Assignment #3 STA355H1S
due Friday March 22, 2019
Instructions: Solutions to problems 1 and 2 are to be submitted on Quercus (PDF files only) – the deadline is 11:59pm on March 22. You are strongly encouraged to do problems
3 through 6 but these are not to be submitted for grading.
Problems to hand in:
1. Suppose that D1, · · · , Dn are random directions – we can think of these random variables
as coming from a distribution on the unit circle {(x, y) : x2 + y2 = 1} and represent each
observation as an angle so that D1, · · · , Dn come from a distribution on [0, 2π).
(Directional or circular data, which indicate direction or cyclical time, can be of great interest
to biologists, geographers, geologists, and social scientists. The defining characteristic of such
data is that the beginning and end of their scales meet so, for example, a direction of 5 degrees
is closer to 355 degrees than it is to 40 degrees.)
A simple family of distributions for these circular data is the von Mises distribution whose
density on [0, 2π) is
f(θ; κ, μ) = 12πI0(κ)
exp(κ cos(θ μ))
where 0 ≤ μ < 2π, κ ≥ 0, and I0(κ) is a 0-th order modified Bessel function of the first kind:
I0(κ) = 12πZ 2π0
exp[κ cos(θ)] dθ.
(In R, I0(κ) can be evaluated by besselI(kappa,0).) Note that when κ = 0, we have a
uniform distribution on [0, 2π) (independent of μ).
(a) Show that the MLE of μ satisfies
cos(μb)
Xni=1sin(Di) sin(μb)
Xni=1cos(Di) = 0
and give an explicit formula for μb in terms of Xn
i=1sin(Di) and Xni=1
cos(Di). (Hint: Use the
formula sin(x y) = sin(x) cos(y) cos(x) sin(y). Also verify that your estimator actually
maximizes the likelihood function.)
(b) Suppose that we put the following prior density on (κ, μ):
π(κ, μ) = λ2π
exp(λκ) for κ > 0 and 0 ≤ μ < 2π.
Show that the posterior (marginal) density of κ is
π(κ|d1, · · · , dn) = c(d1, · · · , dn)
exp(λκ)I0(rκ)
[I0(κ)]n
where
(Hint: To get the marginal posterior density of κ, you need to integrate the joint posterior
over μ (from 0 to 2π). The trick is to write
Xni=1
cos(diμ) = r cos(θμ)
for some θ.)
(c) The file bees.txt contains dance directions of 279 honey bees viewing a zenith patch
of artificially polarized light. (The data are given in degrees; you should convert them to
radians. The original data were rounded to the nearest 10o
; the data in the file have been
“jittered” to make them less discrete.) Using these data, compute the posterior density of
κ in part (b) for λ = 1 and λ = 0.1. How do these two posterior densities differ? Do these
posterior densities “rule out” the possibility that κ = 0 (i.e. a uniform distribution)?
Note: To compute the posterior density, you will need to compute the normalizing constant
– on Quercus, I will give some suggestions on how to do this. A simple estimate of κ is
where r is as defined in part (b). The posterior density should be largest for values of κ
close to κb; you can use this as a guide to determine for what range of values of κ you should
compute the posterior density.
(d) [Bonus] The model that we’ve used to this point assumes that κ is strictly positive
and thus rules out the case where κ = 0 (which implies that D1, · · · , Dn are uniformly
distributed). We can actually address the general model (i.e. κ ≥ 0) by putting a prior
probability θ on the model κ = 0 (which implies that we put a prior probability 1θ on
κ > 0). The prior distribution on the parameter space {(κ, μ) : κ ≥ 0, 0 ≤ μ < 2π} has
a point mass of θ at κ = 0 and the prior density over {(κ, μ) : κ > 0, 0 ≤ μ < 2π} is
(1 θ)π(κ, μ). (This is a simple example of a “spike-and-slab” prior, which are used in
Bayesian model selection.) The posterior probability that κ = 0 is then
Prob(κ = 0|d1, · · · , dn) = θ(2π)
L(κ, μ)π(κ, μ) dμ dκ
Using the prior π(κ, μ) in part (b) with λ = 1, evaluate Prob(κ = 0|d1, · · · , dn) for θ =
0.1, 0.2, 0.3, · · · , 0.9. (This is easier than it looks as you’ve done much of the work in part
(c).)
2. Suppose that F is a continuous distribution with density f. The mode of the distribution
is defined to be the maximizer of the density function. In some applications (for example,
when the data are “contaminated” with outliers), the centre of the distribution is better
described by the mode than by the mean or median; however, unlike the mean and median,
the mode turns out to be a difficult parameter to estimate. There is a document on Quercus
that discusses a few of the various methods for estimating the mode.
The τ -shorth is the shortest interval that contains at least a fraction τ of the observations
X1, · · · , Xn; it will have the form [X(a), X(b)] where b a + 1 ≥ τn. In this problem, we will
consider estimating the mode using the sample mean of values lying in the 1/2-shorth – we
will call this estimator the half-shorth-mean. The half-shorth-mean is similar to a trimmed
mean but different: For the trimmed mean, we trim the r smallest and r largest observations
and average the remaining n?2r observations; the τ -shorth excludes approximately (1τ )n
observations but the trimming is not necessarily symmetric.
(a) For the Old Faithful data considered in Assignment #2, compute the half-shorth-mean,
using the function shorth, which is available on Quercus (in a file shorth.txt). Does this
estimate make sense?
(b) Using Monte Carlo simulation, compare the distribution of the half-shorth-mean to that
of the sample mean for normally distributed data for sample sizes n = 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000.
On Quercus, I have provided some simple code that you may want to modify. We know the
variance of the sample mean is σ
2/n (where σ
2
is the variance of the observations). If we
assume that the variance of the half-shorth-mean is approximately a/nγ
for some a > 0 and
γ > 0, use the results of your simulation to estimate the value of a and γ.
(Hint: If Var( d μbn) is a Monte Carlo estimate of the variance of the half-shorth-mean for a
sample size n, then
ln(Var( d μbn)) ≈ ln(a) γ ln(n),
which should allow you to estimate a and γ.)
(c) It can be shown that Xˉ
n is independent of μbn Xˉ
n where μbn is the half-shorth-mean.
(This is a property of the sample mean of the normal distribution – you will learn this in
STA452/453.) Show that we can use this fact to estimate the density function of μbn from
the Monte Carlo data by the “kernel” estimator
2 = Var(Xi), φ(t) is the N (0, 1) density, and D1, · · · , DN are the values of μbn Xˉn from the Monte Carlo simulation. Use the function density (with the appropriate
bandwidth) to give a density estimate for the half-shorth-mean for n = 100.
Supplemental problems (not to hand in):
3. Suppose that X1, · · · , Xn are independent random variables with density or mass function
f(x; θ) and suppose that we estimate θ using the maximum likelihood estimator bθ; we
estimate its standard error using the observed Fisher information estimator
se( bbθ) = (Xni=1`00(Xi;bθ))1/2
where `0(x; θ), `00(x; θ) are the first two partial derivatives of ln f(x; θ) with respect to θ.
Alternatively, we could use the jackknife to estimate the standard error of bθ; if our model
is correct then we would expect (hope) that the two estimates are similar. In order to
investigate this, we need to be able to get a good approximation to the “leave-one-out”
estimators {bθi}.
(a) Show that bθi satisfies the equation`0(Xi;bθi) = Xnj=1`0(Xj;bθi).
(b) Expand the right hand side in (a), in a Taylor series around bθ to show that
bθi ≈ bθ.
(You should try to think about the magnitude of the approximation error but a rigorous
proof is not required.)
(c) Use the results of part (b) to derive an approximation for the jackknife estimator of the
standard error. Comment on the differences between the two estimators - in particular, why
is there a difference? (Hint: What type of model – parametric or non-parametric – are we
assuming for the two standard error estimators?)
(d) For the air conditioning data considered in Assignment #1, compute the two standard
error estimates for the parameter λ in the Exponential model (f(x; λ) = λ exp(λx) for
x ≥ 0). Do these two estimates tell you anything about how well the Exponential model fits
the data?
4. Suppose that X1, · · · , Xn are independent continuous random variables with density
f(x; θ) where θ is real-valued. We are often not able to observe the Xi
’s exactly rather only
if they belong to some region Bk (k = 1, · · · , m); an example of this is interval censoring in
survival analysis where we are unable to observe an exact failure time but know that the
failure occurs in some finite time interval. Intuitively, we should be able to estimate θ more
efficiently with the actual values of {Xi}; in this problem, we will show that this is true (at
least) for MLEs.
Assume that B1, · · · , Bm are disjoint sets such that P(Xi ∈ ∪m
k=1Bk) = 1. Define independent
discrete random variables Y1, · · · , Yn where Yi = k if Xi ∈ Bk; the probability mass function
of Yi is p(k; θ) = Pθ(Xi ∈ Bk) = Z
x∈Bk
f(x; θ) dx for k = 1, · · · , m.
Also define
IX(θ) = Varθ".
Under the standard MLE regularly conditions, the MLE of θ based on X1, · · · , Xn will have
variance approximately 1/{nIX(θ)} while the MLE based on Y1, · · · , Yn will have variance
approximately 1/{nIY (θ)}.
(a) Assume the usual regularity conditions for f(x; θ), in particular, that f(x; θ) can be
differentiated with respect to θ inside integral signs with impunity! Show that IX(θ) ≥ IY (θ)
and indicate under what conditions there will be strict inequality.
Hints: (i) f(x; θ)/p(k; θ) is a density function on Bk.
(ii) For any function g,
Z ∞∞g(x)f(x; θ) dx =Xmk=1
p(k; θ)Zx∈Bk
g(x)f(x; θ)p(k; θ)dx.
(iii) For any random variable U, E(U2) ≥ [E(U)]2 with strict inequality unless U is constant.
(b) Under what conditions on B1, · · · , Bm will IX(θ) ≈ IY (θ)?
5. In seismology, the Gutenberg-Richter law states that, in a given region, the number of
earthquakes N greater than a certain magnitude m satisfies the relationship
log10(N) = a b × m
for some constants a and b; the parameter b is called the b-value and characterizes the seismic
activity in a region. The Gutenberg-Richter law can be used to predict the probability of
large earthquakes although this is a very crude instrument. On Blackboard, there is a file
containing earthquakes magnitudes for 433 earthquakes in California of magnitude (rounded
to the nearest tenth) of 5.0 and greater from 1932–1992.
(a) If we have earthquakes of (exact) magnitudes M1, · · · , Mn greater than some known m0,
the Gutenberg-Richter law suggests that M1, · · · , Mn can be modeled as independent random
variables with density
f(x; β) = β exp(β(x m0)) for x ≥ m0.
where β = b × ln(10). However, if the magnitudes are rounded to the nearest δ then they
are effectively discrete random variables taking values xk = m0 + δ/2 + kδ for k = 0, 1, 2, · · ·
with probability mass function
p(xk; β) = P(m0 + kδ ≤ M < m0 + (k + 1)δ)
= exp(βkδ) exp(β(k + 1)δ)
= exp(β(xk m0δ/2)) {1 exp(βδ)} for k = 0, 1, 2, · · ·.
If X1, · · · , Xn are the rounded magnitudes, find the MLE of β. (There is a closed-form
expression for the MLE in terms of the sample mean of X1, · · · , Xn.)
(b) Compute the MLE of β for the earthquake data (using m0 = 4.95 and δ = 0.1) as well
as estimates of its standard error using (i) the Fisher information and (ii) the jackknife. Use
these to construct approximate 95% confidence intervals for β. How similar are the intervals?
6. In genetics, the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium model characterizes the distributions of
genotype frequencies in populations that are not evolving and is a fundamental model of
population genetics. In particular, for a genetic locus with two alleles A and a, the frequencies
of the genotypes AA, Aa, and aa are
Pθ(genotype = AA) = θ
2
, Pθ(genotype = Aa) = 2θ(1?θ), and Pθ(genotype = aa) = (1?θ)
2
where θ, the frequency of the allele A in the population, is unknown.
In a sample of n individuals, suppose we observe XAA = x1, XAa = x2, and Xaa = x3
individuals with genotypes AA, Aa, and aa, respectively. Then the likelihood function is.
(The likelihood function follows from the fact that we can write
Pθ(genotype = g) = {θ2}
I(g=AA){2θ(1 θ)}I(g=Aa)
{(1 θ)2}I(g=aa);
multiplying these together over the n individuals in the sample gives the likelihood function.)
(a) Find the MLE of θ and give an estimator of its standard error using the observed Fisher
information.
(b) A useful family of prior distributions for θ is the Beta family:
π(θ) = Γ(α + β)
Γ(α)Γ(β)θα1
(1 θ)β1
for 0 ≤ θ ≤ 1
where α > 0 and β > 0 are hyperparameters. What is the posterior distribution of θ given
XAA = x1, XAa = x2, and Xaa = x3?

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