Kernel Estimators for Additive Models with Dependent Observations from Random Fields

Nonparametric estimation of the regression function for additive models is investigated in cases where the observed data are dependent. An additive kernel estimator for the regression function under some general mixing conditions is proposed. Under the mixing conditions, the additive kernel estimator is shown to be asymptotically normal.     

Some Asymptotic Results of Kernel Density Estimators Under Random Left-Truncation and Dependent Data

Problems with truncated data arise frequently in survival analyses and reliability applications. The estimation of the density function of the lifetimes is often of interest. In this article, the estimation of density function by the kernel method is considered, when truncated data are showing some kind of dependence. We apply the strong Gaussian approximation technique to study the strong uniform consistency for kernel estimators of the density function under a truncated dependent model. We also apply the strong approximation results to study the integrated square error properties of the kernel density estimators under the truncated dependent scheme.     

Local Smoothing for Kernel Distribution Function Estimation

The problem of bandwidth selection for kernel-based estimation of the distribution function (cdf) at a given point is considered. With appropriate bandwidth, a kernel-based estimator (kdf) is known to outperform the empirical distribution function. However, such a bandwidth is unknown in practice. In pointwise estimation, the appropriate bandwidth depends on the point where the function is estimated. The existing smoothing methods use one common bandwidth to estimate the cdf. The accuracy of the resulting estimates varies substantially depending on the cdf and the point where it is estimated. We propose to select bandwidth by minimizing a bootstrap estimator of the MSE of the kdf. The resulting estimator performs reliably, irrespective of where the cdf is estimated. It is shown to be consistent under i.i.d. as well as strongly mixing dependence assumption. Two applications of the proposed estimator are shown in finance and seismology. We report a dataset on the S & P Nifty index values.     

Simulation of Infinitely Divisible Random Fields

Two methods to approximate infinitely divisible random fields are presented. The methods are based on approximating the kernel function in the spectral representation of such fields, leading to numerical integration of the respective integrals. Error bounds for the approximation error are derived and the approximations are used to simulate certain classes of infinitely divisible random fields.     

Bounds for L-Statistics from Weakly Dependent Samples of Random Length

ABSTRACT

Sharp bounds on expected values of L-statistics based on a sample of possibly dependent, identically distributed random variables are given in the case when the sample size is a random variable with values in the set {0, 1, 2,…}. The dependence among observations is modeled by copulas and mixing. The bounds are attainable and provide characterizations of some non trivial distributions.     

Central Limit Theorem for ISE of Kernel Density Estimators in Censored Dependent Model

In some long-term studies, a series of dependent and possibly censored failure times may be observed. Suppose that the failure times have a common continuous distribution function F. A popular stochastic measure of the distance between the density function f of the failure times and its kernel estimate f _n is the integrated square error(ISE). In this article, we derive a central limit theorem for the integrated square error of the kernel density estimators under a censored dependent model.     

Nonlinear Discriminant Functions for Mixed Random Walk Models

A procedure is presented for finding maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters of a mixture of two random walk distributions in two cases, using classified and unclassified observations. Based on small sample size, estimation of nonlinear discriminant functions is considered. Throughout simulation experiments, the performance of the corresponding estimated nonlinear discriminant functions is investigated. The total probabilities of misclassification and percentage biases are evaluated and discussed.     

On the Estimation of Integrated Covariance Functions of Stationary Random Fields

Abstract.  For stationary vector-valued random fields on     the asymptotic covariance matrix for estimators of the mean vector can be given by integrated covariance functions. To construct asymptotic confidence intervals and significance tests for the mean vector, non-parametric estimators of these integrated covariance functions are required. Integrability conditions are derived under which the estimators of the covariance matrix are mean-square consistent. For random fields induced by stationary Boolean models with convex grains, these conditions are expressed by sufficient assumptions on the grain distribution. Performance issues are discussed by means of numerical examples for Gaussian random fields and the intrinsic volume densities of planar Boolean models with uniformly bounded grains.     

Empirical Likelihood Confidence Intervals for Distribution Functions under Negatively Associated Samples

In this article, we discuss the construction of the confidence intervals for distribution functions under negatively associated samples. It is shown that the blockwise empirical likelihood (EL) ratio statistic for a distribution function is asymptotically χ²-type distributed. The result is used to obtain an EL-based confidence interval for the distribution function.     

Stereological Modelling of Random Particles

Stochastic models for three-dimensional particles have many applications in applied sciences. Lévy–based particle models are a flexible approach to particle modelling. The structure of the random particles is given by a kernel smoothing of a Lévy basis. The models are easy to simulate but statistical inference procedures have not yet received much attention in the literature. The kernel is not always identifiable and we suggest one approach to remedy this problem. We propose a method to draw inference about the kernel from data often used in local stereology and study the performance of our approach in a simulation study.     

Asymptotic Properties of Random Weighted Empirical Distribution Function

This article studies the asymptotic properties of the random weighted empirical distribution function of independent random variables. Suppose X₁, X₂, ???, X_n is a sequence of independent random variables, and this sequence is not required to be identically distributed. Denote the empirical distribution function of the sequence by F_n(x). Based on the random weighting method and F_n(x), the random weighted empirical distribution function H_n(x) is constructed and the asymptotic properties of H_n are discussed. Under weak conditions, the Glivenko–Cantelli theorem and the central limit theorem for the random weighted empirical distribution function are obtained. The obtained results have also been applied to study the distribution functions of random errors of multiple sensors.     

Bayesian Computations for Random Environment Models

This paper deals with the analysis of reliability data from a Bayesian perspective for Random Environment (RE) models. We give an overview of current literature on RE models. We also study the computational problems associated with the implementations of RE models in a Bayesian setting. Then, we present the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique to solve such problems. These problems arise in posterior and predictive analysis and their relevant quantities such as mean, variance, and median. The suggested methodology is incorporated with an illustration.     

Comparisons Between Local Linear Estimator and Kernel Smooth Estimator for a Smooth Distribution Based on MSE Under Right Censoring

We describe a method for estimating the coefficients in a logistic regression model when the predictors are subject to measurement error and an instrumental variable is present. The proposed method is based upon the theory of factor scores taken from factor analysis. Two versions of the proposed method, a simple one and an extended one, are compared to the methods referred to by Carrol, Ruppert and Stefanski (1995) through simulation studies. Our conclusion is that the simple version performs as well as the methods from Carrol et al. (1995), and the extended version performs betterwith respect to MSE, due to a reduction of bias.     

Generalized Kernel Estimators for the Weibull-Tail Coefficient

We introduce new families of estimators for the Weibull-tail coefficient, obtained from a weighted sum of a power transformation of excesses over a high random threshold. Asymptotic normality of the estimators is proven for an intermediate sequence of upper order statistics, and under classical regularity conditions for L-statistics and a second-order condition on the tail behavior of the underlying distribution. The small sample performance of two specific examples of kernel functions is evaluated in a simulation study.     

Bayes Estimation Based on Random Censored Data for Some Life Time Models Under Symmetric and Asymmetric Loss Functions

Censored data arise naturally in a number of fields, particularly in problems of reliability and survival analysis. There are several types of censoring; in this article, we shall confine ourselves to the right randomly censoring type. Under the Bayesian framework, we study the estimation of parameters in a general framework based on the random censored observations under Linear-Exponential (LINEX) and squared error loss (SEL) functions. As a special case, Weibull model is discussed and the admissibility of estimators of parameters verified. Finally, a simulation study is conducted based on Monte Carlo (MC) method for comparing estimated risks of the estimators obtained.     

Robust Estimators for the Parameters of Multivariate Lognormal Distribution

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a class of location and scale estimators for the p-variate lognormal distribution. These estimators are obtained by applying a log transform to the data, computing robust Fisher consistent estimators for the obtained Gaussian data and transforming those estimators for the lognormal using the relationship between the parameters of both distributions. We prove some of the properties of these estimators, such as Fisher consistency, robustness and asymptotic normality.     

Asymptotics for Tail Probability of Random Sums with a Heavy-Tailed Number and Dependent Increments

This article obtains the asymptotics for the tail probability of random sums, where the random number and the increments are all heavy tailed, and the increments follow a certain wide dependence structure. This dependence structure can contain some commonly used negatively dependent random variables as well as some positively dependent random variables.     

Shrinkage Estimators for Prediction Out-of-Sample: Conditional Performance

We find that, in a linear model, the James–Stein estimator, which dominates the maximum-likelihood estimator in terms of its in-sample prediction error, can perform poorly compared to the maximum-likelihood estimator in out-of-sample prediction. We give a detailed analysis of this phenomenon and discuss its implications. When evaluating the predictive performance of estimators, we treat the regressor matrix in the training data as fixed, i.e., we condition on the design variables. Our findings contrast those obtained by Baranchik (1973 Baranchik , A. J. ( 1973 ). Inadmissibility of maximum likelihood estimators in some multiple regression problems with three or more independent variables . Ann. Statist. 1 ( 2 ): 312 – 321 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and, more recently, by Dicker (2012 Dicker , L. ( 2012 ). Dense signals, linear estimators, and out-of-sample prediction for high-dimensional linear models. arXiv:1102.2952 [math.ST].  [Google Scholar]) in an unconditional performance evaluation.