Predictive Analytics for Fantasy Football: Predicting Player Performance Across the NFL

The goal of this research is to develop a quantitative method of ranking and listing players in terms of performance. These rankings can then be used to evaluate players prior to and during a fantasy football draft. To produce these rankings, we develop a methodology for forecasting the performance of each individual player (on different metrics) for the upcoming season (16 games) and use these forecasts to estimate player fantasy football scores for the 2018 season. More specifically, this work answers the following: In what order should players be drafted in a 2018 fantasy football draft and why? Which players can be expected to perform the best at their given position (Quarterback, Running back, Wide Receiver, Kicker, Team Defense) in 2018, and which players should we expect to perform poorly

Asymptotics for statistical treatment rules

This paper develops asymptotic optimality theory for statistical treatment rules in smooth parametric and semiparametric models. Manski (2000, 2002, 2004) and Dehejia (2005) have argued that the problem of choosing treatments to maximize social welfare is distinct from the point estimation and hypothesis testing problems usually considered in the treatment effects literature, and advocate formal analysis of decision procedures that map empirical data into treatment choices. We develop large-sample approximations to statistical treatment assignment problems in both randomized experiments and observational data settings in which treatment effects are identified. We derive a local asymptotic minmax regret bound on social welfare, and a local asymptotic risk bound for a two-point loss function. We show that certain natural treatment assignment rules attain these bounds.treatment effect; statistical decision theory; minmax regret; treatment assignment rules

Impossibility Results for Nondifferentiable Functionals

We examine challenges to estimation and inference when the objects of interest are nondifferentiable functionals of the underlying data distribution. This situation arises in a number of applications of bounds analysis and moment inequality models, and in recent work on estimating optimal dynamic treatment regimes. Drawing on earlier work relating differentiability to the existence of unbiased and regular estimators, we show that if the target object is not continuously differentiable in the parameters of the data distribution, there exist no locally asymptotically unbiased estimators and no regular estimators. This places strong limits on estimators, bias correction methods, and inference procedures.bounds analysis; moment inequality models; treatment effects; limits of experiments

Connected Hausdorff subtopologies

summary:A non-connected, Hausdorff space with a countable network has a connected Hausdorff-subtopology iff the space is not-H-closed. This result answers two questions posed by Tkačenko, Tkachuk, Uspenskij, and Wilson [Comment. Math. Univ. Carolinae 37 (1996), 825--841]. A non-H-closed, Hausdorff space with countable $\pi$-weight and no connected, Hausdorff subtopology is provided

Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Literature with Jewish Content: A Bibliographic Overview

The topic of gay, lesbian, and bisexual literature with Jewish content has been taboo for a very long time. Because of Judaism's deep-rooted commitment to the family, alternative forms of sexual relationships have rarely been mentioned in Jewish literature. Only in the past twenty-five years, with the rise of AIDS, but starting in the radical 1960s with its innovative sexual and cultural critique and revolutionary approach to politics and power arrangements, have we seen the rise of Jewish literature on gay, lesbian, and bisexual lifestyles. Since homosexuality is still asur (forbidden) in Halacha, this is still a controversial topic and care must be taken to handle it with sensitivity. Still, librarians and teachers should introduce these issues at age-appropriate and text appropriate levels. This bibliographic essay demonstrates the wide range of material that exists on this topic from research guides and anthologies to novels and sociological works. The literature is growing by leaps and bounds; much of the material is useful for Jewish libraries but must be updated regularly since this field is undergoing great change. However, since gay history is still history, the encyclopedias and research guides will always be useful. The paper includes a special section on homosexuality and sexual politics in Nazi Germany, a special interest of the author, a son of Holocaust survivors

Bootstrap and Higher-Order Expansion Validity When Instruments May Be Weak

It is well-known that size-adjustments based on Edgeworth expansions for the t-statistic perform poorly when instruments are weakly correlated with the endogenous explanatory variable. This paper shows, however, that the lack of Edgeworth expansions and bootstrap validity are not tied to the weak instrument framework, but instead depends on which test statistic is examined. In particular, Edgeworth expansions are valid for the score and conditional likelihood ratio approaches, even when the instruments are uncorrelated with the endogenous explanatory variable. Furthermore, there is a belief that the bootstrap method fails when instruments are weak, since it replaces parameters with inconsistent estimators. Contrary to this notion, we provide a theoretical proof that guarantees the validity of the bootstrap for the score test, as well as the validity of the conditional bootstrap for many conditional tests. Monte Carlo simulations show that the bootstrap actually decreases size distortions in both cases.

Embedding in R-closed spaces

AbstractSome problems in the theory of R-closed spaces are solved by showing that every regular space can be embedded in a minimal regular space and there is an R-closed space with no coarser minimal regular topology. A class of spaces is found so that when fed into the Jone's machinery for producing non-Tychonoff, regular spaces, the output is non-tychonoff R-closed and minimal regular spaces. Also, an example of a strongly minimal regular space that is not locally R-closed is given

Establishing shared-use processing facilities at three possible locations in central and south central Iowa

One way for small-scale food producers to make money is to add value to their products. Shared-use kitchens offer an option for further processing, cooking, or preservation for a variety of fruit and vegetable crops. This project examines some of the critical factors in establishing and successfully operating a shared-use kitchen