statistical society of australia incorporated newsletter February 2004 Number 106 Registered by Australia Post Publication No. NBH3503 issn 0314-6820 Inaugural Queensland Statistics Conference The inaugural Queensland Statistics same dataset throughout the session. Conference took place from 1-3 October Procedures for modelling with the 2003. The 2nd of October saw the first data were covered, followed by useful day of proceedings, and was a cold and approaches for plotting the main effects blustery day. However, the welcome by and interactions of the models. Lastly, conference organisers in the tea room of Ross demonstrated code to examine the the University of Southern Queensland validity of any models derived, and the Department of Mathematics and significance of any random and fixed Computing was warm enough for effects terms in the model. the coldest of climates. With tea and Peter Baker discussed the value of the coffee being served during registration, R packages, Emacks Speaks Statistics conversation centred on the R workshop (ESS), Bioconductor, BugsR and bqtl/qtl. jointly presented by John Maindonald Each package has its own utility. ESS is (ANU), Ross Darnell (UQ), Peter Baker designed to improve the user interface (CSIRO) and Peter Dunn (USQ) the of S and R. Bioconductor is a work in previous day. A rousing success by the progress of an open source software sounds of it, I was disappointed I was package for the analysis of genomic unable to attend. data. BugsR (bugs.R) is a package to use Attendees were taken through an WinBugs in R, though it is not available introduction to R with John Maindonald, at CRAN. The last two packages bqtl starting by familiarising themselves and qtl are used in analysis of data from with the R environment, inputting data studies in population genetics. and basic plotting methods among The last session of the day was other things. Things moved pretty presented by Peter Dunn on “Sweave” quickly and soon complicated plotting which is a framework for mixing R techniques that get the most out of and LATEX. This allows graphics and the graphical capabilities in R were models produced in R to be used as demonstrated. embedded code in LATEX documents. Ross Darnell led the second session of This enables graphics to be updated the workshop, this one on Non-Linear very easily within these documents Mixed Models in R. The focus of the without the need to reproduce and then session was the “lme” package in R, insert graphics. designed specifically for this type of Dr Baker solves the problem of arriving Many of the presentations given modelling. Attendees looked at the late to meetings on Thursday, the first official day of proceedings, examined various statistical applications to the natural In this issue sciences, including ecology, agriculture and medical studies. Alex Creagh President’s Corner ..........................3 ISI 2005 ........................................14 from Griffith University discussed the Letters to the Editor .......................5 BioinfoSummer ............................17 applicability of case control designs Editorial ...........................................6 Branch Reports ............................18 to the study of natural disturbance Section News ................................11 Conferences ..................................24 events in rainforest ecosystems. There 2003 Ken Foreman Lecture .........13 Report on Biometrics 2003 .........26 were also several presentations on novel statistical methods and efforts to Inaugural Queensland Statistics Conference Continued improve established techniques, such Friday saw many more presentations of the conference, a prize of $250 from as the presentation by Olena Kravchuk from students, researchers and the Queensland branch of the SSAI from the University of Queensland on a applied statisticians including the and a $50 book voucher from Pearson new rank test of location equivalent to two invited speakers Bob Murison Education to the runner up. Ben the Wilcoxon two sample test, suitable and John Maindonald. Bob Murison Stewart-Koster from Griffith University for the hyperbolic secant distribution. from the University of New England won the $250 for his presentation on Also included in Thursday’s also discussed SAMM and ASREML, “Statistical modelling and the problem programme were presentations by identifying examples where this S- of scale in ecology” and Rodney Ellis invited speakers Dave Butler and Plus module is most valuable. John from the University of Queensland won Kerrie Mengerson. Dave demonstrated Maindonald gave a presentation the book voucher for his presentation the value and applicability of SAMM, called “Predictive validation issues titled “The use of correspondence an S-Plus module for mixed models in data mining” where he discussed analysis applied to marine data”. using restricted maximum likelihood approaches (both theoretical and All in all the first Queensland (REML), with spatio-temporal empirical) for assessing the predictive Statistics Conference was a great success data from a white clover breeding accuracy of models. John is the senior with speakers from around Australia program. However, he left most of author of the book “Data Analysis and contributing to the program. Having the examples to his colleague Alison Graphics Using R” recently published the conference in a regional centre was Kelly, who spoke right after him. Dave by Cambridge University Press. a great idea. It certainly opened my eyes is a consulting statistician with the Another highlight was from Daniel to the possibilities of future statistical Queensland Department of Primary Burrell, a student from the University of Industries involved with crop genetic Southern Queensland, who presented a research beyond the traditional centres improvement programs. Kerrie paper on a new goodness of fit statistic in Brisbane and the other capitals. The Mengerson is a Professor of Statistics for generalised linear models. success of the conference was due to at the University of Newcastle. Kerrie’s The conference concluded with the fantastic efforts put in by Peter presentation focussed on a key research closing comments from Bronwyn Dunn (USQ) in particular and also the interest, Bayesian modelling. These Harch (CSIRO), the president of the assistance provided by Ross Darnell methods were presented in the context Queensland Branch of the Statistical (UQ) – a big thank you to them! of case control and cohort studies into Society of Australia, who awarded the Ben Stewart-Koster the effects of passive smoke. prize for the best student presentation Honours Student – Griffith University IBC 2004 XXIInd International Biometric Conference in parallel with ASC 2004 11-16 July 2004 Cairns Convention Centre, Australian Statistical Conference Cairns Queensland Australia w.ozaccom ww .com.au/cairns2004 Early Bird Registration Closes 1 March! Statistical Society of Australia Inc. 2 SSAI Newsletter – February 2004 President’s Corner ASC 2004 SSAI Membership 1994 – 2003 ASC 2004 will be held in Cairns Full Members Student/Retired Members at Large from 11th to 16th July in parallel 1,000 with IBC 2004 and a broad-ranging program has been organised 900 (go to the conference web-site http://www.ozaccom.com.au/ 800 cairns2004/ for up-to-date 700 information). Over 500 abstracts had been submitted for oral 600 and/or poster presentations when submissions closed early in 500 December. It is great to see such strong interest in the conference. Early bird registration closes 400 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 on the 1st March so there is not a lot of time if you want to take advantage of the discount available. I have already registered Membership and look forward to seeing you there in Cairns. It is great to see that SSAI membership is increasing again Daryl Daley Festschrift although we have some way to go before we get back to the levels of the early nineties. Congratulations to the branches and Daryl Daley will turn 65 early in April and SSAI/NZSA will everyone else who has endeavoured to ‘turn things around’. recognise Daryl’s contribution to probability and statistics in Australia and internationally by publishing a festschrift issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics. Peter ASC/NZSA 2006 Taylor and Philip Pollett have arranged papers from an eminent The 2006 conference will be held in Auckland and be list of contributors and this is a measure of Daryl’s standing conducted in co-operation with the NZSA. A memorandum worldwide. A special session in Daryl’s honour will be held at of understanding between the two societies has been agreed, a ASC 2004 and a list of the festschrift papers can be found at the conference organiser has been appointed and detailed planning conference web-site (see above). Details of the ASC 2004 session will get underway shortly. There is plenty of scope for members will also be included there as soon as they are available. to participate in a variety of roles (either on the organising committee or on the program committee). Here is your chance to ANZJS make a contribution and to have some influence on the outcome. Presentations about the possibility of ANZJS becoming Simply contact me directly or anyone else on the executive or electronic-only have been held in Canberra, Adelaide, Perth branch council. and Brisbane. A session will be held in Sydney late in February. Neville Bartlett Thank you very much to all of those who attended and Email: [email protected] contributed comments, suggestions and views. The SSAI/ NZSA group considering the matter have had a telephone conference to discuss progress and would welcome any further suggestions. A brief summary of the issues and progress towards a recommendation is provided elsewhere in this newsletter. Volunteers It has been claimed that the Society is run by an elite group of people. Having been a member of the Victorian branch council (in the past) and central council (at present) I can assure you that there is a great diversity of people involved and that the eliteness is purely based on willingness to contribute time and effort to the society’s activities.