Book picks similar to
Statistics Without Tears: An Introduction for Non-Mathematicians by Derek Rowntree
non-fiction
statistics
science
mathematics
Precalculus Mathematics in a Nutshell: Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry
George F. Simmons - 1981
. . Algebra's importance lies in the student's future. . . as essential preparation for the serious study of science, engineering, economics, or for more advanced types of mathematics. . . The primary importance of trigonometry is not in its applications to surveying and navigation, or in making computations about triangles, but rather in the mathematical description of vibrations, rotations, and periodic phenomena of all kinds, including light, sound, alternating currents, and the orbits of the planets around the sun. In this brief, clearly written book, the essentials of geometry, algebra, and trigonometry are pulled together into three complementary and convenient small packages, providing an excellent preview and review for anyone who wishes to prepare to master calculus with a minimum of misunderstanding and wasted time and effort. Students and other readers will find here all they need to pull them through.
Mining of Massive Datasets
Anand Rajaraman - 2011
This book focuses on practical algorithms that have been used to solve key problems in data mining and which can be used on even the largest datasets. It begins with a discussion of the map-reduce framework, an important tool for parallelizing algorithms automatically. The authors explain the tricks of locality-sensitive hashing and stream processing algorithms for mining data that arrives too fast for exhaustive processing. The PageRank idea and related tricks for organizing the Web are covered next. Other chapters cover the problems of finding frequent itemsets and clustering. The final chapters cover two applications: recommendation systems and Web advertising, each vital in e-commerce. Written by two authorities in database and Web technologies, this book is essential reading for students and practitioners alike.
Probabilistic Graphical Models: Principles and Techniques
Daphne Koller - 2009
The framework of probabilistic graphical models, presented in this book, provides a general approach for this task. The approach is model-based, allowing interpretable models to be constructed and then manipulated by reasoning algorithms. These models can also be learned automatically from data, allowing the approach to be used in cases where manually constructing a model is difficult or even impossible. Because uncertainty is an inescapable aspect of most real-world applications, the book focuses on probabilistic models, which make the uncertainty explicit and provide models that are more faithful to reality.Probabilistic Graphical Models discusses a variety of models, spanning Bayesian networks, undirected Markov networks, discrete and continuous models, and extensions to deal with dynamical systems and relational data. For each class of models, the text describes the three fundamental cornerstones: representation, inference, and learning, presenting both basic concepts and advanced techniques. Finally, the book considers the use of the proposed framework for causal reasoning and decision making under uncertainty. The main text in each chapter provides the detailed technical development of the key ideas. Most chapters also include boxes with additional material: skill boxes, which describe techniques; case study boxes, which discuss empirical cases related to the approach described in the text, including applications in computer vision, robotics, natural language understanding, and computational biology; and concept boxes, which present significant concepts drawn from the material in the chapter. Instructors (and readers) can group chapters in various combinations, from core topics to more technically advanced material, to suit their particular needs.
Elementary Statistics: A Step by Step Approach
Allan G. Bluman - 1992
The book is non-theoretical, explaining concepts intuitively and teaching problem solving through worked examples and step-by-step instructions. This edition places more emphasis on conceptual understanding and understanding results. This edition also features increased emphasis on Excel, MINITAB, and the TI-83 Plus and TI 84-Plus graphing calculators, computing technologies commonly used in such courses.
Statistical Inference
George Casella - 2001
Starting from the basics of probability, the authors develop the theory of statistical inference using techniques, definitions, and concepts that are statistical and are natural extensions and consequences of previous concepts. This book can be used for readers who have a solid mathematics background. It can also be used in a way that stresses the more practical uses of statistical theory, being more concerned with understanding basic statistical concepts and deriving reasonable statistical procedures for a variety of situations, and less concerned with formal optimality investigations.
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
Roger Penrose - 2004
From the very first attempts by the Greeks to grapple with the complexities of our known world to the latest application of infinity in physics, The Road to Reality carefully explores the movement of the smallest atomic particles and reaches into the vastness of intergalactic space. Here, Penrose examines the mathematical foundations of the physical universe, exposing the underlying beauty of physics and giving us one the most important works in modern science writing.
Python Data Science Handbook: Tools and Techniques for Developers
Jake Vanderplas - 2016
Several resources exist for individual pieces of this data science stack, but only with the Python Data Science Handbook do you get them all—IPython, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Scikit-Learn, and other related tools.Working scientists and data crunchers familiar with reading and writing Python code will find this comprehensive desk reference ideal for tackling day-to-day issues: manipulating, transforming, and cleaning data; visualizing different types of data; and using data to build statistical or machine learning models. Quite simply, this is the must-have reference for scientific computing in Python.With this handbook, you’ll learn how to use: * IPython and Jupyter: provide computational environments for data scientists using Python * NumPy: includes the ndarray for efficient storage and manipulation of dense data arrays in Python * Pandas: features the DataFrame for efficient storage and manipulation of labeled/columnar data in Python * Matplotlib: includes capabilities for a flexible range of data visualizations in Python * Scikit-Learn: for efficient and clean Python implementations of the most important and established machine learning algorithms
Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases
Daniel Kahneman - 1982
Individual chapters discuss the representativeness and availability heuristics, problems in judging covariation and control, overconfidence, multistage inference, social perception, medical diagnosis, risk perception, and methods for correcting and improving judgments under uncertainty. About half of the chapters are edited versions of classic articles; the remaining chapters are newly written for this book. Most review multiple studies or entire subareas of research and application rather than describing single experimental studies. This book will be useful to a wide range of students and researchers, as well as to decision makers seeking to gain insight into their judgments and to improve them.
Applied Predictive Modeling
Max Kuhn - 2013
Non- mathematical readers will appreciate the intuitive explanations of the techniques while an emphasis on problem-solving with real data across a wide variety of applications will aid practitioners who wish to extend their expertise. Readers should have knowledge of basic statistical ideas, such as correlation and linear regression analysis. While the text is biased against complex equations, a mathematical background is needed for advanced topics. Dr. Kuhn is a Director of Non-Clinical Statistics at Pfizer Global R&D in Groton Connecticut. He has been applying predictive models in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries for over 15 years and is the author of a number of R packages. Dr. Johnson has more than a decade of statistical consulting and predictive modeling experience in pharmaceutical research and development. He is a co-founder of Arbor Analytics, a firm specializing in predictive modeling and is a former Director of Statistics at Pfizer Global R&D. His scholarly work centers on the application and development of statistical methodology and learning algorithms. Applied Predictive Modeling covers the overall predictive modeling process, beginning with the crucial steps of data preprocessing, data splitting and foundations of model tuning. The text then provides intuitive explanations of numerous common and modern regression and classification techniques, always with an emphasis on illustrating and solving real data problems. Addressing practical concerns extends beyond model fitting to topics such as handling class imbalance, selecting predictors, and pinpointing causes of poor model performance-all of which are problems that occur frequently in practice. The text illustrates all parts of the modeling process through many hands-on, real-life examples. And every chapter contains extensive R code f
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Erving Goffman - 1959
This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Dr. Goffman uses the metaphor of theatrical performance as a framework. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and control the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience. The discussions of these social techniques offered here are based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions.
The Art of R Programming: A Tour of Statistical Software Design
Norman Matloff - 2011
No statistical knowledge is required, and your programming skills can range from hobbyist to pro.Along the way, you'll learn about functional and object-oriented programming, running mathematical simulations, and rearranging complex data into simpler, more useful formats. You'll also learn to: Create artful graphs to visualize complex data sets and functions Write more efficient code using parallel R and vectorization Interface R with C/C++ and Python for increased speed or functionality Find new R packages for text analysis, image manipulation, and more Squash annoying bugs with advanced debugging techniques Whether you're designing aircraft, forecasting the weather, or you just need to tame your data, The Art of R Programming is your guide to harnessing the power of statistical computing.
The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life
Michael Blastland - 2008
Drawing on their hugely popular BBC Radio 4 show More or Less,, journalist Michael Blastland and internationally known economist Andrew Dilnot delight, amuse, and convert American mathphobes by showing how our everyday experiences make sense of numbers. The radical premise of The Numbers Game is to show how much we already know, and give practical ways to use our knowledge to become cannier consumers of the media. In each concise chapter, the authors take on a different theme—such as size, chance, averages, targets, risk, measurement, and data—and present it as a memorable and entertaining story. If you’ve ever wondered what “average” really means, whether the scare stories about cancer risk should convince you to change your behavior, or whether a story you read in the paper is biased (and how), you need this book. Blastland and Dilnot show how to survive and thrive on the torrent of numbers that pours through everyday life. It’s the essential guide to every cause you love or hate, and every issue you follow, in the language everyone uses.
Introductory Statistics
Neil A. Weiss - 1987
This book develops statistical thinking over rote drill and practice. The Nature of Statistics; Organizing Data; Descriptive Measures; Probability Concepts; Discrete Random Variables; The Normal Distribution; The Sampling Distribution of the Sample Menu; Confidence Intervals for One Population Mean; Hypothesis Tests for One Population Mean; Inferences for Two Population Means; Inferences for Population Standard Deviations; Inferences for Population Proportions; Chi-Square Procedures; Descriptive Methods in Regression and Correlation; Inferential Methods in Regression and Correlation; Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
For all readers interested in Introductory Statistics.
Statistics in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference
Sarah Boslaugh - 2008
This book gives you a solid understanding of statistics without being too simple, yet without the numbing complexity of most college texts. You get a firm grasp of the fundamentals and a hands-on understanding of how to apply them before moving on to the more advanced material that follows. Each chapter presents you with easy-to-follow descriptions illustrated by graphics, formulas, and plenty of solved examples. Before you know it, you'll learn to apply statistical reasoning and statistical techniques, from basic concepts of probability and hypothesis testing to multivariate analysis. Organized into four distinct sections, Statistics in a Nutshell offers you:Introductory material: Different ways to think about statistics Basic concepts of measurement and probability theoryData management for statistical analysis Research design and experimental design How to critique statistics presented by others Basic inferential statistics: Basic concepts of inferential statistics The concept of correlation, when it is and is not an appropriate measure of association Dichotomous and categorical data The distinction between parametric and nonparametric statistics Advanced inferential techniques: The General Linear Model Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and MANOVA Multiple linear regression Specialized techniques: Business and quality improvement statistics Medical and public health statistics Educational and psychological statistics Unlike many introductory books on the subject, Statistics in a Nutshell doesn't omit important material in an effort to dumb it down. And this book is far more practical than most college texts, which tend to over-emphasize calculation without teaching you when and how to apply different statistical tests. With Statistics in a Nutshell, you learn how to perform most common statistical analyses, and understand statistical techniques presented in research articles. If you need to know how to use a wide range of statistical techniques without getting in over your head, this is the book you want.
R for Everyone: Advanced Analytics and Graphics
Jared P. Lander - 2013
R has traditionally been difficult for non-statisticians to learn, and most R books assume far too much knowledge to be of help. R for Everyone is the solution. Drawing on his unsurpassed experience teaching new users, professional data scientist Jared P. Lander has written the perfect tutorial for anyone new to statistical programming and modeling. Organized to make learning easy and intuitive, this guide focuses on the 20 percent of R functionality you'll need to accomplish 80 percent of modern data tasks. Lander's self-contained chapters start with the absolute basics, offering extensive hands-on practice and sample code. You'll download and install R; navigate and use the R environment; master basic program control, data import, and manipulation; and walk through several essential tests. Then, building on this foundation, you'll construct several complete models, both linear and nonlinear, and use some data mining techniques. By the time you're done, you won't just know how to write R programs, you'll be ready to tackle the statistical problems you care about most. COVERAGE INCLUDES - Exploring R, RStudio, and R packages - Using R for math: variable types, vectors, calling functions, and more - Exploiting data structures, including data.frames, matrices, and lists - Creating attractive, intuitive statistical graphics - Writing user-defined functions - Controlling program flow with if, ifelse, and complex checks - Improving program efficiency with group manipulations - Combining and reshaping multiple datasets - Manipulating strings using R's facilities and regular expressions - Creating normal, binomial, and Poisson probability distributions - Programming basic statistics: mean, standard deviation, and t-tests - Building linear, generalized linear, and nonlinear models - Assessing the quality of models and variable selection - Preventing overfitting, using the Elastic Net and Bayesian methods - Analyzing univariate and multivariate time series data - Grouping data via K-means and hierarchical clustering - Preparing reports, slideshows, and web pages with knitr - Building reusable R packages with devtools and Rcpp - Getting involved with the R global community