Bei der Regressionsanalyse von Datenmaterial erhält man leider selten lineare oder andere einfache Zusammenhänge (parametrische Modelle). Dieses Buch hilft Ihnen, auch komplexere, nichtparametrische Modelle zu verstehen und zu beherrschen. Stärken und Schwächen jedes einzelnen Modells werden durch die Anwendung auf Standarddatensätze demonstriert. Verbreitete nichtparametrische Modelle werden mit Hilfe von Bayes-Verfahren in einen kohärenten wahrscheinlichkeitstheoretischen Zusammenhang gebracht.

Praise for Bayes Rules!: An Introduction to Applied Bayesian Modeling “A thoughtful and entertaining book, and a great way to get started with Bayesian analysis.” Andrew Gelman, Columbia University “The examples are modern, and even many frequentist intro books ignore important topics (like the great p-value debate) that the authors address. The focus on simulation for understanding is excellent.” Amy Herring, Duke University “I sincerely believe that a generation of students will cite this book as inspiration for their use of – and love for – Bayesian statistics. The narrative holds the reader’s attention and flows naturally – almost conversationally. Put simply, this is perhaps the most engaging introductory statistics textbook I have ever read. [It] is a natural choice for an introductory undergraduate course in applied Bayesian statistics." Yue Jiang, Duke University “This is by far the best book I’ve seen on how to (and how to teach students to) do Bayesian modeling and understand the underlying mathematics and computation. The authors build intuition and scaffold ideas expertly, using interesting real case studies, insightful graphics, and clear explanations. The scope of this book is vast – from basic building blocks to hierarchical modeling, but the authors’ thoughtful organization allows the reader to navigate this journey smoothly. And impressively, by the end of the book, one can run sophisticated Bayesian models and actually understand the whys, whats, and hows.” Paul Roback, St. Olaf College “The authors provide a compelling, integrated, accessible, and non-religious introduction to statistical modeling using a Bayesian approach. They outline a principled approach that features computational implementations and model assessment with ethical implications interwoven throughout. Students and instructors will find the conceptual and computational exercises to be fresh and engaging.” Nicholas Horton, Amherst College An engaging, sophisticated, and fun introduction to the field of Bayesian statistics, Bayes Rules!: An Introduction to Applied Bayesian Modeling brings the power of modern Bayesian thinking, modeling, and computing to a broad audience. In particular, the book is an ideal resource for advanced undergraduate statistics students and practitioners with comparable experience. Bayes Rules! empowers readers to weave Bayesian approaches into their everyday practice. Discussions and applications are data driven. A natural progression from fundamental to multivariable, hierarchical models emphasizes a practical and generalizable model building process. The evaluation of these Bayesian models reflects the fact that a data analysis does not exist in a vacuum. Features • Utilizes data-driven examples and exercises. • Emphasizes the iterative model building and evaluation process. • Surveys an interconnected range of multivariable regression and classification models. • Presents fundamental Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation. • Integrates R code, including RStan modeling tools and the bayesrules package. • Encourages readers to tap into their intuition and learn by doing. • Provides a friendly and inclusive introduction to technical Bayesian concepts. • Supports Bayesian applications with foundational Bayesian theory.

Probability and Bayesian Modeling is an introduction to probability and Bayesian thinking for undergraduate students with a calculus background. The first part of the book provides a broad view of probability including foundations, conditional probability, discrete and continuous distributions, and joint distributions. Statistical inference is presented completely from a Bayesian perspective. The text introduces inference and prediction for a single proportion and a single mean from Normal sampling. After fundamentals of Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms are introduced, Bayesian inference is described for hierarchical and regression models including logistic regression. The book presents several case studies motivated by some historical Bayesian studies and the authors’ research. This text reflects modern Bayesian statistical practice. Simulation is introduced in all the probability chapters and extensively used in the Bayesian material to simulate from the posterior and predictive distributions. One chapter describes the basic tenets of Metropolis and Gibbs sampling algorithms; however several chapters introduce the fundamentals of Bayesian inference for conjugate priors to deepen understanding. Strategies for constructing prior distributions are described in situations when one has substantial prior information and for cases where one has weak prior knowledge. One chapter introduces hierarchical Bayesian modeling as a practical way of combining data from different groups. There is an extensive discussion of Bayesian regression models including the construction of informative priors, inference about functions of the parameters of interest, prediction, and model selection. The text uses JAGS (Just Another Gibbs Sampler) as a general-purpose computational method for simulating from posterior distributions for a variety of Bayesian models. An R package ProbBayes is available containing all of the book datasets and special functions for illustrating concepts from the book. A complete solutions manual is available for instructors who adopt the book in the Additional Resources section.

This book is the first systematic treatment of Bayesian nonparametric methods and the theory behind them. It will also appeal to statisticians in general. The book is primarily aimed at graduate students and can be used as the text for a graduate course in Bayesian non-parametrics.

Bayesian and Frequentist Regression Methods provides a modern account of both Bayesian and frequentist methods of regression analysis. Many texts cover one or the other of the approaches, but this is the most comprehensive combination of Bayesian and frequentist methods that exists in one place. The two philosophical approaches to regression methodology are featured here as complementary techniques, with theory and data analysis providing supplementary components of the discussion. In particular, methods are illustrated using a variety of data sets. The majority of the data sets are drawn from biostatistics but the techniques are generalizable to a wide range of other disciplines.

Written by a biostatistics expert with over 20 years of experience in the field, Bayesian Methods in Epidemiology presents statistical methods used in epidemiology from a Bayesian viewpoint. It employs the software package WinBUGS to carry out the analyses and offers the code in the text and for download online. The book examines study designs that investigate the association between exposure to risk factors and the occurrence of disease. It covers introductory adjustment techniques to compare mortality between states and regression methods to study the association between various risk factors and disease, including logistic regression, simple and multiple linear regression, categorical/ordinal regression, and nonlinear models. The text also introduces a Bayesian approach for the estimation of survival by life tables and illustrates other approaches to estimate survival, including a parametric model based on the Weibull distribution and the Cox proportional hazards (nonparametric) model. Using Bayesian methods to estimate the lead time of the modality, the author explains how to screen for a disease among individuals that do not exhibit any symptoms of the disease. With many examples and end-of-chapter exercises, this book is the first to introduce epidemiology from a Bayesian perspective. It shows epidemiologists how these Bayesian models and techniques are useful in studying the association between disease and exposure to risk factors.

Now in its third edition, this classic book is widely considered the leading text on Bayesian methods, lauded for its accessible, practical approach to analyzing data and solving research problems. Bayesian Data Analysis, Third Edition continues to take an applied approach to analysis using up-to-date Bayesian methods. The authors—all leaders in the statistics community—introduce basic concepts from a data-analytic perspective before presenting advanced methods. Throughout the text, numerous worked examples drawn from real applications and research emphasize the use of Bayesian inference in practice. New to the Third Edition Four new chapters on nonparametric modeling Coverage of weakly informative priors and boundary-avoiding priors Updated discussion of cross-validation and predictive information criteria Improved convergence monitoring and effective sample size calculations for iterative simulation Presentations of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, variational Bayes, and expectation propagation New and revised software code The book can be used in three different ways. For undergraduate students, it introduces Bayesian inference starting from first principles. For graduate students, the text presents effective current approaches to Bayesian modeling and computation in statistics and related fields. For researchers, it provides an assortment of Bayesian methods in applied statistics. Additional materials, including data sets used in the examples, solutions to selected exercises, and software instructions, are available on the book’s web page.