Observational Studies

Book Description

An Observational study is an empiric investigation of the effects caused by a treatment, policy , or intervention in which it is not possible to assign subjects at random to treatment or control, as would be done in a controlled experiment. Observational studies are common in most fields that study the effects of treatments on people. The second edition of ¿Observational Studies¿ is about 50 percent longer than the first edition, with many new examples and methods. There are new chapters on nonadditive models for treatment effects (Chapter 5) and planning observational studies (Chapter 11) and Chapter 9, on coherence, has been extensively rewritten. Paul R. Rosenbaum is Robert G. Putzel Professor, Department of Statistics, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Customer Reviews:

great overview of the topic.......2006-03-18

The book is very well written. It gives a great overview of the fundamental problems of causal inference in observastional studies. It has a lot of examples, homeworks and extensive references in every chapter.

up-to-date account of methods for observational studies.......2002-02-20

Many years ago the famous statistician Ronald Aylmer Fisher criticized analyses that linked lung cancer to smoking. He argued that these studies had hidden biases because they were not controlled experiments. He proposed that smokers could be different from non-smokers because of a genetic propensity to desire cigarettes and that this genetic trait could be correlated with a higher incidence of lung cancer. Thus it would be possible to see a higher frequency of lung cancer among smokers because of this genetic trait rather than because the smoking itself causes the cancer. As far-fetched as this argument may seem to us today, it is based on sound statistical principles and points out some of the potential problems that occur with observational studies.

Although randomized control trials are the best way to determine differences in treatment effects, they are not always practical or ethical. It would be wrong to randomly choose subjects and force some of them to smoke.

Getting around issues of bias in observational studies was first addressed by Cochran who published a book on the subject in 1983. Rosenbaum came out with his own book in 1995 and this second edition expands and updates that popular text.

In Chapter 1 he present examples of observational studies and raises many important issues. Chapter 2 explains the principles of randomized controlled experiments. In Chapter 3 he covers overt bias and some of the basic methods to adjust for it. The sensitivity of observational studies to hidden biases is covered in Chapter 4.

This book is well written, authoritative and contains numerous references and examples. It also includes a chapter on how to plan an observational study.

Such studies are very important to epidemiologists who want to discover the cause of an epidemic or a disease. With large data base it is possible to remove or adjust biases by matching subjects using propensity scores. Rosenbaum effectively describes how propensity scorng and stratification can be used to make observational studies behave more like randomized control trials.

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Advances in Nuclear Science and TechnologyVolume 14: Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of Reactor Performance Parameters (Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Nuclear | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0306409941

Book Description

Some countries have moved beyond the design and operation of nuclear electricity generating systems to confronting the issue of nuclear waste disposal, whole others are still committed to further nuclear facility construction. Volume 24 chronicles these key developments and examines nuclear reactor accidents at Chernobyl, Bhopal, and TMI. The text also analyzes current international knowledge of neutron interactions; deterministic methods based on mean values for assessing radiation distributions; practical applications of the TIBERE models to explicit computation of leakage terms in realistic reactor geometry; and a technique to deal with the issues of finance, risk assessment, and public perception.

Design Sensitivity Analysis (Frontiers in Applied Mathematics)

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Design Sensitivity Analysis (Frontiers in Applied Mathematics)
Lisa G. Stanley , and Dawn L. Stewart
Manufacturer: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0898715245

Book Description

Recent and ongoing improvements in computer technology have increased the need for efficient and reliable design tools; computational methods have opened the door to making sensitivity analysis a tractable design tool for industries that design and manufacture high-performance products. These industries are increasingly interested in exploiting the advantages of computer-aided design, numerical analysis, and optimal design methods. This book provides an understandable introduction to one approach to design sensitivity computation and illustrates some of the important mathematical and computational issues inherent in using the sensitivity equation method (SEM) for partial differential equations.

The authors use basic models to illustrate the computational issues that one might encounter when applying the SEM in a laboratory or research setting, while providing an overview of applications and computational issues regarding sensitivity calculations performed by way of continuous sensitivity equation methods. Here they focus on the construction and analysis of algorithms for computing sensitivities. For readers already acquainted with the concept of a sensitivity equation, the authors include mathematical background for a deeper understanding of their approach. Finally, the book explores the use of SEMs for applications in the area of computational fluid dynamics, demonstrating that the early examples readers encounter in the book can be observed in the context of a more realistic physical setting. Several color figures are included.

Audience
This book is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of numerical analysis, applied and computational mathematics, and for other scientists and engineers interested in modeling, design, control, and optimization of physical systems.

Product Description

Stability and Optimization of Structures: Generalized Sensitivity Analysis is the first book to address issues of structural optimization against nonlinear buckling. Through the investigation of imperfection sensitivity, worst imperfection and random imperfection based on concrete theoretical framework, it is shown that optimization against buckling does not necessarily produce an imperfection-sensitive structure.

This book offers the reader greater insight into optimization-based and computer-assisted stability design of finite-dimensional structures. Using the unified approach to parameter sensitivity analysis, it connects studies of elastic stability, computational mechanics and applied mathematics. Optimization based on stability theory is presented and explained, with 140 figures to illustrate applications in the framework of finite element analysis.

This book serves as an illustrative introduction for professional structural and mechanical engineers, graduate students in engineering, as well as applied mathematicians in the field.

A Statistical Design and Analysis for Sensitivity Experiments Poulter Laboratories Technical Report 001-67

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A Statistical Design and Analysis for Sensitivity Experiments Poulter Laboratories Technical Report 001-67
G.W.,III (R.C.McCarty) (J.B. Tysver) Evans
Manufacturer: Stanford Research Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J0SOJK

Stochastic Learning and Optimization: A Sensitivity-Based Approach (International Series on Discrete Event Dynamic Systems)

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Stochastic Learning and Optimization: A Sensitivity-Based Approach (International Series on Discrete Event Dynamic Systems)
Xi-Ren Cao
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 038736787X

Book Description

Stochastic learning and optimization is a multidisciplinary subject that has wide applications in modern engineering, social, and financial problems, including those in Internet and wireless communications, manufacturing, robotics, logistics, biomedical systems, and investment science. This book is unique in the following aspects.

(Four areas in one book) This book covers various disciplines in learning and optimization, including perturbation analysis (PA) of discrete-event dynamic systems, Markov decision processes (MDP)s), reinforcement learning (RL), and adaptive control, within a unified framework.
(A simple approach to MDPs) This book introduces MDP theory through a simple approach based on performance difference formulas. This approach leads to results for the n-bias optimality with long-run average-cost criteria and Blackwell's optimality without discounting.
(Event-based optimization) This book introduces the recently developed event-based optimization approach, which opens up a research direction in overcoming or alleviating the difficulties due to the curse of dimensionality issue by utilizing the system's special features.
(Sample-path construction) This book emphasizes physical interpretations based on the sample-path construction.

Systematic design, optimization, and sensitivity analysis methods for photonic crystal devices : (Dissertation)

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Systematic design, optimization, and sensitivity analysis methods for photonic crystal devices : (Dissertation)
Yang Jiao
Manufacturer: ProQuest Information and Learning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Citation Details

Distributed by ProQuest Information and Learning

Book Description

Published in 1871, this novel tells a tale of crossed inheritance in which one Ralph Newton, a handsome ne'er-do-well, fully expects to inherit his family fortune, while his deserving cousin (also Ralph Newton), a bastard in the eyes of the law, cannot legally inherit what his father wishes to bequeath to him. Featuring the darker hues and confident social criticism of Trollope's maturity, this work presents a stunning portrait of the Victorian legal scene.

Customer Reviews:

Trollope shines as portraitist, moralist, amiable cynic.......1998-09-02

Ralph The Heir, written late in Antony Trollope's life, is not as well known as his Palliser or Barchester novels, and this is a great shame. To my mind his talents are on display here in all their mature glory; his penetrating observation of human motive and weakness, combined with a raucous, convaluted storyline and a wicked sense of humor. Trollope knows people through and through, and it is no small thing that he refuses here to make even his villain a monster. In true Trollope form, Ralph who is the heir (there are two Ralphs and two heirs) is in embarrased circumstances. Having spent a rather idle life waiting for his uncle to die so that he might inherit (and with the old squire hale at sixty, this will not likely happen soon), Ralph finds himself in debt up to his eyeballs...or perhaps his hand-tooled hunting boots. With a stable of hunters and a fierce riding breeches habit, Ralph must do something, but what? Just what Ralph does, and how it touches the whole pantheon within his circle (and a few decidedly outside it!) gently underlines Trollope's deep concerns for his time: just what is a gentleman? What, indeed, is nobility in man and woman? And how are we so often willfully blinkered by love, loyalty, ambition, and hate? There are several storylines in Ralph The Heir, and the author does not disappoint those who delight in watching him tie all these delicious tales together in almost Seinfeldian fashion. Parliament figures prominently and the election (or rather the attempt at an election) of a principal character is so marvelously portrayed, so wicked, it alone is worth the price of the book. Trollope is a gem. Gentle, kindly in his characters, he truly loves people and when he laughs at them, I rather think he is laughing also at himself. Enjoy this; it's one of Trollope's best.

Heirs and Parents: An Andrew Broom Mystery (Andrew Broom Mysteries)

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Though few&far between, this mystery has its moments

Heirs and Parents: An Andrew Broom Mystery (Andrew Broom Mysteries)
Ralph McInerny
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 031220311X

Book Description

Heirs and Parents is the sixth title in Ralph McInerny's delightful series of mystery novels featuring smalltown midwestern lawyer Andrew Broom and his irascible local rival Frank McGough.Set in the town of Wyler, Indiana, Heirs and Parents begins with a car found in the Resurrection section of Overlook Cemetery.Inside the car is the body of a once-beautiful young woman, Helga Bjornsen, a college student who had been working as a summer intern in Andrew Broom's law office.Helga had several admirers, any one of whom might have had a motive to murder her, and the police begin investigating.But soon Andrew is caught up in his own crisis-for a local millionaire's will brings Andrew into combat with his rival Frank McGough, and when heirs to the will begin multiplying, the two attorneys find themselves in the middle of a dangerous plot to control a fortune.

Customer Reviews:

Though few&far between, this mystery has its moments.......2000-05-18

On the surface, Wyler, Indiana is a quiet town where everyone knows their neighbors. Homes and cars are never locked and the crime rate is so low it is statistically insignificant. Beneath the veneer of friendliness, Wyler shares much of the social ills beleaguering the nation. There are two competent attorneys living in town, Andrew Broom and Frank McGough, who loath each other. Their feelings towards one other causes Andrew's partner, and Frank's daughter to hide their romance.

Two events shake up the townsfolk. Someone slashes the throat of Andrew's law clerk with her corpse found inside the car of cemetery worker Will Foley. Since the married Will also had an affair with the victim, the police have enough circumstantial evidence to arrest Will. Andrew's nephew accepts the defense role because he believes his client is being framed.

The town is also burying its wealthiest citizens. Frank is handling the affluent estate, but Andrew throws a curve when he produces the grieving widow with a will that gives the multi-million dollar estate to her. The feud is just starting to heat up between Frank and Andrew.

HEIRS AND PARENTS, the sixth Broom novel, retains the fun and enjoyment of the previous five as it highlights Midwestern small town life in a wholesome way. The rivalry between the lawyers is amusing even as it ties together the well-developed double plot lines. Ralph McInerny, author of the Father Dowling mysteries, shows his abilities by using this elaborate technique to develop a delightful novel that enhances a strong series.

Product Description

This Alger story involves murder with the motive of money, as a cousin administers poison to Robert's father and then attempts to kill the boy also. This fast-paced story is quite an adventure.

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Ralph Raymond's Heir
Jr., Horatio Alger
Manufacturer: Hurst & Company, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H3NN4A

Ralph Raymond's Heir, Or, the Merchant's Crime (Polyglot Press Alger)

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Ralph Raymond's Heir, Or, the Merchant's Crime (Polyglot Press Alger)
Horatio Alger
Manufacturer: Polyglot Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1411500369

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