Selection of Binary Variables and Classification by Boosting

We adopt boosting for classification and selection of high-dimensional binary variables for which classical methods based on normality and non singular sample dispersion are inapplicable. Boosting seems particularly well suited for binary variables. We present three methods of which two combine boosting with the relatively classical variable selection methods developed in Wilbur et al. (2002 Wilbur , J. D. , Ghosh , J. K. , Nakatsu , C. H. , Brouder , S. M. , Doerge , R. W. ( 2002 ). Variable selection in high-dimensional multivariate binary data with application to the analysis of microbial community DNA fingerprints . Biometrics 58 : 378 – 386 . [Google Scholar]). Our primary interest is variable selection in classification with small misclassification error being used as validation of proposed method for variable selection. Two of the new methods perform uniformly better than Wilbur et al. (2002 Wilbur , J. D. , Ghosh , J. K. , Nakatsu , C. H. , Brouder , S. M. , Doerge , R. W. ( 2002 ). Variable selection in high-dimensional multivariate binary data with application to the analysis of microbial community DNA fingerprints . Biometrics 58 : 378 – 386 . [Google Scholar]) in one set of simulated and three real life examples.     

Comparison of Frailty Models for Acute Leukemia Data under Gompertz Baseline Distribution

In this article, we consider two different shared frailty regression models under the assumption of Gompertz as baseline distribution. Mostly assumption of gamma distribution is considered for frailty distribution. To compare the results with gamma frailty model, we consider the inverse Gaussian shared frailty model also. We compare these two models to a real life bivariate survival data set of acute leukemia remission times (Freireich et al., 1963 Freireich, E.J., Gehan, E., Frei, E., Schroeder, L.R., Wolman, I.J., Anbari, R., Burgert, E.O., Mills, S.D., Pinkel, D., Selawry, O.S., Moon, J.H., Gendel, B.R., Spurr, C.L., Storrs, R., Haurani, F., Hoogstraten, B., Lee, S. (1963). The effect of 6-mercaptopurine on the duration of steroid-induced remissions in acute leukemia: a model for evaluation of other potentially useful therapy. Blood 21:699–716.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Analysis is performed using Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods. Model comparison is made using Bayesian model selection criterion and a well-fitted model is suggested for the acute leukemia data.     

A new estimator of finite population mean based on the dual use of the auxiliary information

When a sufficient correlation between the study variable and the auxiliary variable exists, the ranks of the auxiliary variable are also correlated with the study variable, and thus, these ranks can be used as an effective tool in increasing the precision of an estimator. In this paper, we propose a new improved estimator of the finite population mean that incorporates the supplementary information in forms of: (i) the auxiliary variable and (ii) ranks of the auxiliary variable. Mathematical expressions for the bias and the mean-squared error of the proposed estimator are derived under the first order of approximation. The theoretical and empirical studies reveal that the proposed estimator always performs better than the usual mean, ratio, product, exponential-ratio and -product, classical regression estimators, and Rao (1991 Rao, T.J. (1991). On certail methods of improving ration and regression estimators. Commun. Stat. Theory Methods 20(10):3325–3340.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Singh et al. (2009 Singh, R., Chauhan, P., Sawan, N., Smarandache, F. (2009). Improvement in estimating the population mean using exponential estimator in simple random sampling. Int. J. Stat. Econ. 3(A09):13–18. [Google Scholar]), Shabbir and Gupta (2010 Shabbir, J., Gupta, S. (2010). On estimating finite population mean in simple and stratified random sampling. Commun. Stat. Theory Methods 40(2):199–212.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Grover and Kaur (2011 Grover, L.K., Kaur, P. (2011). An improved estimator of the finite population mean in simple random sampling. Model Assisted Stat. Appl. 6(1):47–55. [Google Scholar], 2014) estimators.     

Marginal Correlation from Logit- and Probit-Beta-Normal Models for Hierarchical Binary Data

In hierarchical data settings, be it of a longitudinal, spatial, multi-level, clustered, or otherwise repeated nature, often the association between repeated measurements attracts at least part of the scientific interest. Quantifying the association frequently takes the form of a correlation function, including but not limited to intraclass correlation. Vangeneugden et al. (2010 Vangeneugden, T., Molenberghs, G., Laenen, A., Geys, H., Beunckens, C., Sotto, C. (2010). Marginal correlation in longitudinal binary data based on generalized linear mixed models. Communi. Stati. Theory &; Methods. 39:3542–3557. [Google Scholar]) derived approximate correlation functions for longitudinal sequences of general data type, Gaussian and non-Gaussian, based on generalized linear mixed-effects models. Here, we consider the extended model family proposed by Molenberghs et al. (2010 Molenberghs, G., Verbeke, G., Demétrio, C., Vieira, A. (2010). A family of generalized linear models for repeated measures with normal and conjugate random effects. Stat. Sci. 25:325–347.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This family flexibly accommodates data hierarchies, intra-sequence correlation, and overdispersion. The family allows for closed-form means, variance functions, and correlation function, for a variety of outcome types and link functions. Unfortunately, for binary data with logit link, closed forms cannot be obtained. This is in contrast with the probit link, for which such closed forms can be derived. It is therefore that we concentrate on the probit case. It is of interest, not only in its own right, but also as an instrument to approximate the logit case, thanks to the well-known probit-logit ‘conversion.’ Next to the general situation, some important special cases such as exchangeable clustered outcomes receive attention because they produce insightful expressions. The closed-form expressions are contrasted with the generic approximate expressions of Vangeneugden et al. (2010 Vangeneugden, T., Molenberghs, G., Laenen, A., Geys, H., Beunckens, C., Sotto, C. (2010). Marginal correlation in longitudinal binary data based on generalized linear mixed models. Communi. Stati. Theory &; Methods. 39:3542–3557. [Google Scholar]) and with approximations derived for the so-called logistic-beta-normal combined model. A simulation study explores performance of the method proposed. Data from a schizophrenia trial are analyzed and correlation functions derived.     

Adaptive tangent distance classifier on recognition of handwritten digits

Simard et al. [16 Simard, P. Y., LeCun, Y., Denker, J. S. and Victorri, B. 2000. Transformation invariance in pattern recognition: Tangent distance and tangent propagation. J. Imaging Syst. Technol., 11: 181–197.  [Google Scholar] 17 Sona, D., Sperduti, A. and Starita, A. 1997. A constructive learning algorithm for discriminant tangent models. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. 1997, Cambridge, MA. Edited by: Mozer, M. C., Jordan, M. I. and Petsche, T. Vol. 9, pp.786–792. MIT Press.  [Google Scholar]] proposed a transformation distance called “tangent distance” (TD) which can make pattern recognition be efficient. The key idea is to construct a distance measure which is invariant with respect to some chosen transformations. In this research, we provide a method using adaptive TD based on an idea inspired by “discriminant adaptive nearest neighbor” [7 Hastie, T., Tibshirani, R. and Friedman, J. 2009. The Elements of Statistical Learning, Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction, 2, New York, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. Available at http://www-stat.stanford.edu/ElemStatLearn [Google Scholar]]. This method is relatively easy compared with many other complicated ones. A real handwritten recognition data set is used to illustrate our new method. Our results demonstrate that the proposed method gives lower classification error rates than those by standard implementation of neural networks and support vector machines and is as good as several other complicated approaches.     

A Comparison of Procedures for Controlling the False Discovery Rate in the Presence of Small Variance Genes: A Simulation Study

The Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM; Tusher et al., 2001 Tusher , V. G. , Tibshirani , R. , Chu , G. ( 2001 ). Significance analysis of microarrys applied to the ionizing radiation response . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98 : 5116 – 5121 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) method is widely used in analyzing gene expression data while controlling the FDR by using resampling-based procedure in the microarray setting. One of the main components of the SAM procedure is the adjustment of the test statistic. The introduction of the fudge factor to the test statistic aims at deflating the large value of test statistics due to the small standard error of gene-expression. Lin et al. (2008 Lin , D. , Shkedy , Z. , Burzykowski , T. , Göhlmann , H. W. H. , De Bondt , A. , Perera , T. , Geerts , T. , Bijnens , L. ( 2008 ). Significance analysis of microarray (SAM) for comparisons of several treatments with one control . Biometric Journal, MCP 50 ( 5 ): 801 – 823 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) pointed out that the fudge factor does not effectively improve the power and the control of the FDR as compared to the SAM procedure without the fudge factor in the presence of small variance genes. Motivated by the simulation results presented in Lin et al. (2008 Lin , D. , Shkedy , Z. , Burzykowski , T. , Göhlmann , H. W. H. , De Bondt , A. , Perera , T. , Geerts , T. , Bijnens , L. ( 2008 ). Significance analysis of microarray (SAM) for comparisons of several treatments with one control . Biometric Journal, MCP 50 ( 5 ): 801 – 823 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), in this article, we extend our study to compare several methods for choosing the fudge factor in the modified t-type test statistics and use simulation studies to investigate the power and the control of the FDR of the considered methods.     

On dynamic weighted survival entropy of order α

Recently, Abbasnejad et al. (2010 Abbasnejad, M., Arghami, N.R., Morgenthaler, S., Mohtashami Borzadaran, G.R. (2010). On the dynamic survival entropy. Stat. Probab. Lett. 80:1962–1971.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) proposed a measure of uncertainty based on survival function, called the survival entropy of order α. A dynamic form of the survival entropy of order α is also proposed by them. In this paper, we derive the weighted form of these measures. The properties of the new measures are also discussed.     

Characterizations of the General Multivariate Weibull Distributions

For studying and modeling the time to failure of a system or component, many reliability practitioners used the hazard rate and its monotone behaviors. However, nowadays, there are two problems. First, the modern components have high reliability and, second, their distributions are usually have non monotone hazard rate, such as, the truncated normal, Burr XII, and inverse Gaussian distributions. So, modeling these data based on the hazard rate models seems to be too stringent. Zimmer et al. (1998 Zimmer , W. J. , Wang , Y. , Pathak , P. K. ( 1998 ). Log-odds rate and monotone log-odds rate distributions . J. Qual. Technol. 30 ( 4 ): 376 – 385 .[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Wang et al. (2003 Wang , Y. , Hossain , A. M. , Zimmer , W. J. ( 2003 ). Monotone log-odds rate distributions in reliability analysis . Commun. Statist. Theor. Meth. 32 ( 11 ): 2227 – 2244 .[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2008 Wang , Y. , Hossain , A. M. , Zimmer , W. J. ( 2008 ). Useful properties of the three-parameter Burr XII distribution. In: Ahsanullah M., Applied Statistics Research Progress. pp. 11–20 . [Google Scholar]) introduced and studied a new time to failure model in continuous distributions based on log-odds rate (LOR) which is comparable to the model based on the hazard rate.

There are many components and devices in industry, that have discrete distributions with non monotone hazard rate, so, in this article, we introduce the discrete log-odds rate which is different from its analog in continuous case. Also, an alternative discrete reversed hazard rate which we called it the second reversed rate of failure in discrete times is also defined here. It is shown that the failure time distributions can be characterized by the discrete LOR. Moreover, we show that the discrete logistic and log logistics distributions have property of a constant discrete LOR with respect to t and ln t, respectively. Furthermore, properties of some distributions with monotone discrete LOR, such as the discrete Burr XII, discrete Weibull, and discrete truncated normal are obtained.     

On evaluating the performance of different forecasters

In this article, we have evaluated the performance of different forecasters and tested association between their performances for different pairs of variables. We have used three data sets of track records of professional U.S. economic forecasters participating in the Blue Chip consensus forecasting service (the data sets contain the root mean square errors (RMSE) of different forecasters for different years). To evaluate the performance of forecasters we have covered three well-known tests, namely the usual F test (cf. Fisher (1923 Fisher, R. A., Mackenzie, M. A. (1923). Studied in crop variation II. The manurial response of different potato. Journal of Agricultural Science 13:311–320. [Google Scholar])), Kruskal Wallis test (cf. Kruskal and Wallis (1952 Kruskall, W. H., Wallis, W. A. (1952). Use of ranks in one-criterion variance analysis. Journal of American Statistical Association 47:583–621. [Google Scholar])), and Extension of Median test (cf. Daniel (1990 Daniel, W. W. (1990). Applied Nonparametric Statistics. Duxbury Classic Series. (2nd Ed.), Boston. [Google Scholar])). To test the association between the forecaster's performances for different pairs of variables, we have considered Gini mean correlation coefficient r_g1 (cf. Yitzhaki, S., and Olkin, I. (1991 Yitzhaki, S., Olkin, I. (1991). Concentration indices and concentration curves, in K. Mosler and M. Scarsini (eds.), Stochastic Orders and Decisions under Risk, Institute of Mathematical Statistics: Lecture-Notes Monograph Series, 19, 1991, 380–392. [Google Scholar]) and Yitzhaki (2003 Yitzaki, S. (2003). Gini mean difference: A superior measure of variability for non normal distribution. Metron-International Journal of Statistics, LXI:285–316. [Google Scholar])), Modified rank correlation coefficient (cf. Zimmerman (1994 Zimmerman, D. W. (1994). A Note on modified rank correlation. Journal of educational and Behavioral Statistics 19:357–362. [Google Scholar])) and three modifications of Spearman rank correlation coefficient. We have observed that different forecasters do not necessarily offer same average performance. Moreover, an evidence of association between two criteria does not always lead us reaching at the same decision. The outcomes of the study may help the practitioners in selecting the best forecaster(s) for policymaking purposes.     

Complete convergence for coordinatewise asymptotically negatively associated random vectors in Hilbert spaces

In this article, we study the complete convergence for sequences of coordinatewise asymptotically negatively associated random vectors in Hilbert spaces. We also investigate that some related results for coordinatewise negatively associated random vectors in Huan, Quang, and Thuan (2014 Huan, N. V., N. V. Quang, and N. T. Thuan. 2014. Baum–Katz type theorems for coordinatewise negatively associated random vectors in Hilbert spaces. Acta Mathematica Hungarica 144(1):132–419.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) still hold under this concept.     

Optimality of ratio type estimation methods for population mean in the presence of missing data

This article proposes various Searls-type ratio imputation methods (STRIM) on the lines of Ahmed et al. (2006 Ahmed, M. S., O. Al-Titi, Z. Al-Rawi, and W. Abu-Dayyeh. 2006. Estimation of a population mean using different imputation methods. Stat. Trans. 7 (6):1247–1264. [Google Scholar]). It is a well-known fact that the optimal ratio type estimator attains the MSE of regression estimator (or optimal difference estimator) but while using Searls-type transformation (STT) (Searls (1964 Searls, D. T. 1964. The utilization of a known coefficient of variation in the estimation procedure. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 59:1225–1226.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar])) this may not always happen. These STRIM are shown to perform better than the imputation procedures of Ahmed et al. (2006 Ahmed, M. S., O. Al-Titi, Z. Al-Rawi, and W. Abu-Dayyeh. 2006. Estimation of a population mean using different imputation methods. Stat. Trans. 7 (6):1247–1264. [Google Scholar]). The STRIM may even outperform the Searls type difference imputation methods (STDIM) proposed by us in our earlier work, Bhushan and Pandey (2016 Bhushan, S., and A. P. Pandey. 2016. Optimal imputation of the missing data for estimation of population mean. Journal of Statistics and Management System 19 (6):755–69.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This study is concluded with the numerical study along with the theoretical comparison.     

Population Attributable Fraction as a Measure of Heritability in Dichotomous Twin Data

In many genetic analyses of dichotomous twin data, odds ratios have been used to test hypotheses on heritability and shared common environment effects of a given disease (Lichtenstein et al., 2000 Lichtenstein , P. , Holm , N. , Verkasalo , P. , Iliadou , A. , Kaprio , J. , Koskenvuo , M. , Pukkala , E. , Skytthe , A. , Hemminki , K. ( 2000 ). Environmental and heritable factors in the causation of cancer . New England Journal of Medicine 343 : 78 – 85 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Ahlbom et al., 1997 Ahlbom , A. , Lichtenstein , P. , Malmström , H. , Feychting , M. , Hemminki , K. , Pedersen , N. L. ( 1997 ). Cancer in twins: genetic and nongenetic familial risk factors . Journal of the National Cancer Institute 89 : 287 – 93 . [Google Scholar]; Ramakrishnan et al., 1992 Ramakrishnan , V. , Goldberg , J. , Henderson , W. , Elsen , S. , True , W. , Lyons , M. , Tsuang , M. ( 1992 ). Elementary methods for the analysis of dichotomous outcomes in unselected samples of twins . Genetic Epidemiology 9 : 273 – 287 . [Google Scholar], 4). However, estimates of these two effects have not been dealt with in the literature. In epidemiology, the attributable fraction (AF), a function of the odds ratio and the prevalence of the risk factor has been used to describe the contribution of a risk factor to a disease in a given population (Leviton, 1973 Leviton , A. ( 1973 ). Definitions of attributable risk . American Journal of Epidemiology 98 : 231 . [Google Scholar]). In this article, we adapt the AF to quantify the heritability and the shared common environment. Twin data on cancer, gallstone disease and phobia are used to illustrate the applicability of the AF estimate as a measure of heritability.     

Bootstrap approach to test the homogeneity of order restricted mean vectors when the covariance matrices are unknown

Testing homogeneity of multivariate normal mean vectors under an order restriction when the covariance matrices are unknown, arbitrary positive definite and unequal are considered. This problem of testing has been studied to some extent, for example, by Kulatunga and Sasabuchi (1984 Kulatunga, D. D. S., Sasabuchi, S. (1984). A test of homogeneity of mean vectors against multivariate isotonic alternatives. Mem Fac Sci, Kyushu Univ Ser A Mathemat 38:151–161. [Google Scholar]) when the covariance matrices are known and also Sasabuchi et al. (2003 Sasabuchi, S., Tanaka, K., Tsukamodo, T. (2003). Testing homogeneity of multivariate normal mean vectors under an order restriction when the covariance matrices are common but unknown. Annals of Statistics. 31(5):1517–1536.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Sasabuchi (2007 Sasabuchi, S. (2007). More powerful tests for homogeneity of multivariate normal mean vectors under an order restriction. Sankhya 69(4):700–716. [Google Scholar]) when the covariance matrices are unknown but common. In this paper, a test statistic is proposed and because of the main advantage of the bootstrap test is that it avoids the derivation of the complex null distribution analytically, a bootstrap test statistic is derived and since the proposed test statistic is location invariance the bootstrap p-value defined logical and some steps are presented to estimate it. Our numerical studies via Monte Carlo simulation show that the proposed bootstrap test can correctly control the type I error rates. The power of the test for some of the p-dimensional normal distributions is computed by Monte Carlo simulation. Also, the null distribution of test statistic is estimated using kernel density. Finally, the bootstrap test is illustrated using a real data.     

Estimation of finite population mean using two auxiliary variables in stratified two-phase sampling

We propose a new ratio type estimator for estimating the finite population mean using two auxiliary variables in stratified two-phase sampling. Expressions for bias and mean squared error of the proposed estimator are derived up to the first order of approximation. The proposed estimator is more efficient than the usual stratified sample mean estimator, traditional stratified ratio estimator and some other stratified estimators including Bahl and Tuteja (1991 Bahl, S., Tuteja, R. K. (1991). Ratio and product type exponential estimators. Information and Optimization Sciences 12:159–163. [Google Scholar]), Chami et al. (2012 Chami, P. S., Singh, B., Thomas, D. (2012). A two-prameter ratio-product-ratio estimator using auxiliary information. ISRN Probability and Statistics 2012:1–15, doi: 10.5402/2012/103860.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Chand (1975 Chand, L. (1975) Some Ratio Type Estimator Based on two or more Auxiliary Variables, Ph.D. dissertation, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (unpublished). [Google Scholar]), Choudhury and Singh (2012 Choudhury, S., Singh, B. K. (2012). A class of chain ratio-product type estimators with two auxiliary variables under double sampling scheme. Journal of the Korean Statistical Society 41:247–256. [Google Scholar]), Hamad et al. (2013 Hamad, N., Hanif, M., Haider, N. (2013). A regression type estimator with two auxiliary variables for two-phase sampling. Open Journal of Statistics, 3:74–78. [Google Scholar]), Vishwakarma and Gangele (2014 Vishwakarma, G. K., Gangele, R. K. (2014). A class of chain ratio-type exponential estimators in double sampling using two auxiliary variates. Applied Mathematics and Computation 227:171–175. [Google Scholar]), Sanaullah et al. (2014 Sanaullah, A., Ali, H. M., Noor ul Amin, M., Hanif, M. (2014). Generalized exponential chain ratio estimators under stratified two-phase random sampling. Applied Mathematics and Computation 226:541–547. [Google Scholar]), and Chanu and Singh (2014 Chanu, W. K., Singh, B. K. (2014). Improved class of ratio-cum-product estimators of finite population mean in two phase sampling. Global Journal of Science Frontier Research: F Mathematics and Decision Sciences 14(2):1–14. [Google Scholar]).     

An Efficiency and Protection Degree-Based Comparison Among the Quantitative Randomized Response Strategies

There have been many alternative strategies for implementing sampling survey on quantitative characteristic of sensitive issues by using randomized response (RR) technique. The efficiency of most of those strategies has been improved by choosing the suitable design parameters of model. However, the two different procedures with pre-assigned design parameter values cannot ensure that they possess the same protection degree to the respondents. Some earlier comparisons of those strategies are inadequate (as in Eichhorn and Hayre, 1983 Eichhorn , B. H. , Hayre , L. S. ( 1983 ). Scrambled randomized response methods for obtaining sensitive quantitative data . J. Statist. Plann. Infer. 7 : 307 – 316 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Gupta et al., 2002 Gupta , S. , Gupta , B. , Singh , S. ( 2002 ). Estimation of sensitivity level of personal interview survey questions . J. Statist. Plann. Infer. 100 ( 2 ): 239 – 247 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Some literature contains a more comprehensive comparison based on efficiency and protection degree to the respondents among the qualitative characteristic RR techniques (see Bhargava and Singh, 2002 Bhargava , M. , Singh , R. ( 2002 ). On the efficiency comparison of certain randomized response strategies . Metrika 55 : 191 – 197 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Nayak, 1994 Nayak , T. K. ( 1994 ). On randomized response surveys for estimating a proportion . Commun. Statist. Theor. Meth. 23 ( 11 ): 3303 – 3321 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Zaizai and Zankan, 2004 Zaizai , Y. , Zankan , N. ( 2004 ). A fair comparison of the randomized response strategies . Acta Mathematica Scientia 24A ( 3 ): 362 – 368 . [Google Scholar]). As far as the comparisons are concerned that are based on efficiency and protection degree to the respondents among the quantitative characteristic RR techniques, very few related studies have been found so far. The purpose of this article is to give a more adequate comparison among those earlier quantitative characteristic RR strategies. It is found that several important differences between the results obtained in this article and some known results exist. Therefore, these earlier RR strategies should be reevaluated.     

Some Classes of Estimators for the Population Median Using Auxiliary Information

This article considers some classes of estimators of the population median of the study variable using information on an auxiliary variable with their properties under large sample approximation. Asymptotic optimum estimator (AOE) in each class of estimators has been investigated along with the approximate mean square error formulae. It has been shown that the proposed classes of estimators are better than these considered by Gross (1980 Gross , T. S. ( 1980 ). Median estimation in sample surveys. Proc. Surv. Res. Meth. Sect. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 181–184 . [Google Scholar]), Kuk and Mak (1989 Kuk , A. Y. C. , Mak , T. K. ( 1989 ). Median estimation in the presence of auxiliary information . J. Roy. Statist. Soc. Ser. B51 : 261 – 269 . [Google Scholar]), Singh et al. (2003a Singh , H. P. , Singh , S. , Joarder , A. H. ( 2003a ). Estimation of population median when mode of an auxiliary variable is known . J. Statist. Res. 37 ( 1 ): 57 – 63 . [Google Scholar]), and Al and Cingi (2009 Al , S. , Cingi , H. ( 2009 ). New estimators for the population median in simple random sampling. Tenth Islamic Countries Conference on Statistical Sciences, held in New Cairo, Egypt . [Google Scholar]). An empirical study is carried out to judge the merits of the suggested class of estimators over other existing estimators.     

A Bottom-Up Dynamic Model of Portfolio Credit Risk with Stochastic Intensities and Random Recoveries

In Bielecki et al. (2014a Bielecki , T. R. , Cousin , A. , Crépey , S. , Herbertsson , A. ( 2014a ). Dynamic hedging of portfolio credit risk in a markov copula model . J. Optimiz. Theor. Applic . doi: DOI 10.1007/s10957-013-0318-4 (forthcoming) .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), the authors introduced a Markov copula model of portfolio credit risk where pricing and hedging can be done in a sound theoretical and practical way. Further theoretical backgrounds and practical details are developed in Bielecki et al. (2014b Bielecki , T. R. , Cousin , A. , Crépey , S. , Herbertsson , A. ( 2014b ). A bottom-up dynamic model of portfolio credit risk - Part I: Markov copula perspective . In: Recent Adv. Fin. Eng. 2012 , World Scientific (preprint version available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1844574) . [Google Scholar],c) where numerical illustrations assumed deterministic intensities and constant recoveries. In the present paper, we show how to incorporate stochastic default intensities and random recoveries in the bottom-up modeling framework of Bielecki et al. (2014a Bielecki , T. R. , Cousin , A. , Crépey , S. , Herbertsson , A. ( 2014a ). Dynamic hedging of portfolio credit risk in a markov copula model . J. Optimiz. Theor. Applic . doi: DOI 10.1007/s10957-013-0318-4 (forthcoming) .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) while preserving numerical tractability. These two features are of primary importance for applications like CVA computations on credit derivatives (Assefa et al., 2011 Assefa , S. , Bielecki , T. R. , Crépey , S. , Jeanblanc , M. ( 2011 ). CVA computation for counterparty risk assessment in credit portfolios . In: Bielecki , T.R. , Brigo , D. , Patras , F. , Eds., Credit Risk Frontiers . Hoboken : Wiley/Bloomberg-Press . [Google Scholar]; Bielecki et al., 2012 Bielecki , T. R. , Crépey , S. , Jeanblanc , M. , Zargari , B. ( 2012 ). Valuation and Hedging of CDS counterparty exposure in a markov copula model . Int. J. Theoret. Appl. Fin. 15 ( 1 ): 1250004 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), as CVA is sensitive to the stochastic nature of credit spreads and random recoveries allow to achieve satisfactory calibration even for “badly behaved” data sets. This article is thus a complement to Bielecki et al. (2014a Bielecki , T. R. , Cousin , A. , Crépey , S. , Herbertsson , A. ( 2014a ). Dynamic hedging of portfolio credit risk in a markov copula model . J. Optimiz. Theor. Applic . doi: DOI 10.1007/s10957-013-0318-4 (forthcoming) .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Bielecki et al. (2014b Bielecki , T. R. , Cousin , A. , Crépey , S. , Herbertsson , A. ( 2014b ). A bottom-up dynamic model of portfolio credit risk - Part I: Markov copula perspective . In: Recent Adv. Fin. Eng. 2012 , World Scientific (preprint version available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1844574) . [Google Scholar]) and Bielecki et al. (2014c Bielecki , T. R. , Cousin , A. , Crépey , S. , Herbertsson , A. ( 2014c ). A bottom-up dynamic model of portfolio credit risk - Part II: Common-shock interpretation, calibration and hedging issues . Recent Adv. Fin. Eng. 2012 , World Scientific (preprint version available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2245130) . [Google Scholar]).     

On Simultaneous Estimation of the Number of Signals and Frequencies of Multiple Sinusoids When Some Observations Are Missing

In an earlier article (Bai et al., 1999 Bai , Z. D. , Rao , C. R. , Wu , Y. H. , Zen , M. M. , Zhao , L. C. ( 1999 ). The simultaneous estimation of the number of signals and frequencies of multiple sinusods when some observations are missing: I. Asymptotics . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 96 : 11,106 – 11,110 . [CSA] [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the problem of simultaneous estimation of the number of signals and frequencies of multiple sinusoids is considered in the case that some observations are missing. The number of signals is estimated with an information theoretic criterion and the frequencies are estimated with eigenvariation linear prediction. Asymptotic properties of the procedure are investigated but the Monte Carlo simulation is not performed. In this article, a slightly different but scale invariant criterion for detection is proposed and the estimation of frequencies remains the same. Asymptotic properties of this new procedure are provided. Monte Carlo Simulation for both procedures is carried out. Furthermore, comparison on the real signals is also given.     

Characterization results based on dynamic Tsallis cumulative residual entropy

In this article, the concept of cumulative residual entropy (CRE) given by Rao et al. (2004 Rao, M., Chen, Y., Vemuri, B.C., Wang, F. (2004). Cumulative residual entropy: A new measure of information. IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 50:1220–1228.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) is extended to Tsallis entropy function and dynamic version, both residual and past of it. We study some properties and characterization results for these generalized measures. In addition, we provide some characterization results of the first-order statistic based on the Tsallis survival entropy.     

Estimating Incidence Rate on Current Status Data with Application to a Phase IV Cancer Trial

New drug discovery in the pediatrics has dramatically improved survival, but with long- term adverse events. This motivates the examination of adverse outcomes such as long-term toxicity in a phase IV trial. An ideal approach to monitor long-term toxicity is to systematically follow the survivors, which is generally not feasible. Instead, cross-sectional surveys are conducted in Hudson et al. (2007 Hudson , M. M. , Rai , S. N. , Nunez , C. , Merchant , T. E. , Marina , N. M. , Zalamea , N. , Cox , C. , Phipps , S. , Pompeu , R. , Rosenthal , D. ( 2007 ). Noninvasive evaluation of late anthracycline cardiac toxicity in childhood cancer survivors . J. Clin. Oncol. 25 : 3635 – 3643 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), with one of the objectives to estimate the cumulative incidence rates along with specific interest in fixed-term (5 or 10 year) rates. We present inference procedures based on current status data to our motivating example with very interesting findings.