Statistics and Probability Commons^™

Statistics For National Development, Sani I. Doguwa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

Good statistics that has been collected according to agreed good practices are crucial as a tool for development. Gross domestic product (GDP) and other measures of economic activity such as Gross National Income (GNI) together with their individual components, show how the economy is responding to government policy and other influences. The balance of payments can demonstrate the requirement for policy adjustments and is also one of the indicators scrutinised by potential foreign investors in the country. Agricultural statistics clearly have implications for longer-term planning, particularly if they show a move away from the land into urban areas or a …

Spatial Epidemiology Of Birth Defects In The United States And The State Of Utah Using Geographic Information Systems And Spatial Statistics, Samson Y. Gebreab

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Oral clefts are the most common form of birth defects in the United States (US) and the State of Utah has among the highest prevalence of oral clefts in the nation. The overall objective of this dissertation was to examine the spatial distribution of oral clefts and their linkage with a broad range of demographic, behavioral, social, economic, and environmental risk factors through the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistics. Using innovative linked micromaps plots, we investigated the geographic patterns of oral clefts occurrence from 1998 to 2002 and their relationships with maternal smoking rates and proportion …

Psychometric Properties Of Postsecondary Students' Course Evaluations, Michael J. Drysdale

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Several experts in the area of postsecondary student evaluations of courses have concluded that they are stable or reliable measures as well as being measures that provide ways of making valid inferences regarding teacher effectiveness. Often these experts have offered these conclusions without supporting evidence. Surprisingly, a thorough review of the literature revealed very few reported test-retest reliability studies of course evaluations and the results from these studies are contradictory. In the area of validity, the conclusions offered by scholars who conducted meta-analyses of mutlisection course studies are inconsistent. This leads to the following two research questions:

1. What is …

An Investigation Of Process Parameters To Optimize The Fiber Diameter Of Electrospun Vascular Scaffolds Through Experimental Design, Steffi Wong

Biomedical Engineering

No abstract provided.

The Determinants Of Colorectal Cancer Survival Disparities In Nevada, Lucas N. Wassira

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Different population groups across Nevada and throughout the United States suffer disproportionately from colorectal cancer and its after-effects. Overcoming cancer health disparities is important for lessening the burden of cancer. There has been an overall decline in the incidence of and mortality from colorectal cancer (CRC). This is likely due, in part, to the increasing use of screening procedures such as Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) and/or endoscopy, which can reduce the risk of CRC mortality by fifty percent. Nevertheless, screening procedures are routinely used by only fifty percent of Americans aged fifty years and older. Despite overall mortality decreasing …

Poisson Process Monitoring, Test And Comparison, Qing Chen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The task of determining whether a sudden change occurred in the generative parameters of a time series generates application in many areas. In this thesis, we aim at monitoring the change-point of a Poisson process by method, which is characterized by a forward-backward testing algorithm and several overall error control mechanisms. With the application of this proposed method, we declare that Mount Etna is not a simple Poissonian volcano, because two different regimes divided by the change point, January 30th 1974, are identified. The validation procedures, used in a complementary fashion, by the formal hypothesis tests and graphical method will …

Influence Of Sex On Long-Term Outcomes After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention With The Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent: Results Of The "Taxus Woman" Analysis, Ghada W. Mikhail Md, Robert T. Gerber Md, Phd, David A. Cox Md, Stephen G. Ellis Md, John M. Lasala Md, Phd, John A. Ormiston Mbchb, Gregg W. Stone Md, Mark A. Turco Md, Anita A. Joshi Phd, Donald S. Baim Md, Antonio Colombo Md

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

Asymptotic Theory For Cross-Validated Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Wenjing Zheng, Mark J. Van Der Laan

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

We consider a targeted maximum likelihood estimator of a path-wise differentiable parameter of the data generating distribution in a semi-parametric model based on observing n independent and identically distributed observations. The targeted maximum likelihood estimator (TMLE) uses V-fold sample splitting for the initial estimator in order to make the TMLE maximally robust in its bias reduction step. We prove a general theorem that states asymptotic efficiency (and thereby regularity) of the targeted maximum likelihood estimator when the initial estimator is consistent and a second order term converges to zero in probability at a rate faster than the square root of …

Putting Artists On The Map: A Five Part Study Of Greater Cleveland Artists' Location Decisions - Part 2: Profiles Of Artist Neighborhoods, Mark Salling, Gregory Soltis, Charles Post, Sharon Bliss, Ellen Cyran

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

A series of reports detailing the residential and work space location preferences of Cuyahoga county's artists.

A Bayesian Shared Component Model For Genetic Association Studies, Juan J. Abellan, Carlos Abellan, Juan R. Gonzalez

COBRA Preprint Series

We present a novel approach to address genome association studies between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and disease. We propose a Bayesian shared component model to tease out the genotype information that is common to cases and controls from the one that is specific to cases only. This allows to detect the SNPs that show the strongest association with the disease. The model can be applied to case-control studies with more than one disease. In fact, we illustrate the use of this model with a dataset of 23,418 SNPs from a case-control study by The Welcome Trust Case Control Consortium (2007) …

Minimum Description Length And Empirical Bayes Methods Of Identifying Snps Associated With Disease, Ye Yang, David R. Bickel

COBRA Preprint Series

The goal of determining which of hundreds of thousands of SNPs are associated with disease poses one of the most challenging multiple testing problems. Using the empirical Bayes approach, the local false discovery rate (LFDR) estimated using popular semiparametric models has enjoyed success in simultaneous inference. However, the estimated LFDR can be biased because the semiparametric approach tends to overestimate the proportion of the non-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). One of the negative consequences is that, like conventional p-values, such LFDR estimates cannot quantify the amount of information in the data that favors the null hypothesis of no disease-association.

We …

Observational Study And Individualized Antiretroviral Therapy Initiation Rules For Reducing Cancer Incidence In Hiv-Infected Patients, Romain Neugebauer, Michael J. Silverberg, Mark J. Van Der Laan

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Targeted Maximum Likelihood Learning (TMLL) has been proposed as a general estimation methodology that can, in particular, be applied to draw causal inferences based on marginal structural modeling with observational data using either a point treatment approach (all confounders are assumed not to be affected by the exposure(s) of interest) or a longitudinal data approach (some confounders may be affected by one of the exposures of interest). While formal development of TMLL has included road maps for applications in longitudinal data approaches, real-life implementations have been restricted to studies based on a point treatment approach. In this article, we illustrate …

Inferential Methods For High-Throughput Methylation Data, Maria Capparuccini

Theses and Dissertations

The role of abnormal DNA methylation in the progression of disease is a growing area of research that relies upon the establishment of sound statistical methods. The common method for declaring there is differential methylation between two groups at a given CpG site, as summarized by the difference between proportions methylated db=b1-b2, has been through use of a Filtered Two Sample t-test, using the recommended filter of 0.17 (Bibikova et al., 2006b). In this dissertation, we performed a re-analysis of the data used in recommending the threshold by fitting a mixed-effects ANOVA model. It was determined that the 0.17 filter …

Regression Approach To Adjust Wia Performance Standards, Timothy J. Bartik, Randall W. Eberts, Kenneth J. Kline

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Improving The Power Of Chronic Disease Surveillance By Incorporating Residential History, Justin Manjourides, Marcello Pagano

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Exploring Evaluation In School Districts: School District Evaluators And Their Practice, Susan Hibbard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the evaluation practices of internal evaluators in public school districts in a large southern state. The individuals who conduct evaluations in school districts as internal evaluators were identified and background information was collected. The education and training in evaluation was investigated and the types of evaluations typically conducted by those individuals. Respondents (n = 134) revealed conducting evaluations was a secondary role and part of their main job responsibilities. The types of evaluations carried out and the way in which evaluation was practices were revealed. A descriptive framework of the individuals who conduct evaluations in school districts …

Power And Sample Size For Three-Level Cluster Designs, Tina Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, Cluster Randomized Trials (CRT) have become a design of choice in many research areas. One of the most critical issues in planning a CRT is to ensure that the study design is sensitive enough to capture the intervention effect. The assessment of power and sample size in such studies is often faced with many challenges due to several methodological difficulties. While studies on power and sample size for cluster designs with one and two levels are abundant, the evaluation of required sample size for three-level designs has been generally overlooked. First, the nesting effect introduces …

Generalized Variances Ratio Test For Comparing K Covariance Matrices From Dependent Normal Populations, Marcelo Angelo Cirillo, Daniel Furtado Ferreira, Thelma Sáfadi, Eric Batista Ferreira

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

New tests based on the ratio of generalized variances are presented to compare covariance matrices from dependent normal populations. Monte Carlo simulation concluded that the tests considered controlled the Type I error, providing empirical probabilities that were consistent with the nominal level stipulated.

A Ga-Based Sales Forecasting Model Incorporating Promotion Factors, Li-Chih Wang, Chin-Lien Wang

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Because promotions are critical factors highly related to product sales of consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, predictors concerning sales forecast of CPG products must take promotions into consideration. Decomposition regression incorporating contextual factors offers a method for exploiting both reliability of statistical forecasting and flexibility of judgmental forecasting employing domain knowledge. However, it suffers from collinearity causing poor performance in variable identification and parameter estimation with traditional ordinary least square (OLS). Empirical research evidence shows that - in the case of collinearity - in variable identification, parameter estimation, and out of sample forecasting, genetic algorithms (GA) as an estimator outperform …

Estimating The Non-Existent Mean And Variance Of The F-Distribution By Simulation, Hamid Reza Kamali, Parisa Shahnazari-Shahrezaei

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In theory, all moments of some probability distributions do not necessarily exist. In the other words, they may be infinite or undefined. One of these distributions is the F-distribution whose mean and variance have not been defined for the second degree of freedom less than 3 and 5, respectively. In some cases, a large statistical population having an F-distribution may exist and the aim is to obtain its mean and variance which are an estimation of the non-existent mean and variance of F-distribution. This article considers a large sample F-distribution to estimate its non-existent mean and variance using Simul8 simulation …