Skip to main content
Log in

Non-asymptotic Bandwidth Selection for Density Estimation of Discrete Data

  • Published:
Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We propose a new method for density estimation of categorical data. The method implements a non-asymptotic data-driven bandwidth selection rule and provides model sparsity not present in the standard kernel density estimation method. Numerical experiments with a well-known ten-dimensional binary medical data set illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for density estimation, discriminant analysis and classification.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • J. Aitchison and C. G. G. Aitken, “Multivariate binary discrimination by the kernel method,” Biometrika vol. 63 pp. 413–420, 1976.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • J. A. Anderson, K. Whale, J. Williamson, and W. W. Buchanan, “A statistical aid to the diagnosis of keratoconjunctivitis sicca,” Quarterly Journal of Medicine vol. 41 pp. 175–189, April, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Z. I. Botev, Stochastic Methods for Optimization and Machine Learning. ePrintsUQ, http://eprint.uq.edu.au/archive/00003377, Technical Report, 2005.

  • Z. I. Botev and D. P. Kroese, “The generalized cross entropy method, with applications to probability density estimation,” Electronic Preprint, 2006, http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/.

  • A. W. Bowman, “An alternative method of cross-validation for the smoothing of density estimates,” Biometrika vol. 71 pp. 353–360, 1984.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • A. W. Bowman, “A comparative study of some kernel-based nonparametric density estimators,” Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation vol. 21 pp. 313–327, 1985.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • L. Devroye and L. Gyofri “Nonparametric density estimation: the L 1 view.” In Wiley Series In Probability And Mathematical Statistics, 1985.

  • D. Erdogmus and J. C. Principe, “An error-entropy minimization algorithm for supervised training of nonlinear adaptive systems,” IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 50(7) pp. 1184–1192, 2002.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • M. J. Faddy and M. C. Jones, “Semiparametric smoothing for discrete data,” Biometrika vol. 85 pp. 131–138, 1998.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • R. Fletcher, Practical Methods of Optimization. Wiley, 1987.

  • P. Hall, “On nonparametric multivariate binary discrimination,” Biometrika vol. 68 pp. 287–294, 1981.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • J. H. Havrda and F. Charvát, “Quantification methods of classification processes: concepts of structural α entropy,” Kybernatica vol. 3 pp. 30–35, 1967.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • E. T. Jaynes, “Information theory and statistical mechanics,” Physical Reviews vol. 106 pp. 621–630, 1957.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • M. C. Jones, J. S. Marron, and S. J. Sheather, “Progress in data-based bandwidth selection for kernel density estimation,” Computational Statistics vol. 11 pp. 337–381, 1996.

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • G. Judge, A. Golan, and D. Miller, Maximum Entropy Econometrics: Robust Estimation with Limited Data. Wiley Series in Financial Economics and Quantitative Analysis, New York, 1996.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • J. N. Kapur, Maximum Entropy Models in Science and Engineering, Wiley: New Delhi, India, 1989.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • J. N. Kapur. Measures of Information and Their Applications, Wiley: New Delhi, India, 1994.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • J. N. Kapur and H. K. Kesavan, Generalized Maximum Entropy Principle (With applications). Standford Educational Press: University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 1987.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • J. N. Kapur and H. K. Kesavan, “The generalized maximum entropy principle,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics vol. 19 pp. 1042–1052, 1989.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • J. N. Kapur and H. K. Kesavan, Entropy Optimization Principles with Applications, Academic: New York, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Kullback and R. A. Leibler, “On information and sufficiency,” Annals of Mathematical Statistics vol. 22 pp. 79–86, 1951.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • P. A. Lachenbruch and M. R. Mickey, “Estimation of error rates in discriminant analysis,” Technometrics vol. 10 pp. 1–10, 1968.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • C. R. Loader, “Bandwidth selection: classical or plug-in,” The Annals of Statistics vol. 27 pp. 415–438, 1999.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • R. A. Morejon and J. C. Principe, “Advanced search algorithms for information-theoretic learning with kernel-based estimators,” IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, vol. 15(4) pp. 874–884, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R. Y. Rubinstein, “The stochastic minimum cross-entropy method for combinatorial optimization and rare-event estimation,” Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability vol. 7 pp. 5–50, 2005.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • R. Y. Rubinstein and D. P. Kroese, The Cross-Entropy Method, Springer, 2004.

  • M. Rudemo, “Empirical choice of histograms and kernel density estimators,” Scandinavian Journal of Statistics vol. 9 pp. 65–78, 1982.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • D. W. Scott, Multivariate Density Estimation. Theory, Practice and Visualization, Wiley, 1992.

  • C. E. Shannon, “A mathematical theory of communication,” Bell System Technical Journal vol. 27 pp. 379–423;623–659, 1948.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • B. W. Silverman, Density Estimation for Statistics and Data Analysis, Chapman and Hall, 1986.

  • J. S. Simonoff, “Smoothing categorical data,” Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference vol. 47 pp. 41–69, 1995.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • J. S. Simonoff, Smoothing Methods in Statistics, Springer, 1996.

  • C. J. Stone, “An asymptotically optimal window selection rule for kernel density estimates,” Annals of Statistics, vol. 12, 1984.

  • D. M. Titterington, “A comparative study of kernel-based density estimates for categorical data,” Technometrics vol. 22 pp. 259–268, 1980.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • C. Tsallis, “Possible generalization of boltzmann-gibbs statistics,” Journal of Statistical Physics vol. 52 pp. 479, 1988.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • M. P. Wand and M. C. Jones, Kernel Smoothing, Chapman & Hall, 1995.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dirk P. Kroese.

Additional information

Supported by the Australian Research Council, under grant number DP0558957.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Botev, Z.I., Kroese, D.P. Non-asymptotic Bandwidth Selection for Density Estimation of Discrete Data. Methodol Comput Appl Probab 10, 435–451 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11009-007-9057-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11009-007-9057-z

Keywords

AMS 2000 Subject Classification

Navigation