Beamspace super-resolution methods for elevation estimation in multipath environment has attracted significant attention, especially the beamspace maximum likelihood(BML)algorithm. However, the difference beam is rare...Beamspace super-resolution methods for elevation estimation in multipath environment has attracted significant attention, especially the beamspace maximum likelihood(BML)algorithm. However, the difference beam is rarely used in superresolution methods, especially in low elevation estimation. The target airspace information in the difference beam is different from the target airspace information in the sum beam. And the use of difference beams does not significantly increase the complexity of the system and algorithms. Thus, this paper applies the difference beam to the beamformer to improve the elevation estimation performance of BML algorithm. And the direction and number of beams can be adjusted according to the actual needs. The theoretical target elevation angle root means square error(RMSE) and the computational complexity of the proposed algorithms are analyzed. Finally, computer simulations and real data processing results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.展开更多
BACKGROUND Adolescent major depressive disorder(MDD)is a significant mental health concern that often leads to recurrent depression in adulthood.Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-fMRI)offers uniqu...BACKGROUND Adolescent major depressive disorder(MDD)is a significant mental health concern that often leads to recurrent depression in adulthood.Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-fMRI)offers unique insights into the neural mechanisms underlying this condition.However,despite previous research,the specific vulnerable brain regions affected in adolescent MDD patients have not been fully elucidated.AIM To identify consistent vulnerable brain regions in adolescent MDD patients using rs-fMRI and activation likelihood estimation(ALE)meta-analysis.METHODS We performed a comprehensive literature search through July 12,2023,for studies investigating brain functional changes in adolescent MDD patients.We utilized regional homogeneity(ReHo),amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations(ALFF)and fractional ALFF(fALFF)analyses.We compared the regions of aberrant spontaneous neural activity in adolescents with MDD vs healthy controls(HCs)using ALE.RESULTS Ten studies(369 adolescent MDD patients and 313 HCs)were included.Combining the ReHo and ALFF/fALFF data,the results revealed that the activity in the right cuneus and left precuneus was lower in the adolescent MDD patients than in the HCs(voxel size:648 mm3,P<0.05),and no brain region exhibited increased activity.Based on the ALFF data,we found decreased activity in the right cuneus and left precuneus in adolescent MDD patients(voxel size:736 mm3,P<0.05),with no regions exhibiting increased activity.CONCLUSION Through ALE meta-analysis,we consistently identified the right cuneus and left precuneus as vulnerable brain regions in adolescent MDD patients,increasing our understanding of the neuropathology of affected adolescents.展开更多
The conformal array can make full use of the aperture,save space,meet the requirements of aerodynamics,and is sensitive to polarization information.It has broad application prospects in military,aerospace,and communic...The conformal array can make full use of the aperture,save space,meet the requirements of aerodynamics,and is sensitive to polarization information.It has broad application prospects in military,aerospace,and communication fields.The joint polarization and direction-of-arrival(DOA)estimation based on the conformal array and the theoretical analysis of its parameter estimation performance are the key factors to promote the engineering application of the conformal array.To solve these problems,this paper establishes the wave field signal model of the conformal array.Then,for the case of a single target,the cost function of the maximum likelihood(ML)estimator is rewritten with Rayleigh quotient from a problem of maximizing the ratio of quadratic forms into those of minimizing quadratic forms.On this basis,rapid parameter estimation is achieved with the idea of manifold separation technology(MST).Compared with the modified variable projection(MVP)algorithm,it reduces the computational complexity and improves the parameter estimation performance.Meanwhile,the MST is used to solve the partial derivative of the steering vector.Then,the theoretical performance of ML,the multiple signal classification(MUSIC)estimator and Cramer-Rao bound(CRB)based on the conformal array are derived respectively,which provides theoretical foundation for the engineering application of the conformal array.Finally,the simulation experiment verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method.展开更多
By taking the subsequence out of the input-output sequence of a system polluted by white noise, an independent observation sequence and its probability density are obtained and then a maximum likelihood estimation of ...By taking the subsequence out of the input-output sequence of a system polluted by white noise, an independent observation sequence and its probability density are obtained and then a maximum likelihood estimation of the identification parameters is given. In order to decrease the asymptotic error, a corrector of maximum likelihood (CML) estimation with its recursive algorithm is given. It has been proved that the corrector has smaller asymptotic error than the least square methods. A simulation example shows that the corrector of maximum likelihood estimation is of higher approximating precision to the true parameters than the least square methods.展开更多
To estimate the spreading sequence of the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) signal, a fast algorithm based on maximum likelihood function is proposed, and the theoretical derivation of the algorithm is provided. ...To estimate the spreading sequence of the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) signal, a fast algorithm based on maximum likelihood function is proposed, and the theoretical derivation of the algorithm is provided. By simplifying the objective function of maximum likelihood estimation, the algorithm can realize sequence synchronization and sequence estimation via adaptive iteration and sliding window. Since it avoids the correlation matrix computation, the algorithm significantly reduces the storage requirement and the computation complexity. Simulations show that it is a fast convergent algorithm, and can perform well in low signal to noise ratio (SNR).展开更多
The estimation of target parameters in MIMO radar signal processing is one of the most important research topics. An efficient implementation of the Maximum Likelihood estimator is presented in this paper to estimate ...The estimation of target parameters in MIMO radar signal processing is one of the most important research topics. An efficient implementation of the Maximum Likelihood estimator is presented in this paper to estimate the DOA (Direction of Arrival), initial velocity and acceleration of a maneuvering target in colocated MIMO radar. The target’s DOA is estimated in the first place, then a Maximum-Likelihood (ML) estimation based on peak search is applied to a two-dimensional grids providing estimation of initial velocity and acceleration. Simulations show that the MIMO radar has a better performance in DOA estimation than the phased array radar. By means of Monte Carlo simulations, the estimation error of initial velocity and acceleration on different SNRs are calculated. The results also suggest the effectiveness of this method.展开更多
Low elevation estimation,which has attracted wide attention due to the presence of specular multipath,is essential for tracking radars.Frequency agility not only has the advantage of strong anti-interference ability,b...Low elevation estimation,which has attracted wide attention due to the presence of specular multipath,is essential for tracking radars.Frequency agility not only has the advantage of strong anti-interference ability,but also can enhance the performance of tracking radars.A frequency-agile refined maximum likelihood(RML)algorithm based on optimal fusion is proposed.The algorithm constructs an optimization problem,which minimizes the mean square error(MSE)of angle estimation.Thereby,the optimal weight at different frequency points is obtained for fusing the angle estimation.Through theoretical analysis and simulation,the frequency-agile RML algorithm based on optimal fusion can improve the accuracy of angle estimation effectively.展开更多
For the regression model about longitudinal data, we combine the robust estimation equation with the elemental empirical likelihood method, and propose an efficient robust estimator, where the robust estimation equati...For the regression model about longitudinal data, we combine the robust estimation equation with the elemental empirical likelihood method, and propose an efficient robust estimator, where the robust estimation equation is based on bounded scoring function and the covariate depended weight function. This method reduces the influence of outliers in response variables and covariates on parameter estimation, takes into account the correlation between data, and improves the efficiency of estimation. The simulation results show that the proposed method is robust and efficient.展开更多
This paper proposes to apply the genetic algorithm and the firefly algorithm to enhance the estimation of the direction of arrival (DOA) angle of electromagnetic signals of a smart antenna array. This estimation is es...This paper proposes to apply the genetic algorithm and the firefly algorithm to enhance the estimation of the direction of arrival (DOA) angle of electromagnetic signals of a smart antenna array. This estimation is essential for beamforming, where the antenna array radiating pattern is steered to provide faster and reliable data transmission with increased coverage. This work proposes using metaheuristics to improve a maximum likelihood DOA estimator for an antenna array arranged in a uniform cuboidal geometry. The DOA estimation performance of the proposed algorithm was compared to that of MUSIC on different two dimensions scenarios. The metaheuristic algorithms present better performance than the well-known MUSIC algorithm.展开更多
This paper presents an improved voice morphing algorithm based on Gaussian Mixture Model(GMM) which overcomes the traditional one in the terms of overly smoothed problems of the converted spectral and discontinuities ...This paper presents an improved voice morphing algorithm based on Gaussian Mixture Model(GMM) which overcomes the traditional one in the terms of overly smoothed problems of the converted spectral and discontinuities between frames.Firstly, a maximum likelihood estimation for the model is introduced for the alleviation of the inversion of high dimension matrixes caused by traditional conversion function.Then, in order to resolve the two problems associated with the baseline, a codebook compensation technique and a time domain medial filter are applied.The results of listening evaluations show that the quality of the speech converted by the proposed method is significantly better than that by the traditional GMM method, and the Mean Opinion Score(MOS) of the converted speech is improved from 2.5 to 3.1 and ABX score from 38% to 75%.展开更多
In this paper, an importance sampling maximum likelihood(ISML) estimator for direction-of-arrival(DOA) of incoherently distributed(ID) sources is proposed. Starting from the maximum likelihood estimation description o...In this paper, an importance sampling maximum likelihood(ISML) estimator for direction-of-arrival(DOA) of incoherently distributed(ID) sources is proposed. Starting from the maximum likelihood estimation description of the uniform linear array(ULA), a decoupled concentrated likelihood function(CLF) is presented. A new objective function based on CLF which can obtain a closed-form solution of global maximum is constructed according to Pincus theorem. To obtain the optimal value of the objective function which is a complex high-dimensional integral,we propose an importance sampling approach based on Monte Carlo random calculation. Next, an importance function is derived, which can simplify the problem of generating random vector from a high-dimensional probability density function(PDF) to generate random variable from a one-dimensional PDF. Compared with the existing maximum likelihood(ML) algorithms for DOA estimation of ID sources, the proposed algorithm does not require initial estimates, and its performance is closer to CramerRao lower bound(CRLB). The proposed algorithm performs better than the existing methods when the interval between sources to be estimated is small and in low signal to noise ratio(SNR)scenarios.展开更多
This paper proposes a neural network to implement the maximum likelihood bearingestimation algorithm in real time.We show both analytically and by simulation that this neuralnetwork is guaranteed to be stable and to p...This paper proposes a neural network to implement the maximum likelihood bearingestimation algorithm in real time.We show both analytically and by simulation that this neuralnetwork is guaranteed to be stable and to provide the maximum likelihood bearing estimationwithin an elapsed time of only a few characteristic time constants of the network.As a result,this proposed neural network is satisfactory for real-time hearing estimation.展开更多
A blind adaptive scheme is proposed for joint maximum likelihood (ML) channel estimation and data detection of singleinput multiple-output (SIMO) systems. The joint ML optimisation over channel and data is decompo...A blind adaptive scheme is proposed for joint maximum likelihood (ML) channel estimation and data detection of singleinput multiple-output (SIMO) systems. The joint ML optimisation over channel and data is decomposed into an iterative optimisation loop. An efficient global optimisation algorithm called the repeated weighted boosting search is employed at the upper level to optimally identify the unknown SIMO channel model, and the Viterbi algorithm is used at the lower level to produce the maximum likelihood sequence estimation of the unknown data sequence. A simulation example is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this joint ML optimisation scheme for blind adaptive SIMO systems.展开更多
A diagnostic procedure based on maximum likelihood estimation, to study the convergence of the Markov chain produced by Gibbs sampler, is presented. The unbiasedness, consistent and asymptotic normality are considered...A diagnostic procedure based on maximum likelihood estimation, to study the convergence of the Markov chain produced by Gibbs sampler, is presented. The unbiasedness, consistent and asymptotic normality are considered for the estimation of the parameters produced by the procedure. An example is provided to illustrate the procedure, and the numerical result is consistent with the theoretical one.展开更多
Aiming at the solving problem of improved nonhomogeneous Poisson process( NHPP) model in engineering application,the immune clone maximum likelihood estimation( MLE)method for solving model parameters was proposed. Th...Aiming at the solving problem of improved nonhomogeneous Poisson process( NHPP) model in engineering application,the immune clone maximum likelihood estimation( MLE)method for solving model parameters was proposed. The minimum negative log-likelihood function was used as the objective function to optimize instead of using iterative method to solve complex system of equations,and the problem of parameter estimation of improved NHPP model was solved by immune clone algorithm. And the interval estimation of reliability indices was given by using fisher information matrix method and delta method. An example of failure truncated data from multiple numerical control( NC) machine tools was taken to prove the method. and the results show that the algorithm has a higher convergence rate and computational accuracy, which demonstrates the feasibility of the method.展开更多
The paper deals with the estimation problem for the generalized Pareto distribution based on progressive type-II censoring with random removals. The number of components removed at each failure time is assumed to foll...The paper deals with the estimation problem for the generalized Pareto distribution based on progressive type-II censoring with random removals. The number of components removed at each failure time is assumed to follow a binomial distribution. Maximum likelihood estimators and the asymptotic variance-covariance matrix of the estimates are obtained. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the obtained展开更多
The Monte Carlo study evaluates the relative accuracy of Warm's (1989) weighted likelihood estimate (WLE) compared to the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) using the nominal response model. And the results indi...The Monte Carlo study evaluates the relative accuracy of Warm's (1989) weighted likelihood estimate (WLE) compared to the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) using the nominal response model. And the results indicate that WLE was more accurate than MLE.展开更多
基金supported by the Fund for Foreign Scholars in University Research and Teaching Programs (B18039)。
文摘Beamspace super-resolution methods for elevation estimation in multipath environment has attracted significant attention, especially the beamspace maximum likelihood(BML)algorithm. However, the difference beam is rarely used in superresolution methods, especially in low elevation estimation. The target airspace information in the difference beam is different from the target airspace information in the sum beam. And the use of difference beams does not significantly increase the complexity of the system and algorithms. Thus, this paper applies the difference beam to the beamformer to improve the elevation estimation performance of BML algorithm. And the direction and number of beams can be adjusted according to the actual needs. The theoretical target elevation angle root means square error(RMSE) and the computational complexity of the proposed algorithms are analyzed. Finally, computer simulations and real data processing results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.
基金Supported by The 2024 Guizhou Provincial Health Commission Science and Technology Fund Project,No.gzwkj2024-47502022 Provincial Clinical Key Specialty Construction Project。
文摘BACKGROUND Adolescent major depressive disorder(MDD)is a significant mental health concern that often leads to recurrent depression in adulthood.Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-fMRI)offers unique insights into the neural mechanisms underlying this condition.However,despite previous research,the specific vulnerable brain regions affected in adolescent MDD patients have not been fully elucidated.AIM To identify consistent vulnerable brain regions in adolescent MDD patients using rs-fMRI and activation likelihood estimation(ALE)meta-analysis.METHODS We performed a comprehensive literature search through July 12,2023,for studies investigating brain functional changes in adolescent MDD patients.We utilized regional homogeneity(ReHo),amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations(ALFF)and fractional ALFF(fALFF)analyses.We compared the regions of aberrant spontaneous neural activity in adolescents with MDD vs healthy controls(HCs)using ALE.RESULTS Ten studies(369 adolescent MDD patients and 313 HCs)were included.Combining the ReHo and ALFF/fALFF data,the results revealed that the activity in the right cuneus and left precuneus was lower in the adolescent MDD patients than in the HCs(voxel size:648 mm3,P<0.05),and no brain region exhibited increased activity.Based on the ALFF data,we found decreased activity in the right cuneus and left precuneus in adolescent MDD patients(voxel size:736 mm3,P<0.05),with no regions exhibiting increased activity.CONCLUSION Through ALE meta-analysis,we consistently identified the right cuneus and left precuneus as vulnerable brain regions in adolescent MDD patients,increasing our understanding of the neuropathology of affected adolescents.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62071144,61971159,61871149).
文摘The conformal array can make full use of the aperture,save space,meet the requirements of aerodynamics,and is sensitive to polarization information.It has broad application prospects in military,aerospace,and communication fields.The joint polarization and direction-of-arrival(DOA)estimation based on the conformal array and the theoretical analysis of its parameter estimation performance are the key factors to promote the engineering application of the conformal array.To solve these problems,this paper establishes the wave field signal model of the conformal array.Then,for the case of a single target,the cost function of the maximum likelihood(ML)estimator is rewritten with Rayleigh quotient from a problem of maximizing the ratio of quadratic forms into those of minimizing quadratic forms.On this basis,rapid parameter estimation is achieved with the idea of manifold separation technology(MST).Compared with the modified variable projection(MVP)algorithm,it reduces the computational complexity and improves the parameter estimation performance.Meanwhile,the MST is used to solve the partial derivative of the steering vector.Then,the theoretical performance of ML,the multiple signal classification(MUSIC)estimator and Cramer-Rao bound(CRB)based on the conformal array are derived respectively,which provides theoretical foundation for the engineering application of the conformal array.Finally,the simulation experiment verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method.
文摘By taking the subsequence out of the input-output sequence of a system polluted by white noise, an independent observation sequence and its probability density are obtained and then a maximum likelihood estimation of the identification parameters is given. In order to decrease the asymptotic error, a corrector of maximum likelihood (CML) estimation with its recursive algorithm is given. It has been proved that the corrector has smaller asymptotic error than the least square methods. A simulation example shows that the corrector of maximum likelihood estimation is of higher approximating precision to the true parameters than the least square methods.
基金supported by Joint Foundation of and China Academy of Engineering Physical (10676006)
文摘To estimate the spreading sequence of the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) signal, a fast algorithm based on maximum likelihood function is proposed, and the theoretical derivation of the algorithm is provided. By simplifying the objective function of maximum likelihood estimation, the algorithm can realize sequence synchronization and sequence estimation via adaptive iteration and sliding window. Since it avoids the correlation matrix computation, the algorithm significantly reduces the storage requirement and the computation complexity. Simulations show that it is a fast convergent algorithm, and can perform well in low signal to noise ratio (SNR).
文摘The estimation of target parameters in MIMO radar signal processing is one of the most important research topics. An efficient implementation of the Maximum Likelihood estimator is presented in this paper to estimate the DOA (Direction of Arrival), initial velocity and acceleration of a maneuvering target in colocated MIMO radar. The target’s DOA is estimated in the first place, then a Maximum-Likelihood (ML) estimation based on peak search is applied to a two-dimensional grids providing estimation of initial velocity and acceleration. Simulations show that the MIMO radar has a better performance in DOA estimation than the phased array radar. By means of Monte Carlo simulations, the estimation error of initial velocity and acceleration on different SNRs are calculated. The results also suggest the effectiveness of this method.
基金supported by the Fund for Foreign Scholars in University Research and Teaching Programs(the 111 Project)(B18039).
文摘Low elevation estimation,which has attracted wide attention due to the presence of specular multipath,is essential for tracking radars.Frequency agility not only has the advantage of strong anti-interference ability,but also can enhance the performance of tracking radars.A frequency-agile refined maximum likelihood(RML)algorithm based on optimal fusion is proposed.The algorithm constructs an optimization problem,which minimizes the mean square error(MSE)of angle estimation.Thereby,the optimal weight at different frequency points is obtained for fusing the angle estimation.Through theoretical analysis and simulation,the frequency-agile RML algorithm based on optimal fusion can improve the accuracy of angle estimation effectively.
文摘For the regression model about longitudinal data, we combine the robust estimation equation with the elemental empirical likelihood method, and propose an efficient robust estimator, where the robust estimation equation is based on bounded scoring function and the covariate depended weight function. This method reduces the influence of outliers in response variables and covariates on parameter estimation, takes into account the correlation between data, and improves the efficiency of estimation. The simulation results show that the proposed method is robust and efficient.
文摘This paper proposes to apply the genetic algorithm and the firefly algorithm to enhance the estimation of the direction of arrival (DOA) angle of electromagnetic signals of a smart antenna array. This estimation is essential for beamforming, where the antenna array radiating pattern is steered to provide faster and reliable data transmission with increased coverage. This work proposes using metaheuristics to improve a maximum likelihood DOA estimator for an antenna array arranged in a uniform cuboidal geometry. The DOA estimation performance of the proposed algorithm was compared to that of MUSIC on different two dimensions scenarios. The metaheuristic algorithms present better performance than the well-known MUSIC algorithm.
基金Supported by a grant from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program, No.2006AA010102)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.60872105).
文摘This paper presents an improved voice morphing algorithm based on Gaussian Mixture Model(GMM) which overcomes the traditional one in the terms of overly smoothed problems of the converted spectral and discontinuities between frames.Firstly, a maximum likelihood estimation for the model is introduced for the alleviation of the inversion of high dimension matrixes caused by traditional conversion function.Then, in order to resolve the two problems associated with the baseline, a codebook compensation technique and a time domain medial filter are applied.The results of listening evaluations show that the quality of the speech converted by the proposed method is significantly better than that by the traditional GMM method, and the Mean Opinion Score(MOS) of the converted speech is improved from 2.5 to 3.1 and ABX score from 38% to 75%.
基金supported by the basic research program of Natural Science in Shannxi province of China (2021JQ-369)。
文摘In this paper, an importance sampling maximum likelihood(ISML) estimator for direction-of-arrival(DOA) of incoherently distributed(ID) sources is proposed. Starting from the maximum likelihood estimation description of the uniform linear array(ULA), a decoupled concentrated likelihood function(CLF) is presented. A new objective function based on CLF which can obtain a closed-form solution of global maximum is constructed according to Pincus theorem. To obtain the optimal value of the objective function which is a complex high-dimensional integral,we propose an importance sampling approach based on Monte Carlo random calculation. Next, an importance function is derived, which can simplify the problem of generating random vector from a high-dimensional probability density function(PDF) to generate random variable from a one-dimensional PDF. Compared with the existing maximum likelihood(ML) algorithms for DOA estimation of ID sources, the proposed algorithm does not require initial estimates, and its performance is closer to CramerRao lower bound(CRLB). The proposed algorithm performs better than the existing methods when the interval between sources to be estimated is small and in low signal to noise ratio(SNR)scenarios.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘This paper proposes a neural network to implement the maximum likelihood bearingestimation algorithm in real time.We show both analytically and by simulation that this neuralnetwork is guaranteed to be stable and to provide the maximum likelihood bearing estimationwithin an elapsed time of only a few characteristic time constants of the network.As a result,this proposed neural network is satisfactory for real-time hearing estimation.
文摘A blind adaptive scheme is proposed for joint maximum likelihood (ML) channel estimation and data detection of singleinput multiple-output (SIMO) systems. The joint ML optimisation over channel and data is decomposed into an iterative optimisation loop. An efficient global optimisation algorithm called the repeated weighted boosting search is employed at the upper level to optimally identify the unknown SIMO channel model, and the Viterbi algorithm is used at the lower level to produce the maximum likelihood sequence estimation of the unknown data sequence. A simulation example is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this joint ML optimisation scheme for blind adaptive SIMO systems.
文摘A diagnostic procedure based on maximum likelihood estimation, to study the convergence of the Markov chain produced by Gibbs sampler, is presented. The unbiasedness, consistent and asymptotic normality are considered for the estimation of the parameters produced by the procedure. An example is provided to illustrate the procedure, and the numerical result is consistent with the theoretical one.
基金National CNC Special Project,China(No.2010ZX04001-032)the Youth Science and Technology Foundation of Gansu Province,China(No.145RJYA307)
文摘Aiming at the solving problem of improved nonhomogeneous Poisson process( NHPP) model in engineering application,the immune clone maximum likelihood estimation( MLE)method for solving model parameters was proposed. The minimum negative log-likelihood function was used as the objective function to optimize instead of using iterative method to solve complex system of equations,and the problem of parameter estimation of improved NHPP model was solved by immune clone algorithm. And the interval estimation of reliability indices was given by using fisher information matrix method and delta method. An example of failure truncated data from multiple numerical control( NC) machine tools was taken to prove the method. and the results show that the algorithm has a higher convergence rate and computational accuracy, which demonstrates the feasibility of the method.
文摘The paper deals with the estimation problem for the generalized Pareto distribution based on progressive type-II censoring with random removals. The number of components removed at each failure time is assumed to follow a binomial distribution. Maximum likelihood estimators and the asymptotic variance-covariance matrix of the estimates are obtained. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the obtained
文摘The Monte Carlo study evaluates the relative accuracy of Warm's (1989) weighted likelihood estimate (WLE) compared to the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) using the nominal response model. And the results indicate that WLE was more accurate than MLE.