NUMBERS OF OBSERVATIONS NEAR ORDER STATISTICS

Limit theorems are obtained for the numbers of observations in a random sample that fall within a left‐hand or right‐hand neighbourhood of the kth order statistic. The index k can be fixed, or tend to infinity as the sample size increases unboundedly. In essence, the proofs are applications of the classical Poisson and De Moivre–Laplace theorems.     

Data depth‐based nonparametric scale tests

Liu and Singh (1993, 2006) introduced a depth‐based d‐variate extension of the nonparametric two sample scale test of Siegel and Tukey (1960). Liu and Singh (2006) generalized this depth‐based test for scale homogeneity of k ≥ 2 multivariate populations. Motivated by the work of Gastwirth (1965), we propose k sample percentile modifications of Liu and Singh's proposals. The test statistic is shown to be asymptotically normal when k = 2, and compares favorably with Liu and Singh (2006) if the underlying distributions are either symmetric with light tails or asymmetric. In the case of skewed distributions considered in this paper the power of the proposed tests can attain twice the power of the Liu‐Singh test for d ≥ 1. Finally, in the k‐sample case, it is shown that the asymptotic distribution of the proposed percentile modified Kruskal‐Wallis type test is χ² with k ? 1 degrees of freedom. Power properties of this k‐sample test are similar to those for the proposed two sample one. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 39: 356–369; 2011 © 2011 Statistical Society of Canada     

On tail behaviour of kth upper order statistics under fixed and random sample sizes via tail equivalence

For a fixed positive integer k, limit laws of linearly normalized kth upper order statistics are well known. In this article, a comprehensive study of tail behaviours of limit laws of normalized kth upper order statistics under fixed and random sample sizes is carried out using tail equivalence which leads to some interesting tail behaviours of the limit laws. These lead to definitive answers about their max domains of attraction. Stochastic ordering properties of the limit laws are also studied. The results obtained are not dependent on linear norming and apply to power norming as well and generalize some results already available in the literature. And the proofs given here are elementary.     

Inference for random coefficient INAR(k) with the occasional level shift random noise based on dual empirical likelihood

The INAR(k) model has been widely used in various kinds of fields. However, there are little discussions about the INAR(k) model with the occasional level shift random noise. In this paper, the maximum likelihood estimation of parameter based on martingale difference sequence is given, the log empirical likelihood ratio test statistic is obtained and the test statistic converges to chi-square distribution, we prove that the confidence region of the parameter is convex. Furthermore, the numerical simulation of the proposed INAR(k) model is given, which illustrates the effectiveness of the model. Then, the proofs of asymptotic results are given in the Appendix.     

Strong Consistency of Reduced K‐means Clustering

Reduced k‐means clustering is a method for clustering objects in a low‐dimensional subspace. The advantage of this method is that both clustering of objects and low‐dimensional subspace reflecting the cluster structure are simultaneously obtained. In this paper, the relationship between conventional k‐means clustering and reduced k‐means clustering is discussed. Conditions ensuring almost sure convergence of the estimator of reduced k‐means clustering as unboundedly increasing sample size have been presented. The results for a more general model considering conventional k‐means clustering and reduced k‐means clustering are provided in this paper. Moreover, a consistent selection of the numbers of clusters and dimensions is described.     

Projection pursuit by involution

A novel projection pursuit method based on projecting the data onto itself is proposed. Using a number of real datasets it is shown how to obtain interesting one and two-dimensional projections using only O(n) evaluations of a one-dimensional projection index.     

Estimation of a finite population distribution function based on a linear model with unknown heteroscedastic errors

The authors consider a finite population ρ = {(Y_k, x_k), k = 1,…,N} conforming to a linear superpopulation model with unknown heteroscedastic errors, the variances of which are values of a smooth enough function of the auxiliary variable X for their nonparametric estimation. They describe a method of the Chambers‐Dunstan type for estimation of the distribution of {Y_k, k = 1,…, N} from a sample drawn from without replacement, and determine the asymptotic distribution of its estimation error. They also consider estimation of its mean squared error in particular cases, evaluating both the analytical estimator derived by “plugging‐in” the asymptotic variance, and a bootstrap approach that is also applicable to estimation of parameters other than mean squared error. These proposed methods are compared with some common competitors in simulation studies.     

Iterative Bias Correction of the Cross‐Validation Criterion

Abstract. The cross‐validation (CV) criterion is known to be asecond‐order unbiased estimator of the risk function measuring the discrepancy between the candidate model and the true model, as well as the generalized information criterion (GIC) and the extended information criterion (EIC). In the present article, we show that the 2kth‐order unbiased estimator can be obtained using a linear combination from the leave‐one‐out CV criterion to the leave‐k‐out CV criterion. The proposed scheme is unique in that a bias smaller than that of a jackknife method can be obtained without any analytic calculation, that is, it is not necessary to obtain the explicit form of several terms in an asymptotic expansion of the bias. Furthermore, the proposed criterion can be regarded as a finite correction of a bias‐corrected CV criterion by using scalar coefficients in a bias‐corrected EIC obtained by the bootstrap iteration.     

Equal‐tailed confidence intervals for comparison of rates

Several methods are available for generating confidence intervals for rate difference, rate ratio, or odds ratio, when comparing two independent binomial proportions or Poisson (exposure‐adjusted) incidence rates. Most methods have some degree of systematic bias in one‐sided coverage, so that a nominal 95% two‐sided interval cannot be assumed to have tail probabilities of 2.5% at each end, and any associated hypothesis test is at risk of inflated type I error rate. Skewness‐corrected asymptotic score methods have been shown to have superior equal‐tailed coverage properties for the binomial case. This paper completes this class of methods by introducing novel skewness corrections for the Poisson case and for odds ratio, with and without stratification. Graphical methods are used to compare the performance of these intervals against selected alternatives. The skewness‐corrected methods perform favourably in all situations—including those with small sample sizes or rare events—and the skewness correction should be considered essential for analysis of rate ratios. The stratified method is found to have excellent coverage properties for a fixed effects analysis. In addition, another new stratified score method is proposed, based on the t‐distribution, which is suitable for use in either a fixed effects or random effects analysis. By using a novel weighting scheme, this approach improves on conventional and modern meta‐analysis methods with weights that rely on crude estimation of stratum variances. In summary, this paper describes methods that are found to be robust for a wide range of applications in the analysis of rates.     

A new distribution-free k-sample test: Analysis of kernel density functionals

A novel distribution-free k-sample test of differences in location shifts based on the analysis of kernel density functional estimation is introduced and studied. The proposed test parallels one-way analysis of variance and the Kruskal–Wallis (KW) test aiming at testing locations of unknown distributions. In contrast to the rank (score)-transformed non-parametric approach, such as the KW test, the proposed F-test uses the measurement responses along with well-known kernel density estimation (KDE) to estimate the locations and construct the test statistic. A practical optimal bandwidth selection procedure is also provided. Our simulation studies and real data example indicate that the proposed analysis of kernel density functional estimate (ANDFE) test is superior to existing competitors for fat-tailed or heavy-tailed distributions when the k groups differ mainly in location rather than shape, especially with unbalanced data. ANDFE is also highly recommended when it is unclear whether test groups differ mainly in shape or location. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 48: 167–186; 2020 © 2019 Statistical Society of Canada     

ACCELERATED FAILURE TIME MODELS WITH NONLINEAR COVARIATES EFFECTS

As a flexible alternative to the Cox model, the accelerated failure time (AFT) model assumes that the event time of interest depends on the covariates through a regression function. The AFT model with non‐parametric covariate effects is investigated, when variable selection is desired along with estimation. Formulated in the framework of the smoothing spline analysis of variance model, the proposed method based on the Stute estimate ( Stute, 1993 [Consistent estimation under random censorship when covariables are present, J. Multivariate Anal. 45 , 89–103]) can achieve a sparse representation of the functional decomposition, by utilizing a reproducing kernel Hilbert norm penalty. Computational algorithms and theoretical properties of the proposed method are investigated. The finite sample size performance of the proposed approach is assessed via simulation studies. The primary biliary cirrhosis data is analyzed for demonstration.     

Chi-squared tests in kth-moment sufficient dimension reduction

We present a novel approach to sufficient dimension reduction for the conditional kth moments in regression. The approach provides a computationally feasible test for the dimension of the central kth-moment subspace. In addition, we can test predictor effects without assuming any models. All test statistics proposed in the novel approach have asymptotic chi-squared distributions.     

Particle swarm optimization based Liu-type estimator

In this study, a new method for the estimation of the shrinkage and biasing parameters of Liu-type estimator is proposed. Because k is kept constant and d is optimized in Liu’s method, a (k, d) pair is not guaranteed to be the optimal point in terms of the mean square error of the parameters. The optimum (k, d) pair that minimizes the mean square error, which is a function of the parameters k and d, should be estimated through a simultaneous optimization process rather than through a two-stage process. In this study, by utilizing a different objective function, the parameters k and d are optimized simultaneously with the particle swarm optimization technique.     

Implications of random cut‐points theory for the Mann‐Whitney and binomial tests

Through random cut‐points theory, the author extends inference for ordered categorical data to the unspecified continuum underlying the ordered categories. He shows that a random cut‐point Mann‐Whitney test yields slightly smaller p‐values than the conventional test for most data. However, when at least P% of the data lie in one of the k categories (with P = 80 for k = 2, P = 67 for k = 3,…, P = 18 for k = 30), he also shows that the conventional test can yield much smaller p‐values, and hence misleadingly liberal inference for the underlying continuum. The author derives formulas for exact tests; for k = 2, the Mann‐Whitney test is but a binomial test.     

DETERMINATION OF DOMAINS OF ATTRACTION BASED ON A SEQUENCE OF MAXIMA

Suppose that the maximum of a random sample from a distribution F(x) may be obtained in each of k equally spaced observation periods. This paper proposes a test to determine the domain of attraction of F(x), and investigates the properties when the sample size is very large and perhaps unknown and k is fixed and small. The test statistic is a function of the spacings between the order statistics based on the sequence of maxima and is suggested by reference to one studied previously when inference was based on the largest k observations of a random sample. A Monte Carlo study shows that the proposed test is more powerful than its main competitor. The test is illustrated by two examples.     

A Method for Measuring Distance From a Training Data Set

A new method is proposed for measuring the distance between a training data set and a single, new observation. The novel distance measure reflects the expected squared prediction error when a quantitative response variable is predicted on the basis of the training data set using the distance weighted k-nearest-neighbor method. The simulation presented here shows that the distance measure correlates well with the true expected squared prediction error in practice. The distance measure can be applied, for example, in assessing the uncertainty of prediction.     

How Many Iterations are Sufficient for Efficient Semiparametric Estimation?

Abstract. A common practice in obtaining an efficient semiparametric estimate is through iteratively maximizing the (penalized) full log‐likelihood w.r.t. its Euclidean parameter and functional nuisance parameter. A rigorous theoretical study of this semiparametric iterative estimation approach is the main purpose of this study. We first show that the grid search algorithm produces an initial estimate with the proper convergence rate. Our second contribution is to provide a formula in calculating the minimal number of iterations k ^* needed to produce an efficient estimate . We discover that (i) k ^* depends on the convergence rates of the initial estimate and the nuisance functional estimate, and (ii) k ^* iterations are also sufficient for recovering the estimation sparsity in high dimensional data. The last contribution is the novel construction of which does not require knowing the explicit expression of the efficient score function. The above general conclusions apply to semiparametric models estimated under various regularizations, for example, kernel or penalized estimation. As far as we are aware, this study provides a first general theoretical justification for the ‘one‐/two‐step iteration’ phenomena observed in the semiparametric literature.     

A novel fast heuristic to handle large-scale shape clustering

Clustering algorithms like types of k-means are fast, but they are inefficient for shape clustering. There are some algorithms, which are effective, but their time complexities are too high. This paper proposes a novel heuristic to solve large-scale shape clustering. The proposed method is effective and it solves large-scale clustering problems in fraction of a second.     

OPTIMAL SEMIPARAMETRIC INFERENCE FOR THE TAIL INDEX BASED ON RATIOS OF THE LARGEST EXTREMES

The k largest order statistics in a random sample from a common heavy‐tailed parent distribution with a regularly varying tail can be characterized as Fréchet extremes. This paper establishes that consecutive ratios of such Fréchet extremes are mutually independent and distributed as functions of beta random variables. The maximum likelihood estimator of the tail index based on these ratios is derived, and the exact distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator is determined for fixed k, and the asymptotic distribution as k →∞ . Inferential procedures based upon the maximum likelihood estimator are shown to be optimal. The Fréchet extremes are not directly observable, but a feasible version of the maximum likelihood estimator is equivalent to Hill's statistic. A simple diagnostic is presented that can be used to decide on the largest value of k for which an assumption of Fréchet extremes is sustainable. The results are illustrated using data on commercial insurance claims arising from fires and explosions, and from hurricanes.