Robustness of controllability under some unbounded perturbations

In this work, we prove that the exact controllability of linear autonomous systems are conserved with “small” Desch-Schappacher perturbations arising, e.g., from the perturbations of dynamic operator's domain. Our results are illustrated by an application to controlled systems with dynamic and boundary perturbations.     

Depth-Based Recognition of Shape Outlying Functions

A major drawback of many established depth functionals is their ineffectiveness in identifying functions outlying merely in shape. Herein, a simple modification of functional depth is proposed to provide a remedy for this difficulty. The modification is versatile, widely applicable, and introduced without imposing any assumptions on the data, such as differentiability. It is shown that many favorable attributes of the original depths for functions, including consistency properties, remain preserved for the modified depths. The powerfulness of the new approach is demonstrated on a number of examples for which the known depths fail to identify the outlying functions. Supplementary material for this article is available online.     

Efficient Bayesian Inference for Multivariate Factor Stochastic Volatility Models

We discuss efficient Bayesian estimation of dynamic covariance matrices in multivariate time series through a factor stochastic volatility model. In particular, we propose two interweaving strategies to substantially accelerate convergence and mixing of standard MCMC approaches. Similar to marginal data augmentation techniques, the proposed acceleration procedures exploit nonidentifiability issues which frequently arise in factor models. Our new interweaving strategies are easy to implement and come at almost no extra computational cost; nevertheless, they can boost estimation efficiency by several orders of magnitude as is shown in extensive simulation studies. To conclude, the application of our algorithm to a 26-dimensional exchange rate dataset illustrates the superior performance of the new approach for real-world data. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

右删失情形下平均生存时间的加权Bootstrap推断

在右删失情形下,基于一类合成数据,采用加权Bootstrap方法获得了平均生存时间的加权Bootstrap估计及其加权Bootstrap分布,并就权重是否独立两种情形,证明了此估计的相合性及此分布近似的有效性.基于此,构造了平均生存时间的置信区间.在数值模拟中,取权为Dirichlet(n;1,…,1),并从覆盖概率和区间长度角度,比较了加权Bootstrap和渐近正态逼近产生的置信区间.     

A Random Effect Block Bootstrap for Clustered Data

Random effects models for hierarchically dependent data, for example, clustered data, are widely used. A popular bootstrap method for such data is the parametric bootstrap based on the same random effects model as that used in inference. However, it is hard to justify this type of bootstrap when this model is known to be an approximation. In this article, we describe a random effect block bootstrap approach for clustered data that is simple to implement, free of both the distribution and the dependence assumptions of the parametric bootstrap, and is consistent when the mixed model assumptions are valid. Results based on Monte Carlo simulation show that the proposed method seems robust to failure of the dependence assumptions of the assumed mixed model. An application to a realistic environmental dataset indicates that the method produces sensible results. Supplementary materials for the article, including the data used for the application, are available online.     

Bayesian Inference and Prediction of Gaussian Random Fields Based on Censored Data

This work develops a Bayesian approach to perform inference and prediction in Gaussian random fields based on spatial censored data. These type of data occur often in the earth sciences due either to limitations of the measuring device or particular features of the sampling process used to collect the data. Inference and prediction on the underlying Gaussian random field is performed, through data augmentation, by using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Previous approaches to deal with spatial censored data are reviewed, and their limitations pointed out. The proposed Bayesian approach is applied to a spatial dataset of depths of a geologic horizon that contains both left- and right-censored data, and comparisons are made between inferences based on the censored data and inferences based on “complete data” obtained by two imputation methods. It is seen that the differences in inference between the two approaches can be substantial.     

Bootstrap for the conditional distribution function with truncated and censored data

We propose a resampling method for left truncated and right censored data with covariables to obtain a bootstrap version of the conditional distribution function estimator. We derive an almost sure representation for this bootstrapped estimator and, as a consequence, the consistency of the bootstrap is obtained. This bootstrap approximation represents an alternative to the normal asymptotic distribution and avoids the estimation of the complicated mean and variance parameters of the latter.     

Online Variational Bayes Inference for High-Dimensional Correlated Data

High-dimensional data with hundreds of thousands of observations are becoming commonplace in many disciplines. The analysis of such data poses many computational challenges, especially when the observations are correlated over time and/or across space. In this article, we propose flexible hierarchical regression models for analyzing such data that accommodate serial and/or spatial correlation. We address the computational challenges involved in fitting these models by adopting an approximate inference framework. We develop an online variational Bayes algorithm that works by incrementally reading the data into memory one portion at a time. The performance of the method is assessed through simulation studies. The methodology is applied to analyze signal intensity in MRI images of subjects with knee osteoarthritis, using data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

BOOTSTRAP CRITICAL POINT FOR CIRCULAR MEAN DIRECTION AND ITS APPLICATIONS

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Persistence Terrace for Topological Inference of Point Cloud Data

Topological data analysis (TDA) is a rapidly developing collection of methods for studying the shape of point cloud and other data types. One popular approach, designed to be robust to noise and outliers, is to first use a smoothing function to convert the point cloud into a manifold and then apply persistent homology to a Morse filtration. A significant challenge is that this smoothing process involves the choice of a parameter and persistent homology is highly sensitive to that choice; moreover, important scale information is lost. We propose a novel topological summary plot, called a persistence terrace, that incorporates a wide range of smoothing parameters and is robust, multi-scale, and parameter-free. This plot allows one to isolate distinct topological signals that may have merged for any fixed value of the smoothing parameter, and it also allows one to infer the size and point density of the topological features. We illustrate our method in some simple settings where noise is a serious issue for existing frameworks and then we apply it to a real dataset by counting muscle fibers in a cross-sectional image. Supplementary material for this article is available online.     

HE Plots for Multivariate Linear Models

Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) extends the ideas and methods of univariate ANOVA in simple and straightforward ways. But the familiar graphical methods typically used for univariate ANOVA are inadequate for showing how measures in a multivariate response vary with each other, and how their means vary with explanatory factors. Similarly, the graphical methods commonly used in multiple regression are not widely available or used in multivariate multiple regression (MMRA). We describe a variety of graphical methods for multiple-response (MANOVA and MMRA) data aimed at understanding what is being tested in a multivariate test, and how factor/predictor effects are expressed across multiple response measures.

In particular, we describe and illustrate: (a) Data ellipses and biplots for multivariate data; (b) HE plots, showing the hypothesis and error covariance matrices for a given pair of responses, and a given effect; (c) HE plot matrices, showing all pairwise HE plots; and (d) reduced-rank analogs of HE plots, showing all observations, group means, and their relations to the response variables. All of these methods are implemented in a collection of easily used SAS macro programs.     

Descent methods with linesearch in the presence of perturbations

We consider the class of descent algorithms for unconstrained optimization with an Armijo-type stepsize rule in the case when the gradient of the objective function is computed inexactly. An important novel feature in our theoretical analysis is that perturbations associated with the gradient are not assumed to be relatively small or to tend to zero in the limit (as a practical matter, we expect them to be reasonably small, so that a meaningful approximate solution can be obtained). This feature makes our analysis applicable to various difficult problems encounted in practice. We propose a modified Armijo-type rule for computing the stepsize which guarantees that the algorithm obtains a reasonable approximate solution. Furthermore, if perturbations are small relative to the size of the gradient, then our algorithm retains all the standard convergence properties of descent methods.     

Data preparation using data quality matrices for classification mining

Data mining aims to find patterns in organizational databases. However, most techniques in mining do not consider knowledge of the quality of the database. In this work, we show how to incorporate into classification mining recent advances in the data quality field that view a database as the product of an imprecise manufacturing process where the flaws/defects are captured in quality matrices. We develop a general purpose method of incorporating data quality matrices into the data mining classification task. Our work differs from existing data preparation techniques since while other approaches detect and fix errors to ensure consistency with the entire data set our work makes use of the apriori knowledge of how the data is produced/manufactured.     

关于截断中值回归模型的经验似然推断

本文采用了Gengsheng和Min(2003)提出的经验似然方法,基于一个新的方程对中值回归模型的参数进行统计推断,数值模拟的结果表明,本文所得到的参数估计结果比Gengsheng和Min(2003)的模拟结果更精确.     

Robustness of the efficient DMUs in data envelopment analysis

By means of modified versions of CCR model based on evaluation of a decision making unit (DMU) relative to a reference set grouped by all other DMUs, sensitivity analysis of the CCR model in data envelopment analysis (DEA) is studied in this paper. The methods for sensitivity analysis are linear programming problems whose optimal values yield particular regions of stability. Sufficient and necessary conditions for upward variations of inputs and for downward variations of outputs of an (extremely) efficient DMU which remains efficient are provided. The approach does not require calculation of the basic solutions and of the inverse of the corresponding optimal basis matrix. The approach is illustrated by two numerical examples.     

Integration and dimensional modeling approaches for complex data warehousing

With the broad development of the World Wide Web, various kinds of heterogeneous data (including multimedia data) are now available to decision support tasks. A data warehousing approach is often adopted to prepare data for relevant analysis. Data integration and dimensional modeling indeed allow the creation of appropriate analysis contexts. However, the existing data warehousing tools are well-suited to classical, numerical data. They cannot handle complex data. In our approach, we adapt the three main phases of the data warehousing process to complex data. In this paper, we particularly focus on two main steps in complex data warehousing. The first step is data integration. We define a generic UML model that helps representing a wide range of complex data, including their possible semantic properties. Complex data are then stored in XML documents generated by a piece of software we designed. The second important phase we address is the preparation of data for dimensional modeling. We propose an approach that exploits data mining techniques to assist users in building relevant dimensional models.     

核实数据下响应变量缺失的线性EV模型经验似然推断

考虑响应变量随机缺失而协变量带有误差的线性模型,借助于核实数据和借补方法,构造了回归系数的两种经验似然比,证明了所提出的估计的经验对数似然比渐近于一个自由度为1的独立χ2变量的加权和;而经调整后所得的调整经验对数似然比渐近于自由度为p的χ2分布,该结果可以用来构造未知参数的置信域.此外,我们也构造了响应均值的调整经验对数似然比统计量,并证明了所提出的统计量渐近于x2分布,可用此结果构造响应均值的置信域.通过模拟研究比较了置信域的精度及其平均区间长度.     

缺失数据下半参数回归模型的经验似然推断

针对响应变量缺失下的半参数回归模型,构造模型中未知参数的经验对数似然比统计量,证明了所提出的统计量具有渐近χ2分布,由此构造未知参数的置信域,并就置信域的覆盖概率及区间长度方面,通过模拟研究与最小二乘法进行优劣比较.