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We consider the nonparametric estimation of the value of a quadratic functional evaluated at the density of a strictly positive random variable $X$ based on an iid. sample from an observation $Y$ of $X$ corrupted by an independent multiplicative error $U$. Quadratic functionals of the density covered are the $\mathbb{L}^2$-norm of the density and its derivatives or the survival function. We construct a fully data-driven estimator when the error density is known. The plug-in estimator is based on a density estimation combining the estimation of the Mellin transform of the $Y$ density and a spectral cut-off regularized inversion of the Mellin transform of the error density. The main issue is the data-driven choice of the cut-off parameter using a Goldenshluger-Lepski-method. We discuss conditions under which the fully data-driven estimator attains oracle-rates up to logarithmic deteriorations. We compute convergence rates under classical smoothness assumptions and illustrate them by a simulation study., Comment: 42 page

We assume that we observe $N$ independent copies of a diffusion process on a time-interval $[0,2T]$. For a given time $t$, we estimate the transition density $p_t(x,y)$, namely the conditional density of $X_{t + s}$ given $X_s = x$, under conditions on the diffusion coefficients ensuring that this quantity exists. We use a least squares projection method on a product of finite dimensional spaces, prove risk bounds for the estimator and propose an anisotropic model selection method, relying on several reference norms. A simulation study illustrates the theoretical part for Ornstein-Uhlenbeck or square-root (Cox-Ingersoll-Ross) processes., Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures

In the present paper, we consider that $N$ diffusion processes $X^1,\dots,X^N$ are observed on $[0,T]$, where $T$ is fixed and $N$ grows to infinity. Contrary to most of the recent works, we no longer assume that the processes are independent. The dependency is modeled through correlations between the Brownian motions driving the diffusion processes. A nonparametric estimator of the drift function, which does not use the knowledge of the correlation matrix, is proposed and studied. Its integrated mean squared risk is bounded and an adaptive procedure is proposed. Few theoretical tools to handle this kind of dependency are available, and this makes our results new. Numerical experiments show that the procedure works in practice., Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures

We study the non-parametric estimation of the value ${\theta}(f )$ of a linear functional evaluated at an unknown density function f with support on $R_+$ based on an i.i.d. sample with multiplicative measurement errors. The proposed estimation procedure combines the estimation of the Mellin transform of the density $f$ and a regularisation of the inverse of the Mellin transform by a spectral cut-off. In order to bound the mean squared error we distinguish several scenarios characterised through different decays of the upcoming Mellin transforms and the smoothnes of the linear functional. In fact, we identify scenarios, where a non-trivial choice of the upcoming tuning parameter is necessary and propose a data-driven choice based on a Goldenshluger-Lepski method. Additionally, we show minimax-optimality over Mellin-Sobolev spaces of the estimator., Comment: 25 pages

In this paper, we study the estimation of the derivative of a regression function in a standard univariate regression model. The estimators are defined either by derivating nonparametric least-squares estimators of the regression function or by estimating the projection of the derivative. We prove two simple risk bounds allowing to compare our estimators. More elaborate bounds under a stability assumption are then provided. Bases and spaces on which we can illustrate our assumptions and first results are both of compact or non compact type, and we discuss the rates reached by our estimators. They turn out to be optimal in the compact case. Lastly, we propose a model selection procedure and prove the associated risk bound. To consider bases with a non compact support makes the problem difficult., Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures

We study the non-parametric estimation of an unknown density f with support on R+ based on an i.i.d. sample with multiplicative measurement errors. The proposed fully data driven procedure is based on the estimation of the Mellin transform of the density f , a regularisation of the inverse of the Mellin transform by a spectral cut-off and a data-driven model selection in order to deal with the upcoming bias-variance trade-off. We introduce and discuss further Mellin-Sobolev spaces which characterize the regularity of the unknown density f through the decay of its Mellin transform. Additionally, we show minimax-optimality over Mellin-Sobolev spaces of the data-driven density estimator and hence its adaptivity., Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures

This paper deals with nonparametric estimators of the drift function $b$ computed from independent continuous observations, on a compact time interval, of the solution of a stochastic differential equation driven by the fractional Brownian motion (fSDE). First, a risk bound is established on a Skorokhod's integral based least squares oracle $\widehat b$ of $b$. Thanks to the relationship between the solution of the fSDE and its derivative with respect to the initial condition, a risk bound is deduced on a calculable approximation of $\widehat b$. Another bound is directly established on an estimator of $b'$ for comparison. The consistency and rates of convergence are established for these estimators in the case of the compactly supported trigonometric basis or the $\mathbb R$-supported Hermite basis., Comment: 30 pages

In a regression model, we write the Nadaraya-Watson estimator of the regression function as the quotient of two kernel estimators, and propose a bandwidth selection method for both the numerator and the denominator. We prove risk bounds for both data driven estimators and for the resulting ratio. The simulation study confirms that both estimators have good performances, compared to the ones obtained by cross-validation selection of the bandwidth. However, unexpectedly, the single-bandwidth cross-validation estimator is found to be much better than the ratio of the previous two good estimators, in the small noise context. However, the two methods have similar performances in models with large noise., Comment: 43 pages

For $n$ independent random variables having the same H\"older continuous density, this paper deals with controls of the Wolverton-Wagner's estimator MSE and MISE. Then, for a bandwidth $h_n(\beta)$, estimators of $\beta$ are obtained by a Goldenshluger-Lepski type method and a Lacour-Massart-Rivoirard type method. Some numerical experiments are provided for this last method., Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures

This paper deals with the consistency and a rate of convergence for a Nadaraya-Watson estimator of the drift function of a stochastic differential equation driven by an additive fractional noise. The results of this paper are obtained via both some long-time behavior properties of Hairer and some properties of the Skorokhod integral with respect to the fractional Brownian motion. These results are illustrated on the fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process., Comment: 21 pages

We consider deconvolution from repeated observations with unknown error distribution. So far, this model has mostly been studied under the additional assumption that the errors are symmetric. We construct an estimator for the non-symmetric error case and study its theoretical properties and practical performance. It is interesting to note that we can improve substantially upon the rates of convergence which have so far been presented in the literature and, at the same time, dispose of most of the extremely restrictive assumptions which have been imposed so far.

In the present paper we consider the problem of Laplace deconvolution with noisy discrete non-equally spaced observations on a finite time interval. We propose a new method for Laplace deconvolution which is based on expansions of the convolution kernel, the unknown function and the observed signal over Laguerre functions basis (which acts as a surrogate eigenfunction basis of the Laplace convolution operator) using regression setting. The expansion results in a small system of linear equations with the matrix of the system being triangular and Toeplitz. Due to this triangular structure, there is a common number $m$ of terms in the function expansions to control, which is realized via complexity penalty. The advantage of this methodology is that it leads to very fast computations, produces no boundary effects due to extension at zero and cut-off at $T$ and provides an estimator with the risk within a logarithmic factor of the oracle risk. We emphasize that, in the present paper, we consider the true observational model with possibly nonequispaced observations which are available on a finite interval of length $T$ which appears in many different contexts, and account for the bias associated with this model (which is not present when $T\rightarrow\infty$). The study is motivated by perfusion imaging using a short injection of contrast agent, a procedure which is applied for medical assessment of micro-circulation within tissues such as cancerous tumors. Presence of a tuning parameter $a$ allows to choose the most advantageous time units, so that both the kernel and the unknown right hand side of the equation are well represented for the deconvolution. The methodology is illustrated by an extensive simulation study and a real data example which confirms that the proposed technique is fast, efficient, accurate, usable from a practical point of view and very competitive., Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1207.2231

In the present paper we consider the problem of Laplace deconvolution with noisy discrete observations. The study is motivated by Dynamic Contrast Enhanced imaging using a bolus of contrast agent, a procedure which allows considerable improvement in {evaluating} the quality of a vascular network and its permeability and is widely used in medical assessment of brain flows or cancerous tumors. Although the study is motivated by medical imaging application, we obtain a solution of a general problem of Laplace deconvolution based on noisy data which appears in many different contexts. We propose a new method for Laplace deconvolution which is based on expansions of the convolution kernel, the unknown function and the observed signal over Laguerre functions basis. The expansion results in a small system of linear equations with the matrix of the system being triangular and Toeplitz. The number $m$ of the terms in the expansion of the estimator is controlled via complexity penalty. The advantage of this methodology is that it leads to very fast computations, does not require exact knowledge of the kernel and produces no boundary effects due to extension at zero and cut-off at $T$. The technique leads to an estimator with the risk within a logarithmic factor of $m$ of the oracle risk under no assumptions on the model and within a constant factor of the oracle risk under mild assumptions. The methodology is illustrated by a finite sample simulation study which includes an example of the kernel obtained in the real life DCE experiments. Simulations confirm that the proposed technique is fast, efficient, accurate, usable from a practical point of view and competitive.

We consider the estimation of the slope function in functional linear regression, where scalar responses are modeled in dependence of random functions. Cardot and Johannes [J. Multivariate Anal. 101 (2010) 395-408] have shown that a thresholded projection estimator can attain up to a constant minimax-rates of convergence in a general framework which allows us to cover the prediction problem with respect to the mean squared prediction error as well as the estimation of the slope function and its derivatives. This estimation procedure, however, requires an optimal choice of a tuning parameter with regard to certain characteristics of the slope function and the covariance operator associated with the functional regressor. As this information is usually inaccessible in practice, we investigate a fully data-driven choice of the tuning parameter which combines model selection and Lepski's method. It is inspired by the recent work of Goldenshluger and Lepski [Ann. Statist. 39 (2011) 1608-1632]. The tuning parameter is selected as minimizer of a stochastic penalized contrast function imitating Lepski's method among a random collection of admissible values. This choice of the tuning parameter depends only on the data and we show that within the general framework the resulting data-driven thresholded projection estimator can attain minimax-rates up to a constant over a variety of classes of slope functions and covariance operators. The results are illustrated considering different configurations which cover in particular the prediction problem as well as the estimation of the slope and its derivatives. A simulation study shows the reasonable performance of the fully data-driven estimation procedure., Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AOS1050 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)

In this paper, we study nonparametric estimation of the L\'{e}vy density for L\'{e}vy processes, with and without Brownian component. For this, we consider $n$ discrete time observations with step $\Delta$. The asymptotic framework is: $n$ tends to infinity, $\Delta=\Delta_n$ tends to zero while $n\Delta_n$ tends to infinity. We use a Fourier approach to construct an adaptive nonparametric estimator of the L\'{e}vy density and to provide a bound for the global ${\mathbb{L}}^2$-risk. Estimators of the drift and of the variance of the Gaussian component are also studied. We discuss rates of convergence and give examples and simulation results for processes fitting in our framework., Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOS856 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)

Motivated by fluorescence lifetime measurements this paper considers the problem of nonparametric density estimation in the pile-up model. Adaptive nonparametric estimators are proposed for the pile-up model in its simple form as well as in the case of additional measurement errors. Furthermore, oracle type risk bounds for the mean integrated squared error (MISE) are provided. Finally, the estimation methods are assessed by a simulation study and the application to real fluorescence lifetime data.

We consider the problem of estimating the slope parameter in circular functional linear regression, where scalar responses Y1,...,Yn are modeled in dependence of 1-periodic, second order stationary random functions X1,...,Xn. We consider an orthogonal series estimator of the slope function, by replacing the first m theoretical coefficients of its development in the trigonometric basis by adequate estimators. Wepropose a model selection procedure for m in a set of admissible values, by defining a contrast function minimized by our estimator and a theoretical penalty function; this first step assumes the degree of ill posedness to be known. Then we generalize the procedure to a random set of admissible m's and a random penalty function. The resulting estimator is completely data driven and reaches automatically what is known to be the optimal minimax rate of convergence, in term of a general weighted L2-risk. This means that we provide adaptive estimators of both the slope function and its derivatives.

This paper is concerned with nonparametric estimation of the L\'evy density of a pure jump L\'evy process. The sample path is observed at $n$ discrete instants with fixed sampling interval. We construct a collection of estimators obtained by deconvolution methods and deduced from appropriate estimators of the characteristic function and its first derivative. We obtain a bound for the ${\mathbb L}^2$-risk, under general assumptions on the model. Then we propose a penalty function that allows to build an adaptive estimator. The risk bound for the adaptive estimator is obtained under additional assumptions on the L\'evy density. Examples of models fitting in our framework are described and rates of convergence of the estimator are discussed.

We consider projection methods for the estimation of the cumulative distribution function under interval censoring, case 1. Such censored data also known as current status data, arise when the only information available on the variable of interest is whether it is greater or less than an observed random time. Two types of adaptive estimators are investigated. The first one is a two-step estimator built as a quotient estimator. The second estimator results from a mean square regression contrast. Both estimators are proved to achieve automatically the standard optimal rate associated with the unknown regularity of the function, but with some restriction for the quotient estimator. Simulation experiments are presented to illustrate and compare the methods., Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-EJS209 the Electronic Journal of Statistics (http://www.i-journals.org/ejs/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)

Consider discrete time observations (X_{\ell\delta})_{1\leq \ell \leq n+1}$ of the process $X$ satisfying $dX_t= \sqrt{V_t} dB_t$, with $V_t$ a one-dimensional positive diffusion process independent of the Brownian motion $B$. For both the drift and the diffusion coefficient of the unobserved diffusion $V$, we propose nonparametric least square estimators, and provide bounds for theirrisk. Estimators are chosen among a collection of functions belonging to a finite dimensional space whose dimension is selected by a data driven procedure. Implementation on simulated data illustrates how the method works.

We consider a one-dimensional diffusion process $(X_t)$ which is observed at $n+1$ discrete times with regular sampling interval $\Delta$. Assuming that $(X_t)$ is strictly stationary, we propose nonparametric estimators of the drift and diffusion coefficients obtained by a penalized least squares approach. Our estimators belong to a finite-dimensional function space whose dimension is selected by a data-driven method. We provide non-asymptotic risk bounds for the estimators. When the sampling interval tends to zero while the number of observations and the length of the observation time interval tend to infinity, we show that our estimators reach the minimax optimal rates of convergence. Numerical results based on exact simulations of diffusion processes are given for several examples of models and illustrate the qualities of our estimation algorithms., Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/07-BEJ5173 in the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm)

We consider a model $Y\_t=\sigma\_t\eta\_t$ in which $(\sigma\_t)$ is not independent of the noise process $(\eta\_t)$, but $\sigma\_t$ is independent of $\eta\_t$ for each $t$. We assume that $(\sigma\_t)$ is stationary and we propose an adaptive estimator of the density of $\ln(\sigma^2\_t)$ based on the observations $Y\_t$. Under various dependence structures, the rates of this nonparametric estimator coincide with the minimax rates obtained in the i.i.d. case when $(\sigma\_t)$ and $(\eta\_t)$ are independent, in all cases where these minimax rates are known. The results apply to various linear and non linear ARCH processes.

In the convolution model $Z\_i=X\_i+ \epsilon\_i$, we give a model selection procedure to estimate the density of the unobserved variables $(X\_i)\_{1 \leq i \leq n}$, when the sequence $(X\_i)\_{i \geq 1}$ is strictly stationary but not necessarily independent. This procedure depends on wether the density of $\epsilon\_i$ is super smooth or ordinary smooth. The rates of convergence of the penalized contrast estimators are the same as in the independent framework, and are minimax over most classes of regularity on ${\mathbb R}$. Our results apply to mixing sequences, but also to many other dependent sequences. When the errors are super smooth, the condition on the dependence coefficients is the minimal condition of that type ensuring that the sequence $(X\_i)\_{i \geq 1}$ is not a long-memory process.

We consider the problem of estimating the density $g$ of identically distributed variables $X\_i$, from a sample $Z\_1, ..., Z\_n$ where $Z\_i=X\_i+\sigma\epsilon\_i$, $i=1, ..., n$ and $\sigma \epsilon\_i$ is a noise independent of $X\_i$ with known density $ \sigma^{-1}f\_\epsilon(./\sigma)$. We generalize adaptive estimators, constructed by a model selection procedure, described in Comte et al. (2005). We study numerically their properties in various contexts and we test their robustness. Comparisons are made with respect to deconvolution kernel estimators, misspecification of errors, dependency,... It appears that our estimation algorithm, based on a fast procedure, performs very well in all contexts.

The authors consider the problem of estimating the density $g$ of independent and identically distributed variables $X\_i$, from a sample $Z\_1, ..., Z\_n$ where $Z\_i=X\_i+\sigma\epsilon\_i$, $i=1, ..., n$, $\epsilon$ is a noise independent of $X$, with $\sigma\epsilon$ having known distribution. They present a model selection procedure allowing to construct an adaptive estimator of $g$ and to find non-asymptotic bounds for its $\mathbb{L}\_2(\mathbb{R})$-risk. The estimator achieves the minimax rate of convergence, in most cases where lowers bounds are available. A simulation study gives an illustration of the good practical performances of the method.

We consider the regression model with errors-in-variables where we observe $n$ i.i.d. copies of $(Y,Z)$ satisfying $Y=f(X)+\xi, Z=X+\sigma\epsilon$, involving independent and unobserved random variables $X,\xi,\epsilon$. The density $g$ of $X$ is unknown, whereas the density of $\sigma\epsilon$ is completely known. Using the observations $(Y\_i, Z\_i)$, $i=1,...,n$, we propose an estimator of the regression function $f$, built as the ratio of two penalized minimum contrast estimators of $\ell=fg$ and $g$, without any prior knowledge on their smoothness. We prove that its $\mathbb{L}\_2$-risk on a compact set is bounded by the sum of the two $\mathbb{L}\_2(\mathbb{R})$-risks of the estimators of $\ell$ and $g$, and give the rate of convergence of such estimators for various smoothness classes for $\ell$ and $g$, when the errors $\epsilon$ are either ordinary smooth or super smooth. The resulting rate is optimal in a minimax sense in all cases where lower bounds are available.