Search

The Amazon rainforest is not the untouched wilderness we think it is, but contains thousands of ancient and mysterious earthworks left behind by indigenous populations. Dani Gamerman describes how statisticians and statistical analysis brought numerical evidence to an interdisciplinary paper that made headlines around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ralph B D'Agostino, Sr. was a very well-regarded statistician/biostatistician who made significant contributions to the areas of non-parametrics, design of clinical trials, and research in cardiovascular disease. This memorial article gathers heartfelt remembrances from colleagues, family, and former students, who recall not only his many significant scientific contributions but also his unwavering dedication to mentoring the next generation of statisticians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chat with friends about lottery numbers led one statistician and his dad to contact state lotteries across the USA and set up a unique undergraduate research group. Joseph Rollinson , Matthew McIntosh , Alex Ferguson , Josiah Couch and Bradley Danley recount the story so far [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jonathan Auerbach , David Kepplinger and Nicholas Rios use two popular data science algorithms – naïve Bayes and eigencentrality – to examine the difference between data scientists, statisticians, and other occupations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Astrostatistics is a field that focuses on the statistical aspects of astronomy, helping astronomers measure the reliability of their measurements and quantify uncertainties in theoretical models. Jessi Cisewski-Kehe, an assistant professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, became interested in astrostatistics after working as a business actuary and taking undergraduate astronomy courses. Astrostatisticians face challenges in detecting exoplanets and estimating distances to stars, with no clear solution for detecting low-mass exoplanets. The text discusses the uncertainties in estimating distances using the parallax method and the limitations of the inverse-square law of light. It also explores the tools and techniques used by astrostatisticians, such as radial velocity curves. Collaboration between statisticians and astronomers is crucial, and there is a growing need for statisticians in astronomy. The author shares their career journey and recent National Science Foundation award for developing methods to detect low-mass exoplanets. [Extracted from the article]

This column delves into the impact that representation holds in shaping a student's perception of their ability to be successful. To combat the homogeneity of representation in standard statistics content, the author created and maintains the CURV – connecting, uplifting, and recognizing voices – to introduce students to scholars to whom they can relate. Through a weekly activity of Statistician of the Day the author introduces students to scholars who are traditionally underrepresented in statistics and data science. The column concludes with how to contribute to CURV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we remember Katherine Wallman who blended her passion and aptitude for statistics with public service. She had a remarkable career in federal statistics including serving as the Chief Statistician from 1992 to her retirement in 2017. Wallman's impact extended far beyond her official title. She possessed a rare ability to bridge divides, bringing together government agencies, academic institutions, and international bodies to collaborate on complex statistical challenges. Katherine Wallman's legacy lives on in the countless individuals she inspired with her dedication and leadership. Colleagues celebrate this legacy with their personal remembrances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

J. Sunil Rao looks at why statisticians and data scientists around the world should play in health disparity researchers' backyard – respectfully and collaboratively [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nozer Singpurwalla was a highly regarded statistician known for his influential contributions to the field of statistics, particularly in reliability theory and risk analysis. Beyond his scholarly achievements, Nozer is remembered as mentor who had a profound commitment to the growth, development, and success of his mentees. Nozer's scientific legacy will continue to inspire statisticians, researchers, and practitioners worldwide. His dedication as a mentor goes beyond imparting knowledge, so we are honored to be able to share these remembrances that demonstrate his lasting impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article advances the position that the history of science does more than shine a light on present ideas; when uncertainty about hypotheses is both large and important, what we can glean from the context and details of previous experiments leading to "present knowledge" is oftentimes our best path to enlightenment in the future. From history, in other words, one can imagine and consider completely different designs, contexts, and approaches to experimental statistics. The author advises the young statistician to study the history of fields near to and seemingly uncorrelated with their own. The author uses the life and work of Gosset to provide context for this advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the importance of visualizing data in scientific research. It introduces Anscombe's quartet, a demonstration by statistician Francis Anscombe that shows how different data sets can have the same summary statistics but tell different stories when visualized. The article also mentions the datasaurus dozen, a set of scatterplots with the same summary statistics but different shapes, created by researchers Justin Matejka and George Fitzmaurice. The article emphasizes the need to go beyond summary statistics and highlights the value of visualization in data analysis. [Extracted from the article]

Working life for some medical statisticians can be dissatisfying, with a sense of playing second fiddle, according to research described here by Catey Bunce , Gill Price , Simon Day and Mona Kanaan on behalf of the Royal Statistical Society Medical Section [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Watched Squid Game, heard BTS or eaten ramyeon? You might be "Kontagious". In her winning entry for our 2023 Statistical Excellence Award for Early Career Writing, Robyn Goldsmith takes a statistician's view of Korean culture's astonishing recent rise in international popularity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor C. R. Rao, the celebrated statistician whose work shaped the landscape of modern statistics, passed away on 22 August in Buffalo, New York, at the age of 102. A true giant in the field of statistics, Rao's monumental contributions have left an indelible mark on both academic and practical spheres. Some of those who knew him best talk to Cathleen O'Grady about his brilliant mind and immense legacy, as well as his famed gentleness and humility [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being a successful statistician or data scientist is about more than technical acumen, or simply working harder than you already are. Craig Mallinckrodt explains why the non-statistical aspects of statistical jobs are vital to get right [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2023 Deer Harvest Report from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources revealed that an estimated 30% of deer hunters failed to report their kills, resulting in discrepancies between reported and estimated harvest numbers. The nonreporting rate was higher in the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula, with significant differences in reported versus estimated deer kills. While mandatory reporting indicated a decline in overall deer harvest in 2023, mail survey estimates showed an increase in antlerless deer harvest and a slight overall increase in whitetail kills compared to the previous year. [Extracted from the article]

The authors describe the popular podcast for statisticians and data scientists – Stats + Stories, which resulted from an experiment conducted in a quantitative literacy class at Miami University. They decided to hold a contest over the summer (2023) to celebrate the 300th episode and 10th anniversary of the podcast. This contest and others are described in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern Switzerland was founded 175 years ago. However, despite being connected by a constitution, the new country remained divided by language, religion, and history – a state but not a nation. It is thanks to the statistician and politician Stefano Franscini that statistics came to play an important role in forging a common Swiss identity. Servan Grüninger tells his story [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The former head of Kazakhstan's national statistical office, Anar Meshimbayeva served five years in prison after being accused of embezzlement. In an interview with Hayley Bennett, she talks about life after "the case of the statisticians" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changepoints are discontinuity times (abrupt changes) in a time-ordered sequence of data. In climate settings, change-points often occur when measuring stations are relocated or gauges are changed. Changepoint methods have multiple uses in climatology, including stationary checks and record homogenization. Statisticians are needed to help resolve the many open problems in the area by developing methods and analyzing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Probabilistic Numerics" by Philipp Henning, Michael Osborne, and Hans Kersting explores the intersection of statistical tools and numerical computation. It emphasizes the importance of modeling uncertainty and the need for numerics to report calibrated uncertainty. The book covers various topics such as integration, linear algebra numerics, optimization, and the resolution of ordinary differential equations. While the author of the summary disagrees with some points made in the book, they still recommend it to statisticians interested in computational methods. [Extracted from the article]

REGULARS AT A GLANCEI SCREAM, YOU SCREAM WE ALL SCREAMFOR ICE CREAM!CHILDRENI SCREEN, YOU SCREEN, WE ALL SCREENFOR UHD SCREENS!ADULTSEVERY TIME YOU SELF-APPROVE YOUR PULL REQUESTS AND MERGE CODE, WE GET REGRESSION ISSUES!STATISTICIANS WOULD DISAGREE WITH YOU. THEIR QUALIFIED OPINION IS "CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION"shane_collinge@yahoo.comPHOTO (COLOR)PHOTO (COLOR) [Extracted from the article]

The article titled "RUNS, BABY, RUNS" discusses the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2024, which was the highest-scoring major T20 tournament in history. The scoring rates were exceptionally high due to flat pitches, the Impact Player ruling, and the ability for teams to name their XI after the toss. The Kolkata Knight Riders emerged as the winners of the tournament. The article also provides statistics on the highest team totals, run rates, individual centuries, and the performance of English players in the IPL. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses economic inactivity and its patterns in the UK. Topics include considered the text mentions that statisticians consider an individual in employment if they work for an hour or more, while those who are not employed and are looking for work and are available to work are considered unemployed.

With the increasing recognition of the impacts and growing costs due to climate change, there is a growing demand for actionable assessments of climate risk from business, industry, and governments. The assessment of climate risk is at the heart of climate risk analytics, and these assessments can be used in a variety of use cases. This article explores the use cases such as the impact of extreme weather events and regulatory response and disclosure. The paper also explores the critical impact of the statistical sciences on climate analytics as a growing field and discusses the opportunities for statisticians and data scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses two examples of statisticians making significant contributions in different fields. The first example focuses on Brazilian statistician Dani Gamerman, who worked with an interdisciplinary team to uncover evidence of early human activity in the Amazonian forest. Through statistical analysis, they estimated that there are at least 10,000 earthworks hidden in the forest, challenging the belief that the Amazon was an untouched wilderness. The second example highlights a statistician and his father in Missouri who convinced a state lottery to redo its probability calculations, leading to an undergraduate-driven project to improve the accuracy of all state lotteries. The article encourages readers to engage in interdisciplinary projects and share their own experiences of using statistics for the benefit of the general public. [Extracted from the article]

With the steady growth of computer technologies, the application of statistical techniques to analyze extensive datasets has garnered substantial attention. The analysis of three-way (matrix-variate) data has emerged as a burgeoning field that has inspired statisticians in recent years to develop novel analytical methods. This paper introduces a unified finite mixture model that relies on the mean-mixture of matrix-variate normal distributions. The strength of our proposed model lies in its capability to capture and cluster a wide range of three-way data that exhibit heterogeneous, asymmetric and leptokurtic features. A computationally feasible ECME algorithm is developed to compute the maximum likelihood (ML) estimates. Numerous simulation studies are conducted to investigate the asymptotic properties of the ML estimators, validate the effectiveness of the Bayesian information criterion in selecting the appropriate model, and assess the classification ability in presence of contaminated noise. The utility of the proposed methodology is demonstrated by analyzing a real-life data example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the recent economic performance of Ireland and Belgium in the Euro-zone. Ireland's economy rebounded with a 2% growth in the third quarter, while Belgium's expansion slightly slowed to 0.2%. The fluctuating growth of Ireland, influenced by US multinational companies, has a significant impact on the region's overall economic performance. The data suggest that the Euro-zone may have continued to expand in the quarter, with GDP numbers expected to be released soon. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- Ghana's inflation rate unexpectedly increased in September for the first time in six months, raising doubts about policymakers' forecasts that price growth will ease further toward the end of the years.Consumer prices rose 21.5% from 20.4% in August, government statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told reporters in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday.The main driver of the increase was food prices, according to statistics office's data.©2024 Bloomberg L.P.By Ekow DontohReported by Author [Extracted from the article]

This article provides a humorous look at the problem of cooking times of soft-boiling eggs, as we eavesdrop on the conversation between a statistician, a physicist, and the bartender who was a data enthusiast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women had a strong presence in the workforce of UK Social Survey Official Statistics from its inception. Joy Dobbs was part of a cohort of women recruited in the 1970s and 1980s as government survey statistics expanded. This cohort joined and enhanced an environment and culture that nurtured and developed female talent, including two women who became National Statistician [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

She ditched her PhD to help defeat the Nazis, and is remembered as a kind teacher and funny friend. Here, Rob Gandy, Altea Lorenzo‐Arribas and Richard Startup celebrate the life and work of pioneering British statistician Professor Violet Cane [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When we interpret statistics, we inevitably incorporate our personal knowledge and philosophical preferences. All statisticians therefore need to understand the philosophical foundation of probability and statistics, say Yudi Pawitan and Youngjo Lee – and puzzles and paradoxes can help [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data visualisation fans will need no introduction to David McCandless, data journalist and author of the bestselling books Information is Beautiful and Knowledge is Beautiful as well as, most recently, Beautiful News. He is also one of the media's most called‐upon advocates for statistics as art, and tells Anna Britten about his process, data viz heroes and why communication is all about context [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Bloomberg) -- Ghana's annual inflation rate unexpectedly fell to a 29-month low in August, increasing the chance of an interest-rate cut when policymakers announce their decision on Sept. 30Consumer prices rose 20.4% from 20.9% in July, Government Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told reporters in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday. The median of six economists' estimates in a Bloomberg survey was 22.8%.--With assistance from Artyom Danielyan.©2024 Bloomberg L.P.By Ekow Dontoh and Moses Mozart DzawuReported by Author; Author [Extracted from the article]

The poetry-reading Newcastle University biostatistician is also president of the Young African Statisticians Association [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a preprint abstract, researchers are exploring the concept of imagined involuntariness and its effect on behavior. The study compares training in imagined involuntariness with simple practice in responding to imaginative suggestions. The results suggest that training in motor suggestions may result in greater subjective effects and sensations of involuntariness compared to a control group. The study aims to determine whether this training can also be applied to hallucination suggestions. The research is ongoing and has not yet been peer-reviewed. [Extracted from the article]

Ghana's annual inflation rate has reached a 28-month low in July, with consumer prices rising at their slowest pace since March 2022. This decrease in inflation opens up the possibility for further monetary policy easing in the country. The central bank had previously cut interest rates in January but has since kept them unchanged due to concerns about the weak local currency. The Bank of Ghana is expected to announce its next interest-rate decision on September 30. [Extracted from the article]

According to official data, China's major industrial firms saw a 3.5% increase in profits in the first half of the year, compared to a 3.4% increase in the first five months. In June alone, industrial profits rose by 3.6% year on year. The equipment manufacturing sector experienced a 6.6% profit growth, driven by advancements in high-end, intelligent, and green manufacturing. The consumer goods manufacturing sector also saw a 10% profit increase, fueled by domestic demand recovery, industrial product exports, and a low base from the previous year. However, insufficient domestic demand and a complex international environment continue to pose challenges for corporate profits. Efforts will be made to expand domestic demand, develop new quality productive forces, and foster new growth drivers to support the recovery of the industrial economy. This shift towards a more innovative, technology-driven, and sustainable economic model aims to achieve higher productivity, competitiveness, and long-term growth. [Extracted from the article]

This article from Amstat News provides a list of the top ten words that contain the word 'ten' in them. The list includes words such as 'kindergarten,' 'nonexistent,' 'latent,' 'concatenation,' 'idempotent,' 'tendencies,' 'heighten,' 'centenarian,' 'plenipotentiary,' and 'listeners.' The author, Ron Wasserstein, explains that the Practical Significance podcast aims to expand listeners' knowledge and brighten their days with engaging discussions. The article concludes by inviting readers to listen to the Practical Significance podcast on the Amstat website. [Extracted from the article]

Taiwan's economy grew more than expected in the second quarter of 2024, with a 5.09% year-on-year increase in gross domestic product. This growth is attributed to the continued global demand for artificial intelligence-related technologies, particularly semiconductors and servers. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has also raised its revenue growth projections for 2024, reflecting confidence in the longevity of the AI spending boom. However, economists and government statisticians have cautioned that growth is likely to slow for the rest of the year. [Extracted from the article]

Ireland's economy experienced accelerated growth in the second quarter, with gross domestic product (GDP) rising by 1.2% compared to a 0.7% increase in the previous quarter. This is seen as a positive sign for the euro-zone, as Ireland's data has had a significant impact on the region's overall expansion. The growth in Ireland is attributed to the country's international industrial companies. On the other hand, Belgium's momentum slowed slightly, with a GDP reading of 0.2%. The euro-zone's GDP data for the second quarter, along with statistics from other major economies, will be released on Tuesday. However, Latvia, one of the euro area's smaller members, experienced a contraction of 1.1% after three quarters of growth. [Extracted from the article]