A spatial process observed over a lattice or a set of irregular regions is usually modeled using a conditionally autoregressive (CAR) model. The neighborhoods within a CAR model are generally formed deterministically using the inter-distances or boundaries between the regions. An extension of...

One of the standard problems in statistics consists of determining the relationship between a response variable and a single predictor variable through a regression function. Background scientific knowledge is often available that suggests that the regression function should have a certain shape...