Statistics in Practice – serie

Statistical Issues in Drug Development The revised third edition of Statistical Issues in Drug Development delivers an insightful treatment of the intersection between statistics and the life sciences. The book offers readers new discussions of crucial topics, including cluster randomization, historical controls, responder analysis, studies in children, post-hoc tests, estimands, publication bias, the replication crisis, and many more.This work presents the major statistical issues in drug development in a way that is accessible and comprehensible to life scientists working in the field, and takes pains not to gloss over significant disagreements in the field of statistics, while encouraging communication between the statistical and life sciences disciplines. In addition to new material on topics like invalid inversion, severity, random effects in network meta-analysis, and explained variation, readers will benefit from the inclusion of:A thorough introduction to basic topics in drug development and statistics, including the role played by statistics in drug developmentAn exploration of the four views of statistics in drug development, including the historical, methodological, technical, and professionalAn examination of debatable and controversial topics in drug development, including the allocation of treatments to patients in clinical trials, baselines and covariate information, and the measurement of treatment effectsPerfect for life scientists and other professionals working in the field of drug development, Statistical Issues in Drug Development is the ideal resource for anyone seeking a one-stop reference to enhance their understanding of the use of statistics during drug development.

Spatial point processes are mathematical models used to describe and analyse the geometrical structure of patterns formed by objects that are irregularly or randomly distributed in one-, two- or three-dimensional space. Examples include locations of trees in a forest, blood particles on a glass plate, galaxies in the universe, and particle centres in samples of material. Numerous aspects of the nature of a specific spatial point pattern may be described using the appropriate statistical methods. Statistical Analysis and Modelling of Spatial Point Patterns provides a practical guide to the use of these specialised methods. The application-oriented approach helps demonstrate the benefits of this increasingly popular branch of statistics to a broad audience.The book: Provides an introduction to spatial point patterns for researchers across numerous areas of applicationAdopts an extremely accessible style, allowing the non-statistician complete understandingDescribes the process of extracting knowledge from the data, emphasising the marked point processDemonstrates the analysis of complex datasets, using applied examples from areas including biology, forestry, and materials scienceFeatures a supplementary website containing example datasets.Statistical Analysis and Modelling of Spatial Point Patterns is ideally suited for researchers in the many areas of application, including environmental statistics, ecology, physics, materials science, geostatistics, and biology. It is also suitable for students of statistics, mathematics, computer science, biology and geoinformatics.

This book covers all the latest advances, as well as more established methods, in the application of statistical and optimisation methods within modern industry. These include applications from a range of industries that include micro-electronics, chemical, automotive, engineering, food, component assembly, household goods and plastics. Methods range from basic graphical approaches to generalised modelling, from designed experiments to process control. Solutions cover produce and process design, through manufacture to packaging and delivery, from single responses to multivariate problems.

The need to understand and quantify change is fundamental throughout the environmental sciences. This might involve describing past variation, understanding the mechanisms underlying observed changes, making projections of possible future change, or monitoring the effect of intervening in some environmental system. This book provides an overview of modern statistical techniques that may be relevant in problems of this nature. Practitioners studying environmental change will be familiar with many classical statistical procedures for the detection and estimation of trends. However, the ever increasing capacity to collect and process vast amounts of environmental information has led to growing awareness that such procedures are limited in the insights that they can deliver. At the same time, significant developments in statistical methodology have often been widely dispersed in the statistical literature and have therefore received limited exposure in the environmental science community. This book aims to provide a thorough but accessible review of these developments. It is split into two parts: the first provides an introduction to this area and the second part presents a collection of case studies illustrating the practical application of modern statistical approaches to the analysis of trends in real studies.Key Features: Presents a thorough introduction to the practical application and methodology of trend analysis in environmental science.Explores non-parametric estimation and testing as well as parametric techniques.Methods are illustrated using case studies from a variety of environmental application areas.Looks at trends in all aspects of a process including mean, percentiles and extremes.Supported by an accompanying website featuring datasets and R code.The book is designed to be accessible to readers with some basic statistical training, but also contains sufficient detail to serve as a reference for practising statisticians. It will therefore be of use to postgraduate students and researchers both in the environmental sciences and in statistics.

The growth of biostatistics has been phenomenal in recent years and has been marked by considerable technical innovation in both methodology and computational practicality. One area that has experienced significant growth is Bayesian methods. The growing use of Bayesian methodology has taken place partly due to an increasing number of practitioners valuing the Bayesian paradigm as matching that of scientific discovery. In addition, computational advances have allowed for more complex models to be fitted routinely to realistic data sets. Through examples, exercises and a combination of introductory and more advanced chapters, this book provides an invaluable understanding of the complex world of biomedical statistics illustrated via a diverse range of applications taken from epidemiology, exploratory clinical studies, health promotion studies, image analysis and clinical trials.Key Features: Provides an authoritative account of Bayesian methodology, from its most basic elements to its practical implementation, with an emphasis on healthcare techniques.Contains introductory explanations of Bayesian principles common to all areas of application.Presents clear and concise examples in biostatistics applications such as clinical trials, longitudinal studies, bioassay, survival, image analysis and bioinformatics.Illustrated throughout with examples using software including WinBUGS, OpenBUGS, SAS and various dedicated R programs.Highlights the differences between the Bayesian and classical approaches.Supported by an accompanying website hosting free software and case study guides.Bayesian Biostatistics introduces the reader smoothly into the Bayesian statistical methods with chapters that gradually increase in level of complexity. Master students in biostatistics, applied statisticians and all researchers with a good background in classical statistics who have interest in Bayesian methods will find this book useful.

A mixed model allows the incorporation of both fixed and random variables within a statistical analysis. This enables efficient inferences and more information to be gained from the data. The application of mixed models is an increasingly popular way of analysing medical data, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. There have been many recent advances in mixed modelling, particularly regarding the software and applications. This new edition of a groundbreaking text discusses the latest developments, from updated SAS techniques to the increasingly wide range of applications. Presents an overview of the theory and applications of mixed models in medical research, including the latest developments and new sections on bioequivalence, cluster randomised trials and missing data.Easily accessible to practitioners in any area where mixed models are used, including medical statisticians and economists.Includes numerous examples using real data from medical and health research, and epidemiology, illustrated with SAS code and output.Features new version of SAS, including the procedure PROC GLIMMIX and an introduction to other available software.Supported by a website featuring computer code, data sets, and further material, available at: http://www.chs.med.ed.ac.uk/phs/mixed/.This much-anticipated second edition is ideal for applied statisticians working in medical research and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as teachers and students of statistics courses in mixed models. The text will also be of great value to a broad range of scientists, particularly those working the medical and pharmaceutical areas.

The promotion of standards and guidelines to advance quality assurance and control is an integral part of the health care sector. Quantitative methods are needed to monitor, control and improve the quality of medical processes. Statistical Development of Quality in Medicine presents the statistical concepts behind the application of industrial quality control methods. Filled with numerous case studies and worked examples, the text enables the reader to choose the relevant control chart, to critically apply it, improve it if necessary, and monitor its stability. Furthermore, the reader is provided with the necessary background to critically assess the literature on the application of control charts and risk adjustment and to apply the findings. Contains a user-friendly introduction, setting out the necessary statistical concepts used in the field.Uses numerous real-life case studies from the literature and the authors’ own research as the backbone of the text.Provides a supplementary website featuring problems and answers drawn from the book, alongside examples in Statgraphics.The accessible style of Statistical Development of in Clinical Medicine invites a large readership. It is primarily aimed at health care officials, and personnel responsible for developing and controlling the quality of health care services. However, it is also ideal for statisticians working with health care problems, diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies, and graduate students of quality control.

The development and application of multivariate statistical techniques in process monitoring has gained substantial interest over the past two decades in academia and industry alike.  Initially developed for monitoring and fault diagnosis in complex systems, such techniques have been refined and applied in various engineering areas, for example mechanical and manufacturing, chemical, electrical and electronic, and power engineering.  The recipe for the tremendous interest in multivariate statistical techniques lies in its simplicity and adaptability for developing monitoring applications.  In contrast, competitive model, signal or knowledge based techniques showed their potential only whenever cost-benefit economics have justified the required effort in developing applications.Statistical Monitoring of Complex Multivariate Processes presents recent advances in statistics based process monitoring, explaining how these processes can now be used in areas such as mechanical and manufacturing engineering for example, in addition to the traditional chemical industry.This book: Contains a detailed theoretical background of the component technology.Brings together a large body of work to address the field’s drawbacks, and develops methods for their improvement.Details cross-disciplinary utilization, exemplified by examples in chemical, mechanical and manufacturing engineering.Presents real life industrial applications, outlining deficiencies in the methodology and how to address them.Includes numerous examples, tutorial questions and homework assignments in the form of individual and team-based projects, to enhance the learning experience.Features a supplementary website including Matlab algorithms and data sets.This book provides a timely reference text to the rapidly evolving area of multivariate statistical analysis for academics, advanced level students, and practitioners alike.

Geostatistics is essential for environmental scientists. Weather and climate vary from place to place, soil varies at every scale at which it is examined, and even man-made attributes – such as the distribution of pollution – vary. The techniques used in geostatistics are ideally suited to the needs of environmental scientists, who use them to make the best of sparse data for prediction, and top plan future surveys when resources are limited. Geostatistical technology has advanced much in the last few years and many of these developments are being incorporated into the practitioner’s repertoire. This second edition describes these techniques for environmental scientists. Topics such as stochastic simulation, sampling, data screening, spatial covariances, the variogram and its modeling, and spatial prediction by kriging are described in rich detail. At each stage the underlying theory is fully explained, and the rationale behind the choices given, allowing the reader to appreciate the assumptions and constraints involved.

Elicitation is the process of extracting expert knowledge about some unknown quantity or quantities, and formulating that information as a probability distribution. Elicitation is important in situations, such as modelling the safety of nuclear installations or assessing the risk of terrorist attacks, where expert knowledge is essentially the only source of good information. It also plays a major role in other contexts by augmenting scarce observational data, through the use of Bayesian statistical methods. However, elicitation is not a simple task, and practitioners need to be aware of a wide range of research findings in order to elicit expert judgements accurately and reliably. Uncertain Judgements introduces the area, before guiding the reader through the study of appropriate elicitation methods, illustrated by a variety of multi-disciplinary examples. This is achieved by: Presenting a methodological framework for the elicitation of expert knowledge incorporating findings from both statistical and psychological research.Detailing techniques for the elicitation of a wide range of standard distributions, appropriate to the most common types of quantities.Providing a comprehensive review of the available literature and pointing to the best practice methods and future research needs.Using examples from many disciplines, including statistics, psychology, engineering and health sciences.Including an extensive glossary of statistical and psychological terms.An ideal source and guide for statisticians and psychologists with interests in expert judgement or practical applications of Bayesian analysis, Uncertain Judgements will also benefit decision-makers, risk analysts, engineers and researchers in the medical and social sciences.

With increasing rates of pollution to both land and aquatic environments, regulations for the quality of our waters are necessarily becoming more stringent. In the light of recent epidemiological studies new criteria are being established for the safety of our recreational waters. In order for such criteria to be developed an established statistical framework needs to be in place. Statistical Framework for Recreational Water Quality Criteria and Monitoring offers a practical guide to the statistical methods used for assessing health effects and monitoring and modelling water quality Both traditional and novel sampling designs are discussed. Written by a team of international experts in the field, this book sets out to provide an essential structure for the monitoring of water quality.· Proposes a much-needed framework for the monitoring of water quality, and provides practical guidance on the statistical methods involved.· Covers risk characterization, empirical modelling, sensitivity analysis and measures of robustness.· Details sampling methods and quality control approaches.· Presents crucial, real-life results from recent large-scale studies of water quality, central to the development of the area.· Accompanied by a supplementary website hosting data sets and tools for data analysis.The book is primarily aimed at public health officials, staff of regulatory bodies and students and faculty members of environmental and statistical science courses. There is also much to benefit readers from environmental research and risk analysis.

Bayesian Networks, the result of the convergence of artificial intelligence with statistics, are growing in popularity. Their versatility and modelling power is now employed across a variety of fields for the purposes of analysis, simulation, prediction and diagnosis. This book provides a general introduction to Bayesian networks, defining and illustrating the basic concepts with pedagogical examples and twenty real-life case studies drawn from a range of fields including medicine, computing, natural sciences and engineering.Designed to help analysts, engineers, scientists and professionals taking part in complex decision processes to successfully implement Bayesian networks, this book equips readers with proven methods to generate, calibrate, evaluate and validate Bayesian networks.The book: Provides the tools to overcome common practical challenges such as the treatment of missing input data, interaction with experts and decision makers, determination of the optimal granularity and size of the model.  Highlights the strengths of Bayesian networks whilst also presenting a discussion of their limitations. Compares Bayesian networks with other modelling techniques such as neural networks, fuzzy logic and fault trees. Describes, for ease of comparison, the main features of the major Bayesian network software packages: Netica, Hugin, Elvira and Discoverer, from the point of view of the user. Offers a historical perspective on the subject and analyses future directions for research.Written by leading experts with practical experience of applying Bayesian networks in finance, banking, medicine, robotics, civil engineering, geology, geography, genetics, forensic science, ecology, and industry, the book has much to offer both practitioners and researchers involved in statistical analysis or modelling in any of these fields.

In the evaluation of healthcare, rigorous methods of quantitative assessment are necessary to establish interventions that are both effective and cost-effective. Usually a single study will not fully address these issues and it is desirable to synthesize evidence from multiple sources. This book aims to provide a practical guide to evidence synthesis for the purpose of decision making, starting with a simple single parameter model, where all studies estimate the same quantity (pairwise meta-analysis) and progressing to more complex multi-parameter structures (including meta-regression, mixed treatment comparisons, Markov models of disease progression, and epidemiology models). A comprehensive, coherent framework is adopted and estimated using Bayesian methods. Key features: A coherent approach to evidence synthesis from multiple sources.Focus is given to Bayesian methods for evidence synthesis that can be integrated within cost-effectiveness analyses in a probabilistic framework using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation.Provides methods to statistically combine evidence from a range of evidence structures.Emphasizes the importance of model critique and checking for evidence consistency.Presents numerous worked examples, exercises and solutions drawn from a variety of medical disciplines throughout the book.WinBUGS code is provided for all examples.Evidence Synthesis for Decision Making in Healthcare is intended for health economists, decision modelers, statisticians and others involved in evidence synthesis, health technology assessment, and economic evaluation of health technologies.

This is the first book-length treatment of statistical surveillance methods used in financial analysis. It contains carefully selected chapters written by specialists from both fields and strikes a balance between the financial and statistical worlds, enhancing future collaborations between the two areas, and enabling more successful prediction of financial market trends. The book discusses, in detail, schemes for different control charts and different linear and nonlinear time series models and applies methods to real data from worldwide markets, as well as including simulation studies.

Statistical methodology plays a key role in ensuring that DNA evidence is collected, interpreted, analyzed and presented correctly. With the recent advances in computer technology, this methodology is more complex than ever before. There are a growing number of books in the area but none are devoted to the computational analysis of evidence. This book presents the methodology of statistical DNA forensics with an emphasis on the use of computational techniques to analyze and interpret forensic evidence.

A practical guide to methods of survival analysis for medical researchers with limited statistical experience. Methods and techniques described range from descriptive and exploratory analysis to multivariate regression methods. Uses illustrative data from actual clinical trials and observational studies to describe methods of analysing and reporting results. Also reviews the features and performance of statistical software available for applying the methods of analysis discussed.

Studies in bioequivalence are the commonly accepted method to demonstrate therapeutic equivalence between two medicinal products. Savings in time and cost are substantial when using bioequivalence as an established surrogate marker of therapeutic equivalence. For this reason the design, performance and evaluation of bioequivalence studies have received major attention from academia, the pharmaceutical industry and health authorities. Bioequivalence Studies in Drug Development focuses on the planning, conducting, analysing and reporting of bioequivalence studies, covering all aspects required by regulatory authorities. This text presents the required statistical methods, and with an outstanding practical emphasis, demonstrates their applications through numerous examples using real data from drug development. Includes all the necessary pharmacokinetic background information.Presents parametric and nonparametric statistical techniques.Describes adequate methods for power and sample size determination.Includes appropriate presentation of results from bioequivalence studies.Provides a practical overview of the design and analysis of bioequivalence studies.Presents the recent developments in methodology, including population and individual bioequivalence.Reviews the regulatory guidelines for such studies, and the existing global discrepancies.Discusses the designs and analyses of drug-drug and food-drug interaction studies.Bioequivalence Studies in Drug Development is written in an accessible style that makes it ideal for pharmaceutical scientists, clinical pharmacologists, and medical practitioners, as well as biometricians working in the pharmaceutical industry. It will also be of great value for professionals from regulatory bodies assessing bioequivalence studies.

This book takes a fresh look at the popular and well-established method of maximum likelihood for statistical estimation and inference. It begins with an intuitive introduction to the concepts and background of likelihood, and moves through to the latest developments in maximum likelihood methodology, including general latent variable models and new material for the practical implementation of integrated likelihood using the free ADMB software. Fundamental issues of statistical inference are also examined, with a presentation of some of the philosophical debates underlying the choice of statistical paradigm. Key features: Provides an accessible introduction to pragmatic maximum likelihood modelling.Covers more advanced topics, including general forms of latent variable models (including non-linear and non-normal mixed-effects and state-space models) and the use of maximum likelihood variants, such as estimating equations, conditional likelihood, restricted likelihood and integrated likelihood.Adopts a practical approach, with a focus on providing the relevant tools required by researchers and practitioners who collect and analyze real data.Presents numerous examples and case studies across a wide range of applications including medicine, biology and ecology.Features applications from a range of disciplines, with implementation in R, SAS and/or ADMB.Provides all program code and software extensions on a supporting website.Confines supporting theory to the final chapters to maintain a readable and pragmatic focus of the preceding chapters.   This book is not just an accessible and practical text about maximum likelihood, it is a comprehensive guide to modern maximum likelihood estimation and inference. It will be of interest to readers of all levels, from novice to expert. It will be of great benefit to researchers, and to students of statistics from senior undergraduate to graduate level. For use as a course text, exercises are provided at the end of each chapter.

This groundbreaking book introduces the application of statistical methodologies to e-Commerce data With the expanding presence of technology in today's economic market, the use of the Internet for buying, selling, and investing is growing more popular and public in nature. Statistical Methods in e-Commerce Research is the first book of its kind to focus on the statistical models and methods that are essential in order to analyze information from electronic-commerce (e-Commerce) transactions, identify the challenges that arise with new e-Commerce data structures, and discover new knowledge about consumer activity. This collection gathers over thirty researchers and practitioners from the fields of statistics, computer science, information systems, and marketing to discuss the growing use of statistical methods in e-Commerce research. From privacy protection to economic impact, the book first identifies the many obstacles that are encountered while collecting, cleaning, exploring, and analyzing e-Commerce data. Solutions to these problems are then suggested using established and newly developed statistical and data mining methods. Finally, a look into the future of this evolving area of study is provided through an in-depth discussion of the emerging methods for conducting e-Commerce research. Statistical Methods in e-Commerce Research successfully bridges the gap between statistics and e-Commerce, introducing a statistical approach to solving challenges that arise in the context of online transactions, while also introducing a wide range of e-Commerce applications and problems where novel statistical methodology is warranted. It is an ideal text for courses on e-Commerce at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels and also serves as a valuable reference for researchers and analysts across a wide array of subject areas, including economics, marketing, and information systems who would like to gain a deeper understanding of the use of statistics in their work.

A new edition of the most comprehensive overview of statistical methods for environmental monitoring applications Thoroughly updated to provide current research findings, Statistical Methods for Groundwater Monitoring, Second Edition continues to provide a comprehensive overview and accessible treatment of the statistical methods that are useful in the analysis of environmental data. This new edition expands focus on statistical comparison to regulatory standards that are a vital part of assessment, compliance, and corrective action monitoring in the environmental sciences.The book explores quantitative concepts useful for surface water monitoring as well as soil and air monitoring applications while also maintaining a focus on the analysis of groundwater monitoring data in order to detect environmental impacts from a variety of sources, such as industrial activity and waste disposal. The authors introduce the statistical properties of alternative approaches, such as false positive and false negative rates, that are associated with each test and the factors related to these error rates. The Second Edition also features: An introduction to Intra-laboratory Calibration Curves and random-effects regression models for non-constant measurement variabilityCoverage of statistical prediction limits for a gamma-distributed random variable, with a focus on estimation and testing of parameters in environmental monitoring applicationsA unified treatment of censored data with the computation of statistical prediction, tolerance, and control limitsExpanded coverage of statistical issues related to laboratory practice, such as detection and quantitation limitsAn updated chapter on regulatory issues that outlines common mistakes to avoid in groundwater monitoring applications as well as an introduction to the newest regulations for both hazardous and municipal solid waste facilitiesEach chapter provides a general overview of a problem, followed by statistical derivation of the solution and a relevant example complete with computational details that allow readers to perform routine application of the statistical results. Relevant issues are highlighted throughout, and recommendations are also provided for specific problems based on characteristics such as number of monitoring wells, number of constituents, distributional form of measurements, and detection frequency.Statistical Methods for Groundwater Monitoring, Second Edition is an excellent supplement to courses on environmental statistics at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in the fields of biostatistics, engineering, and the environmental sciences who work with statistical methods in their everyday work.

A valuable guide to understanding the problem of quantifying uncertainty in dose response relations for toxic substances In today's scientific research, there exists the need to address the topic of uncertainty as it pertains to dose response modeling. Uncertainty Modeling in Dose Response is the first book of its kind to implement and compare different methods for quantifying the uncertainty in the probability of response, as a function of dose. This volume gathers leading researchers in the field to properly address the issue while communicating concepts from diverse viewpoints and incorporating valuable insights. The result is a collection that reveals the properties, strengths, and weaknesses that exist in the various approaches to bench test problems.This book works with four bench test problems that were taken from real bioassay data for hazardous substances currently under study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The use of actual data provides readers with information that is relevant and representative of the current work being done in the field. Leading contributors from the toxicology and risk assessment communities have applied their methods to quantify model uncertainty in dose response for each case by employing various approaches, including Benchmark Dose Software methods, probabilistic inversion with isotonic regression, nonparametric Bayesian modeling, and Bayesian model averaging. Each chapter is reviewed and critiqued from three professional points of view: risk analyst/regulator, statistician/mathematician, and toxicologist/epidemiologist. In addition, all methodologies are worked out in detail, allowing readers to replicate these analyses and gain a thorough understanding of the methods.Uncertainty Modeling in Dose Response is an excellent book for courses on risk analysis and biostatistics at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It also serves as a valuable reference for risk assessment, toxicology, biostatistics, and environmental chemistry professionals who wish to expand their knowledge and expertise in statistical dose response modeling problems and approaches.

Explore cutting-edge statistical methodologies for collecting, analyzing, and modeling online auction data Online auctions are an increasingly important marketplace, as the new mechanisms and formats underlying these auctions have enabled the capturing and recording of large amounts of bidding data that are used to make important business decisions. As a result, new statistical ideas and innovation are needed to understand bidders, sellers, and prices. Combining methodologies from the fields of statistics, data mining, information systems, and economics, Modeling Online Auctions introduces a new approach to identifying obstacles and asking new questions using online auction data.The authors draw upon their extensive experience to introduce the latest methods for extracting new knowledge from online auction data. Rather than approach the topic from the traditional game-theoretic perspective, the book treats the online auction mechanism as a data generator, outlining methods to collect, explore, model, and forecast data. Topics covered include: Data collection methods for online auctions and related issues that arise in drawing data samples from a Web siteModels for bidder and bid arrivals, treating the different approaches for exploring bidder-seller networksData exploration, such as integration of time series and cross-sectional information; curve clustering; semi-continuous data structures; and data hierarchiesThe use of functional regression as well as functional differential equation models, spatial models, and stochastic models for capturing relationships in auction dataSpecialized methods and models for forecasting auction prices and their applications in automated bidding decision rule systemsThroughout the book, R and MATLAB software are used for illustrating the discussed techniques. In addition, a related Web site features many of the book's datasets and R and MATLAB code that allow readers to replicate the analyses and learn new methods to apply to their own research.Modeling Online Auctions is a valuable book for graduate-level courses on data mining and applied regression analysis. It is also a one-of-a-kind reference for researchers in the fields of statistics, information systems, business, and marketing who work with electronic data and are looking for new approaches for understanding online auctions and processes.Visit this book's companion website at http://modelingonlineauctions.com/

Cluster randomised trials are trials in which groups (or clusters) of individuals are randomly allocated to different forms of treatment. In health care, these trials often compare different ways of managing a disease or promoting healthy living, in contrast to conventional randomised trials which randomise individuals to different treatments, classically comparing new drugs with a placebo. They are increasingly common in health services research. This book addresses the statistical, practical, and ethical issues arising from allocating groups of individuals, or clusters, to different interventions.  Key features:  Guides readers through the stages of conducting a trial, from recruitment to reporting.Presents a wide range of examples with particular emphasis on trials in health services research and primary care, with both principles and techniques explained.Topics are specifically presented in the order in which investigators think about issues when they are designing a trial.Combines information on the latest developments in the field together with a practical guide to the design and implementation of cluster randomised trials.Explains principles and techniques through numerous examples including many from the authors own experience.Includes a wide range of references for those who wish to read further. This book is intended as a practical guide, written for researchers from the health professions including doctors, psychologists, and allied health professionals, as well as statisticians involved in the design, execution, analysis and reporting of cluster randomised trials. Those with a more general interest will find the plentiful examples illuminating.

The field of high-throughput genetic experimentation is evolving rapidly, with the advent of new technologies and new venues for data mining. Bayesian methods play a role central to the future of data and knowledge integration in the field of Bioinformatics. This book is devoted exclusively to Bayesian methods of analysis for applications to high-throughput gene expression data, exploring the relevant methods that are changing Bioinformatics. Case studies, illustrating Bayesian analyses of public gene expression data, provide the backdrop for students to develop analytical skills, while the more experienced readers will find the review of advanced methods challenging and attainable. This book: Introduces the fundamentals in Bayesian methods of analysis for applications to high-throughput gene expression data.Provides an extensive review of Bayesian analysis and advanced topics for Bioinformatics, including examples that extensively detail the necessary applications.Accompanied by website featuring datasets, exercises and solutions.Bayesian Analysis of Gene Expression Data offers a unique introduction to both Bayesian analysis and gene expression, aimed at graduate students in Statistics, Biomedical Engineers, Computer Scientists, Biostatisticians, Statistical Geneticists, Computational Biologists, applied Mathematicians and Medical consultants working in genomics. Bioinformatics researchers from many fields will find much value in this book.

Statistical and Methodological Aspects of Oral Health Research provides oral health researchers with an overview of the methodological aspects that are important in planning, conducting and analyzing their research projects whilst also providing biostatisticians with an idea of the statistical problems that arise when tackling oral health research questions. This collection presents critical reflections on oral health research and offers advice on practical aspects of setting up research whilst introducing the reader to basic as well as advanced statistical methodology.Features: An introduction to research methodology and an exposition of the state of the art.A variety of examples from oral health research.Contributions from well-known oral health researchers, epidemiologists and biostatisticians, all of whom have rich experience in this area.Recent developments in statistical methodology prompted by a variety of dental applications.Presenting both an introduction to research methodology and an exposition of the latest advances in oral health research, this book will appeal both beginning and experienced oral health researchers as well as biostatisticians and epidemiologists.

Applied Missing Data Analysis in the Health Sciences A modern and practical guide to the essential concepts and ideas for analyzing data with missing observations in the field of biostatisticsWith an emphasis on hands-on applications, Applied Missing Data Analysis in the Health Sciences outlines the various statistical methods for the analysis of missing data. The authors acknowledge the limitations of established techniques and provide newly-developed methods with concrete applications in areas such as causal inference.Organized by types of data, chapter coverage begins with an overall introduction to the existence and limitations of missing data and continues into techniques for missing data inference, including likelihood-based, weighted GEE, multiple imputation, and Bayesian methods. The book subsequently covers cross-sectional, longitudinal, hierarchical, survival data. In addition, Applied Missing Data Analysis in the Health Sciences features: Multiple data sets that can be replicated using SAS®, Stata®, R, and WinBUGS software packagesNumerous examples of case studies to illustrate real-world scenarios and demonstrate applications of discussed methodologiesDetailed appendices to guide readers through the use of the presented data in various software environmentsApplied Missing Data Analysis in the Health Sciences is an excellent textbook for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level biostatistics courses as well as an ideal resource for health science researchers and applied statisticians.

It is quite common in a randomized clinical trial (RCT) to encounter patients who do not comply with their assigned treatment. Since noncompliance often occurs non-randomly, the commonly-used approaches, including both the as-treated (AT) and as-protocol (AP) analysis, and the intent-to-treat (ITT) (or as-randomized) analysis, are all well known to possibly produce a biased inference of the treatment efficacy. This book provides a systematic and organized approach to analyzing data for RCTs with noncompliance under the most frequently-encountered situations. These include parallel sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling, parallel sampling with subsequent missing outcomes, and a series of dependent Bernoulli sampling for repeated measurements. The author provides a comprehensive approach by using contingency tables to illustrate the latent probability structure of observed data. Using real-life examples, computer-simulated data and exercises in each chapter, the book illustrates the underlying theory in an accessible, and easy to understand way.Key features: Consort-flow diagrams and numerical examples are used to illustrate the bias of commonly used approaches, such as, AT analysis, AP analysis and ITT analysis for a RCT with noncompliance.Real-life examples are used throughout the book to explain the practical usefulness of test procedures and estimators.Each chapter is self-contained, allowing the book to be used as a reference source.Includes SAS programs which can be easily modified in calculating the required sample size.Biostatisticians, clinicians, researchers and data analysts working in pharmaceutical industries will benefit from this book. This text can also be used as supplemental material for a course focusing on clinical statistics or experimental trials in epidemiology, psychology and sociology.

The decision to implement environmental protection options is a political one. These, and other political and social decisions affect the balance of the ecosystem and how the point of equilibrium desired is to be reached. This book develops a stochastic, temporal model of how political processes influence and are influenced by ecosystem processes and looks at how to find the most politically feasible plan for managing an at-risk ecosystem. Finding such a plan is accomplished by first fitting a mechanistic political and ecological model to a data set composed of observations on both political actions that impact an ecosystem and variables that describe the ecosystem. The parameters of this fitted model are perturbed just enough to cause human behaviour to change so that desired ecosystem states occur. This perturbed model gives the ecosystem management plan needed to reach desired ecosystem states. To construct such a set of interacting models, topics from political science, ecology, probability, and statistics are developed and explored. Key features: Explores politically feasible ways to manage at-risk ecosystems.Gives agent-based models of how social groups affect ecosystems through time.Demonstrates how to fit models of population dynamics to mixtures of wildlife data.Presents statistical methods for fitting models of group behaviour to political action data.Supported by an accompanying website featuring datasets and JAVA code.This book will be useful to managers and analysts working in organizations charged with finding practical ways to sustain biodiversity or the physical environment. Furthermore this book also provides a political roadmap to help lawmakers and administrators improve institutional environmental management decision making.

Understanding Biostatistics looks at the fundamentals of biostatistics, using elementary statistics to explore the nature of statistical tests. This book is intended to complement first-year statistics and biostatistics textbooks. The main focus here is on ideas, rather than on methodological details. Basic concepts are illustrated with representations from history, followed by technical discussions on what different statistical methods really mean. Graphics are used extensively throughout the book in order to introduce mathematical formulae in an accessible way.Key features: Discusses confidence intervals and p-values in terms of confidence functions. Explains basic statistical methodology represented in terms of graphics rather than mathematical formulae, whilst highlighting the mathematical basis of biostatistics. Looks at problems of estimating parameters in statistical models and looks at the similarities between different models. Provides an extensive discussion on the position of statistics within the medical scientific process. Discusses distribution functions, including the Guassian distribution and its importance in biostatistics. This book will be useful for biostatisticians with little mathematical background as well as those who want to understand the connections in biostatistics and mathematical issues.