This exam is due Friday December 16th before 11:31 am.  I cannot accept late finals because I need to get grades submitted ASAP for the students who are graduating. 

If you are taking the class for three units you must attempt all questions (except 17).  Solutions to questions 0-2, 8-10, 14-16, and 18- should be submitted in the body of an email.  Solutions to questions 3-7 should be in a SAS EG project and questions 11-13 be should submitted as SAS code.

If you are taking this class for 2 units you MUST turn in something for the final exam (an email with your name is something).  Even if you are taking the class for two units please attempt to answer questions 0-2, 8-10, 14-16 and 18-. 

 

A good statistical graphic draws your attention to important findings.  Study Graphic 1 which shows the cases of AIDS in the United States reported to the CDC from 1981 through 2002 http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/aids.html#.  I maintain that this data shows that 1997 was a watershed year for the epidemic. 

0)      From this graphic can you tell what is special about that year? (This is extraordinarily hard so something like “I have no idea” is a valid answer.)

1)      What if anything is the author trying to show using color?

2)      What is/are the strengths and weaknesses of this type of plot?

The data and a format library are here in SAS cport format.  Use SAS EG to do the following:

3)      Create a library called hw4 and have it point to C:\Projects\hrp223\homework4

4)      Use proc cimport to load the data and format catalog into the library.

5)      Use the fmtsearch option to tell SAS EG to look for format s in that library.

6)      Make a new dataset in the HW4 library called kCases.  The dataset needs to contain a new variable called ThousandCases which has the number of cases divided by 1000.  The data set should also contain Cases, Year and Sex.  Label ThousandCases as “Thousands of Cases” and apply the sex/sexual orientation format which is in the format catalog in the hw4 library to the sex variable.

7)      Use the graphical user interface menus to reproduce Graphic 1.

I believe the importance of 1997 can be spotted in Graphic 2. 

8)      From this graphic can you tell what is special about 1997? (Again don’t panic if you can’t see the pattern.)

9)      What if anything is the author trying to show using color?

10)   What is/are the strengths and weaknesses of this type of plot?

Next reproduce that plot using SAS by following these steps.  First, figure out what SAS procedure generated that plot.  Next study OnLineDoc for that procedure to figure out what attribute determines the colors that contrast the different sexual orientations.

11)   Use what you learned in OnLineDoc to create a custom style template called myStyle that specifies the colors for the three types of dots (aka the first 3 graph data elements).

12)   Create a webpage which uses the custom style template.  Have the webpage be created here: C:\Projects\hrp223\homework4\index.html and specify the graphic path on the ods html statement to be C:\Projects\hrp223\homework4\.

13)   Write the code to generate the plot on the html page.  This code will need to use a where statement, a format statement, a dot statement and a xaxis statement.

Finally study Graphic 3. 

14)   From this graphic can you tell what is special about 1997?

15)   What if anything is the author trying to show using color?

16)   What is/are the strengths and weaknesses of this type of plot?  Think about the ink to information ratio in Graphic 2 and 3.

17)   (Optional) Make graphic 3.

I am not going to teach HRP 223 next year (and perhaps never again).  If the department hires somebody to teach 223 next year they will need guidance about how to teach this class. Please provide them (and me) feedback on the following questions.

18)   Describe how much experience you had manipulating data before the class started.

19)   How many lectures (even parts of the lecture) did you watch online?  How was the experience?

20)   How was the pace of the class and how could I have improved it?

21)   What topics were too easy and I should have covered faster?

22)   What was the hardest topic to understand? What could have been done to make it easier?

23)   What was the hardest lecture to follow?  What could have been done to make it easier?

24)   What parts of the class worked well for you and why?

25)   What should I be sure to tell next year’s class?

26)   What else should I know?

Hints

For question 13, pay attention to the freq and group options.

For question 17:

That is a series plot, with groups, specifying to use makers and the  maker attributes is the symbol circle:

markerattrs = (symbol = circle) ;

If you make a second ods style template named myStyle2 you can invoke it with this line:

ods html style = myStyle2;