Adrian F. M. Smith - Böcker

This highly acclaimed text, now available in paperback, provides a thorough account of key concepts and theoretical results, with particular emphasis on viewing statistical inference as a special case of decision theory. Information-theoretic concepts play a central role in the development of the theory, which provides, in particular, a detailed discussion of the problem of specification of so-called prior ignorance . The work is written from the authors s committed Bayesian perspective, but an overview of non-Bayesian theories is also provided, and each chapter contains a wide-ranging critical re-examination of controversial issues. The level of mathematics used is such that most material is accessible to readers with knowledge of advanced calculus. In particular, no knowledge of abstract measure theory is assumed, and the emphasis throughout is on statistical concepts rather than rigorous mathematics. The book will be an ideal source for all students and researchers in statistics, mathematics, decision analysis, economic and business studies, and all branches of science and engineering, who wish to further their understanding of Bayesian statistics

The Valencia International Meetings on Bayesian Statistics, held every four years, provide the main forum for researchers in the area to come together to present and discuss frontier developments in the field. The resulting Proceedings provide a definitive, up-to-date overview encompassing a wide range of theoretical and applied research. This sixth Proceedings is no exception, and will be an indispensable reference to all statisticians.

The Valencia International Meetings on Bayesian Statistics - established in 1979 and held every four years - have been the forum for a definitive overview of current concerns and activities in Bayesian statistics. These are the edited Proceedings of the Ninth meeting, and contain the invited papers each followed by their discussion and a rejoinder by the authors(s). In the tradition of the earlier editions, this encompasses an enormous range of theoretical and applied research, high lighting the breadth, vitality and impact of Bayesian thinking in interdisciplinary research across many fields as well as the corresponding growth and vitality of core theory and methodology.The Valencia 9 invited papers cover a broad range of topics, including foundational and core theoretical issues in statistics, the continued development of new and refined computational methods for complex Bayesian modelling, substantive applications of flexible Bayesian modelling, and new developments in the theory and methodology of graphical modelling. They also describe advances in methodology for specific applied fields, including financial econometrics and portfolio decision making, public policy applications for drug surveillance, studies in the physical and environmental sciences, astronomy and astrophysics, climate change studies, molecular biosciences, statistical genetics or stochastic dynamic networks in systems biology.

Nonlinear Bayesian modelling is a relatively new field, but one that has seen a recent explosion of interest. Nonlinear models offer more flexibility than those with linear assumptions, and their implementation has now become much easier due to increases in computational power. Bayesian methods allow for the incorporation of prior information, allowing the user to make coherent inference. Bayesian Methods for Nonlinear Classification and Regression is the first book to bring together, in a consistent statistical framework, the ideas of nonlinear modelling and Bayesian methods.* Focuses on the problems of classification and regression using flexible, data-driven approaches.* Demonstrates how Bayesian ideas can be used to improve existing statistical methods.* Includes coverage of Bayesian additive models, decision trees, nearest-neighbour, wavelets, regression splines, and neural networks.* Emphasis is placed on sound implementation of nonlinear models.* Discusses medical, spatial, and economic applications.* Includes problems at the end of most of the chapters.* Supported by a web site featuring implementation code and data sets.Primarily of interest to researchers of nonlinear statistical modelling, the book will also be suitable for graduate students of statistics. The book will benefit researchers involved inregression and classification modelling from electrical engineering, economics, machine learning and computer science.