Search results for " function"
showing 10 items of 9395 documents
Thermalization of Random Motion in Weakly Confining Potentials
2010
We show that in weakly confining conservative force fields, a subclass of diffusion-type (Smoluchowski) processes, admits a family of "heavy-tailed" non-Gaussian equilibrium probability density functions (pdfs), with none or a finite number of moments. These pdfs, in the standard Gibbs-Boltzmann form, can be also inferred directly from an extremum principle, set for Shannon entropy under a constraint that the mean value of the force potential has been a priori prescribed. That enforces the corresponding Lagrange multiplier to play the role of inverse temperature. Weak confining properties of the potentials are manifested in a thermodynamical peculiarity that thermal equilibria can be approa…
Contour calculus for many-particle functions
2019
In non-equilibrium many-body perturbation theory, Langreth rules are an efficient way to extract real-time equations from contour ones. However, the standard rules are not applicable in cases that do not reduce to simple convolutions and multiplications. We introduce a procedure for extracting real-time equations from general multi-argument contour functions with an arbitrary number of arguments. This is done for both the standard Keldysh contour, as well as the extended contour with a vertical track that allows for general initial states. This amounts to the generalization of the standard Langreth rules to much more general situations. These rules involve multi-argument retarded functions …
Varying-time random effects models for longitudinal data: unmixing and temporal interpolation of remote-sensing data
2008
Remote sensing is a helpful tool for crop monitoring or vegetation-growth estimation at a country or regional scale. However, satellite images generally have to cope with a compromise between the time frequency of observations and their resolution (i.e. pixel size). When concerned with high temporal resolution, we have to work with information on the basis of kilometric pixels, named mixed pixels, that represent aggregated responses of multiple land cover. Disaggreggation or unmixing is then necessary to downscale from the square kilometer to the local dynamic of each theme (crop, wood, meadows, etc.). Assuming the land use is known, that is to say the proportion of each theme within each m…
Functional Principal Component Analysis for the explorative analysis of multisite-multivariate air pollution time series with long gaps
2013
The knowledge of the urban air quality represents the first step to face air pollution issues. For the last decades many cities can rely on a network of monitoring stations recording concentration values for the main pollutants. This paper focuses on functional principal component analysis (FPCA) to investigate multiple pollutant datasets measured over time at multiple sites within a given urban area. Our purpose is to extend what has been proposed in the literature to data that are multisite and multivariate at the same time. The approach results to be effective to highlight some relevant statistical features of the time series, giving the opportunity to identify significant pollutants and…
Linear and ellipsoidal restrictions in linear regression
1991
The problem of combining linear and ellipsoidal restrictions in linear regression is investigated. Necessary and sufficient conditions for compactness of the restriction set are proved assuring the existence of a minimax estimator. When the restriction set is not compact a minimax estimator may still exist for special loss functions arid regression designs
L\'{e}vy flights in inhomogeneous environments
2009
We study the long time asymptotics of probability density functions (pdfs) of L\'{e}vy flights in different confining potentials. For that we use two models: Langevin - driven and (L\'{e}vy - Schr\"odinger) semigroup - driven dynamics. It turns out that the semigroup modeling provides much stronger confining properties than the standard Langevin one. Since contractive semigroups set a link between L\'{e}vy flights and fractional (pseudo-differential) Hamiltonian systems, we can use the latter to control the long - time asymptotics of the pertinent pdfs. To do so, we need to impose suitable restrictions upon the Hamiltonian and its potential. That provides verifiable criteria for an invarian…
Estimating regression models with unknown break-points.
2003
This paper deals with fitting piecewise terms in regression models where one or more break-points are true parameters of the model. For estimation, a simple linearization technique is called for, taking advantage of the linear formulation of the problem. As a result, the method is suitable for any regression model with linear predictor and so current software can be used; threshold modelling as function of explanatory variables is also allowed. Differences between the other procedures available are shown and relative merits discussed. Simulations and two examples are presented to illustrate the method.
Block–Savits Characterization and Star Ordering of Exponential Mixtures
2008
Block and Savits (1980) established a characterization of life distributions using the Laplace transform. In this article, we remark that one of the necessary conditions to be IFRA distribution is equivalent to the star ordering of exponential mixtures. It leads to the definition of two new classes of life distributions, called LIFR and LIFRA, and their dual classes: LDFR and LDFRA. It occurs that these classes have many useful aging properties and preserve known reliability operations. Properties of the classes are studied and relations with known classes are established.
Explicit near-symplectic mappings of Hamiltonian systems with Lie-generating functions
2008
The construction of explicit near-symplectic mappings for generic Hamiltonian systems with the utilization of Lie transforms is presented. The method is mathematically rigorous and systematically extended to high order with respect to a perturbation parameter. The explicit mappings are compared to their implicit counterparts, which use mixed-variable generating functions, in terms of conservation of invariant quantities, calculation speed and accurate construction of Poincare surfaces of sections. The comparative study considers a wide range of parameters and initial conditions for which different time scales are involved due to large differences between internal and external frequencies of…
Some Remarks on Exponential Families
1987
Abstract The following facts may serve to provide a feeling about how restrictive the assumption of an exponential family is. (a) A one-parameter exponential family in standard form with respect to Lebesgue measure is a location parameter family iff it is normal with fixed variance. (b) It is a scale parameter family iff it is gamma with fixed shape parameter. Both facts are known (see Borges and Pfanzagl 1965; Ferguson 1962; Lindley 1958) but may not have received as much attention as they deserve. Under the assumption of differentiable densities, short and elementary proofs are given.