December 2, 2013
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Very shortly, I'll upload the newest release of BCEA, my R package to post-process the output of a (Bayesian) health economic model and produce systematic summaries (such as graphs and tables) for a full economic evaluation and probabilistic sensitivit...

## Shaping up Laplace Approximation using Importance Sampling

December 2, 2013
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In the last post I showed how to use Laplace approximation to quickly (but dirtily) approximate the posterior distribution of a Bayesian model coded in R. This is just a short follow up where I show how to use importance sampling as an easy method to...

## Speeding up model bootstrapping in GNU R

December 2, 2013
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After my last post I have recurringly received two questions: (a) is it worthwhile to analyze GNU R speed in simulations and (b) how would simulation speed compare between GNU R and Python. In this post I want to address the former question and next ti...

## Solving Big Data’s big skills shortage – The Conversation

December 2, 2013
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From: http://theconversation.com/solving-big-datas-big-skills-shortage-20352The skills required to tap Big Data include statistics, mathematics, computer science and engineering. Shutterstock.comAccording to analyst firm Gartner, Big Data is at the por...

## Academics should not feel guilty for maximizing their potential by leaving their homeland

December 2, 2013
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In a New York Times op-ed titled Migration Hurts the Homeland, Paul Collier tells us that What’s good for migrants from poor places is not always good for the countries they’re leaving behind. He makes the argument that those that … Continue reading →

## Should personal genetic testing be regulated? Battle of the blogroll

December 2, 2013
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On the side of less regulation is Alex Tabarrok in “Our DNA, Our Selves”: At the same time that the NSA is secretly and illegally obtaining information about Americans the FDA is making it illegal for Americans to obtain information about themselves. In a warning letter the FDA has told Anne Wojcicki, The Most Daring […]The post Should personal genetic testing be regulated? Battle of the blogroll appeared first on…

## Beyond the obvious

December 2, 2013
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Flowing Data has been doing some fine work on the baby names data. The names voyager is a successful project by Martin Wattenberg that has received praise from many corners. It's one of these projects that have taken on a...

## The e-Writing Jungle Part 3: Web-Based e-books Using Python / Sphinx

December 2, 2013
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In the previous Parts 1 and 2, I essentially dealt with two extremes: (1) LaTeX to pdf to web, and (2) raw HTML (however arrived at) with math rendered by MathJax. Now let's look at something of a middle ground: the Python package, Sphinx, for producin...

## Write a matrix in the "long form"

December 2, 2013
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If you write an n x p matrix from PROC IML to a SAS data set, you'll get a data set with n rows and p columns. For some applications, it is more convenient to write the matrix in a "long format" with np observations and three columns. The first [...]

## Probabilities and P-Values

December 2, 2013
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$Probabilities and P-Values$

P-values seem to be the bane of a statistician’s existence.  I’ve seen situations where entire narratives are written without p-values and only provide the effects. It can also be used as a data reduction tool but ultimately it reduces the world into a binary system: yes/no, accept/reject. Not only that but the binary threshold is […]

## Evaluating Quandl Data Quality – part II

December 2, 2013
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This post is a more in depth analysis of Quandl futures data vs. Bloomberg data. Since my last post Quandl has updated its futures database to 200+ contracts from 68 contracts originally. For practical reasons, I limit myself here to the initial list of 60+ contracts. I’m still comparing the “Front Month” contract between the […]

December 2, 2013
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## R: Explore ARIMA(2, 2, 2) subclass family on Shiny

December 2, 2013
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I've been thinking that it might be better to explore the Box-Jenkins ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving-Average) three-iterative modelling on Shiny. So here is what I got, this app is intended for ARIMA(2, 2, 2) subclass family only.The app has s...

## Sunday data/statistics link roundup (12/2/13)

December 1, 2013
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I'm in Australia for Bioinfo Summer 2013! First time in Australia and excited about the great lineup of speakers and to meet a bunch of people at the University of Adelaide.  An interesting post about how CS has become the … Continue reading →

## Visualising (not so) Big Data

December 1, 2013
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Facebook is a frequently used source for information. We do not know all kinds of such data queries and reutilisations……. …Continue reading →

## Visualising (not so) Big Data

December 1, 2013
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Facebook is a frequently used source for information. We do not know all kinds of such data queries and reutilisations……. …Continue reading →

## Separated by a common blah blah blah

December 1, 2013
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I love reading the kind of English that English people write. It’s the same language as American but just slightly different. I was thinking about this recently after coming across this footnote from “Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop,” by Bob Stanley: Mantovani’s atmospheric arrangement on ‘Care Mia’, I should add, is something […]The post Separated by a common blah blah blah appeared first on Statistical Modeling, Causal…

## JAGS model Fe concentration in rainwater including values below detection level

December 1, 2013
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In my previous post I ignored the fact that some data are below the detection level. I would not know how to handle those in a mixed model from lme4 or nlme. However, JAGS can handle these values. Next to that I kept the usual independent variables, su...

## More Explorations with catR

December 1, 2013
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# For the purposes of simulating computerized adaptive tests# the R package catR is unparallelled. # catR is an excellent tool for students who are curious about# how a computerized adaptive test might work. It is also useful# for testing companie...

## Lost

November 30, 2013
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The results of the ISBA elections have come out and unfortunately, I've been beaten to the post of programme chair for the Section on Biostatistics and Pharmaceutical Statistics.I am not sure by how much $-$ I meant to ask for more details, but I'...

## My talk at the LSHTM

November 30, 2013
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Yesterday I gave a talk on our RDD project at the Centre for Statistical Methodology of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. While presenting me, Karla (the organiser of the seminar) joked that I should go for a hat trick of present...

## More confusing statements of probability due to no controls

November 30, 2013
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A recent article in USA Today is titled “Many with sudden cardiac arrest had early signs” (link). The signs include shortness of breath, faintness, chest pain, etc. Hold on to the headline because it’s the only thing believable in the entire article. The words “early signs” imply to readers that were the men to heed these warnings, they could have prevented the cardiac arrests. Think about the following two statements:…

## ???

November 30, 2013
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I received the following unsolicited email, subject line Technology and Engineering Research: Dear Editor We have done research in some of the cutting edge technology and engineering field and would like to if you will be able to write about it in your news section. Our Primarily research focus on building high performance systems that […]The post ??? appeared first on Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science.