Risk Analysis in Health, Environment and Financial Research

Thomas Fisher Chair
Miami University
 
Tuesday, Aug 5: 2:00 PM - 3:50 PM
4135 
Contributed Papers 
Music City Center 
Room: CC-201A 

Main Sponsor

Section on Risk Analysis

Presentations

Combining safety signals in drug clinical trials and postmarket surveillance using Bayesian modeling

Clinical trials and postmarket surveillance data both provide valuable information for detecting adverse events (AEs) for drugs. Clinical trials provide estimates for incidence rate but often have insufficient sample size to detect rare adverse events. Post market surveillance data can accumulate more reports for adverse effects, but the data quality is often uneven and cannot provide direct estimate of incidence rate.
Using PD-1 inhibitors as an example, we compared the safety signal in clinical trials and postmarket surveillance. The meta-analysis for clinical trials were based on a sparse Bayesian mixed-effect model. Correspondingly, postmarket reports of adverse events were tabulated from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and a sparse Bayesian model was constructed. Finally, a Bayesian model was constructed using prior distributions based on the clinical trial data to guide the inference in the analysis of postmarket surveillance data.
Signals detected in clinical trials data have a high probability to be confirmed in the postmarket surveillance. Integrating clinical trial safety data and postmarket databases appear to be promising in enhancing signals. 

Keywords

adverse event

postmarket surveillance

Bayesian model

clinical trial 

First Author

Dong Wang, FDA National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR)

Presenting Author

Dong Wang, FDA National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR)

Estimating the Risk of Cancer With and Without a Screening History

A probability method to estimate cancer risk for asymptomatic individuals for the rest of life was developed based on one's current age and screening history
using the disease progressive model. The risk is a function of the transition probability density from the disease-free to the preclinical state, the sojourn time in the
preclinical state, and the screening sensitivity if one had a screening history with negative results. The method can be applied to any chronic disease.
As an example, the method was applied to estimate women's breast cancer risk using parameters estimated from the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (HIP) under two scenarios: with and without a screening history, and obtain some meaningful results. 

Keywords

incidence

risk

sensitivity

sojourn time

transition probability density 

First Author

Dongfeng Wu, University of Louisville

Presenting Author

Dongfeng Wu, University of Louisville

Pointwise Predictive Density Calibrated-Power Prior for Dynamic Borrowing of Historical Data 

Incorporating historical data into the analysis of treatment effects for rare diseases has gained increasing attention. However, determining the appropriate level of congruence between historical and current data remains a significant challenge. In this work, we introduce a novel Bayesian p-value-based congruence measure to quantify heterogeneity between historical and current control data. We investigate its asymptotic properties under both congruent and incongruent scenarios and develop the pointwise predictive density calibrated-power prior (PPD-CPP) to dynamically leverage historical information. The PPD-CPP framework provides a flexible approach, allowing the power parameter to be modeled as either a fixed scalar or a random variable and enabling the assignment of unique power parameters to individual observations. Through extensive numerical studies with normal endpoints, we demonstrate that our method effectively borrows information from congruent sources while appropriately discarding incongruent data. 

Keywords

Bayesian p-value

Calibrated power prior

Congruence measure

Dynamic historical borrowing 

Co-Author(s)

Jing Zhang, Miami University
Bin Zhang, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Emily Kang, University of Cincinnati

First Author

Shixuan Wang

Presenting Author

Shixuan Wang

Weighted quantile regression to evaluate responsiveness of health effects due to chemical exposure

Humans are exposed to myriad pollutants, so it is important to identify the most sensitive health effects at low exposure levels. We developed a weighted mixed effects quantile regression approach to determine relative endpoint responsiveness among different organ systems. The lowest observed effect level (LOEL) is the lowest dosage associated with a significant change in an endpoint, so quantiles of LOELs for an organ system were comparable measures for endpoint responsiveness. The no observed effect level (NOEL) is the highest dosage not associated with a significant change, so LOELs close to their respective NOELs are better estimates of a toxicological response. Thus, weighted quantile regression of LOELs against organ system, with weights determined by NOEL presence and magnitude and random effects accounting for variation due to the same laboratory reporting multiple LOELs, present a novel approach to rank endpoint responsiveness. Ad hoc analyses of the estimated effects determined if sensitivities were significantly different between systems. We applied this method on a toxicological database of endpoints measured after exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixtures. 

Keywords

Systematic review

Quantile regression

Toxicology

PCB 

Co-Author(s)

Chelsea Weitekamp, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Krista Christensen, US EPA
Catheryne Chiang, US EPA
Laura Carlson, US EPA
Geniece Lehmann, US EPA

First Author

Geoffrey Peterson

Presenting Author

Geoffrey Peterson

Modeling Directional Dependence of Extreme Events

This paper introduces a novel measure to quantify the directional dependence of extreme events between two variables. We propose a new approach to capture the asymmetric tail dependence. By studying the conditional tail expectation and of the rank transformed variables, we quantify the behaviour of one variable when the other is extreme. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated through an extensive simulation framework, and the theoretical asymptotic behaviour of the estimator is investigated. We apply this method to environmental and financial data, such as wind speed and temperature extremes, and stock-bond market extremes. Our results show the strong asymmetric nature of extreme events. 

Keywords

Directional Dependence

Tail Dependence

Copula

Tail Expectation 

First Author

Maxime Nicolas

Presenting Author

Maxime Nicolas

Evaluation of the effectiveness of AI methods in detecting and forecasting anomalies in the stock ma

Anomalies in the stock market, such as price manipulation, speculative bubbles or unusual capital flows, can lead to market destabilization. Traditional analysis methods, based on statistical models, often fail to keep up with the dynamic and complex nature of modern financial markets. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) methods in detecting and forecasting stock market anomalies. AI can significantly improve the ability to monitor markets and provide early warnings of threats. The study will apply selected AI techniques to detect and analyze unusual market behavior.
Modern stock markets are characterized by a large number of market participants who generate a large number of transactions and a large amount of information. This situation means that traditional methods of analysis, based, for example, on econometric models and simple financial indicators, are often unable to identify risks associated with stock market anomalies on time. In this respect, artificial intelligence tools can be helpful. The study used data on selected companies listed on stock exchanges in the Baltic countries. The data covered the years 2007-2024. 

Keywords

AI

econometric models

stock market anomalies

stock market indices 

First Author

Malgorzata Tarczynska-Luniewska, University of Szczecin

Presenting Author

Malgorzata Tarczynska-Luniewska, University of Szczecin

Optimizing Credit Risk Classification Using Machine Learning Techniques

This study presents a systematic machine learning (ML) framework to classify loan applicants into creditworthy and non-creditworthy categories. The proposed methodology encompasses a comprehensive data preprocessing pipeline, including the imputation of missing values and feature selection using the Random Forest algorithm to identify key predictive variables. To address potential multicollinearity issues, a variance inflation factor (VIF) analysis is conducted to ensure model robustness and interpretability. Additionally, to mitigate class imbalance within the dataset, the Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique (SMOTE) is applied, enhancing the representativeness of the training data. Three ML models are subsequently trained and rigorously evaluated based on performance metrics. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach in improving credit risk classification, providing financial institutions with a data-driven framework to enhance decision-making processes, optimize resource allocation, and support strategic lending initiatives. These findings underscore the transformative potential of predictive analytics in advancing financial risk management practices. 

Keywords

Machine Learning (ML)

Creditworthy

Classification

Credit Risk

Financial Institutions

Financial Risk Management 

Co-Author(s)

Nzubechukwu Ohalete
Faruk Muritala, Kennesaw State University
Herman Ray

First Author

Nzubechukwu Ohalete

Presenting Author

Nzubechukwu Ohalete