Empirical likelihood for mixed-effects error-in-variables model

This paper mainly introduces the method of empirical likelihood and its applications on two different models. We discuss the empirical likelihood inference on fixed-effect parameter in mixed-effects model with error-in-variables. We first consider a linear mixed-effects model with measurement errors in both fixed and random effects. We construct the empirical likelihood confidence regions for the fixed-effects parameters and the mean parameters of random-effects. The limiting distribution of the empirical log likelihood ratio at the true parameter is X2p＋q, where p, q are dimension of fixed and random effects respectively. Then we discuss empirical likelihood inference in a semi-linear error-in-variable mixed-effects model. Under certain conditions, it is shown that the empirical log likelihood ratio at the true parameter also converges to X2p＋q. Simulations illustrate that the proposed confidence region has a coverage probability more closer to the nominal level than normal approximation based confidence region.     

Measurement error in proportional hazards models for survival data with long-term survivors

This work studies a proportional hazards model for survival data with "long-term survivors",in which covariates are subject to linear measurement error.It is well known that the naive estimators from both partial and full likelihood methods are inconsistent under this measurement error model.For measurement error models,methods of unbiased estimating function and corrected likelihood have been proposed in the literature.In this paper,we apply the corrected partial and full likelihood approaches to estimate the model and obtain statistical inference from survival data with long-term survivors.The asymptotic properties of the estimators are established.Simulation results illustrate that the proposed approaches provide useful tools for the models considered.     

Interval estimation of the mean of a normal distribution based on quantized observations

We consider the problem of making statistical inference about the mean of a normal distribution based on a random sample of quantized (digitized) observations. This problem arises, for example, in a measurement process with errors drawn from a normal distribution and with a measurement device or process with a known resolution, such as the resolution of an analog-to-digital converter or another digital instrument. In this paper we investigate the effect of quantization on subsequent statistical inference about the true mean. If the standard deviation of the measurement error is large with respect to the resolution of the indicating measurement device, the effect of quantization (digitization) diminishes and standard statistical inference is still valid. Hence, in this paper we consider situations where the standard deviation of the measurement error is relatively small. By Monte Carlo simulations we compare small sample properties of the interval estimators of the mean based on standard approach (i.e. by ignoring the fact that the measurements have been quantized) with some recently suggested methods, including the interval estimators based on maximum likelihood approach and the fiducial approach. The paper extends the original study by Hannig et al. (2007).     

Estimation of semi-varying coefficient model with surrogate data and validation sampling

In this paper, we investigate the estimation of semi-varying coefficient models when the nonlinear covariates are prone to measurement error. With the help of validation sampling, we propose two estimators of the parameter and the coefficient functions by combining dimension reduction and the profile likelihood methods without any error structure equation specification or error distribution assumption. We establish the asymptotic normality of proposed estimators for both the parametric and nonparametric parts and show that the proposed estimators achieves the best convergence rate. Data-driven bandwidth selection methods are also discussed. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the finite sample property of the estimation methods proposed.     

Testing Homogeneity in Weibull Error in Variables Models

We discuss properties of the score statistics for testing the null hypothesis of homogeneity in a Weibull mixing model in which the group effect is modelled as a random variable and some of the covariates are measured with error. The statistics proposed are based on the corrected score approach and they require estimation only under the conventional Weibull model with measurement errors and does not require that the distribution of the random effect be specified. The results in this paper extend results in Gimenez, Bolfarine, and Colosimo (Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, 52, 698–711, 2000) for the case of independent Weibull models. A simulation study is provided. An erratum to this article can be found at     

An effective selection of regression variables when the error distribution is incorrectly specified

Summary An asymptotically efficient selection of regression variables is considered in the situation where the statistician estimates regression parameters by the maximum likelihood method but fails to choose a likelihood function matching the true error distribution. The proposed procedure is useful when a robust regression technique is applied but the data in fact do not require that treatment. Examples and a Monte Carlo study are presented and relationships to other selectors such as Mallows'C _p are investigated. Research supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Sonderforschungsbereich 123 “Stochastische Mathematische Modelle” and AFOSR Contract No. F49620 82 C 0009.     

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In this paper we focus on the sequential k-out-of-n model with covariates. We assume that the lifetime distribution given covariates belongs to the exponential family, and deal with log-linear model of the scale parameter of the exponential distribution. The maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the model parameters with order restrictions are derived and some properties of the MLEs are discussed, and we give the algorithm of MLES and the result of simulation.     

Accelerated Failure Time Model for Arbitrarily Censored Data With Smoothed Error Distribution

This article develops a semiparametric procedure to estimate parameters of an accelerated failure time model. To express the density of the error distribution, we use the P-spline (B-splines with penalties) smoothing technique. To accommodate error densities with infinite support (and for other reasons) we replace the B-splines with their limits as the degree of the B-spline goes to infinity; namely, with normal densities. The spline coefficients as well as any number of regression parameters are quickly and accurately estimated via penalized maximum likelihood. The method directly provides predictive survival distributions for fixed values of covariates while allowing for left-, right-, and interval-censored data. The approach has been implemented as an R package and is applied here to the problem of predicting AIDS-free survival in the presence of interval censoring.     

Logic Regression

Logic regression is an adaptive regression methodology that attempts to construct predictors as Boolean combinations of binary covariates. In many regression problems a model is developed that relates the main effects (the predictors or transformations thereof) to the response, while interactions are usually kept simple (two- to three-way interactions at most). Often, especially when all predictors are binary, the interaction between many predictors may be what causes the differences in response. This issue arises, for example, in the analysis of SNP microarray data or in some data mining problems. In the proposed methodology, given a set of binary predictors we create new predictors such as “X₁, X₂, X³, and X⁴ are true,” or “X⁵ or X⁶ but not X⁷ are true.” In more specific terms: we try to fit regression models of the form g(E[Y]) = b₀ + b₁ L₁ + · · · + b_n L_n , where L_j is any Boolean expression of the predictors. The L_j and b_j are estimated simultaneously using a simulated annealing algorithm. This article discusses how to fit logic regression models, how to carry out model selection for these models, and gives some examples.     

Skew normal measurement error models

In this paper we define a class of skew normal measurement error models, extending usual symmetric normal models in order to avoid data transformation. The likelihood function of the observed data is obtained, which can be maximized by using existing statistical software. Inference on the parameters of interest can be approached by using the observed information matrix, which can also be computed by using existing statistical software, such as the Ox program. Bayesian inference is also discussed for the family of asymmetric models in terms of invariance with respect to the symmetric normal distribution showing that early results obtained for the normal distribution also holds for the asymmetric family. Results of a simulation study and an analysis of a real data set analysis are provided.     

Bayesian time series regression with nonparametric modeling of autocorrelation

Series models have several functions: comprehending the functional dependence of variable of interest on covariates, forecasting the dependent variable for future values of covariates and estimating variance disintegration, co-integration and steady-state relations. Although the regression function in a time series model has been extensively modeled both parametrically and nonparametrically, modeling of the error autocorrelation is mainly restricted to the parametric setup. A proper modeling of autocorrelation not only helps to reduce the bias in regression function estimate, but also enriches forecasting via a better forecast of the error term. In this article, we present a nonparametric modeling of autocorrelation function under a Bayesian framework. Moving into the frequency domain from the time domain, we introduce a Gaussian process prior to the log of the spectral density, which is then updated by using a Whittle approximation for the likelihood function (Whittle likelihood). The posterior computation is simplified due to the fact that Whittle likelihood is approximated by the likelihood of a normal mixture distribution with log-spectral density as a location shift parameter, where the mixture is of only five components with known means, variances, and mixture probabilities. The problem then becomes conjugate conditional on the mixture components, and a Gibbs sampler is used to initiate the unknown mixture components as latent variables. We present a simulation study for performance comparison, and apply our method to the two real data examples.     

Semi- and Nonparametric Modeling of Ordinal Data

Parametric models for categorical ordinal response variables, like the proportional odds model or the continuation ratio model, assume that the predictor is given by a linear form of covariates. In this article the parametric models are extended to include smooth components in a semiparametric or partially parametric fashion. Parts of the covariates are thereby modeled linearly while other covariates are modeled as unspecified but smooth functions. Estimation is based on a combination of local likelihood and profile likelihood and asymptotic properties of the estimates are derived. In a simulation study it is demonstrated that the profile likelihood approach is to be preferred over a backfitting procedure. Two data examples demonstrate the applicability of the models.     

Functional relationships having many independent variables and errors with multivariate normal distribution

This paper deals with maximum likelihood estimation of linear or nonlinear functional relationships assuming that replicated observations have been made on p variables at n points. The joint distribution of the pn errors is assumed to be multivariate normal. Existing results are extended in two ways: first, from known to unknown error covariance matrix; second, from the two variate to the multivariate case.For the linear relationship it is shown that the maximum likelihood point estimates are those obtained by the method of generalized least squares. The present method, however, has the advantage of supplying estimates of the asymptotic covariances of the structural parameter estimates.     

Efficient and robust estimation for autoregressive regression models using shape mixtures of skewt normal distribution

Multiple linear regression model based on normally distributed and uncorrelated errors is a popular statistical tool with application in various fields. But these assumptions of normality and no serial correlation are hardly met in real life. Hence, this study considers the linear regression time series model for series with outliers and autocorrelated errors. These autocorrelated errors are represented by a covariance-stationary autoregressive process where the independent innovations are driven by shape mixture of skew-t normal distribution. The shape mixture of skew-t normal distribution is a flexible extension of the skew-t normal with an additional shape parameter that controls skewness and kurtosis. With this error model, stochastic modeling of multiple outliers is possible with an adaptive robust maximum likelihood estimation of all the parameters. An Expectation Conditional Maximization Either algorithm is developed to carryout the maximum likelihood estimation. We derive asymptotic standard errors of the estimators through an information-based approximation. The performance of the estimation procedure developed is evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations and real life data analysis.

     

Covariate Selection in High-Dimensional Generalized Linear Models With Measurement Error

In many problems involving generalized linear models, the covariates are subject to measurement error. When the number of covariates p exceeds the sample size n, regularized methods like the lasso or Dantzig selector are required. Several recent papers have studied methods which correct for measurement error in the lasso or Dantzig selector for linear models in the p > n setting. We study a correction for generalized linear models, based on Rosenbaum and Tsybakov’s matrix uncertainty selector. By not requiring an estimate of the measurement error covariance matrix, this generalized matrix uncertainty selector has a great practical advantage in problems involving high-dimensional data. We further derive an alternative method based on the lasso, and develop efficient algorithms for both methods. In our simulation studies of logistic and Poisson regression with measurement error, the proposed methods outperform the standard lasso and Dantzig selector with respect to covariate selection, by reducing the number of false positives considerably. We also consider classification of patients on the basis of gene expression data with noisy measurements. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Bias of the structural quasi-score estimator of a measurement error model under misspecification of the regressor distribution

In a structural measurement error model the structural quasi-score (SQS) estimator is based on the distribution of the latent regressor variable. If this distribution is misspecified, the SQS estimator is (asymptotically) biased. Two types of misspecification are considered. Both assume that the statistician erroneously adopts a normal distribution as his model for the regressor distribution. In the first type of misspecification, the true model consists of a mixture of normal distributions which cluster around a single normal distribution, in the second type, the true distribution is a normal distribution admixed with a second normal distribution of low weight. In both cases of misspecification, the bias, of course, tends to zero when the size of misspecification tends to zero. However, in the first case the bias goes to zero in a flat way so that small deviations from the true model lead to a negligible bias, whereas in the second case the bias is noticeable even for small deviations from the true model.     

Heteroscedastic replicated measurement error models under asymmetric heavy-tailed distributions

We propose a heteroscedastic replicated measurement error model based on the class of scale mixtures of skew-normal distributions, which allows the variances of measurement errors to vary across subjects. We develop EM algorithms to calculate maximum likelihood estimates for the model with or without equation error. An empirical Bayes approach is applied to estimate the true covariate and predict the response. Simulation studies show that the proposed models can provide reliable results and the inference is not unduly affected by outliers and distribution misspecification. The method has also been used to analyze a real data of plant root decomposition.     

On estimation of measurement error models with replication under heavy-tailed distributions

Measurement error (errors-in-variables) models are frequently used in various scientific fields, such as engineering, medicine, chemistry, etc. In this work, we consider a new replicated structural measurement error model in which the replicated observations jointly follow scale mixtures of normal (SMN) distributions. Maximum likelihood estimates are computed via an EM type algorithm method. A closed expression is presented for the asymptotic covariance matrix of those estimators. The SMN measurement error model provides an appealing robust alternative to the usual model based on normal distributions. The results of simulation studies and a real data set analysis confirm the robustness of SMN measurement error model.     

A transformed random effects model with applications

This paper proposes a transformed random effects model for analyzing non-normal panel data where both the response and (some of) the covariates are subject to transformations for inducing flexible functional form, normality, homoscedasticity, and simple model structure. We develop a maximum likelihood procedure for model estimation and inference, along with a computational device which makes the estimation procedure feasible in cases of large panels. We provide model specification tests that take into account the fact that parameter values for error components cannot be negative. We illustrate the model and methods with two applications: state production and wage distribution. The empirical results strongly favor the new model to the standard ones where either linear or log-linear functional form is employed. Monte Carlo simulation shows that maximum likelihood inference is quite robust against mild departure from normality. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.