Local partial-likelihood estimation for lifetime data

This paper considers a proportional hazards model, which allows one to examine the extent to which covariates interact nonlinearly with an exposure variable, for analysis of lifetime data. A local partial-likelihood technique is proposed to estimate nonlinear interactions. Asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator is established. The baseline hazard function, the bias and the variance of the local likelihood estimator are consistently estimated. In addition, a one-step local partial-likelihood estimator is presented to facilitate the computation of the proposed procedure and is demonstrated to be as efficient as the fully iterated local partial-likelihood estimator. Furthermore, a penalized local likelihood estimator is proposed to select important risk variables in the model. Numerical examples are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedures.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053605000000796 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Fluctuation-induced tunneling conduction through RuO2_2 nanowire contacts

A good understanding of the electronic conduction processes through nanocontacts is a crucial step for the implementation of functional nanoelectronic devices. We have studied the current-voltage ($I$-$V$) characteristics of nanocontacts between single metallic RuO$_2$ nanowires (NWs) and contacting Au electrodes which were pre-patterned by simple photolithography. Both the temperature behavior of contact resistance in the low-bias voltage ohmic regime and the $I$-$V$ curves in the high-bias voltage non-ohmic regime have been investigated. We found that the electronic conduction processes in the wide temperature interval 1--300 K can be well described by the fluctuation-induced tunneling (FIT) conduction theory. Taken together with our previous work (Lin {\it et al.}, Nanotechnology {\bf 19}, 365201 (2008)) where the nanocontacts were fabricated by delicate electron-beam lithography, our study demonstrates the general validity of the FIT model in characterizing electronic nanocontacts.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure