Lecturers:
David Cox, Nuffield College, Oxford and Nanny Wermuth, ZUMA - Center for Survey Research, Mannheim

The Aim of this Short Course:The course will provide a systematic discussion of a basis for the analysis and interpretation of complex multivariate data. As well as core material a number of specific research questions will be discussed in detail; the corresponding data can be obtained via Internet. The course is designed both for statisticians and for those in the health and social sciences making extensive use of statistical methods in their research. The course is intended for those concerned with the analysis and interpretation of complex data, especially but not entirely observational data. The applications from the social and health sciences are wide-ranging including, for example, studies of medical interventions and of sociological or psychological development. While the primary emphasis will be on statistical methods for direct use in applications, some issues of theoretical interest will also be addressed. One central theme will be the role of independence graphs and on processes by which the data could have been generated. No software presentations will be given, the emphasis being largely on methods which can be implemented within standard packages. While the course is based in part on the presentrs' book "Multivariate Dependencies - Models, Analysis and Interpretation" (London: Chapman and Hall, 1996), a number of important developments since the book will be described.