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Past exam of the stochastic analysis and partial differential equations course of the University of Oxford 2025 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
The displayed identity requires a correction to the process construction in the source. In a piecewise-deterministic Markov process, the instantaneous hazard function is evaluated at the current flowing state , and the destination is sampled from . Keeping the jump times and destinations of the original Markov jump process instead evaluates both quantities at its last reset state , which generally differs from . The source PDF confirms that these original jump times and destinations were retained. Consequently its definition does not in general produce the asserted transition kernel, or even a Markov process in the state variable alone.
For an explicit counterexample, take , , , and let every be the standard normal distribution, independently of . These are smooth coefficients with bounded positive jump rate, so nonexplosion holds. In the literal construction, the first holding time has the exponential distribution of rate . Thus the probability distribution of has an atom of mass at . Paths with at least one jump contribute no atom there, because the reset has a normal density. The asserted identity instead assigns to this no-jump atom the masswhich differs for every .
Here is the full derivation for the intended piecewise-deterministic Markov process. Assume nonexplosion; smoothness alone does not guarantee it. Start at , let be the first jump after , and setOne precise construction draws an independent unit-rate exponential random variable and takes , with . This implements a hazard function along the flow of a vector field, rather than a fixed exponential holding time at the last reset. Its survival probability and jump-time probability density function areEquivalently, with . On , the terminal state is . Conditional on , draw the new state from and restart the same construction from . The Markov property and the tower property of conditional expectation therefore give the first-jump decomposition of a piecewise-deterministic Markov processThis proves the requested identity under the corrected construction, for every bounded Borel measurable function . The two contributions partition according to whether the first jump occurs before ; later jumps are already contained in .
For comparison, the literal construction does have a different renewal identity when started at a reset with . If denotes only these reset-start operators, the same conditional expectation argument givesThese need not be the transition operators conditional on at an arbitrary time: that observation does not specify the hidden reset state. This distinction explains exactly why replacing only the between-jump paths is insufficient.
Past exam of the stochastic analysis and partial differential equations course of the University of Oxford 2025 1 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Let be a Markov chain with transition kernel , and let be an independent Poisson process of constant rate . A Pseudo-Poisson process is . On the Banach space of bounded Borel measurable functions, with the supremum norm, writeIts infinitesimal generator, transition semigroup, and resolvent operator are respectivelyand, for ,The transition semigroup averages against the Poisson distribution of the number of updates. Since is a Markov operator, ; both series converge in operator norm. Updates with are allowed and do not count as changes of the observed state. The degenerate rate gives , , and .
Past exam of the statistics course of the University of Oxford 2023 3 d Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Write and . Conditional independence of the next count given allows us to average its Poisson distribution over the posterior distribution:This Poisson-gamma mixture is the posterior predictive distribution. In the stated negative binomial distribution convention its parameters areIts expected value equals the posterior mean of , while its variance includes both conditional Poisson variation and uncertainty in .
Past exam of the statistics course of the University of Oxford 2023 3 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Let . The continuous uniform distribution likelihood contributes , while the Pareto distribution prior contributes . Their product proves Uniform-Pareto conjugacy:Thus the posterior distribution is Pareto with shape and lower bound . Its density is strictly decreasing on its support, so the highest posterior density interval begins at . Since the upper-tail probability is , the required upper endpoint satisfies . The Pareto highest density interval is therefore
Past exam of the statistics course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Under , each has expected value and variance . The central limit theorem therefore approximatesFor the supplied data this standardized value isUsing the provided approximation , the lower-tail 5% rule rejects when . The observed is in this region, with approximate p-value . Reject at the 5% level in favor of the specified alternative . The unusually large geometric mean is consistent with the direction of that alternative. This is evidence in this comparison, not a proof that the parameter is exactly three.
Past exam of the statistics course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
The joint likelihood ratio in favor of the alternative isIt is increasing in the product, so the Neyman-Pearson lemma rejects for large product, equivalently small . Under , the transformation givesTherefore the are independent exponential random variables of rate two, , and . An exact size- critical region isEquivalently, reject when the geometric mean satisfies . The boundary distribution is continuous, so no randomization is needed here.
Past exam of the statistics course of the University of Oxford 2023 1 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Sort the observations into order statistics . Choose plotting positions and calculate the standard normal quantiles . The normal Q-Q plot consists of the pairs .
If the normal distribution model is appropriate, the points should lie approximately on a straight line with positive slope, because its population quantile function isThe intercept is approximately and the slope approximately ; neither needs to be known in advance. The reference need not be the identity line. One justification is the probability integral transform: for an independent normal statistical sample, are uniform order statistics, whose typical values are near their plotting positions. The equality is approximate for a finite sample, particularly at the extremes. Systematic curvature, unusually heavy tails, or isolated extreme departures argue against the proposed distributional shape. A straight marginal Q-Q plot does not itself establish independence of observations.
Past exam of the statistics course of the University of Oxford 2021 3 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
An unknown variance requires a joint prior distribution for . The analysis is not determined until a prior for the unknown variance, and its relation to the coefficients, is specified. A maximum-likelihood estimate substituted for does not by itself account for its posterior uncertainty.
For example, retain the independent coefficient prior distributions from part (b) and independently assign an inverse-gamma distribution with shape and scale , whose probability density function is proportional to . Then the joint posterior density is proportional toConditional on , the two coefficient posterior distributions are still the independent normal distributions in part (b), with substituted for . The other full conditional distribution isThe marginal coefficient posterior distribution requires marginalization over ; it is generally nonnormal and the two coefficients need not remain independent. In particular, the posterior cumulative distribution function of the requested mean becomesIts shortest 95% credible interval must be found from this marginal posterior distribution, for example by numerical integration or posterior simulation. This is normal regression with independent coefficient and variance priors.
A different, convenient choice is a normal-inverse-gamma prior, in which the conditional coefficient prior covariance matrix is proportional to . That choice gives a multivariate Student's t-distribution after marginalization, so the interval uses its univariate Student's t-distribution quantiles. It changes the coefficient prior specification; a Student interval does not follow automatically from retaining the fixed- priors in part (b).
Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project
Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
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Intro to OurBigBook
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Figure 2. You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either OurBigBook.com or as a static website.Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally. Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension. - Infinitely deep tables of contents:
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