Effect of tuberculosis on immune restoration among HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy

In this article, time to immune recovery during antiretroviral therapy was estimated and compared between HIV-infected children with and without tuberculosis (TB). CD4?T-cell restoration was used as a criterion for determining immune recovery. The median residual lifetime function, which is more intuitive and robust compared to the frequently used measures of lifetime data, was used to estimate time to CD4?T-cell restoration. The median residual lifetime is not influenced by extreme observations and heavy-tailed distributions which are commonly encountered in clinical studies. Permutation-based methods were used to compare the CD4?T-cell restoration times between the two groups of patients. Our results indicate that children with TB had uniformly higher median residual lifetimes to immune recovery compared to those without TB. Although TB was associated with slower CD4?T-cell restoration, the differences between the restoration times of the two groups were not statistically significant.     

The beta generalized linear exponential distribution

In this paper, a new five-parameter lifetime distribution called beta generalized linear exponential distribution (BGLED) is introduced. It includes at least 17 popular sub-models as special cases such as the beta linear exponential, the beta generalized exponential, and the exponentiated generalized linear distributions. Mathematical and statistical properties of the proposed distribution are discussed in details. In particular, explicit expression for the density function, moments, asymptotics distributions for sample extreme statistics, and other statistical measures are obtained. The estimation of the parameters by the method of maximum-likelihood is discussed and the finite sample properties of the maximum-likelihood estimators (MLEs) are investigated numerically. A real data set is used to demonstrate its superior performance fit over several existing popular lifetime models.     

Classical estimation of hazard rate and mean residual life functions of Pareto distribution

Abstract

In this paper we find the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of hazard rate and mean residual life functions (MRLF) of Pareto distribution, their asymptotic non degenerate distribution, exact distribution and moments. We also discuss the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimate (UMVUE) of hazard rate function and MRLF. Finally, two numerical examples with simulated data and real data set, are presented to illustrate the proposed estimates.     

Exponentiality test based on Renyi distance between equilibrium distributions

ABSTRACT

On the basis of Csiszar's φ-divergence discrimination information, we propose a measure of discrepancy between equilibriums associated with two distributions. Proving that a distribution can be characterized by associated equilibrium distribution, a Renyi distance of the equilibrium distributions is constructed that made us to propose an EDF-based goodness-of-fit test for exponential distribution. For comparing the performance of the proposed test, some well-known EDF-based tests and some entropy-based tests are considered. Based on the simulation results, the proposed test has better powers than those of competing entropy-based tests for the alternatives with decreasing hazard rate function. The use of the proposed test is evaluated in an illustrative example.     

Empirical likelihood based detection procedure for change point in mean residual life functions under random censorship

The mean residual life (MRL) function is one of the basic parameters of interest in survival analysis that describes the expected remaining time of an individual after a certain age. The study of changes in the MRL function is practical and interesting because it may help us to identify some factors such as age and gender that may influence the remaining lifetimes of patients after receiving a certain surgery. In this paper, we propose a detection procedure based on the empirical likelihood for the changes in MRL functions with right censored data. Two real examples are also given: Veterans' administration lung cancer study and Stanford heart transplant to illustrate the detecting procedure. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exponentiality Test Based on the Progressive Type II Censoring via Cumulative Entropy

In this article, we use cumulative residual Kullback-Leibler information (CRKL) and cumulative Kullback-Leibler information (CKL) to construct two goodness-of-fit test statistics for testing exponentiality with progressively Type-II censored data. The power of the proposed tests are compared with the power of goodness-of-fit test for exponentiality introduced by Balakrishnan et al. (2007 Balakrishnan, N., Habibi Rad, A., Arghami, N.R. (2007). Testing exponentiality based on Kullback-Leibler information with progressively type-II censored data. IEEE Transactions on Reliability 56(2):301–307.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We show that when the hazard function of the alternative is monotone decreasing, the test based on CRKL has higher power and when the hazard function of the alternative is non-monotone, the test based on CKL has higher power. But, when it is monotone increasing the power difference between test based on CKL and their proposed test is not so remarkable. The use of the proposed tests is shown in an illustrative example.     

空间面板杜宾模型的Bootstrap Wald-COMFAC检验研究

将共同因子约束(COMFAC)的Wald检验问题引入到空间面板模型中,讨论空间面板杜宾模型与空间面板误差模型的识别问题。蒙特卡洛模拟表明:在有限样本下,基于渐近临界值的Wald检验有着良好的检验功效,但存在着较为严重的尺度扭曲。进一步采用残差Bootstrap方法,在不损失检验功效的前提下,能够显著地降低检验的尺度扭曲。因此,残差Bootstrap方法是更为有效的检验方法。     

中国审美设计的意匠法式研究

官作器物、文人器物、民具三者的工匠技艺、结构形式、审美标准等并无“等价关系”。三者时常分离时常交和,显示出中国传统造物一脉相承的主线。通过廓清三者关系、梳理其延承脉络,提出中国审美“意匠法式”六则,以揭示中国传统造物设计的文化意义。     

"中心"的心理暗示——视觉审美研究

具有中心感的视觉形象能给人以强大的心理统摄力,并对审美产物的最终形成产生决定性影响。将这种中心感定义为一种能明确感知的、直观的整体视觉特征,并将其丰富的心理暗示划分为三个方面,即归属感、等级感和稳定感。归属感代表着人们对母体、源头等身心归宿的强烈回归愿望,等级感则与归属感一脉相承,其在人们心中高于它物的崇高地位使之成为权利象征,一些皇权建筑形象的选择就源于此。而稳定感则顺利完成了从空间概念到时间概念的转换,在审美过程中常作为永恒的象征出现。通过这三方面对"中心"的详尽分析,揭示出视觉审美研究的核心问题应该是欣赏者的心理分析,并期望以此研究方式对其作出一些有益探索。     

The exponentiated power exponential regression model with different regression structures: application in nursing data

We define the exponentiated power exponential distribution and propose a regression model with different systematic structures based on the new distribution. We show that the new regression model can be applied to dispersion data since it represents a parametric family of models that includes as sub-models some widely-known regression models. It then can be used more effectively in the analysis of real data. We use maximum likelihood estimation and derive the appropriate matrices for assessing local influence on the parameter estimates under different perturbation schemes. Some global-influence measurements are also investigated and simulation studies are performed to evaluate the accuracy of the estimates. We provide an application of the regression model with four systematic structures to nursing activities score data in the Unit of the Medical Clinic of University of São Paulo (USP) Hospital.