Standard Regressions (standard + regression)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Using Regression Models to Analyze Randomized Trials: Asymptotically Valid Hypothesis Tests Despite Incorrectly Specified Models

BIOMETRICS, Issue 3 2009
Michael Rosenblum
Summary Regression models are often used to test for cause-effect relationships from data collected in randomized trials or experiments. This practice has deservedly come under heavy scrutiny, because commonly used models such as linear and logistic regression will often not capture the actual relationships between variables, and incorrectly specified models potentially lead to incorrect conclusions. In this article, we focus on hypothesis tests of whether the treatment given in a randomized trial has any effect on the mean of the primary outcome, within strata of baseline variables such as age, sex, and health status. Our primary concern is ensuring that such hypothesis tests have correct type I error for large samples. Our main result is that for a surprisingly large class of commonly used regression models, standard regression-based hypothesis tests (but using robust variance estimators) are guaranteed to have correct type I error for large samples, even when the models are incorrectly specified. To the best of our knowledge, this robustness of such model-based hypothesis tests to incorrectly specified models was previously unknown for Poisson regression models and for other commonly used models we consider. Our results have practical implications for understanding the reliability of commonly used, model-based tests for analyzing randomized trials. [source]


Origins and characteristics of Nearctic landbirds in Britain and Ireland in autumn: a statistical analysis

IBIS, Issue 4 2006
IAN A. MCLAREN
We used data from eastern North America in regressions to explain autumn frequencies of Nearctic landbird species in Britain and Ireland (UK-IR). The data were: day-counts of 16 August,15 November from Nova Scotia (NS) on Sable Island 1963,2000 and Seal Island (1963,2002), combined in half-monthly intervals to account for seasonality; published seasonal totals (10- to 11-day intervals, 20 August,10 November 1955,80) of birds killed at a Florida (FL) TV tower; and published counts following a ,Fallout', 11 October 1998, of unseasonal species and southern vagrants in NS, believed to have originated as migrants in the southeast USA that followed a cold front offshore into strong southwest flow beyond. We also used the following species variables: body mass and wing length for size; sd of mass as a proxy for lipid capacity; a five-level index of migratory span (1 for within North America to 5 for almost totally to South America); latitude of easternmost breeding, and distance to nearest normal range to indicate status in NS; a two-level index for day vs. night migrants; an index, where pertinent, of significant population change (0 and 2 for a decrease and increase, respectively, 1 for no change). We also used classification and regression trees to cluster the potential transatlantic vagrants into homogeneous groups based on the explanatory variables. Standard generalized linear model regressions using counts from NS islands and FL produced highly positively skewed residuals (many species too common in UK-IR), but robust regressions eliminated statistical problems, and strengthened effects of non-count variables. Results using Fallout records, representing a subset of longer-distance night migrants, were statistically acceptable. The Fallout list, when supplied with counts from the same species from the NS islands and FL, produced highly significant (R2 = 0.79,0.93) and statistically acceptable regressions that were not improved by robust versions. Overall, the results indicate that October counts, especially of generally larger, longer-distance migrants, best represented those reaching UK-IR. The effect of geographical remoteness was negative , vagrants in NS were less likely to appear in UK-IR. Population changes were important in predicting the 1956,2003 UK-IR counts from 1955,80 FL counts. The seasonal characteristics, high explanatory power of the Fallout list and over-representation of probable over-ocean migrants in the standard regressions all support suggestions by others that many Nearctic vagrants in UK-IR originate in flights off southeast USA and are displaced downwind across the North Atlantic. [source]


MODELLING THE SLOW MEAN-REVERSION OF THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES' REAL EXCHANGE RATES,

THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 1 2008
GILLES DUFRENOT
In this paper we propose a new modelling approach of the exchange rate misalignments in four transition countries: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. We provide an empirical framework that takes into account two characteristics of these misalignments: while the fundamentals and policies adjust to restore equilibrium towards the long-term exchange rate, there are factors that hinder a fast mean-reverting dynamics. When the exchange rates adjust slowly to their equilibrium long-run values, the standard regressions that assume zero-mean misalignments present some drawbacks and one needs a model that helps to capture the time-varying aspects of the misalignment dynamics. The model proposed in this paper reproduces well the periods of overvaluation and undervaluation observed in the four countries. [source]


Bergmanns's size cline in New Zealand marine spray zone spiders (Araneae: Anyphaenidae: Amaurobioides)

BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 1 2010
BRENT D. OPELL
Members of the spider genus Amaurobioides are restricted to the spray zone of rocky marine coasts, where they construct and hunt from silk retreats. Collecting for this study shows these spiders to be distributed around the entire New Zealand coast. A Templeton, Crandall, and Sing (TCS) analysis of the ND1 mitochondrial gene places specimens from the North Island and the northern half of the South Island into a group distinct from Amaurobioides maritima O.P.-Cambridge, 1883, which is restricted to the southern half of the South Island. Females of this northern group exhibit latitude- and temperature-related clines in body length, body mass, and residual index of condition, with larger individuals with greater indices of condition being found at cooler, southern sites. This size cline also appeared in a broader geographical analysis that included Amaurobioides piscator Hogg, 1909 from the sub-Antarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands. Thirteen ND1 haplotypes are represented in the northern group. Both independent contrast analyses and standard regressions of the mean body lengths and mean masses of these haplotypes, and the mean latitudes and temperatures of the sites where haplotypes were present, document a Bergmann's size cline, and provide evidence for an underlying genetic component. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 101, 78,92. [source]