Parameters Estimation of a Bivariate Generalized Poisson Distribution with Applications to Metabolic Syndrome Data

Background: Bivariate count data are commonly encountered in medicine, biology, engineering, epidemiology and many other applications. The Poisson distribution has been the model of choice to analyze such data. In most cases mutual independence among the variables is assumed, however this fails to take into accounts the correlation between the outcomes of interests. A special bivariate form of the multivariate Lagrange family of distribution, names Generalized Bivariate Poisson Distribution, is considered in this paper. Objectives: We estimate the model parameters using the method of maximum likelihood and show that the model fits the count variables representing components of metabolic syndrome in spousal pairs. We use the likelihood local score to test the significance of the correlation between the counts. We also construct confidence interval on the ratio of the two correlated Poisson means. Methods: Based on a random sample of pairs of count data, we show that the score test of independence is locally most powerful. We also provide a formula for sample size estimation for given level of significance and given power. The confidence intervals on the ratio of correlated Poisson means are constructed using the delta method, the Fieller’s theorem, and the nonparametric bootstrap. We illustrate the methodologies on metabolic syndrome data collected from 4000 spousal pairs. Results: The bivariate Poisson model fitted the metabolic syndrome data quite satisfactorily. Moreover, the three methods of confidence interval estimation were almost identical, meaning that they have the same interval width.

DOA estimation of incoherently distributed sources using importance sampling maximum likelihood

In this paper, an importance sampling maximum likelihood(ISML) estimator for direction-of-arrival(DOA) of incoherently distributed(ID) sources is proposed. Starting from the maximum likelihood estimation description of the uniform linear array(ULA), a decoupled concentrated likelihood function(CLF) is presented. A new objective function based on CLF which can obtain a closed-form solution of global maximum is constructed according to Pincus theorem. To obtain the optimal value of the objective function which is a complex high-dimensional integral,we propose an importance sampling approach based on Monte Carlo random calculation. Next, an importance function is derived, which can simplify the problem of generating random vector from a high-dimensional probability density function(PDF) to generate random variable from a one-dimensional PDF. Compared with the existing maximum likelihood(ML) algorithms for DOA estimation of ID sources, the proposed algorithm does not require initial estimates, and its performance is closer to CramerRao lower bound(CRLB). The proposed algorithm performs better than the existing methods when the interval between sources to be estimated is small and in low signal to noise ratio(SNR)scenarios.

Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Generalized Pareto Distribution under Progressive Censoring with Binomial Removals

The paper deals with the estimation problem for the generalized Pareto distribution based on progressive type-II censoring with random removals. The number of components removed at each failure time is assumed to follow a binomial distribution. Maximum likelihood estimators and the asymptotic variance-covariance matrix of the estimates are obtained. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the obtained

Life prediction for vacuum fluorescent display using maximum likelihood estimation

In order to obtain the life information of the vacuum fluorescent display （VFD） in a short time, a model of constant stress accelerated life tests （CSALT） is established with its filament temperature increased, and four constant stress tests are conducted. The Weibull function is applied to describe the life distribution of the VFD, and the maximum likelihood estimation （MLE） and its iterative flow chart are used to calculate the shape parameters and the scale parameters. Furthermore, the accelerated life equation is determined by the least square method, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is performed to verify whether the VFD life meets the Weibull distribution or not, and selfdeveloped software is employed to predict the average life and the reliable life. Statistical data analysis results demonstrate that the test plans are feasible and versatile, that the VFD life follows the Weibull distribution, and that the VFD accelerated model satisfies the linear Arrhenius equation. The proposed method and the estimated life information of the VFD can provide some significant guideline to its manufacturers and customers.

Estimation for constant-stress accelerated life test from generalized half-normal distribution

In the constant-stress accelerated life test, estimation issues are discussed for a generalized half-normal distribution under a log-linear life-stress model. The maximum likelihood estimates with the corresponding fixed point type iterative algorithm for unknown parameters are presented, and the least square estimates of the parameters are also proposed. Meanwhile, confidence intervals of model parameters are constructed by using the asymptotic theory and bootstrap technique. Numerical illustration is given to investigate the performance of our methods.

Estimation of Poisson-Generalized Pareto Compound Extreme Value Distribution by Probability-Weighted Moments and Empirical Analysis

This paper puts forward a Poisson-generalized Pareto (Poisson-GP) distribution. This new form of compound extreme value distribution expands the existing application of compound extreme value distribution, and can be applied to predicting financial risk, large insurance settlement and high-grade earthquake, etc. Compared with the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and compound moment estimation (CME), probability-weighted moment estimation (PWME) is used to estimate the parameters of the distribution function. The specific formulas are presented. Through Monte Carlo simulation with sample sizes 10, 20, 50, 100, 1 000, it is concluded that PWME is an efficient method and it behaves steadily. The mean square errors (MSE) of estimators by PWME are much smaller than those of estimators by CME, and there is no significant difference between PWME and MLE. Finally, an example of foreign exchange rate is given. For Dollar/Pound exchange rates from 1990-01-02 to 2006-12-29, this paper formulates the distribution function of the largest loss among the investment losses exceeding a certain threshold by Poisson-GP compound extreme value distribution, and obtains predictive values at different confidence levels.

Joint modelling of location and scale parameters of the skew-normal distribution

Joint location and scale models of the skew-normal distribution provide useful ex- tension for joint mean and variance models of the normal distribution when the data set under consideration involves asymmetric outcomes. This paper focuses on the maximum likelihood estimation of joint location and scale models of the skew-normal distribution. The proposed procedure can simultaneously estimate parameters in the location model and the scale model. Simulation studies and a real example are used to illustrate the proposed methodologies.

Extraction of Information from Crowdsourcing: Experimental Test Employing Bayesian, Maximum Likelihood, and Maximum Entropy Methods

A crowdsourcing experiment in which viewers (the “crowd”) of a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television show submitted estimates of the number of coins in a tumbler was shown in an antecedent paper (Part 1) to follow a log-normal distribution ∧(m,s2). The coin-estimation experiment is an archetype of a broad class of image analysis and object counting problems suitable for solution by crowdsourcing. The objective of the current paper (Part 2) is to determine the location and scale parameters (m,s) of ∧(m,s2) by both Bayesian and maximum likelihood (ML) methods and to compare the results. One outcome of the analysis is the resolution, by means of Jeffreys’ rule, of questions regarding the appropriate Bayesian prior. It is shown that Bayesian and ML analyses lead to the same expression for the location parameter, but different expressions for the scale parameter, which become identical in the limit of an infinite sample size. A second outcome of the analysis concerns use of the sample mean as the measure of information of the crowd in applications where the distribution of responses is not sought or known. In the coin-estimation experiment, the sample mean was found to differ widely from the mean number of coins calculated from ∧(m,s2). This discordance raises critical questions concerning whether, and under what conditions, the sample mean provides a reliable measure of the information of the crowd. This paper resolves that problem by use of the principle of maximum entropy (PME). The PME yields a set of equations for finding the most probable distribution consistent with given prior information and only that information. If there is no solution to the PME equations for a specified sample mean and sample variance, then the sample mean is an unreliable statistic, since no measure can be assigned to its uncertainty. Parts 1 and 2 together demonstrate that the information content of crowdsourcing resides in the distribution of responses (very often log-normal in form), which can be obtained empirically or by appropriate modeling.

Parameter Estimations for Some Modifications of the Weibull Distribution

Proposed by the Swedish engineer and mathematician Ernst Hjalmar Waloddi Weibull (1887-1979), the Weibull distribution is a probability distribution that is widely used to model lifetime data. Because of its flexibility, some modifications of the Weibull distribution have been made from several researches in order to best adjust the non-monotonic shapes. This paper gives a study on the performance of two specific modifications of the Weibull distribution which are the exponentiated Weibull distribution and the additive Weibull distribution.

A generalization of the half-normal distribution

In this paper we introduce an extension of the half-normal distribution in order to model a great variety of non-negative data. Its hazard rate function can be decreasing or increasing, depending on its parameters. Some properties of this new distribution are presented. For example, we give a general expression for the moments and a stochastic representation. Also, the cumulative distribution function, the hazard rate function, the survival function and the quantile function can be easily evaluated. Maximum likelihood estimators can be computed by using numerical procedures. Finally, a real-life dataset has been presented to illustrate its applicability.

Linear Maximum Likelihood Regression Analysis for Untransformed Log-Normally Distributed Data

Medical research data are often skewed and heteroscedastic. It has therefore become practice to log-transform data in regression analysis, in order to stabilize the variance. Regression analysis on log-transformed data estimates the relative effect, whereas it is often the absolute effect of a predictor that is of interest. We propose a maximum likelihood (ML)-based approach to estimate a linear regression model on log-normal, heteroscedastic data. The new method was evaluated with a large simulation study. Log-normal observations were generated according to the simulation models and parameters were estimated using the new ML method, ordinary least-squares regression (LS) and weighed least-squares regression (WLS). All three methods produced unbiased estimates of parameters and expected response, and ML and WLS yielded smaller standard errors than LS. The approximate normality of the Wald statistic, used for tests of the ML estimates, in most situations produced correct type I error risk. Only ML and WLS produced correct confidence intervals for the estimated expected value. ML had the highest power for tests regarding β1.

Estimations of Weibull-Geometric Distribution under Progressive Type II Censoring Samples

This paper deals with the Bayesian inferences of unknown parameters of the progressively Type II censored Weibull-geometric (WG) distribution. The Bayes estimators cannot be obtained in explicit forms of the unknown parameters under a squared error loss function. The approximate Bayes estimators will be computed using the idea of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to generate from the posterior distributions. Also the point estimation and confidence intervals based on maximum likelihood and bootstrap technique are also proposed. The approximate Bayes estimators will be obtained under the assumptions of informative and non-informative priors are compared with the maximum likelihood estimators. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the proposed estimation methods here. Maximum likelihood, bootstrap and the different Bayes estimates are compared via a Monte Carlo Simulation

CONSISTENCY OF MLE OF THE PARAMETER OF EXPONENTIAL LIFETIME DISTRIBUTION FOR RANDOM CENSORING MODEL WITH INCOMPLETE INFORMATION

In this paper, we have discussed a random censoring test with incomplete information, and proved that the maximum likelihood estimator(MLE) of the parameter based on the randomly censored data with incomplete information in the case of the exponential distribution has the strong consistency.

Statistical Inference for the Parameter of Rayleigh Distribution Based on Progressively Type-I Interval Censored Sample

In this paper, the estimation of parameters based on a progressively type-I interval censored sample from a Rayleigh distribution is studied. Different methods of estimation are discussed. They include mid-point approximation estima- tor, the maximum likelihood estimator, moment estimator, Bayes estimator, sampling adjustment moment estimator, sampling adjustment maximum likelihood estimator and estimator based on percentile. The estimation procedures are discussed in details and compared via Monte Carlo simulations in terms of their biases.

ESTIMATION OF CARRIER FREQUENCY OFFSETS FOR MIMO SYSTEMS WITH DISTRIBUTED TRANSMIT ANTENNAS

The problem of estimating the carrier frequency offsets in Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems with distributed transmit antennas is addressed. It is supposed that the transmit antennas are distributed while the receive antennas are still centralized, and the general case where both the time delays and the frequency offsets are possibly different for each transmit antenna is considered. The channel is supposed to be frequency flat, and the macroscopic fading is also taken into consideration. A carrier frequency offset estimator based on Maximum Likelihood (ML) is proposed, which can separately estimate the frequency offset for each transmit antenna and exploit the spatial diversity. The Cramer-Rao Bound (CRB) for synchronous MIMO (i.e., the time delays for each transmit antenna are all equal) is also derived. Simulation results are given to illustrate the per- formance of the estimator and compare it with the CRB. It is shown that the estimator can provide satisfactory frequency offset estimates and its performance is close to the CRB for the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) below 20dB.

A New Rayleigh Distribution:Properties and Estimation Based on Progressive Type-II Censored Data with an Application

In this paper,we propose a new extension of the traditional Rayleigh distribution called the modified Kies Rayleigh distribution.The new distribution contains one scale and one shape parameter and its hazard rate function can be increasing and bathtub-shaped.Some mathematical properties of the new distribution are derived including quantiles and moments.The parameters of modified Kies Rayleigh distribution are estimated based on progressively Type-II censored data.For this purpose,we consider two estimation methods,namely maximum likelihood and maximum product of spacing estimation methods.To compare the efficiency of the proposed estimators,a simulation study is carried out.To show the applicability of the new model as well as the estimation methods,one real data for failure times of software is analyzed.Based on the empirical parts,we can conclude that the proposed model can be considered as a good model in the field of life testing and reliability analysis compared with other competing models.

An Epsilon Half Normal Slash Distribution and Its Applications to Nonnegative Measurements

We introduce a new class of the slash distribution using the epsilon half normal distribution. The newly defined model extends the slashed half normal distribution and has more kurtosis than the ordinary half normal distribution. We study the characterization and properties including moments and some measures based on moments of this distribution. A simulation is conducted to investigate asymptotically the bias properties of the estimators for the parameters. We illustrate its use on a real data set by using maximum likelihood estimation.

Interval Estimation for the Stress-Strength Reliability with Bivariate Normal Variables

We propose a procedure to obtain accurate confidence intervals for the stress-strength reliability R = P (X > Y) when (X, Y) is a bivariate normal distribution with unknown means and covariance matrix. Our method is more accurate than standard methods as it possesses a third-order distributional accuracy. Simulations studies are provided to show the performance of the proposed method relative to existing ones in terms of coverage probability and average length. An empirical example is given to illustrate its usefulness in practice.

Estimation under a Finite Mixture of Exponentiated Exponential Components Model and Balanced Square Error Loss

By exponentiating each of the components of a finite mixture of two exponential components model by a positive parameter, several shapes of hazard rate functions are obtained. Maximum likelihood and Bayes methods, based on square error loss function and objective prior, are used to obtain estimators based on balanced square error loss function for the parameters, survival and hazard rate functions of a mixture of two exponentiated exponential components model. Approximate interval estimators of the parameters of the model are obtained.

The Arcsine-X Family of Distributions with Applications to Financial Sciences

The heavy-tailed distributions are very useful and play a major role in actuary and financial management problems.Actuaries are often searching for such distributions to provide the best fit to financial and economic data sets.In the current study,a prominent method to generate new distributions useful for modeling heavy-tailed data is considered.The proposed family is introduced using trigonometric function and can be named as the Arcsine-X family of distri-butions.For the purposes of the demonstration,a specific sub-model of the proposed family,called the Arcsine-Weibull distribution is considered.The max-imum likelihood estimation method is adopted for estimating the parameters of the Arcsine-X distributions.The resultant estimators are evaluated in a detailed Monte Carlo simulation study.To illustrate the Arcsine-Weibull two insurance data sets are analyzed.Comparison of the Arcsine-Weibull model is done with the well-known two parameters and four parameters competitors.The competitive models including the Weibull,Lomax,Burr-XII and beta Weibull models.Different goodness of fit measures are taken into account to determine the useful-ness of the Arcsine-Weibull and other considered models.Data analysis shows that the Arcsine-Weibull distribution works much better than competing models in financial data analysis.