Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Fitting regression models for intensity functions of spatial point processes is of great interest in ecological and epidemiological studies of association between spatially referenced events and geographical or environmental covariates. When Cox or cluster process models are used to accommodate clustering not accounted for by the available covariates, likelihood based inference becomes computationally cumbersome due to the complicated nature of the likelihood function and the associated score function. It is therefore of interest to consider alternative more easily computable estimating functions. We derive the optimal estimating function in a class of first-order estimating functions. The optimal estimating function depends on the solution of a certain Fredholm integral equation which in practise is solved numerically. The derivation of the optimal estimating function has close similarities to the derivation of quasi-likelihood for standard data sets. The approximate solution is further equivalent to a quasi-likelihood score for binary spatial data. We therefore use the term quasi-likelihood for our optimal estimating function approach. We demonstrate in a simulation study and a data example that our quasi-likelihood method for spatial point processes is both statistically and computationally efficient.
DOI: 10.1111/rssb.12083
Institutions: University of Miami, Razi University, Aalborg University
Language: English
Subfield: Applied Mathematics
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Villum Fonden, Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, National Institutes of Health, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of International Science and Engineering
Awards: G1198279745, LTREB: Long-Term Studies of Seedling and Small Sapling Community Dynamics in a Neotropical Forest, G1879269291, G25066554, G2774424170, What Causes Large Local-Scale Variation in Tree Diversity in a Neotropical Forest? An Experimental Approach, Habitat Variation in the Demography and Life History of Tropical Trees, G3772627221, Dynamics of a Neotropical Forest: The First Decade, An International Training Workshop on Tropical Soil Properties and Hydrology Linked to Existing Forest Dynamics Projects; Barro Colorado Island, Panama; September 2003, G4426629300, Demographic Analysis of a Tropical Forest in Panama, Collaborative Research: Effects of Soil-Borne Resources on the Structure and Dynamics of Lowland Tropical Forests, The Structure and Dynamics of a Tropical Forest, G6242140455, The Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography: "New Theoretical Approaches", The Dynamics of a Neotropical Forest: The 1995 Recensus Including Seedling and Small Sapling Populations, The Dynamics of a Neotropical Forest: the 2005 Recensus and the Annual Seedling and Small Sapling Census, CAREER: New Statistical Methods for Massive Spatial, Temporal and Spatial-Temporal Processes, G6697271890, G6886224072, Theoretical and Empirical Studies of Seed and Pollen Dispersal in Tropical Trees, Statistical methods for understanding heterogeneity in cocaine relapse, Collaborative Research: Effects of Soil-Borne Resources on the Structure and Dynamics of Lowland Tropical Forests, Impact of Logging on the Demography and Population Genetics of Mahogany in Bolivia
OpenAlex ID: W2117883387