Statistics 4P03/6P03 Assignments 1998-99

A01 1999-02-04

This is to be a first report on the Niagara River Pollution Data.

• Write two or three pages on the history of pollution in the Niagara river.
• Carry out Exploratory Data Analysis, with an emphasis on graphical methods. The work should primarily be done in Splus but you can also try using a spreadsheet or another statistics package.
• Write a summary - in words - of what you have learned from EDA. Emphasize the important and meaningful features of the graphs, but don't just describe in words what the graphs look like.
• The EDA should leave you with some conjectures and unanswered questions. Try to (a) formulate some questions for the data owners, (b) give some suggestions for further studies, and (c) propose some modeling ideas for Assignment 2.

A02 1999-03-10

This is to be a second report on the Niagara River Pollution Data.

• Repeat the Exploratory Data Analysis of Assignment 1, but this time using SAS.
• Try some model fitting using SAS and/or Splus; trying both on the same model is a useful exercise, it will help ensure that you know how each package works.
• Write a report summarizing what you have learned from your analysis to date. Has pollution from sources in the Niagara River watershed decreased over the period of the study?

A03 1999-03-18

Learn a new statistical method. Here are four possibilities; you can choose one of these or see me to choose something else.

1. Use time series analysis to study the Niagara River Pollution Data.
2. Some pollutants measured in the Niagara River Pollution Data were frequently at their upper or lower detection limits. Modify the modeling techniques you used in Assignment 2 to allow for detection limits.
3. Discretize the pollutant measures in the Niagara River Pollution Data; this can avoid problems of detection limits and eliminate the influence of outliers. Analyze the categorized data as a multi-way contingency table using a log-linear model.
4. Find another data set suitable for log-linear analysis.

A04 1999-03-18

Today you heard a presentation by Mohit Bhandari and Michael Boucher on the pilot study "Malalignment following intramedullary nailing of tibial shaft fractures: Magnitude and clinical implications," and we had a discussion about the study, its objectives, its methods, and other ways it could have been done. You will receive the data files electronically.

Write a consultant's report summarizing what has been learned from the pilot study and making recommendations for the design of the main study. Where possible, make specific recommendations about stratification and sample sizes.

I will give Dr Bhandari copies of your reports in case he wants to follow up with any of your recommendations.

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