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  • © 2018

Coding Ockham's Razor

Authors:

  • Gathers together the minimum necessary MML theory in one place"
  • Implemented models and estimators include those for discrete, continuous and multivariate data, mixture models (clustering), regressions, classification trees, models of vectors and directions, linear regression, models of graphs (networks)
  • All models are taken from the maths through to computer code and to use
  • An accompanying library of software includes standard probability distributions, statistical models and estimators
  • The e-book contains internet links to the software, documentation, and interactive (javascript) examples

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
  2. Introduction

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 1-15
  3. Discrete

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 17-25
  4. Integers

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 27-39
  5. Continuous

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 41-52
  6. Function-Models

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 53-59
  7. Multivariate

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 61-64
  8. Mixture Models

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 65-76
  9. Function-Models 2

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 77-88
  10. Vectors

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 89-101
  11. Linear Regression

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 103-111
  12. Graphs

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 113-130
  13. Bits and Pieces

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 131-141
  14. An Implementation

    • Lloyd Allison
    Pages 143-153
  15. Back Matter

    Pages 155-175

About this book

This book explores inductive inference using the minimum message length (MML) principle, a Bayesian method which is a realisation of Ockham's Razor based on information theory. Accompanied by a library of software, the book can assist an applications programmer, student or researcher in the fields of data analysis and machine learning to write computer programs based upon this principle.

MML inference has been around for 50 years and yet only one highly technical book has been written about the subject.  The majority of research in the field has been backed by specialised one-off programs but this book includes a library of general MML–based software, in Java.  The Java source code is available under the GNU GPL open-source license.  The software library is documented using Javadoc which produces extensive cross referenced HTML manual pages.  Every probability distribution and statistical model that is described in the book is implemented and documentedin the software library.  The library may contain a component that directly solves a reader's inference problem, or contain components that can be put together to solve the problem, or provide a standard interface under which a new component can be written to solve the problem.

This book will be of interest to application developers in the fields of machine learning and statistics as well as academics, postdocs, programmers and data scientists. It could also be used by third year or fourth year undergraduate or postgraduate students.

Reviews

“The GNU GPL licensed library is well documented and can be easily used and extended to the user’s needs. A lot of instructive examples for problem solving with this software are presented in the book and even have been coded for the reader’s convenience.” (Rainer Horsch, zbMATH 1409.68001, 2019)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Lloyd Allison

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Coding Ockham's Razor

  • Authors: Lloyd Allison

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76433-7

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Computer Science, Computer Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-76432-0Published: 18 May 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-09488-1Published: 25 December 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-76433-7Published: 04 May 2018

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 175

  • Number of Illustrations: 46 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Data Structures, Statistics and Computing/Statistics Programs, Artificial Intelligence

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access