Research Projects

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My Google Scholar Profile

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  Climate Change and Bird Migration

  This is a partnership between Georgetown University and the North American Bird Phenology Program (BPP). The BPP housed in the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center is part of the USA-National Phenology Network. The BPP was a network of volunteer observers who recorded information on first arrival dates, maximum abundance, and departure dates of over 200 species of migratory birds across North America. Active between 1880 and 1970, the program was coordinated by the Federal government and sponsored by the American Ornithologists' Union. It exists now as a historic collection of six million migration card observations, illuminating almost a century of migration patterns and population status of birds. Today, in an innovative project to curate the data and make them publicly available, the records are being scanned and placed on the internet, where volunteers worldwide transcribe these records and add them into a database for analysis. Read more about the BPP.
  Zelt et al. (2012)
  Arab & Courter (2012)
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  Abundance Patterns of Benthic Fish in the Missouri River

  This is a collaboration with Dr. Mark Wildhaber. The project is funded by the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center. Several other scientists, statisticians and graduate students are involved in this project.
  Arab et al. (2008)
  Witte et al. (2009)
  Wildhaber et al. (2011)
  Arab et al. (2012)
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  Climate change and Malaria Spread

  This project is based on analysis of data on Malaria cases for several Western African countries. We implement a spatio-temporal modeling approach and consider the impact of climate variables. This is a collaboration with Dr. Monica Jackson (American University), Dr. Cezar Kongoli (Joint Polar Satellite Systems Office, NOAA), and consultation with Prof. Paul Roepe (Georgetown University, Chemistry Department).
  Arab, Jackson & Kongoli. Malaria Journal (2014)
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  Hierarchical Models for Ecological Communities

  We implement hierarchical modeling to ecological community data, particularly, food webs. This is a collaboration with Prof. Gina Wimp (Georgetown University, Biology Department). This project is partly funded by a grant from the Georgetown University Environmental Initiative.
  Arab & Wimp. Oecologia, (2013)


Monthly Precipitation Levels Prediction for the DC Area

This is a collaboration with Dr. Tolessa Deksissa (UDC). The project is funded by the DC Water Resources Research Institute. We implemented a hierarchical Bayesian dynamical model to analyze spatio-temporal precipitation data from the DC area.
Arab and Deksissa [in preparation]

• Other Projects

  
  Hierarchical Spatial Models (Review--Book Chapter)
  Arab et al. (2008)[Preprint][Original]
  Semiparametric Geographically Weighted Response Curves
  Holan et al. (2008)
  Piece-wise exponential Reliability model
  Arab et al. (2012)
  Characterizing Influenza Surveillance Systems for Multiple Data Streams
  

  This project is based on Ying Zhang's (PhD Candidate in Global Infectious Diseases) dissertation research (co-advisor: Prof. Mike Stoto). The method is based on Using a Hierarchical Bayesian Approach for Multiple Data Streams from Hong Kong.