Parametric And Nonparametric Inference From Record Breaking Data

Parametric and Nonparametric Inference from Record-Breaking Data

Parametric and Nonparametric Inference from Record-Breaking Data

As statisticians, we are constantly trying to make inferences about the underlying population from which data are observed. This includes estimation and prediction about the underlying population parameters from both complete and incomplete data. Recently, methodology for estimation and prediction from incomplete data has been found useful for what is known as "record-breaking data," that is, data generated from setting new records. There has long been a keen interest in observing all kinds of records-in particular, sports records, financial records, flood records, and daily temperature records, to mention a few. The well-known Guinness Book of World Records is full of this kind of record information. As usual, beyond the general interest in knowing the last or current record value, the statistical problem of prediction of the next record based on past records has also been an important area of record research. Probabilistic and statistical models to describe behavior and make predictions from record-breaking data have been developed only within the last fifty or so years, with a relatively large amount of literature appearing on the subject in the last couple of decades. This book, written from a statistician's perspective, is not a compilation of "records," rather, it deals with the statistical issues of inference from a type of incomplete data, record-breaking data, observed as successive record values (maxima or minima) arising from a phenomenon or situation under study. Prediction is just one aspect of statistical inference based on observed record values.

Spatial Statistics and Computational Methods

Spatial statistics and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques have each undergone major developments in the last decade. Also, these two areas are mutually reinforcing, because MCMC methods are often necessary for the practical implementation of spatial statistical inference, while new spatial stochastic models in turn motivate the development of improved MCMC algorithms. This volume shows how sophisticated spatial statistical and computational methods apply to a range of problems of increasing importance for applications in science and technology. It consists of four chapters: 1. Petros Dellaportas and Gareth O. Roberts give a tutorial on MCMC methods, the computational methodology which is essential for virtually all the complex spatial models to be considered in subsequent chapters. 2. Peter J. Diggle, Paulo J, Ribeiro Jr., and Ole F. Christensen introduce the reader to the model- based approach to geostatistics, i.e. the application of general statistical principles to the formulation of explicit stochastic models for geostatistical data, and to inference within a declared class of models. 3. Merrilee A. Hurn, Oddvar K. Husby, and H?vard Rue discuss various aspects of image analysis, ranging from low to high level tasks, and illustrated with different examples of applications. 4. Jesper Moller and Rasmus P. Waggepetersen collect recent theoretical advances in simulation-based inference for spatial point processes, and discuss some examples of applications. The volume introduces topics of current interest in spatial and computational statistics, which should be accessible to postgraduate students as well as to experienced statistical researchers. It is partly based on the course material for the "TMR and MaPhySto Summer School on Spatial Statistics and Computational Methods," held at Aalborg University, Denmark, August 19-22, 2001.