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Students & Educators

Nadja YoungApril 15, 2013 0

Busting myths of education value-added analysis, Part 3: Simple growth measures provide better information to educators.

Welcome to Part 3 of the value-added Myth Busters blog series. I have heard a variation of this many times. “Why shouldn’t educators just use a simple gains approach or a pre- and post-test? They can trust simpler methodologies because they can replicate and understand them more easily.” Simple growth measures

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Education | Government

Programming Tips

Praveen SawhApril 15, 2013 0

The list goes on and on -- how to get it all done!

Continuing with our stringed list theme, in this post I would like to talk about applying functions to those lists. So far we have developed quite a few tools that can manipulate lists in different ways, but what good are they if we can’t do something meaningful with the lists?

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Rick WicklinApril 15, 2013 0

The role of statistics in the top public health achievements of the 20th century

In this International Year of Statistics, I'd like to describe the major role of statistics in public health advances. In our modern society, it is sometimes difficult to recall the huge advances in health and medicine in the 20th century. To name a few: penicillin was discovered in 1928, risk

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Data Visualization

Sanjay MatangeApril 14, 2013 0

Attributes Map - 3 Range Attribute Map

In the previous two articles we discussed Discrete Attribute Maps, and how these can be used to ensure that group attributes like color are consistently mapped to group values regardless of their position in the data. Now, let us take a look at the attributes map that allows you to

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Data Visualization

Generic infographic 'template'

Robert AllisonApril 11, 2013 0

Creating fancy 'infographics' with SAS

I haven't seen an official definition of 'infographic' that I really like ... but in my mind it's something 1/2 way between data visualization & artwork. It borrows elements from graphs & dashboards, and combines that with an artistic poster. If you perform a Google image search on infographic you'll see

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SAS Events

Andrew HowellApril 11, 2013 0

Know your audience -- and plan a few work-arounds

As a SAS consultant, trainer and regular presenter at local user groups, I (think I'm) fairly comfortable presenting to SAS users, managers, stakeholders and others of varying numbers. Following on from Tricia Aanderud's Presentation Horror Storiesd I'm reminded why this is one of my favorite tips: Know your audience.

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SAS Administrators

Wendy McHenryApril 10, 2013 0

Hiring a SAS administrator? 12 questions to ask

I have been on both sides of the table during an interview to hire a SAS administrator. I’ve been hired as a SAS administrator, and I have hired SAS administrators. Today, I work with SAS customers to help them find the best software for their business needs. I get asked-

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Work & Life at SAS

Ashley Bailey, MS, RDN, LDN, IFNCPApril 10, 2013 0

Pick a Pepper!

Peppers, sweet or hot, are packed full of great nutrition and are extremely versatile ingredients. Bell peppers are a favorite pepper for many and appeal to a wide range of people because, while they still have a bite, they are much sweeter since they lack capsaicin (compound responsible for the

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Rick WicklinApril 10, 2013 0

How to generate multiple samples from the multivariate normal distribution in SAS

A SAS customer asks: How do I use SAS to generate multiple samples of size N from a multivariate normal distribution? Suppose that you want to simulate k samples (each with N observations) from a multivariate normal distribution with a given mean vector and covariance matrix. Because all of the

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SAS Events

Tricia AanderudApril 8, 2013 0

When bad things happen to good speakers

A sugar packet at a local Chinese restaurant had this wisdom to share, “Experience is what you get, when you don’t get what you want.” With that profound thought in mind, I’m sharing some of my worse speaking experiences so you can make your SAS Global Forum presentation better.

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Advanced Analytics

Rick WicklinApril 8, 2013 0

Point/Counterpoint: Where should you put ODS SELECT and ODS OUTPUT statements?

ODS statements are global SAS statements. As such, you can put them anywhere in your SAS program. For maximum readability, many SAS programmers agree that most ODS statements should appear outside procedures in "open" SAS code. For example, most programmers agree that the following statements should appear outside of procedures:

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Data Visualization

Sanjay MatangeApril 6, 2013 0

Attributes Map - 2

Last week I wrote about how you can use the Discrete Attributes Map to ensure that group values with specific names are represented in the graph with specific colors or other visual attributes such as marker symbol or line pattern. This attributes map also supports a special keyword "OTHER" which can be used to

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Michael SmithApril 4, 2013 0

Learning … and laughter at PharmaSUG 2013

There’s always plenty to learn at PharmaSUG, which is one reason it draws attendees not only from the US and Canada, but from countries such as Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico and the UK. Learning Highlights Technical Keynote Address: "CDISC Standards: Now and To Come" from Wayne

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Melissa SavageApril 3, 2013 0

State leaders must take the wheel of transportation infrastructure reform

A few weeks ago I found myself in a room full of fellow transportation geeks (a term I use with great respect) at the annual American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Washington Briefing. One panel in particular really got the room buzzing with talk about the transportation

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SAS Administrators

Margaret CrevarApril 3, 2013 0

Planning for SAS use on solid state drives

SAS software benefits from the high performance of solid state drives (SSD), whether it is in the form of flash memory cards or hard-drive form-factor SSDs. The following general points should be considered when planning SSD storage for SAS usage:

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Rick WicklinApril 3, 2013 0

The difference of density estimates: When does it make sense?

I was recently asked how to compute the difference between two density estimates in SAS. The person who asked the question sent me a link to a paper from The Review of Economics and Statistics that contains several examples of this technique (for example, see Figure 3 on p. 16

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Data Visualization

Sanjay MatangeApril 2, 2013 0

Attribute Maps - 1

You created a graph of Response over Time by Severity where Severity has three levels, "Severe", "Moderate' and "Mild". How do you ensure that "Severe" is always red in your graph, regardless of the data order? Normally, when creating any graph with a GROUP role, the distinct group values are assigned the style

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SAS Events

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerApril 2, 2013 0

Using Windows PowerShell to download a file from a SAS Workspace session

In a previous article, I described how to use Windows PowerShell to connect to a remote SAS Workspace, run a SAS program, and retrieve the results. In that example, the only results I retrieved were the SAS log and SAS listing (text) output, if any. When you run a SAS

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Learn SAS

Maggie MillerApril 2, 2013 0

First-ever SAS training for warranty managers

SAS and the Global Warranty and Service Contract Association (GWSCA) recently teamed up to create the first-of-its-kind training for professionals in the warranty management field. In this Q&A, GWSCA president and course instructor G. Terry Hawkins, shares information about the course and the benefits for students. Why did SAS and

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SAS Events

Sara Jones, CMPApril 2, 2013 0

Top 3 style trends for SAS Global Forum 2013

The Data Scientist has been called the sexiest job of the 21st century. And, 2013 is the International Year of Statistics. With all this focus and attention, it’s no longer What NOT to wear at SAS Global Forum but WHAT DO YOU WEAR? Fashion trends for 2013 have been getting

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Rick WicklinApril 1, 2013 0

Changing the ODS style might change color ramp (and what to do about it)

Did you know that your ODS style might result in changing the color ramp for contour plots and heat maps? For example, the default style in SAS 9.3 is HTMLBlue. Let's create a contour plot in the HTML destination by running an example adapted from the documentation for the RSREG

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Learn SAS

Shelly GoodinMarch 29, 2013 0

SAS author's tip: Turning off output to the results window

This week's SAS tip is from Lauren Haworth, Cynthia L. Zender, and Michele Burlew's book Output Delivery System: The Basics and Beyond. This monumental guide is packed with a wide-array of techniques and examples. As SAS programmer Christine Iodice said, "This book is one-stop shopping for all your ODS needs!"

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Advanced Analytics

Gerhard SvolbaMarch 28, 2013 0

Dear Ms. Value! I am missing you! - or the importance of missing values in analytics

Don’t worry! This is not an excerpt from a romantic love letter. The title of this blog post is an allusion to my talk on "Missing Values", at the A2013 conference in June in London. There is not much time for emotions: dealing with missing values in analysis is not

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Students & Educators

Nadja YoungMarch 27, 2013 0

Busting myths of education value-added analysis, Part 2: It is harder to show growth with high-achieving students

Welcome to Part 2 of the value-added Myth Busters blog series…have you heard this one before? Educators serving high-achieving students are often concerned that their students’ entering achievement level makes it more difficult for them to show growth. “How can my students show growth if they are already earning high

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Education | Government

SAS Administrators

Simon WilliamsMarch 27, 2013 0

Finding audit bliss in SAS Web Report Studio

For many organizations, having traceability for members of staff accessing and leveraging customer data is a key requirement. There is the obvious security focus when leadership teams think about traceability, but there are additional uses for audit data within the organization: Using it to identify potentially broken work practices and

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Advanced Analytics

Rick WicklinMarch 27, 2013 0

How to compute the distance between observations in SAS

In statistics, distances between observations are used to form clusters, to identify outliers, and to estimate distributions. Distances are used in spatial statistics and in other application areas. There are many ways to define the distance between observations. I have previously written an article that explains Mahalanobis distance, which is

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Learn SAS

Ruth Dobson-TorresMarch 26, 2013 0

Getting started with SAS? Dial in for some free expert advice

If you’re a new SAS user, you may already be aware that SAS has created specific training and support materials to help you get started with SAS, such as our Getting Started with SAS introductory courses page. However, if you’re not 100 percent sure about all of the first steps that

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SAS Events

Ron FehdMarch 26, 2013 0

More tips for great SAS Global Forum presentations

I thoroughly agree with Tricia Aanderud on what it takes to Create Engaging SAS Global Forum Presentations! Here are a few more tips based on my own experience: First, let's look at what it takes to publish, and present. Good title. Good abstract, written about five months in advance. Oh, the

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Work & Life at SAS

Cathy Greer Mazanec, MPH, RDN, LDN

Cathy Greer Mazanec, MPH, RDN, LDNMarch 26, 2013 0

No Naked Carbs

Today is Diabetes Alert Day. The purpose of Diabetes Alert Day is to bring attention to the rising incidence of diabetes in the US and to alert folks to take action NOW to prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 diabetes. Preventing diabetes equates to blood glucose management which

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Learn SAS

Radical Action for Radical Times

Julie PlattMarch 25, 2013 0

Working on “stuff that matters”

“It’s not about how much money you make but to work on stuff that matters," according to Tim O’Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media. At the recent Tools of Change conference, Tim O’Reilly mentioned during his keynote that writers tend to be motivated to work on “stuff that matters.” Through SAS

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