Statistics and Research Concepts

Statistics and Research Concepts We systematically apply statistical and/or logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data.

10/08/2017

I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think." - Steve Jobs

Here's a scary truth - the world as we know it is changing in incredible ways, and the methods of how the world is changing all comes down to coding. Formerly routine jobs are being automated at a faster and faster rate (and being replaced with machines that function thanks to coding) and entirely new jobs and industries are popping up every day that are entirely built on coding (from apps to new types of software and services). Think about what a major part of our lives the internet has become - and everything you interact with online begins with coding. There is really no way to understate this: coding is the most important skill you can learn.

Everyone understands this - from tech legends like Steve Jobs to NBA superstar Chris Bosh, who grew up in a geeky household and had this to say about the value of knowing how to code:

Being a kid of the 1990s and living in a house run by tech-savvy parents, I began to notice that the world around me was spinning on an axis powered by varying patterns of 1s and 0s. We'd be fools to ignore the power of mastering the designing and coding of those patterns. If brute physical strength ran one era, and automation the next, this is the only way we can keep up. Most jobs of the future will be awarded to the ones who know how to code.

Basically, if you DON'T learn to code, you're just severely handicapping yourself and your ability to make a living in the world - and also limiting your ability to be an entrepreneur or a creator, as coding allows tons of opportunities beyond just "getting a job." Coding allows you to make video games, new software, websites, and all sorts of projects. Ever have an awesome idea for an app, but no knowledge of how to actually make apps? Why not actually SOLVE that issue instead of wondering "what if?" all the time?

If you're still on the fence about the value of coding, you should watch a video - featuring anecdotes and advice from the likes of PC gaming god Gabe Newell, social media billionaire guy Mark Zuckerberg, and more.

Luckily, there are LOTS of opportunities to learn to code online and without having to pay for expensive (and probably inconvenient) college courses. of Coding

11/05/2017

Dengue monitored with cell phones

Close up of a mosquito on a person’s skin

Disease vectors like this Aedes Aegypti mosquito can
now be tracked using cell phones.

The transmission of mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue can now be tracked using mobile health technology and software. NIH-funded researchers at Colorado State University and the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán have found a way to gather data on the diseases using cell phones. Vector-borne diseases exact a heavy toll in low-and middle-income countries, slowing economic development. Additionally, the use of paper-based systems for data collection on infectious diseases often hampers the ability of health authorities in developing countries to make informed decisions.

The new mobile health platform, which makes use of the existing communications infrastructure in Mexico, gives dengue researchers near real-time monitoring capacity as well as the ability to rapidly transmit findings. Mosquito control teams equipped with cell phones can visit homes where dengue cases have occurred and immediately send data back from the field or save it to a local database. The resulting information can be used for timely, effective decisions regarding disease control.

The project, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), will also include the development of software for cell phones that provides data entry screens designed for entering mosquito-related information. Once completed, the open-source software will be made freely available online.

02/10/2016

THE SURVIVAL RATES OF KIDNEYS DONORS
How often have we wanted to do something as an act of brevity and altruism.
Poulson describes his traumatizing journey living without one kidney. This happened when he was 18 when he donated his kidney to his stepfather's brother (step-uncle)
At 23, he began working on a research lab that was looking at kidney donors who had gone on to develop kidney failure. Interviewing 100 donors, he discovered that the remaining kidneys failed; in other, the organs became injured or developed cancer.
A study in 2014 looking at long-term risks for kidney donors found out that a kidney donor has greater risks of developing end-stage renal disease. Another study raises the possibility that they may face a heightened risk of dying of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality (controversial).
The truth is, it is hard to get accurate figures about what happen to donors. This is because hospitals are allowed to trail them for only two years post-donation which is not enough time to view long-term complications as chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular issues or psychiatric issues.
The result is that we know neither the denominator (the total number of kidney transplants that have occurred over the decades) nor the numerator (the number of donors who have gone into kidney failure). And what we do know is incomplete. Yet the need for donors remains great, as the number of people needing a kidney transplant has steadily increased — to more than 120,000 — while the number of transplants performed has remained relatively steady — at about 30,000 per year .
As a statistician and medical researcher, I’ve come to better understand the imperfections in the idea of informed consent. We work with the data we have, and patients aren’t always told that it may not be that solid. At the time of surgery, patients think that it is is designed to protect them as donors. Yet they are not fully informed of the lack of research or the unknown long-term health implications.

Poulson says, "Mostly I’ve come to terms with the increased risks of being a kidney donor. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t get anxious about it. I feel vulnerable. Sometimes I can think of nothing but my remaining kidney. I’ll feel pressure on my ribs, and I think, “Is that my kidney acting up, or simply back tension?” Or I’ll wonder: “Should I be feeling this lump? Am I going into kidney failure?”

-the survival rate of kidney donors
Poulson (2016). At 18 years old, he donated a kidney. Now, he regrets it. Washington Post.

15/09/2016

What is R?

R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It is a GNU project which was developed at Bell Laboratories by John Chambers and colleagues.

R provides a wide variety of statistical (linear and nonlinear modelling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering, …) and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible.

One of R’s strengths is the ease with which well-designed publication-quality plots can be produced, including mathematical symbols and formulae where needed.

Quick Facts about R

1. R is the highest paid IT skill (Dice.com survey, January 2014)
2. R is the most-used data science language after SQL (O'Reilly survey, January 2014)
3. R is used by 70% of data miners (Rexer survey, October 2013)
4. R is #15 of all programming languages (RedMonk language rankings, January 2014)
5. R is growing faster than any other data science language (KDNuggets survey, August 2013)
6. R is the #1 Google Search for Advanced Analytics software (Google Trends, March 2014)
7. R has more than 2 million users worldwide (Oracle estimate, February 2012)

14/09/2016

Stuck up with projects? You need that data analyzed to give you objective results? You need to start that business venture but you don't know the systems to put in place i.e. you need to do a market situational analysis to know the customer response rate. One article I read stated that companies and industries ranging from advertising to sports will gather terabytes more data ..as more and more people voluntarily share a wealth of information about themselves. One estimate predicts there will be 5,400 gigabytes of data per person on the planet by 2020. This big data revolution represents a goldmine for companies, from improving their internal efficiency to managing supply-chain systems and targeting consumers. The problem for them is that old ways of sifting through data just cannot handle the sheer amount of information, and most do not have the internal resources required.
As a consequence, Data research analysis is dedicated to breaking down, processing and forecasting this information into real, workable solutions.

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