Journal of Data Science

Abstract: The five parameter Kumaraswamy generalized gamma model (Pas coa et al., 2011) includes some important distributions as special cases and it is very useful for modeling lifetime data. We propose an extended version of this distribution by assuming that a shape parameter can take negative values. The new distribution can accommodate increasing, decreasing, bath tub and unimodal shaped hazard functions. A second advantage is that it also includes as special models reciprocal distributions such as the recipro cal gamma and reciprocal Weibull distributions. A third advantage is that it can represent the error distribution for the log-Kumaraswamy general ized gamma regression model. We provide a mathematical treatment of the new distribution including explicit expressions for moments, generating function, mean deviations and order statistics. We obtain the moments of the log-transformed distribution. The new regression model can be used more effectively in the analysis of survival data since it includes as sub models several widely-known regression models. The method of maximum likelihood and a Bayesian procedure are used for estimating the model pa rameters for censored data. Overall, the new regression model is very useful to the analysis of real data.

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a Bayesian analysis for bivariate geometric distributions applied to lifetime data in the presence of covariates, censored data and cure fraction using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. We show that the use of a discrete bivariate geometric distribution could bring us some computational advantages when compared to standard existing bivariate exponential lifetime distributions introduced in the literature assuming continuous lifetime data as for example, the exponential Block and Basu bivariate distribution. Posterior summaries of interest are obtained using the popular OpenBUGS software. A numerical illustration is introduced considering a medical data set related to the analysis of a diabetic retinopathy data set.

Abstract: Simulation studies are important statistical tools used to inves-tigate the performance, properties and adequacy of statistical models. The simulation of right censored time-to-event data involves the generation of two independent survival distributions, where the rst distribution repre-sents the uncensored survival times and the second distribution represents the censoring mechanism. In this brief report we discuss how we can make it so that the percentage of censored data is previously de ned. The described method was used to generate data from a Weibull distribution, but it can be adapted to any other lifetime distribution. We further presented an R code function for generating random samples, considering the proposed approach.

Abstract: In this paper we propose a new three-parameters lifetime distribu tion with decreasing hazard function, the long-term exponential geometric distribution. The new distribution arises on latent competing risks scenarios, where the lifetime associated with a particular risk is not observable, rather we observe only the minimum lifetime value among all risks, and there is presence of long-term survival. The properties of the proposed distribution are discussed, including its probability density function and explicit algebraic formulas for its survival and hazard functions, order statistics, Bonferroni function and the Lorenz curve. The parameter estimation is based on the usual maximum likelihood approach. We compare the new distribution with its particular case, the long-term exponential distribution, as well as with the long-term Weibull distribution on two real datasets, observing its poten tial and competitiveness in comparison with an usual lifetime distribu