Semiparametric Estimation for Two-Sample Location-Scale Models under Type I Censorship

To compare two samples under Type I censorship, this article proposes a method of semiparametric inference for the two-sample location-scale problem when the model for two samples is characterized by an unknown distribution and two unknown parameters. Simultaneous estimators for both the location shift and scale change parameters are given. It is shown that the two estimators are strongly consistent and asymptotically normal. The approach in this article can also be used for scale-shape models. Monte Carlo studies indicate that the proposed estimation procedure performs well in finite and heavily censored samples, maintains high relative efficiencies for a wide range of censoring proportions and is robust to the model misspecification, and also outperforms other competitive estimators.     

Estimation of the linear EV model with censored data

In this paper, a censored linear errors-in-variables model is investigated. The asymptotic normality of the unknown parameter's estimator is obtained. Two empirical log-likelihood ratio statistics for the unknown parameter in the model are suggested. It is proved that the proposed statistics are asymptotically chi-squared under some mild conditions, and hence can be used to construct the confidence regions of the parameter of interest. Finite sample performance of the proposed method is illustrated in a simulation study.     

Asymptotic Normality for the Partially Linear EV Models with Longitudinal Data

In this article, we consider a partially linear EV regression model under longitudinal data. By using a weighted kernel method and modified least-squared method, the estimators of unknown parameter, the unknown function are constructed and the asymptotic normality of the estimators are derived. Simulation studies are conducted to illustrate the finite-sample performance of the proposed method.     

Variable Selection for Partially Linear Models with Randomly Censored Data

This article proposes a variable selection procedure for partially linear models with right-censored data via penalized least squares. We apply the SCAD penalty to select significant variables and estimate unknown parameters simultaneously. The sampling properties for the proposed procedure are investigated. The rate of convergence and the asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators are established. Furthermore, the SCAD-penalized estimators of the nonzero coefficients are shown to have the asymptotic oracle property. In addition, an iterative algorithm is proposed to find the solution of the penalized least squares. Simulation studies are conducted to examine the finite sample performance of the proposed method.     

Bayesian Analysis of Skew Gaussian Spatial Models Based on Censored Data

The customary approach to spatial data modeling in the presence of censored data, is to assume the underlying random field is Gaussian. However, in practice, we often faced data that the exploratory data analysis shows the skewness and consequently, it violates the normality assumption. In such setting, the skew Gaussian (SG) spatial model is used to overcome this issue. In this article, the SG model is fitted based on censored observations. For this purpose, we adopt the Bayesian approach and utilize the Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms and data augmentations to carry out calculations. A numerical example illustrates the methodology.     

Asymptotic Normality of M-Estimators for Varying Coefficient Models with Longitudinal Data

This article considers a nonparametric varying coefficient regression model with longitudinal observations. The relationship between the dependent variable and the covariates is assumed to be linear at a specific time point, but the coefficients are allowed to change over time. A general formulation is used to treat mean regression, median regression, quantile regression, and robust mean regression in one setting. The local M-estimators of the unknown coefficient functions are obtained by local linear method. The asymptotic distributions of M-estimators of unknown coefficient functions at both interior and boundary points are established. Various applications of the main results, including estimating conditional quantile coefficient functions and robustifying the mean regression coefficient functions are derived. Finite sample properties of our procedures are studied through Monte Carlo simulations.     

Estimation in Varying-Coefficient Errors-in-Variables Models with Missing Response Variables

This article is concerned with the estimation of a varying-coefficient regression model when the response variable is sometimes missing and some of the covariates are measured with additive errors. We propose a class of estimators for the coefficient functions, as well as for the population mean and the error variance. The resulting estimators are shown to be asymptotically normal. Simulation studies are conducted to illustrate our approach.     

Empirical Likelihood for First-order Autoregressive Error-in-variable of Models With Validation Data

In this article, we consider the empirical likelihood for the autoregressive error-in-explanatory variable models. With the help of validation, we first develop an empirical likelihood ratio test statistic for the parameters of interest, and prove that its asymptotic distribution is that of a weighted sum of independent standard χ²₁ random variables with unknown weights. Also, we propose an adjusted empirical likelihood and prove that its asymptotic distribution is a standard χ². Furthermore, an empirical likelihood-based confidence region is given. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method works well for practical situations.     

Sliced Average Variance Estimation for Censored Data

We consider a nonlinear censored regression problem with a vector of predictors. With censoring, high-dimensional regression analysis becomes much more complicated. Since censoring can cause severe bias in estimation, modification to adjust such bias is needed to be made. Based on the weight adjustment, we develop the modification of sliced average variance estimation for estimating the lifetime central subspace without requiring a prespecified parametric model. Our proposed method preserves as much regression information as possible. Simulation results are reported and comparisons are made with the sliced inverse regression of Li et al. (1999 Li , K. C. , Wang , J. L. , Chen , C. H. ( 1999 ). Dimension reduction for censored regression data . Ann. Statist. 27 : 1 – 23 . [Google Scholar]).     

Marginal Likelihood Estimation for Proportional Odds Models with Right Censored Data

One majoraspect in medical research is to relate the survival times ofpatients with the relevant covariates or explanatory variables.The proportional hazards model has been used extensively in thepast decades with the assumption that the covariate effects actmultiplicatively on the hazard function, independent of time.If the patients become more homogeneous over time, say the treatmenteffects decrease with time or fade out eventually, then a proportionalodds model may be more appropriate. In the proportional oddsmodel, the odds ratio between patients can be expressed as afunction of their corresponding covariate vectors, in which,the hazard ratio between individuals converges to unity in thelong run. In this paper, we consider the estimation of the regressionparameter for a semiparametric proportional odds model at whichthe baseline odds function is an arbitrary, non-decreasing functionbut is left unspecified. Instead of using the exact survivaltimes, only the rank order information among patients is used.A Monte Carlo method is used to approximate the marginal likelihoodfunction of the rank invariant transformation of the survivaltimes which preserves the information about the regression parameter.The method can be applied to other transformation models withcensored data such as the proportional hazards model, the generalizedprobit model or others. The proposed method is applied to theVeteran's Administration lung cancer trial data.     

Non Parametric Regression Quantile Estimation for Dependent Functional Data under Random Censorship: Asymptotic Normality

In this paper we study a smooth estimator of the regression quantile function in the censorship model when the covariates take values in some abstract function space. The main goal of this paper is to establish the asymptotic normality of the kernel estimator of the regression quantile, under α-mixing condition and, on the concentration properties on small balls probability measure of the functional regressors. Some applications and particular cases are studied. This study can be applied in time series analysis to the prediction and building confidence bands. Some simulations are drawn to lend further support to our theoretical results and to compare the quality of behavior of the estimator for finite samples with different rates of censoring and sizes.     

Hierarchical-Likelihood Approach for Mixed Linear Models with Censored Data

Mixed linear models describe the dependence via random effects in multivariate normal survival data. Recently they have received considerable attention in the biomedical literature. They model the conditional survival times, whereas the alternative frailty model uses the conditional hazard rate. We develop an inferential method for the mixed linear model via Lee and Nelder's (1996) hierarchical-likelihood (h-likelihood). Simulation and a practical example are presented to illustrate the new method.     

Estimation and Test for Multi-Dimensional Regression Models

This work is concerned with the estimation of multi-dimensional regression and the asymptotic behavior of the test involved in selecting models. The main problem with such models is that we need to know the covariance matrix of the noise to get an optimal estimator. We show in this article that if we choose to minimize the logarithm of the determinant of the empirical error covariance matrix, then we get an asymptotically optimal estimator. Moreover, under suitable assumptions, we show that this cost function leads to a very simple asymptotic law for testing the number of parameters of an identifiable and regular regression model. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical results.     

Parameter Estimation for Bivariate Shock Models with Singular Distribution for Censored Data with Concomitant Order Statistics

When two‐component parallel systems are tested, the data consist of Type‐II censored data X_(i), i= 1, n, from one component, and their concomitants Y _[i] randomly censored at X_(r), the stopping time of the experiment. Marshall & Olkin's (1967) bivariate exponential distribution is used to illustrate statistical inference procedures developed for this data type. Although this data type is motivated practically, the likelihood is complicated, and maximum likelihood estimation is difficult, especially in the case where the parameter space is a non‐open set. An iterative algorithm is proposed for finding maximum likelihood estimates. This article derives several properties of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) including existence, uniqueness, strong consistency and asymptotic distribution. It also develops an alternative estimation method with closed‐form expressions based on marginal distributions, and derives its asymptotic properties. Compared with variances of the MLEs in the finite and large sample situations, the alternative estimator performs very well, especially when the correlation between X and Y is small.     

Estimation from Censored Data with Incomplete Information

Phillips and Sweeting [J. R. Statist. Soc. B 58 (1996) 775–783.] considered estimation of the parameter of the exponential distribution with censored failure time data when there is incomplete knowledge of the censoring times. It was shown that, under particular models for the censoring mechanism and censoring errors, it will usually be safe to ignore such errors provided they are not expected to be too large. A flexible model is introduced which includes the extreme cases of no censoring errors and no information on the censoring values. The effect of alternative assumptions about knowledge of the censoring values on the estimation of failure rate is investigated.     

Jackknife Estimation for Smooth Functions of the Parametric Component in Partially Linear Regression Models

Abstract

It is known that due to the existence of the nonparametric component, the usual estimators for the parametric component or its function in partially linear regression models are biased. Sometimes this bias is severe. To reduce the bias, we propose two jackknife estimators and compare them with the naive estimator. All three estimators are shown to be asymptotically equivalent and asymptotically normally distributed under some regularity conditions. However, through simulation we demonstrate that the jackknife estimators perform better than the naive estimator in terms of bias when the sample size is small to moderate. To make our results more useful, we also construct consistent estimators of the asymptotic variance, which are robust against heterogeneity of the error variances.     

Parameter Estimation and Censored Lives

The usual likelihood used to make inferences about parameters of lifetime distributions when lives may be censored consists of the product of probability densities for completed lives and reliabilities for the censored lives. This works well in many situations. We consider two special cases of a model which assumes a Poisson birth process for the items: in one case the usual method works well, but in the other case it does not, and better estimates are found.     

The Empirical Likelihood Goodness-of-Fit Test for a Regression Model with Randomly Censored Data

The regression model with randomly censored data has been intensively investigated. In this article, we consider a goodness-of-fit test for this model. Empirical likelihood (EL) tests are constructed. The asymptotic distributions of the test statistic under null hypothesis and the local alternative hypothesis are given. Simulations are carried out to illustrate the methodology.     

Censored Exponential Data: Large Deviations for MLEs and Posterior Distributions

In this article, we consider several statistical models for censored exponential data. We prove a large deviation result for the maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of each model, and a unique result for the posterior distributions which works well for all the cases. Finally, comparing the large deviation rate functions for MLEs and posterior distributions, we show that a typical feature fails for one model; moreover, we illustrate the relation between this fact and a well-known result for curved exponential models.     

Testing the Homogeneity of Two Survival Functions Against a Mixture Alternative Based on Censored Data

When the survival distribution in a treatment group is a mixture of two distributions of the same family, traditional parametric methods that ignore the existence of mixture components or the nonparametric methods may not be very powerful. We develop a modified likelihood ratio test (MLRT) for testing homogeneity in a two sample problem with censored data and compare the actual type I error and power of the MLRT with that nonparametric log-rank test and parametric test through Monte-Carlo simulations. The proposed test is also applied to analyze data from a clinical trial on early breast cancer.