Lifetime Data Models In Reliability And Survival Analysis

Statistical models and methods for lifetime and other time-to-event data are widely used in many fields, including medicine, the environmental sciences, actuarial science, engineering, economics, management, and the social sciences. For example, closely related statistical methods have been applied to the study of the incubation period of diseases such as AIDS, the remission time of cancers, life tables, the time-to-failure of engineering systems, employment duration, and the length of marriages. This volume contains a selection of papers based on the 1994 International Research Conference on Lifetime Data Models in Reliability and Survival Analysis, held at Harvard University. The conference brought together a varied group of researchers and practitioners to advance and promote statistical science in the many fields that deal with lifetime and other time-to-event-data. The volume illustrates the depth and diversity of the field. A few of the authors have published their conference presentations in the new journal Lifetime Data Analysis (Kluwer Academic Publishers).

This book is meant for postgraduate modules that cover lifetime data in reliability and survival analysis as taught in statistics, engineering statistics and medical statistics courses. It is helpful for researchers who wish to choose appropriate models and methods for analyzing lifetime data. There is an extensive discussion on the concept and role of ageing in choosing appropriate models for lifetime data, with a special emphasis on tests of exponentiality. There are interesting contributions related to the topics of ageing, tests for exponentiality, competing risks and repairable systems. A special feature of this book is that it introduces the public domain R-software and explains how it can be used in computations of methods discussed in the book. This new edition includes new sections on Frailty Models and Accelerated Life Time Models. Many more illustrations and exercises are also included.

This book is meant for postgraduate modules that cover lifetime data in reliability and survival analysis as taught in statistics, engineering statistics and medical statistics courses. It is helpful for researchers who wish to choose appropriate models and methods for analyzing lifetime data. There is an extensive discussion on the concept and role of ageing in choosing appropriate models for lifetime data, with a special emphasis on tests of exponentiality. There are interesting contributions related to the topics of ageing, tests for exponentiality, competing risks and repairable systems. A special feature of this book is that it introduces the public domain R-software and explains how it can be used in computations of methods discussed in the book. Contents: Ageing; Some Parametric Families of Probability Distributions; Parametric Analysis of Survival Data; Nonparametric Estimation of the Survival Function; Tests of Exponentiality; Two Sample Nonparametric Problems; Proportional Hazards Model: A Method of Regression; Analysis of Competing Risks; Repairable Systems. Key Features Special emphasis on ageing and tests of exponentiality and their role in choosing appropriate models for lifetime data Extensive discussion of classical parametric and nonparametric models and relevant inference Documentation of new results in ageing, testing for competing risks and repairable systems Readership: Graduate students, academics and researchers in probability and statistics, industrial engineering, decision sciences and bioinformatics.

This book presents and standardizes statistical models and methods that can be directly applied to both reliability and survival analysis. These two types of analysis are widely used in many fields, including engineering, management, medicine, actuarial science, the environmental sciences, and the life sciences. Though there are a number of books on reliability analysis and a handful on survival analysis, there are virtually no books on both topics and their overlapping concepts. Offering an essential textbook, this book will benefit students, researchers, and practitioners in reliability and survival analysis, reliability engineering, biostatistics, and the biomedical sciences.

Survival analysis deals with the distribution of life times, essentially the times from an initiating event such as birth or the start of a job to some terminal event such as death or pension. This book, originally published in 1980, surveys and analyzes methods that use survival measurements and concepts, and helps readers apply the appropriate method for a given situation. Four broad sections cover introductions to data, univariate survival function, multiple-failure data, and advanced topics.

Introduction: Mathematicians and statisticians have made significant academic progress on the subject of distribution theory in the last two decades, and this area of study is becoming one of the main statistical tools for the analysis of lifetime (survival) data. In many ways, lifetime distributions are the common language of survival dialogue because the framework subsumes many statistical properties of interest, such as reliability, entropy and maximum likelihood. Recent Advances in Lifetime and Reliability Models provides a comprehensive account of models and methods for lifetime models. Building from primary definitions such as density and hazard rate functions, this book presents readers a broad framework on distribution theory in survival analysis. This framework covers classical methods - such as the exponentiated distribution method – as well as recent models explaining lifetime distributions, such as the beta family and compounding models. Additionally, a detailed discussion of mathematical and statistical properties of each family, such as mixture representations, asymptotes, types of moments, order statistics, quantile functions, generating functions and estimation is presented in the book. Key Features: - presents information about classical and modern lifetime methods - covers key properties of different models in detail - explores regression models for the beta generalized family of distributions - focuses information on both theoretical fundamentals and practical aspects of implementing different models - features examples relevant to business engineering and biomedical sciences Recent Advances in Lifetime and Reliability Models will equip students, researchers and working professionals with the information to make extensive use of observational data in a variety of fields to create inferential models that make sense of lifetime data.

Praise for the First Edition "An indispensable addition to any serious collection on lifetime data analysis and . . . a valuable contribution to the statistical literature. Highly recommended . . ." -Choice "This is an important book, which will appeal to statisticians working on survival analysis problems." -Biometrics "A thorough, unified treatment of statistical models and methods used in the analysis of lifetime data . . . this is a highly competent and agreeable statistical textbook." -Statistics in Medicine The statistical analysis of lifetime or response time data is a key tool in engineering, medicine, and many other scientific and technological areas. This book provides a unified treatment of the models and statistical methods used to analyze lifetime data. Equally useful as a reference for individuals interested in the analysis of lifetime data and as a text for advanced students, Statistical Models and Methods for Lifetime Data, Second Edition provides broad coverage of the area without concentrating on any single field of application. Extensive illustrations and examples drawn from engineering and the biomedical sciences provide readers with a clear understanding of key concepts. New and expanded coverage in this edition includes: * Observation schemes for lifetime data * Multiple failure modes * Counting process-martingale tools * Both special lifetime data and general optimization software * Mixture models * Treatment of interval-censored and truncated data * Multivariate lifetimes and event history models * Resampling and simulation methodology

Parametric and semiparametric models are tools with a wide range of applications to reliability, survival analysis, and quality of life. This self-contained volume examines these tools in survey articles written by experts currently working on the development and evaluation of models and methods. While a number of chapters deal with general theory, several explore more specific connections and recent results in "real-world" reliability theory, survival analysis, and related fields. Specific topics covered include: * cancer prognosis using survival forests * short-term health problems related to air pollution: analysis using semiparametric generalized additive models * semiparametric models in the studies of aging and longevity This book will be of use as a reference text for general statisticians, theoreticians, graduate students, reliability engineers, health researchers, and biostatisticians working in applied probability and statistics.