On the boundary properties of Bernstein polynomial estimators of density and distribution functions

For density and distribution functions supported on [0,1], Bernstein polynomial estimators are known to have optimal mean integrated squared error (MISE) properties under the usual smoothness conditions on the function to be estimated. These estimators are also known to be well-behaved in terms of bias: they have uniform bias over the entire unit interval. What is less known, however, is that some of these estimators do experience a boundary effect, but of a different nature than what is seen with the usual kernel estimators.     

Lifetesting and estimation with arbitrary distribution function

We consider the problem of estimating the life–distribution F from censored lifetimes. The observation scheme is renewal testing over a long time horizon although the results can apply to survival testing with repetitions. We exhibit a product–limit estimator of F which is shown to be consistent and to converge weakly to a GAUSsian process. To do this we first extend these properties of the NELSON-AALEN martingale estimator to the family of PoissoN–type counting processes. Our proof of weak convergence is based on the general functional central limit theorems for semimartingales as developed by .JACOB, SHIRYAYEV and others     

A nonparametric inverse probability weighted estimation for functional data with missing response data at random

This paper considers the nonparametric inverse probability weighted estimation for functional data with missing response data at random. Under mild conditions, the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimation method are established. Based on the resampling method, the estimation of the asymptotic variance of the proposed estimator is obtained. Finally, the finite sample properties of the proposed estimation method are investigated via Monte Carlo simulation studies. A real data analysis is given to illustrate the use of the proposed method.     

Asymptotic distribution of data-driven smoothers in density and regression estimation under dependence

We consider automatic data-driven density, regression and autoregression estimates, based on any random bandwidth selector h/_T. We show that in a first-order asymptotic approximation they behave as well as the related estimates obtained with the “optimal” bandwidth h_T as long as h_T/h_T → 1 in probability. The results are obtained for dependent observations; some of them are also new for independent observations.     

Normal approximation to the hypergeometric distribution in nonstandard cases and a sub-Gaussian Berry–Esseen theorem

In this paper, we consider simple random sampling without replacement from a dichotomous finite population. We investigate accuracy of the Normal approximation to the Hypergeometric probabilities for a wide range of parameter values, including the nonstandard cases where the sampling fraction tends to one and where the proportion of the objects of interest in the population tends to the boundary values, zero and one. We establish a non-uniform Berry–Esseen theorem for the Hypergeometric distribution which shows that in the nonstandard cases, the rate of Normal approximation to the Hypergeometric distribution can be considerably slower than the rate of Normal approximation to the Binomial distribution. We also report results from a moderately large numerical study and provide some guidelines for using the Normal approximation to the Hypergeometric distribution in finite samples.     

Nonparametric regression with cross‐classified responses

In this article, we develop regression models with cross‐classified responses. Conditional independence structures can be explored/exploited through the selective inclusion/exclusion of terms in a certain functional ANOVA decomposition, and the estimation is done nonparametrically via the penalized likelihood method. A cohort of computational and data analytical tools are presented, which include cross‐validation for smoothing parameter selection, Kullback–Leibler projection for model selection, and Bayesian confidence intervals for odds ratios. Random effects are introduced to model possible correlations such as those found in longitudinal and clustered data. Empirical performances of the methods are explored in simulation studies of limited scales, and a real data example is presented using some eyetracking data from linguistic studies. The techniques are implemented in a suite of R functions, whose usage is briefly described in the appendix. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 39: 591–609; 2011. © 2011 Statistical Society of Canada     

Balanced augmented empirical likelihood for regression models

This paper studies the problem of convex hull constraint in conventional empirical likelihood. Specifically, in the framework of regression, a balanced augmented empirical likelihood (BAEL) procedure through adding two synthetic data points is proposed. It can be used to resolve the under-coverage issue, especially in small-sample or high-dimension setting. Furthermore, some asymptotic properties for proposed BAEL ratio statistic are established under mild conditions. The proposed approach performs robust to different random errors by choosing a robust loss function. Extensive simulation studies and a real example are carried out to support our results.     

Asymptotic normality and mean consistency for the weighted estimator in nonparametric regression models

In this paper, we mainly study the asymptotic properties of weighted estimator for the nonparametric regression model based on linearly negative quadrant dependent (LNQD, for short) errors. We obtain the rate of uniformly asymptotic normality of the weighted estimator which is nearly $O\left(n^{?1∕4}\right)$ when the moment condition is appropriate. The results generalize the corresponding ones of Yang (2003) from NA samples to LNQD samples and improve or extend the corresponding one of Li et al. (2012) for LNQD samples. Moreover, we obtain some results on mean consistency, uniformly mean consistency, and the rate of mean consistency for the weighted estimator. Finally we carry out some simulations to verify the validity of our results.     

New aspects of Bregman divergence in regression and classification with parametric and nonparametric estimation

In statistical learning, regression and classification concern different types of the output variables, and the predictive accuracy is quantified by different loss functions. This article explores new aspects of Bregman divergence (BD), a notion which unifies nearly all of the commonly used loss functions in regression and classification. The authors investigate the duality between BD and its generating function. They further establish, under the framework of BD, asymptotic consistency and normality of parametric and nonparametric regression estimators, derive the lower bound of their asymptotic covariance matrices, and demonstrate the role that parametric and nonparametric regression estimation play in the performance of classification procedures and related machine learning techniques. These theoretical results and new numerical evidence show that the choice of loss function affects estimation procedures, whereas has an asymptotically relatively negligible impact on classification performance. Applications of BD to statistical model building and selection with non‐Gaussian responses are also illustrated. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 37: 119‐139; 2009 © 2009 Statistical Society of Canada