Odds Ratio, Risk Ratio, and Prevalence Ratio

Odds Ratio, Risk Ratio, and Prevalence Ratio

Deddens (2008). Approaches for estimating prevalence ratios.

Petersen (2008). A comparison of two methods for estimating prevalence ratios.
Lumley (2006). Relative Risk Regression in Medical Research: Models, Contrasts,Estimators, and Algorithms.

Spiegelman (2005). Easy SAS calculations for risk or prevalence ratios and differences.
Santos (2008). Estimating adjusted prevalence ratio in clustered cross-sectional epidemiological data.
Savu (2009). Estimation of relative risk and prevalence ratio (pdf).
Barros (2003). Alternatives for logistic regression in cross-sectional studies. (using Stata)
Lee (1993). Estimation of prevalence rate ratios for cross sectional data: an example in occupational epidemiology, and (1994) Use of the prevalence ratio v the prevalence odds ratio as a measure of risk in cross sectional studies.
Thompson (1998). Prevalence odds ratio or prevalence ratio in the analysis of cross sectional data: what is to be done?

How can I estimate relative risk using glm for common outcomes in cohort studies using Stata or SAS? Source: UCLA Statistical Computing.

Understanding RR Ratios in Multinomial Logistic Regression. Source: UCLA Statistical Computing.

Special issue on lipotoxicity

Special Issue on Lipotoxicity

Source: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 2010;1801(3)

Editors: A. Vidal-Puig & R.Unger

“It was sometime in March 2009 when our colleague Fritz Spener first proposed a special issue of BBA Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids focused on the concept of lipotoxicity and its relevance as an integrative pathogenic mechanism of the metabolic syndrome. Although we might have hesitated a little initially, this did not last long as we realised that: a) ours would be a unique, high quality publication addressing the topic in depth and globally; b) this is an important area of research with enormous implications for metabolic disease and, in our opinion, its relevance is underestimated and relatively unknown among both the biomedical community and general public; and c) the great opportunities offered by new technologies and experimental models to understand the role of lipotoxicity in common metabolic diseases makes this a very timely issue. And also, of course, we expected strong support from the “lipotoxic community”. Certainly we have not been disappointed. In fact our colleagues have provided enormous support and their generosity has made this issue viable. Our only regret is that we have not been able to involve as many of the key experts as we wanted due to space constrains and the time scale of the project, and we hope this will not be the cause of any lost friendships!”


Here is the special issue: Special issue on lipotoxicity.

This issue isn’t new. I have got the similar hypothesis after I attended a lecture by J. Denis McGarry in 2001 (In memory of Dr. John Denis McGarry. His article "What if Minkowski Had Been Ageusic?"  is on the wall of my office all the time). I put this special issue on my blog to remind me keeping work on this hypothesis.

In Dieting, Magic Isn’t a Substitute for Science

In Dieting, Magic Isn't a Substitute for Science

By GINA KOLATA

 "Is a calorie really just a calorie? Do calories from a soda have the same effect on your waistline as an equivalent number from an apple or a piece of chicken?"

 Read full article here: In Dieting, Magic Isn't a Substitute for Science

Studies of Human Microbiome Yield New Insights

Studies of Human Microbiome Yield New Insights
Source: NYTimes.com by Carl Zimmer
"For a century, doctors have waged war against bacteria, using antibiotics as their weapons. But that relationship is changing as scientists become more familiar with the 100 trillion microbes that call us home - collectively known as the microbiome.
...". Read full article here.
There is also a story about Zhao Liping combines traditional Chinese medicine and studies of gut microbes to understand and fight obesity on the Nature: My Microbiome and Me.

Revolutions: The role of Statistics in the Higgs Boson discovery

The role of Statistics in the Higgs Boson discovery
Source: Revolution Analytics
News is starting to leak that the Large Hadron Collider may have accomplished its primary mission of confirming the existence of the hypothesised and heretofore elusive subatomic particle, the Higgs Boson. And sure, billions of Euros worth of state-of-the-art high-energy machinery and an army of experimental and theoretical physicists probably had something to do with the discovery. But did you know Statistics played a part as well? Check out this explainer video from PhD comics, below (an R chart even appears at the 00:27 mark):
Full text: here

What's in the world is a Higgs Boson? Source: NYTimes.com


The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

Stata articles

Stata Articles

• Cummings (2009). Methods for estimating adjusted risk ratios (pdf).
• Multiple imputation of missing values: further update of ice, with an emphasis on interval censoring (2007).
• Royston (2001). Flexible parametric alternatives to the Cox model, and more (stpm) (pdf).
• Lambert & Royston (2009). Further development of flexible parametric models for survival analysis (stpm2) (pdf).
• ...

How to Get Into Stanford with B’s on Your Transcript

How to Get Into Stanford with B's on Your Transcript
Source: Study Hacks by Cal Newport
"Let's try a simple experiment. Imagine that you're an admissions officer at a competitive college, and you're evaluating the following two applicants:
•David — He is captain of the track team and took Japanese calligraphy lessons throughout high school; he wrote his application essay on the challenge of leading the track team to the division championship meet.
•Steve — He does marketing for a sustainability-focused NGO; he wrote his application essay about lobbying delegates at the UN climate change conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Who impresses you more?
..."
This is an article recommended by my daughter. You can find the full text here: How to Get Into Stanford with B's on Your Transcript

"...

Lassiter’s Insight

What happened inside your brain when you read the descriptions of David and Steve? According to a clever series of experiments conducted by G. Daniel Lassiter, a psychology professor at the University of Ohio, your first response was to look into the proverbial mirror. Or, as Lassiter describes it, somewhat more formally,  in his 2002 paper on the subject: we have a “pervasive tendency…to use the self as a standard of comparison in [our] dispassionate judgments of others.”

Put another way, to evaluate a person’s accomplishments, we imagine ourselves attempting the same feat, allowing your own capabilities to provide a convenient benchmark for assessing others’.

(In Lassiter’s experiments, students took tests made up of difficult mathematical puzzles. He showed that when a student was asked to rate the intelligence of another student, this judging student used a self-assessment of his own intelligence, combined with how well he did on the test, to construct the rating.)

Let’s walk through the logic here. When you first encountered David and Steve, your brain began to compare them to yourself. In essence, your brain asked: “Could I do that? And if so, what would it require?”

...: