Using regression mixture models with non-normal data: examining an ordered polytomous approach

Mild to moderate skew in errors can substantially impact regression mixture model results; one approach for overcoming this includes transforming the outcome into an ordered categorical variable and using a polytomous regression mixture model. This is effective for retaining differential effects in the population; however, bias in parameter estimates and model fit warrant further examination of this approach at higher levels of skew. The current study used Monte Carlo simulations; 3000 observations were drawn from each of two subpopulations differing in the effect of X on Y. Five hundred simulations were performed in each of the 10 scenarios varying in levels of skew in one or both classes. Model comparison criteria supported the accurate two-class model, preserving the differential effects, while parameter estimates were notably biased. The appropriate number of effects can be captured with this approach but we suggest caution when interpreting the magnitude of the effects.     

Generalized Quasi-Regression

Quasi-regression, an approach for approximating an unknown function on the unit cube in very high dimensions, has very high computational efficiency. In this article, generalized quasi-regression is introduced. Some theoretical results on the generalized quasi-regression are provided, and numerical examples are illustrated.     

Zone control charts with estimated parameters for detecting prespecified changes in linear profiles

ABSTRACT

In profile monitoring, control charts are proposed to detect unanticipated changes, and it is usually assumed that the in-control parameters are known. However, due to the characteristics of a system or process, the prespecified changes would appear in the process. Moreover, in most applications, the in-control parameters are usually unknown. To overcome these issues, we develop the zone control charts with estimated parameters to detect small shifts of these prespecified changes. The effects of estimation error have been investigated on the performance of the proposed charts. To account for the practitioner-to-practitioner variability, the expected average run length (ARL) and the standard deviation of the average run length (SDARL) is used as the performance metrics. Our results show that the estimation error results in the significant variation in the ARL distribution. Furthermore, in order to adequately reduce the variability, more phase I samples are required in terms of the SDARL metric than that in terms of the expected ARL metric. In addition, more observations on each sampled profile are suggested to improve the charts' performance, especially for small phase I sample sizes. Finally, an illustrative example is given to show the performance of the proposed zone control charts.     

Finite nonparametric grach model for foreign exchange volatility

GARCH model has been commonly used to describe the volatility of foreign exchange returns, which typically depends on returns many lags before, While the GARCH model provides a simple geometric decaying structure for persistence in time, it restricts tiie impact of variables to Quadratic functions. A finite nonparametric GARCH model is proposed that allows the variables' impact to be a smooth function of any form. A direct local polynomial estimation method for this finite GARCH model is proposed based on results on proportional additive model, and is applied to the German Mark (DEM)/US Dollar (USD) daily returns data. Estimators uf both the decaying rate and the impact function are obtained. Diagnostics show satisfactory out-of-sampie prediction based on the proposed model, which helps to better understand the dynamics of foreign exchange volatility.     

Penalized inverse probability weighted estimators for weighted rank regression with missing covariates

Abstract

In this article, we study the variable selection and estimation for linear regression models with missing covariates. The proposed estimation method is almost as efficient as the popular least-squares-based estimation method for normal random errors and empirically shown to be much more efficient and robust with respect to heavy tailed errors or outliers in the responses and covariates. To achieve sparsity, a variable selection procedure based on SCAD is proposed to conduct estimation and variable selection simultaneously. The procedure is shown to possess the oracle property. To deal with the covariates missing, we consider the inverse probability weighted estimators for the linear model when the selection probability is known or unknown. It is shown that the estimator by using estimated selection probability has a smaller asymptotic variance than that with true selection probability, thus is more efficient. Therefore, the important Horvitz-Thompson property is verified for penalized rank estimator with the covariates missing in the linear model. Some numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the performance of the estimators.     

More on the Preliminary Test Estimator in Almost Unbiased Liu Regression

This article is concerned with the parameter estimation in linear regression model when it is suspected that the regression coefficients are the subspace of the equality restrictions. The objective of this article is to introduce the preliminary test almost unbiased Liu estimators (PTAULE) based on the Wald (W), the likelihood ratio (LR), and the Lagrangian multiplier (LM) tests and compare the proposed estimators in the sense of the quadratic bias and mean square error (MSE) criterion.     

First- and Second-order Asymptotics for the Tail Distortion Risk Measure of Extreme Risks

The tail distortion risk measure at level p was first introduced in Zhu and Li (2012 Zhu, L., Li, H. (2012). Tail distortion risk and its asymptotic analysis. Insur. Math. Econ. 51(1):115–121.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), where the parameter p ∈ (0, 1) indicates the confidence level. They established first-order asymptotics for this risk measure, as p↑1, for the Fréchet case. In this article, we extend their work by establishing both first-order and second-order asymptotics for the Fréchet, Weibull, and Gumbel cases. Numerical studies are also carried out to examine the accuracy of both asymptotics.     

A Note on the Lower Bounds on Maximum Number of Clear Two-Factor Interactions for (2 m−p III) and (2 m−p IV) Designs

ABSTRACT

In the reliability analysis of mechanical repairable equipment subjected to reliability deterioration with operating time, two forms of the non-homogeneous Poisson processes, namely the Power-Law (PL) and the Log-Linear (LL) model, have found general acceptance in the literature. Inferential procedures, conditioned on the assumption of the PL or LL model, underestimate the overall uncertainty about a quantity of interest because the PL and LL models can provide different estimates of the quantity of interest, even when both of them adequately fit the observed data. In this paper, a composite estimation procedure, which uses the PL and LL models as competing models, is proposed in the framework of Bayesian statistics, thus allowing the uncertainty involved in model selection to be considered. A model-free approach is then proposed for incorporating technical information on the failure mechanism into the inferential procedure. Such an approach, which is based on two model-free quantities defined irrespectively of the functional form of the failure model, prevents that the prior information on the failure mechanism can improperly introduce prior probabilities on the adequacy of each model to fit the observed data. Finally, numerical applications are provided to illustrate the proposed procedures.     

Concurrent Design for Process Quality,Statistical Tolerance,and SPC

The rapid response to the requirements of customers and markets promotes the concurrent engineering (CE) technique in product and process design. The decision making for process quality target, SPC method, sampling plan, and control chart parameter design can be done at the stage of process quality plan based on historical data and process knowledge database. Therefore, it is a reasonable trend to introduce the concepts and achievements on process quality evaluation and process capability analysis, CE, and SPC techniques into process plan and tolerance design. A new systematic method for concurrent design of process quality, statistical tolerance (ST), and control chart is presented based on a NSFC research program. A set of standardized process quality indices (PQIs) for variables is introduced for meeting the measurement and evaluation to process yield, process centering, and quality loss. This index system that has relatively strong compatibility and adaptability is based on raisonne grading by using the series of preferred numbers and arithmetical progression. The expected process quality based on this system can be assured by a standardized interface between PQIs and SPC, that is, quality-oriented statistical tolerance zone. A quality-oriented ST and SPC approach that quantitatively specifies what a desired process is and how to assure it will realize the optimal control for a process toward a predetermined quality target.     

The MLE of Geometric Parameter for a Geometric Process

In this article, we provide the MLE of the ratio parameter of a geometric process and discuss its consistency and asymptotic normality.