Microbiome research has focused on microorganisms that live within the human body and their effects on health. During the last few years, the quantification of microbiome composition in different environments has been facilitated by the advent of high throughput sequencing technologies. The statistical challenges include computational difficulties due to the high volume of data; normalization and quantification of metabolic abundances, relative taxa and bacterial genes; high-dimensionality; multivariate analysis; the inherently compositional nature of the data; and the proper utilization of...

This book presents a general method for deriving higher-order statistics of multivariate distributions with simple algorithms that allow for actual calculations. Multivariate nonlinear statistical models require the study of higher-order moments and cumulants. The main tool used for the definitions is the tensor derivative, leading to several useful expressions concerning Hermite polynomials, moments, cumulants, skewness, and kurtosis. A general test of multivariate skewness and kurtosis is obtained from this treatment. Exercises are provided for each chapter to help the readers understand...