Bootstrap methods for bias correction and confidence interval estimation for nonlinear quantile regression of longitudinal data

This paper examines the use of bootstrapping for bias correction and calculation of confidence intervals (CIs) for a weighted nonlinear quantile regression estimator adjusted to the case of longitudinal data. Different weights and types of CIs are used and compared by computer simulation using a logistic growth function and error terms following an AR(1) model. The results indicate that bias correction reduces the bias of a point estimator but fails for CI calculations. A bootstrap percentile method and a normal approximation method perform well for two weights when used without bias correction. Taking both coverage and lengths of CIs into consideration, a non-bias-corrected percentile method with an unweighted estimator performs best.     

The non parametric regression estimate with dependent measurement errors

ABSTRACT

Non parametric regression estimation with measurement errors data has received great attention, and deconvolution local polynomial estimators can be used to deal with the problem that the errors are independent of other variables in the literature. In this article, the copula method is applied to tackle the case that the errors may depend on covariates, and the asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are derived. Two simulations are conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed estimators.     

Double-smoothing for bias reduction in local linear regression

Local linear regression involves fitting a straight line segment over a small region whose midpoint is the target point x, and the local linear estimate at x   is the estimated intercept of that straight line segment, with an asymptotic bias of order h²$h^2$ and variance of order (nh)^-1$(\mathit{nh}{)}^{-1}$ (h is the bandwidth). In this paper, we propose a new estimator, the double-smoothing local linear estimator, which is constructed by integrally combining all fitted values at x   of local lines in its neighborhood with another round of smoothing. The proposed estimator attempts to make use of all information obtained from fitting local lines. Without changing the order of variance, the new estimator can reduce the bias to an order of h⁴$h^4$. The proposed estimator has better performance than local linear regression in situations with considerable bias effects; it also has less variability and more easily overcomes the sparse data problem than local cubic regression. At boundary points, the proposed estimator is comparable to local linear regression. Simulation studies are conducted and an ethanol example is used to compare the new approach with other competitive methods.     

A method for parameter estimation of non-linear regression with autocorrelated errors

For a class of non-linear models with stationary dependent residuals an estimating procedure is introduced and its statistical properties are derived. This procedure is useful when no basis exists for assuming a specific parametric model for the error process. For application of the procedure a two step iterative method is described and a small simulation study is performed.     

Automatic and asymptotically optimal data sharpening for nonparametric regression

In this article we consider data-sharpening methods for nonparametric regression. In particular modifications are made to existing methods in the following two directions. First, we introduce a new tuning parameter to control the extent to which the data are to be sharpened, so that the amount of sharpening is adaptive and can be tuned to best suit the data at hand. We call this new parameter the sharpening parameter. Second, we develop automatic methods for jointly choosing the value of this sharpening parameter as well as the values of other required smoothing parameters. These automatic parameter selection methods are shown to be asymptotically optimal in a well defined sense. Numerical experiments were also conducted to evaluate their finite-sample performances. To the best of our knowledge, there is no bandwidth selection method developed in the literature for sharpened nonparametric regression.     

Consistency of the recursive nonparametric regression estimation for dependent functional data

We consider the recursive estimation of a regression functional where the explanatory variables take values in some functional space. We prove the almost sure convergence of such estimates for dependent functional data. Also we derive the mean quadratic error of the considered class of estimators. Our results are established with rates and asymptotic appear bounds, under strong mixing condition. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed estimator is illustrated throughout an empirical study.     

Nonparametric regression for threshold data

Consider a detector which records the times at which the endogenous variable of a nonparametric regression model exceeds a certain threshold. If the error distribution is known, the regression function can still be identified from these threshold data. The author constructs estimators for the regression function that are transformations of kernel estimators. She determines the bandwidth that minimizes the asymptotic mean average squared error. Her investigation was motivated by recent work on stochastic resonance in neuroscience and signal detection theory, where it was observed that detection of a subthreshold signal is enhanced by the addition of noise. The author compares her model with several others that have been proposed in the recent past.     

Evaluation of the bias of the isotonic regression

The systematic error (bias) of the isotonic regression analysis of temporal spacings between failure events is investigated by means of numerical simulation. Spacings that are sampled from an exponential distribution with a constant failure rate (CFR) arc subjected to an isotonic regression search for a declining failure rate (DFR). The results indicate a considerable declining trend (bias) that is imposed upon these CFR-data by isotonic regression analysis. The corresponding results for an increasing trend can be readily obtained through transformation. For practical applications, the results of 100,000 simulations have been approximated by simple analytical expressions. For the evaluation of a trend in a specific set of isotonized spacings (or rates) the results of the latter analysis can be compared with the isotonic bias of a set of CFR data for the same number of events. Alternatively, the specific set of isotonized spacings can be suitably related to the corresponding isotonized CFR data to reduce the bias by largely eliminating the CFR contribution.     

Estimation in regression models with stationary,dependent errors

Often the unknown covariance structure of a stationary, dependent, Gaussian error sequence can be simply parametrised. The error sequence can either be directly observed or observed only through a random sequence containing a deterministic regression model. The method of scoring is used here, in conjunction with recursive estimation techniques, to effect the maximum likelihood estimation of the covariance parameters. Sequences of recursive residuals, useful in model diagnostics and data analysis, are obtained in the estimation procedure.     

Reducing bias in parameter estimates from stepwise regression in proportional hazards regression with right-censored data

When variable selection with stepwise regression and model fitting are conducted on the same data set, competition for inclusion in the model induces a selection bias in coefficient estimators away from zero. In proportional hazards regression with right-censored data, selection bias inflates the absolute value of parameter estimate of selected parameters, while the omission of other variables may shrink coefficients toward zero. This paper explores the extent of the bias in parameter estimates from stepwise proportional hazards regression and proposes a bootstrap method, similar to those proposed by Miller (Subset Selection in Regression, 2nd edn. Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2002) for linear regression, to correct for selection bias. We also use bootstrap methods to estimate the standard error of the adjusted estimators. Simulation results show that substantial biases could be present in uncorrected stepwise estimators and, for binary covariates, could exceed 250% of the true parameter value. The simulations also show that the conditional mean of the proposed bootstrap bias-corrected parameter estimator, given that a variable is selected, is moved closer to the unconditional mean of the standard partial likelihood estimator in the chosen model, and to the population value of the parameter. We also explore the effect of the adjustment on estimates of log relative risk, given the values of the covariates in a selected model. The proposed method is illustrated with data sets in primary biliary cirrhosis and in multiple myeloma from the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.     

Quantile regression for interval censored data

As direct generalization of the quantile regression for complete observed data, an estimation method for quantile regression models with interval censored data is proposed, and the property of consistency is obtained. The property of asymptotic normality is also established with a bias converging to zero, and to reduce the bias, two bias correction methods are proposed. Methods proposed in this paper do not require the censoring vectors to be identically distributed, and can be applied to models with various covariates. Simulation results show that the proposed methods work well.     

More efficient local polynomial regression with random-effects panel data models

We propose a modification on the local polynomial estimation procedure to account for the “within-subject” correlation presented in panel data. The proposed procedure is rather simple to compute and has a closed-form expression. We study the asymptotic bias and variance of the proposed procedure and show that it outperforms the working independence estimator uniformly up to the first order. Simulation study shows that the gains in efficiency with the proposed method in the presence of “within-subject” correlation can be significant in small samples. For illustration purposes, the procedure is applied to explore the impact of market concentration on airfare.     

Consistent estimation of regression parameters under replicated ultrastructural model with non-normal errors

This article discusses the construction and efficiency properties of consistent estimators of regression parameters under replicated ultrastructural model with not necessarily normally distributed measurement errors. The variances of measurement errors associated with the study and explanatory variables are estimated from the replicated sample observations and are used for the consistent estimation of regression parameters. The asymptotic efficiency properties of the estimators are derived and analysed. The finite sample performance of the estimators is empirically studied through a Monte Carlo simulation.     

Joint detection for functional polynomial regression with autoregressive errors

In this article, we are concerned with detecting the true structure of a functional polynomial regression with autoregressive (AR) errors. The first issue is to detect which orders of the polynomial are significant in functional polynomial regression. The second issue is to detect which orders of the AR process in the AR errors are significant. We propose a shrinkage method to deal with the two problems: polynomial order selection and autoregressive order selection. Simulation studies demonstrate that the new method can identify the true structure. One empirical example is also presented to illustrate the usefulness of our method.     

Dealing with big data: comparing dimension reduction and shrinkage regression methods

In the past decades, the number of variables explaining observations in different practical applications increased gradually. This has led to heavy computational tasks, despite of widely using provisional variable selection methods in data processing. Therefore, more methodological techniques have appeared to reduce the number of explanatory variables without losing much of the information. In these techniques, two distinct approaches are apparent: ‘shrinkage regression’ and ‘sufficient dimension reduction’. Surprisingly, there has not been any communication or comparison between these two methodological categories, and it is not clear when each of these two approaches are appropriate. In this paper, we fill some of this gap by first reviewing each category in brief, paying special attention to the most commonly used methods in each category. We then compare commonly used methods from both categories based on their accuracy, computation time, and their ability to select effective variables. A simulation study on the performance of the methods in each category is generated as well. The selected methods are concurrently tested on two sets of real data which allows us to recommend conditions under which one approach is more appropriate to be applied to high-dimensional data.     

Two-step jackknife bias reduction for logistic regression mles

Maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) for logistic regression coefficients are known to be biased in finite samples and consequently may produce misleading inferences. Bias adjusted estimates can be calculated using the first-order asymptotic bias derived from a Taylor series expansion of the log likelihood. Jackknifing can also be used to obtain bias corrected estimates, but the approach is computationally intensive, requiring an additional series of iterations (steps) for each observation in the dataset.Although the one-step jackknife has been shown to be useful in logistic regression diagnostics and i the estimation of classification error rates, it does not effectively reduce bias. The two-step jackknife, however, can reduce computation in moderate-sized samples, provide estimates of dispersion and classification error, and appears to be effective in bias reduction. Another alternative, a two-step closed-form approximation, is found to be similar to the Taylo series method in certain circumstances. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that all the procedures, but particularly the multi-step jackknife, may tend to over-correct in very small samples. Comparison of the various bias correction proceduresin an example from the medical literature illustrates that bias correction can have a considerable impact on inference     

Minimum distance estimation in linear regression with strong mixing errors

Abstract

Minimum distance estimation on the linear regression model with independent errors is known to yield an efficient and robust estimator. We extend the method to the model with strong mixing errors and obtain an estimator of the vector of the regression parameters. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the proposed estimator still retains efficiency and robustness. To that end, this article investigates asymptotic distributional properties of the proposed estimator and compares it with other estimators. The efficiency and the robustness of the proposed estimator are empirically shown, and its superiority over the other estimators is established.     

Non-parametric regression for spatially dependent data with wavelets

We study non-parametric regression estimates for random fields. The data satisfies certain strong mixing conditions and is defined on the regular N-dimensional lattice structure. We show consistency and obtain rates of convergence. The rates are optimal modulo a logarithmic factor in some cases. As an application, we estimate the regression function with multidimensional wavelets which are not necessarily isotropic. We simulate random fields on planar graphs with the concept of concliques (cf. [Kaiser MS, Lahiri SN, Nordman DJ. Goodness of fit tests for a class of markov random field models. Ann Statist. 2012;40:104–130]) in numerical examples of the estimation procedure.