The consistency of a matching test

Let $\text{X}{}^1{}_1\text{?X}{}^1{}_2\text{???X}{}^1{}_{\mathrm{n}}$ be the order statistics of a random sample from a distribution on [0, 1]. Let A_k, the kth match, be the event that $\text{X}{}^1{}_{\mathrm{k}}\text{?(}\text{(k?1)}\text{n}\text{k}\text{n}$], and let S_n be the total number of matches. The consistency of S_n for testing uniform df, U, against df G≠U is investigated, and it is shown that S_n is consistent if the intersection of G with U has Lebesgue measure zero. It is also consistent against a sequence of alternatives approaching U at a rate less faster than $\text{n}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>-1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$.     

Complete designs with blocks of maximal multiplicity

The set of distinct blocks of a block design is known as its support. We construct complete designs with parameters v(?7), k=3, λ=v ? 2 which contain a block of maximal multiplicity and with support size $\text{b}{}^1\text{= (}{}^{\mathrm{v}}{}_3\text{) ? 4(v ? 2)}$. Any complete design which contains such a block, and has parameters v, k, λ as above, must be supported on at most (^v₃) ? 4(v ? 2) blocks. Attention is given to complete designs because of their direct relationship to simple random sampling.     

Some determinant optimality aspects of main effect fold-over designs

Saha and Mohanty (1970) presented a main effect fold-over design consisting of 14 treatment combinations of the 24×33 factorial, which had the nice property of being even balanced. Calling this design DSM, this paper establishes the following specific results: (i) DSM is not d-optimal in the subclass Δe of all 14 point even balanced main effect fold-over designs of the 24×33 factorial; (ii) DSM is not d-optimal in the subclass $\text{Δ}{}^1\text{?Δ}{}^{\mathrm{e}}$ of all 14 point even and odd balanced main effect fold-over designs of the 24×33 factorial; (iii) DSM is even optimal in $\text{Δ}{}^1$ and Δe. In addition to these results two 14 point designs in $\text{Δ}{}^1$ are presented which are d-optimal and via a counter example it is shown that these designs are not odd optimal. Finally, several general matrix algebra results are given which should be useful in resolving d-optimality problems of fold-over designs of the kn11×kn22 factorial.     

A class of asymmetrical orthogonal resolution-IV designs

The concept of d-resolvability of orthogonal arrays of strength (d+1) is introduced. This is used to construct orthogonal resolution-IV plans of the type $\text{nt·n·2}{}^{\mathrm{n(m?1)}}\text{mn}{}^2\text{t}$. These plans are minimal and a large number of these plans are new.     

Sequence-compound estimation in scale-exponential families and speed of convergence

This paper deals with a sequence-compound estimation. The component problem is the squared error loss estimation of θ?[a,b] based on an observation X whose p.d.f. is of the form $\text{u(x)c(θ)}\text{exp}\text{(?}\text{x}\text{θ}\text{)}$. For each $\text{0<t<}\text{1}\text{2}$ a class of sequence-compound estimators $\text{ψ}\text{?}\text{=}\text{ψ}\text{?}{}_1\text{,}\text{ψ}\text{?}{}_2\text{,…)}$ is exhibited whose compound risk (average of risks) up to stage n differs from the Bayes envelope (in the component problem) w.r.t. the empiric distribution G_n of the parameters involved up to stage n by a quantity of order O(n^?δt) for a δ>0. It is also shown that at any stage i the difference of the risk of ψ?_i and the risk of the Bayes response w.r.t. G_i?1 is O(i^?δt). Examples of the above type of families are given where δ is min{1,$\text{2a}\text{b}$} and t is arbitrarily close to $\text{1}\text{2}$. Here it may be worthwhile to mention that a rate $\text{O}\text{(n}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>?</mtext><mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{)}$ or better has not yet been obtained even in a very special family of densities.     

Asymptotic distribution of hotelling's trace for two unequal covariance matrices and robustness study of test of equality of mean vectors

Asymptotic expansions for the percentiles and c.d.f., up to terms of order $\text{1}\text{n}{}^2$ of the statistic $\text{T =m}\text{T}\text{r}\text{S}{}_1\text{S}{}^{-1}{}_2$, where mS₁ and nS₂ independently distributed W(m, p, Σ₁) and W(n, p, Σ₂) respectively, are obtained using methods similar to those of Ito [4], Chattopadhyay and Pillai [2]. These expansions hold when $\text{Σ}{}_1\text{Σ}{}^{-1}{}_2\text{=}\text{I}\text{+}\text{F}$ and$\text{|}\text{Ch}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{(}\text{F}\text{)| < 1}$. Tables of powers of T for p = 3 and p = 4 for m = 4 and various values of n are given and comparison made with the exact powers for p = 3. These powers are useful for the study of (i) the test of equality of covariance matrices in two p-variate normal populations and (ii) robustness of test of equality of mean vectors of l normal populations against the violation of the assumption of equality of covariance matrices.     

Fitting a multiple regression function

Consider the p-dimensional unit cube [0,1]^p, p≥1. Partition [0, 1]^p into n regions, R_1,n,…,R_n,n such that the volume Δ(R_j,n) is of order n^?1,j=1,…,n. Select and fix a point in each of these regions so that we have x⁽ⁿ⁾₁,…,x⁽ⁿ⁾_n. Suppose that associated with the j-th predictor vector x⁽ⁿ⁾_j there is an observable variable Y⁽ⁿ⁾_j, j=1,…,n, satisfying the multiple regression model $\text{Y}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{=g(}\text{x}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{)+e}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}$, where g is an unknown function defined on [0, 1]^pand {e⁽ⁿ⁾_j} are independent identically distributed random variables with Ee⁽ⁿ⁾₁=0 and Var e⁽ⁿ⁾₁=σ²<∞. This paper proposes as an estimator of g(x), where k(u) is a known p-dimensional bounded density and {a_n} is a sequence of reals converging to 0 asn→∞. Weak and strong consistency of g_n(x) and rates of convergence are obtained. Asymptoticnormality of the estimator is established. Also proposed is $\text{σ}{}^2{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{=n}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}\text{Σ}{}^{\mathrm{n}}{}_{\mathrm{j=1}}\text{(Y}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{?g}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{(}\text{x}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{))}{}^2$ as a consistent estimate of σ².     

Gaussian approximation of signed rank statistics process

We consider the signed linear rank statistics of the form

$\text{S}{}_{\mathrm{\Delta N}}\text{=}\text{∑}\text{i=1}\text{N}\text{c}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}\text{ø(}\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}\text{(N+1)}\text{)}\text{sgn}\text{Y}{}^{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}$

where the c_Ni's are known real numbers, Δ∈[0,1] is an unknown real parameter,R^Δ_Ni is the rank of |Y^Δ_Ni| among |Y^Δ_Nj|, 1≤j≤N, ø is a score generating function, sgn y=1 or -1 according as y≥0 or <0, and Y^Δ_Nj, 1≤j ≤N, are independent random variables with continuous cumulative distribution functions F(y?Δd_Nj), 1≤ j≤N, respectively where the d_fNi's are known real numbers. Under suitable assumptions on the c's, d's, φ and F, it is proved that the random process {S_ΔN?S_0N?ES_ΔN, 0≤Δ≤1}, properly normalized, converges weakly to a Gaussian process, and this result is also true if ES_ΔN is replaced by Δb_N, where

$\text{b}{}_{\mathrm{N}}\text{=4}\text{∑}\text{i=1}\text{N}\text{c}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}\text{d}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}\text{∫}\text{0}\text{∞}\text{ø′(2F(x)?1)?}{}^2\text{(x)}\text{d}\text{x}\text{and}\text{?=F′}$

. As an application, we derive the asymptotic distribution of the properly normalized length of a confidence interval for Δ.     

Some aspects of the theory of estimating equations

An estimating equation for a parameter θ, based on an observation ?, is an equation g(x,θ)=0 which can be solved for θ in terms of x. An estimating equation is unbiased if the funaction g has 0 mean for every θ. For the case when the form of the frequency function p(x,θ) is completely specified up to the unknown real parameter θ, the optimality of the m.1 equation $\text{?}\text{log}\text{p}\text{?θ}\text{=0}$ in the class of all unbiased estimating equations was established by Godambe (1960). In this paper we allow the form of the frequency function p to vary assuming that $\text{x=(x}{}_1\text{,…,x}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{)?}\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{n}}$ and that under p, E(x_i)=θ. x₁,…, x_n are independent observations on a variate x, it is shown that among all the unbiased estimating equations for θ, $\text{x}\text{?}\text{?θ=0}$ is uniquely optimum up to a constant multiple.     

Measures of lack of fit from tests of chi-squared type

If X² is the Pearson chi-squared statistic for testing fit, then $\text{X}{}^2\text{n}$ has long been considered an associated measure of the degree of lack of fit. Here we consider two classes of statistics of chi-squared type, each having X² as a member. The first is a class of directed divergence statistics discussed by Cressie and Read, the second consists of nonnegative definite quadratic forms in the standardized cell frequencies. We investigate the large sample behavior of $\text{T}\text{n}$, where T is any of these statistics. A number of auxiliary results on the Cressie-Read statistics are also obtained. The measures are illustrated by application to data from classical physics compiled by Stigler.     

Embedding of orthogonal arrays of strength two and deficiency greater than two

Let x ≥ 0 and n ≥ 2 be integers. Suppose there exists an orthogonal array $\text{A(n, q, μ}{}^1\text{)}$ of strength 2 in n symbols with q rows and $\text{n}{}^2\text{μ}{}^1$ columns where $\text{q = q}{}^1\text{? d, q}{}^1\text{= n}{}^2\text{x + n + 1}$, $\text{μ}{}^1\text{= (n ?}\text{1}\text{)x +}\text{1}$ and d is a positive integer. Then d is called the deficiency of the orthogonal array. The question of embedding such an array into a complete array $\text{A(n, q}{}^1\text{, μ}{}^1\text{)}$ is considered for the case d ≥ 3. It is shown that for d = 3 such an embedding is always possible if n ≥ 2(d ? 1)²(2d² ? 2d + 1). Partial results are indicated if d ≥ 4 for the embedding of a related design in a corresponding balanced incomplete block design.     

Testing optimality of experimental designs for a regression model with random variables

Tsukanov (Theor. Probab. Appl. 26 (1981) 173–177) considers the regression model $\text{E(}\text{y}\text{|}\text{Z}\text{)=}\text{Fp}\text{+}\text{Zq}$, $\text{D(}\text{y}\text{|}\text{Z}\text{)=σ}{}^2\text{I}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$, where $\text{y}\text{(n×1)}$ is a vector of measured values,$\text{F}\text{(n×k)}$ contains the control variables, $\text{Z}\text{(n×l)}$ contains the observed values, and $\text{p}\text{(k×1)}$ and $\text{q}\text{(l×1)}$ are being estimated. Assuming that $\text{Z}\text{=}\text{FL}\text{+}\text{R}$, where $\text{L}\text{(k×l)}$ is non-random, and the rows of $\text{R}\text{(n×l)}$ are i.i.d. $\text{N(}\text{0}\text{,Σ)}$, we extend Tsukanov's results by (i) computing E(detH_p), where H_p is the covariance matrix of p?, the l.s.e. of p, (ii) considering ‘optimality in the mean’ for the largest root criterion, (iii) discussing these equations when the matrix R has a left-spherical distribution.     

Robust designs and optimality of least squares for regression problems

Unbiased linear estimators are considered for the model

$\text{Y(}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{)=θ}{}_0\text{+}\text{∑k}\text{j=1}\text{θ}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{ij}}\text{+ψ(}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{)+ε}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{, i=1,2,…,n,}$

where ψ(x) is an unknown contamination. It is assumed that |ψ(x)|?φ(6x6) where φ is a convex function. Minimax analogues of Φ_p-optimality criteria are introduced. It is shown that, under certain (sufficient) conditions, the least squares estimators and corresponding designs are optimal in the class of all unbiased linear estimators and designs. It is also shown that, in the case when least squares estimators with symmetric design do not lead to an optimal solution, the relative efficiency of optimal least squares is not diminishing and has a uniform lower bound.     

Non-parametric recursive estimates of a probability density function and its derivatives

Recursive estimates of a probability density function (pdf) are known. This paper presents recursive estimates of a derivative of any desired order of a pdf. Let f be a pdf on the real line and p?0 be any desired integer. Based on a random sample of size n from f, estimators f^(p)_n of f^(p), the pth order derivatives of f, are exhibited. These estimators are of the form $\text{n}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}\text{∑n}\text{j=1}\text{δ}{}_{\mathrm{jp}}$, where δ_jp depends only on p and the jth observation in the sample, and hence can be computed recursively as the sample size increases. These estimators are shown to be asymptotically unbiased, mean square consistent and strongly consistent, both at a point and uniformly on the real line. For pointwise properties, the conditions on f^(p) have been weakened with a little stronger assumption on the kernel function.     

A note on the estimation of the integral of ⨍2(x)

The estimation of $\text{γ=∫}{}^{\mathrm{\infty }}{}_{\mathrm{?\infty }}\text{?}{}^2\text{(x)dx}$, important in nonparametric inference, is discussed. Methods, based on either density estimators or on the lengths of nonparametric confidence intervals, are compared. We conclude that density type estimators have advantages over the estimators based on confidence intervals.     

Bounds on the empirical Bayes and compound risks of truncated versions of Robbins's estimator of a binomial parameter

Robbins (1956) in his original paper on empirical Bayes methods suggested a method of estimating a binomial success probability. We give explicit bounds for the empirical Bayes risk of natural variants of the Robbins estimator that show convergence to an optimal risk at $\text{O(n}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>?</mtext><mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{)}$ rate. Bounds that yield the same convergence rate are also obtained in the related compound estimation problem.     

Empirical Bayes regression analysis with many regressors but fewer observations

In this paper, we consider the prediction problem in multiple linear regression model in which the number of predictor variables, p, is extremely large compared to the number of available observations, n  . The least-squares predictor based on a generalized inverse is not efficient. We propose six empirical Bayes estimators of the regression parameters. Three of them are shown to have uniformly lower prediction error than the least-squares predictors when the vector of regressor variables are assumed to be random with mean vector zero and the covariance matrix (1/n)X^tX$(1/n){\mathit{X}}^{\mathrm{t}}\mathit{X}$ where X^t=(_x1,…,_xn)${\mathit{X}}^{\mathrm{t}}=({\mathit{x}}_1,\dots ,{\mathit{x}}_n)$ is the p×n$p\times n$ matrix of observations on the regressor vector centered from their sample means. For other estimators, we use simulation to show its superiority over the least-squares predictor.     

Testing of a sub-hypothesis in linear regression models with long memory errors and deterministic design

This paper considers the problem of testing a sub-hypothesis in homoscedastic linear regression models where errors form long memory moving average processes and designs are non-random. Unlike in the random design case, asymptotic null distribution of the likelihood ratio type test based on the Whittle quadratic form is shown to be non-standard and non-chi-square. Moreover, the rate of consistency of the minimum Whittle dispersion estimator of the slope parameter vector is shown to be n^-(1-α)/2$n^{-(1-\alpha )/2}$, different from the rate n^-1/2$n^{-1/2}$ obtained in the random design case, where α$\alpha$ is the rate at which the error spectral density explodes at the origin. The proposed test is shown to be consistent against fixed alternatives and has non-trivial asymptotic power against local alternatives that converge to null hypothesis at the rate n^-(1-α)/2$n^{-(1-\alpha )/2}$.     

Robustness of MML estimators based on censored samples and robust test statistics

We investigate the efficiences of Tiku's (1967) modified maximum likelihood estimators μ_c and σ_c (based on symmetrically censored normal samples) for estimating the location and scale parameters μ and σ of symmetric non-normal distributions. We show that μ_c and σ_c are jointly more efficient than x? and s for long-tailed distributions (kurtosis $\text{β}{}_2{}^1\text{=}\text{μ}{}_4\text{μ}{}_2{}^2\text{>4.2, β}{}_2{}^1\text{= 4.2}$ for the Logistic), and always more efficient than the trimmed mean μT and the matching sample estimate σ_T of σ. We also show that μ_c and σ_c are jointly at least as efficient as some of the more prominent “robust” estimators (Gross, 1976). We show that the statistic $\text{t}{}_{\mathrm{c}}\text{= μ}{}_{\mathrm{c}}\text{m}\text{σ}{}_{\mathrm{c}}\text{, m = n ?2r + 2rβ}$ (r is the number of observations censored on each side of the sample and β is a constant), is robust and powerful for testing an assumed value of μ. We define a statistic T_c (based on μ_c andσ_c) for testing that two symmetric distributions are identical and show that T_c is robust and generally more poweerful than the well-known nonparametric statistics (Wilcoxon, normal-score, Kolmogorov-Smirnov), against the important location-shift alternatives. We generalize the statistic T_c to test that k symmetric distibutions are identical. The asymptotic distributions of t_c and T_c are normal, under some very general regularity conditions. For small samples, the upper (lower) percentage points of t_c and T_c are shown to be closely approximated by Student's t-distributions. Besides, the statistics μ_c and σ_c (and hence t_c and T_c) are explicit and simple functions of sample observations and are easy to compute.     

Estimation of a standard measuring error by repeated measurements and sortings

A sorting-and-measuring machine (SMM) measures and sorts (classifies) on-line produced items into several groups according to their size. The measuring devices of the SMM perceive the actual item size with a random error ε and classify the item as being smaller than b iff z+ε<b. Here ε is a normal zero-mean r.v. with unknown standard deviation σ which is the main parameter characterizing the precision and technical condition of an SMM. The paper gives the following method of estimating σ. N₀ items are measured and N₁ of them are recognized by the SMM as belonging to the group a<z≤b. These N₁ items are sorted again and N₂ of them return to this group, these are sorted again, and so on. The estimation of σ is based on the statistics N_m/N_n. Moments of the ratio statistics N_m/N_n and their distributional properties are investigated. It turns out that the expected value of N_m/N_n depends almost linearly on σ which allows us to construct ‘almost’ unbiased estimators of type $\text{σ}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{mn}}\text{=A}\textcolor{red}{}\text{N}{}_{\mathrm{m}}\text{/N}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{+B}$ with good propert including robustness with respect to the distribution of item size. Convex combinations of $\text{σ}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{mn}}$ statistics are considered to obtain an estimator with minimal variance.