[Last updated: March 16th, 2018]
Biostatistics 201B
Winter 2018 - Dr. Catherine Sugar
Announcements
- 3/16/2018: Today's lecture notes are posted, along with copies of the survival analysis example and the course summary/list of additional classes. It looks as if the videos for the last two weeks of classes are working which is good news. I have also added the final exam study guide and some practice problems on survival analysis and will post the complete HW5 solutions later this evening. Let me know if there is anything else that would be helpful as you are studying for the final--and thanks for a great quarter!
- 3/14/2018: Notes from today's lecture are posted along with a copy of the mixed model/repeated measures printout in STATA and SAS that we went through in class. On Friday I will use the two hour block of lecture plus discussion time to do a brief overview of survival analysis, weighting methods and other techniques that we haven't had time to cover in detail and will also do a course wrap-up/summary. Graded HW4's will be available in class. I have now received confirmation on the rooms for our review sessions. I will hold the first one in our regular classroom (CHS 43-105) Monday 9:00-11:00 am and Wendy will hold a second one Tuesday from 12:30-2:20 pm in the biostatistics department classroom (CHS 51-279). Finally, as I announced in class, the course review system is listing our grader in the TA slot but you should actually fill out the evaluations for Wendy Shih as she is the one with whom you have been having direct contact in the labs and discussions.
- 3/12/2018: Notes from today's lecture are posted
- 3/5/2018: Notes from today's lecture are posted along with the complete solutions to HW4. Also, please note that media site is experiencing difficulties again and as a result a couple of the recent class videos are not available :(
- 3/4/2018: I have posted a bunch of new materials on the web site, including all the files for homework 5, a hints file for the final project, and some old final exams and practice problems. I will post some additional materials for the final exam, including the study guide, shortly.
- 2/26/2018: Lecture notes from today's class are now posted :)
- 2/23/2018: Hi everyone--hope you survived today's marathon lecture! The class notes are up along with the accompanying handout; for completeness I have included a description of the test comparing effects across levels of a multinomial model which is the last of the 4 types of tests I mentioned but which we didn't get through in class. I will go over that in detail on Monday. I had requested for the second half of class to be recorded but it seems (surprise) that this may not have worked. Hopefully the notes are complete enough and multinomial regression is similar enough to logistic regression that the material will be clear for those of you who had to leave early today. I have also posted the solutions, including estimated grade ranges, for the midterm. As discussed in class, the scores were a bit lower this year because the test was a bit too long so I have curved accordingly. Go over your exam with the solutions and then feel free to stop by if you want to discuss any of it in person. I have made the answers extremely detailed to cover all the types of mistakes people made.
- 2/21/2018: I hope everyone enjoyed a statistics-free holiday weekend! There are a bunch of new postings, including the materials for HW4 and the instructions for the final class project. Solutions for the midterm will be posted later this afternoon. The exams will be ready for pick-up later today or tomorrow and will be brought to class on Friday if you don't get them before then.
Contact Information
Dr. Catherine Sugar
Office: Room 51-236C CHS
Office hours: Monday 10:00-11:00, Friday 1:00-2:00 and
by appointment.
Office phone: 310-794-1078
Email: csugar@ucla.edu
Alternate Office: Semel Institute (NPI) 37-457
TA Wendy Shih
Office: CHS A1-279 (Biostatistics Consulting Lab)
Office hours: Friday, 12:00-1:00.
Email: wshih3737@gmail.com
Course Times and Locations
Lecture: MWF 9:00-9:50 CHS 43-105A
Discussion: F 10:00-10:50 CHS 43-105A
Labs: Th 10:00-10:50 and F 11:00-11:50, CHS
A1-241
Course Information and Handouts
Useful Reference Books
Below are some books and links which may be helpful for those who like to
do extra reading about the material we are covering. I have indicated
briefly which chapters correspond to the various course topics.
- Primer of Applied Regression & Analysis of
Variance, third edition, by Stanton Glantz and Bryan Slinker (McGraw-Hill, 2016) was the optional text
for Biostatistics 201A. It has sections on some of this quarter's material
including logistic regression (Chapter 12), survival analysis (Chapter 13) and
repeated measures/mixed models (Chapter 10). We used the second edition of the text for a number of years so there may be copies of it available in the libraries as well (see Chapter 12 for logistic regression and survival and Chapter 9 for repeated measures models.)
- Fundamentals of Biostatistics by Bernard Rosner
(Thomson: Brooks/Cole, 6th edition, 2006)
is the book often used for Biostatistics 100A/B. It has material on
classical rank tests (Chapter 9) and a little bit on logistic regression
(Chapter 13) and survival analysis (Chapter 14).
- Hyperstat is a handy online introductory statistics text. Its Chapter 17, Distribution
Free Tests, has some nice examples of classical non-parametrics and
permutation tests.
- An Introduction to the Bootstrap by Brad Efron and
Robert Tibshirani (Chapman and Hall, 1993) is the classic reference for
ideas related to the bootstrap. The material we will cover is in the
first 6 chapters though I will skip a lot of the details.
- An
Introduction to Statistical Learning with Applications in R by James, Witten, Hastie and
Tibshirani (Springer, 2013) is an accessible book on modern statistical
methods and can be downloaded for free on line. Chapter 5 has material on
the bootstrap and other resampling methods. There is also material on
classical methods including linear regression (Chapter 3) and logistic
regression (Chapter 4) as well as lots of other neat topics we won't have
time to cover.
- Applied Logistic Regression by David Hosmer and
Stanley Lemeshow (Wiley, 2000) is a classic text by two of the people who were
instrumental in developing a variety of logistic regression
techniques. Some of the book is a little technical, however.
- Practical Multivariate Analysis (5th edition; formerly
Computer-Aided Multivariate Analysis) by Afifi, Clark and May (CRC
Press, 2012) is a really nice book by our own former FSPH Dean Afifi from
which I will draw a number of examples. Chapter 12 deals with standard logistic
regression, multinomial and ordinal logistic regression and Poisson
regression. Chapter 13 has material on survival analysis. If you want to
learn some of the other fun topics that we won't get to you can always
take Biostatistics 406!
- Applied Longitudinal Analysis (2nd edition) by
Fitzmaurice, Laird and Ware (Wiley, 2011) is a comprehensive book from an
applied perspective by some of the leaders in this area of statistics.
- Modeling Longitudinal Data by our own Rob Weiss
(Springer, 2005) is a readable book and serves as the text for some of our
courses on correlated data.
- Survival Analysis: Techniques for Censored and
Truncated Data (2nd edition) by Klein and Moeschberger (Springer,
2003) is a quite accessible book used in several of our
courses on survival analysis.
Lectures
Scanned versions of my slides for the lectures will be posted here after each class session. You can also watch videos of the lectures here. The video for the review session is is supposed to be here although there was apparently a problem with the recording. Mediasite is trying to recover the file and I will update the site if they manage to do so. Meanwhile, see the written notes from the session below.
Homework and Lab Assignments
Homework assignments, solutions and supplemental materials will be posted here. Note that for the STATA and SAS versions of the data sets you may need to right click and select "save as" to download the files. Other file types should open automatically.
Exams and Projects
I have added a suggestions file for the final project and copies of several old final exams to this section. A study guide for the final and some additional practice problems will be posted shortly. Note that the "blank" copies of the exams are scanned so they include the graphics but the solutions do not.
Course Resources
-
UCLA Center for Accessible Education If you need academic accomodations (e.g. extra exam time) based on a disability please contact the CAE (formerly the Office for Students with Disabilities) by calling (310) 825-1501 or by going to Murphy Hall 225 and they will work with me to make the necessary arrangements.
Emergency Preparedness The UCLA Office of Emergency Management website has details on the University's emergency procedures, training programs, and resources, as well as links to download the UCLA Bruins Safe Mobile App and instructions for signing up for Bruin Alert. Our classroom will be equipped with a flip chart of procedures for our specific location in the CHS complex. Our designated assembly point is the North Tower, on the north sidewalk on Charles E. Young Drive South (in front of the Neuroscience Research Building and Parking Structure 9). If we need to evacuate the building during class time, we will exit together and proceed to that location. If the all clear is given more than 10 minutes prior to the end of class we will return to the lecture hall to discuss adjustments to the schedule; otherwise we will resume at the next planned lecture time and I will send any necessary updates via e-mail.
Adobe
Acrobat Reader - If you don't have a copy of Adobe, click to download a free copy
to your computer. You'll need it to read homeworks, labs and other handouts
on this web site.
Software Access and Tutorials UCLA's
Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) provides really excellent statistical resources, including data analysis examples, annotated output, data sets from standard textbooks and information about accessing different software packages around campus. They also offer seminars and consulting services. In addition to the home page, you can find the specific links here for STATA and SAS
Using
Stata and SAS Remotely CLiCC (College Library Instructional Computing
Commons) has a system that lets you use many software packages,
including Stata and SAS, remotely from any computer that has internet access.
This should enable you to do the homework from home at 2 am if you want
to. However it is not super easy to upload and download files using the software this way.
Go to the site for more details or go directly to the Software Shortcut. You will need your standard UCLA login information to access the programs.
Purchasing STATA - You can also purchase a student edition of STATA directly from their web site at a discounted price. The basic STATA 15/IC version is fine for this class but if you are planning to use the program for other projects involving really large data sets there are additional options.
Access to
TCL Lab Computers - If you are not a
public health student but want to be able to work on your homework on the
TLC lab computers in the Biomedical Library you can apply for an account
using this form. Please let me know if there are any problems getting
apllications accepted.
Tutor List (Coming Soon!) - Here I will
post a list of biostatistics doctoral students interested in tutoring
for 201B. You can contact them directly at the e-mail addresses in the
file. I will update the list periodically as I get new information. The
students will be listed in the order they responded to my
query.
Rice
Virtual Lab in Statistics - A collection of Java applets that demonstrate
statistical concepts and techniques.
Hyperstat
- Statistics.com provides a link to this hyptertext statistics text which
includes some of
topics discussed in the course.
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