Thesis (M.A.) from the year 1999 in the subject Statistics, grade: Passed, RMIT, course: MAppSc, language: English, comment: This thesis considers both univariate and multivariate approaches to the analysis of a set of repeated-measures data. Since repeated measures on the same subject are correlated over time, the usual analysis of variance assumption of independence is often violated. The models in this thesis demonstrate different approaches to the analysis of repeated-measures data, and highlight their advantages and disadvantages., abstract: This thesis considers both univariate and multivariate approaches to the analysis of a set of repeated-measures data. Since repeated measures on the same subject are correlated over time, the usual analysis of variance assumption of independence is often violated. The models in this thesis demonstrate different approaches to the analysis of repeated-measures data, and highlight their advantages and disadvantages. Milk from two groups of lactating cows, one group vaccinated, the other not, was analysed every month after calving for eight months in order to measure the amount of bacteria in the milk. The primary goal of the experiment was to determine if a vaccine developed by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's Biology Department led to a significant decrease in mean bacteria production per litre of milk produced compared to the control group. A univariate model suitable for repeated measures data was initially tried, with mean bacteria production in the treatment group not significantly different from the control group (p

Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Statistics, grade: Passed, RMIT (RMIT), course: Master of Engineering (systems engineering), 120 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This thesis investigates the effect of ideology on the survival times of 557 terrorist organisations. While there is broad acceptance of the view that the majority of terrorist organisations are short-lived, quantitative studies of the life spans of terrorist organisations are rare. Terrorist organisations go to great lengths to ensure their survival, with many terrorist organisations viewing their continued existence as a victory in itself. Within the broader field of organisational analysis, an organisation's age is viewed as a key variable in explaining the development of its structures, functions, and, most importantly, its likelihood of continued survival. The ideology through which a terrorist organisation views the world is thought by many scholars of terrorism to play an important role in its justification for violence, its strategic intentions, the targets it selects, and its survival prospects. While many typologies of terrorist ideologies have been proposed, one of the most common approaches uses four broad categories of ideological orientation: Separatist/nationalist, left-wing, religious, and right-wing. Separatist/nationalist organisations are widely believed to have much greater longevity than organisations that lack a distinct, territorially bounded, ethno-nationalist base. The non-parametric and semi-parametric statistical analyses of the life spans of 557 terrorist groups presented in this thesis are complemented by a description of various stage-based life cycle models. The concept of an organisational life cycle is used to highlight and explain some of the frequently observed patterns and behaviours of terrorist organisations as they form, grow, peak, fragment, and fail. This provides the contextual background to the quantitative analysis.