Statistics is strongly tied to applications in different scientific disciplines, and the most challenging statistical problems arise from problems in the sciences. In fact, the most innovative statistical research flows from the needs of applications in diverse settings. This volume is a testimony to the crucial role that statistics plays in scientific disciplines such as genetics and environmental sciences, among others. The articles in this volume range from human and agricultural genetic DNA research to carcinogens and chemical concentrations in the environment and to space debris and atmospheric chemistry. Also included are some articles on statistical methods which are sufficiently general and flexible to be applied to many practical situations. The papers were refereed by a panel of experts and the editors of the volume. The contributions are based on the talks presented at the Workshop on Statistics and the Sciences, held at the Centro Stefano Franscini in Ascona, Switzerland, during the week of May 23 to 28, 1999. The meeting was jointly organized by the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne and Zurich, with the financial support of the Minerva Research Foundation. As the presentations at the workshop helped the participants recognize the po tential role that statistics can play in the sciences, we hope that this volume will help the reader to focus on the central role of statistics in the specific areas presented here and to extrapolate the results to further applications.

This book grew out of a workshop on statistics in the sciences held on Monte VeritA, Switzerland, in the spring of 1999. It offers a snapshot of the role played by statistics in genetics and in the environmental sciences. A few papers dwell on genetic topics, others deal with risk assessment, in particular involving exposure to chemicals. Pollution is addressed in a survey of problems relating to atmospheric chemistry, and in an article on space debris. The collection finally presents several contributions on modern statistical methods in the sciences.The book will be particularly useful for statisticians who wish to be informed about the use of their methods in the sciences. They will also find a variety of open problems with explanations and solutions. On the other hand, the book does not require a high degree of expertise in statistics and can, on the whole, be read profitably by researchers in genetics and environmetrics.

This well-organized and clearly written text has a unique focus on methods of identifying the joint effects of genes and environment on disease patterns. It follows the natural sequence of research, taking readers through the study designs and statistical analysis techniques for determining whether a trait runs in families, testing hypotheses about whether a familial tendency is due to genetic or environmental factors or both, estimating the parameters of a genetic model, localizing and ultimately isolating the responsible genes, and finally characterizing their effects in the population. Examples from the literature on the genetic epidemiology of breast and colorectal cancer, among other diseases, illustrate this process. Although the book is oriented primarily towards graduate students in epidemiology, biostatistics and human genetics, it will also serve as a comprehensive reference work for researchers. Introductory chapters on molecular biology, Mendelian genetics, epidemiology, statistics, and population genetics will help make the book accessible to those coming from one of these fields without a background in the others. It strikes a good balance between epidemiologic study designs and statistical methods of data analysis.

This book covers the statistical models and methods that are used to understand human genetics, following the historical and recent developments of human genetics. Starting with Mendel’s first experiments to genome-wide association studies, the book describes how genetic information can be incorporated into statistical models to discover disease genes. All commonly used approaches in statistical genetics (e.g. aggregation analysis, segregation, linkage analysis, etc), are used, but the focus of the book is modern approaches to association analysis. Numerous examples illustrate key points throughout the text, both of Mendelian and complex genetic disorders. The intended audience is statisticians, biostatisticians, epidemiologists and quantitatively- oriented geneticists and health scientists wanting to learn about statistical methods for genetic analysis, whether to better analyze genetic data, or to pursue research in methodology. A background in intermediate level statistical methods is required. The authors include few mathematical derivations, and the exercises provide problems for students with a broad range of skill levels. No background in genetics is assumed.

Statistics for Environmental Biology and Toxicology presents and illustrates statistical methods appropriate for the analysis of environmental data obtained in biological or toxicological experiments. Beginning with basic probability and statistical inferences, this text progresses through non-linear and generalized linear models, trend testing, time-to-event data and analysis of cross-classified tabular and categorical data. For the more complex analyses, extensive examples including SAS and S-PLUS programming code are provided to assist the reader when implementing the methods in practice.

Although the basic statistical theory behind modern genetics is not very difficult, most statistical genetics papers are not easy to read for beginners in the field, and formulae quickly become very tedious to fit a particular area of application. Introduction to Statistical Methods in Modern Genetics distinguishes between the necessary and unnecessary complexity in a presentation designed for graduate-level statistics students. The author keeps derivations simple, but does so without losing the mathematical details. He also provides the required background in modern genetics for those looking forward to entering this arena. Along with some of the statistical tools important in genetics applications, students will learn: How a gene is found How scientists have separated the genetic and environmental aspects of a person's intelligence How genetics are used in agriculture to improve crops and domestic animals What a DNA fingerprint is and why there are controversies about it Although the author assumes students have a foundation in basic statistics, an appendix provides the necessary background beyond the elementary, including multinomial distributions, inference on frequency tables, and discriminant analysis. With clear explanations, a multitude of figures, and exercise sets in each chapter, this text forms an outstanding entrée into the rapidly expanding world of genetic data analysis.

Environmental epidemiology is the study of the environmental causes of disease in populations and how these risks vary in relation to intensity and duration of exposure and other factors like genetic susceptibility. As such, it is the basic science upon which governmental safety standards and compensation policies for environmental and occupational exposure are based. Profusely illustrated with examples from the epidemiologic literature on ionizing radiation and air pollution, this text provides a systematic treatment of the statistical challenges that arise in environmental health studies and the use epidemiologic data in formulating public policy, at a level suitable for graduate students and epidemiologic researchers. After a general overview of study design and statistical methods for epidemiology generally, the book goes on to address the problems that are unique to environmental health studies, special-purpose designs like two-phase case-control studies and countermatching, statistical methods for modeling exposure-time-response relationships, longitudinal and time-series studies, spatial and ecologic methods, exposure measurement error, interactions, and mechanistic models. It also discusses studies aimed at evaluating the public health benefits of interventions to improve the environment, the use of epidemiologic data to establish environmental safety standards and compensation policy, and concludes with emerging problems in reproductive epidemiology, natural and man-made disasters like global warming, and the global burden of environmentally caused disease. No other book provides such a broad perspective on the methodological challenges in this field at a level accessible to both epidemiologists and statisticians.