Probability, Inference and Decision Making

Abstract

In writing this chapter we have three special debts of gratitude to acknowledge. One is to Professor Theodore Colton for the frequentist approach, outlined with simplicity and rigor in his textbook on clinical trials [26]. The second is to Professor Ludovico Piccinato, of the University of Rome, since our outline of the Bayesian approach is based on one of his books [76] and on a presentation he and one of the authors gave to a medical audience on the comparison between the Bayesian and frequentist approaches. The third is to Professor Adelchi Azzalini, of the University of Padua, for his precious suggestions and advice.