Statistics
This paper proposes an extension to discrete Phase-Type distributions (DPH) by introducing random rewards. These allow for modeling a system in which a visit to a certain state does not emit a deterministic reward. Instead, the rewards…
Early identification of at risk students in higher education depends on predictive models that maintain accuracy across successive cohorts -- a requirement that single-cohort modeling approaches fail to meet. This study evaluates Bayesian…
We propose a nonparametric approach to testing conditional independence and estimating conditional association, generalizing the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) test and odds-ratio estimator to continuous sample spaces. It leverages a…
We present a hybrid framework to support prognostics of the clogging degradation phenomenon in tube support plates for digital twins of steam generators in pressurized water reactors. The proposed approach combines a physics-based…
In uncertainty quantification, evaluating sensitivity measures under specific conditions (i.e., conditional Sobol' indices) is essential for systems with parameterized responses, such as spatial fields or varying operating conditions.…
The Nobel Prize in literature 1965 was awarded Mikhail Sholokhov (1905-1984), for the epic novel Tikhij Don about Cossack life and the birth of a new Soviet society (And Quiet Flows the Don, or The Quiet Don, in different translations).…
Statistical analysis of network data has attracted considerable attention in recent years, due to the rapid advancement of well-trained network models and the accessibility of large public network datasets. In this article, we propose a…
Loss-based priors assign probability mass to parameter values according to the inferential loss incurred when they are excluded from the parameter space, and provide a general solution for discrete parameters. Extending this idea to…
Estimating the number of components is a fundamental challenge in unsupervised learning, particularly when dealing with high-dimensional data with many components or severely imbalanced component sizes. This paper addresses this challenge…
Air pollution is a worldwide public health threat that can cause or exacerbate many illnesses, including respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. However, epidemiological studies and public health decision-making are…
Penalized generalized estimating equations (PGEE) stabilize point estimation for longitudinal binary data under near-separation, but inference still depends on how the sandwich variance is corrected. Existing corrections for PGEE can…
Understanding and mapping extreme heat is critical for risk management and public health planning, particularly in regions with complex terrain and heterogeneous climate. We present a case study of extreme heat in the Four Corners region of…
Air quality monitoring in Italy relies on sparse, irregular, ground-based stations that provide high-quality but incomplete measurements of pollution. Chemical transport models (CTMs) offer full spatial and temporal coverage but smooth over…
Popular software packages report four generalizations of the ANOVA F test when conducting a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The reported operating characteristics of these fours tests vary widely depending on which research…
Spatially resolved transcriptomics is a fast-developing set of technologies that enables the measurement of localized gene expression across spatial locations in a sample. Detecting spatially varying genes is critical for analyzing such…
This paper develops a nonparametric density estimator with parametric overtones. Suppose $f(x,\theta)$ is some family of densities, indexed by a vector of parameters $\theta$. We define a local kernel smoothed likelihood function which for…
Analyzing correlation between variables is often both the tool and the goal of modern science. A crucial question is whether the correlation between two variables is a direct correlation or only an indirect correlation through a confounder.…
Random-effects meta-analysis summarizes heterogeneous trials by estimating an average effect over the observed evidence base, which may not represent the clinically relevant target population. In cardiovascular medicine, treatment effects…
The transition of end-of-life care to palliative care (PC) sparks intense debate: does it provide economic relief or shift unremunerated labor costs onto families? Evaluating this is hindered by causal inference challenges and skewed…
Neurophysiologists are nowadays able to record from a large number of extracellular electrodes and to extract, from the raw data, the sequences of action potentials or spikes generated by many neurons. Unfortunately these ''many neurons''…