Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Tenure track appointment in applied data-analysis within the framework of the SSH strategic support plan" "Tom Loeys" "Department of Data-analysis" "To increase the research and teaching capacity of the Ghent University SSH Faculties a Special Research Fund pre-allocation of 15 additional tenure track positions – three for each Faculty – was provided in 2011." "Data-analysis UN_MENAMAIS sexual violence against persons with disabilities/chronical illnesses" "The assignment aims to assess the prevalence of sexual violence against persons with disabilities and to examine the relationship between minority identification and sexual violence." "Clavis clavium: an integrated reference database and collaborative update platform to open up Patristic, Medieval and Byzantine texts" "Gert Partoens" "Latin Literature, Leuven, Research Unit of Biblical Studies, Greek Studies, Leuven, Cultural Studies Research Group, De Wulf-Mansion Centre for Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, Research Unit of History of Church and Theology" "The funding applied for in this proposal will be used to create the infrastructure for a database, called Clavis clavium, which must satisfy three objectives:integrating a series of already existing claves (paper), which each have their proper structure and idiosyncrasiesupdating several of these claves (Clavis Patrum Latinorum/Graecorum and Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina/Graeca) through an online update platformlinking the information of the claves with other information on the internet.The creation of the infrastructure will be an expensive and time consuming process since the insufficiently structured nature of the available data (the existing claves) hinders the conversion process and requires a meticulous data-analysis in service of the development of a customized database. The programming of the infrastructure thus requires a thorough cooperation of data-analysts of the KU Leuven and programmers of Brepols Publishers. After the initial programming of the database and the inherently connected dataanalysis, the latter publishing house will bear the expenses for data-input, publication and continued maintenance of the Clavis clavium." "The secrets of cognitive aging: Investigating neural information flows underlying cognitive performance in elderly   " "Daniele Marinazzo" "Department of Data-analysis" "The aim of the project is to study the causal influences among brain regions that underlie cognitive changes and stability in healthy elderly and elderly suffering from dementia. We aim to apply highly-advanced data-analytical methods that have a high biologically plausibility.   " "Beyond the p-value: improving the balance between sensitivity and specificity for functional localization in fMRI data" "Beatrijs Moerkerke" "Department of Data-analysis" "Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a non-invasive technique to capture brainactivity, is getting increasingly important in psychological research. Nowadays, instead of the whole brain, researchers are particularly interested in the activation pattern of very specific brain regions of interest (ROI). So-called localizer tasks, executed after the main task of interest, are used to define functional ROIs (fROIs) in each subject individually. The current data-analytical methods however tend to localize these fROIs inconsistently, focusing on avoiding detection of activity where there is none. The opposite, actually avoiding to misstrue activation is nevertheless an equally important focus in this context. The aim of this project is to provide a technique for defining an fROI that balances between these two focuses. This will be done by not only making conclusions based on information against the hypothesis of no activation but also on information against the hypothesis of true activation.This will lead to larger reliability, stability and spatial accuracy, which is highlyrecommended, since the reliability of the successive data analysis is build on the accuracy of the fROI. We also aim to expand the results of this procedure to group analyses, in which information of activation in the fROIs is summarized for each individual and aggregated across individuals to test group hypotheses." "Size matters! Assessing effect sizes in single-case experiments using randomization tests with applications for the treatment of chronic pain." "Patrick Onghena" "Methodology of Educational Sciences, Health Psychology, Educational Effectiveness and Evaluation" "This dissertation concerns the use of randomization tests (RTs) for the analysis of experimental data from single-case experimental designs (SCEDs). This type of data often exhibit characteristics that violate the statistical assumptions made by parametric significance tests. For this reason the RT has been proposed as a viable technique for single-case data analysis as it does not require distributional assumptions or an assumption of random sampling to produce valid statistical inferences. The RT produces a non-parametric p-value, which can be used to evaluate the statistical significance of a treatment effect. The practice of using p-values to test treatment effectiveness has been severely criticized for not being able to evaluate treatment effect size in experimental data and is seen as one of the major contributing factors to the currently ongoing replicability crisis in psychological science. Current consensus in the scientific community dictates that the reporting of experimental results should, in addition to reporting p-values, rely more on the so-called ‘new statistics’ which refer to practices such as effect size (ES) estimation, construction of confidence intervals (CI) and meta-analysis. In the light of these developments within the field of single-case data-analysis, this dissertation focuses on the use of ES measures and CIs within the RT framework for the analysis and meta-analysis of SCEDs. In Chapter 1, we propose to use ES measures as test statistics in the RT to determine their statistical significance, introduce the immediate treatment effect index (ITEI) as an ES measure for AB phase designs and evaluate its statistical power in a simulation study. In addition, we demonstrate that the RT can produce valid statistical inferences for this design even when substantial data trend is present. Chapter 2 extends the proposal to use ES measures as test statistics in the RT to single-case alternation designs and proposes two single-case non-overlap ES measures for use in these types of designs. The Type I error and power of these ES measures are evaluated for three different alternation designs in a simulation study. Chapter 3 presents a technique to construct non-parametric CIs for single-case ES measures based on randomization test inversion (RTI). We discuss the rationale behind this technique and illustrate it with worked examples for various types of phase designs and alternation designs. Chapter 4 expands on the developed RTI technique from chapter 3 and proposes an extension to the meta-analysis of multiple SCEDs by calculating confidence intervals for combined ESs (CICES). In Chapter 5, we propose the use of a randomization test wrapper for multilevel models (MLMs) as an alternative meta-analytical technique for CICES. MLMs are widely used to meta-analyze data from SCEDs but also make parametric assumptions about the data that are often violated. In chapter 5, we discuss how the MLM parameters serve as the test statistic in the RT to evaluate the statistical significance of these parameters in a non-parametric way. Furthermore, we evaluate and compare the Type I error and power of this technique to traditional MLMs by means of a simulation study. Finally, in Chapter 6 we apply the developed data-analytical methods (use of ES measures as test statistic in the RT, RTI, CICES and the randomization test wrapper) to a convenience sample of studies evaluating graded exposure therapy for the treatment of chronic pain. We developed easy-to-use R-code which enables single-case researchers to use RTI, CICES and the randomization test wrapper for their own data." "Layout of development scenarios and implementation paths for a new mobility plan Flanders." "Geert WETS" "Transportation Behaviour, Traffic Safety, Business Informatics, Logistics, Transportation Research Institute, Data-analysis and Modelling" "Like most Western countries and regions, Flanders knew during the past decades a general economic prosperity. There seems to be no measure to the increasing internationalization and globalization process, one of the main driving forces behind the explosive growth in both passenger and tonne-kilometers. To maintain a sustainable balance between economic development and the rapid expansion of passenger and freight traffic, the policy-makers must watch over this growth-rhythm and implement long-term strategies to promote the effectiveness of all transportation modes and encourage those that have a intermodal and multimodal approach. On federal level they indicate the following actions for sustainable mobility: improving the energy-efficiency of road transport, making an offer to rail transport for goods more attractive, encouraging intermodality, promoting inland shipping and stimulating the shipping at sea over short distances. On the policy-level of Flanders in view of 5 strategic objectives there was already stated that the policy should aim at controlling the mobility, environmental pollution and environmental nuisance, reducing the traffic unsafety and ensuring reachability, liveability and accessibility. At European level, the European Commission presented a debate on transport scenarios for the next 20 to 40 years to develop a general policy for sustainable mobility. The choice of partners was based on the specific and proven national and international expertise in each of the domains of the assignment. The quest for sustainable mobility requires a multidisciplinary approach to face up to a wide range of challenges." "Multilevel causal mediation analysis of multiple longitudinal mediators with unknown causal structure" "Beatrijs Moerkerke" "Department of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics, Department of Data-analysis" "Mediation analysis is a common statistical method in psychology and education research for learning how a treatment affects an outcome via intermediate variables known as mediators. Conventional methods for multiple mediators are predicated on linear models with strict (and often implicit) assumptions. Alternative causal inferential-based methods allow for non-linear models, but assume correctly knowing the mediators’ causal order, and that they share no hidden confounders. These restrictions impede their applications in many realistic settings, and when improperly used can lead to severely incorrect results even with just two mediators. Building on novel definitions of causal direct and indirect effects, I proposed estimators that do not have these restrictions. As an FWO postdoc, I will develop methods for two common and important settings in psychology and education research with more complex data structures: longitudinal mediators and multilevel data. Extensions for these settings are difficult, because they require carefully (i) adjusting for complex but unknown confounding patterns among the mediators, and (ii) conceptualizing multipart causal effects that are simultaneously transmitted within and between individuals. I will define causal effects, and propose estimators that rely on minimal assumptions for valid inference. The estimation procedures will be available via free software to address substantive questions in psychology and education research." "Pre-allocated professorship in data analysis" "Daniele Marinazzo" "Department of Data-analysis" "A position as pre-allocated professor grants one the privilege for a period of maximum 5 years to focus primarily on research, with a teaching load limited to no more than 8 ECTS credits per semester on average over a period of 3 years." "Evaluation of the effectiveness of speed cameras in the field of road safety." "Tom BRIJS" "Traffic Safety, Data-analysis and Modelling" "Central to the research is the question whether the cameras have a positive impact on road safety. Two effects are to be considered: firstly, there is the impact of the number of accidents, secondly there is the effect on driving speed. The effect on the number of accidents can be considered as the intended effect in the long term. However, this effect is indirect, since the installation of an unmanned camera can have no direct effect as such on the number or severity of accidents. The effect on the number of accidents is in fact reached through an intermediate variable, namely the speed, since an increased surveillance by unmanned cameras has in the first place a potential impact on the speed behaviour. The evaluation will take place, hence, in terms of effects on the speed and the number of accidents."