M.S. Applied Data Science - Capstone Chronicles 2025

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Figure 2 Distribution of Product Types

products per event ranging from 1 to 470, a mean of 2.77, and a median of 1.0. As each product type is uniquely associated with an FDA center, only the Product Type variable will be retained for modeling to eliminate redundancy and preserve interpretability. Table 1 Product Type and Its Center Association

Product type

Center

Note. This figure shows the distribution of product types. Further analysis revealed that the center variable had a perfect one-to-one correspondence with product type. Since each product type maps to one specific FDA center, this redundancy led to the exclusion of the center variable to enhance interpretability. The analysis of the distribution pattern variable also revealed significant trends, with certain distribution types more frequent in high-risk recalls. The distribution of recalls by the FDA center is presented in Table 1. The Center for Devices and Radiological Health center (devices) accounted for the largest share at 37.3%, followed by Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (food/cosmetics, 28.9%), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (drugs, 17.6%), Center for Biology Evaluation and Research (biologics, 12.7%), Center for Veterinary Medicine (veterinary, 3.6%), and Center for Tobacco Products (tobacco, <1%). This breakdown aligns precisely with the distribution of product types, further confirming the perfect correspondence between product type and center. Additionally, an analysis of products per recall event revealed considerable variation, with the number of

Devices

Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Center for Biology Evaluation and Research (CBER) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP)

Food/cosmetics

Drugs

Biologics

Veterinary

Tobacco

The dataset also included several ID variables, such as Event ID , Product ID , FEI Number , and Recall Details , which were excluded from the analysis due to their uniqueness and lack of analytical value (Kuhn & Johnson, 2013).

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