Using locally polynomial regression, we develop nonparametric estimators for the conditional density function and its square root, and their partial derivatives. Two measures of sensitivity to initial conditions in nonlinear stochastic dynamic systems are proposed, one of which relates Fisher information with initial-value sensitivity in dynamical systems. We propose estimators for these, and show asymptotic normality for one of them. We further propose a simple method for choosing the bandwidth. The methods are illustrated by simulation of two well-known models in dynamical systems.

A variable screening procedure via correlation learning was proposed by Fan and Lv (2008) to reduce dimensionality in sparse ultra-high-dimensional models. Even when the true model is linear, the marginal regression can be highly nonlinear. To address this issue, we further extend the correlation learning to marginal nonparametric learning. Our nonparametric independence screening (NIS) is a specific type of sure independence screening. We propose several closely related variable screening procedures. We show that with general nonparametric models, under some mild technical conditions, the proposed independence screening methods have a sure screening property. The extent to which the dimensionality can be reduced by independence screening is also explicitly quantified. As a methodological extension, we also propose a data-driven thresholding and an iterative nonparametric independence

The effect of errors in variables in nonparametric regression estimation is examined. To account for errors in covariates, deconvolution is involved in the construction of a new class of kernel estimators. It is shown that optimal local and global rates of convergence of these kernel estimators can be characterized by the tail behavior of the characteristic function of the error distribution. In fact, there are two types of rates of convergence according to whether the error is ordinary smooth or super smooth. It is also shown that these results hold uniformly over a class of joint distributions of the response and the covariate, which is rich enough for many practical applications. Furthermore, to achieve optimality, we show that the convergence rates of all possible estimators have a lower bound possessed by the kernel estimators.

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.

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.