[R] normality test

[Pieter Provoost]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Berton Gunter" <gunter.berton at gene.com>
To: "'Pieter Provoost'" <pieterprovoost at gmail.com>;
<R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 6:26 PM
Subject: RE: [R] normality test


>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
> > [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Pieter Provoost
> > Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 7:52 AM
> > To: R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> > Subject: Re: [R] normality test
> >
> > Thanks all for your comments and hints. I will try to keep
> > them in mind.
> > Since a number of people asked me what I'm trying to do: I
> > want to apply
> > Bayesian inference to a simple ecological model I wrote, and
> > therefore I
> > need to fit (uniform, normal or lognormal) distributions to
> > sets of observed
> > data (to derive mean and sd).
>
> This is false. You do not need to fit anything to "derive mean and sd."
> Perhaps you have not clearly stated what you mean.
>
> >You probably have noticed that
> > I'm quite new
> > to statistics, but I'm working on that...
> >
> > Pieter
> >
> And you want to use Bayesian methods?!
>
> I would strongly recommend that you seek a competent statistician to work
> with. To paraphrase Frank Harrell (with appropriate apologies for
> misattribution, if necessary), correspondence courses in brain surgery are
> not a good idea.
>
>

The Bayesian methods I (will) use are implemented in the modelling
environment I'm using (FEMME). I'm supervised by the person that developed
the environment, and she asked me to fit a normal or lognormal distribution
to the observed data. The parameters of that distribution will then be used
for the Bayesian analysis. So I suppose my supervisor knows what very well
what she's doing, even though I don't (well... not yet).

http://www.nioo.knaw.nl/CEMO/FEMME/Index.htm (the Bayesian inference is a
recent addition and therefore not discussed in the manual)

Pieter