Understanding and Applying Basic Statistical Methods Using R

Features an integrated approach of statistical scenarios and simulations to aid readers in developing key intuitions needed to understand the wide ranging concepts and methods of statistics and inference Illuminating Statistical Analysis Using Scenarios and Simulations presents the basic concepts of statistics and statistical inference using the dual mechanisms of scenarios and simulations. This approach helps readers develop key intuitions and deep understandings of statistical analysis. Scenario-specific sampling simulations depict the results that would be obtained by a very large number of individuals investigating the same scenario, each with their own evidence, while graphical depictions of the simulation results present clear and direct pathways to intuitive methods for statistical inference. These intuitive methods can then be easily linked to traditional formulaic methods, and the author does not simply explain the linkages, but rather provides demonstrations throughout for a broad range of statistical phenomena. In addition, induction and deduction are repeatedly interwoven, which fosters a natural «need to know basis» for ordering the topic coverage. Examining computer simulation results is central to the discussion and provides an illustrative way to (re)discover the properties of sample statistics, the role of chance, and to (re)invent corresponding principles of statistical inference. In addition, the simulation results foreshadow the various mathematical formulas that underlie statistical analysis. In addition, this book: • Features both an intuitive and analytical perspective and includes a broad introduction to the use of Monte Carlo simulation and formulaic methods for statistical analysis • Presents straight-forward coverage of the essentials of basic statistics and ensures proper understanding of key concepts such as sampling distributions, the effects of sample size and variance on uncertainty, analysis of proportion, mean and rank differences, covariance, correlation, and regression • Introduces advanced topics such as Bayesian statistics, data mining, model cross-validation, robust regression, and resampling • Contains numerous example problems in each chapter with detailed solutions as well as an appendix that serves as a manual for constructing simulations quickly and easily using Microsoft® Office Excel® Illuminating Statistical Analysis Using Scenarios and Simulations is an ideal textbook for courses, seminars, and workshops in statistics and statistical inference and is appropriate for self-study as well. The book also serves as a thought-provoking treatise for researchers, scientists, managers, technicians, and others with a keen interest in statistical analysis. Jeffrey E. Kottemann, Ph.D., is Professor in the Perdue School at Salisbury University. Dr. Kottemann has published articles in a wide variety of academic research journals in the fields of business administration, computer science, decision sciences, economics, engineering, information systems, psychology, and public administration. He received his Ph.D. in Systems and Quantitative Methods from the University of Arizona.

This accessible introductory textbook provides a straightforward, practical explanation of how statistical analysis and error measurements should be applied in biological research. Understanding Statistical Error – A Primer for Biologists: Introduces the essential topic of error analysis to biologists Contains mathematics at a level that all biologists can grasp Presents the formulas required to calculate each confidence interval for use in practice Is based on a successful series of lectures from the author’s established course Assuming no prior knowledge of statistics, this book covers the central topics needed for efficient data analysis, ranging from probability distributions, statistical estimators, confidence intervals, error propagation and uncertainties in linear regression, to advice on how to use error bars in graphs properly. Using simple mathematics, all these topics are carefully explained and illustrated with figures and worked examples. The emphasis throughout is on visual representation and on helping the reader to approach the analysis of experimental data with confidence. This useful guide explains how to evaluate uncertainties of key parameters, such as the mean, median, proportion and correlation coefficient. Crucially, the reader will also learn why confidence intervals are important and how they compare against other measures of uncertainty. Understanding Statistical Error – A Primer for Biologists can be used both by students and researchers to deepen their knowledge and find practical formulae to carry out error analysis calculations. It is a valuable guide for students, experimental biologists and professional researchers in biology, biostatistics, computational biology, cell and molecular biology, ecology, biological chemistry, drug discovery, biophysics, as well as wider subjects within life sciences and any field where error analysis is required.

Pick up any hydrology textbook and it will not be long before you encounter pages listing sequences of equations representing complex mathematical concepts. Students and practitioners of hydrology will not find this very helpful, as their aim, generally, is to study and understand hydrology, and not to find themselves confronted with material that even students of mathematics would find challenging. Often, equations appear to be copied and pasted into hydrological texts in an attempt to give a more rigorous scientific basis to the narrative. However, they are commonly wrong, poorly explained, without context or background, and more likely to confuse and distance the reader than to enlighten and engage them in the topic. Understanding Mathematical and Statistical Techniques in Hydrology provides full and detailed expositions of such equations and mathematical concepts, commonly used in hydrology. In contrast to other hydrological texts, instead of presenting abstract mathematical hydrology, the essential mathematics is explained with the help of real-world hydrological examples.

Hospitals monitoring is becoming more complex and is increasing both because staff want their data analysed and because of increasing mandated surveillance. This book provides a suite of functions in R, enabling scientists and data analysts working in infection management and quality improvement departments in hospitals, to analyse their often non-independent data which is frequently in the form of trended, over-dispersed and sometimes auto-correlated time series; this is often difficult to analyse using standard office software. This book provides much-needed guidance on data analysis using R for the growing number of scientists in hospital departments who are responsible for producing reports, and who may have limited statistical expertise. This book explores data analysis using R and is aimed at scientists in hospital departments who are responsible for producing reports, and who are involved in improving safety. Professionals working in the healthcare quality and safety community will also find this book of interest Statistical Methods for Hospital Monitoring with R: Provides functions to perform quality improvement and infection management data analysis. Explores the characteristics of complex systems, such as self-organisation and emergent behaviour, along with their implications for such activities as root-cause analysis and the Pareto principle that seek few key causes of adverse events. Provides a summary of key non-statistical aspects of hospital safety and easy to use functions. Provides R scripts in an accompanying web site enabling analyses to be performed by the reader http://www.wiley.com/go/hospital_monitoring Covers issues that will be of increasing importance in the future, such as, generalised additive models, and complex systems, networks and power laws.

In the real world, there are numerous and various events that occur on and alongside networks, including the occurrence of traffic accidents on highways, the location of stores alongside roads, the incidence of crime on streets and the contamination along rivers. In order to carry out analyses of those events, the researcher needs to be familiar with a range of specific techniques. Spatial Analysis Along Networks provides a practical guide to the necessary statistical techniques and their computational implementation. Each chapter illustrates a specific technique, from Stochastic Point Processes on a Network and Network Voronoi Diagrams, to Network K-function and Point Density Estimation Methods, and the Network Huff Model. The authors also discuss and illustrate the undertaking of the statistical tests described in a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment as well as demonstrating the user-friendly free software package SANET. Spatial Analysis Along Networks: Presents a much-needed practical guide to statistical spatial analysis of events on and alongside a network, in a logical, user-friendly order. Introduces the preliminary methods involved, before detailing the advanced, computational methods, enabling the readers a complete understanding of the advanced topics. Dedicates a separate chapter to each of the major techniques involved. Demonstrates the practicalities of undertaking the tests described in the book, using a GIS. Is supported by a supplementary website, providing readers with a link to the free software package SANET, so they can execute the statistical methods described in the book. Students and researchers studying spatial statistics, spatial analysis, geography, GIS, OR, traffic accident analysis, criminology, retail marketing, facility management and ecology will benefit from this book.

Statistical data are not always precise numbers, or vectors, or categories. Real data are frequently what is called fuzzy. Examples where this fuzziness is obvious are quality of life data, environmental, biological, medical, sociological and economics data. Also the results of measurements can be best described by using fuzzy numbers and fuzzy vectors respectively. Statistical analysis methods have to be adapted for the analysis of fuzzy data. In this book, the foundations of the description of fuzzy data are explained, including methods on how to obtain the characterizing function of fuzzy measurement results. Furthermore, statistical methods are then generalized to the analysis of fuzzy data and fuzzy a-priori information. Key Features: Provides basic methods for the mathematical description of fuzzy data, as well as statistical methods that can be used to analyze fuzzy data. Describes methods of increasing importance with applications in areas such as environmental statistics and social science. Complements the theory with exercises and solutions and is illustrated throughout with diagrams and examples. Explores areas such quantitative description of data uncertainty and mathematical description of fuzzy data. This work is aimed at statisticians working with fuzzy logic, engineering statisticians, finance researchers, and environmental statisticians. It is written for readers who are familiar with elementary stochastic models and basic statistical methods.

Praise for Acceptance and Mindfulness in Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Understanding and Applying the New Therapies «One of the most fruitful aspects of the encounter between classical Buddhist knowledge and modern science has been the emergence of new therapeutic and educational approaches that integrate contemplative practice, such as mindfulness, and contemporary psychology methods, such as those of cognitive therapy. The systematic approach of this book, wherein the insights of both classical Buddhist and contemporary psychology are integrated, represents a most beneficial and powerful method of ensuring a healthy mind and heart.» —His Holiness the Dalai Lama «What has been missing in the midst of partisan battles between orthodox CBT therapists and enthusiastic proponents of newer acceptance/mindfulness approaches is a reasoned, scientifically grounded discourse that would help researchers and clinicians alike sort through the various claims and counterclaims. This book, skillfully conceived and edited by James Herbert and Evan Forman, provides just such a sober and open-minded appraisal of a trend that has sometimes suffered both from too much hype from one side and too sweeping a rejection by the other. This volume encourages careful consideration of both positions and can advance evidence-based psychosocial therapy both conceptually and procedurally to the benefit of all.» —From the Foreword by Gerald C. Davison, PhD, University of Southern California Acceptance and Mindfulness in Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Understanding and Applying the New Therapies brings together a renowned group of leading figures in CBT who address key issues and topics, including: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy Metacognitive therapy Mindfulness-based stress reduction Dialectical behavior therapy Understanding acceptance and commitment therapy in context

Quantitative and Statistical Research Methods This user-friendly textbook teaches students to understand and apply procedural steps in completing quantitative studies. It explains statistics while progressing through the steps of the hypothesis-testing process from hypothesis to results. The research problems used in the book reflect statistical applications related to interesting and important topics. In addition, the book provides a Research Analysis and Interpretation Guide to help students analyze research articles. Designed as a hands-on resource, each chapter covers a single research problem and offers directions for implementing the research method from start to finish. Readers will learn how to: Pinpoint research questions and hypotheses Identify, classify, and operationally define the study variables Choose appropriate research designs Conduct power analysis Select an appropriate statistic for the problem Use a data set Conduct data screening and analyses using SPSS Interpret the statistics Write the results related to the problem Quantitative and Statistical Research Methods allows students to immediately, independently, and successfully apply quantitative methods to their own research projects.

The recording and analysis of food data are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Consequently, the food scientist in industry or at study faces the task of using and understanding statistical methods. Statistics is often viewed as a difficult subject and is often avoided because of its complexity and a lack of specific application to the requirements of food science. This situation is changing – there is now much material on multivariate applications for the more advanced reader, but a case exists for a univariate approach aimed at the non-statistician. This second edition of Statistical Methods for Food Science provides a source text on accessible statistical procedures for the food scientist, and is aimed at professionals and students in food laboratories where analytical, instrumental and sensory data are gathered and require some form of summary and analysis before interpretation. It is suitable for the food analyst, the sensory scientist and the product developer, and others who work in food-related disciplines involving consumer survey investigations will also find many sections of use. There is an emphasis on a ‘hands-on’ approach, and worked examples using computer software packages and the minimum of mathematical formulae are included. The book is based on the experience and practice of a scientist engaged for many years in research and teaching of analytical and sensory food science at undergraduate and post-graduate level. This revised and updated second edition is accompanied by a new companion website giving the reader access to the datasets and Excel spreadsheets featured in the book. Check it out now by visiting www.wiley.com/go/bower/statistical or by scanning the QR code below.

Assessment Methods in Statistical Education: An International Perspective provides a modern, international perspective on assessing students of statistics in higher education. It is a collection of contributions written by some of the leading figures in statistical education from around the world, drawing on their personal teaching experience and educational research. The book reflects the wide variety of disciplines, such as business, psychology and the health sciences, which include statistics teaching and assessment. The authors acknowledge the increasingly important role of technology in assessment, whether it be using the internet for accessing information and data sources or using software to construct and manage individualised or online assessments. Key Features: Presents successful assessment strategies, striking a balance between formative and summative assessment, individual and group work, take-away assignments and supervised tests. Assesses statistical thinking by questioning students’ ability to interpret and communicate the results of their analysis. Relates assessment to the real world by basing it on real data in an appropriate context. Provides a range of individualised assessment methods, including those that deter plagiarism and collusion by providing each student with a unique problem to solve or dataset to analyse. This book is essential reading for anyone involved in teaching statistics at tertiary level or interested in statistical education research.