Description
Nishisato (emeritus, education, U. of Toronto) offers help to researchers, mostly in the social sciences, faced with analyzing data that is discrete or non-numerical, not necessarily sampled randomly from a population, and involves not only linear but also non-linear relations. After introducing the conceptual and technical preliminaries of data analysis in non-technical terms, he describes applications of what he calls multi-dimensional non-linear descriptive analysis (MUNDA to friends) to diverse data types. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Quantification of categorical, or non-numerical, data is a problem that scientists face across a wide range of disciplines. Exploring data analysis in various areas of research, such as the social sciences and biology, Multidimensional Nonlinear Descriptive Analysis presents methods for analyzing categorical data that are not necessarily sampled randomly from a normal population and often involve nonlinear relations. This reference not only provides an overview of multidimensional nonlinear descriptive analysis (MUNDA) of discrete data, it also offers new results in a variety of fields. The first part of the book covers conceptual and technical preliminaries needed to understand the data analysis in subsequent chapters. The next two parts contain applications of MUNDA to diverse data types, with each chapter devoted to one type of categorical data, a brief historical comment, and basic skills peculiar to the data types. The final part examines several problems and then concludes with suggestions for future progress. Covering both the early and later years of MUNDA research in the social sciences, psychology, ecology, biology, and statistics, this book provides a framework for potential developments in even more areas of study.
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