Modelling the diameter distribution of forest stands using the Burr distribution

SUMMARY For the past 20 years, forest modellers have largely used the Weibull distribution to summarize diameter distributions and to predict timber volume in a forest at clearfell time. The wider family of Burr distributions is investigated here as an alternative to the Weibull distribution. Using data from 20 permanent sample plots of Pinus radiata, we compare Burr and Weibull fits, showing that the Burr distribution enhances precision by roughly 13 . The effectiveness of the Burr distribution for prediction is found to be similar to that of the Weibull distribution.     

On the bivariate weighted exponential distribution based on the generalized exponential distribution

In this paper, we introduce a bivariate weighted exponential distribution based on the generalized exponential distribution. This class of distributions generalizes the bivariate distribution with weighted exponential marginals (BWE). We derive different properties of this new distribution. It is a four-parameter distribution, and the maximum-likelihood estimator of unknown parameters cannot be obtained in explicit forms. One data set has been re-analyzed and it is observed that the proposed distribution provides better fit than the BWE distribution.     

A skew extension of the slash distribution via beta-normal distribution

In this work we introduce a generalization of the slash distribution using beta-normal distribution. This newly defined generalization is more flexible than the ordinary slash distribution and contains distributions that can be not only symmetric and unimodal, but also asymmetric and bimodal. We study the properties of the new generalized distribution and demonstrate its use on some real data sets considering maximum likelihood estimation procedure.     

Exact formula for the cumulative distribution function of the quasi-range from the logistic distribution

In this paper we obtain an exact formula for the cumulative distribution function of the rth quasi-range from the logistic distribution. For the special case r = 0, the result agrees for the rangegiven by Gupta and Shah (1965).     

Parametrizing the Kepler exoplanet period-radius distribution with the bivariate normal inverse Gaussian distribution

This paper presents a simple and robust method for obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the joint period and radius distribution in Kepler exoplanets. The proposed method is based on particle swarm optimization and bivariate Normal Inverse Gaussian distribution. Furthermore, in the construction of the probability density function, this study selects planet-host stars with the GK-type. The injecting approach is also employed to solve the survey completeness of sample. The resulting occurrence rate of Earth analogs is 0.025 with a 95% bootstrap confidence interval between 0.023 and 0.032.     

Mixture of the Riesz distribution with respect to the generalized multivariate gamma distribution

Wishart natural exponential families (NEFs) characterized by Letac (1989) are extended to the Riesz NEFs on symmetric matrices. These families are characterized by their variance functions defined in Hassairi and Lajmi (2001). This work uses a particular basis of these NEFs to describe the class of the generalized multivariate gamma distributions and then to study the statistical model obtained by the mixture of this distribution with the Riesz one on the space of symmetric matrices.     

A generalization of the slashed distribution via alpha skew normal distribution

Statistical Methods & Applications - In this paper, we introduce a new class of the slash distribution, an alpha skew normal slash distribution. The proposed model is more flexible in terms of...     

The generalized Poisson-binomial distribution and the computation of its distribution function

The Poisson-binomial distribution is useful in many applied problems in engineering, actuarial science and data mining. The Poisson-binomial distribution models the distribution of the sum of independent but non-identically distributed random indicators whose success probabilities vary. In this paper, we extend the Poisson-binomial distribution to a generalized Poisson-binomial (GPB) distribution. The GPB distribution corresponds to the case where the random indicators are replaced by two-point random variables, which can take two arbitrary values instead of 0 and 1 as in the case of random indicators. The GPB distribution has found applications in many areas such as voting theory, actuarial science, warranty prediction and probability theory. As the GPB distribution has not been studied in detail so far, we introduce this distribution first and then derive its theoretical properties. We develop an efficient algorithm for the computation of its distribution function, using the fast Fourier transform. We test the accuracy of the developed algorithm by comparing it with enumeration-based exact method and the results from the binomial distribution. We also study the computational time of the algorithm under various parameter settings. Finally, we discuss the factors affecting the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm and illustrate the use of the software package.     

Observations on the effect of the prior distribution on the predictive distribution in Bayesian inferences

Typically, in the brief discussion of Bayesian inferential methods presented at the beginning of calculus-based undergraduate or graduate mathematical statistics courses, little attention is paid to the process of choosing the parameter value(s) for the prior distribution. Even less attention is paid to the impact of these choices on the predictive distribution of the data. Reasons for this include that the posterior can be found by ignoring the predictive distribution thereby streamlining the derivation of the posterior and/or that computer software can be used to find the posterior distribution. In this paper, the binomial, negative-binomial and Poisson distributions along with their conjugate beta and gamma priors are utilized to obtain the resulting predictive distributions. It is then demonstrated that specific choices of the parameters of the priors can lead to predictive distributions with properties that might be surprising to a non-expert user of Bayesian methods.     

On a multivariate log-gamma distribution and the use of the distribution in the Bayesian analysis

In this article, we propose a new generalized multivariate log-gamma distribution. We consider the usage of the proposed multivariate distribution as the prior distribution in the Bayesian analysis. The generalized multivariate log-gamma distribution allows for the inclusion of prior knowledge on correlations between model parameters when likelihood is not in the form of a normal distribution. Use of the proposed distribution in the Bayesian analysis of log-linear models is also discussed.     

The asymptotic distribution of the correlation coefficient in testing fit to the exponential distribution

The asymptotic distribution of certain tests of fit to the exponential distribution is obtained. The tests are based on regression of the order statistics on their expectations under a standard exponential distribution. Asymptotic normality at the rate (log n)^1/2 is obtained for a family of statistics including the correlation coefficient.     

Criticism of the predictive distribution

The predictive distribution is a mixture of the original distribution model and is used for predicting a future observation. Therein, the mixing distribution is the posterior distribution of the distribution parameters in the Bayesian inference. The mixture can also be computed for the frequentist inference because the Bayesian posterior distribution has the same meaning as a frequentist confidence interval. I present arguments against the concept of predictive distribution. Examples illustrate these. The most important argument is that the predictive distribution can depend on the parameterization. An improvement of the theory of the predictive distribution is recommended.     

MCMC and the Fibonacci distribution

A method to create a Markov transition matrix for Markov chain Monte Carlo studies is presented and applied to the Fibonacci probability distribution.     

Inference on the Kumaraswamy distribution

Many lifetime distribution models have successfully served as population models for risk analysis and reliability mechanisms. The Kumaraswamy distribution is one of these distributions which is particularly useful to many natural phenomena whose outcomes have lower and upper bounds or bounded outcomes in the biomedical and epidemiological research. This article studies point estimation and interval estimation for the Kumaraswamy distribution. The inverse estimators (IEs) for the parameters of the Kumaraswamy distribution are derived. Numerical comparisons with maximum likelihood estimation and biased-corrected methods clearly indicate the proposed IEs are promising. Confidence intervals for the parameters and reliability characteristics of interest are constructed using pivotal or generalized pivotal quantities. Then, the results are extended to the stress–strength model involving two Kumaraswamy populations with different parameter values. Construction of confidence intervals for the stress–strength reliability is derived. Extensive simulations are used to demonstrate the performance of confidence intervals constructed using generalized pivotal quantities.     

Approximations to the chi-square distribution

The chi-square distribution arises frequently in applied statistics.Associated with the chi-square random variable with v degrees of freedom are two interdependent variables: the probability integral and the percentage point.Given one of these variables,the other can be obtained from chi-square tables for selected values.In order to overcome the inconvenience of statistical tables and interpolation,many approximations have been suggested.The computational difficulty and accuracy of various approximations is compared.     

A note on the asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator for the scalar skew-normal distribution

We consider likelihood based inference for the parameter of a skew-normal distribution. One of the problems shown by this model is the singularity of the Fisher information matrix when skewness is absent. We derive the rate of convergence to the asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator and study an alternative parameterization which overcomes problems related to the singularity of the information matrix.     

Exact inferences of the two-parameter exponential distribution and Pareto distribution with censored data

We develop an exact inference for the location and the scale parameters of the two-exponential distribution and the Pareto distribution based on their maximum-likelihood estimators from the doubly Type-II and the progressive Type-II censored sample. Based on some pivotal quantities, exact confidence intervals and tests of hypotheses are constructed. Exact distributions of the pivotal quantities are expressed as mixtures of linear combinations and of ratios of linear combinations of standard exponential random variables, which facilitates the computation of quantiles of these pivotal quantities. We also provide a bootstrap method for constructing a confidence interval. Some simulation studies are carried out to assess their performances. Using the exact distribution of the scale parameter, we establish an acceptance sampling procedure based on the lifetime of the unit. Some numerical results are tabulated for the illustration. One biometrical example is also given to illustrate the proposed methods.     

Estimating the concentration of the Langevin distribution

We propose an estimator of the concentration parameter of the Langevin distribution that is based on the spatial median. We derive its asymptotic distribution, compute its asymptotic efficiency, and show that it possesses some interesting stability properties under contamination.