A reduced new modified Weibull distribution

The author proposes a reduced version, with three parameters, of the new modified Weibull (NMW) distribution in order to avoid some estimation problems. The mathematical properties and maximum-likelihood estimation of the reduced version are studied. Four real data sets (complete and censored) are used to compare the flexibility of the reduced version versus the NMW distribution. It is shown that the reduced version has the same desirable properties of the NMW distribution in spite of having two less parameters. The NMW distribution did not provide a significantly better fit than the reduced version.     

Bivariate inverse Weibull distribution

ABSTRACT

Recently it is observed that the inverse Weibull (IW) distribution can be used quite effectively to analyse lifetime data in one dimension. The main aim of this paper is to define a bivariate inverse Weibull (BIW) distribution so that the marginals have IW distributions. It is observed that the joint probability density function and the joint cumulative distribution function can be expressed in compact forms. Several properties of this distribution such as marginals, conditional distributions and product moments have been discussed. We obtained the maximum likelihood estimates for the unknown parameters of this distribution and their approximate variance– covariance matrix. We perform some simulations to see the performances of the maximum likelihood estimators. One data set has been re-analysed and it is observed that the bivariate IW distribution provides a better fit than the bivariate exponential distribution.     

Transmuted Weibull distribution: Properties and estimation

In this article, we investigate the potential usefulness of the three-parameter transmuted Weibull distribution for modeling survival data. The main advantage of this distribution is that it has increasing, decreasing or constant instantaneous failure rate depending on the shape parameter and the new transmuting parameter. We obtain several mathematical properties of the transmuted Weibull distribution such as the expressions for the quantile function, moments, geometric mean, harmonic mean, Shannon, Rényi and q-entropies, mean deviations, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves, and the moments of order statistics. We propose a location-scale regression model based on the log-transmuted Weibull distribution for modeling lifetime data. Applications to two real datasets are given to illustrate the flexibility and potentiality of the transmuted Weibull family of lifetime distributions.     

Statistical inference about the shape parameter of the Weibull distribution by upper record values

Summary In this paper, we provide some pivotal quantities to test and establish confidence interval of the shape parameter on the basis of the firstn observed upper record values. Finally, we give some examples and the Monte Carlo simulation to assess the behaviors (including higher power and more shorter length of confidence interval) of these pivotal quantities for testing null hypotheses and establishing confidence interval concerning the shape parameter under the given significance level and the given confidence coefficient, respectively.     

General results for the beta-modified Weibull distribution

We study in detail the so-called beta-modified Weibull distribution, motivated by the wide use of the Weibull distribution in practice, and also for the fact that the generalization provides a continuous crossover towards cases with different shapes. The new distribution is important since it contains as special sub-models some widely-known distributions, such as the generalized modified Weibull, beta Weibull, exponentiated Weibull, beta exponential, modified Weibull and Weibull distributions, among several others. It also provides more flexibility to analyse complex real data. Various mathematical properties of this distribution are derived, including its moments and moment generating function. We examine the asymptotic distributions of the extreme values. Explicit expressions are also derived for the chf, mean deviations, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves, reliability and entropies. The estimation of parameters is approached by two methods: moments and maximum likelihood. We compare by simulation the performances of the estimates from these methods. We obtain the expected information matrix. Two applications are presented to illustrate the proposed distribution.     

General results for the beta Weibull distribution

In this paper, we study some mathematical properties of the beta Weibull (BW) distribution, which is a quite flexible model in analysing positive data. It contains the Weibull, exponentiated exponential, exponentiated Weibull and beta exponential distributions as special sub-models. We demonstrate that the BW density can be expressed as a mixture of Weibull densities. We provide their moments and two closed-form expressions for their moment-generating function. We examine the asymptotic distributions of the extreme values. Explicit expressions are derived for the mean deviations, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves, reliability and two entropies. The density of the BW-order statistics is a mixture of Weibull densities and two closed-form expressions are derived for their moments. The estimation of the parameters is approached by two methods: moments and maximum likelihood. We compare the performances of the estimates obtained from both the methods by simulation. The expected information matrix is derived. For the first time, we introduce a log-BW regression model to analyse censored data. The usefulness of the BW distribution is illustrated in the analysis of three real data sets.     

The beta exponentiated Weibull distribution

The Weibull distribution is one of the most important distributions in reliability. For the first time, we introduce the beta exponentiated Weibull distribution which extends recent models by Lee et al. [Beta-Weibull distribution: some properties and applications to censored data, J. Mod. Appl. Statist. Meth. 6 (2007), pp. 173–186] and Barreto-Souza et al. [The beta generalized exponential distribution, J. Statist. Comput. Simul. 80 (2010), pp. 159–172]. The new distribution is an important competitive model to the Weibull, exponentiated exponential, exponentiated Weibull, beta exponential and beta Weibull distributions since it contains all these models as special cases. We demonstrate that the density of the new distribution can be expressed as a linear combination of Weibull densities. We provide the moments and two closed-form expressions for the moment-generating function. Explicit expressions are derived for the mean deviations, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves, reliability and entropies. The density of the order statistics can also be expressed as a linear combination of Weibull densities. We obtain the moments of the order statistics. The expected information matrix is derived. We define a log-beta exponentiated Weibull regression model to analyse censored data. The estimation of the parameters is approached by the method of maximum likelihood. The usefulness of the new distribution to analyse positive data is illustrated in two real data sets.     

Computational comparison of the general weighted moments estimators of the scale parameter of a Pareto distribution with a known shape parameter with other estimators based on a multiply type II-censored sample

Wu et al. [Computational comparison for weighted moments estimators and BLUE of the scale parameter of a Pareto distribution with known shape parameter under type II multiply censored sample, Appl. Math. Comput. 181 (2006), pp. 1462–1470] proposed the weighted moments estimators (WMEs) of the scale parameter of a Pareto distribution with known shape parameter on a multiply type II-censored sample. They claimed that some WMEs are better than the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) based on the exact mean-squared error (MSE). In this paper, the general WME (GWME) is proposed and the computational comparison of the proposed estimator with the WMEs and BLUE is done on the basis of the exact MSE for given sample sizes and different censoring schemes. As a result, the GWME is performing better than the best estimator among 12 WMEs and BLUE for all cases. Therefore, GWME is recommended for use. At last, one example is given to demonstrate the proposed GWME.     

Improved likelihood inference for the shape parameter in Weibull regression

We obtain adjustments to the profile likelihood function in Weibull regression models with and without censoring. Specifically, we consider two different modified profile likelihoods: (i) the one proposed by Cox and Reid [Cox, D.R. and Reid, N., 1987, Parameter orthogonality and approximate conditional inference. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B, 49, 1–39.], and (ii) an approximation to the one proposed by Barndorff–Nielsen [Barndorff–Nielsen, O.E., 1983, On a formula for the distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator. Biometrika, 70, 343–365.], the approximation having been obtained using the results by Fraser and Reid [Fraser, D.A.S. and Reid, N., 1995, Ancillaries and third-order significance. Utilitas Mathematica, 47, 33–53.] and by Fraser et al. [Fraser, D.A.S., Reid, N. and Wu, J., 1999, A simple formula for tail probabilities for frequentist and Bayesian inference. Biometrika, 86, 655–661.]. We focus on point estimation and likelihood ratio tests on the shape parameter in the class of Weibull regression models. We derive some distributional properties of the different maximum likelihood estimators and likelihood ratio tests. The numerical evidence presented in the paper favors the approximation to Barndorff–Nielsen's adjustment.     

A new test for the extreme value distribution

In this paper a test statistic which is a modification of the W statistic for testing the goodness of fit for the two paremeter extreme value (smallest element) distribution is proposed. The test statistic Is obtained as the ratio of two linear estimates of the scale parameter. It Is shown that the suggested statistic is computationally simple and has good power properties. Percentage points of the statistic are obtained by performing Monte Carlo experiments. An example is given to illustrate the test procedure.     

Discrete Weibull geometric distribution and its properties

In this article, the discrete analog of Weibull geometric distribution is introduced. Discrete Weibull, discrete Rayleigh, and geometric distributions are submodels of this distribution. Some basic distributional properties, hazard function, random number generation, moments, and order statistics of this new discrete distribution are studied. Estimation of the parameters are done using maximum likelihood method. The applications of the distribution is established using two datasets.     

A study of moments and likelihood estimators of the odd Weibull distribution

The odd Weibull distribution is a three-parameter generalization of the Weibull and the inverse Weibull distributions having rich density and hazard shapes for modeling lifetime data. This paper explored the odd Weibull parameter regions having finite moments and examined the relation to some well-known distributions based on skewness and kurtosis functions. The existence of maximum likelihood estimators have shown with complete data for any sample size. The proof for the uniqueness of these estimators is given only when the absolute value of the second shape parameter is between zero and one. Furthermore, elements of the Fisher information matrix are obtained based on complete data using a single integral representation which have shown to exist for any parameter values. The performance of the odd Weibull distribution over various density and hazard shapes is compared with generalized gamma distribution using two different test statistics. Finally, analysis of two data sets has been performed for illustrative purposes.     

Statistical inference of Marshall-Olkin bivariate Weibull distribution with three shocks based on progressive interval censored data

There are several failure modes may cause system failed in reliability and survival analysis. It is usually assumed that the causes of failure modes are independent each other, though this assumption does not always hold. Dependent competing risks modes from Marshall-Olkin bivariate Weibull distribution under Type-I progressive interval censoring scheme are considered in this paper. We derive the maximum likelihood function, the maximum likelihood estimates, the 95% Bootstrap confidence intervals and the 95% coverage percentages of the parameters when shape parameter is known, and EM algorithm is applied when shape parameter is unknown. The Monte-Carlo simulation is given to illustrate the theoretical analysis and the effects of parameters estimates under different sample sizes. Finally, a data set has been analyzed for illustrative purposes.     

Computational testing algorithmic procedure of assessment for lifetime performance index of products with two-parameter exponential distribution based on the multiply type II censored sample

Process capability indices have been widely used to evaluate the process performance to the continuous improvement of quality and productivity. Since the lifetime of products may possess a two-parameter exponential distribution, 14 estimators are used to estimate the lifetime performance index based on the multiply type II censored sample. These estimators are utilized to develop the new hypothesis testing algorithmic procedure in the condition of known L. Finally, two practical examples are illustrated to employ the testing algorithmic procedure to determine whether the process is capable.     

Comparison of estimation methods for the Weibull distribution

Weibull distributions have received wide ranging applications in many areas including reliability, hydrology and communication systems. Many estimation methods have been proposed for Weibull distributions. But there has not been a comprehensive comparison of these estimation methods. Most studies have focused on comparing the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) with one of the other approaches. In this paper, we first propose an L-moment estimator for the Weibull distribution. Then, a comprehensive comparison is made of the following methods: the method of maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), the method of logarithmic moments, the percentile method, the method of moments and the method of L-moments.     

Some simple estimators for the two-parameter gamma distribution

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we propose two new simple estimation methods for the two-parameter gamma distribution. The first one is a modified version of the method of moments, whereas the second one makes use of some key properties of the distribution. We then derive the asymptotic distributions of these estimators. Also, bias-reduction methods are suggested to reduce the bias of these estimators. The performance of the estimators are evaluated through a Monte Carlo simulation study. The probability coverages of confidence intervals are also discussed. Finally, two examples are used to illustrate the proposed methods.     

Objective Bayesian inference for the ratio of the scale parameters of two Weibull distributions

The Weibull distribution is widely used due to its versatility and relative simplicity. In our paper, the non informative priors for the ratio of the scale parameters of two Weibull models are provided. The asymptotic matching of coverage probabilities of Bayesian credible intervals is considered, with the corresponding frequentist coverage probabilities. We developed the various priors for the ratio of two scale parameters using the following matching criteria: quantile matching, matching of distribution function, highest posterior density matching, and inversion of test statistics. One particular prior, which meets all the matching criteria, is found. Next, we derive the reference priors for groups of ordering. We see that all the reference priors satisfy a first-order matching criterion and that the one-at-a-time reference prior is a second-order matching prior. A simulation study is performed and an example given.     

The McDonald Weibull model

For the first time, we propose a five-parameter lifetime model called the McDonald Weibull distribution to extend the Weibull, exponentiated Weibull, beta Weibull and Kumaraswamy Weibull distributions, among several other models. We obtain explicit expressions for the ordinary moments, quantile and generating functions, mean deviations and moments of the order statistics. We use the method of maximum likelihood to fit the new distribution and determine the observed information matrix. We define the log-McDonald Weibull regression model for censored data. The potentiality of the new model is illustrated by means of two real data sets.