On some distribution problems in Manova and discriminant analysis

Asymptotic expansions, valid for large error degrees of freedom, are given for the multivariate noncentral F distribution and for the distribution of latent roots in MANOVA and discriminant analysis. The asymptotic results are expressed in terms of elementary functions which are easy to compute and the results of some numerical work are included. The Bartlett test of the null hypothesis that some of the noncentrality parameters in discriminant analysis are zero is also briefly discussed.     

Asymptotic expansions of the distributions of estimators in canonical correlation analysis under nonnormality

Asymptotic expansions of the distributions of typical estimators in canonical correlation analysis under nonnormality are obtained. The expansions include the Edgeworth expansions up to order O(1/n) for the parameter estimators standardized by the population standard errors, and the corresponding expansion by Hall's method with variable transformation. The expansions for the Studentized estimators are also given using the Cornish-Fisher expansion and Hall's method. The parameter estimators are dealt with in the context of estimation for the covariance structure in canonical correlation analysis. The distributions of the associated statistics (the structure of the canonical variables, the scaled log likelihood ratio and Rozeboom's between-set correlation) are also expanded. The robustness of the normal-theory asymptotic variances of the sample canonical correlations and associated statistics are shown when a latent variable model holds. Simulations are performed to see the accuracy of the asymptotic results in finite samples.     

Contributions to multivariate analysis by Professor Yasunori Fujikoshi

The purpose of this article is to review the findings of Professor Fujikoshi which are primarily in multivariate analysis. He derived many asymptotic expansions for multivariate statistics which include MANOVA tests, dimensionality tests and latent roots under normality and nonnormality. He has made a large contribution in the study on theoretical accuracy for asymptotic expansions by deriving explicit error bounds. A large contribution has been also made in an important problem involving the selection of variables with introducing “no additional information hypotheses” in some multivariate models and the application of model selection criteria. Recently he is challenging to a high-dimensional statistical problem. He has been involved in other topics in multivariate analysis, such as power comparison of a class of tests, monotone transformations with improved approximations, etc.     

Accurate distribution and its asymptotic expansion for the tetrachoric correlation coefficient

Accurate distributions of the estimator of the tetrachoric correlation coefficient and, more generally, functions of sample proportions for the 2 by 2 contingency table are derived. The results are obtained given the definitions of the estimators even when some marginal cell(s) are empty. Then, asymptotic expansions of the distributions of the parameter estimators standardized by the population asymptotic standard errors up to order O(1/n) and those of the studentized ones up to the order next beyond the conventional normal approximation are derived. The asymptotic results can be obtained in a much shorter computation time than the accurate ones. Numerical examples were used to illustrate advantages of the studentized estimator of Fisher’s z transformation of the tetrachoric correlation coefficient.     

Asymptotic expansions of the distributions of the latent roots in MANOVA and the canonical correlations

Asymptotic expansions are given for the density function of the normalized latent roots of S₁S₂^?1 for large n under the assumption of $\text{Ω = O(n)}$, where S₁ and S₂ are independent noncentral and central Wishart matrices having the $\text{W}{}_{\mathrm{p}}\text{(b, Σ; Ω)}$ and W_p(n, Σ) distributions, respectively. The expansions are obtained by using a perturbation method. Asymptotic expansions are also obtained for the density function of the normalized canonical correlations when some of the population canonical correlations are zero.     

Second-order accurate inference on eigenvalues of covariance and correlation matrices

Edgeworth expansions and saddlepoint approximations for the distributions of estimators of certain eigenfunctions of covariance and correlation matrices are developed. These expansions depend on second-, third-, and fourth-order moments of the sample covariance matrix. Expressions for and estimators of these moments are obtained. The expansions and moment expressions are used to construct second-order accurate confidence intervals for the eigenfunctions. The expansions are illustrated and the results of a small simulation study that evaluates the finite-sample performance of the confidence intervals are reported.     

On the asymptotic joint distributions of certain functions of the eigenvalues of four random matrices

In this paper, the authors obtained asymptotic expressions for the joint distributions of certain functions of the eigenvalues of the Wishart matrix, correlation matrix, MANOVA matrix and canonical correlation matrix when the population roots have multiplicity.     

Adequateness and interpretability of objective functions in ordinal data analysis

Objective functions that are applied in ordinal data analysis must be adequate, i.e. carefully adapted to the structure of the observed data. In addition, any analysis of data that is based upon objective functions must lead to interpretable results. After a general characterization of adequate objective functions in ordinal data analysis, therefore, the particular problems of constructing adequate and interpretable dissimilarity coefficients and correlation coefficients in ordinal data analysis, stress measures (stress functions) in non-metric scaling and generalized stress measures or correlation coefficients in any theory of rank estimation will be discussed.     

Optimal discriminant functions for normal populations

A class of discriminant rules which includes Fisher’s linear discriminant function and the likelihood ratio criterion is defined. Using asymptotic expansions of the distributions of the discriminant functions in this class, we derive a formula for cut-off points which satisfy some conditions on misclassification probabilities, and derive the optimal rules for some criteria. Some numerical experiments are carried out to examine the performance of the optimal rules for finite numbers of samples.     

Eigenanalysis on a bivariate covariance kernel

Certain constructions of copulas can be interpreted as an eigendecomposition of a kernel. We study some properties of the eigenfunctions and their integrals of a covariance kernel related to a bivariate distribution. The covariance between functions of random variables in terms of the cumulative distribution function is used. Some bounds for the trace of the kernel and some inequalities for a continuous random variable concerning a function and its derivative are obtained. We also obtain relations to diagonal expansions and canonical correlation analysis and, as a by-product, series of constants for some particular distributions.     

Robust discrimination under a hierarchy on the scatter matrices

Under normality, Flury and Schmid [Quadratic discriminant functions with constraints on the covariances matrices: some asymptotic results, J. Multivariate Anal. 40 (1992) 244-261] investigated the asymptotic properties of the quadratic discrimination procedure under hierarchical models for the scatter matrices, that is: (i) arbitrary scatter matrices, (ii) common principal components, (iii) proportional scatter matrices and (iv) identical matrices. In this paper, we study the properties of robust quadratic discrimination rules based on robust estimates of the involved parameters. Our analysis is based on the partial influence functions of the functionals related to these parameters and allows to derive the asymptotic variances of the estimated coefficients under models (i)-(iv). From them, we conclude that the asymptotic variances verify the same order relations as those obtained by Flury and Schmid [Quadratic discriminant functions with constraints on the covariances matrices: some asymptotic results, J. Multivariate Anal. 40 (1992) 244-261] for the classical estimators. We also perform a Monte Carlo study for different sample sizes and different hierarchies which shows the advantage of using robust procedures over classical ones, when anomalous data are present. It also confirms that better rates of misclassification can be achieved if a more parsimonious model among all the correct ones is used instead of the standard quadratic discrimination.     

Edgeworth expansion of Wilks’ lambda statistic

An asymptotic expansion of the null distribution of the Wilks’ lambda statistic is derived when some of the parameters are large. Cornish-Fisher expansions of the upper percent points are also obtained. A monotone transformation which reduces the third and the fourth order cumulants is also derived. In order to study the accuracy of the approximation formulas, some numerical experiments are done, with comparing to the classical expansions when only the sample size tends to infinity.     

Asymptotic expansions in mean and covariance structure analysis

Asymptotic expansions of the distributions of parameter estimators in mean and covariance structures are derived. The parameters may be common to, or specific in means and covariances of observable variables. The means are possibly structured by the common/specific parameters. First, the distributions of the parameter estimators standardized by the population asymptotic standard errors are expanded using the single- and the two-term Edgeworth expansions. In practice, the pivotal statistic or the Studentized estimator with the asymptotically distribution-free standard error is of interest. An asymptotic distribution of the pivotal statistic is also derived by the Cornish-Fisher expansion. Simulations are performed for a factor analysis model with nonzero factor means to see the accuracy of the asymptotic expansions in finite samples.     

Asymptotic distributions of the latent roots of the covariance matrix with multiple population roots

An asymptotic expansion for large sample size n is derived by a partial differential equation method, up to and including the term of order n^?2, for the ₀F₀ function with two argument matrices which arise in the joint density function of the latent roots of the covariance matrix, when some of the population latent roots are multiple. Then we derive asymptotic expansions for the joint and marginal distributions of the sample roots in the case of one multiple root.     

Optimal training sample allocation and asymptotic expansions for error rates in discriminant analysis

The sample-based rule obtained from Bayes classification rule by replacing the unknown parameters by ML estimates from a stratified training sample is used for the classification of a random observationX into one ofL populations. The asymptotic expansions in terms of the inverses of the training sample sizes for cross-validation, apparent and plug-in error rates are found. These are used to compare estimation methods of the error rate for a wide range of regular distributions as probability models for considered populations. The optimal training sample allocation minimizing the asymptotic expected error regret is found in the cases of widely applicable, positively skewed distributions (Rayleigh and Maxwell distributions). These probability models for populations are often met in ecology and biology. The results indicate that equal training sample sizes for each populations sometimes are not optimal, even when prior probabilities of populations are equal.     

Exact robustness studies of the test of independence based on four multivariate criteria and their distribution problems under violations

Summary Exact robustness studies against non-normality have been carried out for test of independence based on the four multivariate criteria: Hotelling's trace,U ^(p) , Pillai's trace,V ^(p) , Wilks' criterion,W ^(p) , and Roy's largest root,L _(p) . The density functions ofU ^(p) ,W ^(p) andL _(p) have been obtained in the canonical correlation case and further the moments ofU ^(p) and m.g.f. ofV ^(p) have been derived. All of the study is based on Pillai's distribution of the characteristic roots under violations. Numerical results for the power function have been tabulated for the two-roots case. Slight non-normality does not affect the independence test seriously.V ⁽²⁾ is found to be most robust against nonnormality. Yu-Sheng Hsu is now with Georgia State University, Atlanta.     

Asymptotic expansions of test statistics for dimensionality and additional information in canonical correlation analysis when the dimension is large

This paper examines asymptotic expansions of test statistics for dimensionality and additional information in canonical correlation analysis based on a sample of size N=n+1 on two sets of variables, i.e.,  and . These problems are related to dimension reduction. The asymptotic approximations of the statistics have been studied extensively when dimensions p₁ and p₂ are fixed and the sample size N tends to infinity. However, the approximations worsen as p₁ and p₂ increase. This paper derives asymptotic expansions of the test statistics when both the sample size and dimension are large, assuming that and have a joint (p₁+p₂)-variate normal distribution. Numerical simulations revealed that this approximation is more accurate than the classical approximation as the dimension increases.     

Asymptotic expansions for distributions of latent roots in multivariate analysis

Asymptotic expansions are given for the distributions of latent roots of matrices in three multivariate situations. The distribution of the roots of the matrix S₁(S₁ + S₂)^?1, where S₁ is $\text{W}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>m</mtext>}}\text{(n}{}_1\text{, Σ, Ω)}$ and S₂ is W_m(n₂, Σ), is studied in detail and asymptotic series for the distribution are obtained which are valid for some or all of the roots of the noncentrality matrix Ω large. These expansions are obtained using partial-differential equations satisfied by the distribution. Asymptotic series are also obtained for the distributions of the roots of n^?1S, where S in W_m(n, Σ), for large n, and S₁S₂^?1, where S₁ is W_m(n₁, Σ) and S₂ is W_m(n₂, Σ), for large n₁ + n₂.     

Asymptotic distributions of functions of the eigenvalues of some random matrices for nonnormal populations

The authors investigated the asymptotic joint distributions of certain functions of the eigenvalues of the sample covariance matrix, correlation matrix, and canonical correlation matrix in nonnull situations when the population eigenvalues have multiplicities. These results are derived without assuming that the underlying distribution is multivariate normal. In obtaining these expressions, Edgeworth type expansions were used.     

An implicit function approach to constrained optimization with applications to asymptotic expansions

In this article, an unconstrained Taylor series expansion is constructed for scalar-valued functions of vector-valued arguments that are subject to nonlinear equality constraints. The expansion is made possible by first reparameterizing the constrained argument in terms of identified and implicit parameters and then expanding the function solely in terms of the identified parameters. Matrix expressions are given for the derivatives of the function with respect to the identified parameters. The expansion is employed to construct an unconstrained Newton algorithm for optimizing the function subject to constraints.Parameters in statistical models often are estimated by solving statistical estimating equations. It is shown how the unconstrained Newton algorithm can be employed to solve constrained estimating equations. Also, the unconstrained Taylor series is adapted to construct Edgeworth expansions of scalar functions of the constrained estimators. The Edgeworth expansion is illustrated on maximum likelihood estimators in an exploratory factor analysis model in which an oblique rotation is applied after Kaiser row-normalization of the factor loading matrix. A simulation study illustrates the superiority of the two-term Edgeworth approximation compared to the asymptotic normal approximation when sampling from multivariate normal or nonnormal distributions.