ASN-minimax double sampling plans by variables for two-sided specification limits when the standard deviation is known

Sampling plans are a useful tool to decide whether large-size lots should be accepted or rejected. In this paper we introduce double sampling plans by variables for a normally distributed characteristic with known standard deviation and two-sided specification limits. These plans fulfill the classical two-points-condition on the operating characteristic (OC) and feature minimal maximal average sample number (ASN).     

Optimal exact design of double acceptance sampling plans by attributes

The design of double acceptance sampling (AS) plans for attributes based on the operating characteristic curve paradigm is usually addressed by enumeration algorithms. These AS plans may be non optimal regarding the sample size to inspect as they were obtained without the requirement that the constraints at the OC curve controlled points are not violated for minimum Average Sample Number (ASN) scenarios. An approach based on mathematical programming is proposed to systematically design double AS plans for attributes, where the characteristics controlled are modelled by binomial or Poisson distributions. Specifically, Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) formulations are developed and combined with an enumeration algorithm that allows finding ASN minimax optimal plans. A theoretical result is developed with the purpose of assuring the global optimum design is reached by iteration where a convenient solver is used to find local optima. To validate the algorithm, we compare our results with those of tables commonly used for practical purposes, consider different rates of risk, and setups commonly used in Lot Quality Assurance Plans (LQAS) for health monitoring programmes. Finally, we compare AS plans determined for processes described by binomial and Poisson distributions.     

Modified tables for the selection of double sampling attribute plan indexed by aql and lql

This paper presents modified tables for the selection of double sampling plans for given Acceptable Qualtiy Level (AQL), producer’s risk (α) Limiting Quality Level (LQL), and consumer’s risk (ß) giving the minimum sum of Average Sample Numbers (ASN) at AQL and LQL under the conditions of the Poisson model for the Operating Characteristic (OC) curve.     

A Design of Attributes Double Sampling Plans for Three-class Products

In this article, a new attributes double sampling plan for three-class products (ADSPTP) is presented, and the corresponding operating characteristic function is constructed based on the given procedure of performing ADSPTP. Average sample numbers (ASN) for complete inspection and curtailed inspection of the second sample are derived and the extreme point is discussed on the three-dimensional ASN surface. In addition, the differences arising from different parameters are studied. Sampling plans are designed by a nonlinear optimization model. Finally, numerical examples and discussions are given to illustrate the obtained results, and tables of the designed plans under various conditions are provided.     

Double and group acceptance sampling plan for truncated life test based on inverse log-logistic distribution

This paper introduces a double and group acceptance sampling plans based on time truncated lifetimes when the lifetime of an item follows the inverse log-logistic (ILL) distribution with known shape parameter. The operating characteristic function and average sample number (ASN) values of the double acceptance sampling inspection plan are provided. The values of the minimum number of groups and operating characteristic function for various quality levels are obtained for a group acceptance sampling inspection plan. A comparative study between single acceptance sampling inspection plan and double acceptance sampling inspection plan is carried out in terms of sample size. One simulated example and four real-life examples are discussed to show the applicability of the proposed double and group acceptance sampling inspection plans for ILL distributed quality parameters.     

The structured elastic net for quantile regression and?support vector classification

In view of its ongoing importance for a variety of practical applications, feature selection via ℓ ₁-regularization methods like the lasso has been subject to extensive theoretical as well empirical investigations. Despite its popularity, mere ℓ ₁-regularization has been criticized for being inadequate or ineffective, notably in situations in which additional structural knowledge about the predictors should be taken into account. This has stimulated the development of either systematically different regularization methods or double regularization approaches which combine ℓ ₁-regularization with a second kind of regularization designed to capture additional problem-specific structure. One instance thereof is the ‘structured elastic net’, a generalization of the proposal in Zou and Hastie (J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B 67:301–320, 2005), studied in Slawski et al. (Ann. Appl. Stat. 4(2):1056–1080, 2010) for the class of generalized linear models.     

Link sampling for attributes

A few lot-by-lot acceptance sampling procedures for attributes are proposed as alternatives to the usual double sampling. In these schemes whenever a second sample is needed, the sample information from neighbouring lots is used. The new plans have the DC identical to that of the comparable double sampling plan. The primary advantage of these plans is a reduction in cost due to a smaller ASN. An empirical study which investigates the effect of sudden shifts in quality level on the probability of acceptance and ARL under the proposed plans is included     

A partially adaptive estimator for the censored regression model based on a mixture of normal distributions

The goal of this paper is to introduce a partially adaptive estimator for the censored regression model based on an error structure described by a mixture of two normal distributions. The model we introduce is easily estimated by maximum likelihood using an EM algorithm adapted from the work of Bartolucci and Scaccia (Comput Stat Data Anal 48:821–834, 2005). A Monte Carlo study is conducted to compare the small sample properties of this estimator to the performance of some common alternative estimators of censored regression models including the usual tobit model, the CLAD estimator of Powell (J Econom 25:303–325, 1984), and the STLS estimator of Powell (Econometrica 54:1435–1460, 1986). In terms of RMSE, our partially adaptive estimator performed well. The partially adaptive estimator is applied to data on wife’s hours worked from Mroz (1987). In this application we find support for the partially adaptive estimator over the usual tobit model.     

On population-based simulation for static inference

In this paper we present a review of population-based simulation for static inference problems. Such methods can be described as generating a collection of random variables {X _n } _n=1,…,N in parallel in order to simulate from some target density π (or potentially sequence of target densities). Population-based simulation is important as many challenging sampling problems in applied statistics cannot be dealt with successfully by conventional Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. We summarize population-based MCMC (Geyer, Computing Science and Statistics: The 23rd Symposium on the Interface, pp. 156–163, 1991; Liang and Wong, J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 96, 653–666, 2001) and sequential Monte Carlo samplers (SMC) (Del Moral, Doucet and Jasra, J. Roy. Stat. Soc. Ser. B 68, 411–436, 2006a), providing a comparison of the approaches. We give numerical examples from Bayesian mixture modelling (Richardson and Green, J. Roy. Stat. Soc. Ser. B 59, 731–792, 1997).     

Regression analysis for cumulative incidence probability under competing risks and left-truncated sampling

The cumulative incidence function provides intuitive summary information about competing risks data. Via a mixture decomposition of this function, Chang and Wang (Statist. Sinca 19:391–408, 2009) study how covariates affect the cumulative incidence probability of a particular failure type at a chosen time point. Without specifying the corresponding failure time distribution, they proposed two estimators and derived their large sample properties. The first estimator utilized the technique of weighting to adjust for the censoring bias, and can be considered as an extension of Fine’s method (J R Stat Soc Ser B 61: 817–830, 1999). The second used imputation and extends the idea of Wang (J R Stat Soc Ser B 65: 921–935, 2003) from a nonparametric setting to the current regression framework. In this article, when covariates take only discrete values, we extend both approaches of Chang and Wang (Statist Sinca 19:391–408, 2009) by allowing left truncation. Large sample properties of the proposed estimators are derived, and their finite sample performance is investigated through a simulation study. We also apply our methods to heart transplant survival data.     

Characterization of MIL-STD-105D double sampling plans using normalized OC curves

A simple method of analyzing the MIL-STD-105D double sampling plans by ‘normalizing the OC curve’ is presented. Among a set of competing double sampling plans, procedures are given to select a particular plan when costs are unknown. Necessary tables are constructed and examples given.     

Bayesian inference for the Birnbaum–Saunders nonlinear regression model

We develop a Bayesian analysis for the class of Birnbaum–Saunders nonlinear regression models introduced by Lemonte and Cordeiro (Comput Stat Data Anal 53:4441–4452, 2009). This regression model, which is based on the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution (Birnbaum and Saunders in J Appl Probab 6:319–327, 1969a), has been used successfully to model fatigue failure times. We have considered a Bayesian analysis under a normal-gamma prior. Due to the complexity of the model, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are used to develop a Bayesian procedure for the considered model. We describe tools for model determination, which include the conditional predictive ordinate, the logarithm of the pseudo-marginal likelihood and the pseudo-Bayes factor. Additionally, case deletion influence diagnostics is developed for the joint posterior distribution based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence. Two empirical applications are considered in order to illustrate the developed procedures.     

Orthogonal decomposition of point-symmetry for multiway tables

For multiway contingency tables, Wall and Lienert (Biom. J. 18:259–264, 1976) considered the point-symmetry model. For square contingency tables, Tomizawa (Biom. J. 27:895–905, 1985) gave a theorem that the point-symmetry model holds if and only if both the quasi point-symmetry and the marginal point-symmetry models hold. This paper proposes some quasi point-symmetry models and marginal point-symmetry models for multiway tables, and extends Tomizawa’s (Biom. J. 27:895–905, 1985) theorem into multiway tables. We also show that for multiway tables the likelihood ratio statistic for testing goodness of fit of the point-symmetry model is asymptotically equivalent to the sum of those for testing the quasi point-symmetry model with some order and the marginal point-symmetry model with the corresponding order. An example is given.     

Test of hypotheses in panel data models when the regressor and disturbances are possibly non-stationary

This paper considers the problem of hypothesis testing in a simple panel data regression model with random individual effects and serially correlated disturbances. Following Baltagi et al. (Econom. J. 11:554–572, 2008), we allow for the possibility of non-stationarity in the regressor and/or the disturbance term. While Baltagi et al. (Econom. J. 11:554–572, 2008) focus on the asymptotic properties and distributions of the standard panel data estimators, this paper focuses on testing of hypotheses in this setting. One important finding is that unlike the time-series case, one does not necessarily need to rely on the “super-efficient” type AR estimator by Perron and Yabu (J. Econom. 151:56–69, 2009) to make an inference in the panel data. In fact, we show that the simple t-ratio always converges to the standard normal distribution, regardless of whether the disturbances and/or the regressor are stationary.     

Efficiency improvement in a class of survival models through model-free covariate incorporation

In randomized clinical trials, we are often concerned with comparing two-sample survival data. Although the log-rank test is usually suitable for this purpose, it may result in substantial power loss when the two groups have nonproportional hazards. In a more general class of survival models of Yang and Prentice (Biometrika 92:1–17, 2005), which includes the log-rank test as a special case, we improve model efficiency by incorporating auxiliary covariates that are correlated with the survival times. In a model-free form, we augment the estimating equation with auxiliary covariates, and establish the efficiency improvement using the semiparametric theories in Zhang et al. (Biometrics 64:707–715, 2008) and Lu and Tsiatis (Biometrics, 95:674–679, 2008). Under minimal assumptions, our approach produces an unbiased, asymptotically normal estimator with additional efficiency gain. Simulation studies and an application to a leukemia study show the satisfactory performance of the proposed method.     

An improved sampling plan by variables inspection with consideration of process yield and quality loss

Repetitive group sampling (RGS) plan, a modified version of single sampling (SS) plan, has been shown to be more efficient than the SS plan for lot sentencing. However, because it does not consider the valuable sample information from preceding lots, that could reduce its sampling efficiency and discriminatory power. Therefore, this study proposes a modified-RGS plan by considering the quality history of preceding lots based on the C_pmk index. Additionally, the mathematical model for the plan parameters is formulated such that the objective function is to minimize the average sample number (ASN), and the required quality levels and risks as specified by producer and consumer are satisfied. The performance of the proposed plan is examined and compared with traditional sampling plans. Finally, an example is presented to illustrate its applicability.     

Classification using distance nearest neighbours

This paper proposes a new probabilistic classification algorithm using a Markov random field approach. The joint distribution of class labels is explicitly modelled using the distances between feature vectors. Intuitively, a class label should depend more on class labels which are closer in the feature space, than those which are further away. Our approach builds on previous work by Holmes and Adams (J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B 64:295–306, 2002; Biometrika 90:99–112, 2003) and Cucala et al. (J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 104:263–273, 2009). Our work shares many of the advantages of these approaches in providing a probabilistic basis for the statistical inference. In comparison to previous work, we present a more efficient computational algorithm to overcome the intractability of the Markov random field model. The results of our algorithm are encouraging in comparison to the k-nearest neighbour algorithm.     

Optimal Design of Acceptance Sampling Plans by Variables for Nonconforming Proportions When the Standard Deviation Is Unknown

This article presents an optimization-based approach for the design of acceptance sampling plans by variables for controlling nonconforming proportions when the standard deviation is unknown. The variables are described by rigorous noncentral Student’s t-distributions. Single and double acceptance sampling (AS) plans are addressed. The optimal design results from minimizing the average sampling number (ASN), subject to conditions holding at producer’s and consumer’s required quality levels. The problem is then solved employing a nonlinear programming solver. The results obtained are in close agreement with previous sampling plans found in the literature, outperforming them regarding the feasibility.     

Estimation of 2D jump location curve and 3D jump location surface in nonparametric regression

A new procedure is proposed to estimate the jump location curve and surface in the two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) nonparametric jump regression models, respectively. In each of the 2D and 3D cases, our estimation procedure is motivated by the fact that, under some regularity conditions, the ridge location of the rotational difference kernel estimate (RDKE; Qiu in Sankhyā Ser. A 59, 268–294, 1997, and J. Comput. Graph. Stat. 11, 799–822, 2002; Garlipp and Müller in Sankhyā Ser. A 69, 55–86, 2007) obtained from the noisy image is asymptotically close to the jump location of the true image. Accordingly, a computational procedure based on the kernel smoothing method is designed to find the ridge location of RDKE, and the result is taken as the jump location estimate. The sequence relationship among the points comprising our jump location estimate is obtained. Our jump location estimate is produced without the knowledge of the range or shape of jump region. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed estimation procedure can detect the jump location very well, and thus it is a useful alternative for estimating the jump location in each of the 2D and 3D cases.     

Variance decompositions of nonlinear time series using stochastic simulation and sensitivity analysis

In this paper, A variance decomposition approach to quantify the effects of endogenous and exogenous variables for nonlinear time series models is developed. This decomposition is taken temporally with respect to the source of variation. The methodology uses Monte Carlo methods to affect the variance decomposition using the ANOVA-like procedures proposed in Archer et al. (J. Stat. Comput. Simul. 58:99–120, 1997), Sobol’ (Math. Model. 2:112–118, 1990). The results of this paper can be used in investment problems, biomathematics and control theory, where nonlinear time series with multiple inputs are encountered.