Book Image

Bayesian Analysis with Python

Book Image

Bayesian Analysis with Python

Overview of this book

The purpose of this book is to teach the main concepts of Bayesian data analysis. We will learn how to effectively use PyMC3, a Python library for probabilistic programming, to perform Bayesian parameter estimation, to check models and validate them. This book begins presenting the key concepts of the Bayesian framework and the main advantages of this approach from a practical point of view. Moving on, we will explore the power and flexibility of generalized linear models and how to adapt them to a wide array of problems, including regression and classification. We will also look into mixture models and clustering data, and we will finish with advanced topics like non-parametrics models and Gaussian processes. With the help of Python and PyMC3 you will learn to implement, check and expand Bayesian models to solve data analysis problems.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Bayesian Analysis with Python
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Comparing groups


One common task in statistical analysis is to compare groups; for example, we may be interested in how well a patient responds to some drug, the reduction of car accidents by the introduction of a new traffic regulation, or students' test responses under different teaching approaches, and so on. Sometimes this type of question is framed under the hypothesis-testing scenario, with the goal of declaring a result statistically significant. Relying only on statistical significance can be problematic for many reasons: on one hand, statistical significance is not necessarily practical significance; on the other, a really small effect can be declared significant just by collecting enough data. Also, the idea of statistical significance is connected to computing p-values. There is a long record of studies and essays showing that, more often than not, p-values are used and interpreted the wrong way, even for scientists who use statistics on a daily basis. Under the Bayesian framework...