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As a new reliability test plan, generalized progressive hybrid censoring can improve test efficiency by allowing experimenters to observe a pre-specified number of failure samples before the final termination point. Based on a class of widely used life distribution in life data analysis --- generalized exponential distribution, this paper discusses its parameters inference issue under generalized progressive hybrid censoring scheme. EM Algorithm is used to estimate parameters of the considered model. Simulation studies and a real-data analysis are carried out to illustrate the performance of finite sample for the proposed procedure.     

Optimum life testing plans in presence of hybrid censoring: A cost function approach

Hybrid censoring scheme is a combination of Type‐I and Type‐II censoring schemes. Determination of optimum hybrid censoring scheme is an important practical issue in designing life testing experiments to enhance the information on reliability of the product. In this work, we consider determination of optimum life testing plans under hybrid censoring scheme by minimizing the total cost associated with the experiment. It is shown that the proposed cost function is scale invariant for some selected distributions. Optimum solution cannot be obtained analytically. We propose a method for obtaining the optimum solution and consider Weibull distribution for illustration. We also studied the sensitivity of the optimal solution to the misspecification of parameter values and cost components through a well‐designed sensitivity analysis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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In this paper, we investigate a competing risks model based on exponentiated Weibull distribution under Type-I progressively hybrid censoring scheme. To estimate the unknown parameters and reliability function, the maximum likelihood estimators and asymptotic confidence intervals are derived. Since Bayesian posterior density functions cannot be given in closed forms, we adopt Markov chain Monte Carlo method to calculate approximate Bayes estimators and highest posterior density credible intervals. To illustrate the estimation methods, a simulation study is carried out with numerical results. It is concluded that the maximum likelihood estimation and Bayesian estimation can be used for statistical inference in competing risks model under Type-I progressively hybrid censoring scheme.     

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In collecting clinical data, data would be censored due to competing risks or patient withdrawal. The statistical inference for censoring data is always based on the assumption that the failure time and censoring time is independent. But in practice the failure time and censoring time are often dependent. Dependent censoring make the job to deal with censoring data more complicated. In this paper, we assume that the joint distribution of the failure time variable and censoring time variable is a function of their marginal distributions. This function is called a copula. Under prespecified copulas, the maximum likelihood estimators for cox proportional hazards models are worked out. Statistical analysis results are carried by simulations. When dependent censoring happens, the proposed method will do better than the traditional method used in independent situations. Simulation results show that the proposed method can get efficient estimations.     

A bi‐level neural‐based fuzzy classification approach for credit scoring problems

The credit scoring is a risk evaluation task considered as a critical decision for financial institutions in order to avoid wrong decision that may result in huge amount of losses. Classification models are one of the most widely used groups of data mining approaches that greatly help decision makers and managers to reduce their credit risk of granting credits to customers instead of intuitive experience or portfolio management. Accuracy is one of the most important criteria in order to choose a credit‐scoring model; and hence, the researches directed at improving upon the effectiveness of credit scoring models have never been stopped. In this article, a hybrid binary classification model, namely FMLP, is proposed for credit scoring, based on the basic concepts of fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks (ANNs). In the proposed model, instead of crisp weights and biases, used in traditional multilayer perceptrons (MLPs), fuzzy numbers are used in order to better model of the uncertainties and complexities in financial data sets. Empirical results of three well‐known benchmark credit data sets indicate that hybrid proposed model outperforms its component and also other those classification models such as support vector machines (SVMs), K‐nearest neighbor (KNN), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA), and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Therefore, it can be concluded that the proposed model can be an appropriate alternative tool for financial binary classification problems, especially in high uncertainty conditions. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 18: 46–57, 2013     

A simulation-based approach to the study of coefficient of variation of Gompertz distribution under progressive first-failure censoring

In applied statistics, the coefficient of variation is widely used. However, inference concerning the coefficient of variation of non-normal distributions are rarely reported. In this article, a simulation-based Bayesian approach is adopted to estimate the coefficient of variation (CV) under progressive first-failure censored data from Gompertz distribution. The sampling schemes such as, first-failure censoring, progressive type II censoring, type II censoring and complete sample can be obtained as special cases of the progressive first-failure censored scheme. The simulation-based approach will give us a point estimate as well as the empirical sampling distribution of CV. The joint prior density as a product of conditional gamma density and inverted gamma density for the unknown Gompertz parameters are considered. In addition, the results of maximum likelihood and parametric bootstrap techniques are also proposed. An analysis of a real life data set is presented for illustrative purposes. Results from simulation studies assessing the performance of our proposed method are included.     

High accurate NRK and MWENO scheme for nonlinear degenerate parabolic PDEs

In this paper, we propose a stable high accurate hybrid scheme based on nonstandard Runge–Kutta (NRK) and modified weighted essentially non-oscillatory (MWENO) techniques for nonlinear degenerate parabolic partial differential equations. The necessary stability condition for the combination of a Runge–Kutta and MWENO scheme is given. The stability condition provides a renormalization function such that mixture of explicit NRK and MWENO scheme is unconditionally stable. Novel scheme recovers the sixth order convergent at points of inflection and prevents the appearance of spurious solutions close to discontinuities. The good performance of this scheme is illustrated through five examples. Numerical results are presented.     

Exact likelihood inference based on Type-I and Type-II hybrid censored samples from the exponential distribution

Chen and Bhattacharyya (1988,Comm. Statist. Theory Methods,17, 1857–1870) derived the exact distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator of the mean of an exponential distribution and an exact lower confidence bound for the mean based on a hybrid censored sample. In this paper, an alternative simple form for the distribution is obtained and is shown to be equivalent to that of Chen and Bhattacharyya (1988). Noting that this scheme, which would guarantee the experiment to terminate by a fixed timeT, may result in few failures, we propose a new hybrid censoring scheme which guarantees at least a fixed number of failures in a life testing experiment. The exact distribution of the MLE as well as an exact lower confidence bound for the mean is also obtained for this case. Finally, three examples are presented to illustrate all the results developed here.     

Stochastic monotonicity of the MLE of exponential mean under different censoring schemes

In this paper, we present a general method which can be used in order to show that the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of an exponential mean θ is stochastically increasing with respect to θ under different censored sampling schemes. This propery is essential for the construction of exact confidence intervals for θ via “pivoting the cdf” as well as for the tests of hypotheses about θ. The method is shown for Type-I censoring, hybrid censoring and generalized hybrid censoring schemes. We also establish the result for the exponential competing risks model with censoring.     

Multiple imputations and the missing censoring indicator model

Semiparametric random censorship (SRC) models (Dikta, 1998) provide an attractive framework for estimating survival functions when censoring indicators are fully or partially available. When there are missing censoring indicators (MCIs), the SRC approach employs a model-based estimate of the conditional expectation of the censoring indicator given the observed time, where the model parameters are estimated using only the complete cases. The multiple imputations approach, on the other hand, utilizes this model-based estimate to impute the missing censoring indicators and form several completed data sets. The Kaplan-Meier and SRC estimators based on the several completed data sets are averaged to arrive at the multiple imputations Kaplan-Meier (MIKM) and the multiple imputations SRC (MISRC) estimators. While the MIKM estimator is asymptotically as efficient as or less efficient than the standard SRC-based estimator that involves no imputations, here we investigate the performance of the MISRC estimator and prove that it attains the benchmark variance set by the SRC-based estimator. We also present numerical results comparing the performances of the estimators under several misspecified models for the above mentioned conditional expectation.