Statistics

Joint postdoc program develops from partnership between Statistics Department, Inova Health

Teresa Donnellan — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 18:42:25 +0000

Joint postdoc program develops from partnership between Statistics Department, Inova Health Teresa Donnellan Thu, 09/28/2023 - 14:42

In This Story

Jiayang Sun

A partnership between ��AV’s Statistics Department and Inova Health Care Services has entered its fifth year and continues to grow. The partnership has motivated a new initiative: a postdoc program for Inova researchers interested in developing skills in statistics and data science, run jointly by George Mason’s statistics and global and community health departments. Mohamad Bahij Moumneh, MD, and Jason F. Goldberg, MD, are the program’s standing inaugural members.

“As a fresh Lebanese medical graduate interested in expanding his acquired skills in the field of research, especially cardiology, and academia, the joint program provided me with this golden opportunity,” said Moumneh. He added, “By maximizing the resources of each institute, enhancements in the overall picture and quality of research and healthcare education occur, and allow both institutions to keep, if not exceed, pace with novel technologies and healthcare advancements and institutions.”

The partnership between Mason Statistics and Inova Health was supported by a contract between the university and the healthcare system via a parent award from NIH to the iTHRIV partnership. It supported the experts in George Mason’s Statistics Collaboration Core (SCC) to work with colleagues from Inova Health Care Services on research projects involving statistics or data science. To initialize each new project, INOVA researchers visit statinova.gmu.edu.

“The Statistics Collaboration Core (SCC) is a collaboration platform that supports and facilitates statistical collaborations with internal and external investigators or seekers for evidenced-based research, or statistical, biostatistical, or data science support to decision-making,” explained Jiayang Sun of Mason’s statistics department. Sun is a Principal Investigator on the new grant establishing the postdoc program, alongside co-PI Carolyn Drews-Botsch, the chair of the department of global and community health in Mason’s School of Public Health.

“The partnership between Inova and Mason will help with our research efforts aimed at prolonging life after heart transplantation,” said Goldberg. He noted that, for his case, SCC has provided advanced analysis of mircoRNA clinical rejection scores and has used machine learning to evaluate risk modeling of adverse outcomes within the first year of heart transplantation.

“These collaborations will continue to produce meaningful cardiovascular research,” he said.

Of the five-year partnership between Mason Statistics and Inova Health, Sun noted the relationship has been fruitful, producing additional grants, publications in the health and medical sector, and new grant proposals. She added that it serves as a welcome opportunity for both tenure track and term faculty to perform original research and collaborate with colleagues dealing with real-world problems. Research projects from the partnership have covered such important topics as opioid use, sepsis, heart failure, and—before there were reliable tests—the spread of COVID-19 among children in northern Virginia.

Sun, Moumneh, and Goldberg are likewise optimistic about the new joint postdoc program.

“Researchers can collaborate on various projects that eventually might lead to medical breakthroughs. One could say that the joint program fosters an environment of innovation and growth. The joint program also allows the addressing of pressing healthcare dilemmas, an event that might encourage students to think of possible solutions and managements,” said Moumneh.

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Statistics

Inova

Department of Statistics

College of Public Health

College of Engineering and Computing

School of Computing

Community Partners

Students

Off the Clock: Kenneth Strazzeri, a duathlete who bikes to work

Lauren Reuscher — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:04:51 +0000

Off the Clock: Kenneth Strazzeri, a duathlete who bikes to work Lauren Reuscher Wed, 06/14/2023 - 11:04

In This Story

Kenneth Strazzeri

Life is much more than time spent on the clock. In this series, we highlight the unique hobbies and volunteer activities of Mason's talented faculty and staff.

Kenneth Strazzeri rides his bike on the Fairfax Campus on Bike to Mason Day. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

As term associate professor of statistics, course coordinator for STAT 250 (the quantitative reasoning course in the Mason Core), and academic advisor, Kenneth Strazzeri stays busy teaching about 300 students each semester. He teaches courses both in-person and online and has worked at ��AV since January 2012.

Beyond his passion for teaching, Strazzeri discovered two new interests in recent years: running and biking. He has competed in duathlons (run-bike-runs) and even won two.

This hobby is now his major mode of transportation, as well: commuting to Mason by bike has offered Strazzeri motivation and an opportunity to improve as an athlete.

How did you first get started with running and biking?

I began biking regularly during the pandemic as a way to socialize and interact with friends safely outdoors. In addition, the City of Fairfax ran a pandemic promotion at many local businesses, and I purchased my first pair of running shoes for 50% off through a gift card. I decided to start running as well.

After about nine months of training, I competed in my first duathlon. A sprint duathlon includes a 5K run, a 20–25K bike ride, and another 5K run. I have competed in six duathlons since fall 2021, as well as several road running races.

How did you decide to bike to work? Do you take advantage of any of Mason's biking resources/programs?

Once my children graduated from Mason's Child Development Center, I decided to cancel my parking pass and ride my bike to work (since I did not need to drop off my child). I was now in far better physical shape and felt like it was a great way to get outside every day and save gas and the money I paid for parking. Once I discovered Mason's Bicycle Commuter Choice program where I would get paid to ride to work, I was hooked.

How far is your commute? What do you do on bad weather days?

I am lucky that my commute is just under two miles, and on a good day, I can get to my office faster than I could driving (six minutes is my record). Bad weather days can be accommodated with the parking passes you earn from the Bike Commuter Choice program. I have enough warm wear to handle the cold for my short ride; however, there were very few days with temperatures below freezing this past winter.

Strazzeri wins first place at a sprint duathlon in Richmond, Virginia, in May 2023. Photo by California Triathlon

What has been the most meaningful or memorable experience you’ve had in this hobby?

Personally, I am accomplishing things that I thought I might not be able to do. It has kept me young, physically fit, and healthy.

With my family, I am far more able to keep up with my kids. We can take bike rides together or I can run next to them when they ride.

Lastly, I have met some wonderful people in the biking and running community, including our amazing bike transportation staff at Mason. Find me on Strava (an exercise tracking app) or even better, let's meet up for a ride. I would love to meet and ride with other Mason community members.

What lessons have you learned through this experience?

If I can do it, anyone can do it. It cannot be a fad, but a lifestyle change. For those who think you do not have the time, an evening ride around the Mason loop is quite enjoyable and very well lit. A sunrise run around Burke Lake is also a lovely experience. Whether you like running, riding, or any other physical exercise, do it for yourself, but also for your family and loved ones.

Any safety tips for cyclists and drivers out there?

Bike riders, wear bright colored clothes, and be safe while riding with cars around. Mason's loop does have bike lanes, but I do wish all drivers would stay out of them. Also, drivers, please use turn signals.

Learn more about biking resources at ��AV, including the Bicycle Commuter Choice program, bicycle/scooter registration, Patriot Bicycle Checkout Program, and more. Check out this video featuring members of the Mason community who bike to campus.

Topics

Off the Clock

Faculty and Staff News

Bicycling

Parking and Transportation

Transportation

Statistics

School of Computing

College of Engineering and Computing

Statistics student wins COVES Fellowship

Rena Malai — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 16:29:52 +0000

Statistics student wins COVES Fellowship Rena Malai Mon, 04/17/2023 - 12:29

It will be an exciting summer for ��AV PhD student Zhenyi Huang.

As a Commonwealth of Virginia Engineering and Science (COVES) Fellowship winner, he’ll begin to embark on his career path in May as he helps to foster relationships between the engineering and science community, and the Virginia state government.

“I think this will be a very valuable experience for me, and a great opportunity,” said Huang, who is studying statistics.

The 12-week program offers Huang a stipend of around $14,000 and aims to strengthen ties between the scientific community and state government in the Commonwealth of Virginia, while encouraging and equipping more scientists and engineers to be effective advisors for public policy in the state of Virginia.

Huang was inspired by last year’s COVES winner who he shared some things in common with – basketball and being of Chinese descent. As he developed the connection, Huang asked his new friend questions about the fellowship process, which he said helped him with the application.

“I asked him a lot of questions about requirements, what kind of material I should prepare, what the application process is like. I learned a lot from him about all the points I needed to take care of,” said Huang.

With encouragement from his academic advisors, Huang decided to apply.

“I never thought to make the connection between science and engineering and politics. It’s a unique opportunity and will be a strong point on my resume,” he said.

Huang said he was drawn to studying statistics at George Mason because of the strong faculty and programs offered. His advice to future COVES Fellowship potential applicants is to collect any information online and ask as many questions as possible. It’s a method that helped him tremendously.

“Never be afraid to ask questions!” he said.

To return the favor, Huang is happy to answer questions for anyone interested in the fellowship. He can be reached at zhuang6@gmu.edu

The COVES Fellowship is offered through the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine to graduate students and postdoctorals. Selected participants are placed in legislative, executive agency, or policy offices within a Virginia company or nonprofit.

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Mason Pond’s first weather station is the canary in the coal mine

Rena Malai — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 17:46:50 +0000

Mason Pond’s first weather station is the canary in the coal mine Rena Malai Fri, 03/31/2023 - 13:46

In This Story

David Kepplinger

Just like miners used to bring canaries with them deep underground to detect danger early on, cherry trees – like the ones at ��AV’s Fairfax campus – offer a similar advanced warning when it comes to the atmosphere.

Bloom date records of cherry trees go back over a thousand years, with the earliest recordings linked to ancient cherry blossom festivals in Japan. More recently, bloom dates have taken on another purpose. Because of their temperature sensitivity, cherry trees’ flowering times have been noted as good indicators of a changing climate.

Biostatistics graduate student Jamie C. Roth.
Photo courtesy of Roth.

Biostatistics graduate student Jamie C. Roth wanted to apply this rich knowledge to the cherry trees that surround Mason Pond. She spearheaded a project to have the first weather station installed near the pond, which will monitor the atmosphere around the cherry trees and produce helpful data.

“The cherry blossoms show climate change better than any other plant,” said Roth. “I wanted to look at our own cherry trees and raise awareness of climate change.”

The weather station will be a permanent fixture and will measure components like sunlight, temperature, rainfall, humidity, and wind speed and direction. The data is then transmitted to a tablet that is currently housed in the Statistics department.

Although the team is working out the initial quirks of getting the system up and running, in time, Roth sees the weather station as a useful climate reporting tool for students to use in years to come.

“I’m excited for the future and to see how students get involved in climate change on campus,” said Roth.

Department of Statistics Assistant Professors David Kepplinger and Jonathan Auerbach supervised the project, along with College of Science Assistant Professor Daniel Hanley, in biology. Sarah D'Alexander from University Sustainability and Nick Valadez from the facilities department were instrumental in getting the weather station installed and running.

Topics

Early spring toys with second annual Cherry Blossom Prediction  Competition

Rena Malai — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 15:54:53 +0000

Early spring toys with second annual Cherry Blossom Prediction  Competition   Rena Malai Thu, 03/09/2023 - 10:54

In This Story

David Kepplinger

Unseasonably warm temperatures in the Northern Virginia area this spring have turned blooming dates upside down, and the beloved cherry blossoms are no exception. 

Last year, students at ��AV joined contestants from around the world to predict the peak bloom date of cherry trees at four global locations—Washington, D.C.; Kyoto, Japan; Liestal-Weideli, Switzerland; and Vancouver, BC, Canada. The international Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition was a huge success and is gaining traction during its second annual run. 

The competition is organized by Mason statistics professors Jonathan Auerbach and David Kepplinger, and Elizabeth Wolkovich from the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia.  

“We’re interested to see how the competition plays out this year,” Kepplinger says. “It’s a great way for our students to get involved in something that’s so interesting to many people. Who doesn’t love the cherry blossoms?” 

Because of the warm temperatures this year, contestants predict the Washington cherry trees will reach peak bloom on March 28 on average, a week earlier than the historic average.

“If you have warm temperatures followed by a cold blast, it can really affect the bloom date,” Auerbach says. “Usually in the D.C. area, peak bloom occurs in early April. But some trees in the Tidal Basin and here at Mason Pond already show signs that flowering is imminent so we’ll have to see.” 

Mason statistics students Sara Alhassani and D.J. Grant provided the closest predictions last year, and Auerbach sees many competitive entries from Mason students again this year. Contestants use a variety of measures like examining weather patterns, soil moisture, past bloom rates, and area rainfall to get the best estimate of peak bloom dates.   

The 2022 peak bloom date in Washington was March 21, and the earliest peak bloom date on record is March 15, 1990.

Competition winners will be announced in May and are eligible for up to $5,000 in cash and prizes.

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Mason cherry blossom predictions play up statistics

Rena Malai — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 19:13:49 +0000

Mason cherry blossom predictions play up statistics Rena Malai Wed, 03/30/2022 - 15:13

In This Story

David Kepplinger

Every spring, thousands flock to the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C . to witness the annual occurrence of cherry blossoms blooming. The peak bloom period sparks a variety of parades, events, and the first ever Cherry Blossom Prediction competition, hosted by ��AV.

The competition was organized by Mason Department of Statistics professors Jonathan Auerbach and David Kepplinger, along with Elizabeth Wolkovich from the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia.

According to Auerbach, it’s the first year students have participated in this kind of international prediction competition, which is open to everyone whether or not they are a student. Participants submit their predictions for each location along with a narrative of how they came to their guesses. Each submission is then assessed by a panel of international judges from statistics, biology, and ecology backgrounds.

“The cherry blossoms signify a special time of year, and they’re fleeting,” says Auerbach. “Statistics can be dry, so it’s great for our students to participate in a competition like this. The cherry trees hold much appeal, both scientifically and for a diverse student body.”

Historic data on peak bloom dates served as a starting point. Students then considered anything and everything that could affect blooming times, like extreme weather, soil, rain fall, and average blooming time over the last few years, etc. and used tools like machine learning to analyze bloom timings.

The 2022 peak cherry blossom bloom date in Washington was March 21. The predictions from undergraduate student Sara Alhassani and graduate student Douglas Nedza came closest, with Alhassani zeroing in on March 23 and Nedza at March 20.

Nedza currently uses machine learning to study climate variability, and he saw the competition as a way to put his skills and knowledge to the test. He selected a variety of predictors on spring variability, like temperatures up to the end of February and temperature trends over the last 60 years.

“The machine learning algorithm is given these predictors with corresponding cherry blossom date observations, and attempts to produce the best prediction model was based on the provided data,” he says. 

The winner is eligible for up to $5,000 in cash and prizes. Those who missed the competition this year can check out the 2022 entries, and participate next year.

Topics

Statistics

plants

College of Engineering and Computing

Faculty member evaluates efficacy of 2020 U.S. Census

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 15:53:32 +0000

Faculty member evaluates efficacy of 2020 U.S. Census Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/26/2021 - 11:53

In This Story

Jonathan L. Auerbach

Today, we count on data and data-based systems in our daily lives. The United States census is the backbone of most of these data sets that we rely on, so it is important to ensure its accuracy.

Jonathan Auerbach joined the Department of Statistics at Mason in August, 2021. Photo provided

The American Statistical Association (ASA) Census Quality Indicators Taskforce selected assistant professor of statistics Jonathan Auerbach to independently review the 2020 census as part of a three-person research team. The team released their findings in September.

In 2020, the pandemic, accusations of political interference, and many other factors created doubt that the census wouldn’t be accurate, says Auerbach.

Traditionally, the ASA and the statistics community spend the ten years between censuses looking over the data and offering improvements for the next census. However, because of the efficacy questions of the 2020 census, Auerbach’s research team investigated it in half a year.

“The ASA has historically been involved in advocating for the best census since 1840, right before the Civil War, which was a very formative census, and it became highly politicized. And partially because of that, the ASA as we know it today was born,” says Auerbach.

Auerbach was one of three researchers on the independent review team. He and his fellow researchers, including Paul Biemer and Joseph Salvo, had access to all census data to see how it was collected and what errors could have been introduced.

“Our major finding is what we didn’t find. We didn’t find evidence of malfeasance or politicking or any direct evidence of wrongdoing. However, we did find that largely because of the pandemic, the ways people were counted were of higher risk than previous censuses,” says Auerbach.

For example, in the 2010 census, if someone hadn’t reported their household information, the U.S. Census Bureau would send a worker to follow up. In 2020, because of COVID-19, that was not always a safe option. Instead, the Census Bureau relied more heavily on administrative records, like tax documents. “These practices could lead to more errors than the methods used in the 2010 census,” he says.

Reporting college students was another area they noticed might lead to some potential errors. “Typically, colleges will report the number of students in dorms to the census bureau, but since many students left their dorms halfway through the semester, it was unclear whether students were counted properly.”

Auerbach says that he and the research team found no evidence suggesting the 2020 Census is unreliable despite riskier counting methods. Another group at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which includes other ASA members, will continue to help the Census Bureau improve the census and process the data, but Auerbach’s work is finished for now.

“Our census is a historical document. We really don’t have too many of them in our lifetime, so it was very rewarding to be a part of it,” he says.

Topics

Department of Statistics

Statistics

CEC faculty research

Mason Statistics welcomes eight new faculty

Martha Bushong — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 13:30:33 +0000

Mason Statistics welcomes eight new faculty Martha Bushong Tue, 10/26/2021 - 09:30

In This Story

A great university is a machine of innovation. ��AV's Department of Statistics at the new School of Computing welcomed new and returning faculty and students in August 2021. With highly anticipated 5-minute fever talks, eight new faculty hired during the pandemic (arriving during fall 2020 and fall 2021) showcased their diversified expertise. Current faculty also contributed to the talks. The School of Computing is part of Mason's College of Engineering and Computing. “The research portfolios of these new faculty members are eye-catching, representing wide-ranging important fields in modern statistics and data science,” says Jiayang Sun, department chair.

The department is poised for major growth with new leadership, new hires, and new alliances. These include not only the regular statistics hires (at least four for fall 2022, see jobs.gmu.edu), but also the Tech Talent Investment Pipeline, a cluster hire in Computational Systems Biomedicine, potential joint positions with other departments, and organizational collaborations.

One of the organizational collaborations is the GMU Stat – InovaHealth Collaboration, among others. Inova Health is one of the leading hospital systems in the nation. The GMU-Inova alliance not only supports and encourages collaborative research but also helps young faculty establish a strong, versatile research portfolio. As one of the newest faculty members, David Kepplinger, said, “the research culture at Mason and the statistics department, in particular, is built around the idea of collaboration.” He continues: “Everyone is open to share ideas and join forces. There are many opportunities around campus and in the D.C. area to work with experts from diverse fields and translate our statistical research into practice, leveraging our expertise in methodology, theory, and computation, to open the doors for impactful scientific discoveries.”

New faculty, listed in chronological order of their arrival at Mason, are:

Ben Seiyon Lee, assistant professor. Lee received his PhD from Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include computational methods for modeling high-dimensional spatial-temporal data; statistical methods and algorithms for calibrating complex computer models; and interdisciplinary research in the environmental sciences. Lee's most exciting project is calibrating a hydrological computer model on flash floods and inland flooding in central Pennsylvania. The goal is to understand how global warming affects the severity of inland floods and how those projections affect flood zones and insurance. He is involved with the Inova Health project.

David Kepplinger, assistant professor. Kepplinger received his PhD in Statistics from the University of British Columbia, and he is part of the Inova Health collaboration. His research primarily revolves around robust estimation in high-dimensional settings and applications in the life sciences. Kepplinger is particularly interested in the robustness of feature selection in the presence of arbitrary contamination as well as countering the effects of contamination on predictive models.

Jonathan Auerbach, assistant professor. Auerbach received his PhD in Statistics from Columbia University. His research covers a wide range of topics at the intersection of statistics and public policy. He has measured selection bias in mortality studies, traffic safety studies, and assessed the quality of the 2020 census during his stint as a science policy fellow at the American Statistical Association. His work also investigates urban myths. He has broad methodological interests in the analysis of longitudinal data, particularly for data science and causal inference. His policy interests include urban analytics, open data, and the collection, evaluation, and communication of official statistics. Auerbach was also a researcher at the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York, and an analyst for New York City’s legislature, and the City Council.

Lily Wang, professor. Wang received her PhD in Statistics from Michigan State University. Her research interests include nonparametric statistics, semiparametric statistics, large and complex data sets and high-dimensional data, and official statistics. The methods she developed have a wide application in economics, engineering, neuroimaging, epidemiology, environmental studies, official statistics, and biomedical science. Prior to joining Mason, she was on the faculty of Iowa State University and the University of Georgia. Wang is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute (2008), a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (2020), and a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (2021).

Mary Meyer, visiting professor, is on sabbatical leave from Colorado State University. Meyer received her PhD in Statistics from the University of Michigan. Her research is in nonparametric function estimation with shape constraints, quite well-known in her field of expertise for both methodological and computational contributions. She is the author SIAM textbook on Probability and Mathematical Statistics: Theory, Applications, and Practice in R (2019). She spent nine years at the University of Georgia Statistics Department before joining Colorado State University. She plays the piano beautifully.

Isuru Dassanayake, assistant professor (teaching). Dassanayake received his PhD in Mathematics majoring in Statistics and a Master of Science in Statistics from Texas Tech University. Although his position is focused on teaching, his research interests have included machine learning, statistical computing, heteroscedastic mixed-effects models, spatial data analysis, Bayesian Statistics, and high dimensional data analysis. His dissertation focused on exploring social and economic predictors for U.S. government elections using advanced statistical modeling and machine learning techniques. He is one of the examples in which our term teaching faculty also conduct research. He will play a major role in our mission of providing excellent statistics education to our students at all levels.

Kenneth Pasiah, assistant professor (teaching). Pasiah received his PhD in Applied Statistics from the University of Memphis. His research interests include random number generation and applied statistics. His most exciting research project was the study of large-order multiple recursive generators (MRGs). The goal of this project was to create an efficient method to accelerate the computer search of large-order MRGs. At Mason, his primary role will be to further develop the department’s undergraduate curriculum and engage in outreach to underserved communities and high-school students.

Inchi Hu, professor. Hu earned his PhD in statistics from Stanford University. Prior to his current appointment, he was a faculty member at the University of Maryland College Park, the University of Pennsylvania, and a chair professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His current research interest explores the interface between statistics and machine learning such as stochastic approximation versus reinforcement learning and empirical Bayes versus variational autoencoder, etc. At Mason, he also assists with data science-economics initiatives and serves on the department’s research task force.

The Department of Statistics faculty members are internationally recognized experts whose research affects healthcare, economics, technology, clinical trials, and public policy. They are leaders in their statistical fields, and their work is published in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals. The department faculty expertise can be found here. We are looking forward to its continuous growth and development in both research and educational programs.

Topics

Statistics

Mason statistics researchers help plan and analyze a study on COVID-19 prevalence in children in Northern Virginia

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 19:00:11 +0000

Mason statistics researchers help plan and analyze a study on COVID-19 prevalence in children in Northern Virginia Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/24/2021 - 15:00

In This Story

Jiayang Sun

Brett Hunter

Scott Bruce

Inova Children’s Hospital, the Virginia Department of Health, and the College of Engineering and Computing joined forces last summer to conduct a COVID-19 antibody study to analyze the incidence of COVID-19 in Northern Virginia’s children.

The overall antibody positive rate in children was 8.5 percent.

Mason’s Department of Statistics experts collaborated in the design of the testing protocol. They also helped analyze the data to determine how many children have had COVID-19.

This was a public service project, says Jiayang Sun, chair of the Department of Statistics and the Bernard J. Dunn Eminent Scholar. “It is an excellent, comprehensive study that considered multiple factors to systematically assess the seroprevalence in the diverse population of the area’s children. I am pleased with the quality of data and that our statisticians were involved, early, starting in the design stage of a study versus those only after the data had been collected.”

Scott Bruce, an assistant professor of statistics, says, “The timely and valuable findings from this project are due to the outstanding partnership among the healthcare professionals, government agencies, and statistics researchers involved in this project. More efforts like this are needed to produce high-quality data and analysis that will continue to build our understanding of this disease and inform strategies for mitigating the risk of infection among children and between children and adults.”

“We considered multiple factors, including age, living conditions, types of antibody tests, the CDC’s recommendation on orthogonal testing, and the data collection sites, which are correlated with population characteristics,” says Brett Hunter, Mason’s principal investigator for this project and associate chair of the Department of Statistics.

The analysis of blood samples from more than 1,000 children, ages 0 to 19, found:

COVID-19 antibodies were found in 8.2 percent of white children, 5.2 percent of black children, 5.7 percent of Asian children, and 16.2 percent of children with multiple racial origins.
Children identified as Hispanic ethnicity had a 26.6 percent rate of antibody positivity.
The rate was 13.7 percent in young children (0-5 years), 7.5 percent in school-age (6-10 years), 5.1 percent in early adolescents (11-15 years), and 10.8 percent in older adolescents (16-19 years).
The majority (66 percent) of children who had antibodies had no history of symptoms of COVID-19 infection, which highlights the silent or asymptomatic infection in children, and the subsequent risk of transmission of infection to others.

When compared to an adult serology study in Virginia, which reported a COVID-19 antibody positivity rate of 4.4 percent, the pediatric positive rate is nearly double.

“The pediatric serology project unexpectedly found more children were seropositive than we had anticipated,” says Rebecca Levorson, division director for pediatric infectious diseases, Inova Children’s Hospital. “Most of these children did not have symptoms, which makes it difficult to know who may be infectious and who is not at a specific time.”

“Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population is children, and as they may represent a larger proportion of SARS-CoV-2 disease than we previously thought, we need to recognize that children will continue to be infected with and possibly asymptomatically spread this disease. As we continue to fight this pandemic, we need to consider ways to protect them and others by using the tools we have available to us, including masking, social distancing, and vaccination.”

The project is an example of new grants/projects that can be generated from a collaborative contract/award between the Department of Statistics and the Inova Health System. The contract is based on a parent UL1 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Transitional Sciences Award (CTSA) to develop new research to improve the health of individuals and the public.

Researchers in the statistics department also worked on several other COVID-related studies, Sun says. The researchers want to provide good data that can be used for the public good, as the theme of 2020 Joint Statistical Meetings advocated.

More information about this pediatric serology project can be found at https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.28.21250466v1

Topics

Statistics

Department of Statistics

Inova

coronavirus; covid-19

CEC faculty research

Statistics seniors receive award at American Statistical Association national data challenge

Martha Bushong — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 12:09:10 +0000

Statistics seniors receive award at American Statistical Association national data challenge Martha Bushong Thu, 01/21/2021 - 07:09

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Volgenau School of Engineering

Four seniors majoring in statistics––Emily Litzenberg, Kate Lang, Nate Mulugeta, and Shannon Connor––received an honorable mention for the best use of external data at the American Statistical Association’s (ASA) Fall Data Challenge 2020.

For the national competition, called Get Out the Vote, teams of high school and undergraduate students submitted their recommendations on how to increase voter turnout using voting behavior data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. High school and undergraduate students were judged separately.

Mason’s team looked at the data from 2000 to 2016 to see if there was an increase in registered voters who didn’t vote because they didn’t like either candidate in the presidential race. “We found there was a rise in people who didn’t vote over the years because of dislike for the candidates,” Connor says.

The group was then tasked with coming up with a way to improve voter turnout, and they suggested ranked-choice voting in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots, she says.

Connor says the project gave the students a chance to work closely on a statistical analysis. “I learned a lot about how to go from start to finish with a statistical group project.”

Elizabeth Johnson, an associate professor of statistics and the group’s sponsor, says, “This national competition allows students to work in teams to investigate current issues using real data, They experience the whole research process of creating a research question before collecting, analyzing, and reporting on data. I am very proud of their accomplishment in a very competitive field."

Four senior students from the Department of Statistics received an honorable mention for the best use of external data at the American Statistical Association’s (ASA) Fall Data Challenge 2020. Pictured from the left are Shannon Connor, Nate Mulugeta, and Emily Litzenberg. Kate Lang is not pictured.

Photo credit:

Photos provided

Statistics

Joint postdoc program develops from partnership between Statistics Department, Inova Health

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Off the Clock: Kenneth Strazzeri, a duathlete who bikes to work

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Faculty member evaluates efficacy of 2020 U.S. Census

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Mason Statistics welcomes eight new faculty

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Mason statistics researchers help plan and analyze a study on COVID-19 prevalence in children in Northern Virginia

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Statistics seniors receive award at American Statistical Association national data challenge

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Early spring toys with second annual Cherry Blossom Prediction  Competition