Progressive Censoring Tests Based On Weighted Empirical Distributions

This new book offers a guide to the theory and methods of progressive censoring. In many industrial experiments involving lifetimes of machines or units, experiments have to be terminated early. Progressive Censoring first introduces progressive sampling foundations, and then discusses various properties of progressive samples. The book points out the greater efficiency gained by using this scheme instead of classical right-censoring methods.

A study of sequential nonparametric methods emphasizing the unified Martingale approach to the theory, with a detailed explanation of major applications including problems arising in clinical trials, life-testing experimentation, survival analysis, classical sequential analysis and other areas of applied statistics and biostatistics.

This book offers a thorough and updated guide to the theory and methods of progressive censoring, an area that has experienced tremendous growth over the last decade. The theory has developed quite nicely in some special cases having practical applications to reliability and quality. The Art of Progressive Censoring is a valuable reference for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in applied statistics, quality control, life testing, and reliability. With its accessible style and concrete examples, the work may also be used as a textbook in an advanced undergraduate or a beginning graduate course on censoring or progressive censoring, as well as a supplementary textbook for a course on ordered data.

In reliability and survival analysis, comparison of two or more populations is an important problem. For example, while comparing a treatment group with a control group, one may be interested in determining whether the observations in the treatment group have a longer lifetime than those from the control group, that is, whether the treatment is effective or not. In such a study, it would be extremely valuable to make a decision based on early failures. In this paper, we consider independent progressively Type-II censored random samples from two populations with cumulative distribution function's (cdf) F(·) and G (·) respectively, and discuss a precedence test for testing the equality of the two distributions based on placements. For this purpose, we derive the joint distribution of the first l placement statistics from the progressively censored sample from F(·). We then derive the exact null distribution of the precedence test statistic which is simply the sum of the placements. We provide the rejection regions for fixed levels of significance and various sample sizes and different progressive censoring schemes.

A thorough text on sequential nonparametrics, utilizing a unified martingale approach in the study of the invariance principles for nonparametric statistics. Contains formulations of sequential tests and estimators such as repeated significance and rank order tests. Shows how sequential confidence regions and asymptotically risk efficient point estimation procedures can be treated in a complete nonparametric set-up. Includes extensive bibliography.

Classical developments. Linear models. Order statistics and empitical distribution. Estimation procedures. Stochastic aproximation and density estimation. Life testing and reliability. Miscellaneous topics. Applications. Tables.

Censored sampling arises in a life testing experiment whenever the experimenter does not observe the failure times of all items placed on a life test. Progressive censoring scheme is useful in both industrial life testing applications and clinical settings; it allows the removal of surviving experimental units before the termination of the test. In this book, we obtain the maximum likelihood, and Bayes estimations for the parameter of the Burr-X model as well as the binomial parameter, based on progressive first-failure censoring with binomial removals. Bayes estimators under symmetric and asymmetric loss functions are obtained. Three special cases from this censoring scheme have been considered. Farther, we discuss the problem of predicting future record values and ordinary order statistics from Burr-X model based on progressively type-II censored with random removals, were the number of units removed at each failure time has a discrete binomial distribution. We use the Bayes procedure to derive both point and interval prediction. The maximum likelihood prediction both point and interval using "plug-in" procedure for future record values and ordinary order statistics are derived.