We consider the nonparametric regression with a random design model, and we are interested in the adaptive estimation of the regression at a point $x\_0$ where the design is degenerate. When the design density is $β$-regularly varying at $x\_0$ and $f$ has a smoothness $s$ in the Hölder sense, we know from Gaïffas (2004)\nocite{gaiffas04a} that the minimax rate is equal to $n^{-s/(1+2s+β)} \ell(1/n)$ where $\ell$ is slowly varying. In this paper we provide an estimator which is adaptive both on the design and the regression function smoothness and we show that it converges with the rate $(\log n/n)^{s/(1+2s+β)} \ell(\log n/n)$. The procedure consists of a local polynomial estimator with a Lepski type data-driven bandwidth selector similar to the one in Goldenshluger and Nemirovski (1997)\nocite{goldenshluger\_nemirovski97} or Spokoiny (1998)\nocite{spok98}. Moreover, we prove that the payment of a $\log$ in this adaptive rate compared to the minimax rate is unavoidable.
This paper is concerned with adaptive kernel estimation of the Lévy density N(x) for bounded-variation pure-jump Lévy processes. The sample path is observed at n discrete instants in the "high frequency" context (Δ= Δ(n) tends to zero while nΔtends to infinity). We construct a collection of kernel estimators of the function g(x)=xN(x) and propose a method of local adaptive selection of the bandwidth. We provide an oracle inequality and a rate of convergence for the quadratic pointwise risk. This rate is proved to be the optimal minimax rate. We give examples and simulation results for processe…
The nonparametric regression with a random design model is considered. We want to recover the regression function at a point x where the design density is vanishing or exploding. Depending on assumptions on the regression function local regularity and on the design local behaviour, we find several minimax rates. These rates lie in a wide range, from slow l(n) rates where l(.) is slowly varying (for instance (log n)^(-1)) to fast n^(-1/2) * l(n) rates. If the continuity modulus of the regression function at x can be bounded from above by a s-regularly varying function, and if the design density…
In this paper, we study the problem of pointwise estimation of a multivariate density. We provide a data-driven selection rule from the family of kernel estimators and derive for it a pointwise oracle inequality. Using the latter bound, we show that the proposed estimator is minimax and minimax adaptive over the scale of anisotropic Nikolskii classes. It is important to emphasize that our estimation method adjusts automatically to eventual independence structure of the underlying density. This, in its turn, allows to reduce significantly the influence of the dimension on the accuracy of estima…
A nonparametric procedure for robust regression estimation and for quantile regression is proposed which is completely data-driven and adapts locally to the regularity of the regression function. This is achieved by considering in each point M-estimators over different local neighbourhoods and by a local model selection procedure based on sequential testing. Non-asymptotic risk bounds are obtained, which yield rate-optimality for large sample asymptotics under weak conditions. Simulations for different univariate median regression models show good finite sample properties, also in comparison t…
We consider the estimation of a density at a fixed point under a local differential privacy constraint, where the observations are anonymised before being available for statistical inference. We propose both a privatised version of a projection density estimator as well as a kernel density estimator and derive their minimax rates under a privacy constraint. There is a twofold deterioration of the minimax rates due to the anonymisation, which we show to be unavoidable by providing lower bounds. In both estimation procedures a tuning parameter has to be chosen. We suggest a variant of the classi…
This paper deals with the nonparametric estimation in heteroscedastic regression $ Y_i=f(X_i)+ξ_i, \: i=1,...,n $, with incomplete information, i.e. each real random variable $ ξ_i $ has a density $ g_{i} $ which is unknown to the statistician. The aim is to estimate the regression function $ f $ at a given point. Using a local polynomial fitting from M-estimator denoted $ \hat f^h $ and applying Lepski's procedure for the bandwidth selection, we construct an estimator $ \hat f^{\hat h} $ which is adaptive over the collection of isotropic Hölder classes. In particular, we establish new exponen…
We discuss parametric estimation of a degenerate diffusion system from time-discrete observations. The first component of the degenerate diffusion system has a parameter $θ_1$ in a non-degenerate diffusion coefficient and a parameter $θ_2$ in the drift term. The second component has a drift term parameterized by $θ_3$ and no diffusion term. Asymptotic normality is proved in three different situations for an adaptive estimator for $θ_3$ with some initial estimators for ($θ_1$ , $θ_2$), an adaptive one-step estimator for ($θ_1$ , $θ_2$ , $θ_3$) with some initial estimators for them, and a joint …
We consider estimation of a functional of the data distribution based on i.i.d. observations. We assume the target function can be defined as the minimizer of the expectation of a loss function over a class of $d$-variate real valued cadlag functions that have finite sectional variation norm. For all $k=0,1,\ldots$, we define a $k$-th order smoothness class of functions as $d$-variate functions on the unit cube for which each of a sequentially defined $k$-th order Radon-Nikodym derivative w.r.t. Lebesgue measure is cadlag and of bounded variation. For a target function in this $k$-th order smo…
We consider non-parametric density estimation in the framework of local approximate differential privacy. In contrast to centralized privacy scenarios with a trusted curator, in the local setup anonymization must be guaranteed already on the individual data owners' side and therefore must precede any data mining tasks. Thus, the published anonymized data should be compatible with as many statistical procedures as possible. We suggest adding Laplace noise and Gaussian processes (both appropriately scaled) to kernel density estimators to obtain approximate differential private versions of the la…
The problem of adaptive multivariate function estimation in the single-index regression model with random design and weak assumptions on the noise is investigated. A novel estimation procedure that adapts simultaneously to the unknown index vector and the smoothness of the link function by selecting from a family of specific kernel estimators is proposed. We establish a pointwise oracle inequality which, in its turn, is used to judge the quality of estimating the entire function (``global'' oracle inequality). Both the results are applied to the problems of pointwise and global adaptive estima…
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 consider adaptive estimation of an unknown planar compact, convex set from noisy measurements of its support function on a uniform grid. Both the problem of estimating the support function at a point and that of estimating the convex set are studied. Data-driven adaptive estimators are proposed and their optimality properties are established. For pointwise estimation, it is shown that the estimator optimally adapts to every compact, convex set instead of a collection of large parameter spaces as in the conventional minimax theory of nonparametric estimation. For set estimatio…
This paper studies the estimation of the conditional density f (x, $\times$) of Y i given X i = x, from the observation of an i.i.d. sample (X i , Y i) $\in$ R d , i = 1,. .. , n. We assume that f depends only on r unknown components with typically r d. We provide an adaptive fully-nonparametric strategy based on kernel rules to estimate f. To select the bandwidth of our kernel rule, we propose a new fast iterative algorithm inspired by the Rodeo algorithm (Wasserman and Lafferty (2006)) to detect the sparsity structure of f. More precisely, in the minimax setting, our pointwise estimator, whi…
We propose an estimation procedure for linear functionals based on Gaussian model selection techniques. We show that the procedure is adaptive, and we give a non asymptotic oracle inequality for the risk of the selected estimator with respect to the $\mathbb{L}_p$ loss. An application to the problem of estimating a signal or its $r^{th}$ derivative at a given point is developed and minimax rates are proved to hold uniformly over Besov balls. We also apply our non asymptotic oracle inequality to the estimation of the mean of the signal on an interval with length depending on the noise level. Si…
We consider the problem of estimating the value l(ϕ) of a linear functional, where the structural function ϕ models a nonparametric relationship in presence of instrumental variables. We propose a plug-in estimator which is based on a dimension reduction technique and additional thresholding. It is shown that this estimator is consistent and can attain the minimax optimal rate of convergence under additional regularity conditions. This, however, requires an optimal choice of the dimension parameter m depending on certain characteristics of the structural function ϕ and the joint distribution o…
In this article we propose a locally adaptive strategy for estimating a function from its Exponential Radon Transform (ERT) data, without prior knowledge of the smoothness of functions that are to be estimated. We build a non-parametric kernel type estimator and show that for a class of functions comprising a wide Sobolev regularity scale, our proposed strategy follows the minimax optimal rate up to a $\log{n}$ factor. We also show that there does not exist an optimal adaptive estimator on the Sobolev scale when the pointwise risk is used and in fact the rate achieved by the proposed estimator…
This paper is devoted to the estimation of the common marginal density function of weakly dependent processes. The accuracy of estimation is measured using pointwise risks. We propose a datadriven procedure using kernel rules. The bandwidth is selected using the approach of Goldenshluger and Lepski and we prove that the resulting estimator satisfies an oracle type inequality. The procedure is also proved to be adaptive (in a minimax framework) over a scale of Hölder balls for several types of dependence: stong mixing processes, $λ$-dependent processes or i.i.d. sequences can be considered usin…
We consider the problem of nonparametric regression under shape constraints. The main examples include isotonic regression (with respect to any partial order), unimodal/convex regression, additive shape-restricted regression, and constrained single index model. We review some of the theoretical properties of the least squares estimator (LSE) in these problems, emphasizing on the adaptive nature of the LSE. In particular, we study the behavior of the risk of the LSE, and its pointwise limiting distribution theory, with special emphasis to isotonic regression. We survey various methods for const…
Combination and aggregation techniques can significantly improve forecast accuracy. This also holds for probabilistic forecasting methods where predictive distributions are combined. There are several time-varying and adaptive weighting schemes such as Bayesian model averaging (BMA). However, the quality of different forecasts may vary not only over time but also within the distribution. For example, some distribution forecasts may be more accurate in the center of the distributions, while others are better at predicting the tails. Therefore, we introduce a new weighting method that considers …
We introduce a robust and fully adaptive method for pointwise estimation in heteroscedastic regression. We allow for noise and design distributions that are unknown and fulfill very weak assumptions only. In particular, we do not impose moment conditions on the noise distribution. Moreover, we do not require a positive density for the design distribution. In a first step, we study the consistency of locally polynomial M-estimators that consist of a contrast and a kernel. Afterwards, minimax results are established over unidimensional Hölder spaces for degenerate design. We then choose the cont…
In this paper we consider the problem of estimating $f$, the conditional density of $Y$ given $X$, by using an independent sample distributed as $(X,Y)$ in the multivariate setting. We consider the estimation of $f(x,.)$ where $x$ is a fixed point. We define two different procedures of estimation, the first one using kernel rules, the second one inspired from projection methods. Both adapted estimators are tuned by using the Goldenshluger and Lepski methodology. After deriving lower bounds, we show that these procedures satisfy oracle inequalities and are optimal from the minimax point of view…
We estimate the quantum state of a light beam from results of quantum homodyne measurements performed on identically prepared quantum systems. The state is represented through the Wigner function, a generalized probability density on $\mathbb{R}^2$ which may take negative values and must respect intrinsic positivity constraints imposed by quantum physics. The effect of the losses due to detection inefficiencies, which are always present in a real experiment, is the addition to the tomographic data of independent Gaussian noise. We construct a kernel estimator for the Wigner function, prove tha…
In this paper, we study the problem of pointwise estimation of a multivariate function. We develop a general pointwise estimation procedure that is based on selection of estimators from a large parameterized collection. An upper bound on the pointwise risk is established and it is shown that the proposed selection procedure specialized for different collections of estimators leads to minimax and adaptive minimax estimators in various settings.
Since Stein's 1956 seminal paper, shrinkage has played a fundamental role in both parametric and nonparametric inference. This article discusses minimaxity and adaptive minimaxity in nonparametric function estimation. Three interrelated problems, function estimation under global integrated squared error, estimation under pointwise squared error, and nonparametric confidence intervals, are considered. Shrinkage is pivotal in the development of both the minimax theory and the adaptation theory. While the three problems are closely connected and the minimax theories bear some similarities, the ad…
This paper addresses the problem of estimating a convex regression function under both the sup-norm risk and the pointwise risk using B-splines. The presence of the convex constraint complicates various issues in asymptotic analysis, particularly uniform convergence analysis. To overcome this difficulty, we establish the uniform Lipschitz property of optimal spline coefficients in the $\ell_\infty$-norm by exploiting piecewise linear and polyhedral theory. Based upon this property, it is shown that this estimator attains optimal rates of convergence on the entire interval of interest over the …
We construct efficient robust truncated sequential estimators for the pointwise estimation problem in nonparametric autoregression models with smooth coefficients. For Gaussian models we propose an adaptive procedure based on the constructed sequential estimators. The minimax nonadaptive and adaptive convergence rates are established. It turns out that in this case these rates are the same as for regression models.
This paper discusses the problem of adaptive estimation of a univariate object like the value of a regression function at a given point or a linear functional in a linear inverse problem. We consider an adaptive procedure originated from Lepski [Theory Probab. Appl. 35 (1990) 454--466.] that selects in a data-driven way one estimate out of a given class of estimates ordered by their variability. A serious problem with using this and similar procedures is the choice of some tuning parameters like thresholds. Numerical results show that the theoretically recommended proposals appear to be too co…
We consider a wavelet thresholding approach to adaptive variance function estimation in heteroscedastic nonparametric regression. A data-driven estimator is constructed by applying wavelet thresholding to the squared first-order differences of the observations. We show that the variance function estimator is nearly optimally adaptive to the smoothness of both the mean and variance functions. The estimator is shown to achieve the optimal adaptive rate of convergence under the pointwise squared error simultaneously over a range of smoothness classes. The estimator is also adaptively within a log…
We introduce a wavelet-based model of local stationarity. This model enlarges the class of locally stationary wavelet processes and contains processes whose spectral density function may change very suddenly in time. A notion of time-varying wavelet spectrum is uniquely defined as a wavelet-type transform of the autocovariance function with respect to so-called autocorrelation wavelets. This leads to a natural representation of the autocovariance which is localized on scales. We propose a pointwise adaptive estimator of the time-varying spectrum. The behavior of the estimator studied in homoge…
We derive rates of contraction of posterior distributions on nonparametric models resulting from sieve priors. The aim of the paper is to provide general conditions to get posterior rates when the parameter space has a general structure, and rate adaptation when the parameter space is, e.g., a Sobolev class. The conditions employed, although standard in the literature, are combined in a different way. The results are applied to density, regression, nonlinear autoregression and Gaussian white noise models. In the latter we have also considered a loss function which is different from the usual l…
In the framework of nonparametric multivariate function estimation we are interested in structural adaptation. We assume that the function to be estimated has the "single-index" structure where neither the link function nor the index vector is known. We suggest a novel procedure that adapts simultaneously to the unknown index and smoothness of the link function. For the proposed procedure, we prove a "local" oracle inequality (described by the pointwise seminorm), which is then used to obtain the upper bound on the maximal risk of the adaptive estimator under assumption that the link function …
We consider the model of nonregular nonparametric regression where smoothness constraints are imposed on the regression function $f$ and the regression errors are assumed to decay with some sharpness level at their endpoints. The aim of this paper is to construct an adaptive estimator for the regression function $f$. In contrast to the standard model where local averaging is fruitful, the nonregular conditions require a substantial different treatment based on local extreme values. We study this model under the realistic setting in which both the smoothness degree $β>0$ and the sharpness degre…
We consider the model $Z_i=X_i+\varepsilon_i$, for i.i.d. $X_i$'s and $\varepsilon_i$'s and independent sequences $(X_i)_{i\in{\mathbb{N}}}$ and $(\varepsilon_i)_{i\in{\mathbb{N}}}$. The density $f_{\varepsilon}$ of $\varepsilon_1$ is assumed to be known, whereas the one of $X_1$, denoted by $g$, is unknown. Our aim is to estimate linear functionals of $g$, $<ψ,g>$ for a known function $ψ$. We propose a general estimator of $<ψ,g>$ and study the rate of convergence of its quadratic risk as a function of the smoothness of $g$, $f_{\varepsilon}$ and $ψ$. Different contexts with dependent data, s…
We discuss the problem of adaptive discrete-time signal denoising in the situation where the signal to be recovered admits a "linear oracle" -- an unknown linear estimate that takes the form of convolution of observations with a time-invariant filter. It was shown by Juditsky and Nemirovski (2009) that when the $\ell_2$-norm of the oracle filter is small enough, such oracle can be "mimicked" by an efficiently computable adaptive estimate of the same structure with an observation-driven filter. The filter in question was obtained as a solution to the optimization problem in which the $\ell_\inf…
