The Application of Visual Analytics Methods to Analyze the Dynamics of Stillbirth in Radiation Contaminated Areas of the Bryansk Region after the Chernobyl Disaster (1986-2016)

Abstract

The relevance of the research is due to the complexity of the stage of exploratory data analysis and hypotheses for further verification by methods of statistical and/or data mining. Objective: to apply methods of visual analysis and cognitive visualization for exploratory analysis and advance preliminary hypotheses in the process of analyzing the dynamics of stillbirth of boys and girls in all areas of the Bryansk region with different density of radioactive contamination by long-lived radionuclides Cesium-137 (137Cs) and Strontium-90 ( 90Sr), on the basis of official statistics for the long-term period (1986-2016). Research methods: visual analytics and cognitive visualization, mathematical statistics: Shapiro-Wilk test, Student t-test, homoscedasticity test, linear regression. Research results: the research results confirm the feasibility of using methods of visual analytics and cognitive visualization for exploratory analysis and advancement of preliminary hypotheses. The use of cognitive visualization in the process of exploratory data analysis allows the researcher to better understand the main trends and patterns in the analyzed data. This makes it possible to reduce the time required to form hypotheses by two to three times and to improve the quality of the hypotheses put forward.