Modeling bivariate survival data using shared inverse Gaussian frailty model

ABSTRACT

The shared frailty models are often used to model heterogeneity in survival analysis. The most common shared frailty model is a model in which hazard function is a product of a random factor (frailty) and the baseline hazard function which is common to all individuals. There are certain assumptions about the baseline distribution and the distribution of frailty. In this paper, we consider inverse Gaussian distribution as frailty distribution and three different baseline distributions, namely the generalized Rayleigh, the weighted exponential, and the extended Weibull distributions. With these three baseline distributions, we propose three different inverse Gaussian shared frailty models. We also compare these models with the models where the above-mentioned distributions are considered without frailty. We develop the Bayesian estimation procedure using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique to estimate the parameters involved in these models. We present a simulation study to compare the true values of the parameters with the estimated values. A search of the literature suggests that currently no work has been done for these three baseline distributions with a shared inverse Gaussian frailty so far. We also apply these three models by using a real-life bivariate survival data set of McGilchrist and Aisbett (1991 McGilchrist, C.A., Aisbett, C.W. (1991). Regression with frailty in survival analysis. Biometrics 47:461–466.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) related to the kidney infection data and a better model is suggested for the data using the Bayesian model selection criteria.     

The Poisson-conjugate Lindley mixture distribution

ABSTRACT

A new discrete distribution that depends on two parameters is introduced in this article. From this new distribution the geometric distribution is obtained as a special case. After analyzing some of its properties such as moments and unimodality, recurrences for the probability mass function and differential equations for its probability generating function are derived. In addition to this, parameters are estimated by maximum likelihood estimation numerically maximizing the log-likelihood function. Expected frequencies are calculated for different sets of data to prove the versatility of this discrete model.     

On the Bayes estimators of the parameters of size-biased generalized power series distributions

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we derive the Bayes estimators of functions of parameters of the size-biased generalized power series distribution under squared error loss function and weighted square error loss function. The results of size-biased GPSD are then used to obtain particular cases of the size-biased negative binomial, size-biased logarithmic series, and size-biased Poisson distributions. These estimators are better than the classical minimum variance unbiased estimators in the sense that they increase the range of the estimation. Finally, an example is provided to illustrate the results and a goodness of fit test is done using the maximum likelihood and Bayes estimators.     

Tail behavior of the generalized Maxwell distribution

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the tail propertiesof the generalized Maxwell distribution and gain an asymptoticbehavior of its Mills-type ratio. Meanwhile, we show two applications. The first application thinks about the asymptotic property of the ratio of density functions and the ratio of the tails of the generalized Maxwell and classical Maxwell distributions. Another application obtains the asymptotic distribution of the partial maximum of an independent and identically distributed sequence from the distribution.     

New estimators of distribution functions

ABSTRACT

This article considers the estimation of a distribution function F_X(x) based on a random sample X₁, X₂, …, X_n when the sample is suspected to come from a close-by distribution F₀(x). The new estimators, namely the preliminary test (PTE) and Stein-type estimator (SE) are defined and compared with the “empirical distribution function” (edf) under local departure. In this case, we show that Stein-type estimators are superior to edf and PTE is superior to edf when it is close to F₀(x). As a by-product similar estimators are proposed for population quantiles.     

Hayter and Tsui's test with double sampling for the vector mean of multivariate normal population

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a version of Hayter and Tsui's statistical test with double sampling for the vector mean of a population under multivariate normal assumption. A study showed that this new test was more or as efficient than the well-known Hotelling's T² with double sampling. Some nice features of Hayter and Tsui's test are its simplicity of implementation and its capability of identifying the errant variables when the null hypothesis is rejected. Taking that into consideration, a new control chart called HTDS is also introduced as a tool to monitor multivariate process vector mean when using double sampling.     

On an application of concomitants of order statistics

ABSTRACT

Let (X_i, Y_i), i = 1, …, n be a pair where the first coordinate X_i represents the lifetime of a component, and the second coordinate Y_i denotes the utility of the component during its lifetime. Then the random variable Y_{[r: n]} which is known to be the concomitant of the rth order statistic defines the utility of the component which has the rth smallest lifetime. In this paper, we present a dynamic analysis for an n component system under the above-mentioned concomitant setup.     

Inference in log-alpha-power and log-skew-normal multivariate models

ABSTRACT

Random vectors with positive components are common in many applied fields, for example, in meteorology, when daily precipitation is measured through a region Marchenko and Genton (2010 Marchenko, Y., Genton, M. (2010). Multivariate log-skew-elliptical distributions with applications to precipitation data. Environmetrics 21:318–340.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Frequently, the log-normal multivariate distribution is used for modeling this type of data. This modeling approach is not appropriate for data with high asymmetry or kurtosis. Consequently, more flexible multivariate distributions than the log-normal multivariate are required. As an alternative to this distribution, we propose the log-alpha-power multivariate and log-skew-normal multivariate models. The first model is an extension for positive data of the fractional order statistics model Durrans (1992 Durrans, S. (1992). Distributions of fractional order statistics in hydrology. Water Resour. Res. 28:1649–1655.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The second one is an extension of the log-skew-normal model studied by Mateu-Figueras and Pawlowsky-Glahn (2007 Mateu-Figueras, G., Pawlowsky-Glahn, V. (2007). The skew-normal distribution on the simplex. Commun. Stat.-Theory Methods 36:1787–1802.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We study parameter estimation for these models by means of pseudo-likelihood and maximum likelihood methods. We illustrate the proposal analyzing a real dataset.     

Stochastic EM algorithm of a finite mixture model from hurdle Poisson distribution with missing responses

ABSTRACT

In this article, a finite mixture model of hurdle Poisson distribution with missing outcomes is proposed, and a stochastic EM algorithm is developed for obtaining the maximum likelihood estimates of model parameters and mixing proportions. Specifically, missing data is assumed to be missing not at random (MNAR)/non ignorable missing (NINR) and the corresponding missingness mechanism is modeled through probit regression. To improve the algorithm efficiency, a stochastic step is incorporated into the E-step based on data augmentation, whereas the M-step is solved by the method of conditional maximization. A variation on Bayesian information criterion (BIC) is also proposed to compare models with different number of components with missing values. The considered model is a general model framework and it captures the important characteristics of count data analysis such as zero inflation/deflation, heterogeneity as well as missingness, providing us with more insight into the data feature and allowing for dispersion to be investigated more fully and correctly. Since the stochastic step only involves simulating samples from some standard distributions, the computational burden is alleviated. Once missing responses and latent variables are imputed to replace the conditional expectation, our approach works as part of a multiple imputation procedure. A simulation study and a real example illustrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our methodology.