Statistical Consulting Center (SCC)

The SCC staff worked with 125 clients in 2004. The School of Medicine was the heaviest user of our services (25% of consulting hours), followed by the College of Science & Mathematics (24%), the College of Nursing and Health (21%), and external clients (9%).

Kettering Medical Center, Huffy Corporation, Wright-Patt Air Force Base, Rogosin Institute, Mercy Medical Center, Montgomery County Children’s Services and Anova Ltd. Are some of the external clients with whom the SCC worked.

The SCC provided presentations to incoming faculty, incoming graduate students, and all Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. students. A presentation was also made at the Thesis and Dissertation Preparation Workshop sponsored by the School of Graduate Studies and the Associate Provost for Research in November, 2004.

The SCC presents a 0.5-credit hour shortcourse entitled “Advanced Statistical Methods for Nursing Research” to graduate students in the College of Nursing and Health twice a year, fall and spring. This course was offered on-line for the first time this year. The SCC also presents a 1.0-credit hour course entitled “Survey of Statistical Methods for Biomedical Sciences Researchers” to the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. students once a year in December. A Continuing Medical Education (CME) course entitled “Practical Statistics Without Tears for the Clinician” was successfully offered for the first time in February, 2004; it was a two-hour course held on each of three consecutive Wednesdays in February, 2004. Finally, a proposed course requirement in biostatistics will be offered in winter quarter, 2005 as a part of the new Master of Public Health (MPH) program.

Some of the major projects that the SCC has been involved in during the past year are given below.

An SCC consultant served on the Laboratory Animal Care and Use Committee, devoting 92 hours to the work of that committee.

The SCC provided numerous data sets (with client permission) to serve as examples and exercises in the new 8th edition of Wayne Daniel’s classic text, “Biostatistics: A Foundation for the Health Sciences” (copyright 2005); as a result, the WSU Statistical Consulting Center is cited numerous times in the book.

An SCC consultant developed, coordinated, and conducted an on-line distance learning shortcourse in statistics for the College of Nursing and Health.

The SCC conducted analyses of eleven surveys over 15 years for the College of Nursing and Health.

The SCC is conducting ongoing analysis for the Urban Literacy Institute carried out through the College of Education and Human Resources.

The SCC is carrying out a model-building project for the Nursing Institute of West Central Ohio in conjunction with the Center for Urban and Public Affairs.

Projects in the SCC often generate methodological and theoretical questions that can lead to research projects for interested statistics research faculty. A binder is kept in the SCC library that contains 60 such “potential research problems.”

The SCC maintains a “jobs folder” which contains recent statistics job opportunities that it, or other statistics faculty, receive. Statistics students are encouraged to peruse this folder when they begin their job search.

In late 2003 the SCC purchased an NCS Pearson opscan reader and software. This was done in response to increasing client needs for customized development of bubble-sheet survey forms, scanning of such forms, and data base construction from the opscan forms. The SCC statistical services specialist has trained in the use of this software and hardware in preparation for a large College of Nursing and Health survey.

The SCC has been engaged in the life of the University through a variety of venues. At the annual “Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work” Day (April, 2004), the SCC held a workshop session for 19 kids engaging them in creating a probability distribution and in predicting their adult stature. Also, at the new graduate student orientation session (November, 2004), the SCC had an informational table.

Institute for Environmental Quality (IEQ)

Allen Burton presented keynote lectures at international meetings of environmental toxicology in Mexico and Brazil.

Allen Burton presented a Short Course on Field-Based Exposure & Effects Measures. Freshwater In situ methods. World Congress of the Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry. Portland, OR. November 2004.

Allen Burton presented a short course on Sediment Ecotoxicology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal in May, 2004.

Allen Burton finalized the CD promoting graduate programs in Environmental Sciences.

Allen Burton, Co-Chair, In Situ-Based Effects Measures: Linking Responses to Ecological Consequences in Aquatic Ecosystems. SETAC Technical Workshop. Portland, OR. November 2004.

Allen Burton, Review Panels. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Office of Research and Development. STAR Research Grants. Entomology. Feb. 2004 and Ecological Risk Assessment. Feb. 2004.

Allen Burton, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STAR Grant Program. Defining and Predicting PCB Fluxes and Their Ecological Effects in River Systems for Risk Characterizations. Jan 2005-December 2007. $325,000.

Allen Burton, Newly funded grants totaling $610,832.

Allen Burton, Five Peer-reviewed papers, four in press.

Allen Burton, Four Book Chapters, two in press.

Hunt Brown taught a course, Impact of Tourism on the Environment, in Alicante, Spain during the Summer of 2004.

Hunt Brown served as President of Gamma Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars.

Marc Greenberg (Former PhD Student and on a WSU Interagency Personnel Agreement) selected for Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry’s Roy F. Weston Environmental Chemist Award.