Point patterns occurring on complex structures in space and space-time: An alternative network approach

This paper presents an alternative approach of analyzing possibly multitype point patterns in space and space-time that occur on network structures, and introduces several different graph-related intensity measures. The proposed formalism allows to control for processes on undirected, directional as well as partially directed network structures and is not restricted to linearity or circularity

Marked spatial point processes: current state and extensions to point processes on linear networks

Within the applications of spatial point processes, it is increasingly becoming common that events are labeled by marks, prompting an exploration beyond the spatial distribution of events by incorporating the marks in the undertaken analysis. In this paper, we first consider marked spatial point processes in $\R^2$, where marks are either integer-valued, real-valued, or object-valued, and review the state-of-the-art to analyze the spatial structure and type of interaction/correlation between marks. More specifically, we review cross/dot-type summary characteristics, mark-weighted summary characteristics, various mark correlation functions, and frequency domain approaches. Second, we propose novel cross/dot-type higher-order summary characteristics, mark-weighted summary characteristics, and mark correlation functions for marked point processes on linear networks. Through a simulation study, we show that ignoring the underlying network gives rise to erroneous conclusions about the interaction/correlation between marks. Finally, we consider two applications: the locations of two types of butterflies in Melbourne, Australia, and the locations of public trees along the street network of Vancouver, Canada, where trees are labeled by their diameters at breast height.Comment: submitted for publicatio

Summary characteristics for multivariate function-valued spatial point process attributes

Prompted by modern technologies in data acquisition, the statistical analysis of spatially distributed function-valued quantities has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. In particular, combinations of functional variables and spatial point processes yield a highly challenging instance of such modern spatial data applications. Indeed, the analysis of spatial random point configurations, where the point attributes themselves are functions rather than scalar-valued quantities, is just in its infancy, and extensions to function-valued quantities still remain limited. In this view, we extend current existing first- and second-order summary characteristics for real-valued point attributes to the case where in addition to every spatial point location a set of distinct function-valued quantities are available. Providing a flexible treatment of more complex point process scenarios, we build a framework to consider points with multivariate function-valued marks, and develop sets of different cross-function (cross-type and also multi-function cross-type) versions of summary characteristics that allow for the analysis of highly demanding modern spatial point process scenarios. We consider estimators of the theoretical tools and analyse their behaviour through a simulation study and two real data applications.Comment: submitted for publicatio

intensitynet: Intensity-based Analysis of Spatial Point Patterns Occurring on Complex Networks Structures in R

The statistical analysis of structured spatial point process data where the event locations are determined by an underlying spatially embedded relational system has become a vivid field of research. Despite a growing literature on different extensions of point process characteristics to linear network domains, most software implementations remain restricted to either directed or undirected network structures and are of limited use for the analysis of rather complex real-world systems consisting of both undirected and directed parts. Formalizing the network through a graph theoretic perspective, this paper discusses a complementary approach for the analysis of network-based event data through generic network intensity functions and gives a general introduction to the intensitynet package implemented in R covering both computational details and applications. By treating the edges as fundamental entities, the implemented approach allows the computation of intensities and other related values related to different graph structures containing undirected, directed, or a combination of both edges as special cases. The package includes characteristics for network modeling, data manipulation, intensity estimation, computation of local and global autocorrelation statistics, visualization, and extensions to marked point process scenarios. All functionalities are accompanied by reproducible code examples using the chicago data as toy example to illustrate the application of the package.Comment: submitted for publicatio

Graphical modelling and partial characteristics for multitype and multivariate-marked spatio-temporal point processes

A method for dealing with multivariate analysis of marked spatio-temporal point processes is presented by introducing different partial point characteristics, and by extending the spatial dependence graph model formalism. The approach yields a unified framework for different types of spatio-temporal data, including both, purely qualitatively (multivariate) cases and multivariate cases with additional quantitative marks. The proposed graphical model is defined through partial spectral density characteristics; it is highly computationally efficient and reflects the conditional similarity amongst sets of spatio-temporal sub-processes of either points or marked points with identical discrete marks. Two applications, on crime and forestry data, are presented

Seasonality in extra-pulmonary tuberculosis notifications in Germany 2004-2014- a time series analysis

Background Seasonality in tuberculosis (TB) has been found in different parts of the world, showing a peak in spring/summer and a trough in autumn/winter. The evidence is less clear which factors drive seasonality. It was our aim to identify and evaluate seasonality in the notifications of TB in Germany, additionally investigating the possible variance of seasonality by disease site, sex and age group. Methods We conducted an integer-valued time series analysis using national surveillance data. We analysed the reported monthly numbers of started treatments between 2004 and 2014 for all notified TB cases and stratified by disease site, sex and age group. Results We detected seasonality in the extra-pulmonary TB cases (N = 11,219), with peaks in late spring/summer and troughs in fall/winter. For all TB notifications together (N = 51,090) and for pulmonary TB only (N = 39,714) we did not find a distinct seasonality. Additional stratified analyses did not reveal any clear differences between age groups, the sexes, or between active and passive case finding. Conclusion We found seasonality in extra-pulmonary TB only, indicating that seasonality of disease onset might be specific to the disease site. This could point towards differences in disease progression between the different clinical disease manifestations. Sex appears not to be an important driver of seasonality, whereas the role of age remains unclear as this could not be sufficiently investigated.Peer Reviewe