COMPSTAT

This Volume contains the Keynote, Invited and Full Contributed papers presented at COMPSTAT'98. A companion volume (Payne & Lane, 1998) contains papers describing the Short Communications and Posters. COMPSTAT is a one-week conference held every two years under the auspices of the International Association of Statistical Computing, a section of the International Statistical Institute. COMPSTAT'98 is organised by IACR-Rothamsted, IACR-Long Ashton, the University of Bristol Department of Mathematics and the University of Bath Department of Mathematical Sciences. It is taking place from 24-28 August 1998 at University of Bristol. Previous COMPSTATs (from 1974-1996) were in Vienna, Berlin, Leiden, Edinburgh, Toulouse, Prague, Rome, Copenhagen, Dubrovnik, Neuchatel, Vienna and Barcelona. The conference is the main European forum for developments at the interface between statistics and computing. This was encapsulated as follows in the COMPSTAT'98 Call for Papers. Statistical computing provides the link between statistical theory and applied statistics. The scientific programme of COMPSTAT ranges over all aspects of this link, from the development and implementation of new computer-based statistical methodology through to innovative applications and software evaluation. The programme should appeal to anyone working in statistics and using computers, whether in universities, industrial companies, research institutes or as software developers.