On collapsing categories in two-way contingency tables

In this paper, we examine the relationships between log odds rate and various reliability measures such as hazard rate and reversed hazard rate in the context of repairable systems. We also prove characterization theorems for some families of distributions viz. Burr, Pearson and log exponential models. We discuss the properties and applications of log odds rate in weighted models. Further we extend the concept to the bivariate set up and study its properties.     

On some study of skew-t distributions

Abstract

In this note, through ratio of independent random variables, new families of univariate and bivariate skew-t distributions are introduced. Probability density function for each skew-t distribution will be given. We also derive explicit forms of moments of the univariate skew-t distribution and recurrence relations for its cumulative distribution function. Finally we illustrate the flexibility of this class of distributions with applications to a simulated data and the volcanos heights data.     

Order statistics from trivariate normal and -distributions in terms of generalized skew-normal and skew- distributions

We consider here a generalization of the skew-normal distribution, GSN(λ₁,λ₂,ρ), defined through a standard bivariate normal distribution with correlation ρ, which is a special case of the unified multivariate skew-normal distribution studied recently by Arellano-Valle and Azzalini [2006. On the unification of families of skew-normal distributions. Scand. J. Statist. 33, 561–574]. We then present some simple and useful properties of this distribution and also derive its moment generating function in an explicit form. Next, we show that distributions of order statistics from the trivariate normal distribution are mixtures of these generalized skew-normal distributions; thence, using the established properties of the generalized skew-normal distribution, we derive the moment generating functions of order statistics, and also present expressions for means and variances of these order statistics.Next, we introduce a generalized skew-t_ν distribution, which is a special case of the unified multivariate skew-elliptical distribution presented by Arellano-Valle and Azzalini [2006. On the unification of families of skew-normal distributions. Scand. J. Statist. 33, 561–574] and is in fact a three-parameter generalization of Azzalini and Capitanio's [2003. Distributions generated by perturbation of symmetry with emphasis on a multivariate skew t distribution. J. Roy. Statist. Soc. Ser. B 65, 367–389] univariate skew-t_ν form. We then use the relationship between the generalized skew-normal and skew-t_ν distributions to discuss some properties of generalized skew-t_ν as well as distributions of order statistics from bivariate and trivariate t_ν distributions. We show that these distributions of order statistics are indeed mixtures of generalized skew-t_ν distributions, and then use this property to derive explicit expressions for means and variances of these order statistics.     

Conditioning out rare events for exponential families has negligible effect on inference

ABSTRACT

Suppose that we observe X ～Binomial(n, p). Inference on p is difficult if X = 0 or n. One way around this is to condition on these events not happening. We show that this has only an exponentially small effect on its cumulants. This is also true if we condition away other rare events. Our results are presented for exponential families, with applications to the binomial, multinomial and negative multinomial distributions.     

A note on closure of the ILR and DLR classes under formation of coherent systems

In this paper, we give the closure of the class of increasing likelihood ratio (ILR) life distributions under the formation of certain coherent systems with independent and identically distributed components, and particularly in k-out-of-n systems. Some possible definitions of its dual class (DLR) are discussed and results about the closure are given. Furthermore, we include examples which show that these two aging classes are not closed under formation of special coherent systems. This work has been supported by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Grants PB96-1105 and BFM2000-0362.     

Conditional residual lifetimes of coherent systems under double monitoring

In this paper, we obtain a mixture representation for the reliability function of the conditional residual lifetime of a coherent system with n independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) components under double monitoring. We suppose that at time t₁, j components have failed while at time t₂ the system is still alive. Based on these mixture representation, we then study stochastic comparisons of the conditional residual lifetimes of two coherent systems with independent and identical components.     

Uniform stochastic orderings and total positivity

Uniform stochastic orderings of random variables are expressed as total positivity (TP) of density, survival, and distribution functions. The orderings are called uniform because each is a stochastic order that persists under conditioning to a family of intervals—for example, the family consisting of all intervals of the form (-∞,x]. This paper is concerned with the preservation of uniform stochastic ordering under convolution, mixing, and the formation of coherent systems. A general TP₂ result involving preservation of total positivity under integration is presented and applied to convolutions and mixtures of distribution and survival functions. Log-concavity of distribution, survival, and density functions characterizes distributions that preserve the various orderings under convolution. Likewise, distributions that preserve orderings under mixing are characterized by TP₂ distribution and survival functions.     

Number of Working Components in Consecutive k-out-of-n System While It Is Working

In this article we study the distribution and expected value of the number of working components at time t in a consecutive k-out-of-n system under the condition that it is working at time t. We provide the exact distribution of the corresponding conditional random variable and compute its expected value for the system consisting of exchangeable dependent components. The results are also extended to any coherent system by the aid of system signature. Finally, we present illustrative and computational results for some systems having Lomax components.     

E-Bayesian estimation for system reliability and availability analysis based on exponential distribution

The main purpose of this article is to introduce the E-Bayesian approach to gain flexibility in the reliability-availability system estimation. This approach will be used in series systems, parallel systems, and k-out-of-m systems, based on exponential distribution under squared error loss function, when time is continuous. We use three prior distributions to investigate its impact on the E-Bayesian approach, those prior distributions cover a big spectrum of possibilities. We show in real examples and also by simulations, how the procedure behaves. In the simulation study also we explore the impact on this estimation approach, when the number of components of the system increases.     

Selected singular-generalized-hyperbolic distributions with applications to order statistics and reliability

In this paper, the truncated version of the selected multivariate generalized-hyperbolic distributions is introduced. Considering special truncations, the joint distribution of the consecutive order statistics from the multivariate generalized-hyperbolic (GH) distribution is derived. It is shown that this joint distribution can be expressed as mixtures of the truncated selected-GH distributions. All of these truncated distributions are expressed as the selected singular-GH distributions. These results are used to obtain some expressions for the reliability measures such as mean residual life time, mean inactivity time and regression mean residual life for k-out-of-n systems.     

Parameter estimation for mixtures of skew Laplace normal distributions and application in mixture regression modeling

In this article, we propose mixtures of skew Laplace normal (SLN) distributions to model both skewness and heavy-tailedness in the neous data set as an alternative to mixtures of skew Student-t-normal (STN) distributions. We give the expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm to obtain the maximum likelihood (ML) estimators for the parameters of interest. We also analyze the mixture regression model based on the SLN distribution and provide the ML estimators of the parameters using the EM algorithm. The performance of the proposed mixture model is illustrated by a simulation study and two real data examples.     

Projection Mean–Variance Bounds on Expectations of kth Record Values from Restricted Families

We present sharp mean–variance bounds for expectations of kth record values based on distributions coming from restricted families of distributions. These families are defined in terms of convex or star ordering with respect to generalized Pareto distribution. The bounds for expectations of kth record values from DD, DFR, DDA, and DFRA families are special cases of our results. The bounds are derived by application of the projection method.     

Objective Bayesian Analysis of Skew‐t Distributions

Abstract. We study the Jeffreys prior and its properties for the shape parameter of univariate skew‐t distributions with linear and nonlinear Student's t skewing functions. In both cases, we show that the resulting priors for the shape parameter are symmetric around zero and proper. Moreover, we propose a Student's t approximation of the Jeffreys prior that makes an objective Bayesian analysis easy to perform. We carry out a Monte Carlo simulation study that demonstrates an overall better behaviour of the maximum a posteriori estimator compared with the maximum likelihood estimator. We also compare the frequentist coverage of the credible intervals based on the Jeffreys prior and its approximation and show that they are similar. We further discuss location‐scale models under scale mixtures of skew‐normal distributions and show some conditions for the existence of the posterior distribution and its moments. Finally, we present three numerical examples to illustrate the implications of our results on inference for skew‐t distributions.     

A note on the mean residual life of a coherent system with a cold standby component

In this paper, we investigate the effect of a cold standby component on the mean residual life (MRL) of a system. When the system fails, a cold standby component is immediately put in operation. We particularly focus on the coherent systems in which, after putting the standby component into operation, the failure of the system is due to the next component failure. For these systems, we define MRL functions and obtain their explicit expressions. Also some stochastic ordering results are provided. Such systems include k-out-of-n systems. Hence, our results extend some results in literature.     

Some representation theorems in terms of mean residual lifetime and mean inactivity time of coherent systems

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a k-out-of-n system consisting of n identical components with independent lifetimes. We show that when the underlying distribution function F(t) is absolutely continuous, then it can be univocally determined by some particular mean residual lives or mean inactivity times of the system. It is then shown that these results may be extended to coherent (or mixed) systems.     

A robust class of homoscedastic nonlinear regression models

In this paper, we examine a nonlinear regression (NLR) model with homoscedastic errors which follows a flexible class of two-piece distributions based on the scale mixtures of normal (TP-SMN) family. The objective of using this family is to develop a robust NLR model. The TP-SMN is a rich class of distributions that covers symmetric/asymmetric and lightly/heavy-tailed distributions and is an alternative family to the well-known scale mixtures of skew-normal (SMSN) family studied by Branco and Dey [35]. A key feature of this study is using a new suitable hierarchical representation of the family to obtain maximum-likelihood estimates of model parameters via an EM-type algorithm. The performances of the proposed robust model are demonstrated using simulated and some natural real datasets and also compared to other well-known NLR models.     

Model-based clustering with non-elliptically contoured distributions

The majority of the existing literature on model-based clustering deals with symmetric components. In some cases, especially when dealing with skewed subpopulations, the estimate of the number of groups can be misleading; if symmetric components are assumed we need more than one component to describe an asymmetric group. Existing mixture models, based on multivariate normal distributions and multivariate t distributions, try to fit symmetric distributions, i.e. they fit symmetric clusters. In the present paper, we propose the use of finite mixtures of the normal inverse Gaussian distribution (and its multivariate extensions). Such finite mixture models start from a density that allows for skewness and fat tails, generalize the existing models, are tractable and have desirable properties. We examine both the univariate case, to gain insight, and the multivariate case, which is more useful in real applications. EM type algorithms are described for fitting the models. Real data examples are used to demonstrate the potential of the new model in comparison with existing ones.     

Estimation in nonlinear mixed-effects models using heavy-tailed distributions

Nonlinear mixed-effects models are very useful to analyze repeated measures data and are used in a variety of applications. Normal distributions for random effects and residual errors are usually assumed, but such assumptions make inferences vulnerable to the presence of outliers. In this work, we introduce an extension of a normal nonlinear mixed-effects model considering a subclass of elliptical contoured distributions for both random effects and residual errors. This elliptical subclass, the scale mixtures of normal (SMN) distributions, includes heavy-tailed multivariate distributions, such as Student-t, the contaminated normal and slash, among others, and represents an interesting alternative to outliers accommodation maintaining the elegance and simplicity of the maximum likelihood theory. We propose an exact estimation procedure to obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of the fixed-effects and variance components, using a stochastic approximation of the EM algorithm. We compare the performance of the normal and the SMN models with two real data sets.     

Comparisons of coherent systems with non-identically distributed components

The signature-based mixture representations for coherent systems are a good way to obtain distribution-free comparisons of systems. Unfortunately, these representations only hold for systems whose component lifetimes are independent and identically distributed (IID) or exchangeable (i.e., their joint distribution is invariant under permutations). In this paper we obtain comparison results for generalized mixtures, that is, for reliability functions that can be written as linear combinations of some baseline reliability functions with positive and negative coefficients. These results are based on some concepts in Graph Theory. We apply these results to obtain new comparison results for coherent systems without the IID or exchangeability assumptions by using their generalized mixture representations based on the minimal path sets.     

A new exponentiated class of distributions: Properties and applications

Motivated by series-parallel-series systems, we introduce a new generator of continuous distributions with three extra parameters called the generalized exponentiated class of distributions. We study its mathematical properties and introduce a bivariate extension of the class. We discuss the estimation of its parameters by maximum likelihood and illustrate the potentiality of the class by applications to two real datasets.