Reliable performance evaluations require the use of representative workloads. This is no easy task since modern computer systems and their workloads are complex, with many interrelated attributes and complicated structures. Experts often use sophisticated mathematics to analyze and describe workload models, making these models difficult for practitioners to grasp. This book aims to close this gap by emphasizing the intuition and the reasoning behind the definitions and derivations related ...

Now that people are aware that data can make the difference in an election or a business model, data science as an occupation is gaining ground. But how can you get started working in a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary field that’s so clouded in hype? This insightful book, based on Columbia University’s Introduction to Data Science class, tells you what you need to know.In many of these chapter-long lectures, data scientists from companies such as Google, Microsoft, and eBay share n...

Understanding Probability is a unique and stimulating approach to a first course in probability. The first part of the book demystifies probability and uses many wonderful probability applications from everyday life to help the reader develop a feel for probabilities. The second part, covering a wide range of topics, teaches clearly and simply the basics of probability. This fully revised third edition has been packed with even more exercises and examples and it includes new sections on Ba...

Focusing on what actuaries need in practice, this introductory account provides readers with essential tools for handling complex problems and explains how simulation models can be created, used and re-used (with modifications) in related situations. The book begins by outlining the basic tools of modelling and simulation, including a discussion of the Monte Carlo method and its use. Part II deals with general insurance and Part III with life insurance and financial risk. Algorithms that c...

The 5th edition of Ross's Simulation continues to introduce aspiring and practicing actuaries, engineers, computer scientists and others to the practical aspects of constructing computerized simulation studies to analyze and interpret real phenomena. Readers learn to apply results of these analyses to problems in a wide variety of fields to obtain effective, accurate solutions and make predictions about future outcomes. This latest edition features all-new material on variance reduction, i...

An Introduction to Probability and Statistical Inference, Second Edition, guides you through probability models and statistical methods and helps you to think critically about various concepts. Written by award-winning author George Roussas, this book introduces readers with no prior knowledge in probability or statistics to a thinking process to help them obtain the best solution to a posed question or situation. It provides a plethora of examples for each topic discussed, giving the read...

Filtering and smoothing methods are used to produce an accurate estimate of the state of a time-varying system based on multiple observational inputs (data). Interest in these methods has exploded in recent years, with numerous applications emerging in fields such as navigation, aerospace engineering, telecommunications and medicine. This compact, informal introduction for graduate students and advanced undergraduates presents the current state-of-the-art filtering and smoothing methods in...

Originating from the authors' own graduate course at the University of North Carolina, this material has been thoroughly tried and tested over many years, making the book perfect for a two-term course or for self-study. It provides a concise introduction that covers all of the measure theory and probability most useful for statisticians, including Lebesgue integration, limit theorems in probability, martingales, and some theory of stochastic processes. Readers can test their understanding ...

From classical foundations to advanced modern theory, this self-contained and comprehensive guide to probability weaves together mathematical proofs, historical context and richly detailed illustrative applications. A theorem discovery approach is used throughout, setting each proof within its historical setting and is accompanied by a consistent emphasis on elementary methods of proof. Each topic is presented in a modular framework, combining fundamental concepts with worked examples, pro...

Randomized algorithms have become a central part of the algorithms curriculum, based on their increasingly widespread use in modern applications. This book presents a coherent and unified treatment of probabilistic techniques for obtaining high probability estimates on the performance of randomized algorithms. It covers the basic toolkit from the Chernoff–Hoeffding bounds to more sophisticated techniques like martingales and isoperimetric inequalities, as well as some recent developments l...

The study of M-matrices, their inverses and discrete potential theory is now a well-established part of linear algebra and the theory of Markov chains. The main focus of this monograph is the so-called inverse M-matrix problem, which asks for a characterization of nonnegative matrices whose inverses are M-matrices. We present an answer in terms of discrete potential theory based on the Choquet-Deny Theorem. A distinguished subclass of inverse M-matrices is ultrametric matrices, which are i...

These lecture notes provide an introduction to the applications of Brownian motion to analysis and more generally, connections between Brownian motion and analysis. Brownian motion is a well-suited model for a wide range of real random phenomena, from chaotic oscillations of microscopic objects, such as flower pollen in water, to stock market fluctuations. It is also a purely abstract mathematical tool which can be used to prove theorems in "deterministic" fields of mathematics.The...