Capturing a Change in the Covariance Structure of a Multivariate Process

This research is inspired from monitoring the process covariance structure of q attributes where samples are independent, having been collected from a multivariate normal distribution with known mean vector and unknown covariance matrix. The focus is on two matrix random variables, constructed from different Wishart ratios, that describe the process for the two consecutive time periods before and immediately after the change in the covariance structure took place. The product moments of these constructed random variables are highlighted and set the scene for a proposed measure to enable the practitioner to calculate the run-length probability to detect a shift immediately after a change in the covariance matrix occurs. Our results open a new approach and provides insight for detecting the change in the parameter structure as soon as possible once the underlying process, described by a multivariate normal process, encounters a permanent/sustained upward or downward shift.

Increased persuadability and credulity in people with corpus callosum dysgenesis

Corpus callosum dysgenesis is one of the most common congenital neurological malformations. Despite being a clear and identifiable structural alteration of the brains white matter connectivity, the impact of corpus callosum dysgenesis on cognition and behavior has remained unclear. Here we build upon past clinical observations in the literature to define the clinical phenotype of corpus callosum dysgenesis better using unadjusted and adjusted group differences compared with a neurotypical sample on a range of social and cognitive measures that have been previously reported to be impacted by a corpus callosum dysgenesis diagnosis. Those with a diagnosis of corpus callosum dysgenesis (n = 22) demonstrated significantly higher persuadability, credulity, and insensitivity to social trickery than neurotypical (n = 86) participants, after controlling for age, sex, education, autistic-like traits, social intelligence, and general cognition. To explore this further, machine learning, utilizing a set neurotypical sample for training the normative covariance structure of our psychometric variables, was used to test whether these dimensions possessed the capability to discriminate between a test-set of neurotypical and corpus callosum dysgenesis participants. We found that participants with a diagnosis of corpus callosum dysgenesis were best classed within dimension space along the same axis as persuadability, credulity, and insensitivity to social trickery after controlling for age and sex, with Leave-One-Out-Cross-Validation across 250 training-set permutations providing a mean accuracy of 71.7 percent. These results have wide-reaching implications for a) the characterization of corpus callosum dysgenesis, and b) the role of the corpus callosum in social inference.

Supervised linear classification of Gaussian spatio-temporal data

In this article we focus on the problem of supervised classifying of the spatio-temporal Gaussian random field observation into one of two classes, specified by different mean parameters. The main distinctive feature of the proposed approach is allowing the class label to depend on spatial location as well as on time moment. It is assumed that the spatio-temporal covariance structure factors into a purely spatial component and a purely temporal component following AR(p) model. In numerical illustrations with simulated data, the influence of the values of spatial and temporal covariance parameters to the derived error rates for several prior probabilities models are studied.

UNIVERSAL RISK BUDGETING

I juxtapose Cover’s vaunted universal portfolio selection algorithm ([Cover, TM (1991). Universal portfolios. Mathematical Finance, 1, 1–29]) with the modern representation of a portfolio as a certain allocation of risk among the available assets, rather than a mere allocation of capital. Thus, I define a Universal Risk Budgeting scheme that weights each risk budget, instead of each capital budget, by its historical performance record, á la Cover. I prove that my scheme is mathematically equivalent to a novel type of [Cover, TM and E Ordentlich (1996). Universal portfolios with side information. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 42, 348–363] universal portfolio that uses a new family of prior densities that have hitherto not appeared in the literature on universal portfolio theory. I argue that my universal risk budget, so-defined, is a potentially more perspicuous and flexible type of universal portfolio; it allows the algorithmic trader to incorporate, with advantage, his prior knowledge or beliefs about the particular covariance structure of instantaneous asset returns. Say, if there is some dispersion in the volatilities of the available assets, then the uniform or Dirichlet priors that are standard in the literature will generate a dangerously lopsided prior distribution over the possible risk budgets. In the author’s opinion, the proposed “Garivaltis prior” makes for a nice improvement on Cover’s timeless expert system, that is properly agnostic and open to different risk budgets from the very get-go. Inspired by [Jamshidian, F (1992). Asymptotically optimal portfolios. Mathematical Finance, 2, 131–150], the universal risk budget is formulated as a new kind of exotic option in the continuous time Black–Scholes market, with all the pleasure, elegance, and convenience that entails.

A Central Limit Theorem for Predictive Distributions

Let S be a Borel subset of a Polish space and F the set of bounded Borel functions f:S→R. Let an(·)=P(Xn+1∈·∣X1,…,Xn) be the n-th predictive distribution corresponding to a sequence (Xn) of S-valued random variables. If (Xn) is conditionally identically distributed, there is a random probability measure μ on S such that ∫fdan⟶a.s.∫fdμ for all f∈F. Define Dn(f)=dn∫fdan−∫fdμ for all f∈F, where dn>0 is a constant. In this note, it is shown that, under some conditions on (Xn) and with a suitable choice of dn, the finite dimensional distributions of the process Dn=Dn(f):f∈F stably converge to a Gaussian kernel with a known covariance structure. In addition, Eφ(Dn(f))∣X1,…,Xn converges in probability for all f∈F and φ∈Cb(R).