1. Guosheng Yin is Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030 . Donglin Zeng is Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 . Hui Li is Assistant Professor, School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. The authors thank the editor, associate editor, and two referees for their insightful comments, which led to substantial improvements in the...