In our Briefing this week, we take a look at the role of statistics and analytics in war, from WWII to the present. Our curriculum spotlight is on our Rasch and IRT Mastery – key skills for those involved in designing, developing, and analyzing tests and surveys. You can start with Oct 9 – NovContinue reading “Sept 30: Statistics in Practice”
Monthly Archives: September 2020
Historical Spotlight: John Tukey
The statistician John Tukey is regarded by some as the father, or at least one of the fathers, of data science. Before Tukey, statistics meant inference (p-values, ANOVA, etc.) and models. Tukey brought to the discipline a whole new perspective: exploring the data to see what it is telling us. He coined the term “dataContinue reading “Historical Spotlight: John Tukey”
Statistics at War
Sept 24: Statistics in Practice
This week we take a look at the interesting statistical problem of false positives, which naturally arise when you do lots of diagnostic tests or hypothesis tests. Our course spotlight deals with another aspect of multiple statistical studies – how to combine them into a single conclusion: Oct 16 – Nov 13: Meta Analysis inContinue reading “Sept 24: Statistics in Practice”
False Positive Rate – It’s Not What You Might Think
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” said Alexander Pope in 1711; he could have been speaking of the use of statistics by experts in all fields. In this article, we look at three consequential mistakes in the field of statistics. Two of them are famous, the third required a deep dive into the corporate annual reports of
Famous Errors in Statistics
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” said Alexander Pope in 1711; he could have been speaking of the use of statistics by experts in all fields. In this article, we look at three consequential mistakes in the field of statistics. Two of them are famous, the third required a deep dive into the corporate annual reports of
Puzzle: Surgery or Radiation
Several decades ago, the dominant therapies for lung cancer were radiation, which offered better short-term survival rates, and surgery, which offered better long-term rates. A thought experiment was conducted in which surgeons were randomly assigned to one of two groups and asked whether they would choose surgery.
Group 1 was told: The one-month survival rate is 90%.
Group 2 was told: There is 10% mortality in the first month.
Yes, the two statements say the same thing. What did the two physician groups choose?
Sept 10: Statistics in Practice
This week we look at the second most popular percentage in statistics: 80%. Our course spotlight is on: Oct 30 –Nov 27: Sample Size and Power Determination See you in class! Peter Bruce Founder, Author, and Senior Scientist The Popular 80% Researchers and analysts are familiar with the famous 5% benchmark in statistics, the typicalContinue reading “Sept 10: Statistics in Practice”
Type III Error
The Popular 80%
Sept 2: Statistics in Practice
This week, our topic is Data Engineering, and we feature a guest blog by Will Goodrum, a data scientist at Elder Research. Our course spotlight is Oct 2 -30: Categorical Data Analysis See you in class! Peter Bruce Founder, Author, and Senior Scientist Four Common Pitfalls in Data Engineering Regular readers of this feature knowContinue reading “Sept 2: Statistics in Practice”