Veterinary epidemiology: software associated with probability distributions

Many statistical tests (along with both frequentist and Bayesian methodologies) are based upon probability distributions. The following programs allow these to be investigated further:

• NCSSCALC (Allows the investigation of various probability distributions, for example to estimate the probability of a particular outcome) http://www.ncss.com/download_probcalc.html

• p-value [direct link to software] (Statistical utility program for computing p-values from probability distributions under standard hypothesis tests) http://www.vetschools.co.uk/EpiVetNet/files/pvalue10.zip

• PopTools (Allows random sampling from various distributions, which can be useful for risk analysis and Monte Carlo simulation. Also facilitates analysis of matrix population models and simulation of stochastic processes) http://www.poptools.org/

• Simtools (Allows random sampling from various distributions, which can be useful for risk analysis and Monte Carlo simulation. Also facilitates decision analysis and regression modelling) http://home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/addins.htm

• Tables (A programme containing 42 statistical distributions. For each, in addition to the percentage points and their inverses, there is an extensive help, a plot of the density, a mechanism for generating random values, and various descriptive statistics) http://www.bobwheeler.com/statistics/StatisticalTables/statisticaltables.html

• BetaBuster (allows the parameterisation of Beta distributions based on the desired qualities of the distribution) http://www.epi.ucdavis.edu/diagnostictests/betabuster.html