We introduce the Weibull distributions in presence of cure fraction, censored data and covariates. Two models are explored in this paper: mixture and non-mixture models. Inferences for the proposed models are obtained under the Bayesian approach, using standard MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) methods. An illustration of the proposed methodology is given considering a life- time data set.
30 April 2018 in Journal of Statistical Theory and Practice
In this article we introduce a new distribution, namely, the defective Dagum distribution (DDD). This improper distribution can be seen as an extension of the Type I Dagum distribution and it is useful to accommodate survival data in the presence of a cure fraction. In the applications of survival methods to medical data, the cure fraction is defined as the proportion of patients who are cured of disease and become long-term survivors. The great advantage of the DDD is that the cure fraction can be written as a function of only one parameter. We also considered the presence of censored data and covariates. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods for estimation of the model parameters are presented. A simulation study is provided to evaluate the performance of the maximum likelihood method in estimating parameters. In the Bayesian analysis, posterior distributions of the parameters are estimated using the Markov-chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. An example involving a real data set is presented. The model based on the new distribution is easy to use and it is a good alternative for the analysis of real time-to-event data in the presence of censored information and a cure fraction.
21 March 2016 in Environmental and Ecological Statistics
We consider the problem of estimating the mean and variance of the time between occurrences of an event of interest (inter-occurrences times) where some forms of dependence between two consecutive time intervals are allowed. Two basic density functions are taken into account. They are the Weibull and the generalised exponential density functions. In order to capture the dependence between two consecutive inter-occurrences times, we assume that either the shape and/or the scale parameters of the two density functions are given by auto-regressive models. The expressions for the mean and variance of the inter-occurrences times are presented. The models are applied to the ozone data from two regions of Mexico City. The estimation of the parameters is performed using a Bayesian point of view via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods.
Recently,12 introduced a generalization of a one parameter Lindley distribution and named it as a weighted Lindley distribution. Considering this new introduced weighted Lindley distribution, we propose a reparametrization on the shape parameter leading it to be orthogonal to the other shape parameter. In this alternative parametrization, we get a direct interpretation for this transformed parameter which is the mean survival time. For illustrative purposes, the weighted Lindley distribution on the new parametrization is applied on two real data sets. The one parameter Lindley distribution and its generalized form are fitted for the considered data sets.