intensity.fd: Intensity Function for Point Process

Description

The intensity $mu$ of a series of event times that obey a homogeneous Poisson process is the mean number of events per unit time. When this event rate varies over time, the process is said to be nonhomogeneous, and $mu(t)$, and is estimated by this function intensity.fd.

Usage

intensity.fd(x, WfdParobj, conv=0.0001, iterlim=20,
             dbglev=1, returnMatrix=FALSE)

Arguments

a vector containing a strictly increasing series of event times. These event times assume that the the events begin to be observed at time 0, and therefore are times since the beginning of observation.

WfdParobj

a functional parameter object estimating the log-intensity function $W(t) = log[mu(t)]$ . Because the intensity function $mu(t)$ is necessarily positive, it is represented by mu(x) = exp[W(x)].

conv

a convergence criterion, required because the estimation process is iterative.

iterlim

maximum number of iterations that are allowed.

dbglev

either 0, 1, or 2. This controls the amount information printed out on each iteration, with 0 implying no output, 1 intermediate output level, and 2 full output. If levels 1 and 2 are used, turn off the output buffering option.

returnMatrix

logical: If TRUE, a two-dimensional is returned using a special class from the Matrix package.

Value

a named list of length 4 containing:

Wfdobj

a functional data object defining function $W(x)$ that that optimizes the fit to the data of the monotone function that it defines.

Flist

a named list containing three results for the final converged solution: (1) f: the optimal function value being minimized, (2) grad: the gradient vector at the optimal solution, and (3) norm: the norm of the gradient vector at the optimal solution.

iternum

the number of iterations.

iterhist

a iternum+1 by 5 matrix containing the iteration history.

Details

The intensity function $I(t)$ is almost the same thing as a probability density function $p(t)$ estimated by function densify.fd. The only difference is the absence of the normalizing constant $C$ that a density function requires in order to have a unit integral. The goal of the function is provide a smooth intensity function estimate that approaches some target intensity by an amount that is controlled by the linear differential operator Lfdobj and the penalty parameter in argument WfdPar. For example, if the first derivative of $W(t)$ is penalized heavily, this will force the function to approach a constant, which in turn will force the estimated Poisson process itself to be nearly homogeneous. To plot the intensity function or to evaluate it, evaluate Wfdobj, exponentiate the resulting vector.

Examples

Run this code

# NOT RUN {
#  Generate 101 Poisson-distributed event times with
#  intensity or rate two events per unit time
N  <- 101
mu <- 2
#  generate 101 uniform deviates
uvec <- runif(rep(0,N))
#  convert to 101 exponential waiting times
wvec <- -log(1-uvec)/mu
#  accumulate to get event times
tvec <- cumsum(wvec)
tmax <- max(tvec)
#  set up an order 4 B-spline basis over [0,tmax] with
#  21 equally spaced knots
tbasis <- create.bspline.basis(c(0,tmax), 23)
#  set up a functional parameter object for W(t),
#  the log intensity function.  The first derivative
#  is penalized in order to smooth toward a constant
lambda <- 10
Wfd0 <- fd(matrix(0,23,1),tbasis)
WfdParobj <- fdPar(Wfd0, 1, lambda)
#  estimate the intensity function
Wfdobj <- intensity.fd(tvec, WfdParobj)$Wfdobj
#  get intensity function values at 0 and event times
events <- c(0,tvec)
intenvec <- exp(eval.fd(events,Wfdobj))
#  plot intensity function
plot(events, intenvec, type="b")
lines(c(0,tmax),c(mu,mu),lty=4)

# }