Approximating Shepp's constants for the Slepian process

Slepian process $S(t)$ is a stationary Gaussian process with zero mean and covariance $E S(t)S(t')=\max\{0,1-|t-t'|\}\, .$ For any $T>0$ and $h>0$, define $F_T(h ) = {\rm Pr}\left\{\max_{t \in [0,T]} S(t) < h \right\}$ and the constants $\Lambda(h) = -\lim_{T \to \infty} \frac1T \log F_T(h)$ and $\lambda(h)=\exp\{-\Lambda(h) \}$; we will call them `Shepp's constants'. The aim of the paper is construction of accurate approximations for $F_T(h)$ and hence for the Shepp's constants. We demonstrate that at least some of the approximations are extremely accurate

Optimal designs in regression with correlated errors

This paper discusses the problem of determining optimal designs for regression models, when the observations are dependent and taken on an interval. A complete solution of this challenging optimal design problem is given for a broad class of regression models and covariance kernels. We propose a class of estimators which are only slightly more complicated than the ordinary least-squares estimators. We then demonstrate that we can design the experiments, such that asymptotically the new estimators achieve the same precision as the best linear unbiased estimator computed for the whole trajectory of the process. As a by-product we derive explicit expressions for the BLUE in the continuous time model and analytic expressions for the optimal designs in a wide class of regression models. We also demonstrate that for a finite number of observations the precision of the proposed procedure, which includes the estimator and design, is very close to the best achievable. The results are illustrated on a few numerical examples.Comment: 38 pages, 5 figure

Approximations for the boundary crossing probabilities of moving sums of normal random variables

In this paper we study approximations for boundary crossing probabilities for the moving sums of i.i.d. normal random variables. We propose approximating a discrete time problem with a continuous time problem allowing us to apply developed theory for stationary Gaussian processes and to consider a number of approximations (some well known and some not). We bring particular attention to the strong performance of a newly developed approximation that corrects the use of continuous time results in a discrete time setting. Results of extensive numerical comparisons are reported. These results show that the developed approximation is very accurate even for small window length

A new approach to optimal designs for correlated observations

This paper presents a new and efficient method for the construction of optimal designs for regression models with dependent error processes. In contrast to most of the work in this field, which starts with a model for a finite number of observations and considers the asymptotic properties of estimators and designs as the sample size converges to infinity, our approach is based on a continuous time model. We use results from stochastic anal- ysis to identify the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) in this model. Based on the BLUE, we construct an efficient linear estimator and corresponding optimal designs in the model for finite sample size by minimizing the mean squared error between the opti- mal solution in the continuous time model and its discrete approximation with respect to the weights (of the linear estimator) and the optimal design points, in particular in the multi-parameter case. In contrast to previous work on the subject the resulting estimators and corresponding optimal designs are very efficient and easy to implement. This means that they are practi- cally not distinguishable from the weighted least squares estimator and the corresponding optimal designs, which have to be found numerically by non-convex discrete optimization. The advantages of the new approach are illustrated in several numerical examples.Comment: Keywords and Phrases: linear regression, correlated observations, optimal design, Gaussian white mouse model, Doob representation, quadrature formulas AMS Subject classification: Primary 62K05; Secondary: 62M0

An extended Generalised Variance, with Applications

We consider a measure $\psi$ k of dispersion which extends the notion of Wilk's generalised variance, or entropy, for a d-dimensional distribution, and is based on the mean squared volume of simplices of dimension k $\le$ d formed by k + 1 independent copies. We show how $\psi$ k can be expressed in terms of the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of the distribution, also when a n-point sample is used for its estimation, and prove its concavity when raised at a suitable power. Some properties of entropy-maximising distributions are derived, including a necessary and sufficient condition for optimality. Finally, we show how this measure of dispersion can be used for the design of optimal experiments, with equivalence to A and D-optimal design for k = 1 and k = d respectively. Simple illustrative examples are presented.Comment: Corrected references and typos Added figure

Optimal design for linear models with correlated observations

In the common linear regression model the problem of determining optimal designs for least squares estimation is considered in the case where the observations are correlated. A necessary condition for the optimality of a given design is provided, which extends the classical equivalence theory for optimal designs in models with uncorrelated errors to the case of dependent data. If the regression functions are eigenfunctions of an integral operator defined by the covariance kernel, it is shown that the corresponding measure defines a universally optimal design. For several models universally optimal designs can be identified explicitly. In particular, it is proved that the uniform distribution is universally optimal for a class of trigonometric regression models with a broad class of covariance kernels and that the arcsine distribution is universally optimal for the polynomial regression model with correlation structure defined by the logarithmic potential. To the best knowledge of the authors these findings provide the first explicit results on optimal designs for regression models with correlated observations, which are not restricted to the location scale model.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AOS1079 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

SSA analysis and forecasting of records for Earth temperature and ice extents

In this paper, we continued the research started in [6, 7]. We applied the so-called Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) to forecast the Earth temperature records, to examine cross-correlations between these records, the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents and the Oceanic Nino Index (ONI). We have concluded that that the pattern observed in the last 15 years for the Earth temperatures is not going to change much, found very high cross-correlations between a lagged ONI index and some Earth temperature series and noticed several signifi- cant cross-correlations between the ONI index and the sea ice extent anomalies; these cross-correlations do not seem to be well-known to the specialists on Earth climate

Covering of high-dimensional cubes and quantization

As the main problem, we consider covering of a d-dimensional cube by n balls with reasonably large d (10 or more) and reasonably small n, like n = 100 or n = 1000. We do not require the full coverage but only 90% or 95% coverage. We establish that efficient covering schemes have several important properties which are not seen in small dimensions and in asymptotical considerations, for very large n. One of these properties can be termed ‘do not try to cover the vertices’ as the vertices of the cube and their close neighbourhoods are very hard to cover and for large d there are far too many of them. We clearly demonstrate that, contrary to a common belief, placing balls at points which form a low-discrepancy sequence in the cube, results in a very inefficient covering scheme. For a family of random coverings, we are able to provide very accurate approximations to the coverage probability. We then extend our results to the problems of coverage of a cube by smaller cubes and quantization, the latter being also referred to as facility location. Along with theoretical considerations and derivation of approximations, we provide results of a large-scale numerical investigation