Relative efficiencies of estimates using patterned covariances or correlations in the multivariate normal estimation problem

Summary The relative efficiency of maximum likelihood estimates is studied when taking advantage of underlying linear patterns in the covariances or correlations when estimating covariance matrices. We compare the variances of estimates of the covariance matrix obtained under two nested patterns with the assumption that the more restricted pattern is the true state. Formulas for the asymptotic variances are given which are exact for linear covariance patterns when explicit maximum likelihood estimates exist. Several specific examples are given using complete symmetry, circular symmetry and general covariance patterns as well as an example involving a covariance matrix with a linear pattern in the correlations.     

Seemingly unrelated regression models

The cross-covariance matrix of observation vectors in two linear statistical models need not be zero matrix. In such a case the problem is to find explicit expressions for the best linear unbiased estimators of both model parameters and estimators of variance components in the simplest structure of the covariance matrix. Univariate and multivariate forms of linear models are dealt with.     

Maximum likelihood estimation of covariance matrices under simple tree ordering

The closed-form maximum likelihood estimators for the completely balanced multivariate one-way random effect model are obtained by Anderson et al. (Ann. Statist. 14 (1986) 405). It remains open whether there exist the closed-form maximum likelihood estimators for the more general completely balanced multivariate multi-way random effects models. In this paper, a new parameterization technique for covariance matrices is used to grasp the inside structure of likelihood function so that the maximum likelihood equations can be dramatically simplified. As such we obtain the closed-form maximum likelihood estimators of covariance matrices for Wishart density functions over the simple tree ordering set, which can then be applied to get the maximum likelihood estimators for the completely balanced multivariate multi-way random effects models without interactions.     

Maximum likelihood estimation for multivariate skew normal mixture models

This paper provides a flexible mixture modeling framework using the multivariate skew normal distribution. A feasible EM algorithm is developed for finding the maximum likelihood estimates of parameters in this context. A general information-based method for obtaining the asymptotic covariance matrix of the maximum likelihood estimators is also presented. The proposed methodology is illustrated with a real example and results are also compared with those obtained from fitting normal mixtures.     

The maximum likelihood estimators in a multivariate normal distribution with AR(1) covariance structure for monotone data

The maximum likelihood estimators are uniquely obtained in a multivariate normal distribution with AR(1) covariance structure for monotone data. The maximum likelihood estimator of mean is unbiased.     

Estimating parameters in one-way analysis of covariance model with short-tailed symmetric error distributions

We consider one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) model with a single covariate when the distribution of error terms are short-tailed symmetric. The maximum likelihood (ML) estimators of the parameters are intractable. We, therefore, employ a simple method known as modified maximum likelihood (MML) to derive the estimators of the model parameters. The method is based on linearization of the intractable terms in likelihood equations. Incorporating these linearizations in the maximum likelihood, we get the modified likelihood equations. Then the MML estimators which are the solutions of these modified equations are obtained. Computer simulations were performed to investigate the efficiencies of the proposed estimators. The simulation results show that the proposed estimators are remarkably efficient compared with the conventional least squares (LS) estimators.     

MOMENT ESTIMATION FOR MULTIVARIATE EXTREME VALUE DISTRIBUTION

Moment estimation for multivariate extreme value distribution is described in this paper. Asymptotic covariance matrix of the estimators is given. The relative efficiencies of moment estimators as compared with the maximum likelihood and the stepwise estimators are computed. We show that when there is strong dependence between the variates, the generalized variance of moment estimators is much lower than the stepwise estimators. It becomes more obvious when the dimension increases.     

����������������������ŷ���ģ�͵��Ʋ�ǰ���ӯ��ֲ�

本文综述混合效应模型参数估计方面的若干新进展. 平衡混合效应方差分析模型的协方差阵具有一定结构. 对这类模型, 文献[1]提出了参数估计的一种新方法, 称为谱分解法. 新方法的突出特点是, 能同时给出固定效应和方差分量的估计, 前者是线性的, 后者是二次的,且相互独立. 而后, 文献[2--9]证明了谱分解估计的进一步的统计性质, 同时给出了协方差阵对应的估计, 它不仅是正定阵, 而且可获得它的风险函数, 这些文献还研究了谱分解估计与方差分析估计, 极大似然估计, 限制极大似然估计以及最小范数二次无偏估计的关系. 本文综述这一方向的部分研究成果, 并提出一些待进一步研究的问题.     

Improving on the mle of a bounded location parameter for spherical distributions

For the problem of estimating under squared error loss the location parameter of a p-variate spherically symmetric distribution where the location parameter lies in a ball of radius m, a general sufficient condition for an estimator to dominate the maximum likelihood estimator is obtained. Dominance results are then made explicit for the case of a multivariate student distribution with d degrees of freedom and, in particular, we show that the Bayes estimator with respect to a uniform prior on the boundary of the parameter space dominates the maximum likelihood estimator whenever and d?p. The sufficient condition matches the one obtained by Marchand and Perron (Ann. Statist. 29 (2001) 1078) in the normal case with identity covariance matrix. Furthermore, we derive an explicit class of estimators which, for , dominate the maximum likelihood estimator simultaneously for the normal distribution with identity covariance matrix and for all multivariate student distributions with d degrees of freedom, d?p. Finally, we obtain estimators which dominate the maximum likelihood estimator simultaneously for all distributions in the subclass of scale mixtures of normals for which the scaling random variable is bounded below by some positive constant with probability one.     

Estimating the parameters ofkth-order poisson distributions

Point estimators are considered for the two-parameter family ofkth-order Poisson distributions. A formula is derived for the lower bound on the estimate covariance matrix with a series-form information matrix, and the covariance matrix is calculated for characteristic parameter values. The relative efficiency of various estimation methods is analyzed (maximum likelihood method, method of moments, substitution method). Translated from Prikladnaya Matematika i Informatika, No. 2, pp. 84–93, 1999.     

Minimax estimator of regression coefficient in normal distribution under balanced loss function

This article investigates linear minimax estimators of regression coefficient in a linear model with an assumption that the underlying distribution is a normal one with a nonnegative definite covariance matrix under a balanced loss function. Some linear minimax estimators of regression coefficient in the class of all estimators are obtained. The result shows that the linear minimax estimators are unique under some conditions.     

A general class of scale-shape mixtures of skew-normal distributions: properties and estimation

This paper introduces the scale-shape mixtures of skew-normal (SSMSN) distributions which provide alternative candidates for modeling asymmetric data in a wide variety of settings. We obtain the moments and study some characterizations of the SSMSN distributions. Instead of resorting to numerical optimization procedures, two variants of EM algorithms are developed for carrying out maximum likelihood estimation. Our algorithms are analytically simple because closed-form expressions of conditional expectations in the E-step as well as the updating estimators in the M-step can be explicitly obtained. The observed information matrix is derived for approximating the asymptotic covariance matrix of parameter estimates. A simulation study is conducted to examine the finite sample properties of ML estimators. The utility of the proposed methodology is illustrated by analyzing a real example.     

Linear error propagation law and plug-in estimators

In mixed linear statistical models the best linear unbiased estimators need a known covariance matrix. However, the variance components must be usually estimated. Thus a problem arises what is the covariance matrix of the plug-in estimators.     

Estimation of the entropy of a multivariate normal distribution

Motivated by problems in molecular biosciences wherein the evaluation of entropy of a molecular system is important for understanding its thermodynamic properties, we consider the efficient estimation of entropy of a multivariate normal distribution having unknown mean vector and covariance matrix. Based on a random sample, we discuss the problem of estimating the entropy under the quadratic loss function. The best affine equivariant estimator is obtained and, interestingly, it also turns out to be an unbiased estimator and a generalized Bayes estimator. It is established that the best affine equivariant estimator is admissible in the class of estimators that depend on the determinant of the sample covariance matrix alone. The risk improvements of the best affine equivariant estimator over the maximum likelihood estimator (an estimator commonly used in molecular sciences) are obtained numerically and are found to be substantial in higher dimensions, which is commonly the case for atomic coordinates in macromolecules such as proteins. We further establish that even the best affine equivariant estimator is inadmissible and obtain Stein-type and Brewster–Zidek-type estimators dominating it. The Brewster–Zidek-type estimator is shown to be generalized Bayes.     

Sparse Steinian Covariance Estimation

We consider a new method for sparse covariance matrix estimation which is motivated by previous results for the so-called Stein-type estimators. Stein proposed a method for regularizing the sample covariance matrix by shrinking together the eigenvalues; the amount of shrinkage is chosen to minimize an unbiased estimate of the risk (UBEOR) under the entropy loss function. The resulting estimator has been shown in simulations to yield significant risk reductions over the maximum likelihood estimator. Our method extends the UBEOR minimization problem by adding an ?₁ penalty on the entries of the estimated covariance matrix, which encourages a sparse estimate. For a multivariate Gaussian distribution, zeros in the covariance matrix correspond to marginal independences between variables. Unlike the ?₁-penalized Gaussian likelihood function, our penalized UBEOR objective is convex and can be minimized via a simple block coordinate descent procedure. We demonstrate via numerical simulations and an analysis of microarray data from breast cancer patients that our proposed method generally outperforms other methods for sparse covariance matrix estimation and can be computed efficiently even in high dimensions.     

A Note on Random Effects Growth Curve Models

The robustness of regression coefficient estimator is a hot topic in regression analysis all the while. Since the response observations are not independent, it is extraordinarily difficult to study this problem for random effects growth curve models, especially when the design matrix is non-full of rank. The paper not only gives the necessary and sufficient conditions under which the generalized least square estimate is identical to the the best linear unbiased estimate when error covariance matrix is an arbitrary positive definite matrix, but also obtains a concise condition under which the generalized least square estimate is identical to the maximum likelihood estimate when the design matrix is full or non-full of rank respectively. In addition, by using of the obtained results, we get some corollaries for the the generalized least square estimate be equal to the maximum likelihood estimate under several common error covariance matrix assumptions. Illustrative examples for the case that the design matrix is full or non-full of rank are also given.     

矩阵损失函数下回归系数矩阵的非齐次线性估计的可容许性

在二次矩阵损失函数下研究了协方差矩阵未知的多元线性模型中回归系数矩阵的可估线性函数的矩阵非齐次线性估计的可容许性,给出了矩阵非齐次线性估计在线性估计类中可容许的一个充要条件.     

有缺失数据的条件独立正态母体中参数的最优同变估计

在缺失数据机制是可忽略的假设下,导出了有单调缺失数据的条件独立正态模型中协方差阵和精度阵的Cholesky分解的最大似然估计和无偏估计.通过引入一类特殊的变换群并在更广义的损失下,获得了其最优同变估计.这表明最大似然估计和无偏估计是非容许的.最后,通过数值模拟验证了相关结果的有效性.     

Bivariate Birnbaum–Saunders distribution and associated inference

Univariate Birnbaum–Saunders distribution has been used quite effectively to model positively skewed data, especially lifetime data and crack growth data. In this paper, we introduce bivariate Birnbaum–Saunders distribution which is an absolutely continuous distribution whose marginals are univariate Birnbaum–Saunders distributions. Different properties of this bivariate Birnbaum–Saunders distribution are then discussed. This new family has five unknown parameters and it is shown that the maximum likelihood estimators can be obtained by solving two non-linear equations. We also propose simple modified moment estimators for the unknown parameters which are explicit and can therefore be used effectively as an initial guess for the computation of the maximum likelihood estimators. We then present the asymptotic distributions of the maximum likelihood estimators and use them to construct confidence intervals for the parameters. We also discuss likelihood ratio tests for some hypotheses of interest. Monte Carlo simulations are then carried out to examine the performance of the proposed estimators. Finally, a numerical data analysis is performed in order to illustrate all the methods of inference discussed here.     

Estimation of means of multivariate normal populations with order restriction

Multivariate isotonic regression theory plays a key role in the field of statistical inference under order restriction for vector valued parameters. Two cases of estimating multivariate normal means under order restricted set are considered. One case is that covariance matrices are known, the other one is that covariance matrices are unknown but are restricted by partial order. This paper shows that when covariance matrices are known, the estimator given by this paper always dominates unrestricted maximum likelihood estimator uniformly, and when covariance matrices are unknown, the plug-in estimator dominates unrestricted maximum likelihood estimator under the order restricted set of covariance matrices. The isotonic regression estimators in this paper are the generalizations of plug-in estimators in unitary case.