Estimation of location parameters for spherically symmetric distributions

Estimation of the location parameters of a p×1 random vector with a spherically symmetric distribution is considered under quadratic loss. The conditions of Brandwein and Strawderman [Ann. Statist. 19(1991) 1639-1650] under which estimators of the form dominate are (i) where -h is superharmonic, (ii) is nonincreasing in R, where has a uniform distribution in the sphere centered at with a radius R, and (iii) . In this paper, we not only drop their condition (ii) to show the dominance of over but also obtain a new bound for a which is sometimes better than that obtained by Brandwein and Strawderman. Specifically, the new bound of a is 0<a<[μ₁/(p²μ_-1)][1-(p-1)μ₁/(pμ_-1μ₂)]^-1 with for i=-1,1,2. The generalization to concave loss functions is also considered. Additionally, we investigate estimators of the location parameters when the scale is unknown and the observation contains a residual vector.     

Properties of cyclic subspace regression

Various properties of the regression vector produced by cyclic subspace regression with regard to the meancentered linear regression equation are put forth. In particular, the subspace associated with the creation of is shown to contain a basis that maximizes certain covariances with respect to , the orthogonal projection of onto a specific subspace of the range of X. This basis is constructed. Moreover, this paper shows how the maximum covariance values effect the . Several alternative representations of are also developed. These representations show that is a modified version of the l-factor principal components regression vector , with the modification occurring by a nonorthogonal projection. Additionally, these representations enable prediction properties associated with to be explicitly identified. Finally, methods for choosing factors are spelled out.     

Estimating the parametric component of nonlinear partial spline model

Consider a nonlinear partial spline model . This article studies the estimation problem of when g₀ is approximated by some graduating function. Some asymptotic results for are derived. In particular, it is shown that can be estimated with the usual parametric convergence rate without undersmoothing g₀.     

The increment ratio statistic

We introduce a new statistic written as a sum of certain ratios of second-order increments of partial sums process of observations, which we call the increment ratio (IR) statistic. The IR statistic can be used for testing nonparametric hypotheses for d-integrated () behavior of time series X_t, including short memory (d=0), (stationary) long-memory and unit roots (d=1). If S_n behaves asymptotically as an (integrated) fractional Brownian motion with parameter , the IR statistic converges to a monotone function Λ(d) of as both the sample size N and the window parameter m increase so that N/m→∞. For Gaussian observations X_t, we obtain a rate of decay of the bias EIR-Λ(d) and a central limit theorem (N/m)^1/2(IR-EIR)→N(0,σ²(d)), in the region . Graphs of the functions Λ(d) and σ(d) are included. A simulation study shows that the IR test for short memory (d=0) against stationary long-memory alternatives has good size and power properties and is robust against changes in mean, slowly varying trends and nonstationarities. We apply this statistic to sequences of squares of returns on financial assets and obtain a nuanced picture of the presence of long-memory in asset price volatility.     

On Bayes estimators with uniform priors on spheres and their comparative performance with maximum likelihood estimators for estimating bounded multivariate normal means

For independently distributed observables: X_i∼N(θ_i,σ²),i=1,…,p, we consider estimating the vector θ=(θ₁,…,θ_p)^′ with loss ‖d−θ‖² under the constraint , with known τ₁,…,τ_p,σ²,m. In comparing the risk performance of Bayesian estimators δ_α associated with uniform priors on spheres of radius α centered at (τ₁,…,τ_p) with that of the maximum likelihood estimator , we make use of Stein’s unbiased estimate of risk technique, Karlin’s sign change arguments, and a conditional risk analysis to obtain for a fixed (m,p) necessary and sufficient conditions on α for δ_α to dominate . Large sample determinations of these conditions are provided. Both cases where all such δ_α’s and cases where no such δ_α’s dominate are elicited. We establish, as a particular case, that the boundary uniform Bayes estimator δ_m dominates if and only if m≤k(p) with , improving on the previously known sufficient condition of Marchand and Perron (2001) [3] for which . Finally, we improve upon a universal dominance condition due to Marchand and Perron, by establishing that all Bayesian estimators δ_π with π spherically symmetric and supported on the parameter space dominate whenever m≤c₁(p) with .     

Progressive Type II censored order statistics for multivariate observations

For a sequence of independent and identically distributed random vectors , i=1,2,…,n, we consider the conditional ordering of these random vectors with respect to the magnitudes of , where N is a p-variate continuous function defined on the support set of X₁ and satisfying certain regularity conditions. We also consider the Progressive Type II right censoring for multivariate observations using conditional ordering. The need for the conditional ordering of random vectors exists for example, in reliability analysis when a system has n independent components each consisting of p arbitrarily dependent and parallel connected elements. Let the vector of life lengths for the ith component of the system be , where denotes the life length of the jth element of the ith component. Then the first failure in the system occurs at time , and for this case . In this paper we introduce the conditionally ordered and Progressive Type II right-censored conditionally ordered statistics for multivariate observations and to study their distributional properties.     

Density estimation by the penalized combinatorial method

Let f be an unknown multivariate density belonging to a prespecified parametric class of densities, , where k is unknown, but for all k and each has finite Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension. Given an i.i.d. sample of size n drawn from f, we show that it is possible to select automatically, and without extra restrictions on f, an estimate with the property that . Our method is inspired by the combinatorial tools developed in Devroye and Lugosi (Combinatorial Methods in Density Estimation, Springer, New York, 2001) and it includes a wide range of density models, such as mixture models or exponential families.     

The Stein phenomenon for monotone incomplete multivariate normal data

We establish the Stein phenomenon in the context of two-step, monotone incomplete data drawn from , a (p+q)-dimensional multivariate normal population with mean and covariance matrix . On the basis of data consisting of n observations on all p+q characteristics and an additional N−n observations on the last q characteristics, where all observations are mutually independent, denote by the maximum likelihood estimator of . We establish criteria which imply that shrinkage estimators of James-Stein type have lower risk than under Euclidean quadratic loss. Further, we show that the corresponding positive-part estimators have lower risk than their unrestricted counterparts, thereby rendering the latter estimators inadmissible. We derive results for the case in which is block-diagonal, the loss function is quadratic and non-spherical, and the shrinkage estimator is constructed by means of a nondecreasing, differentiable function of a quadratic form in . For the problem of shrinking to a vector whose components have a common value constructed from the data, we derive improved shrinkage estimators and again determine conditions under which the positive-part analogs have lower risk than their unrestricted counterparts.     

Some equalities for estimations of variance components in a general linear model and its restricted and transformed models

For the unknown positive parameter σ² in a general linear model , the two commonly used estimations are the simple estimator (SE) and the minimum norm quadratic unbiased estimator (MINQUE). In this paper, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the equivalence of the SEs and MINQUEs of the variance component σ² in the original model ?, the restricted model , the transformed model , and the misspecified model .     

Multivariate stress-strength reliability model and its evaluation for coherent structures

Consider a system which has n independent components (or subsystems) each consisting of m dependent elements. Let , i=1,2,…,n denote the random strength vector of the ith component, where denotes the random strength of the jth element of the ith component. The elements of the components are subjected to a common random stress over time. In this paper, we setup a multivariate stress-strength model based on the conditional ordering between s and and evaluate the reliability of coherent structures in this setup.