Management science focuses on problems in the business world. Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment. Psychometrics is the theory and technique of educational and psychological measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits. Quality control reviews the factors involved in manufacturing and production; it can make use of statistical sampling of product items to aid decisions in process control or in accepting deliveries. Quantitative psychology is the science of statistically explaining and changing mental processes and behaviors in humans. Reliability engineering is the study of the ability of a system or component to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time Statistical finance, an area of econophysics, is an empirical attempt to shift finance from its normative roots to a positivist framework using exemplars from statistical physics with an emphasis on emergent or collective properties of financial markets. Statistical mechanics is the application of probability theory, which includes mathematical tools for dealing with large populations, to the field of mechanics, which is concerned with the motion of particles or objects when subjected to a force. Statistical physics is one of the fundamental theories of physics, and uses methods of probability theory in solving physical problems. Statistical signal processing utilizes the statistical properties of signals to perform signal processing tasks. Statistical thermodynamics is the study of the microscopic behaviors of thermodynamic systems using probability theory and provides a molecular level interpretation of thermodynamic quantities such as work, heat, free energy, and entropy. See also List of statistics topics Fields of application