In many applications, data cluster. Failing to take the cluster structure into consideration generally leads underestimated variances of point estimators and inflated type I errors in hypothesis...

 In this paper we consider a general setting of skew-symmetric distribution which was constructed by Azzalini (1985), and its properties are presented. A suitable empirical estimator for a skew-symmetric distribution is proposed. In data analysis, by comparing this empirical model with the estimated skew-normal distribution, we show that the proposed empirical model has a better fit in den...

The authors propose a robust semi-parametric empirical likelihood method to integrate all available information from multiple samples with a common center of measurements. Two different sets of estimating equations are used to improve the classical likelihood inference on the measurement center. The proposed method does not require the knowledge of the functional forms of the probability densit...

We demonstrate that the processes underlying on-line auction price bids and many other longitudinal data can be represented by an empirical first order stochastic ordinary differential equation with time-varying coefficients and a smooth drift process. This equation may be empirically obtained from longitudinal observations for a sample of subjects and does not presuppose specific knowledge of ...