Extreme probabilities for contingency tables under row and column independence with application to fisher's exact test

Theorerms are proved for the maxima and minima of IIR_i!/IIC_j!/T!II_yij ! over r× c contingcncy tables Y=(y_ij) with row sums R₁,…,R_r, column sums C₁,…,C_c, and grand total T. These results are imlplemented into the network algorithm of Mehta and Patel (1983) for computing the P-value of Fisher's exact test for unordered r×c contingency tables. The decrease in the amount of computing time can be substantial when the column sums are very different.     

Covariate classification by post–stratification

The plug–in Anderson's covariate classification statistic is constructed on the basis of an initially unclassified training sample by means of posty–stratification. The asymptotic efficiency relative to the discriminant based on an initially classified training sample is evaluated for the case where a covariate is present. Effect of post–stratification is examined.     

A note on the central limit theorem for the bootstrap mean

Following Yang (1988), a simple, more self-contained derivation of the asymptotic normality of the bootstrap mean is presented, as well as other asymptotic results. The derivations are appropriate for beginning graduate students in statistics, relying only on fundamental notions of probability theory and analysis,     

The power functions of the likelihood ratio tests for a simply ordered trend in normal means

Likelihood ratio tests for the homogeneity of k normal means with the alternative restricted by an increasing trend are considered as well as the likelihood ratio tests of the null hypothesis that the means satisfy the trend. While the work is primarily a survey of results concerning the power functions of these tests, the extensions of some results to the case of not necessarily equal sample sizes are presented. For the case of known or unknown population variances, exact expressions are given for the power functions for k=3,4, and approximations are discussed for larger k. The topics of consistency, bias and monotonicity of the power functions are included. Also, Bartholomew's conjectures concerning minimal and maximal powers are investigated, with results of a new numerical study given.     

A modification of watson's statistic for goodness-of-fit

A modification of Watson's statistic is suggested for dealing with stochastically ordered alternatives in the goodness-of-fit setting.     

Dempster's combination rule and sufficient statistics

In his articles (1966-1968) concerning statistical inference based on lower and upper probabilities, Dempster refers to the connection between Fisher's fiducial argument and his own ideas of statistical inference. Dempster's main concern however focuses on the “Bayesian” aspects of his theory and not on an elaboration of the relation between Fisher's and his ideas. This article attempts to work out the connection between those two approaches and focuses primarily on the question, whether Dempster's combination rule, his upper and lower probabilty based on sufficient statistics and inference based on sufficient statistics in Fisher's sense are consistent. To be adequate to Fisher's reasoning, we deal with absolutely continuous, one parametric families of distributions.This is certainly not the usual assumption in context with Dempster's theory and implies a normative but straightforward definition concerning the underlying conditional distribution; this definition however is done in Dempster's spirit as can be seen from his articles, (1966, 1968,a,b). Under those assumptions it can be shown that - similar to Lindley's results concerning consistency in fiducial reasoning (1958) - the combination rule, Dempster's procedure based on sufficient statistics and fiducial inference by sufficient statistics agree iff the parametric family under consideration can be transformed to location parameter form.     

Applications of schur theory to reliability inference for k of n systems

The results of Hoeffding (1956), Pledger and Proschan (1971), Gleser (1975) and Boland and Proschan (1983) are used to obtain Buehler (1957) 1-α lower confidence limits for the reliability of k of n systems of independent components when the subsystem data have equal sample sizes and the observed failures satisfy certain conditions. To the best of our knowledge, for k ≠ 1 or n, this is the first time the exact optimal lower confidence limits for system reliability have been given. The observed failure vectors are a generalization of key test results for k of n systems, k ≠ n (Soms (1984) and Winterbottom (1974)). Two examples applying the above theory are also given.     

Cumulants of random sum distributions

Consider a random variable S being the sum of a number N of independent and identically distributed random variables X_j (j = 1, 2, ...) where the number N is itself a non-negative integer-valued random variable independent of the X_j An explicit expression of the r-th cumulant of S is given in terms of the cumulants of N and X_j, Asymptotic properties of the distribution of S are also discussed.     

A class of distribution-free tests for two-way layout

In this article a class of distribution-free tests for the hypothesis of no row (treatment) effect in a two-way layout design, with several observations per cell, is proposed. The tests are based on U-statistics, constructed by considering minima of all possible subsamples of same size from each cell.The proposed class of tests is compared with the parametric test, Mack and Skillings test and Yate's test for two-way layout, in terms of Pitman ARE sense. It is seen that for the case of equal number of observations per cell, the proposed tests have better efficiency for exponential and uniform error distributions.     

Quadratic perturbation expansions of certain functions of eigenvalues and eigenvectors and their application to sensitivity analysis in multivariate methods

Tanaka (1988) lias derived the influence functions, which are equivalent to the perturbation expansions up to linear terms, of two functions of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a real symmetric matrix, and applied them to principal component analysis. The present paper deals with the perturbation expansions up to quadratic terms of the same functions and discusses their application to sensitivity analysis in multivariate methods, in particular, principal component analysis and principal factor analysis. Numerical examples are given to show how the approximation improves with the quadratic terms.