Restricted minimum bias linear estimation in regression

In this article a class of restricted minimum bias linear estimators of the vector of unknown regression coefficients when multicollinearity among the columns of the design matrix exists, is obtained. The ordinary ridge regression, principal components and shrinkage estimators are members of this class. Moreover, our ap-proach can be used to improve, in some sense, certain classes of generalized ridge and shrinkage estimators of the vector of un-known parameters in linear models.     

On the functional relationship between entropy and variance with related applications

The functional relationship between entropy and variance is investigated for some well-known distributions. The distributions considered here are the reparameterized versions of the original forms. Such a reparameterization is necessary as in each case we have a common variance. The related graphs of entropy as a function of variance are used for certain comparisons. Further, within the class of distributions having a common variance, a measure of affinity between these distributions is proposed using entropy. A few aspects of the sampling distributions of an estimator of entropy, when the samples are either from the normal or from the exponential distributions, are discussed with a view to possible applications in the testing of hypotheses for related parameters     

Study of redundancy of vector variables in canonical correlations

Fujikoshi (1982) obtained the necessary and sufficient conditions for the increased number of variables in the two sets of vectors not affecting the original nonzero canonical correlations and used these to obtain the likelihood ratio test procedure. He assumed a nonsingular covariance matrix due to random variables. Here, we study the same problem when the covariance matrix is singular and establish some further results. In this study, we note that the unit canonical correlations have to be separated in some of the situations. These results are valid for complex random vector variables and in some situations, the test for redundancy is given for complex random variables.     

Joint distribution of simultaneous exposures to several carcinogens in a case–control study: sample size determination

Consider a population of individuals who are free of a disease under study, and who are exposed simultaneously at random exposure levels, say X,Y,Z,… to several risk factors which are suspected to cause the disease in the populationm. At any specified levels X=x, Y=y, Z=z, …, the incidence rate of the disease in the population ot risk is given by the exposure–response relationship r(x,y,z,…) = P(disease|x,y,z,…). The present paper examines the relationship between the joint distribution of the exposure variables X,Y,Z, … in the population at risk and the joint distribution of the exposure variables U,V,W,… among cases under the linear and the exponential risk models. It is proven that under the exponential risk model, these two joint distributions belong to the same family of multivariate probability distributions, possibly with different parameters values. For example, if the exposure variables in the population at risk have jointly a multivariate normal distribution, so do the exposure variables among cases; if the former variables have jointly a multinomial distribution, so do the latter. More generally, it is demonstrated that if the joint distribution of the exposure variables in the population at risk belongs to the exponential family of multivariate probability distributions, so does the joint distribution of exposure variables among cases. If the epidemiologist can specify the differnce among the mean exposure levels in the case and control groups which are considered to be clinically or etiologically important in the study, the results of the present paper may be used to make sample size determinations for the case–control study, corresponding to specified protection levels, i.e., size α and 1–β of a statistical test. The multivariate normal, the multinomial, the negative multinomial and Fisher's multivariate logarithmic series exposure distributions are used to illustrate our results.     

A solution to the multivariate behrens-fisher problem

Some new algebra on pattern and transition matrices is used to determine the degrees of freedom and the parameter matrix, if the distribution of a linear sum of Wishart matrices is approximated by a single Wishart distribution. This approximation is then used to find a solution to the multivariate Behrens-Fisher problem similar to the Welch (1947) solution in the univariate case.     

Smooth tests of goodness of fit for regular distributions

Smooth tests of goodness of fit based on orthonormal functions for location-scale families were introducedin Rayner and Best (1986).This paper extends this class of tests from location -scale families to ‘regular’ families. The extension preserves the desirable properties of the class, such as weak optimality, accessible components and convenient distribution theory     

Relationships between confidence intervals for the ratio of two variances of independent normal distributions

Burk at al (1984) gave a results concerning the comparison of the length of the two different confidence intervals for variance ratio, when the construction of the intervals was based on the principle of “equal tails”11. The purpose of this paper is to be solve the similar problem in case of the principle of “minimal length”.     

A formal bayes multiple shrinkage estimator

A new minimax multiple shrinkage estimator is constructed. This estimator which can adaptively shrink towards many subspace targets, is formal Bayes with respect to a mixture of harmonic priors. Unbiased estimates of risk and simulation results suggest that the risk properties of this estimator are very similar to those of the multiple shrinkage Stein estimator proposed by George (1986a). A special case is seen to be admissible.     

A method of selecting the levels of regressor variables in lognormal regression model

Kupper and Meydrech and Myers and Lahoda introduced the mean squared error (MSE) approach to study response surface designs, Duncan and DeGroot derived a criterion for optimality of linear experimental designs based on minimum mean squared error. However, minimization of the MSE of an estimator maxr renuire some knowledge about the unknown parameters. Without such knowledge construction of designs optimal in the sense of MSE may not be possible. In this article a simple method of selecting the levels of regressor variables suitable for estimating some functions of the parameters of a lognormal regression model is developed using a criterion for optimality based on the variance of an estimator. For some special parametric functions, the criterion used here is equivalent to the criterion of minimizing the mean squared error. It is found that the maximum likelihood estimators of a class of parametric functions can be improved substantially (in the sense of MSE) by proper choice of the values of regressor variables. Moreover, our approach is applicable to analysis of variance as well as regression designs.     

Likelihood ratio test for independence with partial multivariate normal data

This article derives the likelihood ratio statistic to test the independence between (X ₁,…,X _r ) and (X _r+1,…,X _k ) under the assumption that (X ₁,…,X _k ) has a multivariate normal distribution and that a sample of size n is available, where for N observation vectors all components are available, while for M = (n + N) observation vectors, the data on the last q components, (X_k-q+1,…,X _k ) are missing (k+q≥r).