Preface

**Section 3 Applications of Statistics on Various Topics 105**

Wilmar Hernandez and Alfredo Mendez

Chapter 8 **Severe Nuclear Accidents and Learning Effects 137** Thomas Rose and Trevor Sweeting

**Compression 107**

**VI** Contents

Chapter 7 **Application of Principal Component Analysis to Image**

Since data grows faster than ever, the role of statistics becomes more and more crucial nowadays, and there is no doubt that statistics will be even more critical in the future.

As we all know, we are living in the "Information Age" in which information has become a commodity that is quickly and widely disseminated and easily available. However, data has no meaning by itself. It should be organized and interpreted by human beings before it be‐ comes meaningful. Therefore, the "Information Age" requires us to become fluent in under‐ standing data, including the ways it is collected, analyzed, and interpreted. In a nutshell, it is essential to understand the role and significance of statistics both theoretically and in our daily lives.

The application of statistics is extensive, and in our daily lives there is almost no human activity where the use of statistics is not needed. In this limited volume, we try to cover as many different and multidisciplinary fields in statistics as possible.

Motivated by the above facts, *Statistics: Growing Data Sets and Growing Demand for Statistics* aims to present recent developments and applications of statistical analysis. Hopefully, this book will serve as a supplementary resource for students, researchers, and practitioners in the area of statistics. The book consists of three sections and eight chapters, each focusing on a particular aspect of theory or application. Within every episode, the reader will be given an overview of background information and in many cases a description of the authors' novel approach.

In this book, we try to collect texts that emphasize the crucial role of statistics. Furthermore, we also want to highlight the applications of statistics in economics, development, and other various topics. Therefore, this book is organized into three sections.

The first section "The Role of Statistics on Quantification" consists of two chapters. The first (introductory) chapter in this section discusses the significant role of statistics both theoretical‐ ly and in our daily lives. This chapter also highlights both the benefits and misuses of statistics.

The second chapter in this section looks at the relationship between the data-gathering, stat‐ istically oriented empirical research and theoretical formulation. In particular, this chapter presents the criteria that sociological explanations and theories must cover and their role in empirical study based on quantitative methods.

The next section "Applications of Statistics on Economics and Development" provides exam‐ ples of statistical analysis in the field of economics and development. The first chapter of this section is devoted to the modeling of macroeconomic business cycles with statistical methods. This chapter proposes and tests a novel approach, and this novelty can serve as a basis for further research in both theoretical and applied aspects.

The second chapter of this section analyzes the investment appeal of Russian regions with various statistical methods. Proposed methodological developments in this chapter can be applied to a large variety of tasks related to the monitoring of development strategies of areas and other objects of strategic planning.

The third chapter of this section measures the progress in Montenegro's national strategy for sustainable development. This chapter compares Montenegro's 2030 and EU's Agenda and makes a number of policy recommendations.

The final chapter of this section highlights the application of discrete choice models on the transport economy by specifying their contribution to the estimation of transport demand. In particular, this chapter focuses on unordered multinomial logit modeling to analyze reallife problems in Tunisia.

The final section "Applications of Statistics on Various Topics" analyzes statistical data in various other fields. The first chapter covers the application of statistical methods to image compression. This chapter also offers a novel construction of principal components to re‐ duce the computational cost of their calculation, although decreasing the accuracy.

The second chapter discusses nuclear accidents with core melting. This chapter analyzes the probability of severe nuclear accidents related to power generation. Moreover, the chapter investigates the learning effects of reactor operators using generalized linear models with a frequentist and Bayesian approach. This chapter also contains a discussion of core melt acci‐ dents and predictions for future events.

The editor and authors of the book would like to thank InTech publishing company for the opportunity to present selected views on modern issues of statistical analysis. Of course, this limited volume cannot cover all the topics of statistics. However, we believe and wish that this book will open new perspectives to interested readers.

> **Assoc. Prof. Türkmen Göksel** (PhD University of Minnesota) Ankara University Faculty of Political Science Ankara, Turkey

**Section 1**

**The Role of Statistics on Quantification**

**The Role of Statistics on Quantification**

The second chapter of this section analyzes the investment appeal of Russian regions with various statistical methods. Proposed methodological developments in this chapter can be applied to a large variety of tasks related to the monitoring of development strategies of

The third chapter of this section measures the progress in Montenegro's national strategy for sustainable development. This chapter compares Montenegro's 2030 and EU's Agenda and

The final chapter of this section highlights the application of discrete choice models on the transport economy by specifying their contribution to the estimation of transport demand. In particular, this chapter focuses on unordered multinomial logit modeling to analyze real-

The final section "Applications of Statistics on Various Topics" analyzes statistical data in various other fields. The first chapter covers the application of statistical methods to image compression. This chapter also offers a novel construction of principal components to re‐

The second chapter discusses nuclear accidents with core melting. This chapter analyzes the probability of severe nuclear accidents related to power generation. Moreover, the chapter investigates the learning effects of reactor operators using generalized linear models with a frequentist and Bayesian approach. This chapter also contains a discussion of core melt acci‐

The editor and authors of the book would like to thank InTech publishing company for the opportunity to present selected views on modern issues of statistical analysis. Of course, this limited volume cannot cover all the topics of statistics. However, we believe and wish that

> **Assoc. Prof. Türkmen Göksel** (PhD University of Minnesota)

> > Faculty of Political Science

Ankara University

Ankara, Turkey

duce the computational cost of their calculation, although decreasing the accuracy.

areas and other objects of strategic planning.

makes a number of policy recommendations.

dents and predictions for future events.

this book will open new perspectives to interested readers.

life problems in Tunisia.

VIII Preface

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Statistics**

**Introductory Chapter: Statistics**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.79773

"Statistics is the grammar of Science," a famous quote by Karl Pearson who was the British statistician and leading founder of the modern field of statistics. Pearson highlights the importance of statistics and particularly emphasizes the significance of quantification for various

Statistics is defined as the study of the collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and organization of data by the Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms [2]. Since the data grow faster than ever and information is increasing tremendously nowadays, the role of statistics

In general, we can group statistical analysis into two parts: (i) descriptive statistics and (ii) inferential (analytical) statistics. Descriptive statistics is used to summarize and/or describe a collection of data. Therefore, descriptive statistics provides a powerful way to summarize what already exists in data. However, inferential statistics focuses on the patterns in the data and then draws inferences from these patterns. In other words, by analyzing data gathered from samples (smaller subsets of the entire population), statistical methods infer about

The field of statistics is the science of learning from data. In other words, statistics is the tool we use to convert data into information. Decisions based on data and information will provide better outcomes than those just based on intuition or gut feelings. In our daily life, there is almost no human activity where the application of statistics is not needed. Therefore, application of statistics plays a very significant role in almost every field such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Botany, Medicine, Economics, Education, Public Policy, Psychology, Astronomy, Zoology, Bio-Technology, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Service Industry, Business, and Commerce, among many other fields.

fields of scientific study in his publication, The Grammar of Science [1].

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79773

Türkmen Göksel

Türkmen Göksel

**1. Introduction**

becomes more crucial.

populations.

#### **Chapter 1 Provisional chapter**

#### **Introductory Chapter: Statistics Introductory Chapter: Statistics**

#### Türkmen Göksel Türkmen Göksel

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79773
