In order to make statistical inference, that is drawing conclusions from a sample to describe a population, it is crucial to know the correct distribution of the data. This paper focused on censored data from the normal distribution. The purpose of this paper was to answer whether we can test if data comes from a censored normal distribution. This by using normality tests and tests designed for censored data and investigate if we got correct size of these tests. This has been carried out with simulations in the program R for left censored data. The results indicated that with increasing censoring normality tests failed to accept normality in a sample. On the other hand the censoring tests met the requirements with increasing censoring level, which was the most important conclusion in this paper.

Thesis (MComm (Statistics and Actuarial Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The goodness-of- t of a statistical model describes how well it ts a set of observations. Measures of goodness-of- t typically summarize the discrepancy between observed values and the values expected under the model in question. Such measures can be used in statistical hypothesis testing, for example to test for normality, to test whether two samples are drawn from identical distributions, or whether outcome frequencies follow a speci ed distribution. Goodness-of- t for copulas is a special case of the more general problem of testing multivariate models, but is complicated due to the di culty of specifying marginal distributions. In this thesis, the goodness-of- t test statistics for general distributions and the tests for copulas are investigated, but prior to that an understanding of copulas and their properties is developed. In fact copulas are useful tools for understanding relationships among multivariate variables, and are important tools for describing the dependence structure between random variables. Several univariate, bivariate and multivariate test statistics are investigated, the emphasis being on tests for normality. Among goodness-of- t tests for copulas, tests based on the probability integral transform, Rosenblatt's transformation, as well as some dimension reduction techniques are considered. Bootstrap procedures are also described. Simulation studies are conducted to rst compare the power of rejection of the null hypothesis of the Clayton copula by four di erent test statistics under the alternative of the Gumbel-Hougaard copula, and also to compare the power of rejection of the null hypothesis of the Gumbel-Hougaard copula under the alternative of the Clayton copula. An application of the described techniques is made to a practical data set.

Dans ce mémoire, nous avons utilisé le logiciel R pour la programmation. / Le présent mémoire porte sur les séries chronologiques qui en plus d’être observées dans le temps, présentent également une composante spatiale. Plus particulièrement, nous étudions une certaine classe de modèles, les modèles autorégressifs spatio-temporels généralisés, ou GSTAR. Dans un premier temps, des liens sont effectués avec les modèles vectoriels autorégressifs (VAR). Nous obtenons explicitement la distribution asymptotique des autocovariances résiduelles pour les modèles GSTAR en supposant que le terme d’erreur est un bruit blanc gaussien, ce qui représente une première contribution originale. De ce résultat, des tests de type portemanteau sont proposés, dont les distributions asymptotiques sont étudiées. Afin d’illustrer la performance des statistiques de test, une étude de simulations est entreprise où des modèles GSTAR sont simulés et correctement ajustés. La méthodologie est illustrée avec des données réelles. Il est question de la production mensuelle de thé en Java occidental pour 24 villes, pour la période janvier 1992 à décembre 1999. / In this master thesis, time series models are studied, which have also a spatial component, in addition to the usual time index. More particularly, we study a certain class of models, the Generalized Space-Time AutoRegressive (GSTAR) time series models. First, links are considered between Vector AutoRegressive models(VAR) and GSTAR models. We obtain explicitly the asymptotic distribution of the residual autocovariances for the GSTAR models, assuming that the error term is a Gaussian white noise, which is a first original contribution. From that result, test statistics of the portmanteau type are proposed, and their asymptotic distributions are studied. In order to illustrate the behaviour of the test statistics, a simulation study is conducted where GSTAR models are simulated and correctly fitted. The methodology is illustrated with monthly real data concerning the production of tea in west Java for 24 cities from the period January 1992 to December 1999.

Le présent mémoire porte sur les séries chronologiques qui en plus d’être observées dans le temps, présentent également une composante spatiale. Plus particulièrement, nous étudions une certaine classe de modèles, les modèles autorégressifs spatio-temporels généralisés, ou GSTAR. Dans un premier temps, des liens sont effectués avec les modèles vectoriels autorégressifs (VAR). Nous obtenons explicitement la distribution asymptotique des autocovariances résiduelles pour les modèles GSTAR en supposant que le terme d’erreur est un bruit blanc gaussien, ce qui représente une première contribution originale. De ce résultat, des tests de type portemanteau sont proposés, dont les distributions asymptotiques sont étudiées. Afin d’illustrer la performance des statistiques de test, une étude de simulations est entreprise où des modèles GSTAR sont simulés et correctement ajustés. La méthodologie est illustrée avec des données réelles. Il est question de la production mensuelle de thé en Java occidental pour 24 villes, pour la période janvier 1992 à décembre 1999. / In this master thesis, time series models are studied, which have also a spatial component, in addition to the usual time index. More particularly, we study a certain class of models, the Generalized Space-Time AutoRegressive (GSTAR) time series models. First, links are considered between Vector AutoRegressive models(VAR) and GSTAR models. We obtain explicitly the asymptotic distribution of the residual autocovariances for the GSTAR models, assuming that the error term is a Gaussian white noise, which is a first original contribution. From that result, test statistics of the portmanteau type are proposed, and their asymptotic distributions are studied. In order to illustrate the behaviour of the test statistics, a simulation study is conducted where GSTAR models are simulated and correctly fitted. The methodology is illustrated with monthly real data concerning the production of tea in west Java for 24 cities from the period January 1992 to December 1999. / Dans ce mémoire, nous avons utilisé le logiciel R pour la programmation.

The emphasis of this diploma thesis is placed on the verification of stationarity in time series using the Unit Root Tests and their most common modifications that are introduced in the theoretical part of this paper. Tests mainly by Dickey and Fuller, Phillips and Perron, and KPSS test are introduced as well as their modifications in the form of ERS, Ng and Perron, and Leybourne and McCabe tests. Moreover the HEGY test for testing stationarity in the seasonal Time series and Perron test of structural breaks for Time series with shocks are described. There is also outlined the process of testing multiple Unit Roots. The empirical part of this paper consists of simulations of AR(1) time series generated using the software R, their testing for stationarity by selected Unit Root tests and the comparison of power of these tests. The conclusion includes recommendations which tests and under what conditions are the most suitable for testing Time series for the presence of Unit Root.

The problem of vibration induced structural faults has been a real one in engineering over the years. If left unchecked it has led to the unexpected failures of so many structures. Needless to say, this has caused both economic and human life losses. Therefore for over forty years, structural damage identification has been one of the important research areas for engineers. There has been a thrust to develop global structural damage identification techniques to complement and/or supplement the long-practised local experimental techniques. In that respect, studies have shown that vibration-based techniques prove to be more potent. Most of the existing vibration-based techniques monitor changes in modal properties like natural frequencies, damping factors and mode shapes of the structural system to infer the presence of structural damage. Literature also reports other techniques which monitor changes in other vibration quantities like the frequency response functions, transmissibility functions and time-domain responses. However, none of these techniques provide a complete identification of structural damage. This study presents a damage detection technique based on operational response monitoring, which can identify all the four levels of structural damage and be implemented as a continuous structural health monitoring technique. The technique is based on monitoring changes in internal data variability measured by a test statistic <font face="symbol">c</font>2Ovalue. Structural normality is assumed when the <font face="symbol">c</font>2Om value calculated from a fresh set of measured data is within the limits prescribed by a threshold <font face="symbol">c</font>2OTH value . On the other hand, abnormality is assumed when this threshold value has been exceeded. The quantity of damage is determined by matching the <font face="symbol">c</font>2Om value with the <font face="symbol">c</font>2Op values predicted using a benchmark finite element model. The use of <font face="symbol">c</font>2O values is noted to provide better sensitivity to structural damage than the natural frequency shift technique. The analysis carried out on a numerical study showed that the sensitivity of the proposed technique ranged from three to thousand times as much as the sensitivity of the natural frequencies. The results from a laboratory structure showed that accurate estimates of damage quantity and remaining service life could be achieved for crack lengths of less than 0.55 the structural thickness. This was due to the fact that linear elastic fracture mechanics theory was applicable up to this value. Therefore, the study achieved its main objective of identifying all four levels of structural damage using operational response changes. / Dissertation (MSc (Mechanics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

The unique problems encountered when analyzing weather data sets - that is, measurements taken while conducting a meteorological experiment- have forced statisticians to reconsider the conventional analysis methods and investigate permutation test procedures. The problems encountered when analyzing weather data sets are simulated for a Monte Carlo study, and the results of the parametric and permutation t-tests are compared with regard to significance level, power, and the average coilfidence interval length. Seven population distributions are considered - three are variations of the normal distribution, and the others the gamma, the lognormal, the rectangular and empirical distributions. The normal distribution contaminated with zero measurements is also simulated. In those simulated situations in which the variances are unequal, the permutation test procedure was performed using other test statistics, namely the Scheffe, Welch and Behrens-Fisher test statistics. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Sc. (Statistics)

L’objectif principal de cette thèse est de développer des méthodologies statistiques adaptées au traitement de données issues de processus stochastiques et plus précisément de processus de Cox.Les problématiques étudiées dans cette thèse sont issues des trois domaines statistiques suivants : les tests non paramétriques, l’estimation non paramétrique à noyaux et l’estimation minimax.Dans un premier temps, nous proposons, dans un cadre fonctionnel, des statistiques de test pour détecter la nature Poissonienne d’un processus de Cox.Nous étudions ensuite le problème de l’estimation minimax de la régression sur un processus de Poisson ponctuel. En se basant sur la décomposition en chaos d’Itô, nous obtenons des vitesses comparables à celles atteintes pour le cas de la régression Lipschitz en dimension finie.Enfin, dans le dernier chapitre de cette thèse, nous présentons un estimateur non-paramétrique de l’intensité d’un processus de Cox lorsque celle-ci est une fonction déterministe d’un co-processus. / The main purpose of this thesis is to develop statistical methodologies for stochastic processes data and more precisely Cox process data.The problems considered arise from three different contexts: nonparametric tests, nonparametric kernel estimation and minimax estimation.We first study the statistical test problem of detecting wether a Cox process is Poisson or not.Then, we introduce a semiparametric estimate of the regression over a Poisson point process. Using Itô’s famous chaos expansion for Poisson functionals, we derive asymptotic minimax properties of our estimator.Finally, we introduce a nonparametric estimate of the intensity of a Cox process whenever it is a deterministic function of a known coprocess.

The unique problems encountered when analyzing weather data sets - that is, measurements taken while conducting a meteorological experiment- have forced statisticians to reconsider the conventional analysis methods and investigate permutation test procedures. The problems encountered when analyzing weather data sets are simulated for a Monte Carlo study, and the results of the parametric and permutation t-tests are compared with regard to significance level, power, and the average coilfidence interval length. Seven population distributions are considered - three are variations of the normal distribution, and the others the gamma, the lognormal, the rectangular and empirical distributions. The normal distribution contaminated with zero measurements is also simulated. In those simulated situations in which the variances are unequal, the permutation test procedure was performed using other test statistics, namely the Scheffe, Welch and Behrens-Fisher test statistics. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Sc. (Statistics)

在資料分析上，調查者通常需要決定，不同的樣本是否可被視為來自相同的母體。一般最常使用的統計量為Pearson’s 統計量。然而，傳統的統計方法皆是利用二元邏輯觀念來呈現。如果我們想要用模糊邏輯的概念來做樣本調查，此時，使用傳統 檢定來分析這些模糊樣本資料是否仍然適當？透過這樣的觀念，我們使用傳統統計方法，找出一個能處理這些模糊樣本資料的公式，稱之為模糊 。結果顯示，此公式可用來檢定，模糊樣本資料在不同母體下機率的一致性。 / In the analysis of research data, the investigator often needs to decide whether several independent samples may be regarded as having come from the same population. The most commonly used statistic is Pearson’s statistic. However, traditional statistics reflect the result from a two-valued logic concept. If we want to survey sampling with fuzzy logic concept, is it still appropriate to use the traditional -test for analysing those fuzzy sample data? Through this concept, we try to use a traditional statistic method to find out a formula, called fuzzy , that enables us to deal with those fuzzy sample data. The result shows that we can use the formula to test hypotheses about probabilities of various outcomes in fuzzy sample data.