On progressive hybrid censored exponential distribution

In this paper, we introduce a new adaptive Type-I progressive hybrid censoring scheme, which has some advantages over the progressive hybrid censoring schemes already discussed in the literature. Based on an adaptive Type-I progressively hybrid censored sample, we derive the exact distribution of the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE) of the mean lifetime of an exponential distribution as well as confidence intervals for the failure rate using exact distribution, asymptotic distribution, and three parametric bootstrap resampling methods. Furthermore, we provide computational formula for the expected number of failures and investigate the performance of the point and interval estimation for the failure rate in this case. An alternative simple form for the distribution of the MLE under adaptive Type-II progressive hybrid censoring scheme proposed by Ng et al. [Statistical analysis of exponential lifetimes under an adaptive Type-II progressive censoring scheme, Naval Res. Logist. 56 (2009), pp. 687–698] is obtained. Finally, from the exact distribution of the MLE, we establish the explicit expression for the Bayes risk of a sampling plan under adaptive Type-II progressive hybrid censoring scheme when a general loss function is used, and present some optimal Bayes solutions under four different progressive hybrid censoring schemes to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Exact inference on multiple exponential populations under a joint type-II progressive censoring scheme

ABSTRACT

Recently Mondal and Kundu [Mondal S, Kundu D. A new two sample type-II progressive censoring scheme. Commun Stat Theory Methods. 2018. doi:10.1080/03610926.2018.1472781] introduced a Type-II progressive censoring scheme for two populations. In this article, we extend the above scheme for more than two populations. The aim of this paper is to study the statistical inference under the multi-sample Type-II progressive censoring scheme, when the underlying distributions are exponential. We derive the maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the unknown parameters when they exist and find out their exact distributions. The stochastic monotonicity of the MLEs has been established and this property can be used to construct exact confidence intervals of the parameters via pivoting the cumulative distribution functions of the MLEs. The distributional properties of the ordered failure times are also obtained. The Bayesian analysis of the unknown model parameters has been provided. The performances of the different methods have been examined by extensive Monte Carlo simulations. We analyse two data sets for illustrative purposes.     

Exact distribution of the MLEs of the parameters and of the quantiles of two-parameter exponential distribution under hybrid censoring

Epstein [Truncated life tests in the exponential case, Ann. Math. Statist. 25 (1954), pp. 555–564] introduced a hybrid censoring scheme (called Type-I hybrid censoring) and Chen and Bhattacharyya [Exact confidence bounds for an exponential parameter under hybrid censoring, Comm. Statist. Theory Methods 17 (1988), pp. 1857–1870] derived the exact distribution of the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE) of the mean of a scaled exponential distribution based on a Type-I hybrid censored sample. Childs et al. [Exact likelihood inference based on Type-I and Type-II hybrid censored samples from the exponential distribution, Ann. Inst. Statist. Math. 55 (2003), pp. 319–330] provided an alternate simpler expression for this distribution, and also developed analogous results for another hybrid censoring scheme (called Type-II hybrid censoring). The purpose of this paper is to derive the exact bivariate distribution of the MLE of the parameter vector of a two-parameter exponential model based on hybrid censored samples. The marginal distributions are derived and exact confidence bounds for the parameters are obtained. The results are also used to derive the exact distribution of the MLE of the pth quantile, as well as the corresponding confidence bounds. These exact confidence intervals are then compared with parametric bootstrap confidence intervals in terms of coverage probabilities. Finally, we present some numerical examples to illustrate the methods of inference developed here.     

An asymptotic approach to progressive censoring

Progressive Type-II censoring was introduced by Cohen (Technometrics 5(1963) 327) and has been the topic of much research. The question stands whether it is sensible to use this sampling plan by design, instead of regular Type-II right censoring. We introduce an asymptotic progressive censoring model, and find optimal censoring schemes for location-scale families. Our optimality criterion is the determinant of the 2×2 covariance matrix of the asymptotic best linear unbiased estimators. We present an explicit expression for this criterion, and conditions for its boundedness. By means of numerical optimization, we determine optimal censoring schemes for the extreme value, the Weibull and the normal distributions. In many situations, it is shown that these progressive schemes significantly improve upon regular Type-II right censoring.     

Fisher information in progressive hybrid censoring schemes

The hybrid censoring scheme, which is a mixture of Type-I and Type-II censoring schemes, has been extended to the case of progressive censoring schemes by Kundu and Joarder [Analysis of Type-II progressively hybrid censored data, Comput. Stat. Data Anal. 50 (2006), pp. 2509–2528] and Childs et al. [Exact likelihood inference for an exponential parameter under progressive hybrid censoring schemes, in Statistical Models and Methods for Biomedical and Technical Systems, F. Vonta, M. Nikulin, N. Limnios, and C. Huber-Carol, eds., Birkhäuser, Boston, MA, 2007, pp. 323–334]. In this paper, we derive a simple expression for the Fisher information contained in Type-I and Type-II progressively hybrid censored data. An illustrative example is provided applicable to a scaled-exponential distribution to demonstrate our methodologies.     

Progressive censoring with fixed censoring times

In this paper, we revisit the progressive Type-I censoring scheme as it has originally been introduced by Cohen [Progressively censored samples in life testing. Technometrics. 1963;5(3):327–339]. In fact, original progressive Type-I censoring proceeds as progressive Type-II censoring but with fixed censoring times instead of failure time based censoring times. Apparently, a time truncation has been added to this censoring scheme by interpreting the final censoring time as a termination time. Therefore, not much work has been done on Cohens's original progressive censoring scheme with fixed censoring times. Thus, we discuss distributional results for this scheme and establish exact distributional results in likelihood inference for exponentially distributed lifetimes. In particular, we obtain the exact distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). Further, the stochastic monotonicity of the MLE is verified in order to construct exact confidence intervals for both the scale parameter and the reliability.     

Bayesian Analysis of Different Hybrid and Progressive Life Tests

Type-I and Type-II censoring schemes are the widely used censoring schemes available for life testing experiments. A mixture of Type-I and Type-II censoring schemes is known as a hybrid censoring scheme. Different hybrid censoring schemes have been introduced in recent years. In the last few years, a progressive censoring scheme has also received considerable attention. In this article, we mainly consider the Bayesian inference of the unknown parameters of two-parameter exponential distribution under different hybrid and progressive censoring schemes. It is observed that in general the Bayes estimate and the associated credible interval of any function of the unknown parameters, cannot be obtained in explicit form. We propose to use the Monte Carlo sampling procedure to compute the Bayes estimate and also to construct the associated credible interval. Monte Carlo Simulation experiments have been performed to see the effectiveness of the proposed method in case of Type-I hybrid censored samples. The performances are quite satisfactory. One data analysis has been performed for illustrative purposes.     

Asymptotically optimal progressive censoring plans based on Fisher information

Considering the Fisher information about a single parameter contained in a progressively Type-II censored sample, the problem of optimal progressive censoring plans arises. By introducing the notion of asymptotically optimal designs, we show that right censoring is ‘almost’ optimal for many important distributions including scale families of extreme value, normal, logistic, and Laplace distributions. Moreover, it turns out that for the extreme value distribution right censoring is the only asymptotically optimal one-step censoring scheme.     

Robust Bayesian analysis for exponential parameters under generalized Type-II progressive hybrid censoring

The Type-II progressive hybrid censoring scheme has received wide attention, but it has a disadvantage in that long time may be required to complete the life test. The generalized progressive Type-II hybrid censoring scheme has recently been proposed to solve this problem. Under the censoring scheme, the time on test does not exceed a predetermined time. In this paper, we propose a robust Bayesian approach based on a hierarchical structure when the generalized progressive Type-II hybrid censored sample has a two-parameter exponential distribution. For unknown parameters, marginal posterior distributions are provided in closed forms, and their statistical properties are discussed. To examine the robustness of the proposed method, Monte Carlo simulations are conducted and a real data set is analyzed. Further, the quality and adequacy of the proposed model are evaluated in an analysis based on the real data.     

Parameter Estimation of Type-II Hybrid Censored Weighted Exponential Distribution

A hybrid censoring scheme is a mixture of Type-I and Type-II censoring schemes. We study the estimation of parameters of weighted exponential distribution based on Type-II hybrid censored data. By applying the EM algorithm, maximum likelihood estimators are evaluated. Using Fisher information matrix, asymptotic confidence intervals are provided. By applying Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques, Bayes estimators, and corresponding highest posterior density confidence intervals of parameters are obtained. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to compare the performances of the different methods, and one dataset is analyzed for illustrative purposes.     

Recurrence relations for single and product moments of progressively Type-II censored order statistics from generalized logistic distribution with applications to inference

In this article, we establish several recurrence relations for the single and product moments of progressively Type-II right censored order statistics from a generalized logistic distribution. The use of these relations in a systematic manner allow us to compute all the means, variances, and covariances of progressively Type-II right censored order statistics from the generalized logistic distribution for all sample sizes n, effective sample sizes m, and all progressive censoring schemes (R₁, …, R_m). These moments are then utilized to derive best linear unbiased estimators of the scale and location-scale parameters of the generalized logistic distribution. A comparison of these estimators with the maximum likelihood estimates is then made through Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, the best linear unbiased predictors of censored failure times is discussed briefly.     

Inference and optimal censoring schemes for progressively censored Birnbaum–Saunders distribution

The aim of this paper is twofold. First we discuss the maximum likelihood estimators of the unknown parameters of a two-parameter Birnbaum–Saunders distribution when the data are progressively Type-II censored. The maximum likelihood estimators are obtained using the EM algorithm by exploiting the property that the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution can be expressed as an equal mixture of an inverse Gaussian distribution and its reciprocal. From the proposed EM algorithm, the observed information matrix can be obtained quite easily, which can be used to construct the asymptotic confidence intervals. We perform the analysis of two real and one simulated data sets for illustrative purposes, and the performances are quite satisfactory. We further propose the use of different criteria to compare two different sampling schemes, and then find the optimal sampling scheme for a given criterion. It is observed that finding the optimal censoring scheme is a discrete optimization problem, and it is quite a computer intensive process. We examine one sub-optimal censoring scheme by restricting the choice of censoring schemes to one-step censoring schemes as suggested by Balakrishnan (2007), which can be obtained quite easily. We compare the performances of the sub-optimal censoring schemes with the optimal ones, and observe that the loss of information is quite insignificant.     

Exact likelihood inference based on an unified hybrid censored sample from the exponential distribution

Recently, exact confidence bounds and exact likelihood inference have been developed based on hybrid censored samples by Chen and Bhattacharyya [Chen, S. and Bhattacharyya, G.K. (1998). Exact confidence bounds for an exponential parameter under hybrid censoring. Communications in Statistics—Theory and Methods, 17, 1857–1870.], Childs et al. [Childs, A., Chandrasekar, B., Balakrishnan, N. and Kundu, D. (2003). Exact likelihood inference based on Type-I and Type-II hybrid censored samples from the exponential distribution. Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, 55, 319–330.], and Chandrasekar et al. [Chandrasekar, B., Childs, A. and Balakrishnan, N. (2004). Exact likelihood inference for the exponential distribution under generalized Type-I and Type-II hybrid censoring. Naval Research Logistics, 51, 994–1004.] for the case of the exponential distribution. In this article, we propose an unified hybrid censoring scheme (HCS) which includes many cases considered earlier as special cases. We then derive the exact distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator as well as exact confidence intervals for the mean of the exponential distribution under this general unified HCS. Finally, we present some examples to illustrate all the methods of inference developed here.     

Estimation for the Parameters of the Pareto Distribution Under Progressive Censoring

In this article, progressive Type-II right censored sample from Pareto distribution is considered. Exact confidence region is derived for the parameters of the corresponding distribution under progressive censoring. Simulation study is performed to investigate the coverage probabilities of the proposed confidence region. Illustrative example is also given.     

Pitman closeness as a criterion for the determination of the optimal progressive censoring scheme

Selecting the optimal progressive censoring scheme for the exponential distribution according to Pitman closeness criterion is discussed. For small sample sizes the Pitman closeness probabilities are calculated explicitly, and it is shown that the optimal progressive censoring scheme is the usual Type-II right censoring case. It is conjectured that this to be the case for all sample sizes. A general algorithm is also presented for the numerical computation of the Pitman closeness probabilities between any two progressive censoring schemes of the same size.     

Two-sample prediction for progressively Type-II censored Weibull lifetimes

Prediction on the basis of censored data has an important role in many fields. This article develops a non-Bayesian two-sample prediction based on a progressive Type-II right censoring scheme. We obtain the maximum likelihood (ML) prediction in a general form for lifetime models including the Weibull distribution. The Weibull distribution is considered to obtain the ML predictor (MLP), the ML prediction estimate (MLPE), the asymptotic ML prediction interval (AMLPI), and the asymptotic predictive ML intervals of the sth-order statistic in a future random sample (Y_s) drawn independently from the parent population, for an arbitrary progressive censoring scheme. To reach this aim, we present three ML prediction methods namely the numerical solution, the EM algorithm, and the approximate ML prediction. We compare the performances of the different methods of ML prediction under asymptotic normality and bootstrap methods by Monte Carlo simulation with respect to biases and mean square prediction errors (MSPEs) of the MLPs of Y_s as well as coverage probabilities (CP) and average lengths (AL) of the AMLPIs. Finally, we give a numerical example and a real data sample to assess the computational comparison of these methods of the ML prediction.     

Pitman closeness as a criterion for the determination of the optimal progressive censoring scheme

Selecting the optimal progressive censoring scheme for the exponential distribution according to Pitman closeness criterion is discussed. For small sample sizes the Pitman closeness probabilities are calculated explicitly, and it is shown that the optimal progressive censoring scheme is the usual Type-II right censoring case. It is conjectured that this to be the case for all sample sizes. A general algorithm is also presented for the numerical computation of the Pitman closeness probabilities between any two progressive censoring schemes of the same size.     

Statistical inference for the extreme value distribution under adaptive Type-II progressive censoring schemes

Adaptive Type-II progressive censoring schemes have been shown to be useful in striking a balance between statistical estimation efficiency and the time spent on a life-testing experiment. In this article, some general statistical properties of an adaptive Type-II progressive censoring scheme are first investigated. A bias correction procedure is proposed to reduce the bias of the maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs). We then focus on the extreme value distributed lifetimes and derive the Fisher information matrix for the MLEs based on these properties. Four different approaches are proposed to construct confidence intervals for the parameters of the extreme value distribution. Performance of these methods is compared through an extensive Monte Carlo simulation.     

Generalized inverted exponential distribution under progressive first-failure censoring

This article deals with progressive first-failure censoring, which is a generalization of progressive censoring. We derive maximum likelihood estimators of the unknown parameters and reliability characteristics of generalized inverted exponential distribution using progressive first-failure censored samples. The asymptotic confidence intervals and coverage probabilities for the parameters are obtained based on the observed Fisher's information matrix. Bayes estimators of the parameters and reliability characteristics under squared error loss function are obtained using the Lindley approximation and importance sampling methods. Also, highest posterior density credible intervals for the parameters are computed using importance sampling procedure. A Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted to analyse the performance of the estimators derived in the article. A real data set is discussed for illustration purposes. Finally, an optimal censoring scheme has been suggested using different optimality criteria.     

Statistical Analysis of the Log-Normal Distribution under Type-II Progressive Hybrid Censoring Schemes

In this article, we obtain the maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) and approximate maximum likelihood estimators (AMLEs) of the parameters, from a two-parameter log-normal distribution based on the adaptive Type-II progressive hybrid censoring scheme, which was introduced by Ng et al. (2009 Ng , H. K. T. , Kundu , D. , Chan , P. S. ( 2009 ). Statistical analysis of exponential lifetimes under an adaptive Type-II progressively censoring scheme . Naval Research Logistics 56 : 687 – 698 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for life testing or reliability experiment. In order to compare the results, we calculate corresponding estimators of the Type-II progressive hybrid censoring scheme. In particular, we provide computational formulas of the expected total test time and the expected number of failures for each scheme. We also compute the observed Fisher information matrix and use them to obtain the asymptotic confidence intervals. A simulation study carries out to evaluate the bias and mean square error of the MLEs and AMLEs from the two above-mentioned schemes. Finally, we present a numerical example to illustrate the methods of inference discussed here.