Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 15 - April 2018) : Cambridge University Press - Statistics and Probability: Statistical Theory and Methods

'Big data' poses challenges that require both classical multivariate methods and contemporary techniques from machine learning and engineering. This modern text equips you for the new world - integrating the old and the new, fusing theory and practice and bridging the gap to statistical learning. The theoretical framework includes formal statements that set out clearly the guaranteed 'safe operating zone' for the methods and allow you to assess whether data is in the zone, or near enough. Extensive examples showcase the strengths and limitations of different methods with small classical data, data from medicine, biology, marketing and finance, high-dimensional data from bioinformatics, functional data from proteomics, and simulated data. High-dimension low-sample-size data gets special attention. Several data sets are revisited repeatedly to allow comparison of methods. Generous use of colour, algorithms, Matlab code, and problem sets complete the package. Suitable for master's/graduate students in statistics and researchers in data-rich disciplines.

Price : $210

The case-control approach is a powerful method for investigating factors that may explain a particular event. It is extensively used in epidemiology to study disease incidence, one of the best-known examples being Bradford Hill and Doll's investigation of the possible connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. More recently, case-control studies have been increasingly used in other fields, including sociology and econometrics. With a particular focus on statistical analysis, this book is ideal for applied and theoretical statisticians wanting an up-to-date introduction to the field. It covers the fundamentals of case-control study design and analysis as well as more recent developments, including two-stage studies, case-only studies and methods for case-control sampling in time. The latter have important applications in large prospective cohorts which require case-control sampling designs to make efficient use of resources. More theoretical background is provided in an appendix for those new to the field.

Price : $210

Price : $210

The twenty-first century has seen a breathtaking expansion of statistical methodology, both in scope and in influence. 'Big data', 'data science', and 'machine learning' have become familiar terms in the news, as statistical methods are brought to bear upon the enormous data sets of modern science and commerce. How did we get here? And where are we going? This book takes us on an exhilarating journey through the revolution in data analysis following the introduction of electronic computation in the 1950s. Beginning with classical inferential theories - Bayesian, frequentist, Fisherian - individual chapters take up a series of influential topics: survival analysis, logistic regression, empirical Bayes, the jackknife and bootstrap, random forests, neural networks, Markov chain Monte Carlo, inference after model selection, and dozens more. The distinctly modern approach integrates methodology and algorithms with statistical inference. The book ends with speculation on the future direction of statistics and data science.

Price : $210

This lively book lays out a methodology of confidence distributions and puts them through their paces. Among other merits, they lead to optimal combinations of confidence from different sources of information, and they can make complex models amenable to objective and indeed prior-free analysis for less subjectively inclined statisticians. The generous mixture of theory, illustrations, applications and exercises is suitable for statisticians at all levels of experience, as well as for data-oriented scientists. Some confidence distributions are less dispersed than their competitors. This concept leads to a theory of risk functions and comparisons for distributions of confidence. Neyman-Pearson type theorems leading to optimal confidence are developed and richly illustrated. Exact and optimal confidence distribution is the gold standard for inferred epistemic distributions. Confidence distributions and likelihood functions are intertwined, allowing prior distributions to be made part of the likelihood. Meta-analysis in likelihood terms is developed and taken beyond traditional methods, suiting it in particular to combining information across diverse data sources.

Price : $210

Based on a starter course for beginning graduate students, Core Statistics provides concise coverage of the fundamentals of inference for parametric statistical models, including both theory and practical numerical computation. The book considers both frequentist maximum likelihood and Bayesian stochastic simulation while focusing on general methods applicable to a wide range of models and emphasizing the common questions addressed by the two approaches. This compact package serves as a lively introduction to the theory and tools that a beginning graduate student needs in order to make the transition to serious statistical analysis: inference; modeling; computation, including some numerics; and the R language. Aimed also at any quantitative scientist who uses statistical methods, this book will deepen readers' understanding of why and when methods work and explain how to develop suitable methods for non-standard situations, such as in ecology, big data and genomics.

Price : $210

In nonparametric and high-dimensional statistical models, the classical Gauss-Fisher-Le Cam theory of the optimality of maximum likelihood estimators and Bayesian posterior inference does not apply, and new foundations and ideas have been developed in the past several decades. This book gives a coherent account of the statistical theory in infinite-dimensional parameter spaces. The mathematical foundations include self-contained 'mini-courses' on the theory of Gaussian and empirical processes, on approximation and wavelet theory, and on the basic theory of function spaces. The theory of statistical inference in such models - hypothesis testing, estimation and confidence sets - is then presented within the minimax paradigm of decision theory. This includes the basic theory of convolution kernel and projection estimation, but also Bayesian nonparametrics and nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation. In the final chapter, the theory of adaptive inference in nonparametric models is developed, including Lepski's method, wavelet thresholding, and adaptive inference for self-similar functions.

Price : $210

This entry-level text offers clear and concise guidelines on how to select, construct, interpret, and evaluate count data. Written for researchers with little or no background in advanced statistics, the book presents treatments of all major models using numerous tables, insets, and detailed modeling suggestions. It begins by demonstrating the fundamentals of modeling count data, including a thorough presentation of the Poisson model. It then works up to an analysis of the problem of overdispersion and of the negative binomial model, and finally to the many variations that can be made to the base count models. Examples in Stata, R, and SAS code enable readers to adapt models for their own purposes, making the text an ideal resource for researchers working in health, ecology, econometrics, transportation, and other fields.

Price : $210

This book treats the latest developments in the theory of order-restricted inference, with special attention to nonparametric methods and algorithmic aspects. Among the topics treated are current status and interval censoring models, competing risk models, and deconvolution. Methods of order restricted inference are used in computing maximum likelihood estimators and developing distribution theory for inverse problems of this type. The authors have been active in developing these tools and present the state of the art and the open problems in the field. The earlier chapters provide an introduction to the subject, while the later chapters are written with graduate students and researchers in mathematical statistics in mind. Each chapter ends with a set of exercises of varying difficulty. The theory is illustrated with the analysis of real-life data, which are mostly medical in nature.

Price : $210

Massive amounts of data on human beings can now be analyzed. Pragmatic purposes abound, including selling goods and services, winning political campaigns, and identifying possible terrorists. Yet 'big data' can also be harnessed to serve the public good: scientists can use big data to do research that improves the lives of human beings, improves government services, and reduces taxpayer costs. In order to achieve this goal, researchers must have access to this data - raising important privacy questions. What are the ethical and legal requirements? What are the rules of engagement? What are the best ways to provide access while also protecting confidentiality? Are there reasonable mechanisms to compensate citizens for privacy loss? The goal of this book is to answer some of these questions. The book's authors paint an intellectual landscape that includes legal, economic, and statistical frameworks. The authors also identify new practical approaches that simultaneously maximize the utility of data access while minimizing information risk.

Price : $210

Interest in the skew-normal and related families of distributions has grown enormously over recent years, as theory has advanced, challenges of data have grown, and computational tools have made substantial progress. This comprehensive treatment, blending theory and practice, will be the standard resource for statisticians and applied researchers. Assuming only basic knowledge of (non-measure-theoretic) probability and statistical inference, the book is accessible to the wide range of researchers who use statistical modelling techniques. Guiding readers through the main concepts and results, it covers both the probability and the statistics sides of the subject, in the univariate and multivariate settings. The theoretical development is complemented by numerous illustrations and applications to a range of fields including quantitative finance, medical statistics, environmental risk studies, and industrial and business efficiency. The author's freely available R package sn, available from CRAN, equips readers to put the methods into action with their own data.

Price : $210

This book is about the statistical principles behind the design of effective experiments and focuses on the practical needs of applied statisticians and experimenters engaged in design, implementation and analysis. Emphasising the logical principles of statistical design, rather than mathematical calculation, the authors demonstrate how all available information can be used to extract the clearest answers to many questions. The principles are illustrated with a wide range of examples drawn from real experiments in medicine, industry, agriculture and many experimental disciplines. Numerous exercises are given to help the reader practise techniques and to appreciate the difference that good design can make to an experimental research project. Based on Roger Mead's excellent Design of Experiments, this new edition is thoroughly revised and updated to include modern methods relevant to applications in industry, engineering and modern biology. It also contains seven new chapters on contemporary topics, including restricted randomisation and fractional replication.

Price : $210