Bayesian analyses of spatial data often use a conditionally autoregressive (CAR) prior, which can be written as the kernel of an improper density that depends on a precision parameter tau that is typically unknown. To include tau in the Bayesian analysis, the kernel must be multiplied by tau(k) for some k. This article rigorously derives k = (n - I)/2 for the L2 norm CAR prior (also called a Ga...

In this article we propose a test for additivity of a nonlinear conditionally heteroscedastic autoregressive model. A test is based on the unequal variance unbalanced design ANOVA scheme. Asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is derived and the test performance in finite samples is studied using simulation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first additivity test for a conditiona...

Selective influence of experimental factors upon observable or hypothetical random variables is a key concept in the analysis of processing architectures and response time decompositions. This paper deals with the notion of conditionally selective influence, defined as follows. Let {X1, em leader, Xn} be stochastically interdependent random variables (e.g., hypothetical components of response t...

Conditionally specified Gaussian Markov random field (GMRF) models with adjacency-based neighbourhood weight matrix, commonly known as neighbourhood-based GMRF models, have been the mainstream approach to spatial smoothing in Bayesian disease mapping. In the present paper, we propose a conditionally specified Gaussian random field (GRF) model with a similarity-based non-spatial weight matrix to...

The goal of multiple imputation is to provide valid inferences for statistical estimates from incomplete data. To achieve that goal, imputed values should preserve the structure in the data, as well as the uncertainty about this structure, and include any knowledge about the process that generated the missing data. Two approaches for imputing multivariate data exist: joint modeling (JM) and ful...

Tooth Cementum Annulation (TCA) is an age estimation method carried out on thin cross sections of the root of the human tooth. Age is computed by adding the tooth eruption age to the count of annual incremental lines which are called tooth rings and appear in the cementum band. Algorithms to denoise and segment the digital image of the tooth section are considered a crucial step towards compute...