We consider the nonparametric estimation problem of time-dependent multivariate functions observed in a presence of additive cylindrical Gaussian white noise of a small intensity. We derive minimax lower bounds for the $L^2$-risk in the proposed spatio-temporal model as the intensity goes to zero, when the underlying unknown response function is assumed to belong to a ball of appropriately constructed inhomogeneous time-dependent multivariate functions, motivated by practical applications. Furthermore, we propose both non-adaptive linear and adaptive non-linear wavelet estimators that are asymptotically optimal (in the minimax sense) in a wide range of the so-constructed balls of inhomogeneous time-dependent multivariate functions. The usefulness of the suggested adaptive nonlinear wavelet estimator is illustrated with the help of simulated and real-data examples.
In this paper, we propose a theoretical analysis of the algorithm ISDE, introduced in previous work. From a dataset, ISDE learns a density written as a product of marginal density estimators over a partition of the features. We show that under some hypotheses, the Kullback-Leibler loss between the proper density and the output of ISDE is a bias term plus the sum of two terms which goes to zero as the number of samples goes to infinity. The rate of convergence indicates that ISDE tackles the curse of dimensionality by reducing the dimension from the one of the ambient space to the one of the bi…
We study the multivariate nonparametric change point detection problem, where the data are a sequence of independent $p$-dimensional random vectors whose distributions are piecewise-constant with Lipschitz densities changing at unknown times, called change points. We quantify the size of the distributional change at any change point with the supremum norm of the difference between the corresponding densities. We are concerned with the localization task of estimating the positions of the change points. In our analysis, we allow for the model parameters to vary with the total number of time poin…
In this paper, we develop nonparametric inference on spatial regression models as an extension of Lu and Tj\ostheim(2014), which develops nonparametric inference on density functions of stationary spatial processes under domain expanding and infill (DEI) asymptotics. In particular, we derive multivariate central limit theorems of mean and variance functions of nonparametric spatial regression models. Built upon those results, we propose a method to construct confidence bands for mean and variance functions.
A number of models for generating statistical data in various fields of insurance, including life insurance, pensions, and general insurance have been considered. It is shown that the insurance statistics data, as a rule, are truncated and censored, and often multivariate. We propose a non-parametric estimation of the distribution function for multivariate truncated-censored data in the form of a quasi-empirical distribution and a simple iterative algorithm for its construction. To check the accuracy of the proposed evaluation of the distribution function for truncated-censored data, simulatio…
In this paper we consider multivariate Hawkes processes with baseline hazard and kernel functions that depend on time. This defines a class of locally stationary processes. We discuss estimation of the time-dependent baseline hazard and kernel functions based on a localized criterion. Theory on stationary Hawkes processes is extended to develop asymptotic theory for the estimator in the locally stationary model.
Quality of Life (QOL) outcomes are important in the management of chronic illnesses. In studies of efficacies of treatments or intervention modalities, QOL scales multi-dimensional constructs are routinely used as primary endpoints. The standard data analysis strategy computes composite (average) overall and domain scores, and conducts a mixed-model analysis for evaluating efficacy or monitoring medical conditions as if these scores were in continuous metric scale. However, assumptions of parametric models like continuity and homoscedastivity can be violated in many cases. Furthermore, it is e…
A two-class mixture model, where the density of one of the components is known, is considered. We address the issue of the nonparametric adaptive estimation of the unknown probability density of the second component. We propose a randomly weighted kernel estimator with a fully data-driven bandwidth selection method, in the spirit of the Goldenshluger and Lepski method. An oracle-type inequality for the pointwise quadratic risk is derived as well as convergence rates over Holder smoothness classes. The theoretical results are illustrated by numerical simulations.
In this paper, we introduce a new estimator for the emission densities of a nonparametric hidden Markov model. It is adaptive and minimax with respect to each state's regularity--as opposed to globally minimax estimators, which adapt to the worst regularity among the emission densities. Our method is based on Goldenshluger and Lepski's methodology. It is computationally efficient and only requires a family of preliminary estimators, without any restriction on the type of estimators considered. We present two such estimators that allow to reach minimax rates up to a logarithmic term: a spectral…
A broad class of smooth, possibly data-adaptive nonparametric copula estimators that contains empirical Bernstein copulas introduced by Sancetta and Satchell (and thus the empirical beta copula proposed by Segers, Sibuya and Tsukahara) is studied. Within this class, a subclass of estimators that depend on a scalar parameter determining the amount of marginal smoothing and a functional parameter controlling the shape of the smoothing region is specifically considered. Empirical investigations of the influence of these parameters suggest to focus on two particular data-adaptive smooth copula est…
Many applications in risk analysis, especially in environmental sciences, require the estimation of the dependence among multivariate maxima. A way to do this is by inferring the Pickands dependence function of the underlying extreme-value copula. A nonparametric estimator is constructed as the sample equivalent of a multivariate extension of the madogram. Shape constraints on the family of Pickands dependence functions are taken into account by means of a representation in terms of a specific type of Bernstein polynomials. The large-sample theory of the estimator is developed and its finite-s…
We consider the problem of nonparametric estimation of the drift of a continuously observed one-dimensional diffusion with periodic drift. Motivated by computational considerations, van der Meulen e.a. (2014) defined a prior on the drift as a randomly truncated and randomly scaled Faber-Schauder series expansion with Gaussian coefficients. We study the behaviour of the posterior obtained from the prior from a frequentist asymptotic point of view. If the true data generating drift is smooth, it is proved that the posterior is adaptive with posterior contraction rates for the $L_2$-norm that are…
The aim of this paper is to estimate the density f of a random variable X when one has access to independent observations of the sum of K $\ge$ 2 independent copies of X. We provide a constructive estimator based on a suitable definition of the logarithm of the empirical characteristic function.We propose a new strategy for the data driven choice of the cut-off parameter. The adaptive estimator is proven to be minimax-optimal up to some logarithmic loss. A numerical study illustrates the performances of the method. Moreover, we discuss the fact that the definition of the estimator applies in a…
This paper studies multivariate nonparametric change point localization and inference problems. The data consists of a multivariate time series with potentially short range dependence. The distribution of this data is assumed to be piecewise constant with densities in a Hölder class. The change points, or times at which the distribution changes, are unknown. We derive the limiting distributions of the change point estimators when the minimal jump size vanishes or remains constant, a first in the literature on change point settings. We are introducing two new features: a consistent estimator th…
For multivariate time series driven by underlying states, hidden Markov models (HMMs) constitute a powerful framework which can be flexibly tailored to the situation at hand. However, in practice it can be challenging to choose an adequate emission distribution for multivariate observation vectors. For example, the marginal data distribution may not immediately reveal the within-state distributional form, and also the different data streams may operate on different supports, rendering the common approach of using a multivariate normal distribution inadequate. Here we explore a nonparametric es…
In this paper, we consider the robust adaptive non parametric estimation problem for the drift coefficient in diffusion processes. An adaptive model selection procedure, based on the improved weighted least square estimates, is proposed. Sharp oracle inequalities for the robust risk have been obtained.
In the nonparametric regression setting, we construct an estimator which is a continuous function interpolating the data points with high probability, while attaining minimax optimal rates under mean squared risk on the scale of Hölder classes adaptively to the unknown smoothness.
We introduce a hierarchical nonparametric model for probability measures based on a multi-resolution transformation of probability distributions. The model allows a varying amount of shrinkage to be applied to data features of different scales and/or at different locations in the sample space, and the varying shrinkage level is locally adaptive to the empirical behavior of the data. Moreover, the model's hierarchical design---through a latent Markov tree structure---allows borrowing of information across locations and scales in setting the adaptive shrinkage level. Inference under the model pr…
Extreme-value copulas arise in the asymptotic theory for componentwise maxima of independent random samples. An extreme-value copula is determined by its Pickands dependence function, which is a function on the unit simplex subject to certain shape constraints that arise from an integral transform of an underlying measure called spectral measure. Multivariate extensions are provided of certain rank-based nonparametric estimators of the Pickands dependence function. The shape constraint that the estimator should itself be a Pickands dependence function is enforced by replacing an initial estima…
In the field of finance, insurance, and system reliability, etc., it is often of interest to measure the dependence among variables by modeling a multivariate distribution using a copula. The copula models with parametric assumptions are easy to estimate but can be highly biased when such assumptions are false, while the empirical copulas are non-smooth and often not genuine copula making the inference about dependence challenging in practice. As a compromise, the empirical Bernstein copula provides a smooth estimator but the estimation of tuning parameters remains elusive. In this paper, by u…
In this paper, I propose a general algorithm for multiple change point analysis via multivariate distribution-free nonparametric testing based on the concept of ranks that are defined by measure transportation. Multivariate ranks and the usual one-dimensional ranks both share an important property: they are both distribution-free. This finding allows for the creation of nonparametric tests that are distribution-free under the null hypothesis. This method has applications in a variety of fields, and in this paper I implement this algorithm to a microarray dataset for individuals with bladder tu…
The aim of sequential change-point detection is to issue an alarm when it is thought that certain probabilistic properties of the monitored observations have changed. This work is concerned with nonparametric, closed-end testing procedures based on differences of empirical distribution functions that are designed to be particularly sensitive to changes in the comtemporary distribution of multivariate time series. The proposed detectors are adaptations of statistics used in a posteriori (offline) change-point testing and involve a weighting allowing to give more importance to recent observation…
Data Science and AI Research（数据科学与人工智能研究院）；AT&T Chief Data Office（美国电话电报公司首席数据办公室）；University of Minnesota Twin Cities（明尼苏达大学双城分校）
High-dimensional data, where the dimension of the feature space is much larger than sample size, arise in a number of statistical applications. In this context, we construct the generalized multivariate sign transformation, defined as a vector divided by its norm. For different choices of the norm function, the resulting transformed vector adapts to certain geometrical features of the data distribution. Building up on this idea, we obtain one-sample and two-sample testing procedures for mean vectors of high-dimensional data using these generalized sign vectors. These tests are based on U-stati…
Appropriate preprocessing is a fundamental prerequisite for analyzing a noisy dataset. The purpose of this paper is to apply a nonparametric preprocessing method, called Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA), to a variety of datasets which are subsequently analyzed by means of multiple statistical hypothesis tests. SSA is a nonparametric preprocessing method which has recently been utilized in the context of many life science problems. In the present work, SSA is compared with three other state-of-the-art preprocessing methods in terms of goodness of denoising and in terms of the statistical power …
Nonparametric tests for equality of multivariate distributions are frequently desired in research. It is commonly required that test-procedures based on relatively small samples of vectors accurately control the corresponding Type I Error (TIE) rates. Often, in the multivariate testing, extensions of null-distribution-free univariate methods, e.g., Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Cramer-von Mises type schemes, are not exact, since their null distributions depend on underlying data distributions. The present paper extends the density-based empirical likelihood technique in order to nonparametrically app…
We briefly communicate results of a nonparametric and robust evaluation of effects of \emph{the Fourth Millennium Development Goal of United Nations}. Main aim of the goal was reducing by two thirds, between 1990--2015, the under five months child mortality. Our novel analysis was conducted by means of very powerful and user friendly tools offered by the \emph{Data Depth Concept} being a collection of multivariate techniques basing on multivariate generalizations of quantiles, ranges and order statistics. Results of our analysis are more convincing than results obtained using classical statist…
This paper considers adaptive, minimax estimation of a quadratic functional in a nonparametric instrumental variables (NPIV) model, which is an important problem in optimal estimation of a nonlinear functional of an ill-posed inverse regression with an unknown operator. We first show that a leave-one-out, sieve NPIV estimator of the quadratic functional can attain a convergence rate that coincides with the lower bound previously derived in Chen and Christensen [2018]. The minimax rate is achieved by the optimal choice of the sieve dimension (a key tuning parameter) that depends on the smoothne…
Calibrating a Lévy process usually requires characterizing its jump distribution. Traditionally this problem can be solved with nonparametric estimation using the empirical characteristic functions (ECF), assuming certain regularity, and results to date are mostly in 1D. For multivariate Lévy processes and less smooth Lévy densities, the problem becomes challenging as ECFs decay slowly and have large uncertainty because of limited observations. We solve this problem by approximating the Lévy density with a parametrized functional form; the characteristic function is then estimated using numeri…
This paper studies nonparametric estimation of parameters of multivariate Hawkes processes. We consider the Bayesian setting and derive posterior concentration rates. First rates are derived for L1-metrics for stochastic intensities of the Hawkes process. We then deduce rates for the L1-norm of interactions functions of the process. Our results are exemplified by using priors based on piecewise constant functions, with regular or random partitions and priors based on mixtures of Betas distributions. Numerical illustrations are then proposed with in mind applications for inferring functional co…
