Asymptotic theory of the adaptive Sparse Group Lasso

We study the asymptotic properties of a new version of the Sparse Group Lasso estimator (SGL), called adaptive SGL. This new version includes two distinct regularization parameters, one for the Lasso penalty and one for the Group Lasso penalty, and we consider the adaptive version of this regularization, where both penalties are weighted by preliminary random coefficients. The asymptotic properties are established in a general framework, where the data are dependent and the loss function is convex. We prove that this estimator satisfies the oracle property: the sparsity-based estimator recovers the true underlying sparse model and is asymptotically normally distributed. We also study its asymptotic properties in a double-asymptotic framework, where the number of parameters diverges with the sample size. We show by simulations and on real data that the adaptive SGL outperforms other oracle-like methods in terms of estimation precision and variable selection.

     

Nonparametric estimation of an extreme-value copula in arbitrary dimensions

Inference on an extreme-value copula usually proceeds via its Pickands dependence function, which is a convex function on the unit simplex satisfying certain inequality constraints. In the setting of an i.i.d. random sample from a multivariate distribution with known margins and an unknown extreme-value copula, an extension of the Capéraà-Fougères-Genest estimator was introduced by D. Zhang, M. T. Wells and L. Peng [Nonparametric estimation of the dependence function for a multivariate extreme-value distribution, Journal of Multivariate Analysis 99 (4) (2008) 577-588]. The joint asymptotic distribution of the estimator as a random function on the simplex was not provided. Moreover, implementation of the estimator requires the choice of a number of weight functions on the simplex, the issue of their optimal selection being left unresolved.A new, simplified representation of the CFG-estimator combined with standard empirical process theory provides the means to uncover its asymptotic distribution in the space of continuous, real-valued functions on the simplex. Moreover, the ordinary least-squares estimator of the intercept in a certain linear regression model provides an adaptive version of the CFG-estimator whose asymptotic behavior is the same as if the variance-minimizing weight functions were used. As illustrated in a simulation study, the gain in efficiency can be quite sizable.     

Marginal quantile regression for varying coefficient models with longitudinal data

In this paper, we investigate the quantile varying coefficient model for longitudinal data, where the unknown nonparametric functions are approximated by polynomial splines and the estimators are obtained by minimizing the quadratic inference function. The theoretical properties of the resulting estimators are established, and they achieve the optimal convergence rate for the nonparametric functions. Since the objective function is non-smooth, an estimation procedure is proposed that uses induced smoothing and we prove that the smoothed estimator is asymptotically equivalent to the original estimator. Moreover, we propose a variable selection procedure based on the regularization method, which can simultaneously estimate and select important nonparametric components and has the asymptotic oracle property. Extensive simulations and a real data analysis show the usefulness of the proposed method.

     

Model selection for regression on a fixed design

We deal with the problem of estimating some unknown regression function involved in a regression framework with deterministic design points. For this end, we consider some collection of finite dimensional linear spaces (models) and the least-squares estimator built on a data driven selected model among this collection. This data driven choice is performed via the minimization of some penalized model selection criterion that generalizes on Mallows' C _p . We provide non asymptotic risk bounds for the so-defined estimator from which we deduce adaptivity properties. Our results hold under mild moment conditions on the errors. The statement and the use of a new moment inequality for empirical processes is at the heart of the techniques involved in our approach. Received: 2 July 1997 / Revised version: 20 September 1999 / Published online: 6 July 2000     

Nonparametric recursive estimation of the derivative of the regression function with application to sea shores water quality

This paper is devoted to the nonparametric estimation of the derivative of the regression function in a nonparametric regression model. We implement a very efficient and easy to handle statistical procedure based on the derivative of the recursive Nadaraya–Watson estimator. We establish the almost sure convergence as well as the asymptotic normality for our estimates. We also illustrate our nonparametric estimation procedure on simulated data and real life data associated with sea shores water quality and valvometry.

     

Estimating and Visualizing Conditional Densities

Abstract

We consider the kernel estimator of conditional density and derive its asymptotic bias, variance, and mean-square error. Optimal bandwidths (with respect to integrated mean-square error) are found and it is shown that the convergence rate of the density estimator is order n ^–2/3. We also note that the conditional mean function obtained from the estimator is equivalent to a kernel smoother. Given the undesirable bias properties of kernel smoothers, we seek a modified conditional density estimator that has mean equivalent to some other nonparametric regression smoother with better bias properties. It is also shown that our modified estimator has smaller mean square error than the standard estimator in some commonly occurring situations. Finally, three graphical methods for visualizing conditional density estimators are discussed and applied to a data set consisting of maximum daily temperatures in Melbourne, Australia.     

Hazard Rate Regression Using Ordinary Nonparametric Regression Smoothers

Abstract

This article proposes a method for nonparametric estimation of hazard rates as a function of time and possibly multiple covariates. The method is based on dividing the time axis into intervals, and calculating number of event and follow-up time contributions from the different intervals. The number of event and follow-up time data are then separately smoothed on time and the covariates, and the hazard rate estimators obtained by taking the ratio. Pointwise consistency and asymptotic normality are shown for the hazard rate estimators for a certain class of smoothers, which includes some standard approaches to locally weighted regression and kernel regression. It is shown through simulation that a variance estimator based on this asymptotic distribution is reasonably reliable in practice. The problem of how to select the smoothing parameter is considered, but a satisfactory resolution to this problem has not been identified. The method is illustrated using data from several breast cancer clinical trials.     

Statistical inference in a panel data semiparametric regression model with serially correlated errors

We consider a panel data semiparametric partially linear regression model with an unknown vector β of regression coefficients, an unknown nonparametric function g(·) for nonlinear component, and unobservable serially correlated errors. The correlated errors are modeled by a vector autoregressive process which involves a constant intraclass correlation. Applying the pilot estimators of β and g(·), we construct estimators of the autoregressive coefficients, the intraclass correlation and the error variance, and investigate their asymptotic properties. Fitting the error structure results in a new semiparametric two-step estimator of β, which is shown to be asymptotically more efficient than the usual semiparametric least squares estimator in terms of asymptotic covariance matrix. Asymptotic normality of this new estimator is established, and a consistent estimator of its asymptotic covariance matrix is presented. Furthermore, a corresponding estimator of g(·) is also provided. These results can be used to make asymptotically efficient statistical inference. Some simulation studies are conducted to illustrate the finite sample performances of these proposed estimators.     

Asymptotic normality of wavelet density estimator under censored dependent observations

In this paper, we discuss the asymptotic normality of the wavelet estimator of the density function based on censored data, when the survival and the censoring times form a stationary ??-mixing sequence. To simulate the distribution of estimator such that it is easy to perform statistical inference for the density function, a random weighted estimator of the density function is also constructed and investigated. Finite sample behavior of the estimator is investigated via simulations too.     

Optimal variance estimation based on lagged second-order difference in nonparametric regression

Differenced estimators of variance bypass the estimation of regression function and thus are simple to calculate. However, there exist two problems: most differenced estimators do not achieve the asymptotic optimal rate for the mean square error; for finite samples the estimation bias is also important and not further considered. In this paper, we estimate the variance as the intercept in a linear regression with the lagged Gasser-type variance estimator as dependent variable. For the equidistant design, our estimator is not only \(n^{1/2}\)-consistent and asymptotically normal, but also achieves the optimal bound in terms of estimation variance with less asymptotic bias. Simulation studies show that our estimator has less mean square error than some existing differenced estimators, especially in the cases of immense oscillation of regression function and small-sized sample.     

Local asymptotic behavior of regression splines for marginal semiparametric models with longitudinal data

In this paper, we study the local asymptotic behavior of the regression spline estimator in the framework of marginal semiparametric model. Similarly to Zhu, Fung and He (2008), we give explicit expression for the asymptotic bias of regression spline estimator for nonparametric function f. Our results also show that the asymptotic bias of the regression spline estimator does not depend on the working covariance matrix, which distinguishes the regression splines from the smoothing splines and the seemingly u...     

Simple and efficient improvements of multivariate local linear regression

This paper studies improvements of multivariate local linear regression. Two intuitively appealing variance reduction techniques are proposed. They both yield estimators that retain the same asymptotic conditional bias as the multivariate local linear estimator and have smaller asymptotic conditional variances. The estimators are further examined in aspects of bandwidth selection, asymptotic relative efficiency and implementation. Their asymptotic relative efficiencies with respect to the multivariate local linear estimator are very attractive and increase exponentially as the number of covariates increases. Data-driven bandwidth selection procedures for the new estimators are straightforward given those for local linear regression. Since the proposed estimators each has a simple form, implementation is easy and requires much less or about the same amount of effort. In addition, boundary corrections are automatic as in the usual multivariate local linear regression.     

Confidence regions for the intensity function of a cyclic Poisson process

A classical approach to constructing simultaneous confidence intervals (i.e., confidence bands or regions) for a function is via establishing a limiting process of the appropriately normalized difference between the function and its empirical estimator. In the present paper we depart from this approach and construct confidence bands for the intensity function of a cyclic Poisson process via extreme value type asymptotic results for the appropriately normalized supremum of the difference between the intensity function and its empirical estimator.      

Semiparametric estimation in regression with missing covariates using single-index models

We investigate semiparametric estimation of regression coefficients through generalized estimating equations with single-index models when some covariates are missing at random. Existing popular semiparametric estimators may run into difficulties when some selection probabilities are small or the dimension of the covariates is not low. We propose a new simple parameter estimator using a kernel-assisted estimator for the augmentation by a single-index model without using the inverse of selection probabilities. We show that under certain conditions the proposed estimator is as efficient as the existing methods based on standard kernel smoothing, which are often practically infeasible in the case of multiple covariates. A simulation study and a real data example are presented to illustrate the proposed method. The numerical results show that the proposed estimator avoids some numerical issues caused by estimated small selection probabilities that are needed in other estimators.

     

Hazard Rate Estimation in Nonparametric Regression with Censored Data

Consider a regression model in which the responses are subject to random right censoring. In this model, Beran studied the nonparametric estimation of the conditional cumulative hazard function and the corresponding cumulative distribution function. The main idea is to use smoothing in the covariates. Here we study asymptotic properties of the corresponding hazard function estimator obtained by convolution smoothing of Beran's cumulative hazard estimator. We establish asymptotic expressions for the bias and the variance of the estimator, which together with an asymptotic representation lead to a weak convergence result. Also, the uniform strong consistency of the estimator is obtained.     

Asymptotic Normality of a Combined Regression Estimator

In this paper, we propose a combined regression estimator by using a parametric estimator and a nonparametric estimator of the regression function. The asymptotic distribution of this estimator is obtained for cases where the parametric regression model is correct, incorrect, and approximately correct. These distributional results imply that the combined estimator is superior to the kernel estimator in the sense that it can never do worse than the kernel estimator in terms of convergence rate and it has the same convergence rate as the parametric estimator in the case where the parametric model is correct. Unlike the parametric estimator, the combined estimator is robust to model misspecification. In addition, we also establish the asymptotic distribution of the estimator of the weight given to the parametric estimator in constructing the combined estimator. This can be used to construct consistent tests for the parametric regression model used to form the combined estimator.     

Honest Importance Sampling With Multiple Markov Chains

Importance sampling is a classical Monte Carlo technique in which a random sample from one probability density, π₁, is used to estimate an expectation with respect to another, π. The importance sampling estimator is strongly consistent and, as long as two simple moment conditions are satisfied, it obeys a central limit theorem (CLT). Moreover, there is a simple consistent estimator for the asymptotic variance in the CLT, which makes for routine computation of standard errors. Importance sampling can also be used in the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) context. Indeed, if the random sample from π₁ is replaced by a Harris ergodic Markov chain with invariant density π₁, then the resulting estimator remains strongly consistent. There is a price to be paid, however, as the computation of standard errors becomes more complicated. First, the two simple moment conditions that guarantee a CLT in the iid case are not enough in the MCMC context. Second, even when a CLT does hold, the asymptotic variance has a complex form and is difficult to estimate consistently. In this article, we explain how to use regenerative simulation to overcome these problems. Actually, we consider a more general setup, where we assume that Markov chain samples from several probability densities, π₁, …, π_k, are available. We construct multiple-chain importance sampling estimators for which we obtain a CLT based on regeneration. We show that if the Markov chains converge to their respective target distributions at a geometric rate, then under moment conditions similar to those required in the iid case, the MCMC-based importance sampling estimator obeys a CLT. Furthermore, because the CLT is based on a regenerative process, there is a simple consistent estimator of the asymptotic variance. We illustrate the method with two applications in Bayesian sensitivity analysis. The first concerns one-way random effect models under different priors. The second involves Bayesian variable selection in linear regression, and for this application, importance sampling based on multiple chains enables an empirical Bayes approach to variable selection.     

Inference on a distribution function from ranked set samples

Consider independent observations \((X_i,R_i)\) with random or fixed ranks \(R_i\), while conditional on \(R_i\), the random variable \(X_i\) has the same distribution as the \(R_i\)-th order statistic within a random sample of size k from an unknown distribution function F. Such observation schemes are well known from ranked set sampling and judgment post-stratification. Within a general, not necessarily balanced setting we derive and compare the asymptotic distributions of three different estimators of the distribution function F: a stratified estimator, a nonparametric maximum-likelihood estimator and a moment-based estimator. Our functional central limit theorems generalize and refine previous asymptotic analyses. In addition, we discuss briefly pointwise and simultaneous confidence intervals for the distribution function with guaranteed coverage probability for finite sample sizes. The methods are illustrated with a real data example, and the potential impact of imperfect rankings is investigated in a small simulation experiment.

     

PA误差下回归函数小波估计的渐近性质

本文研究了回归函数小波估计的渐进性质的问题.利用概率不等式方法,获得了函数g(·)的小波估计量的r-阶矩相合,依概率收敛和强收敛以及渐进正态性的结果,所获的结果推广了其他混合相依下的相应结果.     

Hazard function estimation with cause-of-death data missing at random

Hazard function estimation is an important part of survival analysis. Interest often centers on estimating the hazard function associated with a particular cause of death. We propose three nonparametric kernel estimators for the hazard function, all of which are appropriate when death times are subject to random censorship and censoring indicators can be missing at random. Specifically, we present a regression surrogate estimator, an imputation estimator, and an inverse probability weighted estimator. All three estimators are uniformly strongly consistent and asymptotically normal. We derive asymptotic representations of the mean squared error and the mean integrated squared error for these estimators and we discuss a data-driven bandwidth selection method. A simulation study, conducted to assess finite sample behavior, demonstrates that the proposed hazard estimators perform relatively well. We illustrate our methods with an analysis of some vascular disease data.