Analysis of Competing Risks by Using Bayesian Smoothing

We consider the competing risks set-up. In many practical situations, the conditional probability of the cause of failure given the failure time is of direct interest. We propose to model the competing risks by the overall hazard rate and the conditional probabilities rather than the cause-specific hazards. We adopt a Bayesian smoothing approach for both quantities of interest. Illustrations are given at the end.     

长江流域城市人口分布及空间相关性研究

本文选取长江流域104个城市人口样本作为研究对象,采用人口分布的结构指数和空间自相关分析方法,以及借用GIS技术来研究长江流域城市人口分布的空间动态特征和城市人口之间的功能联系。结果表明,长江流域城市人口空间结构呈均衡发展态势;人口密度分布呈现趋同趋势;城市人口与邻近城市人口之间的空间正相关要多于空间负相关;长江流域城市人口之间的空间关联性被分为八种类型。     

地区间个人收入差距的状况及特点(英文)

在地区收入差距的文献中,一直缺乏从个人收入角度出发的研究;而关于个人收入分配的研究,也很少考察地区差异。文章使用2005年全国1％人口普查数据,从个人收入角度描述了全国及（几种不同定义下的）地区间的个人收入差距,并分析了影响个人收入差距的因素,得到了一些有意义的结果。     

浅析改进物流配送体系促进电子商务发展

本文从电子商务发展中的物流配送瓶颈出发,论述电子商务环境下我国物流配送存在的现实问题,总结了物流配送的两种基本模式,并进一步探讨物流配送要适应电子商务发展新要求的有关对策,提出了物流配送如何改进的方法,使电子商务产业符合快捷、高效、低成本、个性化的配送要求。     

高斯与观测误差分布的发现

在数理统计的发展史上,最重要的事件也许就是观测误差分布的发现。统计学家们在寻找观测误差分布的过程中,创造了许多有用的统计理论和方法,不过观测误差分布发现的优先权最终属于伟大的德国科学家高斯。文章主要介绍了高斯发现观测误差分布的思考过程,并期望读者能从高斯天才的思想中获得有益的启迪。     

Modelling the effects of repellent chemicals on foraging bees

Summary.  Many pesticide sprays that are used for crop protection are harmful to honey-bees. It can therefore be beneficial to add to the spray chemical compounds that are repellent to bees, to discourage them from feeding on recently sprayed crops. Experiments were conducted using an artificial feeding station to assess the repellent effects of various compounds. In this system, bees arrive at the feeding station, choose between feeding dishes to which different chemicals have been added, feed for a variable period and then depart. The number of bees at each feeding dish is recorded at intervals of 1 min. We discuss the analysis of data from this type of experiment, based on a queuing theory model.     

A hierarchical model for extreme wind speeds

Summary.  A typical extreme value analysis is often carried out on the basis of simplistic inferential procedures, though the data being analysed may be structurally complex. Here we develop a hierarchical model for hourly gust maximum wind speed data, which attempts to identify site and seasonal effects for the marginal densities of hourly maxima, as well as for the serial dependence at each location. A Gaussian model for the random effects exploits the meteorological structure in the data, enabling increased precision for inferences at individual sites and in individual seasons. The Bayesian framework that is adopted is also exploited to obtain predictive return level estimates at each site, which incorporate uncertainty due to model estimation, as well as the randomness that is inherent in the processes that are involved.     

Maximum Likelihood Estimation in Gaussian Chain Graph Models under the Alternative Markov Property

Abstract.  The Andersson–Madigan–Perlman (AMP) Markov property is a recently proposed alternative Markov property (AMP) for chain graphs. In the case of continuous variables with a joint multivariate Gaussian distribution, it is the AMP rather than the earlier introduced Lauritzen–Wermuth–Frydenberg Markov property that is coherent with data-generation by natural block-recursive regressions. In this paper, we show that maximum likelihood estimates in Gaussian AMP chain graph models can be obtained by combining generalized least squares and iterative proportional fitting to an iterative algorithm. In an appendix, we give useful convergence results for iterative partial maximization algorithms that apply in particular to the described algorithm.     

Bayesian palaeoclimate reconstruction

Summary.  We consider the problem of reconstructing prehistoric climates by using fossil data that have been extracted from lake sediment cores. Such reconstructions promise to provide one of the few ways to validate modern models of climate change. A hierarchical Bayesian modelling approach is presented and its use, inversely, is demonstrated in a relatively small but statistically challenging exercise: the reconstruction of prehistoric climate at Glendalough in Ireland from fossil pollen. This computationally intensive method extends current approaches by explicitly modelling uncertainty and reconstructing entire climate histories. The statistical issues that are raised relate to the use of compositional data (pollen) with covariates (climate) which are available at many modern sites but are missing for the fossil data. The compositional data arise as mixtures and the missing covariates have a temporal structure. Novel aspects of the analysis include a spatial process model for compositional data, local modelling of lattice data, the use, as a prior, of a random walk with long-tailed increments, a two-stage implementation of the Markov chain Monte Carlo approach and a fast approximate procedure for cross-validation in inverse problems. We present some details, contrasting its reconstructions with those which have been generated by a method in use in the palaeoclimatology literature. We suggest that the method provides a basis for resolving important challenging issues in palaeoclimate research. We draw attention to several challenging statistical issues that need to be overcome.