APDU Weekly

Features

Data Science and Statistics
Is Data Science a disruptive anomaly to traditional statisticians? Or, are they one and the same thing with Data Science simply an extension of traditional statistics? There are a number of articles highlighting the differences between them throughout the internet. There are also some credible arguments describing the need for more statisticians in the Data Science field.

News

Senate Passes Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
On Wednesday, the Senate passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. This act is a significant development in the nation?s workforce development system utilizing evidence-based strategies for this development. One portion of the bill that is of real significance is the Bill?s requirement to align and streamline the workforce-related education and training systems. States will need to consult with local workforce boards to help with regional planning and economic development.

OnTheMap for Emergency Management Tool Now Using American Community Survey (ACS) Data
The U.S. Census Bureau released Version 4 of the OnTheMap for Emergency Management tool, a public data tool that provides an intuitive web-based interface for accessing U.S. population and workforce statistics, in real time, for areas being affected by natural disasters.

New Tool to Visualize Key Elements of Competitiveness
The GFCC Competitiveness Decoder is a data-based too developed to help users visualize 21st century competitiveness.

Announcement of Federal Funding Opportunity
National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) invites proposals from eligible applicants to develop and maintain one or more Business-to-Business Network pilot projects.

Making Big Data Work: Retailing
Most retailers struggle to take advantage of all the information they have at their disposal.

Data Spotlight

BEA Listens to Customer?s Ideas on How to Unleash Data
Some Major Takeaways from last week?s Big Data Roundtable at the White House from the BEA.

What?s New in the 2012 Economic Census?
The 2012 Economic Census features a number of important changes from it’s predecessor, the 2007 Economic Census, that affect data users.

3 Fundamental Google Rules Detected Thanks to Data Science
These are the most critical rules that digital publishers should follow, based on specific data science studies.

Data Mining 200 Years of Patent Office Records to Reveal the Nature of Invention
Inventions don?t appear out of nowhere, they build on earlier discoveries, combining technologies.

Data Analysis to Data Science
Advances in the availability of data and information infrastructure has made statistics a key occupation in the new century.

Visualization of the Week

Percentage of Degrees Conferred to Men, by Major

Data from the National Center for Education Statistics

Notable Data Publications

GOVERNMENT

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality – Medical Expenditure Panel Survey ? 2012 Home Health File
• Department of Agriculture – Economic Research Service
  • Agricultural Baseline Database, 10-Year Projections from USDA?s Annual Long-Term Projections Report
  • Prevalence of U.S. Food Insecurity is Related to Changes in Unemployment, Inflation, and the Price of Food
  • Historical CPI Food Price Indexex
• Bureau of Labor Statistics – Comparing Fatal Work Injuries in the United States and European Union
• Department of Housing and Urban Development – Picture of Subsidized Households
• Government Accountability Office – Private Health Insurance: The Range of Average Annual Premiums in the Small Group Market by State in Early 2013

MEDIA

• Nielsen – 2014 State of the Shopping Center

NON-PROFIT & FOUNDATIONS

• Employee Benefit Research Institute – Short Falls: Who?s Most Likely to Come up Short in Retirement and When?
• Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
  • Potential Supreme Court Decision: Who Will Bear the Coverage ?Burdens??
  • Advancing Opportunities, Assessing Challenges: Key Themes from a Roundtable Discussion of Health Care and Health Equity in the South
• Pew Research – Latino Jobs Growth Driven by U.S. Born
• Population Reference Bureau – Shift-Share Analysis of Growth in U.S. Biomedical Postdoctoral Employment in Research Education Institutions

Did you work on a great report that you want your colleagues to know about? Just email us and we?ll include it here.

Calls for Comment

APDU maintains a list of open calls for comment on proposed federal data collections. We periodically alert APDU members to newly added calls for comment. Over the last several weeks, calls for comment on the following proposed data collections were published in the Federal Register (with due date):

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• National Youth Tobacco Survey (Aug 25, 2014)

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

• Improving Quality of Care in Medicaid and CHIP through Increased Access to Preventive Services State Survey (July 21, 2014)

Department of Housing and Urban Development

• Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) Appeals; Assisted and Insured Housing Property Inspection Technical Reviews and Database Adjustments (Aug 25, 2014)

National Science Foundation