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Course topics

Monday
Large-scale studies of diabetes
Tuesday
Clinical characterization of diabetic complications
Wednesday
Dissection of genetics of diabetes and its complications
Thursday
From genes to function
Friday
Metabolic patterns of diabetes

Route to Biomedicum

Exercise 2: Some are more equal than others

In the previous exercise we investigated the correlations of various social and economic characteristics of nations. The aim here is to study what are the typical features of countries in different parts of the world. Before, the focus was on the variables, here the focus is on the data points and we will use the self-organizing map (Melikerion software) to highlight the country profiles.

Task 1: View the configuration file

The Melikerion software is much more versatile than the Katiska in Exercise 1. For this reason, the use is somewhat more complicated: we need a separate configuration file to instruct the server on what to do with the dataset.

Below you will find links to the dataset, variable descriptions and the configuration file. When you compare the data spreadsheet and the configuration spreadsheet side by side, you will notice that the instructions in the configuration file indicate those variables that should be used for training of the SOM and those that should be tested for statistical significance.

Here, we are interested in the connections between economic activity (the test variables) and the rest of the variables (the inputs).

Download data (from Exercise 1)
Download info (from Exercise 1)
Download config

Task 2: Submit data

Use the link below to open the file submission page. Read the instructions therein (ignore the first paragraph), select the two files 'countries_config.xls' and 'countries.xls' in the appropriate boxes. After clicking the submit button, you should now see an acknowledgement of your submission. If the server cannot accept new jobs due to limited capacity, please repeat the submission procedure. When successful, follow the links on the screen until the job is finished.

Go to upload form

Task 3: Review results

When the job is finished, you should see a set of map colorings. You can view the full images by clicking on the small ones, but in this case it is best to download the entire result archive (link on the right). Detailed instructions on how to interpret the various results in the ZIP-archive are available in print in the classroom.

Questions

  1. Which one of the economic variables (activity, unemployment, GDP) showed the most significant regional differences?
  2. What characteristics are associated with a high GDP?
  3. Women's economic activity (EA) is correlated with child mortality (CM). Is this statement of linear dependence entirely accurate in this context?
  4. Open the file 'bmu.xls' (screenshot). Look for Finland in the first column; the map ccordinates should be row 5 and column 1. Go back to the results web page and focus on the GDP map coloring. Start from the top-left corner, count 5 hexagonal units down and take the 1st unit on the left. You should end up in the region near the bottom-left corner. Where is your country positioned?
  5. You can sort the BMU spreadsheet according to the coordinates. Are those countries, that are close to each other on the SOM, also geographically and politically close?
  6. The data were collected around the year 2000. Do you think the results would be different today?

GWAS exercises

Download material

Statistics exercises

1) Networking without Facebook

2) Some are more equal than others

3) Textbook case

4) Nuclear proliferation

Updated 2009-11-27 by vpmakine.