Bayesian phylogenetic methods are generating noticeable enthusiasm in the field of molecular systematics. Many phylogenetic models are often at stake and different approaches are used to compare them within a Bayesian framework. The Bayes factor, defined as the ratio of the marginal likelihoods of two competing models, plays a key role in Bayesian model selection. We focus on an alternative est...

Selection of an optimal estimator typically relies on either supervised training samples (pairs of measurements and their associated true values) or a prior probability model for the true values. Here, we consider the problem of obtaining a least squares estimator given a measurement process with known statistics (i.e., a likelihood function) and a set of unsupervised measurements, each arising...

This paper is the first of two on the problem of estimating a function of a probability distribution from a finite set of samples of that distribution. In this paper a Bayesian analysis of this problem is presented, the optimal properties of the Bayes estimators are discussed, and as an example of the formalism, closed form expressions for the Bayes estimators for the moments of the Shannon ent...

Abstract: This paper is the first of two on the problem of estimating a function of a probability distribution from a finite set of samples of that distribution. In this paper a Bayesian analysis of this problem is presented, the optimal properties of the Bayes estimators are discussed, and as an example of the formalism, closed form expressions for the Bayes estimators for the moments of the S...

An example was given in the textbook All of Statistics (Wasserman, 2004, pages 186-188) for arguing that, in the problems with a great many parameters Bayesian inferences are weak, because they rely heavily on the likelihood function that captures information of only a tiny fraction of the total parameters. Alternatively he suggested non-Bayesian Horwitz-Thompson estimator, which cannot be obta...

We propose an empirical Bayes method for variable selection and coefficient estimation in linear regression models. The method is based on a particular hierarchical Bayes formulation, and the empirical Bayes estimator is shown to be closely related to the LASSO estimator. Such a connection allows us to take advantage of the recently developed quick LASSO algorithm to compute the empirical Bayes...

Abstract: In this paper we consider estimation of R = P (Y < X), when X and Y are distributed as two independent four-parameter generalized gamma random variables with same location and scale parameters. A modified maximum likelihood method and a Bayesian technique have been used to estimate R on the basis of independent samples. As the Bayes estimator cannot be obtained in a closed form, it ha...

We show through case studies that it is easier to estimate the fundamental limits of data processing than to construct explicit algorithms to achieve those limits. Focusing on binary classification, data compression, and prediction under logarithmic loss, we show that in the finite space setting, when it is possible to construct an estimator of the limits with vanishing error with n samples, it...

• In the present paper we study the performance of the Bayes Shrinkage estimators for the scale parameter of the Weibull distribution under the squared error loss and the LINEX loss functions in the presence of a prior point information of the scale parameter when Type-II censored data are available. The properties of the minimax estimators are also discussed. Key-Words: • Bayes shrinkage estim...

Consider the problem of estimating a parametric function when the loss is quadratic. Given an improper prior distribution, there is a formal Bayes estimator for the parametric function. Associated with the estimation problem and the improper prior is a symmetric Markov chain. It is shown that if the Markov chain is recurrent, then the formal Bayes estimator is admissible. This result is used to...