We consider approximation of multivariate functions in Sobolev spaces by high order Parzen windows in a non-uniform sampling setting. Sampling points are neither i.i.d. nor regular, but are noised from regular grids by non-uniform shifts of a probability density function. Sample function values at sampling points are drawn according to probability measures with expected values being values of the approximated function. The approximation orders are estimated by means of regularity of the approximated function, the density function, and the order of the Parzen windows, under suitable choices of the scaling parameter.

The backfitting algorithm is an iterative procedure for fitting additive models in which, at each step, one component is estimated keeping the other components fixed, the algorithm proceeding component by component and iterating until convergence. Convergence of the algorithm has been studied by Buja, Hastie, and Tibshirani (1989). We give a simple, but more general, geometric proof of the convergence of the backfitting algorithm when the additive components are estimated by penalized least squares. Our treatment covers spline smoothers and structural time series models, and we give a full discussion of the degenerate case. Our proof is based on Halperin's (1962) generalization of von Neumann's alternating projection theorem.