The explosive development of information science and technology puts in new problems involving statistical data analysis. These problems result from higher re quirements concerning the reliability of statistical decisions, the accuracy of math ematical models and the quality of control in complex systems. A new aspect of statistical analysis has emerged, closely connected with one of the basic questions of cynergetics: how to "compress" large volumes of experimental data in order to extract the most valuable information from data observed. De tection of large "homogeneous" segments of data enables one to identify "hidden" regularities in an object's behavior, to create mathematical models for each seg ment of homogeneity, to choose an appropriate control, etc. Statistical methods dealing with the detection of changes in the characteristics of random processes can be of great use in all these problems. These methods have accompanied the rapid growth in data beginning from the middle of our century. According to a tradition of more than thirty years, we call this sphere of statistical analysis the "theory of change-point detection. " During the last fifteen years, we have witnessed many exciting developments in the theory of change-point detection. New promising directions of research have emerged, and traditional trends have flourished anew. Despite this, most of the results are widely scattered in the literature and few monographs exist. A real need has arisen for up-to-date books which present an account of important current research trends, one of which is the theory of non parametric change--point detection.

This book covers the development of methods for detection and estimation of changes in complex systems. These systems are generally described by nonstationary stochastic models, which comprise both static and dynamic regimes, linear and nonlinear dynamics, and constant and time-variant structures of such systems. It covers both retrospective and sequential problems, particularly theoretical methods of optimal detection. Such methods are constructed and their characteristics are analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. Suitable for researchers working in change-point analysis and stochastic modelling, the book includes theoretical details combined with computer simulations and practical applications. Its rigorous approach will be appreciated by those looking to delve into the details of the methods, as well as those looking to apply them.

"Contains over 2500 equations and exhaustively covers not only nonparametrics but also parametric, semiparametric, frequentist, Bayesian, bootstrap, adaptive, univariate, and multivariate statistical methods, as well as practical uses of Markov chain models."

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.

In commemoration of the bicentennial of the birth of the “lady who gave the rose diagram to us”, this special contributed book pays a statistical tribute to Florence Nightingale. This book presents recent phenomenal developments, both in rigorous theory as well as in emerging methods, for applications in directional statistics, in 25 chapters with contributions from 65 renowned researchers from 25 countries. With the advent of modern techniques in statistical paradigms and statistical machine learning, directional statistics has become an indispensable tool. Ranging from data on circles to that on the spheres, tori and cylinders, this book includes solutions to problems on exploratory data analysis, probability distributions on manifolds, maximum entropy, directional regression analysis, spatio-directional time series, optimal inference, simulation, statistical machine learning with big data, and more, with their innovative applications to emerging real-life problems in astro-statistics, bioinformatics, crystallography, optimal transport, statistical process control, and so on.

Non-Parametric Statistical Diagnosis