Fitting a multiple regression function

Consider the p-dimensional unit cube [0,1]^p, p≥1. Partition [0, 1]^p into n regions, R_1,n,…,R_n,n such that the volume Δ(R_j,n) is of order n^?1,j=1,…,n. Select and fix a point in each of these regions so that we have x⁽ⁿ⁾₁,…,x⁽ⁿ⁾_n. Suppose that associated with the j-th predictor vector x⁽ⁿ⁾_j there is an observable variable Y⁽ⁿ⁾_j, j=1,…,n, satisfying the multiple regression model $\text{Y}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{=g(}\text{x}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{)+e}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}$, where g is an unknown function defined on [0, 1]^pand {e⁽ⁿ⁾_j} are independent identically distributed random variables with Ee⁽ⁿ⁾₁=0 and Var e⁽ⁿ⁾₁=σ²<∞. This paper proposes as an estimator of g(x), where k(u) is a known p-dimensional bounded density and {a_n} is a sequence of reals converging to 0 asn→∞. Weak and strong consistency of g_n(x) and rates of convergence are obtained. Asymptoticnormality of the estimator is established. Also proposed is $\text{σ}{}^2{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{=n}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}\text{Σ}{}^{\mathrm{n}}{}_{\mathrm{j=1}}\text{(Y}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{?g}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{(}\text{x}{}^{\mathrm{(n)}}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{))}{}^2$ as a consistent estimate of σ².     

Asymptotic distribution of hotelling's trace for two unequal covariance matrices and robustness study of test of equality of mean vectors

Asymptotic expansions for the percentiles and c.d.f., up to terms of order $\text{1}\text{n}{}^2$ of the statistic $\text{T =m}\text{T}\text{r}\text{S}{}_1\text{S}{}^{-1}{}_2$, where mS₁ and nS₂ independently distributed W(m, p, Σ₁) and W(n, p, Σ₂) respectively, are obtained using methods similar to those of Ito [4], Chattopadhyay and Pillai [2]. These expansions hold when $\text{Σ}{}_1\text{Σ}{}^{-1}{}_2\text{=}\text{I}\text{+}\text{F}$ and$\text{|}\text{Ch}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{(}\text{F}\text{)| < 1}$. Tables of powers of T for p = 3 and p = 4 for m = 4 and various values of n are given and comparison made with the exact powers for p = 3. These powers are useful for the study of (i) the test of equality of covariance matrices in two p-variate normal populations and (ii) robustness of test of equality of mean vectors of l normal populations against the violation of the assumption of equality of covariance matrices.     

Some aspects of the theory of estimating equations

An estimating equation for a parameter θ, based on an observation ?, is an equation g(x,θ)=0 which can be solved for θ in terms of x. An estimating equation is unbiased if the funaction g has 0 mean for every θ. For the case when the form of the frequency function p(x,θ) is completely specified up to the unknown real parameter θ, the optimality of the m.1 equation $\text{?}\text{log}\text{p}\text{?θ}\text{=0}$ in the class of all unbiased estimating equations was established by Godambe (1960). In this paper we allow the form of the frequency function p to vary assuming that $\text{x=(x}{}_1\text{,…,x}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{)?}\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{n}}$ and that under p, E(x_i)=θ. x₁,…, x_n are independent observations on a variate x, it is shown that among all the unbiased estimating equations for θ, $\text{x}\text{?}\text{?θ=0}$ is uniquely optimum up to a constant multiple.     

Gaussian approximation of signed rank statistics process

We consider the signed linear rank statistics of the form

$\text{S}{}_{\mathrm{\Delta N}}\text{=}\text{∑}\text{i=1}\text{N}\text{c}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}\text{ø(}\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}\text{(N+1)}\text{)}\text{sgn}\text{Y}{}^{\mathrm{\Delta }}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}$

where the c_Ni's are known real numbers, Δ∈[0,1] is an unknown real parameter,R^Δ_Ni is the rank of |Y^Δ_Ni| among |Y^Δ_Nj|, 1≤j≤N, ø is a score generating function, sgn y=1 or -1 according as y≥0 or <0, and Y^Δ_Nj, 1≤j ≤N, are independent random variables with continuous cumulative distribution functions F(y?Δd_Nj), 1≤ j≤N, respectively where the d_fNi's are known real numbers. Under suitable assumptions on the c's, d's, φ and F, it is proved that the random process {S_ΔN?S_0N?ES_ΔN, 0≤Δ≤1}, properly normalized, converges weakly to a Gaussian process, and this result is also true if ES_ΔN is replaced by Δb_N, where

$\text{b}{}_{\mathrm{N}}\text{=4}\text{∑}\text{i=1}\text{N}\text{c}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}\text{d}{}_{\mathrm{Ni}}\text{∫}\text{0}\text{∞}\text{ø′(2F(x)?1)?}{}^2\text{(x)}\text{d}\text{x}\text{and}\text{?=F′}$

. As an application, we derive the asymptotic distribution of the properly normalized length of a confidence interval for Δ.     

Robust designs and optimality of least squares for regression problems

Unbiased linear estimators are considered for the model

$\text{Y(}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{)=θ}{}_0\text{+}\text{∑k}\text{j=1}\text{θ}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{ij}}\text{+ψ(}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{)+ε}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{, i=1,2,…,n,}$

where ψ(x) is an unknown contamination. It is assumed that |ψ(x)|?φ(6x6) where φ is a convex function. Minimax analogues of Φ_p-optimality criteria are introduced. It is shown that, under certain (sufficient) conditions, the least squares estimators and corresponding designs are optimal in the class of all unbiased linear estimators and designs. It is also shown that, in the case when least squares estimators with symmetric design do not lead to an optimal solution, the relative efficiency of optimal least squares is not diminishing and has a uniform lower bound.     

Nonparametric estimation of conditional expectation

Denote the integer lattice points in the N  -dimensional Euclidean space by Z^N${\mathbb{Z}}^N$ and assume that (_Xi,_Yi)$(X_{\mathbf{i}},Y_{\mathbf{i}})$, i∈Z^N$\mathbf{i}\in {\mathbb{Z}}^N$ is a mixing random field. Estimators of the conditional expectation r(x)=E[_Yi|_Xi=x]$r(\mathbf{x})=\mathrm{E}[Y_{\mathbf{i}}|X_{\mathbf{i}}=\mathbf{x}]$ by nearest neighbor methods are established and investigated. The main analytical result of this study is that, under general mixing assumptions, the estimators considered are asymptotically normal. Many difficulties arise since points in higher dimensional space N?2$N?2$ cannot be linearly ordered. Our result applies to many situations where parametric methods cannot be adopted with confidence.     

Non-parametric recursive estimates of a probability density function and its derivatives

Recursive estimates of a probability density function (pdf) are known. This paper presents recursive estimates of a derivative of any desired order of a pdf. Let f be a pdf on the real line and p?0 be any desired integer. Based on a random sample of size n from f, estimators f^(p)_n of f^(p), the pth order derivatives of f, are exhibited. These estimators are of the form $\text{n}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}\text{∑n}\text{j=1}\text{δ}{}_{\mathrm{jp}}$, where δ_jp depends only on p and the jth observation in the sample, and hence can be computed recursively as the sample size increases. These estimators are shown to be asymptotically unbiased, mean square consistent and strongly consistent, both at a point and uniformly on the real line. For pointwise properties, the conditions on f^(p) have been weakened with a little stronger assumption on the kernel function.     

Optimality in presence of damaged observations

In this paper we study a situation where, instead of observing $\text{y}\text{(N×1)}$, we observe $\text{y}\text{+}\text{d}$; where the random variables in the vector d are called damage components. It is shown that A- and E-optimum designs minimize the effect of d in the mean square error (m.s.e.) of estimable linear functions of parameters under the ordinary linear model.     

The consistency of a matching test

Let $\text{X}{}^1{}_1\text{?X}{}^1{}_2\text{???X}{}^1{}_{\mathrm{n}}$ be the order statistics of a random sample from a distribution on [0, 1]. Let A_k, the kth match, be the event that $\text{X}{}^1{}_{\mathrm{k}}\text{?(}\text{(k?1)}\text{n}\text{k}\text{n}$], and let S_n be the total number of matches. The consistency of S_n for testing uniform df, U, against df G≠U is investigated, and it is shown that S_n is consistent if the intersection of G with U has Lebesgue measure zero. It is also consistent against a sequence of alternatives approaching U at a rate less faster than $\text{n}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>-1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$.     

Second order asymptotic relations of M-estimators and R-estimators in two-sample location model

Let T_M be an M-estimator (maximum likelihood type estimator) and T_R be an R-estimator (Hodges-Lehmann's estimator) of the shift parameter Δ in the two-sample location model. The asymptotic representation of √N(T_M-T_R) up to a term of the order O_p(N^{-$\text{1}\text{4}$}) is derived which is valid if the functions Ψ and ? generating T_M and T_R, respectively, decompose into an absolutely continuous and a step-function components; the order O_p(N^{-$\text{1}\text{4}$}) cannot be improved unless the discontinuous components vanish. As a consequence, the conditions under which √N(T_M-T_R)=O_p(N^{-$\text{1}\text{4}$}) are obtained. The main tool for obtaining the results is the second order asymptotic linearity of the pertaining linear rank statistics which is proved here under the assumption that the score-generating function ? has some jump-discontinuities.     

Sequence-compound estimation in scale-exponential families and speed of convergence

This paper deals with a sequence-compound estimation. The component problem is the squared error loss estimation of θ?[a,b] based on an observation X whose p.d.f. is of the form $\text{u(x)c(θ)}\text{exp}\text{(?}\text{x}\text{θ}\text{)}$. For each $\text{0<t<}\text{1}\text{2}$ a class of sequence-compound estimators $\text{ψ}\text{?}\text{=}\text{ψ}\text{?}{}_1\text{,}\text{ψ}\text{?}{}_2\text{,…)}$ is exhibited whose compound risk (average of risks) up to stage n differs from the Bayes envelope (in the component problem) w.r.t. the empiric distribution G_n of the parameters involved up to stage n by a quantity of order O(n^?δt) for a δ>0. It is also shown that at any stage i the difference of the risk of ψ?_i and the risk of the Bayes response w.r.t. G_i?1 is O(i^?δt). Examples of the above type of families are given where δ is min{1,$\text{2a}\text{b}$} and t is arbitrarily close to $\text{1}\text{2}$. Here it may be worthwhile to mention that a rate $\text{O}\text{(n}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>?</mtext><mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{)}$ or better has not yet been obtained even in a very special family of densities.     

Empirical Bayes regression analysis with many regressors but fewer observations

In this paper, we consider the prediction problem in multiple linear regression model in which the number of predictor variables, p, is extremely large compared to the number of available observations, n  . The least-squares predictor based on a generalized inverse is not efficient. We propose six empirical Bayes estimators of the regression parameters. Three of them are shown to have uniformly lower prediction error than the least-squares predictors when the vector of regressor variables are assumed to be random with mean vector zero and the covariance matrix (1/n)X^tX$(1/n){\mathit{X}}^{\mathrm{t}}\mathit{X}$ where X^t=(_x1,…,_xn)${\mathit{X}}^{\mathrm{t}}=({\mathit{x}}_1,\dots ,{\mathit{x}}_n)$ is the p×n$p\times n$ matrix of observations on the regressor vector centered from their sample means. For other estimators, we use simulation to show its superiority over the least-squares predictor.     

A note on the asymptotic efficiency of the sobel–wald test

Let X₁,X₂, … be iid random variables with the pdf f(x,θ)=exp(θx?b(θ)) relative to a σ-finite measure μ, and consider the problem of deciding among three simple hypotheses H_i:θ=θ_i (1?i?3) subject to P(acceptH_i|θ_i)=1?α (1?i?3). A procedure similar to Sobel–Wald procedure is discussed and its asymptotic efficiency as compared with the best nonsequential test is obtained by finding the limit lim_a→0(E_iN(a)/n(a)), where N (a) is the stopping time of the proposed procedure and n(a) is the sample size of the best non-sequential test. It is shown that the same asymptotic limit holds for the original Sobel–Wald procedure. Specializing to N(θ,1) distribution it is found that lim_a→0$\text{(E}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{N(α)/n(α))=}\text{1}\text{4}$ (i=1,2) and lim_a→0 (E₃N(α)n(α))=δ²₁/4δ, where δ_i=(θ_i+1?θ_i) with 0<δ₁?δ₂. Also, the asymptotic efficiency evaluated when the X's have an exponential distribution.     

A class of asymmetrical orthogonal resolution-IV designs

The concept of d-resolvability of orthogonal arrays of strength (d+1) is introduced. This is used to construct orthogonal resolution-IV plans of the type $\text{nt·n·2}{}^{\mathrm{n(m?1)}}\text{mn}{}^2\text{t}$. These plans are minimal and a large number of these plans are new.     

Prediction in moving average processes

For the stationary invertible moving average process of order one with unknown innovation distribution F, we construct root-n   consistent plug-in estimators of conditional expectations E(h(_Xn+1)|_X1,…,_Xn)$E(h(X_{n+1})|X_1,\dots ,X_n)$. More specifically, we give weak conditions under which such estimators admit Bahadur-type representations, assuming some smoothness of h or of F. For fixed h it suffices that h   is locally of bounded variation and locally Lipschitz in _L2(F)$L_2(F)$, and that the convolution of h and F   is continuously differentiable. A uniform representation for the plug-in estimator of the conditional distribution function P(_Xn+1?·|_X1,…,_Xn)$P(X_{n+1}?·|X_1,\dots ,X_n)$ holds if F has a uniformly continuous density. For a smoothed version of our estimator, the Bahadur representation holds uniformly over each class of functions h that have an appropriate envelope and whose shifts are F-Donsker, assuming some smoothness of F. The proofs use empirical process arguments.     

Some determinant optimality aspects of main effect fold-over designs

Saha and Mohanty (1970) presented a main effect fold-over design consisting of 14 treatment combinations of the 24×33 factorial, which had the nice property of being even balanced. Calling this design DSM, this paper establishes the following specific results: (i) DSM is not d-optimal in the subclass Δe of all 14 point even balanced main effect fold-over designs of the 24×33 factorial; (ii) DSM is not d-optimal in the subclass $\text{Δ}{}^1\text{?Δ}{}^{\mathrm{e}}$ of all 14 point even and odd balanced main effect fold-over designs of the 24×33 factorial; (iii) DSM is even optimal in $\text{Δ}{}^1$ and Δe. In addition to these results two 14 point designs in $\text{Δ}{}^1$ are presented which are d-optimal and via a counter example it is shown that these designs are not odd optimal. Finally, several general matrix algebra results are given which should be useful in resolving d-optimality problems of fold-over designs of the kn11×kn22 factorial.     

Rates of convergence for the k-nearest neighbor estimators with smoother regression functions

Let (X, Y  ) be a R^d×R-valued${\mathbb{R}}^d\times \mathbb{R}\mathrm{-}\mathrm{valued}$ random vector. In regression analysis one wants to estimate the regression function m(x)?E(Y|X=x)$m(x)?\mathbf{E}(Y|X=x)$ from a data set. In this paper we consider the rate of convergence for the k-nearest neighbor estimators in case that X   is uniformly distributed on [0,1]^d$[\mathrm{0,1}{]}^d$, Var(Y|X=x)$\mathbf{Var}(Y|X=x)$ is bounded, and m is (p, C)-smooth. It is an open problem whether the optimal rate can be achieved by a k  -nearest neighbor estimator for 1<p≤1.5$1<p\le 1.5$. We solve the problem affirmatively. This is the main result of this paper. Throughout this paper, we assume that the data is independent and identically distributed and as an error criterion we use the expected L₂ error.     

Complete designs with blocks of maximal multiplicity

The set of distinct blocks of a block design is known as its support. We construct complete designs with parameters v(?7), k=3, λ=v ? 2 which contain a block of maximal multiplicity and with support size $\text{b}{}^1\text{= (}{}^{\mathrm{v}}{}_3\text{) ? 4(v ? 2)}$. Any complete design which contains such a block, and has parameters v, k, λ as above, must be supported on at most (^v₃) ? 4(v ? 2) blocks. Attention is given to complete designs because of their direct relationship to simple random sampling.