Statistics Seminar: Aurore Delaigle -- Nonparametric Regression from Group Testing Data

Aurore Delaigle Department of Mathematics and Statistics The University of Melbourne 

Location: Carslaw 173 

Time: 2pm Friday, October 28, 2011 

Nonparametric Regression from Group Testing Data 

Abstract: To reduce cost and increase speed of large screening studies, data are often
pooled in groups.  In these cases, instead of carrying out a test (say a blood test) on
all individuals in the study to see if they if they are infected or not, one only tests
the pooled blood of all individuals in each group.  We consider this problem when a
covariate is also observed, and one is interested in estimating the conditional
probability of contamination.  We show how to estimate this conditional probability
using a simple nonparametric estimator.  We illustrate the procedure on data from the
NHANES study.