How does an algebraic geometer studying secant varieties further the understanding of hypothesis tests in statistics? Why would a statistician working on factor analysis raise open problems about determinantal varieties? Connections of this type are at the heart of the new field of "algebraic statistics". In this field, mathematicians and statisticians come together to solve statistical inference problems using concepts from algebraic geometry as well as related computational and combinatorial techniques. The goal of these lectures is to introduce newcomers from the different camps to algebraic statistics. The introduction will be centered around the following three observations: many important statistical models correspond to algebraic or semi-algebraic sets of parameters; the geometry of these parameter spaces determines the behaviour of widely used statistical inference procedures; computational algebraic geometry can be used to study parameter spaces and other features of statistical models.

This book, first published in 2005, offers an introduction to the application of algebraic statistics to computational biology.

Algebraic statistics is a rapidly developing field, where ideas from statistics and algebra meet and stimulate new research directions. One of the origins of algebraic statistics is the work by Diaconis and Sturmfels in 1998 on the use of Gröbner bases for constructing a connected Markov chain for performing conditional tests of a discrete exponential family. In this book we take up this topic and present a detailed summary of developments following the seminal work of Diaconis and Sturmfels. This book is intended for statisticians with minimal backgrounds in algebra. As we ourselves learned algebraic notions through working on statistical problems and collaborating with notable algebraists, we hope that this book with many practical statistical problems is useful for statisticians to start working on the field.

This book provides an introduction to various aspects of Algebraic Statistics with the principal aim of supporting Master’s and PhD students who wish to explore the algebraic point of view regarding recent developments in Statistics. The focus is on the background needed to explore the connections among discrete random variables. The main objects that encode these relations are multilinear matrices, i.e., tensors. The book aims to settle the basis of the correspondence between properties of tensors and their translation in Algebraic Geometry. It is divided into three parts, on Algebraic Statistics, Multilinear Algebra, and Algebraic Geometry. The primary purpose is to describe a bridge between the three theories, so that results and problems in one theory find a natural translation to the others. This task requires, from the statistical point of view, a rather unusual, but algebraically natural, presentation of random variables and their main classical features. The third part of the book can be considered as a short, almost self-contained, introduction to the basic concepts of algebraic varieties, which are part of the fundamental background for all who work in Algebraic Statistics.

A decade after the publication of Contemporary Mathematics Vol. 287, the present volume demonstrates the consolidation of important areas, such as algebraic statistics, computational commutative algebra, and deeper aspects of graphical models. --

Higher Dimensional Algebraic Geometry presents recent advances in the classification of complex projective varieties. Recent results in the minimal model program are discussed, and an introduction to the theory of moduli spaces is presented.

This book focuses on statistical inferences related to various combinatorial stochastic processes. Specifically, it discusses the intersection of three subjects that are generally studied independently of each other: partitions, hypergeometric systems, and Dirichlet processes. The Gibbs partition is a family of measures on integer partition, and several prior processes, such as the Dirichlet process, naturally appear in connection with infinite exchangeable Gibbs partitions. Examples include the distribution on a contingency table with fixed marginal sums and the conditional distribution of Gibbs partition given the length. The A-hypergeometric distribution is a class of discrete exponential families and appears as the conditional distribution of a multinomial sample from log-affine models. The normalizing constant is the A-hypergeometric polynomial, which is a solution of a system of linear differential equations of multiple variables determined by a matrix A, called A-hypergeometric system. The book presents inference methods based on the algebraic nature of the A-hypergeometric system, and introduces the holonomic gradient methods, which numerically solve holonomic systems without combinatorial enumeration, to compute the normalizing constant. Furher, it discusses Markov chain Monte Carlo and direct samplers from A-hypergeometric distribution, as well as the maximum likelihood estimation of the A-hypergeometric distribution of two-row matrix using properties of polytopes and information geometry. The topics discussed are simple problems, but the interdisciplinary approach of this book appeals to a wide audience with an interest in statistical inference on combinatorial stochastic processes, including statisticians who are developing statistical theories and methodologies, mathematicians wanting to discover applications of their theoretical results, and researchers working in various fields of data sciences.

An up-to-date account of algebraic statistics and information geometry, which also explores the emerging connections between these two disciplines.

Systems Biology is now entering a mature phase in which the key issues are characterising uncertainty and stochastic effects in mathematical models of biological systems. The area is moving towards a full statistical analysis and probabilistic reasoning over the inferences that can be made from mathematical models. This handbook presents a comprehensive guide to the discipline for practitioners and educators, in providing a full and detailed treatment of these important and emerging subjects. Leading experts in systems biology and statistics have come together to provide insight in to the major ideas in the field, and in particular methods of specifying and fitting models, and estimating the unknown parameters. This book: Provides a comprehensive account of inference techniques in systems biology. Introduces classical and Bayesian statistical methods for complex systems. Explores networks and graphical modeling as well as a wide range of statistical models for dynamical systems. Discusses various applications for statistical systems biology, such as gene regulation and signal transduction. Features statistical data analysis on numerous technologies, including metabolic and transcriptomic technologies. Presents an in-depth presentation of reverse engineering approaches. Provides colour illustrations to explain key concepts. This handbook will be a key resource for researchers practising systems biology, and those requiring a comprehensive overview of this important field.

In 2006, Paul W. Holland retired from Educational Testing Service (ETS) after a career spanning five decades. In 2008, ETS sponsored a conference, Looking Back, honoring his contributions to applied and theoretical psychometrics and statistics. Looking Back attracted a large audience that came to pay homage to Paul Holland and to hear presentations by colleagues who worked with him in special ways over those 40+ years. This book contains papers based on these presentations, as well as vignettes provided by Paul Holland before each section. The papers in this book attest to how Paul Holland's pioneering ideas influenced and continue to influence several fields such as social networks, causal inference, item response theory, equating, and DIF. He applied statistical thinking to a broad range of ETS activities in test development, statistical analysis, test security, and operations. The original papers contained in this book provide historical context for Paul Holland’s work alongside commentary on some of his major contributions by noteworthy statisticians working today.