Search results for "Uncertainty"
showing 10 items of 1010 documents
Recurrence Plots in Nonlinear Time Series Analysis: Free Software
2002
Recurrence plots are graphical devices specially suited to detect hidden dynamical patterns and nonlinearities in data. However, there are few programs available to apply such a mehodology. This paper reviews one of the best free programs to apply nonlinear time series analysis: Visual Recurrence Analysis (VRA). This program is targeted to recurrence analysis and the so-called Recurrence Quantitative Analysis (RQA, the quantitative counterpart of recurrence plots), although it includes many procedures in a friendly visual environment. Comparisons with alternative programs are performed.
Extending graphical models for applications: on covariates, missingness and normality
2021
The authors of the paper “Bayesian Graphical Models for Modern Biological Applications” have put forward an important framework for making graphical models more useful in applied settings. In this discussion paper, we give a number of suggestions for making this framework even more suitable for practical scenarios. Firstly, we show that an alternative and simplified definition of covariate might make the framework more manageable in high-dimensional settings. Secondly, we point out that the inclusion of missing variables is important for practical data analysis. Finally, we comment on the effect that the Gaussianity assumption has in identifying the underlying conditional independence graph…
Migration and students' performance: detecting geographical differences following a curves clustering approach
2020
Students’ migration mobility is the new form of migration: students migrate to improve their skills and become more valued for the job market. The data regard the migration of Italian Bachelors who enrolled at Master Degree level, moving typically from poor to rich areas. This paper investigates the migration and other possible determinants on the Master Degree students’ performance. The Clustering of Effects approach for Quantile Regression Coefficients Modelling has been used to cluster the effects of some variables on the students’ performance for three Italian macro-areas. Results show evidence of similarity between Southern and Centre students, with respect to the Northern ones.
The angle of repose of spherical grains in granular Hele-Shaw cells: A molecular dynamics study
2007
We report the results of three dimensional molecular dynamic simulations on the angle of repose of a sandpile formed by pouring mono-sized cohesionless spherical grains into a granular Hele-Shaw cell. In particular, we are interested to investigate the effects of those variables which may impact significantly on pattern formation of granular mixtures in Hele-Shaw cells. The results indicate that the frictional forces influence remarkably the formation of pile on the grain level. Furthermore, We see that increasing grain insertion rate decreases slightly the angle of repose. We also find that in accordance with experimental results, the cell thickness is another significant factor and the an…
Hot-electron noise suppression in n-Si via the Hall effect
2008
We investigate how hot-electron fluctuations in n-type Si are affected by the presence of an intense (static) magnetic field in a Hall geometry. By using the Monte Carlo method, we find that the known Hall-effect-induced redistribution of electrons among valleys can suppress electron fluctuations with a simultaneous enhancement of the drift velocity. We investigate how hot-electron fluctuations in n-type Si are affected by the presence of an intense (static) magnetic field in a Hall geometry. By using the Monte Carlo method, we find that the known Hall-effect-induced redistribution of electrons among valleys can suppress electron fluctuations with a simultaneous enhancement of the drift vel…
A Distribution-Free Two-Sample Equivalence Test Allowing for Tied Observations
1999
A new testing procedure is derived which enables to assess the equivalence of two arbitrary noncontinuous distribution functions from which unrelated samples are taken as the data to be analyzed. The equivalence region is defined to consist of all pairs (F, G) of distribution functions such that for independent X ∼F, Y ∼G the conditional probability of {X > Y} given {X ¬= Y} lies in some short interval around 1/2. The test rejects the null hypothesis of nonequivalence if and only if the standardized distance between the U-statistics estimator of P|X > Y | X ¬= Y] and the center of the equivalence interval (1/2 - e 1 , 1/2 + e 2 ) does not exceed a critical upper bound which has to be comput…
A study of the human rod and cone electroretinogram a-wave component
2009
The study of the electrical response of the retina to a luminous stimulus is one of the main fields of research in ocular electrophysiology. The features of the first component (a-wave) of the retinal response reflect the functional integrity of the two populations of photoreceptors: rods and cones. We fit the a-wave for pathological subjects with functions that account for possible mechanisms governing the kinetics of the photoreceptors. The paper extends a previous analysis, carried out for normal subjects, in which both populations are active, to patients affected by two particular diseases that reduce the working populations to only one. The pathologies investigated are Achromatopsia, a…
Quick counts from non-selected polling stations
2008
Countless examples of misleading forecasts on behalf of both campaign and exit polls affecting, among others, British, French, and Spanish elections could be found. This has seriously damaged their image. Therefore, procedures should be used that minimize errors, especially on election night when errors are more noticeable, in order to maintain people's trust in surveys. This paper proposes a method to obtain quick and early outcome forecasts on the election night. The idea is to partly sample some (whatever) polling stations and use the consistency that polling stations show between elections to predict the final results. Model accuracy is analysed through simulation using seven different …
Regional Inequalities in Consumption Patterns: A Multilevel Approach to the Case of Italy
2007
Summary The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the disparities in the Italian regions on the demand side. In more detail, an attempt will be made to find if the consumption behaviour of Italian households is different in the regions. With this in mind, Istat's 2000 Italian Family Budget data set was analysed. The data in question, which were collected through a two-stage sample over Italy's 20 regions, contains information regarding the expenses of approximately 23,000 households. In this analysis, both households and regions are considered as units: households are nested in the regions so that the basic data structure is hierarchical. In order to take this hierarchical structure into ac…
Properties of Design-Based Functional Principal Components Analysis.
2010
This work aims at performing Functional Principal Components Analysis (FPCA) with Horvitz-Thompson estimators when the observations are curves collected with survey sampling techniques. One important motivation for this study is that FPCA is a dimension reduction tool which is the first step to develop model assisted approaches that can take auxiliary information into account. FPCA relies on the estimation of the eigenelements of the covariance operator which can be seen as nonlinear functionals. Adapting to our functional context the linearization technique based on the influence function developed by Deville (1999), we prove that these estimators are asymptotically design unbiased and con…