The field of statistics not only affects all areas of scientific activity, but also many other matters such as public policy. It is branching rapidly into so many different subjects that a series of handbooks is the only way of comprehensively presenting the various aspects of statistical methodology, applications, and recent developments. The Handbook of Statistics, a series of self-contained reference books. Each volume is devoted to a particular topic in statistics with Volume 28 dealing with bioinformatics. Every chapter is written by prominent workers in the area to which the volume is devoted. The series is addressed to the entire community of statisticians and scientists in various disciplines who use statistical methodology in their work. At the same time, special emphasis is placed on applications-oriented techniques, with the applied statistician in mind as the primary audience.

Author Biography

C. R. Rao, born in India is one of this century's foremost statisticians, received his education in statistics at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta. Rao is currently at Penn State as Eberly Professor of Statistics and Director of the Center for Multivariate Analysis. His research has influenced not only statistics, but also the physical, social and natural sciences and engineering. Pranab K. Sen is Cary C. Boshamer Professor of Biostatistics and Statistics at the University of North Carolina, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and of the American Statistical Association. He is also an elected member of the International Statistical Institute.Prenab K. Sen is author or co-author of multiple volumes in Mathematical Statistics, Probability Theory and Biostatistics, and has published extensively in nonparametrics, multivariate and sequential analysis, and reliability and survival analysis.