Empirical likelihood for semiparametric regression model with missing response data

A bias-corrected technique for constructing the empirical likelihood ratio is used to study a semiparametric regression model with missing response data. We are interested in inference for the regression coefficients, the baseline function and the response mean. A class of empirical likelihood ratio functions for the parameters of interest is defined so that undersmoothing for estimating the baseline function is avoided. The existing data-driven algorithm is also valid for selecting an optimal bandwidth. Our approach is to directly calibrate the empirical log-likelihood ratio so that the resulting ratio is asymptotically chi-squared. Also, a class of estimators for the parameters of interest is constructed, their asymptotic distributions are obtained, and consistent estimators of asymptotic bias and variance are provided. Our results can be used to construct confidence intervals and bands for the parameters of interest. A simulation study is undertaken to compare the empirical likelihood with the normal approximation-based method in terms of coverage accuracies and average lengths of confidence intervals. An example for an AIDS clinical trial data set is used for illustrating our methods.     

Empirical likelihood inference for censored median regression model via nonparametric kernel estimation

An alternative to the accelerated failure time model is to regress the median of the failure time on the covariates. In the recent years, censored median regression models have been shown to be useful for analyzing a variety of censored survival data with the robustness property. Based on missing information principle, a semiparametric inference procedure for regression parameter has been developed when censoring variable depends on continuous covariate. In order to improve the low coverage accuracy of such procedure, we apply an empirical likelihood ratio method (EL) to the model and derive the limiting distributions of the estimated and adjusted empirical likelihood ratios for the vector of regression parameter. Two kinds of EL confidence regions for the unknown vector of regression parameters are obtained accordingly. We conduct an extensive simulation study to compare the performance of the proposed methods with that normal approximation based method. The simulation results suggest that the EL methods outperform the normal approximation based method in terms of coverage probability. Finally, we make some discussions about our methods.     

Empirical likelihood inference for a partially linear errors-in-variables model with covariate data missing at random

The authors study the empirical likelihood method for partially linear errors-in-variablesmodel with covariate data missing at random. Empirical likelihood ratios for the regression coefficients and the baseline function are investigated, and the corresponding empirical log-likelihood ratios are proved to be asymptotically standard chi-squared, which can be used to construct confidence regions. The finite sample behavior of the proposed methods is evaluated by a simulation study which indicates that the proposed methods are comparable in terms of coverage probabilities and average length of confidence intervals. Finally, the Earthquake Magnitude dataset is used to illustrate our proposed method.     

Asymptotic distributions of two “synthetic data” estimators for censored single-index models

The censored single-index model provides a flexible way for modelling the association between a response and a set of predictor variables when the response variable is randomly censored and the link function is unknown. It presents a technique for “dimension reduction” in semiparametric censored regression models and generalizes the existing accelerated failure time models for survival analysis. This paper proposes two methods for estimation of single-index models with randomly censored samples. We first transform the censored data into synthetic data or pseudo-responses unbiasedly, then obtain estimates of the index coefficients by the rOPG or rMAVE procedures of Xia (2006) [1]. Finally, we estimate the unknown nonparametric link function using techniques for univariate censored nonparametric regression. The estimators for the index coefficients are shown to be root-n consistent and asymptotically normal. In addition, the estimator for the unknown regression function is a local linear kernel regression estimator and can be estimated with the same efficiency as the parameters are known. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to illustrate the proposed methodologies.     

Empirical likelihood method for linear transformation models

Empirical likelihood inferential procedure is proposed for right censored survival data under linear transformation models, which include the commonly used proportional hazards model as a special case. A log-empirical likelihood ratio test statistic for the regression coefficients is developed. We show that the proposed log-empirical likelihood ratio test statistic converges to a standard chi-squared distribution. The result can be used to make inference about the entire regression coefficients vector as well as any subset of it. The method is illustrated by extensive simulation studies and a real example.     

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在φ混合的随机误差下,本文研究了固定设计及响应变量有缺失的非参数回归模型中回归函数的经验似然置信区间的构造.首先采用非参数回归填补法对缺失的数据进行填补,其次利用补足后得到的"完全样本"构造了非参数回归函数的经验似然比统计量,并证明了经验似然比统计量的极限分布为卡方分布,利用此结果可以构造非参数回归函数的经验似然置信区间.     

Empirical likelihood inference for censored median regression with weighted empirical hazard functions

In recent years, median regression models have been shown to be useful for analyzing a variety of censored survival data in clinical trials. For inference on the regression parameter, there have been a variety of semiparametric procedures. However, the accuracy of such procedures in terms of coverage probability can be quite low when the censoring rate is heavy. In this paper, based on weighted empirical hazard functions, we apply an empirical likelihood (EL) ratio method to the median regression model with censoring data and derive the limiting distribution of EL ratio. Confidence region for the regression parameter can then be obtained accordingly. Furthermore, we compared the proposed method with the standard method through extensive simulation studies. The proposed method almost always outperformed the existing method.     

Empirical likelihood-based inference in a partially linear model for longitudinal data

A partially linear model with longitudinal data is considered, empirical likelihood to infer- ence for the regression coefficients and the baseline function is investigated, the empirical log-likelihood ratios is proven to be asymptotically chi-squared, and the corresponding confidence regions for the pa- rameters of interest are then constructed. Also by the empirical likelihood ratio functions, we can obtain the maximum empirical likelihood estimates of the regression coefficients and the baseline function, and prove the asymptotic normality. The numerical results are conducted to compare the performance of the empirical likelihood and the normal approximation-based method, and a real example is analysed.     

Empirical likelihood inference for the accelerated failure time model

Accelerated failure time (AFT) models are useful regression tools for studying the association between a survival time and covariates. Semiparametric inference procedures have been proposed in an extensive literature. Among these, use of an estimating equation which is monotone in the regression parameter and has some excellent properties was proposed by Fygenson and Ritov (1994). However, there is a serious under-coverage problem for small sample sizes. In this paper, we derive the limiting distribution of the empirical log-likelihood ratio for the regression parameter on the basis of the monotone estimating equations. Furthermore, the empirical likelihood (EL) confidence intervals/regions for the regression parameter are obtained. We conduct a simulation study in order to compare the proposed EL method with the normal approximation method. The simulation results suggest that the empirical likelihood based method outperforms the normal approximation based method in terms of coverage probability. Thus, the proposed EL method overcomes the under-coverage problem of the normal approximation method.     

The empirical likelihood goodness-of-fit test for regression model

Goodness-of-fit test for regression modes has received much attention in literature. In this paper, empirical likelihood (EL) goodness-of-fit tests for regression models including classical parametric and autoregressive (AR) time series models are proposed. Unlike the existing locally smoothing and globally smoothing methodologies, the new method has the advantage that the tests are self-scale invariant and that the asymptotic null distribution is chi-squared. Simulations are carried out to illustrate the methodology.     

Empirical likelihood-based inferences for the area under the ROC curve with covariates

In the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis,the area under the ROC curve (AUC) is a popular summary index of discriminatory accuracy of a diagnostic test.Incorporating covariates into ROC analysis can improve the diagnostic accuracy of the test.Regression model for the AUC is a tool to evaluate the effects of the covariates on the diagnostic accuracy.In this paper,empirical likelihood (EL) method is proposed for the AUC regression model.For the regression parameter vector,it can be shown that the asymptotic distribution of its EL ratio statistic is a weighted sum of independent chi-square distributions.Confidence regions are constructed for the parameter vector based on the newly developed empirical likelihood theorem,as well as for the covariate-specific AUC.Simulation studies were conducted to compare the relative performance of the proposed EL-based methods with the existing method in AUC regression.Finally,the proposed methods are illustrated with a real data set.     

The proportional hazards model for multiple type recurrent gap times

Recurrent events data and gap times between recurrent events are frequently encountered in many clinical and observational studies, and often more than one type of recurrent events is of interest. In this paper, we consider a proportional hazards model for multiple type recurrent gap times data to assess the effect of covariates on the censored event processes of interest. An estimating equation approach is used to obtain the estimators of regression coefficients and baseline cumulative hazard functions. We examine asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators. Finite sample properties of these estimators are demonstrated by simulations.     

Analyzing right-censored length-biased data with additive hazards model

Length-biased data are often encountered in observational studies, when the survival times are left-truncated and right-censored and the truncation times follow a uniform distribution. In this article, we propose to analyze such data with the additive hazards model, which specifies that the hazard function is the sum of an arbitrary baseline hazard function and a regression function of covariates. We develop estimating equation approaches to estimate the regression parameters. The resultant estimators are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. Some simulation studies and a real data example are used to evaluate the finite sample properties of the proposed estimators.     

纵向数据下广义估计方程估计

广义估计方程方法是一种最一般的参数估计方法,广泛地应用于生物统计、经济计量、医疗保险等领域.在纵向数据下,由于组间数据是相关的,为了提高估计的效率,广义估计方程方法一般需要考虑个体组内相关性.因此,大多数文献对个体组内的协方差矩阵进行参数假设,但假设的合理性及协方差矩阵估计的好坏对参数估计效率产生很大影响,同时参数假设也可能导致模型误判.针对纵向数据下广义估计方程,本文提出了改进的GMM方法和经验似然方法,并对给出的估计量建立了大样本性质.其中分块的思想,避免了对个体组内相关性结构进行假设,从这种意义上说,这种方法具有一定的稳健性.我们还通过两个模拟的例子,考察了文中提出估计量的有限样本性质.     

Likelihood ratio inference for mean residual life of length-biased random variable

In lifetime data analysis, naturally recorded observations are length-biased data if the probability to select an item is proportional to its length. Based on i.i.d. observations of the true distribution, empirical likelihood (EL) procedure is proposed for the inference on mean residual life (MRL) of naturally recorded item. The limit distribution of the EL based log-likelihood ratio is proved to be the chi-square distribution. Under right censorship, since the EL based log-likelihood ratio leads to a scaled chi-square distribution and estimating the scale parameter leads to lower coverage of confidence interval, we propose an algorithm to calculate the likelihood ratio (LR) directly. The corresponding log-likelihood ratio converges to the standard chi-square distribution and the corresponding confidence interval has a better coverage. Simulation studies are used to support the theoretical results.     

核实数据下删失线性EV模型的经验似然推断

本文考虑协变量带有误差的删失线性回归模型,借助于核实数据,对回归系数构造了两种经验对数似然比统计量,证明了所提出的估计的经验对数似然比统计量渐近收敛到一个自由度为1的独立χ2变量的加权和;而经调整后所得的调整的经验对数似然比统计量具有渐近标准χ2p分布,所得结果可以用来构造未知参数的置信域,通过模拟研究在置信域的精度及其平均区间长度大小方面进行了比较。     

Tests d'hypothèses sur les coefficients de Fourier d'une fonction de régression non linéaire

We consider the nonparametric regression model with regression function ƒ. We construct tests for hypotheses on Fourier coefficients of ƒ in a given band of frequencies. Such tests can be used in particular to compare two noisy signals in a frequency band. The test statistics, we use, are based on the empirical Fourier coefficients of the regression function ƒ.     

Multivariate Failure Times Regression with a Continuous Auxiliary Covariate

How to take advantage of the available auxiliary covariate information when the primary covariate of interest is not measured is a frequently encountered question in biomedical study. In this paper, we consider the multivariate failure times regression analysis in which the primary covariate is assessed only in a validation set, but a continuous auxiliary covariate for it is available for all subjects in the study cohort. Under the frame of marginal hazard model, we propose to estimate the induced relative risk function in the non-validation set through kernel smoothing method and then obtain an estimated pseudo-partial likelihood function. The proposed estimator which maximizes the estimated pseudo-partial likelihood is shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. We also give an estimator of the marginal cumulative baseline hazard function. Simulation studies are conducted to evaluate the finite sample performance of our proposed estimator. The proposed method is illustrated by analyzing a heart disease data from the Study of Left Ventricular Dysfunction (SOLVD).     

Affine-Invariant Ensemble Transform Methods for Logistic Regression

We investigate the application of ensemble transform approaches to Bayesian inference of logistic regression problems. Our approach relies on appropriate extensions of the popular ensemble Kalman filter and the feedback particle filter to the cross entropy loss function and is based on a well-established homotopy approach to Bayesian inference. The arising finite particle evolution equations as well as their mean-field limits are affine-invariant. Furthermore, the proposed methods can be implemented in a gradient-free manner in case of nonlinear logistic regression and the data can be randomly subsampled similar to mini-batching of stochastic gradient descent. We also propose a closely related SDE-based sampling method which again is affine-invariant and can easily be made gradient-free. Numerical examples demonstrate the appropriateness of the proposed methodologies.

     

Partial sum process to check regression models with multiple correlated response: With an application for testing a change-point in profile data

We consider regression models with multiple correlated responses for each design point. Under the null hypothesis, a linear regression is assumed. For the least-squares residuals of this linear regression, we establish the limit of the partial sums. This limit is a projection on a certain subspace of the reproducing Kernel Hilbert space of a multivariate Brownian motion. Based on this limit, we propose a significance test of Kolmogorov-Smirnov type to test the null hypothesis and show that this result can be used to study a change-point problem in the case of linear profile data (panel data). We compare our proposed method, which does not rely on any distributional assumptions, with the likelihood ratio test in a simulation study.