Statisticians know that the clean data sets that appear in textbook problems have little to do with real-life industry data. To better prepare their students for all types of statistical careers, academic statisticians now strive to use data sets from real-life statistical problems. This book contains 20 case studies that use actual data sets that have not been simplified for classroom use. Each case study is a collaboration between statisticians from academe and from business, industry, or government. This book is the result of a collaborative workshop of statisticians focusing on...

Matrix analytic methods are popular as modeling tools because they give one the ability to construct and analyze a wide class of queuing models in a unified and algorithmically tractable way. The authors present the basic mathematical ideas and algorithms of the matrix analytic theory in a readable, up-to-date, and comprehensive manner. In the current literature, a mixed bag of techniques is used-some probabilistic, some from linear algebra, and some from transform methods. Here, many new proofs that emphasize the unity of the matrix analytic approach are included.