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The Project:
Remember that the project is in two parts: Part A is graphical
awareness and requires you to find and comment on graphics from
various sources. For details of what you need to do, refer to the
original sheet describing assessment for the course. If you are in
STAT3011 you must hand in and comment on 3 graphics. If you are
in STAT7026/STAT4026, you must hand in and comment on 5 graphics.
Part B is graphical analysis, and requires you to carry out an analysis
as described below:
You should select one of the two data sets described below, define a
substantive problem of interest to you and then attempt to produce a
substantially graphical analysis of the data. The data sets have been
selected for their complexity and the fact that they are not
necessarily readily amenable to standard analyses.
There is no “right answer” to any question you formulate but there are
certainly good answers and unhelpful ones. I have not analysed these
data sets so can only be of limited assistance to you. It is intended
that you should do this work substantially on your own. Of course, I
will do my best to help with technical questions but persistent seeking
of assistance will count against you. ALSO, YOU MAY NOT DISCUSS THE PROJECT
WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OR ANYBODY ELSE!! This requirement is
serious, and evidence of plagiarism will result in you FAILING the course.
PLEASE, play by the rules.
As always, you should attempt to reduce data to a succinct written
report and a small number of informative graphics. The written part of
the report should be no longer than 4-5 pages in length. You should
begin with a clear statement of which data set you are analysing and
what problem you are trying solve in your analysis. You should then
describe the various steps in your analysis, why you have done what you
have done, your reactions to each step and any interesting comments on
the data. Finally, there should be a brief conclusion in which you
explain what you have found. You should restrict the number of
graphics you present though of course, you may describe graphics you
have constructed but not actually presented. For Part B, the total report must
be no more than 8 pages. If you choose Option 2 (insurance data set) below, the 8 pages
includes any maps you might display, so 8 pages is a hard limit. Pages beyond the 8th will
not be read.
The 8 page limit applies only to Part B.
There is no page limit for Part A, but I would expect about 3 or 5 pages (depending on
which course code you are in, about one for each graphic).
Please don’t go crazy and hand in 20 pages for Part A – 3-5ish is fine.
Marks are available for flair, creativity and those difficult to define
aspects of the project.
Select ONE of the two data sets described below
(NOTE: The project data is in the following R objects in the class data: otter (Option
1); and insure (Option 2))
Project Option 1: Social Grooming in North American River Otters
As part of a large study on the social behaviour of Lutra canadensis,
data on the grooming behaviour of five groups of captive otters was
obtained. It is generally believed that grooming is the social cement
of animal groups and plays an important role in bonding.
The questions of interest include:
1) Do animals within a group groom equally or are some groomed more
than they groom others?
2) In multi-member groups (A and H) do individuals exhibit preferences
in who they groom?
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3) Do females groom males more than males groom females?
4) Do grooming rates change in the breeding season?
The data provided identifies the group, whether the season is breeding
(B) or not (N), the time in minutes of observation, the animals involved
and the frequency of grooming. The groups are
A: F1 (adult female) M2, M3, M4 (adult males)
B: F7 (adult female) M8 (adult male)
C: F9 (adult female) M15 (adult male)
D: F5 (adult female) M6 (adult male) siblings
H: F21 (subadult female) F22(young adult female)
M23 (subadult male) M24 (young adult male)
The data is in a list called otter. Each component is a vector of
length 394. $group is the group, $season is the season, $time is the
time observed in minutes (it is the length of time the groups are watched, NOT the length
of time they spend grooming), $groomer is the groomer, $groomee is the groomee and
$frequency is the frequency of grooming (number of grooms observed).
Project Option 2: Insurance availability in Chicago
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights collected data in an attempt to
examine charges that insurance companies were “redlining” certain
neighbourhoods. i.e. cancelling and/or refusing to renew policies.
The data provided include the number of cancellations, nonrenewals, new
policies and renewals of home and fire policies for each neighbourhood
by zip code for the months December 1977 – February 1978. This
information is combined into a single variable denoted Voluntary market
activity which is the number of new policies and renewals minus the
number of cancellations and nonrenewals expressed per 100 housing
units. In addition, information on the number of FAIR plan policies
was obtained. These policies are obtained after applicants have been
rejected for other policies so this information also reflects the
availability of policies. This information is provided as the
involuntary market activity, the number of FAIR plan policies and
renewals per 100 housing units. In addition, the Chicago Police
provided theft data and the Fire Department provided fire data from
1975 for each neighbourhood. These data are the number of incidents
per 1000 housing units in 1975. (The insurance companies claim to use
a three year lag on crime data when they set their premiums.) Finally,
the Census Bureau provide data on the racial composition (in per cent
minority), income and the age of housing units. The income is the
median family income and the age is coded as the percentage of units
built in or before 1939.
The objectives of the study are to explore the extent to which racial
composition and age of housing affect underwriting practices after
controlling for factors like fire and theft.
The data is provided in a 47×8 data matrix called insure. A map of the
neighbourhoods with their zip codes is available as a pdf file.
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