An alpha-power extension for the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution

Data on fatigue to exceed a critical value (or to grow to a critical level at which failure is likely to occur) is typically adjusted using the Birnbaum–Saunders (BS) distribution [see Birnbaum ZW, Saunders SC. A new family of life distributions. J Appl Probab. 1969a;6:319–327]. Although this type of distribution is asymmetric, in some cases the degree of skewness and/or kurtosis are outside the distributional range allowed by the BS distribution. Thus, a more adequate distribution model for better adjusting such unexpected deviations is called for. With this in mind, the main object of this paper is to propose an extension of the BS distribution based on the asymmetric alpha-power family of distributions [see Pewsey A, Gómez HW, Bolfarine H. Likelihood-based inference for power distributions. Test. 2012;21(4):775–789]. This extension is called the exponentiated BS distribution. We expect that by replacing the normal distribution by such more general family, a more flexible BS family is obtained. Asymmetry in the alpha-power family is controlled by a shape parameter, which also presents a similar performance in the extended BS family. The paper presents the density function for the extended BS and derives closed-form expressions for moments. Estimation is dealt with by using maximum likelihood estimators. Large sample inference can be conducted by using the Fisher information matrix derived in the paper. Estimation performance is studied by using a small scale simulation study. Results of a real application illustrates the good performance of the proposed approach.     

Bayesian Analysis of a Queueing System with a Long-Tailed Arrival Process

Internet traffic data is characterized by some unusual statistical properties, in particular, the presence of heavy-tailed variables. A typical model for heavy-tailed distributions is the Pareto distribution although this is not adequate in many cases. In this article, we consider a mixture of two-parameter Pareto distributions as a model for heavy-tailed data and use a Bayesian approach based on the birth-death Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to fit this model. We estimate some measures of interest related to the queueing system k-Par/M/1 where k-Par denotes a mixture of k Pareto distributions. Heavy-tailed variables are difficult to model in such queueing systems because of the lack of a simple expression for the Laplace Transform (LT). We use a procedure based on recent LT approximating results for the Pareto/M/1 system. We illustrate our approach with both simulated and real data.     

A Hybrid Method for Random Pattern Sequence Classification

We present a hybrid method for random pattern sequence classification that takes into account the random structural properties of the sequence. The method works in two steps. A segmentation step, dividing the original sequence into segments, such that all observations in a same segment belong to a unique class, and a classification step, where each segment is classified by a neural network classifier.     

Influence Analysis on Discriminant Coordinates

Discriminant analysis (DA), particularly Discriminant Coordinates (DC), is broadly applied in the scientific literature and included in many statistical software packages. DC is used to analyze biomedical data, especially for differential diagnosis on the basis of laboratory profiles. Articles handling influence analysis in DA can be found in the literature; however, this topic has been scarcely touched upon in DC. In this article, the case-deletion approach is followed to introduce a perturbation in the data and influence measures are proposed to assess the effect on three statistics of interest: the transformation matrix, canonical directions, and configuration, of the sample centroids.     

A Simple Method to Study Sensitivity of BMP's

In this article we measure the local or infinitesimal sensitivity of a kind of Bayes estimates which appear in bonus–malus systems. Bonus–malus premiums can be viewed as a functional depending on the prior distribution. To measure when small changes in the prior cause large changes in the premium we compute the norm of the Fréchet derivative and propose a simple procedure to decide if a bonus–malus premium is robust. As an application, an example where the risk has a Poisson distribution and its parameter follows a Gamma prior distribution is presented under the net and variance premium principles.     

Gaussian Hypergeometric Probability Distributions for Fitting Discrete Data

The distributions generated by the Gaussian hypergeometric function compose a tetraparametric family that includes many of the most common discrete distributions in the literature. In this article, probability aspects related to the whole family are reviewed and methods of estimation for fitting them to real data are developed. Several applied examples are also provided to illustrate the procedures and compare the methods of estimation.     

Computing Probabilities of Type I Error and Type II Error of Sequential Bayesian Procedures for Testing One-Sided Hypotheses

In this article, it is shown how to compute, in an approximated way, probabilities of Type I error and Type II error of sequential Bayesian procedures for testing one-sided null hypotheses. First, some theoretical results are obtained, and then an algorithm is developed for applying these results. The prior predictive density plays a central role in this study.     

Inferences for Mixtures of Distributions for Centrally Censored Data with Partial Identification

In this article, several methods to make inferences about the parameters of a finite mixture of distributions in the context of centrally censored data with partial identification are revised. These methods are an adaptation of the work in Contreras-Cristán, Gutiérrez-Peña, and O'Reilly (2003 Contreras-Cristán , A. , Gutiérrez-Peña , E. , O'Reilly , F. ( 2003 ). Inferences using latent variables for mixtures of distributions for censored data with partial identification . Comm. Stat. Theor. Meth. 32 ( 4 ): 749 – 774 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in the case of right censoring. The first method focuses on an asymptotic approximation to a suitably simplified likelihood using some latent quantities; the second method is based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. Both methods make explicit use of latent variables and provide computationally efficient procedures compared to non-Bayesian methods that deal directly with the full likelihood of the mixture appealing to its asymptotic approximation. The third method, from a Bayesian perspective, uses data augmentation to work with an uncensored sample. This last method is related to a recently proposed Bayesian method in Baker, Mengersen, and Davis (2005 Baker , P. , Mengersen , K. , Davis , G. ( 2005 ). A Bayesian solution to reconstructing centrally censored distributions . J. Agr. Biol. Environ. Stat. 1 : 61 – 84 . [Google Scholar]). Our proposal of the three adapted methods is shown to provide similar inferential answers, thus offering alternative analyses.     

The Alpha-power Tobit Model

The main object of this article is to propose an extension of the tobit model for which the error distribution follows the power-normal distribution (Gupta and Gupta, 2008 Gupta , D. , Gupta , R. C. ( 2008 ). Analyzing skewed data by power normal model . Test 17 : 197 – 210 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Inference is dealt with by using the likelihood approach. Simulation studies and application to a real data set are used to demonstrate the usefulness of the extension.     

Estimating additive models with missing responses

ABSTRACT

For multivariate regressors, the Nadaraya–Watson regression estimator suffers from the well-known curse of dimensionality. Additive models overcome this drawback. To estimate the additive components, it is usually assumed that we observe all the data. However, in many applied statistical analysis missing data occur. In this paper, we study the effect of missing responses on the additive components estimation. The estimators are based on marginal integration adapted to the missing situation. The proposed estimators turn out to be consistent under mild assumptions. A simulation study allows to compare the behavior of our procedures, under different scenarios.