Probabilistic modelling in bioinformatics and medical informatics. (Q945948)

This book covers recent advances in the use of probabilistic models in computational molecular biology, bioinformatics and biomedicine. The areas of application covered embrace DNA sequence analysis, phylogenetics, microarray gene expression data analysis, reverse engineering of genetic regulatory networks, pharmacokinetics, biosignal analysis and medical data integration. The techniques discussed in the book include probabilistic graphical models, neural networks, hidden Markov models, parametric and nonparametric bootstrapping, variational methods, ensemble learning, and Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations. A self-contained chapter on statistical inference is included as well as a discussion of Bayesian networks as a common and unifying framework for probabilistic modelling. The book has been written for researchers and students in statistics, informatics, and biological sciences with Part 1, ``Probabilistic Modelling'', providing a self-contained introduction to Bayesian networks, neural computations and probabilistic inference, Part 2, ``Bioinformatics'', and Part 3, ``Medical Informatics'', demonstrating how these methods are applied in these fields. All three fields are evolving rapidly and this book is a welcome addition to these fields. The medical informatics part of the book ends with Chapter 16, a description of several software packages for model development. The chapter includes example codes to illustrate how some of these packages can be used. Finally, an appendix explains the conventions and notation used throughout the book.