Stat Happenings #1: Statistics News You Can Use
From the Office of Statistical Consulting
Spring 2003
1. Analysis of Missing Data workshop
2. Student Assistant position available
3. SAS/Stata upgrades
4. New guide on the statistical skills needed for research
5. New handouts available
6. Off-Campus Summer Statistical Workshops
1. Analysis of Missing Data workshop
There are still spaces available in the Analysis of Missing Data workshop. It is for anyone who has ever had to deal with missing data. It covers the whats, whys and hows of old and new ways of dealing with missing data. It will be offered on May 7 th from 1:00-3:00. See the website for more information and to register.
2. Student Assistant position available
With the graduation and departure of Cathy Soria, our student assistant, we have an opening for a student assistant, approximately 10 hours/week during the academic year, possibility of more over the summer. Cathy has been working with us for two years, first while an undergraduate statistics major and currently as a MPS student in applied statistics. Cathy has been instrumental in writing handouts and newsletters, keeping our web site updated, implementing projects such as organizing and maintaining our database of handouts, and researching answers to questions that arise in consulting. We're looking for someone with a good working knowledge of statistics who is organized, self-motivated and works well independently. Please contact Karen Grace-Martin at 255-1926 or kg47@cornell.edu.
Cathy is leaving us for a position as an actuary at Watson Wyatt in New York City. We wish her the best of luck in her new career.
3. SAS and Stata upgrades
Stata Version 8.0 is now available from our office (see http://www.human.cornell.edu/Admin/StatCons/software/stata%20site%20license.htm ) and SAS Version 9.0 will be available soon from CIT. Charles Jessop will announce its availability. Both new versions include many changes.
Stata 8.0 is the most significant upgrade to Stata ever. Some highlights:
- New Graphical User Interface (GUI) with every command available in menus
- Publication-quality graphics
- New features for survey analysis, survival analysis, time series, cluster analysis
- Updates to data manipulation and the command language For more details, see http://www.stata.com/stata8/ . Highlights of the changes to SAS 9.0:
- Improvements to PROC MI for Multiple Imputation
- Ability to conduct conditional logistic regression using PROC LOGISTIC
- A new procedure for robust regression, PROC ROBUSTREG
- New procedures for survey data analysis
- Power and Sample Size calculations in the PROC POWER procedure and in the PSS web application using a point and click interface
For more details, see SAS Users Group International paper "Preview of SAS/STAT Version 9: Moving in New Dirctions and Building on Old Favorites" at http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi27/p257-27.pdf
4. New guide on the statistical skills needed for research
We have put together a guide for anyone new to research on the basic statistical skills needed to start analyzing research data and the resources available to get them. It is available on our website.
5. New handouts available
We have written a number of new handouts which are now available in pdf format on our website. They include:
- Dummy Coding for Smarties: Categorical Variables in Regression Models
- Using AMOS for Linear Regression Models with Missing Data
Please see our website at: http://www.human.cornell.edu/Admin/StatCons/resource/printref.htm
6. Off-Campus Summer Statistical Workshops
We have put together a listing of statistical workshops happening this summer across the country. They cover many topics of interest to researchers. Most are up to one week long. They cover topics as diverse as "Intro to Stata" to "Mixed Models for Categorical Data." Please take a look at our Workshop Schedule.
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(This newsletter was distributed to faculty and graduate students in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and the College of Human Ecology, and faculty in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, by the Office of Statistical Consulting. Please forward it to any interested colleagues and research staff. Anyone not receiving this newsletter who would like to be added to the mailing list for future newsletters should contact statcons@cornell.edu. Information about the Office of Statistical Consulting can be obtained at World Wide Web address http://www.cscu.cornell.edu.)