R help - Jul 2011 - problem finding p-value for entropy in reldist package

Hi,

I am using the reldist package and having problems determining the p-value
for the entropy value from the reldist function.  I am able to properly
determine the entropy value, but cannot figure out what function to use to
find the p-value.  I have tried using rpy, rpluy (which provides p-values
for the polarization values) and investing the results from reldist().
 Thus, far I cannot find the p-value associated with the entropy value, but
I know that it is possible because p-values are listed in the paper
(Relative Distribution Methods by Handcock and Morris) along with the
bootstrap method used to calculate them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi Amy Wesolowski,

I don't have a straightfoward answer to you question. I have been working
with reldist too, and the 'rpy' and 'rpluy' functions described
by "Applying
Relative Distribution Methods in R" are also not working here in my 2.9.1
R-version. I think its because they are reldist internall function, so,
maybe its possible that they only work with previous objects and set ups...

But if you look to internal parametres of reldist, you could set "ci
TRUE", it's constructs the confidence interval for entropy by the
proportion
of original cohort. It's still unhelpfull to understand how this intervall
is constructed, and also does not show the overall interval, but you can se
the values with $ci.

By the Handcock and Morris (1998) paper is posible to intuit that they are
comparing the 0.00 entropy with the 95% Confidence Interval around the
estimate. For example, in this artigle, pag. 74, they reach an overall
entropy of 0.125, the lower 95%_CI is 0.092. The 0.00 comparision is far
below this lower bound, so its resonable to think the p-value is realy
0.000.

But it's only a clue to approximate the true p-value. But we still needing
to see: 1) how this intervall is constructed (I have no idea what
distribution the entropy should have, and if it changes by data) and 2)
Knowing the first point, how to set alpha values). 

Good luck,

Victor Delgado
cedeplar.ufmg.br P.H.D. student
www.fjp.mg.gov.br reseacher

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