This is a how-and-why-to-do-it book for students and scientists in all the behavioral sciences. It presents sophisticated statistical methods for analyzing continuous-time records of behavior, and integrates many recent developments in ethology, mathematical modelling, statistics, and technology. These new methods are explicitly designed to handle sequential or simultaneous acts where neither the duration nor the sequence of the acts is predetermined, which is often the case if the time scale on which behavior is studied is relatively short. The authors show how to analyze behavioral data...

Biology takes a special place among the other natural sciences because biological units, be they pieces of DNA, cells, or organisms, reproduce more or less faithfully. As for any other biological processes, reproduction has a large random component. The theory of branching processes was developed especially as a mathematical counterpart to this most fundamental of biological processes. This active and rich research area allows us to make predictions about both extinction risks and the development of population composition, and also uncovers aspects of a population's history from its current...

Biology takes a special place among the other natural sciences because biological units, be they pieces of DNA, cells or organisms, reproduce more or less faithfully. As for any other biological processes, reproduction has a large random component. The theory of branching processes was developed especially as a mathematical counterpart to this most fundamental of biological processes. This active and rich research area allows us to make predictions about both extinction risks and the development of population composition, and also uncovers aspects of a population's history from its current...