Nicholas P. Jewell - Böcker

Statistical models and methods for lifetime and other time-to-event data are widely used in many fields, including medicine, the environmental sciences, actuarial science, engineering, economics, management and the social sciences. For example, closely related statistical methods have been applied to the study of the incubation period of diseases such as AIDS, the remission time of cancers, life tables, the time-to-failure of engineering systems, employment duration and the length of marriages. This volume contains a selection of papers based on the 1994 International Research Conference on Lifetime Data Models in Reliability and Survival Analysis, held at Harvard University. The conference brought together a varied group of researchers and practitioners to advance and promote statistical science in the many fields that deal with lifetime and other time-to-event-data. The volume illustrates the depth and diversity of the field. A few of the authors have published their conference presentations in the new journal "Lifetime Data Analysis" (published by Kluwer Academic Publishers).

CAUSAL INFERENCE IN STATISTICSA PrimerCausality is central to the understanding and use of data. Without an understanding of cause–effect relationships, we cannot use data to answer questions as basic as "Does this treatment harm or help patients?" But though hundreds of introductory texts are available on statistical methods of data analysis, until now, no beginner-level book has been written about the exploding arsenal of methods that can tease causal information from data.Causal Inference in Statistics fills that gap. Using simple examples and plain language, the book lays out how to define causal parameters; the assumptions necessary to estimate causal parameters in a variety of situations; how to express those assumptions mathematically; whether those assumptions have testable implications; how to predict the effects of interventions; and how to reason counterfactually. These are the foundational tools that any student of statistics needs to acquire in order to use statistical methods to answer causal questions of interest.This book is accessible to anyone with an interest in interpreting data, from undergraduates, professors, researchers, or to the interested layperson. Examples are drawn from a wide variety of fields, including medicine, public policy, and law; a brief introduction to probability and statistics is provided for the uninitiated; and each chapter comes with study questions to reinforce the readers understanding.

Statistical models and methods for lifetime and other time-to-event data are widely used in many fields, including medicine, the environmental sciences, actuarial science, engineering, economics, management, and the social sciences. For example, closely related statistical methods have been applied to the study of the incubation period of diseases such as AIDS, the remission time of cancers, life tables, the time-to-failure of engineering systems, employment duration, and the length of marriages. This volume contains a selection of papers based on the 1994 International Research Conference on Lifetime Data Models in Reliability and Survival Analysis, held at Harvard University. The conference brought together a varied group of researchers and practitioners to advance and promote statistical science in the many fields that deal with lifetime and other time-to-event-data. The volume illustrates the depth and diversity of the field. A few of the authors have published their conference presentations in the new journal Lifetime Data Analysis (Kluwer Academic Publishers).

In 1974, the Societal Institute of the Mathematical Sciences (SIMS) initiated a series of five-day Research Application Conferences (RAC's) at Alta, Utah, for the purpose of probing in depth societal fields in light of their receptivity to mathematical and statistical analysis. The first eleven conferences addressed ecosystems, epidemiology, energy, environmental health, time series and ecological processes, energy and health, energy conversion and fluid mechanics, environmental epidemiology: risk assessment, atomic bomb survival data: utilization and analysis, modem statistical methods in chronic disease epidemiology and scientific issues in quantitative cancer risk assess­ ment. These Proceedings are a result of the twelfth conference on Statistical Methodology for Study of the AIDS Epidemic which was held in 1991 at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, California. For five days, 45 speakers and observers contributed their expertise in the relevant biology and statistics. The presentations were timely and the discussion was both enlightening and at times spirited. Members of the Program Committee for the Conference were Klaus Dietz (University of Tiibingen, Germany), Vernon T. Farewell (University of Waterloo, Ontario), and Nicholas P. Jewell (University of California, Berke­ ley) (Chair). The Conference was supported by a grant to SIMS from the National Institute of Drug Abuse. D. L. Thomsen, Jr.