In 1946 Paul Halmos studied unbiased estimators of minimum variance, and planted the seed from which the subject matter of the present monograph sprang. The author has undertaken to provide experts and advanced students with a review of the present status of the evolved theory of U-statistics, including applications to indicate the range and scope of U-statistic methods. Complete with over 200 end-of-chapter references, this is an invaluable addition to the libraries of applied and theoretical statisticians and mathematicians.

The theory of U-statistics goes back to the fundamental work of Hoeffding [1], in which he proved the central limit theorem. During last forty years the interest to this class of random variables has been permanently increasing, and thus, the new intensively developing branch of probability theory has been formed. The U-statistics are one of the universal objects of the modem probability theory of summation. On the one hand, they are more complicated "algebraically" than sums of independent random variables and vectors, and on the other hand, they contain essential elements of dependence which display themselves in the martingale properties. In addition, the U -statistics as an object of mathematical statistics occupy one of the central places in statistical problems. The development of the theory of U-statistics is stipulated by the influence of the classical theory of summation of independent random variables: The law of large num bers, central limit theorem, invariance principle, and the law of the iterated logarithm we re proved, the estimates of convergence rate were obtained, etc.

This is an introductory text on a broad class of statistical estimators that are minimizers of convex functions. It covers the basics of U-statistics and Mm-estimators and develops their asymptotic properties. It also provides an elementary introduction to resampling, particularly in the context of these estimators. The last chapter is on practical implementation of the methods presented in other chapters, using the free software R.

A timely and applied approach to the newly discovered methods and applications of U-statistics Built on years of collaborative research and academic experience, Modern Applied U-Statistics successfully presents a thorough introduction to the theory of U-statistics using in-depth examples and applications that address contemporary areas of study including biomedical and psychosocial research. Utilizing a "learn by example" approach, this book provides an accessible, yet in-depth, treatment of U-statistics, as well as addresses key concepts in asymptotic theory by integrating translational and cross-disciplinary research. The authors begin with an introduction of the essential and theoretical foundations of U-statistics such as the notion of convergence in probability and distribution, basic convergence results, stochastic Os, inference theory, generalized estimating equations, as well as the definition and asymptotic properties of U-statistics. With an emphasis on nonparametric applications when and where applicable, the authors then build upon this established foundation in order to equip readers with the knowledge needed to understand the modern-day extensions of U-statistics that are explored in subsequent chapters. Additional topical coverage includes: Longitudinal data modeling with missing data Parametric and distribution-free mixed-effect and structural equation models A new multi-response based regression framework for non-parametric statistics such as the product moment correlation, Kendall's tau, and Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon rank tests A new class of U-statistic-based estimating equations (UBEE) for dependent responses Motivating examples, in-depth illustrations of statistical and model-building concepts, and an extensive discussion of longitudinal study designs strengthen the real-world utility and comprehension of this book. An accompanying Web site features SAS? and S-Plus? program codes, software applications, and additional study data. Modern Applied U-Statistics accommodates second- and third-year students of biostatistics at the graduate level and also serves as an excellent self-study for practitioners in the fields of bioinformatics and psychosocial research.

This book is an introduction to the field of asymptotic statistics. The treatment is both practical and mathematically rigorous. In addition to most of the standard topics of an asymptotics course, including likelihood inference, M-estimation, the theory of asymptotic efficiency, U-statistics, and rank procedures, the book also presents recent research topics such as semiparametric models, the bootstrap, and empirical processes and their applications. The topics are organized from the central idea of approximation by limit experiments, which gives the book one of its unifying themes. This entails mainly the local approximation of the classical i.i.d. set up with smooth parameters by location experiments involving a single, normally distributed observation. Thus, even the standard subjects of asymptotic statistics are presented in a novel way. Suitable as a graduate or Master s level statistics text, this book will also give researchers an overview of the latest research in asymptotic statistics.

In 1946 Paul Halmos studied unbiased estimators of minimum variance, and planted the seed from which the subject matter of the present monograph sprang. The author has undertaken to provide experts and advanced students with a review of the present status of the evolved theory of U-statistics, including applications to indicate the range and scope of U-statistic methods. Complete with over 200 end-of-chapter references, this is an invaluable addition to the libraries of applied and theoretical statisticians and mathematicians.

U-statistics are universal objects of modern probabilistic summation theory. They appear in various statistical problems and have very important applications. The mathematical nature of this class of random variables has a functional character and, therefore, leads to the investigation of probabilistic distributions in infinite-dimensional spaces. The situation when the kernel of a U-statistic takes values in a Banach space, turns out to be the most natural and interesting. In this book, the author presents in a systematic form the probabilistic theory of U-statistics with values in Banach spaces (UB-statistics), which has been developed to date. The exposition of the material in this book is based around the following topics: algebraic and martingale properties of U-statistics; inequalities; law of large numbers; the central limit theorem; weak convergence to a Gaussian chaos and multiple stochastic integrals; invariance principle and functional limit theorems; estimates of the rate of weak convergence; asymptotic expansion of distributions; large deviations; law of iterated logarithm; dependent variables; relation between Banach-valued U-statistics and functionals from permanent random measures.