JSM Preliminary Online Program
This is the preliminary program for the 2007 Joint Statistical Meetings in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The views expressed here are those of the individual authors
and not necessarily those of the ASA or its board, officers, or staff.



Back to main JSM 2007 Program page




Activity Number: 343
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Computing
Abstract - #308819
Title: Stalactite Plot for Outlier Detection in the Presence of a Computationally Singular Covariance Matrix
Author(s): Jeremy Nadolski*+ and Pablo Marquez and Lee Ann Smith
Companies: Benedictine University and Benedictine University and Benedictine University
Address: 5700 College Rd, Lisle, IL, 60532,
Keywords: outlier detection ; stalactite algorithm ; singular value decomposition ; Mahalanobis distance
Abstract:

Outlier detection is critical in any data analysis project. Outliers affect the ability to predict outcomes successfully and deteriorate accuracy. We used an improved stalactite algorithm proposed by Szychowski et al (2005) to detect outliers in our data. The algorithm is reliant upon Mahalanobis distance which uses the inverse of the covariance matrix. As such, non-invertible matrices in our datasets, which were either noninvertible or computationally non-invertible, could not be supported. To circumvent the non-invertible matrix, we used Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) to create a pseudo-inverse. Using the pseudo-inverse, we were able to replicate the results of Szychowski et al. (2005) and complete our algorithm to find outliers. Our outlier detection algorithm is applied to a dataset on Drosophila melanogaster egg-laying behavior from different wild type strains.


  • The address information is for the authors that have a + after their name.
  • Authors who are presenting talks have a * after their name.

Back to the full JSM 2007 program

JSM 2007 For information, contact jsm@amstat.org or phone (888) 231-3473. If you have questions about the Continuing Education program, please contact the Education Department.
Revised September, 2007