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Unbiased Estimation Of Standard Deviation
In statistics and in particular statistical theory, unbiased estimation of a standard deviation is the calculation from a statistical sample of an estimated value of the standard deviation (a measure of statistical dispersion) of a population of values, in such a way that the expected value of the calculation equals the true value. Except in some important situations, outlined later, the task has little relevance to applications of statistics since its need is avoided by standard procedures, such as the use of significance tests and confidence intervals, or by using Bayesian analysis. However, for statistical theory, it provides an exemplar problem in the context of estimation theory which is both simple to state and for which results cannot be obtained in closed form. It also provides an example where imposing the requirement for unbiased estimation might be seen as just adding inconvenience, with no real benefit. Motivation In statistics, the standard deviation of a population ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statistics
Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industrial, or social problem, it is conventional to begin with a statistical population or a statistical model to be studied. Populations can be diverse groups of people or objects such as "all people living in a country" or "every atom composing a crystal". Statistics deals with every aspect of data, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.Dodge, Y. (2006) ''The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms'', Oxford University Press. When census data cannot be collected, statisticians collect data by developing specific experiment designs and survey samples. Representative sampling assures that inferences and conclusions can reasonably extend from the sample to the population as a whole. An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jensen's Inequality
In mathematics, Jensen's inequality, named after the Danish mathematician Johan Jensen, relates the value of a convex function of an integral to the integral of the convex function. It was proved by Jensen in 1906, building on an earlier proof of the same inequality for doubly-differentiable functions by Otto Hölder in 1889. Given its generality, the inequality appears in many forms depending on the context, some of which are presented below. In its simplest form the inequality states that the convex transformation of a mean is less than or equal to the mean applied after convex transformation; it is a simple corollary that the opposite is true of concave transformations. Jensen's inequality generalizes the statement that the secant line of a convex function lies ''above'' the graph of the function, which is Jensen's inequality for two points: the secant line consists of weighted means of the convex function (for ''t'' ∈ ,1, :t f(x_1) + (1-t) f(x_2), whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rao–Blackwell Theorem
In statistics, the Rao–Blackwell theorem, sometimes referred to as the Rao–Blackwell–Kolmogorov theorem, is a result which characterizes the transformation of an arbitrarily crude estimator into an estimator that is optimal by the mean-squared-error criterion or any of a variety of similar criteria. The Rao–Blackwell theorem states that if ''g''(''X'') is any kind of estimator of a parameter θ, then the conditional expectation of ''g''(''X'') given ''T''(''X''), where ''T'' is a sufficient statistic, is typically a better estimator of θ, and is never worse. Sometimes one can very easily construct a very crude estimator ''g''(''X''), and then evaluate that conditional expected value to get an estimator that is in various senses optimal. The theorem is named after Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao and David Blackwell. The process of transforming an estimator using the Rao–Blackwell theorem can be referred to as Rao–Blackwellization. The transformed estimator is called th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maximum Likelihood
In statistics, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is a method of estimating the parameters of an assumed probability distribution, given some observed data. This is achieved by maximizing a likelihood function so that, under the assumed statistical model, the observed data is most probable. The point in the parameter space that maximizes the likelihood function is called the maximum likelihood estimate. The logic of maximum likelihood is both intuitive and flexible, and as such the method has become a dominant means of statistical inference. If the likelihood function is differentiable, the derivative test for finding maxima can be applied. In some cases, the first-order conditions of the likelihood function can be solved analytically; for instance, the ordinary least squares estimator for a linear regression model maximizes the likelihood when all observed outcomes are assumed to have Normal distributions with the same variance. From the perspective of Bayesian infere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statistically Independent
Independence is a fundamental notion in probability theory, as in statistics and the theory of stochastic processes. Two events are independent, statistically independent, or stochastically independent if, informally speaking, the occurrence of one does not affect the probability of occurrence of the other or, equivalently, does not affect the odds. Similarly, two random variables are independent if the realization of one does not affect the probability distribution of the other. When dealing with collections of more than two events, two notions of independence need to be distinguished. The events are called pairwise independent if any two events in the collection are independent of each other, while mutual independence (or collective independence) of events means, informally speaking, that each event is independent of any combination of other events in the collection. A similar notion exists for collections of random variables. Mutual independence implies pairwise independence, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standard Error (statistics)
The standard error (SE) of a statistic (usually an estimate of a parameter) is the standard deviation of its sampling distribution or an estimate of that standard deviation. If the statistic is the sample mean, it is called the standard error of the mean (SEM). The sampling distribution of a mean is generated by repeated sampling from the same population and recording of the sample means obtained. This forms a distribution of different means, and this distribution has its own mean and variance. Mathematically, the variance of the sampling mean distribution obtained is equal to the variance of the population divided by the sample size. This is because as the sample size increases, sample means cluster more closely around the population mean. Therefore, the relationship between the standard error of the mean and the standard deviation is such that, for a given sample size, the standard error of the mean equals the standard deviation divided by the square root of the sample size. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statistical Quality Control
Statistical process control (SPC) or statistical quality control (SQC) is the application of statistical methods to monitor and control the quality of a production process. This helps to ensure that the process operates efficiently, producing more specification-conforming products with less waste (rework or scrap). SPC can be applied to any process where the "conforming product" (product meeting specifications) output can be measured. Key tools used in SPC include run charts, control charts, a focus on continuous improvement, and the design of experiments. An example of a process where SPC is applied is manufacturing lines. SPC must be practiced in two phases: The first phase is the initial establishment of the process, and the second phase is the regular production use of the process. In the second phase, a decision of the period to be examined must be made, depending upon the change in 5M&E conditions (Man, Machine, Material, Method, Movement, Environment) and wear rate of pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamma Function
In mathematics, the gamma function (represented by , the capital letter gamma from the Greek alphabet) is one commonly used extension of the factorial function to complex numbers. The gamma function is defined for all complex numbers except the non-positive integers. For every positive integer , \Gamma(n) = (n-1)!\,. Derived by Daniel Bernoulli, for complex numbers with a positive real part, the gamma function is defined via a convergent improper integral: \Gamma(z) = \int_0^\infty t^ e^\,dt, \ \qquad \Re(z) > 0\,. The gamma function then is defined as the analytic continuation of this integral function to a meromorphic function that is holomorphic in the whole complex plane except zero and the negative integers, where the function has simple poles. The gamma function has no zeroes, so the reciprocal gamma function is an entire function. In fact, the gamma function corresponds to the Mellin transform of the negative exponential function: \Gamma(z) = \mat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chi Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the chi distribution is a continuous probability distribution. It is the distribution of the positive square root of the sum of squares of a set of independent random variables each following a standard normal distribution, or equivalently, the distribution of the Euclidean distance of the random variables from the origin. It is thus related to the chi-squared distribution by describing the distribution of the positive square roots of a variable obeying a chi-squared distribution. If Z_1, \ldots, Z_k are k independent, normally distributed random variables with mean 0 and standard deviation 1, then the statistic :Y = \sqrt is distributed according to the chi distribution. The chi distribution has one parameter, k, which specifies the number of degrees of freedom (i.e. the number of random variables Z_i). The most familiar examples are the Rayleigh distribution (chi distribution with two degrees of freedom) and the Maxwell–Boltzmann dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Degrees Of Freedom (statistics)
In statistics, the number of degrees of freedom is the number of values in the final calculation of a statistic that are free to vary. Estimates of statistical parameters can be based upon different amounts of information or data. The number of independent pieces of information that go into the estimate of a parameter is called the degrees of freedom. In general, the degrees of freedom of an estimate of a parameter are equal to the number of independent scores that go into the estimate minus the number of parameters used as intermediate steps in the estimation of the parameter itself. For example, if the variance is to be estimated from a random sample of ''N'' independent scores, then the degrees of freedom is equal to the number of independent scores (''N'') minus the number of parameters estimated as intermediate steps (one, namely, the sample mean) and is therefore equal to ''N'' − 1. Mathematically, degrees of freedom is the number of dimensions of the domain o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chi-squared Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the chi-squared distribution (also chi-square or \chi^2-distribution) with k degrees of freedom is the distribution of a sum of the squares of k independent standard normal random variables. The chi-squared distribution is a special case of the gamma distribution and is one of the most widely used probability distributions in inferential statistics, notably in hypothesis testing and in construction of confidence intervals. This distribution is sometimes called the central chi-squared distribution, a special case of the more general noncentral chi-squared distribution. The chi-squared distribution is used in the common chi-squared tests for goodness of fit of an observed distribution to a theoretical one, the independence of two criteria of classification of qualitative data, and in confidence interval estimation for a population standard deviation of a normal distribution from a sample standard deviation. Many other statistical test ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cochran's Theorem
In statistics, Cochran's theorem, devised by William G. Cochran, is a theorem used to justify results relating to the probability distributions of statistics that are used in the analysis of variance. Statement Let ''U''1, ..., ''U''''N'' be i.i.d. standard normally distributed random variables, and U = _1, ..., U_NT. Let B^,B^,\ldots, B^be symmetric matrices. Define ''r''''i'' to be the rank of B^. Define Q_i=U^T B^U, so that the ''Q''i are quadratic forms. Further assume \sum_i Q_i = U^T U. Cochran's theorem states that the following are equivalent: * r_1+\cdots +r_k=N, * the ''Q''''i'' are independent * each ''Q''''i'' has a chi-squared distribution with ''r''''i'' degrees of freedom. Often it's stated as \sum_i A_i = A, where A is idempotent, and \sum_i r_i = N is replaced by \sum_i r_i = rank(A). But after an orthogonal transform, A = diag(I_M, 0), and so we reduce to the above theorem. Proof Claim: Let X be a standard Gaussian in \R^n, then for any symmetric matri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
