NONPARAMETRIC AUTOCOVARIANCE FUNCTION ESTIMATION

Nonparametric estimators of autocovariance functions for non-stationary time series are developed. The estimators are based on straightforward nonparametric mean function estimation ideas and allow use of any linear smoother (e.g. smoothing spline, local polynomial). The paper studies the properties of the estimators, and illustrates their usefulness through application to some meteorological and seismic time series.     

A model for collaboration networks giving rise to a power-law distribution with an exponential cutoff

Recently several authors have proposed stochastic evolutionary models for the growth of complex networks that give rise to power-law distributions. These models are based on the notion of preferential attachment leading to the “rich get richer” phenomenon. Despite the generality of the proposed stochastic models, there are still some unexplained phenomena, which may arise due to the limited size of networks such as protein, e-mail, actor and collaboration networks. Such networks may in fact exhibit an exponential cutoff in the power-law scaling, although this cutoff may only be observable in the tail of the distribution for extremely large networks. We propose a modification of the basic stochastic evolutionary model, so that after a node is chosen preferentially, say according to the number of its inlinks, there is a small probability that this node will become inactive. We show that as a result of this modification, by viewing the stochastic process in terms of an urn transfer model, we obtain a power-law distribution with an exponential cutoff. Unlike many other models, the current model can capture instances where the exponent of the distribution is less than or equal to two. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the consistency of our model empirically by analysing the Mathematical Research collaboration network, the distribution of which has been shown to be compatible with a power law with an exponential cutoff.     

Estimation of the Force of Infection from Current Status Data Using Generalized Linear Mixed Models

Based on sero-prevalence data of rubella, mumps in the UK and varicella in Belgium, we show how the force of infection, the age-specific rate at which susceptible individuals contract infection, can be estimated using generalized linear mixed models (McCulloch & Searle, 2001). Modelling the dependency of the force of infection on age by penalized splines, which involve fixed and random effects, allows us to use generalized linear mixed models techniques to estimate both the cumulative probability of being infected before a given age and the force of infection. Moreover, these models permit an automatic selection of the smoothing parameter. The smoothness of the estimated force of infection can be influenced by the number of knots and the degree of the penalized spline used. To determine these, a different number of knots and different degrees are used and the results are compared to establish this sensitivity. Simulations with a different number of knots and polynomial spline bases of different degrees suggest - for estimating the force of infection from serological data - the use of a quadratic penalized spline based on about 10 knots.     

Theory & Methods: Krige,Smooth, Both or Neither?

Both kriging and non-parametric regression smoothing can model a non-stationary regression function with spatially correlated errors. However comparisons have mainly been based on ordinary kriging and smoothing with uncorrelated errors. Ordinary kriging attributes smoothness of the response to spatial autocorrelation whereas non-parametric regression attributes trends to a smooth regression function. For spatial processes it is reasonable to suppose that the response is due to both trend and autocorrelation. This paper reviews methodology for non-parametric regression with autocorrelated errors which is a natural compromise between the two methods. Re-analysis of the one-dimensional stationary spatial data of Laslett (1994) and a clearly non-stationary time series demonstrates the rather surprising result that for these data, ordinary kriging outperforms more computationally intensive models including both universal kriging and correlated splines for spatial prediction. For estimating the regression function, non-parametric regression provides adaptive estimation, but the autocorrelation must be accounted for in selecting the smoothing parameter.     

Transformations for Smooth Regression Models with Multiplicative Errors

We consider whether one should transform to estimate nonparametrically a regression curve sampled from data with a constant coefficient of variation, i.e. with multiplicative errors. Kernel-based smoothing methods are used to provide curve estimates from the data both in the original units and after transformation. Comparisons are based on the mean-squared error (MSE) or mean integrated squared error (MISE), calculated in the original units. Even when the data are generated by the simplest multiplicative error model, the asymptotically optimal MSE (or MISE) is surprisingly not always obtained by smoothing transformed data, but in many cases by directly smoothing the original data. Which method is optimal depends on both the regression curve and the distribution of the errors. Data-based procedures which could be useful in choosing between transforming and not transforming a particular data set are discussed. The results are illustrated on simulated and real data.     

Algorithms Section: Introduction

Electronic Access to Algorithms
Applied Statistics algorithms are available on Statlib at Carnegie Mellon University and on the UK mirror of Statlib at the University of Kent. They may be accessed either via anonymous file transfer protocol (FTP) or by WWW mosaic.     

Monitoring and change-point estimation for spline-modeled non-linear profiles in phase II

In some applications of statistical quality control, quality of a process or a product is best characterized by a functional relationship between a response variable and one or more explanatory variables. This relationship is referred to as a profile. In certain cases, the quality of a process or a product is better described by a non-linear profile which does not follow a specific parametric model. In these circumstances, nonparametric approaches with greater flexibility in modeling the complicated profiles are adopted. In this research, the spline smoothing method is used to model a complicated non-linear profile and the Hotelling T² control chart based on the spline coefficients is used to monitor the process. After receiving an out-of-control signal, a maximum likelihood estimator is employed for change point estimation. The simulation studies, which include both global and local shifts, provide appropriate evaluation of the performance of the proposed estimation and monitoring procedure. The results indicate that the proposed method detects large global shifts while it is very sensitive in detecting local shifts.     

Empirical information criteria for time series forecasting model selection

In this article, we propose a new empirical information criterion (EIC) for model selection which penalizes the likelihood of the data by a non-linear function of the number of parameters in the model. It is designed to be used where there are a large number of time series to be forecast. However, a bootstrap version of the EIC can be used where there is a single time series to be forecast. The EIC provides a data-driven model selection tool that can be tuned to the particular forecasting task.

We compare the EIC with other model selection criteria including Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) and Schwarz’s Bayesian information criterion (BIC). The comparisons show that for the M3 forecasting competition data, the EIC outperforms both the AIC and BIC, particularly for longer forecast horizons. We also compare the criteria on simulated data and find that the EIC does better than existing criteria in that case also.     

An exact test for nbue class of survival functions

Let F(x) be a life distribution. An exact test is given for testing H₀ F is exponential, versusH₁Fε NBUE (NWUE); along with a table of critical values for n=5(l)80, and n=80(5)65. An asymptotic test is made available for large values of n, where the standardized normal table can be used for testing.     

Third-Order Asymptotic Distributions of Classic Test Statistics for One-Parameter Exponential Family Models

ABSTRACT

In this article we derive third-order asymptotic expansions for the non null distribution functions of four classic statistics under a sequence of local alternatives in one-parameter exponential family models. Our results are quite general and cover a wide range of important distributions.