Robust hierarchical Bayes estimation of exchangeable means

Estimation of the mean of a multivariate normal distribution is considered. The components of the mean vector θ are assumed to be exchangeable; this is modelled in a hierarchical fashion with independent Cauchy distributions as the first-stage prior. The resulting generalized Bayes estimator is calculated and shown to be robust with respect to the presence of outlying means. Alternative estimators that have similar behaviour but are cheaper to compute are also derived.     

Assessing conditional independence for log-linear poisson models with random effects

In the context of regression rnodels with random effects, repeated response are traditionally assumed to be mutually independent conditional on the random effects. In order to asseess the validity of such an assumption and its impact on parameter inference, we propose an estimating equation methodology where both random eifects and within-subject correlation are modeled. This fllows a subsequent analysis on the statistical sianificance of the conditional correlation. We illustrate this method with the epilepsy data of Thall and Vail (1990), and find our method useh in a proper representation for khe random effect modeling.     

Least squares estimation of nonhomogeneous poisson processes

We formulate and evaluate weighted least squares (WLS) and ordinary least squares (OLS) procedures for estimating the parametric mean-value function of a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. We focus the development on processes having an exponential rate function, where the exponent may include a polynomial component or some trigonometric components. Unanticipated problems with the WLS procedure are explained by an analysis of the associated residuals. The OLS procedure is based on a square root transformation of the "detrended" event (arrival) times - that is, the fitted mean-value function evaluated at the observed event times; and under appropriate conditions, the corresponding residuals are proved to converge weakly to a normal distribution with mean 0 and variance 0.25. The results of a Monte Carlo study indicate the advantages of the OLS procedure with respect to estimation accuracy and computational efficiency.     

Estimation of poisson means under weighted squared error loss

In estimating the means of several independent Poisson distributions, we show that the maximum likelihood estimator is inadmissible when general weighted squared error loss is the criterion. Using this result, we extend the known results on estimation of several Poisson means (Peng 1975, Hudson 1978) to the case where possibly more than one observation is taken from each Poisson distribution and the samples are not necessarily of the same size.     

Simultaneous estimation of means of two sensitive variables

In this paper, we introduce a new problem of simultaneous estimation of means of two quantitative sensitive variables by using only one randomized response another pseudo response from a respondent in a sample. The proposed estimators are extended to stratified random sampling, and the relative efficiency values are computed for equal, proportional, and optimum allocation with respect to the newly introduced naïve estimators.     

Simultaneous estimation for semi-parametric multi-index models

Estimation of a general multi-index model comprises determining the number of linear combinations of predictors (structural dimension) that are related to the response, estimating the loadings of each index vector, selecting the active predictors and estimating the underlying link function. These objectives are often achieved sequentially at different stages of the estimation process. In this study, we propose a unified estimation approach under a semi-parametric model framework to attain these estimation goals simultaneously. The proposed estimation method is more efficient and stable than many existing methods where the estimation error in the structural dimension may propagate to the estimation of the index vectors and variable selection stages. A detailed algorithm is provided to implement the proposed method. Comprehensive simulations and a real data analysis illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Simultaneous confidence intervals for comparing several inverse Gaussian means under heteroscedasticity

Recently, Zhang [Simultaneous confidence intervals for several inverse Gaussian populations. Stat Probab Lett. 2014;92:125–131] proposed simultaneous pairwise confidence intervals (SPCIs) based on the fiducial generalized pivotal quantity concept to make inferences about the inverse Gaussian means under heteroscedasticity. In this paper, we propose three new methods for constructing SPCIs to make inferences on the means of several inverse Gaussian distributions when scale parameters and sample sizes are unequal. One of the methods results in a set of classic SPCIs (in the sense that it is not simulation-based inference) and the two others are based on a parametric bootstrap approach. The advantages of our proposed methods over Zhang’s (2014) method are: (i) the simulation results show that the coverage probability of the proposed parametric bootstrap approaches is fairly close to the nominal confidence coefficient while the coverage probability of Zhang’s method is smaller than the nominal confidence coefficient when the number of groups and the variance of groups are large and (ii) the proposed set of classic SPCIs is conservative in contrast to Zhang’s method.     

Simultaneous estimation of Poisson means of the selected subset

Let _π1,_π2,…,_πp${\pi }_1,{\pi }_2,\dots ,{\pi }_p$ be p   independent Poisson populations with means _λ1,…,_λp${\lambda }_1,\dots ,{\lambda }_p$, respectively. Let {X₁,…,X_p} denote the set of observations, where X_i is from _πi${\pi }_i$. Suppose a subset of populations is selected using Gupta and Huang's (1975) selection rule which selects _πi${\pi }_i$ if and only if _Xi+1?_cX(1)$X_i+1?{\mathit{cX}}_{(1)}$, where X₍₁₎=max{X₁,…,X_p}, and 0<c<1$0<c<1$. In this paper, the simultaneous estimation of the Poisson means associated with the selected populations is considered for the k-normalized squared error loss function. It is shown that the natural estimator is positively biased. Also, a class of estimators that are better than the natural estimator is obtained by solving certain difference inequalities over the sample space. A class of estimators which dominate the UMVUE is also obtained. Monte carlo simulations are used to assess the percentage improvements and an application to a real-life example is also discussed.     

Simultaneous selection and estimation in general linear models

The problem of selecting the largest treatment parameter, and simultaneously estimating the selected treatment parameter, in a general linear model is considered in the decision theoretic Bayes approach. Both cases, where the error variance is known or unknown, are included. Bayes decision rules are derived for noninformative priors and for normal priors. The problem of finding Bayes designs, i.e. designs that have minimum Bayes risk, within a given class of designs is also discussed.     

Robust estimation for zero-inflated poisson autoregressive models based on density power divergence

In this study, we consider a robust estimation for zero-inflated Poisson autoregressive models using the minimum density power divergence estimator designed by Basu et al. [Robust and efficient estimation by minimising a density power divergence. Biometrika. 1998;85:549–559]. We show that under some regularity conditions, the proposed estimator is strongly consistent and asymptotically normal. The performance of the estimator is evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations. A real data analysis using New South Wales crime data is also provided for illustration.     

Projectors and linear estimation in general linear models

The paper gives a self-contained account of minimum disper­sion linear unbiased estimation of the expectation vector in a linear model with the dispersion matrix belonging to some, rather arbitrary, set of nonnegative definite matrices. The approach to linear estimation in general linear models recommended here is a direct generalization of some ideas and results presented by Rao (1973, 19 74) for the case of a general Gauss-Markov model

A new insight into the nature of some estimation problems originaly arising in the context of a general Gauss-Markov model as well as the correspondence of results known in the literature to those obtained in the present paper for general linear models are also given. As preliminary results the theory of projectors defined by Rao (1973) is extended.     

Bayesian estimation of the complete sample size from an incomplete poisson sample

For the Poisson a posterior distribution for the complete sample size, N, is derived from an incomplete sample when any specified subset of the classes are missing.Means as well as other posterior characteristics of N are obtained for two examples with various classes removed. For the special case of a truncated ‘missing zero class’ Poisson sample a simulation experiment is performed for the small ‘N=25’ sample situation applying both Bayesian and maximum likelihood methods of estimation.     

Overdispersed poisson regression models for studies of air pollution and human health

This paper presents results from a simulation study motivated by a recent study of the relationships between ambient levels of air pollution and human health in the community of Prince George, British Columbia. The simulation study was designed to evaluate the performance of methods based on overdispersed Poisson regression models for the analysis of series of count data. Aspects addressed include estimation of the dispersion parameter, estimation of regression coefficients and their standard errors, and the performance of model selection tests. The effects of varying amounts of overdispersion and differing underlying variance structure on this performance were of particular interest. This study is related to work reported by Breslow (1990) although the context is quite different. Preliminary work led to the conclusion that estimation of the dispersion parameter should be based on Pearson's chi-square statistic rather than the Poisson deviance. Regression coefficients are well estimated, even in the présence of substantial overdispersion and when the model for the variance function is incorrectly specified. Despite potential greater variability, the empirical estimator of the covariance matrix is preferred because the model-based estimator is unreliable in general. When the model for the variance function is incorrect, model-based test statistics may perform poorly, in sharp contrast to empirical test statistics, which performed very well in this study.     

Theoretical grounding for estimation in conditional independence multivariate finite mixture models

For the nonparametric estimation of multivariate finite mixture models with the conditional independence assumption, we propose a new formulation of the objective function in terms of penalised smoothed Kullback–Leibler distance. The nonlinearly smoothed majorisation-minimisation (NSMM) algorithm is derived from this perspective. An elegant representation of the NSMM algorithm is obtained using a novel projection-multiplication operator, a more precise monotonicity property of the algorithm is discovered, and the existence of a solution to the main optimisation problem is proved for the first time.     

The estimation of exchangeable binomial parameters

A general class of Bayesian estimators for several Binomial parameters is proposed. The estimati on procedures are based on a logistic transformation of the parameters and a class of symmetric prior distributions.     

Simultaneous equivariant estimation of the parameters of linear models

Consider a family of distributions which is invariant under a group of transformations. In this paper, we define an optimality criterion with respect to an arbitrary convex loss function and we prove a characterization theorem for an equivariant estimator to be optimal. Then we consider a linear model Y=Xβ+ε, in which ε has a multivariate distribution with mean vector zero and has a density belonging to a scale family with scale parameter σ. Also we assume that the underlying family of distributions is invariant with respect to a certain group of transformations. First, we find the class of all equivariant estimators of regression parameters and the powers of σ. By using the characterization theorem we discuss the simultaneous equivariant estimation of the parameters of the linear model.     

Estimation in the bivariate poisson distribution and hypothesis testing concerning independence

Estimation procedures in the bivariate Poisson distribution are briefly reviewed and some errors in the literature are corrected. Asymptotic efficiencies are reexamined for both symmetric and asymmetric cases. Six hypothesis testing procedures, including three studied by Kocherlakota and Kocherlakota (1985), for independence are evaluated by using Monte Carlo simulations.     

Simultaneous estimation of gamma means using a hierarchical generalized linear model

The problem of simultaneously estimating p Gamma means is investigated when the means are believed a priori to satisfy an r-dimensional generalized linear model. Using a Bayesian hierarchical model to reflect the uncertainty in the linear model, approximate methods are proposed to compute the posterior densities. The resulting estimator shrinks the usual estimator toward a prior estimator where the size of the shrinkage depends upon the agreement of the observed data with the proposed generalized linear model.