Now in its 6th year with over 500 participants. This 5-day course gives practical training into exploratory and univariate
analysis of ecological and environmental data.
Statistics course: Analysing Biological and Environmental
Data using Univariate Methods
When and where:
Highland Statistics Ltd. provides statistics courses at
various places in Europe, South-America, Mexico, Africa
and Canada. These courses are especially designed for
biological and environmental scientists.
Monday 3 April until Friday 7 April 2006,
Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Centro de
Informática,
Tapada da Ajuda, Lisboa, Portugal.
The aim of the course is to give the participants sufficient statistical knowledge to apply the appropriate statistical techniques to their data, and give an interpretation of the results. The course provides: (i) a working
knowledge of techniques which are commonly used in
biology, (ii) an introduction to recently developed methods, (iii) a discussion of practical problems and solutions
which cannot be found in standard statistical textbooks,
and (iv) hands-on experience through application of the
techniques on biological data sets, using statistical software on a computer.
Hosted by:
Dr. Maria Teresa Ferreira
Dep. Engenharia Florestal, Instituto Superior de
Agronomia, Univ. Técnica de Lisboa, Tapada da
Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa ([email protected])
and Dr. Henrique Cabral
Instituto de Oceanografia, Faculdade de Ciências
da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande,
1749-016 Lisboa ([email protected])
Highland Statistics LTD. 6 Laverock
road, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire,
AB41 6FN, Scotland, UK.
Tel: +44 (0)1358 788177
Mobile Tel.: +44 (0)7960 053461
URL: www.highstat.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Key techniques:
Generalised additive modelling
(Poisson, binomial)
Generalised linear modelling (Poisson,
binomial)
Linear regression
Transformations (which one and why)
Linear mixed modelling techniques
Generalised least squares
The price for the 5-day statistics course is
as follows: Students: 300 Euros. Nonstudents: 400 Euros. The price includes a 1year Brodgar license (www.brodgar.com)
for each participant and course material.
The price does not include local
accommodation.
See
http://www.brodgar.com/statscourse.htm
for cancellation conditions.
Pre-knowledge required: undergraduate level, basic
statistics (normal distribution, hypothesis testing)
You might well leave this course with a draft paper!
This course contains three modules. The first module consists of essential data exploration
techniques (keywords are outliers and transformations). The second module is univariate analysis.
It includes linear regression (presented as a revision), generalised linear modelling and generalised
additive modelling techniques, generalised least squares and mixed modelling. In the third module,
course attendants will apply some of the methods on case studies and/or their own data sets. The
first two modules also contain various computer exercises.
Graphical exploration of the data. This step is often neglected, yet it is the most crucial part of
a data analysis. It will assist in answering various questions:
Are there outliers?
Which data transformation should be applied?
Are relationships linear?
Are the data normal distributed?
Do we need a standardisation?
Univariate methods (regression, GLM, GAM, regression trees, mixed modelling). An important tool used in statistics is linear regression. Various basic linear regression topics will be
explained from a biological point of view. We will discuss potential problems and show how generalised linear modelling (GLM) can be used to analyse count data or presence-absence data. Sometimes, linear regression and GLM models do not fit the data well enough. In such cases generalised
additive modelling (GAM) can be used. Other useful methods are generalised least squares and
mixed modelling; they can be used for time-series. All methods are explained in a nonmathematical context. The official language of the course is English. Pre-knowledge required:
basic statistics (normal distribution, hypothesis testing, regression).
Course material. The course material is based on: Zuur, AF, Ieno, EN and Smith, GM.
(Forthcoming). The Analysis of Ecological Data. Springer-Verlag. 700 pages. Relevant chapters will
be made available.
Instructors. The course instructors are Dr. Alain F. Zuur and Dr. Elena Ieno. Dr. Zuur has
worked as a statistician for various research institutes in Europe and has been involved in a wide
range of projects related to marine biology, oceanography, chemistry, ecology, fisheries, etc. He
specialises in multivariate analysis, time series analysis, GLM, GAM, regression trees, and mixed
modelling techniques. Dr. Ieno is a marine biologist, who is interested in statistics. She is coauthor of the book “The Analysis of Ecological Data”.
You can bring your own laptop, of you want!
Statistics Course: Analysing Biological and Environmental Data using Univariate Methods
FILL IN AND RETURN FORM TO:
Prof. Maria Teresa Ferreira
Dep. Engª Florestal
Instituto Superior de Agronomia
1349-017 Lisboa Portugal
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Address
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Student
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For more information:
Phone: + 351 213653487
Fax: + 351 213645000
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bank
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Payable to Associação para o Desenvolvimento
do Instituto Superior de Agronomia