This volume presents the basic mathematics of ranking methods through a didactic approach and the integration of relevant applications. Ranking methods can be applied in several different fields, including decision support, toxicology, environmental problems, proteomics and genomics, analytical chemistry, food chemistry, and QSAR. - Covers a wide range of applications, from the environment and toxicology to DNA sequencing - Incorporates contributions from renowned experts in the field - Me...

Bayesian statistics has exploded into biology and its sub-disciplines, such as ecology, over the past decade. The free software program WinBUGS, and its open-source sister OpenBugs, is currently the only flexible and general-purpose program available with which the average ecologist can conduct standard and non-standard Bayesian statistics. - Comprehensive and richly commented examples illustrate a wide range of models that are most relevant to the research of a modern population ecologist...

The book describes and discusses the numerical methods which are successfully being used for analysing ecological data, using a clear and comprehensive approach. These methods are derived from the fields of mathematical physics, parametric and nonparametric statistics, information theory, numerical taxonomy, archaeology, psychometry, sociometry, econometry and others. - An updated, 3rd English edition of the most widely cited book on quantitative analysis of multivariate ecological data - ...

Introduction to WinBUGS for Ecologists introduces applied Bayesian modeling to ecologists using the highly acclaimed, free WinBUGS software. It offers an understanding of statistical models as abstract representations of the various processes that give rise to a data set. Such an understanding is basic to the development of inference models tailored to specific sampling and ecological scenarios. The book begins by presenting the advantages of a Bayesian approach to statistics and introduci...

The positive reciprocal pairwise comparison matrix (PCM) is one of the key components which is used to quantify the qualitative and/or intangible attributes into measurable quantities. This book examines six understudied issues of PCM, i.e. consistency test, inconsistent data identification and adjustment, data collection, missing or uncertain data estimation, and sensitivity analysis of rank reversal. The maximum eigenvalue threshold method is proposed as the new consistency index for the...

This pioneering graduate textbook provides readers with the concepts and practical tools required to understand the maximum entropy principle, and apply it to an understanding of ecological patterns. Rather than building and combining mechanistic models of ecosystems, the approach is grounded in information theory and the logic of inference. Paralleling the derivation of thermodynamics from the maximum entropy principle, the state variable theory of ecology developed in this book predicts ...

This handbook and ready reference presents a combination of statistical, information-theoretic, and data analysis methods to meet the challenge of designing empirical models involving molecular descriptors within bioinformatics. The topics range from investigating information processing in chemical and biological networks to studying statistical and information-theoretic techniques for analyzing chemical structures to employing data analysis and machine learning techniques for QSAR/QSPR.

Model development is of vital importance for understanding and management of ecological processes. Identifying the complex relationships between ecological patterns and processes is a crucial task. Ecological modelling—both qualitatively and quantitatively—plays a vital role in analysing ecological phenomena and for ecological theory. This textbook provides a unique overview of modelling approaches. Representing the state-of-the-art in modern ecology, it shows how to construct and work wit...

The book gives an overview of developments in Quantitative Genetics and variance component analysis in an era of Big Data and Sequenced Genomes. It provides a detailed description of a direct method of estimation that will be a useful means of extracting information from a large set of data that was inconceivable 10 to 20 years ago.The book is a combination of a history of variance component analysis and a forward looking view as to how direct methods of estimation arise from the availabil...

This book introduces the key stages of niche-based habitat suitability model building, evaluation and prediction required for understanding and predicting future patterns of species and biodiversity. Beginning with the main theory behind ecological niches and species distributions, the book proceeds through all major steps of model building, from conceptualization and model training to model evaluation and spatio-temporal predictions. Extensive examples using R support graduate students an...

Numerical and statistical methods have rapidly become part of a palaeolimnologist’s tool-kit. They are used to explore and summarise complex data, reconstruct past environmental variables from fossil assemblages, and test competing hypotheses about the causes of observed changes in lake biota through history. This book brings together a wide array of numerical and statistical techniques currently available for use in palaeolimnology and other branches of palaeoecology.Visit http://...

What are the models used in phylogenetic analysis and what exactly is involved in Bayesian evolutionary analysis using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods? How can you choose and apply these models, which parameterisations and priors make sense, and how can you diagnose Bayesian MCMC when things go wrong? These are just a few of the questions answered in this comprehensive overview of Bayesian approaches to phylogenetics. This practical guide: • Addresses the theoretical aspects of the...