Advanced Statistical Methods In Data Science

This book gathers invited presentations from the 2nd Symposium of the ICSA- CANADA Chapter held at the University of Calgary from August 4-6, 2015. The aim of this Symposium was to promote advanced statistical methods in big-data sciences and to allow researchers to exchange ideas on statistics and data science and to embraces the challenges and opportunities of statistics and data science in the modern world. It addresses diverse themes in advanced statistical analysis in big-data sciences, including methods for administrative data analysis, survival data analysis, missing data analysis, high-dimensional and genetic data analysis, longitudinal and functional data analysis, the design and analysis of studies with response-dependent and multi-phase designs, time series and robust statistics, statistical inference based on likelihood, empirical likelihood and estimating functions. The editorial group selected 14 high-quality presentations from this successful symposium and invited the presenters to prepare a full chapter for this book in order to disseminate the findings and promote further research collaborations in this area. This timely book offers new methods that impact advanced statistical model development in big-data sciences.

The theme of the meeting was “Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Large Data-Sets”. In recent years there has been increasing interest in this subject; in fact a huge quantity of information is often available but standard statistical techniques are usually not well suited to managing this kind of data. The conference serves as an important meeting point for European researchers working on this topic and a number of European statistical societies participated in the organization of the event. The book includes 45 papers from a selection of the 156 papers accepted for presentation and discussed at the conference on “Advanced Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Large Data-sets.”

Providing a much-needed bridge between elementary statistics courses and advanced research methods courses, Understanding Advanced Statistical Methods helps students grasp the fundamental assumptions and machinery behind sophisticated statistical topics, such as logistic regression, maximum likelihood, bootstrapping, nonparametrics, and Bayesian methods. The book teaches students how to properly model, think critically, and design their own studies to avoid common errors. It leads them to think differently not only about math and statistics but also about general research and the scientific method. With a focus on statistical models as producers of data, the book enables students to more easily understand the machinery of advanced statistics. It also downplays the "population" interpretation of statistical models and presents Bayesian methods before frequentist ones. Requiring no prior calculus experience, the text employs a "just-in-time" approach that introduces mathematical topics, including calculus, where needed. Formulas throughout the text are used to explain why calculus and probability are essential in statistical modeling. The authors also intuitively explain the theory and logic behind real data analysis, incorporating a range of application examples from the social, economic, biological, medical, physical, and engineering sciences. Enabling your students to answer the why behind statistical methods, this text teaches them how to successfully draw conclusions when the premises are flawed. It empowers them to use advanced statistical methods with confidence and develop their own statistical recipes. Ancillary materials are available on the book’s website.

Statistical methods are a key part of of data science, yet very few data scientists have any formal statistics training. Courses and books on basic statistics rarely cover the topic from a data science perspective. This practical guide explains how to apply various statistical methods to data science, tells you how to avoid their misuse, and gives you advice on what's important and what's not. Many data science resources incorporate statistical methods but lack a deeper statistical perspective. If you’re familiar with the R programming language, and have some exposure to statistics, this quick reference bridges the gap in an accessible, readable format. With this book, you’ll learn: Why exploratory data analysis is a key preliminary step in data science How random sampling can reduce bias and yield a higher quality dataset, even with big data How the principles of experimental design yield definitive answers to questions How to use regression to estimate outcomes and detect anomalies Key classification techniques for predicting which categories a record belongs to Statistical machine learning methods that “learn” from data Unsupervised learning methods for extracting meaning from unlabeled data

This book is intended for use in advanced graduate courses in statistics / machine learning, as well as for all experimental neuroscientists seeking to understand statistical methods at a deeper level, and theoretical neuroscientists with a limited background in statistics. It reviews almost all areas of applied statistics, from basic statistical estimation and test theory, linear and nonlinear approaches for regression and classification, to model selection and methods for dimensionality reduction, density estimation and unsupervised clustering. Its focus, however, is linear and nonlinear time series analysis from a dynamical systems perspective, based on which it aims to convey an understanding also of the dynamical mechanisms that could have generated observed time series. Further, it integrates computational modeling of behavioral and neural dynamics with statistical estimation and hypothesis testing. This way computational models in neuroscience are not only explanatory frameworks, but become powerful, quantitative data-analytical tools in themselves that enable researchers to look beyond the data surface and unravel underlying mechanisms. Interactive examples of most methods are provided through a package of MatLab routines, encouraging a playful approach to the subject, and providing readers with a better feel for the practical aspects of the methods covered. "Computational neuroscience is essential for integrating and providing a basis for understanding the myriads of remarkable laboratory data on nervous system functions. Daniel Durstewitz has excellently covered the breadth of computational neuroscience from statistical interpretations of data to biophysically based modeling of the neurobiological sources of those data. His presentation is clear, pedagogically sound, and readily useable by experts and beginners alike. It is a pleasure to recommend this very well crafted discussion to experimental neuroscientists as well as mathematically well versed Physicists. The book acts as a window to the issues, to the questions, and to the tools for finding the answers to interesting inquiries about brains and how they function." Henry D. I. Abarbanel Physics and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego “This book delivers a clear and thorough introduction to sophisticated analysis approaches useful in computational neuroscience. The models described and the examples provided will help readers develop critical intuitions into what the methods reveal about data. The overall approach of the book reflects the extensive experience Prof. Durstewitz has developed as a leading practitioner of computational neuroscience. “ Bruno B. Averbeck

Carry out a variety of advanced statistical analyses including generalized additive models, mixed effects models, multiple imputation, machine learning, and missing data techniques using R. Each chapter starts with conceptual background information about the techniques, includes multiple examples using R to achieve results, and concludes with a case study. Written by Matt and Joshua F. Wiley, Advanced R Statistical Programming and Data Models shows you how to conduct data analysis using the popular R language. You’ll delve into the preconditions or hypothesis for various statistical tests and techniques and work through concrete examples using R for a variety of these next-level analytics. This is a must-have guide and reference on using and programming with the R language. What You’ll LearnConduct advanced analyses in R including: generalized linear models, generalized additive models, mixed effects models, machine learning, and parallel processing Carry out regression modeling using R data visualization, linear and advanced regression, additive models, survival / time to event analysis Handle machine learning using R including parallel processing, dimension reduction, and feature selection and classification Address missing data using multiple imputation in R Work on factor analysis, generalized linear mixed models, and modeling intraindividual variability Who This Book Is For Working professionals, researchers, or students who are familiar with R and basic statistical techniques such as linear regression and who want to learn how to use R to perform more advanced analytics. Particularly, researchers and data analysts in the social sciences may benefit from these techniques. Additionally, analysts who need parallel processing to speed up analytics are given proven code to reduce time to result(s).

"Ntoumanis and Myers have done sport and exercise science researchers and students a tremendous service in producing An Introduction to Intermediate and Advanced Statistical Analyses for Sport and Exercise Scientists. This book has an outstanding compilation of comprehensible chapters dealing with the important concepts and technical minutia of the statistical analyses that sport and exercise science scholars use (or should be using!) in their efforts to conduct meaningful research in the field. It is a resource that all sport and exercise scientists and their students should have on their book shelves." —Robert Eklund, School of Sport, University of Stirling, UK "Motivating, to have a statistics text devoted to enabling researchers studying sport and exercise science to apply the most sophisticated analytical techniques to their data. Authors hit the mark between using technical language as necessary and user-friendly terms or translations to keep users encouraged. Text covers traditional and well-used tools but also less common and more complex tools, but always with familiar examples to make their explanations come alive. As a dynamic systems theorist and developmentalist, I would love to see more researchers in my area create study designs that would enable the use of tools outlined here, such as multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) or mediation & moderation analyses, to uncover cascades of relations among subsystems contributing to motor performance, over time. This text can facilitate that outcome." —Beverly D. Ulrich, School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, USA "The domain of quantitative methods is constantly evolving and expanding. This means that there is tremendous pressure on researchers to stay current, both in terms of best practices and improvements in more traditional methods as well as increasingly complex new methods. With this volume Ntoumanis and Myers present a nice cross-section of both, helping sport and exercise science researchers to address old questions in better ways, and, even more excitingly, to address new questions entirely. I have no doubt that this volume will quickly become a lovingly dog-eared companion for students and researchers, helping them to continue to move the field forward." —Gregory R. Hancock, University of Maryland and Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research (CILVR), USA

Recent Statistical techniques are one of the basal evidence for clinical research, a pivotal in handling new clinical research and in evaluating and applying prior research. This book explores various choices of statistical tools and mechanisms, analyses of the associations among different clinical attributes. It uses advanced statistical methods to describe real clinical data sets, when the clinical processes being examined are still in the process. This book also discusses distinct methods for building predictive and probability distribution models in clinical situations and ways to assess the stability of these models and other quantitative conclusions drawn by realistic experimental data sets. Design of experiments and recent posthoc tests have been used in comparing treatment effects and precision of the experimentation. This book also facilitates clinicians towards understanding statistics and enabling them to follow and evaluate the real empirical studies (formulation of randomized control trial) that pledge insight evidence base for clinical practices. This book will be a useful resource for clinicians, postgraduates scholars in medicines, clinical research beginners and academicians to nurture high-level statistical tools with extensive scope.