STAT 450 students have been working collaboratively with STAT 550 students on real case studies brought by UBC researchers from other disciplines. STAT 550 students created GitHub/GitLab repositories to host R-codes, related papers, reports, and discussions. These repositories also enable direct and effective communication between both classes, and with TAs and the instructor. Supervised by the graduate students, STAT 450 students performed the statistical analysis and summarized the results in a poster and report.
Poster 1: Maternal folate and vitamin B12 in relation to infant birth weight and gestational age
Researcher: Yvonne Lamers and Dalal Qanaq
STAT450: Kris Hong and Kathy Zhao
STAT550: Lisa Leung and Hiwot Tafessu
Gestetional age and birth weight are strong indicators for health of newborns. Our analysis investigates the impact of maternal nutrition, specifically mothers’ B-vitamin (B-12 and Folate) levels, during pregnancy and its influence on the two health indicators of the newborns. With data from 622 volunteers in the BC Prenatal Genetic Screening Program, our findings show no significant association between mothers’ vitamin-B levels and the gestational age and birth weight of the newborns.
Poster 2: Impact of Exam Scheduling on Final Exam Grades
Researcher: Jackie Stewart and Gregory Dake
STAT450: Kevin Multani, Sharon Mui
STAT550: Joe Watson, Atcher Zhang, and Wayne Wang
Have you ever thought about the possible effects of exam schedules on students’ performance in their final exams? Mixed models, splines, and Bayesian regressions are used to study the relationship between the proximity of exams’ dates and students’ performance in their final exams for Chemistry courses. Results show that exam scheduling has statistically significant effects on students’ final exam performance. Specifically, if students have a tight exam schedule, they tend to achieve lower grades in their final exams. Lisa Leung and Hiwot Tafessu (students from STAT550) will use an eStation to display a Shiny application to visualize the data.
Poster 3: Impact of Biosolids on Soil Stability and Plant Cover
Researcher: Emma Avery
STAT450: Yidie Feng and Cathy Tang
STAT550: Fatema JHohura and Sonja Surjanovic
Soil quality is an important factor in land and water management. We are interested in the long-term impacts of a biosolids treatment on soil quality, measured by aggregate stability and plant cover of several species. The data, from a study on soil health at Jesmond, BC, give strong evidence that the biosolids treatment results in an increase in soil quality and plant cover for some species.
Poster 4: DOSE: What is the Optimal Post-Stroke Exercises?
Researcher: Tara Klassen
STAT450: Jon Kim and Emily Xu
STAT550: Xixi Hu and Anthony Christidis
A stroke often leaves the survivor with permanent physical and cognitive disability. We analyze the physical recovery of patients who have recently suffered a stroke in different exercise intensity programs. Statistical analysis of the patient recovery data shows that higher intensity programs do not benefit the patients in their long-term recovery.