A bias-reduced approach to density estimation using Bernstein polynomials
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Mixtures of Beta densities have led to different methods of density estimation for univariate data assumed to have compact support. One such method relies on Bernstein polynomials and leads to good approximation properties for the resulting estimator of the underlying density f. In particular, if f is twice continuously differentiable, this estimator can be shown to attain the optimal nonparametric convergence rate of n −4/5 in terms of mean integrated squared error (MISE). However, this rate cannot be improved upon directly when relying on the usual Bernstein polynomials, no matter what other assumptions are made on the smoothness of f. In this note, we show how a simple method of bias reduction can lead to a Bernstein-based estimator that does achieve a higher rate of convergence. Precisely, we exhibit a bias-corrected estimator that achieves the optimal nonparametric MISE rate of n −8/9 when the underlying density f is four times continuously differentiable on its support.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.008 | 0.032 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".