From the Preface to the first edition (1906): "A few of the most modern books on the Theory of Functions devote some pages to the establishment of certain results belonging to our subject, and required for the special purposes in hand... But we may fairly claim that the present work is the first attempt at a systematic exposition of the subject as a whole."

This is an introductory undergraduate textbook in set theory. In mathematics these days, essentially everything is a set. Some knowledge of set theory is necessary part of the background everyone needs for further study of mathematics. It is also possible to study set theory for its own interest--it is a subject with intruiging results anout simple objects. This book starts with material that nobody can do without. There is no end to what can be learned of set theory, but here is a beginning.

The book is a collection of 80 short and self-contained lectures covering most of the topics that are usually taught in intermediate courses in probability theory and mathematical statistics. There are hundreds of examples, solved exercises and detailed derivations of important results. The step-by-step approach makes the book easy to understand and ideal for self-study. One of the main aims of the book is to be a time saver: it contains several results and proofs, especially on probability distributions, that are hard to find in standard references and are scattered here and there in more specialistic books. The topics covered by the book are as follows. PART 1 - MATHEMATICAL TOOLS: set theory, permutations, combinations, partitions, sequences and limits, review of differentiation and integration rules, the Gamma and Beta functions. PART 2 - FUNDAMENTALS OF PROBABILITY: events, probability, independence, conditional probability, Bayes' rule, random variables and random vectors, expected value, variance, covariance, correlation, covariance matrix, conditional distributions and conditional expectation, independent variables, indicator functions. PART 3 - ADDITIONAL TOPICS IN PROBABILITY THEORY: probabilistic inequalities, construction of probability distributions, transformations of probability distributions, moments and cross-moments, moment generating functions, characteristic functions. PART 4 - PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS: Bernoulli, binomial, Poisson, uniform, exponential, normal, Chi-square, Gamma, Student's t, F, multinomial, multivariate normal, multivariate Student's t, Wishart. PART 5 - MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION: linear combinations, quadratic forms, partitions. PART 6 - ASYMPTOTIC THEORY: sequences of random vectors and random variables, pointwise convergence, almost sure convergence, convergence in probability, mean-square convergence, convergence in distribution, relations between modes of convergence, Laws of Large Numbers, Central Limit Theorems, Continuous Mapping Theorem, Slutsky's Theorem. PART 7 - FUNDAMENTALS OF STATISTICS: statistical inference, point estimation, set estimation, hypothesis testing, statistical inferences about the mean, statistical inferences about the variance.

''In writing this book, care was taken to use language and examples that gradually wean students from a simpleminded mechanical approach and move them toward mathematical maturity. We also recognize that many students who hesitate to ask for help from an instructor need a readable text, and we have tried to anticipate the questions that go unasked. The wide range of examples in the text are meant to augment the "favorite examples" that most instructors have for teaching the topcs in discrete mathematics. To provide diagnostic help and encouragement, we have included solutions and/or hints to the odd-numbered exercises. These solutions include detailed answers whenever warranted and complete proofs, not just terse outlines of proofs. Our use of standard terminology and notation makes Applied Discrete Structures a valuable reference book for future courses. Although many advanced books have a short review of elementary topics, they cannot be complete. The text is divided into lecture-length sections, facilitating the organization of an instructor's presentation.Topics are presented in such a way that students' understanding can be monitored through thought-provoking exercises. The exercises require an understanding of the topics and how they are interrelated, not just a familiarity with the key words. An Instructor's Guide is available to any instructor who uses the text. It includes: Chapter-by-chapter comments on subtopics that emphasize the pitfalls to avoid; Suggested coverage times; Detailed solutions to most even-numbered exercises; Sample quizzes, exams, and final exams. This textbook has been used in classes at Casper College (WY), Grinnell College (IA), Luzurne Community College (PA), University of the Puget Sound (WA).''--