Search results for "Causal inference"
showing 10 items of 31 documents
Inferring causation from time series in earth system sciences
2019
The heart of the scientific enterprise is a rational effort to understand the causes behind the phenomena we observe. In large-scale complex dynamical systems such as the Earth system, real experiments are rarely feasible. However, a rapidly increasing amount of observational and simulated data opens up the use of novel data-driven causal methods beyond the commonly adopted correlation techniques. Here, we give an overview of causal inference frameworks and identify promising generic application cases common in Earth system sciences and beyond. We discuss challenges and initiate the benchmark platform causeme.net to close the gap between method users and developers.
The Causal Influence of Life Meaning on Weight and Shape Concerns in Women at Risk for Developing an Eating Disorder
2021
Background: Although previous studies have shown an inverse relation between life meaning and eating disorder symptoms, the correlational nature of this evidence precludes causal inferences. Therefore, this study used an experimental approach to test the causal impact of life meaning on individuals' weight and shape concerns.Methods: Female students at risk for developing an eating disorder (N = 128) were randomly assigned to the control or the meaning condition, which involved thinking about and committing to pursue intrinsically valued life goals. A color-naming interference task was used to assess the motivational salience of body-related stimuli, and self-report measures were used to as…
Importance of proper conduct of clinical trials
2021
Compulsive exercise as a mediator between clinical perfectionism and eating pathology
2016
The aim of this study was to examine whether compulsive exercise mediates the relationship between clinical perfectionism and eating pathology, based on the cognitive behavioral model of compulsive exercise. Participants were 368 adults who participated regularly in sport/exercise and completed online measures of perfectionism, compulsive exercise and eating disorders. In support of the well-established link between perfectionism and eating disorders, clinical perfectionism predicted eating pathology both directly and indirectly mediated by compulsive exercise. In addition, there were also direct effects of clinical perfectionism on the avoidance/rule-driven behavior, weight control, and mo…
Temporal Binding in Multisensory and Motor-Sensory Contexts: Toward a Unified Model
2021
Our senses receive a manifold of sensory signals at any given moment in our daily lives. For a coherent and unified representation of information and precise motor control, our brain needs to temporally bind the signals emanating from a common causal event and segregate others. Traditionally, different mechanisms were proposed for the temporal binding phenomenon in multisensory and motor-sensory contexts. This paper reviews the literature on the temporal binding phenomenon in both multisensory and motor-sensory contexts and suggests future research directions for advancing the field. Moreover, by critically evaluating the recent literature, this paper suggests that common computational prin…
Causal Inference and Statistical Fallacies
2001
Fallacies are defined as plausible-seeming arguments that give the wrong conclusion. The article concentrates on those with some connection with causality. The classical definition of causality involving a necessary and sufficient condition for an effect is rejected and three possible definitions discussed. The first is that of a statistical association that cannot be explained away as the effect of admissible alternative features. To make this more precise, Markov graphical representations are introduced and the important distinction between pairs of variables on an equal footing and those in a potential explanatory-response relation described. The roles of unobserved confounders and of ra…
The role of blood DNA methylation in environment-related chronic disease: a biostatistical toolkit
2013
La epigenética se refiere al estudio de las marcas químicas que alteran la expresión génica sin cambiar la secuencia genética. Los factores ambientales y conductuales son conocidos modificadores de la epigenética, resultando así en cambios heredables que pueden dar lugar a alteraciones en procesos biológicos esenciales y, por consiguiente, al desarrollo de enfermedades. La metilación del ADN es la marca epigenética más estudiada. Existe amplia evidencia científica de la asociación entre factores ambientales tales como tabaco y metales, y desregulaciones en la metilación del ADN. Asimismo, existe amplia evidencia de la asociación entre desregulaciones en metilación del ADN y enfermedades cró…
Impressing my friends: The role of social value in green purchasing attitude for youthful consumers
2021
Abstract Prior studies predominantly use cross-sectional designs to determine effects of pro-environmental beliefs on green purchasing attitudes, thereby limiting the possibility for causal inferences and examining mediation effects. We overcome these gaps by adopting a two-wave longitudinal design to test a moderated-mediation model that draws on consumer choice theory, positing that the effect of implicit pro-environmental beliefs on green purchasing attitudes is mediated by perceived social value from buying green, while the relationship between pro-environmental beliefs and perceived social value is moderated by perceived inconvenience of buying green. Findings from a sample of Polish y…
Simplifying Probabilistic Expressions in Causal Inference
2018
Obtaining a non-parametric expression for an interventional distribution is one of the most fundamental tasks in causal inference. Such an expression can be obtained for an identifiable causal effect by an algorithm or by manual application of do-calculus. Often we are left with a complicated expression which can lead to biased or inefficient estimates when missing data or measurement errors are involved. We present an automatic simplification algorithm that seeks to eliminate symbolically unnecessary variables from these expressions by taking advantage of the structure of the underlying graphical model. Our method is applicable to all causal effect formulas and is readily available in the …
A perspective on Gaussian processes for Earth observation
2019
Earth observation (EO) by airborne and satellite remote sensing and in-situ observations play a fundamental role in monitoring our planet. In the last decade, machine learning and Gaussian processes (GPs) in particular has attained outstanding results in the estimation of bio-geo-physical variables from the acquired images at local and global scales in a time-resolved manner. GPs provide not only accurate estimates but also principled uncertainty estimates for the predictions, can easily accommodate multimodal data coming from different sensors and from multitemporal acquisitions, allow the introduction of physical knowledge, and a formal treatment of uncertainty quantification and error pr…