Exercises

We will use the following dataset to demonstrate the use of permutations:

url <- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/genomicsclass/dagdata/master/inst/extdata/babies.txt"
filename <- basename(url)
download(url, destfile=filename)
babies <- read.table("babies.txt", header=TRUE)
bwt.nonsmoke <- filter(babies, smoke==0) %>% select(bwt) %>% unlist 
bwt.smoke <- filter(babies, smoke==1) %>% select(bwt) %>% unlist

1. We will generate the following random variable based on a sample size of 10 and observe the following difference:

    N=10
    set.seed(1)
    nonsmokers <- sample(bwt.nonsmoke , N)
    smokers <- sample(bwt.smoke , N)
    obs <- mean(smokers) - mean(nonsmokers)
   

   The question is whether this observed difference is statistically significant. We do not want to rely on the assumptions needed for the normal or t-distribution approximations to hold, so instead we will use permutations. We will reshuffle the data and recompute the mean. We can create one permuted sample with the following code:

    dat <- c(smokers,nonsmokers)
    shuffle <- sample( dat )
    smokersstar <- shuffle[1:N]
    nonsmokersstar <- shuffle[(N+1):(2*N)]
    mean(smokersstar)-mean(nonsmokersstar)
   

   The last value is one observation from the null distribution we will construct. Set the seed at 1, and then repeat the permutation 1,000 times to create a null distribution. What is the permutation derived p-value for our observation?

2. Repeat the above exercise, but instead of the differences in mean, consider the differences in median obs <- median(smokers) - median(nonsmokers). What is the permutation based p-value?