The gamma-exponentiated exponential distribution

In this paper, we introduce a new distribution generated by gamma random variables. We show that this distribution includes as a special case the distribution of the lower record value from a sequence of i.i.d. random variables from a population with the exponentiated (generalized) exponential distribution. The properties of this distribution are derived and the estimation of the model parameters is discussed. Some applications to real data sets are finally presented for illustration.     

Addressing misclassification for binary data: probit and t-link regressions

Generalized linear models are addressed to describe the dependence of data on explanatory variables when the binary outcome is subject to misclassification. Both probit and t-link regressions for misclassified binary data under Bayesian methodology are proposed. The computational difficulties have been avoided by using data augmentation. The idea of using a data augmentation framework (with two types of latent variables) is exploited to derive efficient Gibbs sampling and expectation–maximization algorithms. Besides, this formulation has allowed to obtain the probit model as a particular case of the t-link model. Simulation examples are presented to illustrate the model performance when comparing with standard methods that do not consider misclassification. In order to show the potential of the proposed approaches, a real data problem arising when studying hearing loss caused by exposure to occupational noise is analysed.     

Comparison of several Birnbaum–Saunders distributions

Birnbaum–Saunders (BS) distribution is widely used in reliability applications to model failure times. For several samples from possible different BS distributions, to prevent wrong conclusions in any further analysis, it is of importance to accompany a formal comparison for characteristic quantities of the distributions, including mean, quantile and reliability function difference. To this end, two test statistics, which are respectively based on the exact generalized p-value approach and the Delta method, are proposed and their behaviours are investigated. Simulation studies are carried out to examine the size and power performance of the newly proposed statistics. An interesting phenomenon is that in the finite sample simulations we conduct, the Delta method-based test almost uniformly outperforms the generalized p-value-based test although its sampling null distribution is simulated by Monte Carlo method. This might suggest that the sampling null distribution of the Delta method-based test statistic would have a fast convergence to its limit. The tests are also applied to analyse a real example on the fatigue life of 6061-T6 aluminium coupons for illustration.     

ANOVA decomposition of conditional Gaussian processes for sensitivity analysis with dependent inputs

Complex computer codes are widely used in science to model physical systems. Sensitivity analysis aims to measure the contributions of the inputs on the code output variability. An efficient tool to perform such analysis is the variance-based methods which have been recently investigated in the framework of dependent inputs. One of their issue is that they require a large number of runs for the complex simulators. To handle it, a Gaussian process (GP) regression model may be used to approximate the complex code. In this work, we propose to decompose a GP into a high-dimensional representation. This leads to the definition of a variance-based sensitivity measure well tailored for non-independent inputs. We give a methodology to estimate these indices and to quantify their uncertainty. Finally, the approach is illustrated on toy functions and on a river flood model.     

A window-limited generalized likelihood ratio test for monitoring Poisson processes with linear drifts

There is gradually increasing attention devoted to the monitoring of Poisson process due to its wide applications in industry quality control and health-care surveillance. However, most of the study focuses on the case with step shifts in Poisson means. Relatively little attention has been paid to the case with linear drifts in Poisson means. This paper extends the window-limited generalized likelihood ratio (WGLR) test from the monitoring of normal means to Poisson processes, with focus on linear drifts. The comparison results with the adaptive cumulative sum (ACUSUM) charts and the weighted CUSUM (WCUSUM) charts show that the WGLR chart generally provides better detection performance than the other alternative methods in both the zero-state and steady-state cases.     

Empirical and simulated adjustments of composite likelihood ratio statistics

Composite likelihood inference has gained much popularity thanks to its computational manageability and its theoretical properties. Unfortunately, performing composite likelihood ratio tests is inconvenient because of their awkward asymptotic distribution. There are many proposals for adjusting composite likelihood ratio tests in order to recover an asymptotic chi-square distribution, but they all depend on the sensitivity and variability matrices. The same is true for Wald-type and score-type counterparts. In realistic applications, sensitivity and variability matrices usually need to be estimated, but there are no comparisons of the performance of composite likelihood-based statistics in such an instance. A comparison of the accuracy of inference based on the statistics considering two methods typically employed for estimation of sensitivity and variability matrices, namely an empirical method that exploits independent observations, and Monte Carlo simulation, is performed. The results in two examples involving the pairwise likelihood show that a very large number of independent observations should be available in order to obtain accurate coverages using empirical estimation, while limited simulation from the full model provides accurate results regardless of the availability of independent observations. This suggests the latter as a default choice, whenever simulation from the model is possible.     

Cross validation of ridge regression estimator in autocorrelated linear regression models

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigated the cross validation measures, namely OCV, GCV and Cp under the linear regression models when the error structure is autocorrelated and regressor data are correlated. The best performed ridge regression estimator is obtained by getting the optimal ridge parameter so as to minimize these measures. A Monte Carlo simulation study is given to see how the optimal ridge parameter is affected by autocorrelation and the strength of multicollinearity.     

Robust Lagrange multiplier test for detecting ARCH/GARCH effect using permutation and bootstrap

The Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test is one of the principal tools to detect ARCH and GARCH effects in financial data analysis. However, when the underlying data are non‐normal, which is often the case in practice, the asymptotic LM test, based on the χ²‐approximation of critical values, is known to perform poorly, particularly for small and moderate sample sizes. In this paper we propose to employ two re‐sampling techniques to find critical values of the LM test, namely permutation and bootstrap. We derive the properties of exactness and asymptotically correctness for the permutation and bootstrap LM tests, respectively. Our numerical studies indicate that the proposed re‐sampled algorithms significantly improve size and power of the LM test in both skewed and heavy‐tailed processes. We also illustrate our new approaches with an application to the analysis of the Euro/USD currency exchange rates and the German stock index. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 40: 405–426; 2012 © 2012 Statistical Society of Canada     

Modeling the correlation structure of data that have multiple levels of association

Some modem approaches for the analysis of non-normally distributed and correlated data, including Liang and Zeger's ( 1986 ) method of generalized estimating equations (GEE), model the pattern of association among outcomes by assuming a structure for their correlation matrix. A number of relatively simple patterned correlation matrices are available for measurements with one level of correlation. However, modeling the correlation structure of data with multiple levels, or causes, of association is not as straightforward; this note discusses some of the difficulties and discusses a simple class of correlation models that may prove useful in this endeavor.