The book focuses on several skew-normal mixed effects models, and systematically explores statistical inference theories, methods, and applications of parameters of interest. This book is of academic value as it helps to establish a series of statistical inference theories and methods for skew-normal mixed effects models. On the applications side, it provides efficient methods and tools for practical data analysis in various fields including economics, finance, biology and medical science.

This book brings together expert researchers engaged in Monte-Carlo simulation-based statistical modeling, offering them a forum to present and discuss recent issues in methodological development as well as public health applications. It is divided into three parts, with the first providing an overview of Monte-Carlo techniques, the second focusing on missing data Monte-Carlo methods, and the third addressing Bayesian and general statistical modeling using Monte-Carlo simulations. The data and computer programs used here will also be made publicly available, allowing readers to replicate the model development and data analysis presented in each chapter, and to readily apply them in their own research. Featuring highly topical content, the book has the potential to impact model development and data analyses across a wide spectrum of fields, and to spark further research in this direction.

Multivariate statistical analysis has undergone a rich and varied evolution during the latter half of the 20th century. Academics and practitioners have produced much literature with diverse interests and with varying multidisciplinary knowledge on different topics within the multivariate domain. Due to multivariate algebra being of sustained interest and being a continuously developing field, its appeal breaches laterally across multiple disciplines to act as a catalyst for contemporary advances, with its core inferential genesis remaining in that of statistics. It is exactly this varied evolution caused by an influx in data production, diffusion, and understanding in scientific fields that has blurred many lines between disciplines. The cross-pollination between statistics and biology, engineering, medical science, computer science, and even art, has accelerated the vast amount of questions that statistical methodology has to answer and report on. These questions are often multivariate in nature, hoping to elucidate uncertainty on more than one aspect at the same time, and it is here where statistical thinking merges mathematical design with real life interpretation for understanding this uncertainty. Statistical advances benefit from these algebraic inventions and expansions in the multivariate paradigm. This contributed volume aims to usher novel research emanating from a multivariate statistical foundation into the spotlight, with particular significance in multidisciplinary settings. The overarching spirit of this volume is to highlight current trends, stimulate a focus on, and connect multidisciplinary dots from and within multivariate statistical analysis. Guided by these thoughts, a collection of research at the forefront of multivariate statistical thinking is presented here which has been authored by globally recognized subject matter experts.

This book presents recent results in finite mixtures of skewed distributions to prepare readers to undertake mixture models using scale mixtures of skew normal distributions (SMSN). For this purpose, the authors consider maximum likelihood estimation for univariate and multivariate finite mixtures where components are members of the flexible class of SMSN distributions. This subclass includes the entire family of normal independent distributions, also known as scale mixtures of normal distributions (SMN), as well as the skew-normal and skewed versions of some other classical symmetric distributions: the skew-t (ST), the skew-slash (SSL) and the skew-contaminated normal (SCN), for example. These distributions have heavier tails than the typical normal one, and thus they seem to be a reasonable choice for robust inference. The proposed EM-type algorithm and methods are implemented in the R package mixsmsn, highlighting the applicability of the techniques presented in the book. This work is a useful reference guide for researchers analyzing heterogeneous data, as well as a textbook for a graduate-level course in mixture models. The tools presented in the book make complex techniques accessible to applied researchers without the advanced mathematical background and will have broad applications in fields like medicine, biology, engineering, economic, geology and chemistry.

An intermediate-level treatment of Bayesian hierarchical models and their applications, this book demonstrates the advantages of a Bayesian approach to data sets involving inferences for collections of related units or variables, and in methods where parameters can be treated as random collections. Through illustrative data analysis and attention to statistical computing, this book facilitates practical implementation of Bayesian hierarchical methods. The new edition is a revision of the book Applied Bayesian Hierarchical Methods. It maintains a focus on applied modelling and data analysis, but now using entirely R-based Bayesian computing options. It has been updated with a new chapter on regression for causal effects, and one on computing options and strategies. This latter chapter is particularly important, due to recent advances in Bayesian computing and estimation, including the development of rjags and rstan. It also features updates throughout with new examples. The examples exploit and illustrate the broader advantages of the R computing environment, while allowing readers to explore alternative likelihood assumptions, regression structures, and assumptions on prior densities. Features: Provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of applied Bayesian hierarchical modelling Includes many real data examples to illustrate different modelling topics R code (based on rjags, jagsUI, R2OpenBUGS, and rstan) is integrated into the book, emphasizing implementation Software options and coding principles are introduced in new chapter on computing Programs and data sets available on the book’s website

The Current Index to Statistics (CIS) is a bibliographic index of publications in statistics, probability, and related fields.