MathSciDoc: An Archive for Mathematician ∫

High dimensionality comparable to sample size is common in many statistical problems. We examine covariance matrix estimation in the asymptotic framework that the dimensionality p tends to as the sample size n increases. Motivated by the Arbitrage Pricing Theory in finance, a multi-factor model is employed to reduce dimensionality and to estimate the covariance matrix. The factors are observable and the number of factors K is allowed to grow with p. We investigate the impact of p and K on the performance of the model-based covariance matrix estimator. Under mild assumptions, we have established convergence rates and asymptotic normality of the model-based estimator. Its performance is compared with that of the sample covariance matrix. We identify situations under which the factor approach increases performance substantially or marginally. The impacts of covariance matrix estimation on optimal

A class of variable selection procedures for parametric models via nonconcave penalized likelihood was proposed in Fan and Li (2001a). It has been shown there that the resulting procedures perform as well as if the subset of significant variables were known in advance. Such a property is called an oracle property. The proposed procedures were illustrated in the context of linear regression, robust linear regression and generalized linear models. In this paper, the nonconcave penalized likelihood approach is extended further to the Cox proportional hazards model and the Cox proportional hazards frailty model, two commonly used semi-parametric models in survival analysis. As a result, new variable selection procedures for these two commonly-used models are proposed. It is demonstrated how the rates of convergence depend on the regularization parameter in the penalty function. Further, with a proper choice of

Functional linear models are useful in longitudinal data analysis. They include many classical and recently proposed statistical models for longitudinal data and other functional data. Recently, smoothing spline and kernel methods have been proposed for estimating their coefficient functions nonparametrically but these methods are either intensive in computation or inefficient in performance. To overcome these drawbacks, in this paper, a simple and powerful twostep alternative is proposed. In particular, the implementation of the proposed approach via local polynomial smoothing is discussed. Methods for estimating standard deviations of estimated coefficient functions are also proposed. Some asymptotic results for the local polynomial estimators are established. Two longitudinal data sets, one of which involves timedependent covariates, are used to demonstrate the approach proposed. Simulation studies

This article deals with statistical inferences based on the varying-coefficient models proposed by Hastie and Tibshirani. Local polynomial regression techniques are used to estimate coefficient functions, and the asymptotic normality of the resulting estimators is established. The standard error formulas for estimated coefficients are derived and are empirically tested. A goodness-of-fit test technique, based on a nonparametric maximum likelihood ratio type of test, is also proposed to detect whether certain coefficient functions in a varying-coefficient model are constant or whether any covariates are statistically significant in the model. The null distribution of the test is estimated by a conditional bootstrap method. Our estimation techniques involve solving hundreds of local likelihood equations. To reduce the computational burden, a one-step Newton-Raphson estimator is proposed and implemented. The resulting one

This paper studies the sparsistency and rates of convergence for estimating sparse covariance and precision matrices based on penalized likelihood with nonconvex penalty functions. Here, sparsistency refers to the property that all parameters that are zero are actually estimated as zero with probability tending to one. Depending on the case of applications, sparsity priori may occur on the covariance matrix, its inverse or its Cholesky decomposition. We study these three sparsity exploration problems under a unified framework with a general penalty function. We show that the rates of convergence for these problems under the Frobenius norm are of order (s n log p n/n) 1/2, where s n is the number of nonzero elements, p n is the size of the covariance matrix and n is the sample size. This explicitly spells out the contribution of high-dimensionality is merely of a logarithmic factor. The conditions on the rate with which

Ultrahigh-dimensional variable selection plays an increasingly important role in contemporary scientific discoveries and statistical research. Among others, Fan and Lv [JR Stat. Soc. Ser. B Stat. Methodol. 70 (2008) 849911] propose an independent screening framework by ranking the marginal correlations. They showed that the correlation ranking procedure possesses a sure independence screening property within the context of the linear model with Gaussian covariates and responses. In this paper, we propose a more general version of the independent learning with ranking the maximum marginal likelihood estimates or the maximum marginal likelihood itself in generalized linear models. We show that the proposed methods, with Fan and Lv [JR Stat. Soc. Ser. B Stat. Methodol. 70 (2008) 849911] as a very special case, also possess the sure screening property with vanishing false selection rate. The

Semiparametric regression models are very useful for longitudinal data analysis. The complexity of semiparametric models and the structure of longitudinal data pose new challenges to parametric inferences and model selection that frequently arise from longitudinal data analysis. In this article, two new approaches are proposed for estimating the regression coefficients in a semiparametric model. The asymptotic normality of the resulting estimators is established. An innovative class of variable selection procedures is proposed to select significant variables in the semiparametric models. The proposed procedures are distinguished from others in that they simultaneously select significant variables and estimate unknown parameters. Rates of convergence of the resulting estimators are established. With a proper choice of regularization parameters and penalty functions, the proposed variable selection procedures

We investigate the extension of the nonparametric regression technique of local polynomial fitting with a kernel weight to generalized linear models and quasi-likelihood contexts. In the ordinary regression case, local polynomial fitting has been seen to have several appealing features in terms of intuitive and mathematical simplicity. One noteworthy feature is the better performance near the boundaries compared to the traditional kernel regression estimators. These properties are shown to carry over to generalized linear model and quasi-likelihood settings. We also derive the asymptotic distributions of the proposed class of estimators that allow for straightforward interpretation and extensions of state-of-the-art bandwidth selection methods.

The varying coefficient models are very important tool to explore the dynamic pattern in many scientific areas, such as economics, finance, politics, epidemiology, medical science, ecology and so on. They are natural extensions of classical parametric models with good interpretability and are becoming more and more popular in data analysis. Thanks to their flexibility and interpretability, in the past ten years, the varying coefficient models have experienced deep and exciting developments on methodological, theoretical and applied sides. This paper gives a selective overview on the major methodological and theoretical developments on the varying coefficient models.

Technological innovations have revolutionized the process of scientific research and knowledge discovery. The availability of massive data and challenges from frontiers of research and development have reshaped statistical thinking, data analysis and theoretical studies. The challenges of high-dimensionality arise in diverse fields of sciences and the humanities, ranging from computational biology and health studies to financial engineering and risk management. In all of these fields, variable selection and feature extraction are crucial for knowledge discovery. We first give a comprehensive overview of statistical challenges with high dimensionality in these diverse disciplines. We then approach the problem of variable selection and feature extraction using a unified framework: penalized likelihood methods. Issues relevant to the choice of penalty functions are addressed. We demonstrate that for a host of statistical problems, as long as the dimensionality is not excessively large, we can estimate the model parameters as well as if the best model is known in advance. The persistence property in risk minimization is also addressed. The applicability of such a theory and method to diverse statistical problems is demonstrated. Other related problems with high-dimensionality are also discussed.