Statistical Multiple Integration

High dimensional integration arises naturally in two major sub-fields of statistics: multivariate and Bayesian statistics. Indeed, the most common measures of central tendency, variation, and loss are defined by integrals over the sample space, the parameter space, or both. Recent advances in computational power have stimulated significant new advances in both Bayesian and classical multivariate statistics. In many statistical problems, however, multiple integration can be the major obstacle to solutions. This volume contains the proceedings of an AMS-IMS-SIAM Joint Summer Research Conference on Statistical Multiple Integration, held in June 1989 at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. The conference represents an attempt to bring together mathematicians, statisticians, and computational scientists to focus on the many important problems in statistical multiple integration. The papers document the state of the art in this area with respect to problems in statistics, potential advances blocked by problems with multiple integration, and current work directed at expanding the capability to integrate over high dimensional surfaces.

This is the first book devoted to lattice methods, a recently developed way of calculating multiple integrals in many variables. Multiple integrals of this kind arise in fields such as quantum physics and chemistry, statistical mechanics, Bayesian statistics and many others. Lattice methods are an effective tool when the number of integrals are large. The book begins with a review of existing methods before presenting lattice theory in a thorough, self-contained manner, with numerous illustrations and examples. Group and number theory are included, but the treatment is such that no prior knowledge is needed. Not only the theory but the practical implementation of lattice methods is covered. An algorithm is presented alongside tables not available elsewhere, which together allow the practical evaluation of multiple integrals in many variables. Most importantly, the algorithm produces an error estimate in a very efficient manner. The book also provides a fast track for readers wanting to move rapidly to using lattice methods in practical calculations. It concludes with extensive numerical tests which compare lattice methods with other methods, such as the Monte Carlo.

Designed to help motivate the learning of advanced calculus by demonstrating its relevance in the field of statistics, this successful text features detailed coverage of optimization techniques and their applications in statistics while introducing the reader to approximation theory. The Second Edition provides substantial new coverage of the material, including three new chapters and a large appendix that contains solutions to almost all of the exercises in the book. Applications of some of these methods in statistics are discusses.

The environment for obtaining information and providing statistical data for policy makers and the public has changed significantly in the past decade, raising questions about the fundamental survey paradigm that underlies federal statistics. New data sources provide opportunities to develop a new paradigm that can improve timeliness, geographic or subpopulation detail, and statistical efficiency. It also has the potential to reduce the costs of producing federal statistics. The panel's first report described federal statistical agencies' current paradigm, which relies heavily on sample surveys for producing national statistics, and challenges agencies are facing; the legal frameworks and mechanisms for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of statistical data and for providing researchers access to data, and challenges to those frameworks and mechanisms; and statistical agencies access to alternative sources of data. The panel recommended a new approach for federal statistical programs that would combine diverse data sources from government and private sector sources and the creation of a new entity that would provide the foundational elements needed for this new approach, including legal authority to access data and protect privacy. This second of the panel's two reports builds on the analysis, conclusions, and recommendations in the first one. This report assesses alternative methods for implementing a new approach that would combine diverse data sources from government and private sector sources, including describing statistical models for combining data from multiple sources; examining statistical and computer science approaches that foster privacy protections; evaluating frameworks for assessing the quality and utility of alternative data sources; and various models for implementing the recommended new entity. Together, the two reports offer ideas and recommendations to help federal statistical agencies examine and evaluate data from alternative sources and then combine them as appropriate to provide the country with more timely, actionable, and useful information for policy makers, businesses, and individuals.

This book explains how computer software is designed to perform the tasks required for sophisticated statistical analysis. For statisticians, it examines the nitty-gritty computational problems behind statistical methods. For mathematicians and computer scientists, it looks at the application of mathematical tools to statistical problems. The first half of the book offers a basic background in numerical analysis that emphasizes issues important to statisticians. The next several chapters cover a broad array of statistical tools, such as maximum likelihood and nonlinear regression. The author also treats the application of numerical tools; numerical integration and random number generation are explained in a unified manner reflecting complementary views of Monte Carlo methods. Each chapter contains exercises that range from simple questions to research problems. Most of the examples are accompanied by demonstration and source code available from the author's website. New in this second edition are demonstrations coded in R, as well as new sections on linear programming and the Nelder–Mead search algorithm.

This book is designed to introduce graduate students and researchers to the primary methods useful for approximating integrals. The emphasis is on those methods that have been found to be of practical use, and although the focus is on approximating higher- dimensional integrals the lower-dimensional case is also covered. Included in the book are asymptotic techniques, multiple quadrature and quasi-random techniques as well as a complete development of Monte Carlo algorithms. For the Monte Carlo section importance sampling methods, variance reduction techniques and the primary Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms are covered. This book brings these various techniques together for the first time, and hence provides an accessible textbook and reference for researchers in a wide variety of disciplines.

This book assembles papers which were presented at the biennial sympo sium in Computational Statistics held und er the a!uspices of the International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC), a section of ISI, the Interna tional Statistical Institute. This symposium named COMPSTAT '94 was organized by the Statistical Institutes of the University of Vienna and the University of Technology of Vienna, Austria. The series of COMPSTAT Symposia started 1974 in Vienna. Mean while they took place every other year in Berlin (Germany, 1976), Leiden (The Netherlands, 1978), Edinburgh (Great Britain, 1980), Toulouse (France, 1982), Prague (Czechoslovakia, 1984), Rom (Italy, 1986), Copenhagen (Den mark, 1988), Dubrovnik (Yugoslavia, 1990) and Neuchätel (Switzerland, 1992). This year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary in Vienna, Austria. It has obviously been observed a movement from "traditional" computa tional statistics with emphasis on methods which produce results quickly and reliably, to computationally intensive methods like resampling procedures, Bayesian methods, dynamic graphics, to very recent areas like neural net works, accentuation on spatial statistics, huge data sets, analysis strategies, etc. For the organization of the symposium, new guidelines worked out by the IASC in written form were in effect this time. The goal was to refresh somehow the spirit of the start of COMPSTAT '74, keep the tradition of the series and ensure a certain continuity in the sequence of biannual meetings.

Self-contained and suitable for undergraduate students, this text offers a working knowledge of calculus and statistics. It assumes only a familiarity with basic analytic geometry, presenting a coordinated study that develops the interrelationships between calculus, probability, and statistics. Starting with the basic concepts of function and probability, the text addresses some specific probabilities and proceeds to surveys of random variables and graphs, the derivative, applications of the derivative, sequences and series, and integration. Additional topics include the integral and continuous variates, some basic discrete distributions, as well as other important distributions, hypothesis testing, functions of several variables, and regression and correlation. The text concludes with an appendix, answers to selected exercises, a general index, and an index of symbols.