation reporting is an educational act and, as such, should be communicated using principles that support cognition. This study drew upon visual processing theory and theory-based graphic design principles to develop the Evaluation Report Layout Checklist intended to guide report development and support cognition in the readers of evaluation reports. It was then reviewed by an expert panel and applied by a group of raters to a set of evaluation reports obtained from the Informal Science Education evaluation website with maximum variability sampling. Results showed fairly high exact percent agreement and strong to very strong correlation with the author’s ratings. …

Drift And The Risk-Free Rate, Anda Gadidov, M. C. Spruill

Faculty Articles

It is proven, under a set of assumptions differing from the usual ones in the unboundedness of the time interval, that, in an economy in equilibrium consisting of a risk-free cash account and an equity whose price process is a geometric Brownian motion on [0,∞), the drift rate must be close to the risk-free rate; if the drift rate μ and the risk-free rate r are constants, then r = μ and the price process is the same under both empirical and risk neutral measures. Contributing in some degree perhaps to interest in this mathematical curiosity is the fact, based …

Evaluating Methods For The Analysis Of Rare Variants In Sequence Data, Alexander Luedtke, Scott Powers, Ashley Petersen, Alexandra Sitarik, Airat Bekmetjev, Nathan L. Tintle

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

A number of rare variant statistical methods have been proposed for analysis of the impending wave of next-generation sequencing data. To date, there are few direct comparisons of these methods on real sequence data. Furthermore, there is a strong need for practical advice on the proper analytic strategies for rare variant analysis. We compare four recently proposed rare variant methods (combined multivariate and collapsing, weighted sum, proportion regression, and cumulative minor allele test) on simulated phenotype and next-generation sequencing data as part of Genetic Analysis Workshop 17. Overall, we find that all analyzed methods have serious practical limitations on identifying …

Evaluating Methods For Combining Rare Variant Data In Pathway-Based Tests Of Genetic Association, Ashley Petersen, Alexandra Sitarik, Alexander Luedtke, Scott Powers, Airat Bekmetjev, Nathan L. Tintle

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Analyzing sets of genes in genome-wide association studies is a relatively new approach that aims to capitalize on biological knowledge about the interactions of genes in biological pathways. This approach, called pathway analysis or gene set analysis, has not yet been applied to the analysis of rare variants. Applying pathway analysis to rare variants offers two competing approaches. In the first approach rare variant statistics are used to generate p-values for each gene (e.g., combined multivariate collapsing [CMC] or weighted-sum [WS]) and the gene-level p-values are combined using standard pathway analysis methods (e.g., gene set enrichment analysis or …

Longitudinal Investigation Of The Curricular Effect: An Analysis Of Student Learning Outcomes From The Liecal Project In The United States, Jinfa Cai, Ning Wang, John Moyer, Chuang Wang, Bikai Nie

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

In this article, we present the results from a longitudinal examination of the impact of a Standards-based or reform mathematics curriculum (called CMP) and traditional mathematics curricula (called non-CMP) on students’ learning of algebra using various outcome measures. Findings include the following: (1) students did not sacrifice basic mathematical skills if they are taught using a Standards-based or reform mathematics curriculum like CMP; (2) African American students experienced greater gain in symbol manipulation when they used a traditional curriculum; (3) the use of either the CMP or a non-CMP curriculum improved the mathematics achievement of all students, including …

Statistical Analysis And Mechanistic Modeling Of Water Quality: Hillsborough Bay, Florida, Keith Hackett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient pollution has been identified as a significant threat to U.S. coastal and estuarine water quality. Though coastal and estuarine waters need nutrients to maintain a healthy, productive ecosystem, excess nutrients can lead to eutrophication. There are significant potential negative consequences associated with eutrophication, including loss of habitat, loss of economic activity, and direct threats to human health. Hillsborough Bay experienced eutrophication in the 1960s and 1970s due to a rapidly growing population and associated increases in nutrient pollution. These eutrophic conditions led to more frequent phytoplankton and macroalgae blooms and declines in seagrasses. To address these problems, a series …

A Novel Device For Cell-Cell Electrofusion, Justin T. Stewart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell transplantation therapy is a potentially powerful tool and can be used to replace defective cells with healthy cells. This offers the possibility of alleviating the destructive symptoms for many diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, spinal cord trauma, Type I diabetes and many more. While there are many diseases that could be positively impacted from cell transplantation therapy, the focus of this research is insulin dependent, Type I Diabetes.

The Islets of Langerhans are composed of various types of cells located in the pancreas and are responsible for a variety of biochemical functions. Specifically, the beta Islet …

Statistical Models For Environmental And Health Sciences, Yong Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Statistical analysis and modeling are useful for understanding the behavior of different phenomena. In this study we will focus on two areas of applications: Global warming and cancer research. Global Warming is one of the major environmental challenge people face nowadays and cancer is one of the major health problem that people need to solve.

For Global Warming, we are interest to do research on two major contributable variables: Carbon dioxide (CO2) and atmosphere temperature. We will model carbon dioxide in the atmosphere data with a system of differential equations. We will develop a differential equation for each of six …

Alternative Statistical Methods For Analyzing Geological Phenomena: Bridging The Gap Between Scientific Disciplines, Joseph Frank Van Gaalen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When we consider the nature of the scientific community in conjunction with a sense of typical economic circumstances we find that there are two distinct paths for development. One path involves hypothesis testing and evolution of strategies that are linked with iterations in equipment advances. A second, more complicated scenario, can involve external influences whether economic, political, or otherwise, such as the government closure of NASA's space program in 2011 which will no doubt influence research in associated fields. The following chapters are an account of examples of two statistical techniques and the importance of both on the two relatively …

Gender Differences In Lung Cancer Treatment And Survival, Margaret Anne Kowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objectives of this research were to test treatment and survival differences between women and men with lung cancer as there is minimal investigation in the literature. Three research questions were developed with statistical testing for gender differences based on similar cancer type, stage, treatment assignment and survival. Data for 44,863 primary lung cancer cases were collected from eight U.S. state-based cancer registries to investigate the research questions. The lung cancer incidence data included the morphological cell-types of adenocarcinoma (AC); squamous cell carcinoma (SCC); large cell carcinoma (LCC) and small cell carcinoma (SCC). Stage, grade, treatment type, as well as, …

Parametric And Bayesian Modeling Of Reliability And Survival Analysis, Carlos A. Molinares

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to compare Bayesian and parametric approaches to determine the best for estimating reliability in complex systems. Determining reliability is particularly important in business and medical contexts. As expected, the Bayesian method showed the best results in assessing the reliability of systems.

In the first study, the Bayesian reliability function under the Higgins-Tsokos loss function using Jeffreys as its prior performs similarly as when the Bayesian reliability function is based on the squared-error loss. In addition, the Higgins-Tsokos loss function was found to be as robust as the squared-error loss function and slightly more efficient. …

Statistician Recommends A Dose Of Skepticism, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Neath Studies, Teaches The Uncertainties Of Life, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Approximate Vs. Monte Carlo Critical Values For The Winsorized T-Test, Michael Lance

Wayne State University Dissertations

Historically, it has been accepted practice for critical values for the Winsorized t test for independent samples to be based on adjusted degrees of freedom depending on the number of total non-Winsorized (approximate) values. Recently, a new such table of Winsorized critical values has been developed via approximate randomization by Monte Carlo simulation.

Based on eight common data distributions estimated from Psychology and Education along with the normal and five Mathematical distributions, these two tables of values were compared with respect to robustness to types I and II errors through Monte Carlo simulations for one and 10% Winsorized values per …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Non-Normal Distributions On Tests Of Equivalence, Linda Ellington

Wayne State University Dissertations

Statistical theory and its application provide the foundation to modern systematic inquiry in the behavioral, physical and social sciences disciplines (Fisher, 1958; Wilcox, 1996). It provides the tools for scholars and researchers to operationalize constructs, describe populations, and measure and interpret the relations between populations and variables (Weinbach & Grinnell, 1997; Wilcox, 1996). Given that the majority of real data analysis in the behavioral and social sciences is comprised of non-normally distributed data, it is important that researchers be aware of the effects of non-normal distributions on the probability of detecting equivalence between populations.

The present study examined the effects …

An Analog Experiment Comparing Goal-Free Evaluation And Goal Achievement Evaluation Utility, Brandon W. Youker

Dissertations

Goal-free evaluation (GFE) is the process of determining the merit of an evaluand independent of the stated or implied goals and objectives, whereas goal achievement evaluation (GAE), as the most rudimentary form of goal-based evaluation, determines merit according to the evaluand’s level of accomplishment with regard to its goals. This study examines the utility of GAE and GFE from the perspective of the evaluation’s intended users. In the study, two evaluation teams, goal achievement and goal-free, independently and simultaneously evaluate the same human service program. Each team produced a final evaluation report, which was read by the evaluation’s users, who …

Class Discovery And Prediction Of Tumor With Microarray Data, Bo Liu

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Current microarray technology is able take a single tissue sample to construct an Affymetrix oglionucleotide array containing (estimated) expression levels of thousands of different genes for that tissue. The objective is to develop a more systematic approach to cancer classification based on Affymetrix oglionucleotide microarrays. For this purpose, I studied published colon cancer microarray data. Colon cancer, with 655,000 deaths worldwide per year, has become the fourth most common form of cancer in the United States and the third leading cause of cancer - related death in the Western world. This research has been focuses in two areas: class discovery, …

Assessing Measurement Invariance In The Presence Of Testlets, Luis Andres Alvarado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Dealing with measurement invariance has been an issue of concern in confirmatory factor analysis for many years. It is important to establish measurement invariance across groups so that instruments may be validly used in multiple groups for comparison of the mean or summative scores. Throughout the years, many studies have considered testing for measurement invariance in factor models. However, there have been no studies that assess measurement invariance when so-called testlets should be modeled in the factor analytic model. Testlets add nuisance covariation to the model which can interfere when trying to detect measurement invariance. In the past, models have …