In Memoriam: Emeritus Professor Henry Oliver Lancaster, AO FAA 1 February 1913 – 2 December 2001

The death, in Sydney, of Oliver Lancaster marks the end of an era in the histories of the Statistical Society of Australia, which (in its previous existence as the Statistical Society of New South Wales) he helped found in 1947, and of the Australian Journal of Statistics of which he was founding editor (1959–1971). Oliver Lancaster was Foundation Professor of Mathematical Statistics at the University of Sydney (1959–1978), where he spent his life as student and academic. During his academic career, he achieved scholarly distinction in at least four fields: mathematical statistics, medical and public health statistics, the history of medicine and of statistics, and statistical bibliography. With E.J.G. Pitman (1897–1993), M.H. Belz (1897–1975), E.A. Cornish (1909–1973) and P.A.P. Moran (1917–1988) he was part of a cohort of renowned Australian mathematical statisticians who laid the foundation of the glory days of Australian mathematical statistics. This obituary and tribute focuses on some of these aspects, within a broader historical picture.     

具有卖空总量限制的多阶段M—SAD投资组合优化

文章提出具有卖空总量限制、阈值约束和V型交易成本的多阶段均值—半绝对偏差（M-SAD）投资组合优化模型。该模型分别运用均值和半绝对偏衡量资产的收益率和风险。由于交易成本的存在,该模型不满足无后效性的动态优化问题。文章将该模型近似为一般动态规划问题,提出一种新的离散迭代方法,并证明该算法是线性收敛的。最后,文章通过实证研究比较分析卖空总量限制和风险偏好系数取不同值时对投资组合最优策略的影响,验证模型和算法的有效性。     

多元正态分布广义方差区间估计的改进

讨论了多元正态分布广义方差的区间估计问题,给出了在覆盖率及长度上均优于最优仿射同变区间估计的改进估计．     

A Unified Approach to the Approximation of Multivariate Densities

Approximation of a density by another density is considered in the case of different dimensionalities of the distributions. The results have been derived by inverting expansions of characteristic functions with the help of matrix techniques. The approximations obtained are all functions of cumulant differences and derivatives of the approximating density. The multivariate Edgeworth expansion follows from the results as a special case. Furthermore, the density functions of the trace and eigenvalues of the sample covariance matrix are approximated by the multivariate normal density and a numerical example is given     

Efficient Estimation of a Distribution Function under Quadrant Dependence

LetX₁,X₂, ..., be real-valued random variables forming a strictly stationary sequence, and satisfying the basic requirement of being either pairwise positively quadrant dependent or pairwise negatively quadrant dependent. LetF^ be the marginal distribution function of theX_ips, which is estimated by the empirical distribution functionF_n and also by a smooth kernel-type estimateF_n, by means of the segmentX₁, ...,X_n. These estimates are compared on the basis of their mean squared errors (MSE). The main results of this paper are the following. Under certain regularity conditions, the optimal bandwidth (in the MSE sense) is determined, and is found to be the same as that in the independent identically distributed case. It is also shown thatn MSE(F_n(t)) andnMSE (F^_n(t)) tend to the same constant, asn→∞ so that one can not discriminate be tween the two estimates on the basis of the MSE. Next, ifi(n) = min {k∈{1, 2, ...}; MSE (F_k(t)) ≤ MSE (F_n(t))}, then it is proved thati(n)/n tends to 1, asn→∞. Thus, once again, one can not choose one estimate over the other in terms of their asymptotic relative efficiency. If, however, the squared bias ofF^_n(t) tends to 0 sufficiently fast, or equivalently, the bandwidthh_n satisfies the requirement thatnh³_n→ 0, asn→∞, it is shown that, for a suitable choice of the kernel, (i(n) ?n)/(nh_n) tends to a positive number, asn→∞ It follows that the deficiency ofF_n(t) with respect toF^_n(t),i(n) ?n, is substantial, and, actually, tends to ∞, asn→∞. In terms of deficiency, the smooth estimateF^_n(t) is preferable to the empirical distribution functionF_n(t)     

On the shrinkage of local linear curve estimators

Local linear curve estimators are typically constructed using a compactly supported kernel, which minimizes edge effects and (in the case of the Epanechnikov kernel) optimizes asymptotic performance in a mean square sense. The use of compactly supported kernels can produce numerical problems, however. A common remedy is ridging, which may be viewed as shrinkage of the local linear estimator towards the origin. In this paper we propose a general form of shrinkage, and suggest that, in practice, shrinkage be towards a proper curve estimator. For the latter we propose a local linear estimator based on an infinitely supported kernel. This approach is resistant against selection of too large a shrinkage parameter, which can impair performance when shrinkage is towards the origin. It also removes problems of numerical instability resulting from using a compactly supported kernel, and enjoys very good mean squared error properties.     

Estimation of critical points in the mixture inverse Gaussian model

The maximum likelihood estimation for the critical points of the failure rate and the mean residual life function are presented in the case of mixture inverse Gaussian model. Several important data sets are analyzed from this point of view. For each of the data sets, Bootstrapping is used to construct confidence intervals of the critical points.     

新常态下供销社经营模式的转型与创新研究

随着我国新型四化的深入推进,农村经济建设迈入了新阶段。在新常态下,供销社的迫切任务是加快转型升级,切实提高为农服务能力。因而这就要求我们既要把握好传统业务,又要善用改革和创新的思维开拓新型业务,用业务经营发展促使供销社转型升级。面对我国经济发展新常态,供销社过去长期积累起来的服务“三农”的宝贵经验遇到了很大的挑战,在经营过程中所暴露出的经营方式、手段等方面都存在着很多弊端,进而阻碍了供销社的生存与发展。供销社要想走为农服务的道路,转型与创新势在必行。基于经济发展新常态,分析供销社在发展中存在的突出问题;研究供销社进行转型与创新的必要性;最后归纳总结供销社经营模式的创新途径。     

中学语文新课标情势下的高师院校中文系复合型人才的培养

21世纪,我国的中学语文课程标准提出了新的理念和要求。作为高等师范院校,如何培养中学语文新课标需要的复合型人才是一项复杂的系统工程。首先应建立起以科学的教育理念为基础,以多学科合作立体交叉的知识培养与加大教育实习基地实训相结合的培养模式;其次应采取措施,使学生在获取知识的同时,提高综合素质和实践能力。     

基于非参数回归的遗漏变量检验

基于非参数回归提出了同时适用于横截面和时间序列数据的遗漏变量检验统计量.与现有文献相比,该统计量不仅避免了模型设定偏误问题,而且具有更高的局部检验功效,能够识别出速度更快的收敛到原假设的局部备择假设.该文选择单一带宽估计条件联合期望和条件边际期望,允许二者的非参数估计误差共同决定统计量的渐近分布,不仅改善了统计量的有限样本性质,而且避免了选择多个带宽和计算多个偏差项产生的繁杂工作.蒙特卡洛模拟结果表明该统计量具有良好的有限样本性质以及比Ait-Sahalia等更高的检验功效.实证分析采用该统计量捕获了F统计量无法识别的产出缺口与通胀之间关系,验证了非线性“产出一通胀”型菲利普斯曲线在中国的适用性.