|
Biodiversity
Landscape Development
Management of Natural Hazards
Natural Resources
Forest Ecosystems
Research Units
Research Programmes
In focus
Staff
Organization
Mission and Tasks
History
Job opportunities
Contact and maps
S-plus codes S-plus codes for T3-plots: write to rita.ghosh@wsl.ch The empirical moment generating function (emgf): Based on the random sample X1, X2, ..., Xn from a probability distribution F, and a real number t, the empirical moment generating function or the emgf is defined as the sample mean mn(t) = {etX1+ etX2 +...+ etXn }/n. This quantity is an unbiased estimator of its population counterpart, namely the moment generating function m(t) = E[etX1], provided that m(t) exists in an open interval around zero. Due to their uniqueness properties, the mgf (emgf) can be used for goodness-of-fit tests. The empirical characteristic function (ecf) is a similarly defined quantity where however t is replaced by it, where i =√(-1). Like the emgf, the ecf is also an unbiased estimate of the characteristic function, which always exists. Methods based on the emgf and the ecf are typically of asymptotic nature. The T3-plots are based on the emgf. For goodness of fit tests based on the ecf, see for instance Ghosh, S., Ruymgaart, F. (1992) Canadian Journal of Statistics, 20: 429-440) and the references therein. Additional references to these topics can be found in Ghosh (1996, 2013) and Ghosh & Beran (2000). T3-plots : The T3-plots make use of the emgf and are graphical tools for testing univariate normality and for comparing two distributions of arbitrary shapes. T3-plots can be used graphically as well as for formal hypothesis testing, i.e. given a level of significance. In the one sample case [see (1) below], the test statistic (the sample T3-function) is the third derivative (with respect to the argument t) of the logarithm of the emgf or the cumulant generating function. In the two sample case [see (2) below], the test statistic is the difference between the two T3-functions. To fully understand the theoretical properties of these methods, background in asymptotic theory of mathematical statistics is required. However, implementation of these methods is not difficult and can easily be performed by practitioners even without prior experience in interpreting probability plots. For using T3-plots to test the null hypothesis of normality of stationary long-memory time series observations, see Ghosh, S. (2013): Normality testing for a long-memory sequence using the empirical moment generating function. Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference 143, 944–954. (1) One-sample T3 plot: Graphical test of univariate normality With this method one can test the null hypothesis that a set of univariate independent and identically distributed (iid) observations are normally distributed with an unknown mean and an unknown variance. While the approach is based on asymptotic arguments, the method incorporates finite sample corrections and it is location and scale invariant. Missing values are allowed in the S-plus code and it is not necessary to standardize the data prior to analysis. |