[Babase] mstatus E

Susan Alberts babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Fri, 9 Apr 2004 18:13:02 -0400


Thanks Daphne, now I get it. I think that a matured date, if it is 
not known exactly (i.e. if we are missing data for the actual month 
in which it occurred, so that we interpolate at any level), and if it 
is entered into babase, should have an E. In other words, I think the 
only case in which there should be no E is if we have no missing data 
during the time period we assign matured.

I guess I think that we should not have a matured date entered at all 
if there is a whole year, for instance, of missing data.

The question then becomes, what is the cutoff between E and no data.

Thoughts?

Susan

>I'll try to clarify this paragraph, Susan.  Sorry for the confusion...
>
>>  Currently, we have been interpolating when a few months of maturation
>>  data are missing without using an E.  So the Es when just a few months
>>  were missing are inconsistent with what we're doing now.  Jeanne and I
>>  thought that these cases should NOT have Es.  But we need to decide a
>>  cut-off point between what doesn't get an E and what does.  Jeanne
>>  thought something like 4 or more months of missing data.
>
>With the current maturation data, we have been interpolating when a few
>months of data are missing for an individual.  We have NOT been entering Es
>for Mstatus in these cases.  In some of the cases I dug up, though, Es were
>used in cases where the matured date was interpolated from just a few months
>of missing data.  Therefore, the use of E is inconsistent.  Assuming that we
>want to use E to include interpolated estimates, we thought that these types
>of cases, where we could estimate the matured date to within a month or two,
>did NOT warrant Es since they were pretty good estimates.  If we follow
>this, we would need to decide on a cut-off between no E and E.
>
>Does that help?
>Daphne
>
>
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-- 
Susan Alberts, Department of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338 
Durham NC 27708 Phone 919-660-7272, FAX 919-660-7293