Statistics training II

Two-day intensive statistics course II

For the latest information on statistics training courses: see
www.uni-kassel.de/fb11agrar/de/fachgebiete-einrichtungen/umweltchemie/statistikschulungen.html

Statistical Modeling and Regressions with R for Soil Scientists

Recommended prerequisite: basic knowledge in statistics and R (see contents of the two-day statistics intensive course I on 09. and 10.03., especially a confident handling of vectors and data frames and reading data into R would be helpful)

The media and journals in various disciplines repeatedly point out flawed research due to inadequate knowledge of statistics (see, e.g., Ainsworth (2007, Nature 448, 849): "The abysmal standard of statistical analysis in much of genetic epidemiology is little short of scandalous". It is possible that similar problems exist to some extent in the soil sciences.

A major potential problem in soil science could be that some researchers are not even aware that there may be gaps in their knowledge that could lead to incorrect evaluations. Problem areas here may include (i) ignorance of the importance of residual checks, (ii) lack of understanding of the differences between a minimally adequate model and a maximally adequate model, (iii) ignorance of the differences between calibration, cross-validation, and validation of a model & (iv) lack of knowledge in important special topics, such as performing Box-Cox transformations, polynomial regressions, and model comparisons.

Intensive Course II aims to further deepen the statistical foundations for soil scientists so that the above problem areas will be less common in soil science in the future.

Date: March 13, 2017 10:00 am to March 14, 2017 6:30 pm.

Location: University of Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Nordbahnhofstr. 1a.

Cost: on request.

Number of participants: The number of participants is limited to 20.

Laptops: Please bring your own laptops with R and RStudio. If necessary, laptops can be borrowed in some cases by prior arrangement.

Materials: Course script, exercises and sample solutions will be provided.

Recommended reading: e.g. Crawley (2012). The R Book. 2nd Ed., Wiley.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Bernard Ludwig

Schedule of the intensive course:

Mon, 03/13/2017

10:00 - 12:00 Welcome, regressions and residual checks.

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 - 14:00 Statistical modeling: model types & model simplification

14:00 - 16:30 Procedure for model simplification, exercises in R

16:30 - 17:00 Coffee break

17:00 - 18:30 Transformations (Sqrt, ln & Box-Cox) and exercises in R

Tue, 03/14/2017

10:00 - 12:00 Dealing with variability and predictions (confidence & prediction bands; validation & cross-validation)

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch break.

13:00 - 16:30 Exercises in R with practical examples

16:30 - 17:00 Coffee break

17:00 - 18:30 Polynomial & non-linear regressions and exercises in R with practical examples

Please addressregistrations and queries by 15.02.2017 to : Prof. Bernard Ludwig,University of Kassel, bludwig@uni-kassel.de

Please understand that the intensive course may also be cancelled if there are not enough registrations. In this case or in case of cancellation due to illness of the speaker or other events beyond our control, there are no further claims.