1,189 research outputs found
Efficient estimation of Banach parameters in semiparametric models
Consider a semiparametric model with a Euclidean parameter and an
infinite-dimensional parameter, to be called a Banach parameter. Assume: (a)
There exists an efficient estimator of the Euclidean parameter. (b) When the
value of the Euclidean parameter is known, there exists an estimator of the
Banach parameter, which depends on this value and is efficient within this
restricted model. Substituting the efficient estimator of the Euclidean
parameter for the value of this parameter in the estimator of the Banach
parameter, one obtains an efficient estimator of the Banach parameter for the
full semiparametric model with the Euclidean parameter unknown. This hereditary
property of efficiency completes estimation in semiparametric models in which
the Euclidean parameter has been estimated efficiently. Typically, estimation
of both the Euclidean and the Banach parameter is necessary in order to
describe the random phenomenon under study to a sufficient extent. Since
efficient estimators are asymptotically linear, the above substitution method
is a particular case of substituting asymptotically linear estimators of a
Euclidean parameter into estimators that are asymptotically linear themselves
and that depend on this Euclidean parameter. This more general substitution
case is studied for its own sake as well, and a hereditary property for
asymptotic linearity is proved.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053604000000913 in the
Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Halo-Galaxy Lensing: A Full Sky Approach
The halo-galaxy lensing correlation function or the average tangential shear
profile over sampled halos is a very powerful means of measuring the halo
masses, the mass profile, and the halo-mass correlation function of very large
separations in the linear regime. We reformulate the halo-galaxy lensing
correlation in harmonic space. We find that, counter-intuitively, errors in the
conventionally used flat-sky approximation remain at a % level even at very
small angles. The errors increase at larger angles and for lensing halos at
lower redshifts: the effect is at a few % level at the baryonic acoustic
oscillation scales for lensing halos of , and comparable with the
effect of primordial non-Gaussianity with at large
separations. Our results allow to readily estimate/correct for the full-sky
effect on a high-precision measurement of the average shear profile available
from upcoming wide-area lensing surveys.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Flexible (Polyactive®) versus rigid (hydroxyapatite) dental implants
In a beagle dog study, the peri-implant bone changes around flexible (Polyactive®) and rigid hydroxyapatite (HA) implants were investigated radiographically by quantitative digital subtraction analysis and by assessment of marginal bone height, with the aid of a computerized method. A loss of approximately 1 mm of marginal bone height was observed for both the dense Polyactive and the HA implants, after 6 months of loading. This value appeared to be stable from 12 weeks of loading onward. Along the total length of the implant during the first 6 weeks of loading, both the flexible (dense Polyactive) and the rigid (HA) implants showed a decrease in density. However, after this 6-week period, the bone density around the implants increased, and after 18 weeks the original bone density was reached. The flexible Polyactive implants provoked less decrease in density than the rigid HA implants, although not to a statistically significant level. This finding sustains the hypothesis that flexible implant materials may transfer stresses to the surrounding bone more favorably
Future CMB Constraints on Early, Cold, or Stressed Dark Energy
We investigate future constraints on early dark energy (EDE) achievable by
the Planck and CMBPol experiments, including cosmic microwave background (CMB)
lensing. For the dark energy, we include the possibility of clustering through
a sound speed c_s^2 <1 (cold dark energy) and anisotropic stresses
parameterized with a viscosity parameter c_vis^2. We discuss the degeneracies
between cosmological parameters and EDE parameters. In particular we show that
the presence of anisotropic stresses in EDE models can substantially undermine
the determination of the EDE sound speed parameter c_s^2. The constraints on
EDE primordial energy density are however unaffected. We also calculate the
future CMB constraints on neutrino masses and find that they are weakened by a
factor of 2 when allowing for the presence of EDE, and highly biased if it is
incorrectly ignored.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figure
Individual frailty excess hazard models in cancer epidemiology
Unobserved individual heterogeneity is a common challenge in population cancer survival studies. This heterogeneity is usually associated with the combination of model misspecification and the failure to record truly relevant variables. We investigate the effects of unobserved individual heterogeneity in the context of excess hazard models, one of the main tools in cancer epidemiology. We propose an individual excess hazard frailty model to account for individual heterogeneity. This represents an extension of frailty modeling to the relative survival framework. In order to facilitate the inference on the parameters of the proposed model, we select frailty distributions which produce closed-form expressions of the marginal hazard and survival functions. The resulting model allows for an intuitive interpretation, in which the frailties induce a selection of the healthier individuals among survivors. We model the excess hazard using a flexible parametric model with a general hazard structure which facilitates the inclusion of time-dependent effects. We illustrate the performance of the proposed methodology through a simulation study. We present a real-data example using data from lung cancer patients diagnosed in England, and discuss the impact of not accounting for unobserved heterogeneity on the estimation of net survival. The methodology is implemented in the R package IFNS
Combining evidence for association from transmission disequilibrium and case-control studies using single-nucleotide polymorphisms
The aim of the present analysis is to combine evidence for association from the two most commonly used designs in genetic association analysis, the case-control design and the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) design. The cases here are affected offspring from nuclear families and are used in both the case-control and TDT designs. As a result, inference from these designs is not independent. We applied a simple logistic regression method for combining evidence for association from case-control and TDT designs to single-nucleotide polymorphism data purchased on a region on chromosome 3, replicate 1 of the Aipotu population. Combining the evidence from the case-control and TDT designs yielded a 5–10% reduction in the standard errors of the relative risk estimates. The authors did not know the results before the analyses were conducted
Kinematic Constraints on Formation of Bound States of Cosmic Strings - Field Theoretical Approach
Superstring theory predicts the potential formation of string networks with
bound states ending in junctions. Kinematic constraints for junction formation
have been derived within the Nambu-Goto thin string approximation. Here we test
these constraints numerically in the framework of the Abelian-Higgs model in
the Type-I regime and report on good agreement with the analytical predictions.
We also demonstrate that strings can effectively pass through each other when
they meet at speeds slightly above the critical velocity permitting bound state
formation. This is due to reconnection effects that are beyond the scope of the
Nambu-Goto approximation.Comment: 6 pages, 12 eps figures - matches the published versio
A comparison of the beta-geometric model with landmarking for dynamic prediction of time to pregnancy
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
- …